chapter nine

The Realms of Governance and the Methods of Education

uang Shang (1044–1130; js. 1082) was the optimus among H the 1,428 candidates who passed the Presented Scholars and the Elucidation of Classics examinations in 1082.1 Hailing from Nanping in northern Fujian, he belonged to the fi rst genera- tion of scholars who were educated on the New Three Classics adopted in 1075. Throughout Huizong’s reign, he had held some coveted posts at the central government before becoming the minister of ritual. He was undoubtedly a model product of the New Policies era. His literary collection includes a set of six essays under the title “The Meanings of Zhouli” (Zhouli yi), which pre- sumably was a series of lectures he delivered as academician at the Dragon Diagram Hall in the 1110s–1120s when Cai Jing (1047– 1126) held sway as the grand councilor.2 In it Huang Shang de- velops a holistic model of government, according to which all members of human society including the ruler, offi cials, peasants, merchants, artifi cers, and women form an organically integrated, mutually reliant, and functionally cooperating enterprise.3 Envi- sioning a systematically organized stated society, he makes a grand statement in regard to the signifi cance of education:

In the ancient world of the former kings, the wise men were in a position to foster the virtues of the people, and there was no other way; the capable assumed the duties of managing the affairs of the people, and there was no other policy. How could this be? The 196 part three

minister of education received the methods of teaching from the king; the dukes, ministers, and grand masters received the methods of teaching from the minister of education; district offi cials received the methods of teaching from the dukes and grand masters. The schools of the ten thousand people received the methods of teach- ing from district offi cials. Therefore, the ways in which the people were taught were in aid of the king without the self-interested inter- ference of the feudal lords and other offi cials. The people of the former kings fl ourished under the virtuous in- fl uence of the wise men, and were pacifi ed by the policies managed by the capable; they were cooperative in their emotions and united in their intents. How could this have been? The people were allowed to promote the wise, who in return accommodated the people’s likes and dislikes while fostering them; the people were allowed to promote the capable, who in return balanced the people’s gains and losses in the midst of governing. Therefore, the ways in which the [offi cials] were advanced were entrusted to the people without the self-interested interference of the king.4

In this passage, Huang Shang makes at least three grand state- ments regarding education in general. First, there should be the one unifi ed system of education based on the single chain of com- mand from the king to the minister of education to the intermedi- ate offi cials to the local administrators. Second, by advancing the wise and able, the people should be granted the right to select their own offi cials without “the self-interested interference” of the royal authority. Third, the top-down process of education from the center out should be combined with the bottom-up advance of talents from the local level. To wit, the government should provide the institutional means by which duty-bound offi cials could reach, uplift, and edify the population; at the same time, the people should voluntarily select their leaders, and those who were locally nominated should serve in the various posts of the local government. Local villagers with- out state control should be subject to anarchic disorder; conversely, the social institutions of the local government without popular participation should render the people vulnerable to despotic con-