The Study On Li Hongzhang's Education Thoughts And Education Practice

Because of the first defeat in the Opium War, China was forced by the Western capitalist countries of artillery and ships, to open the door having been closed for more than 120 years, and then plunged into an abyss of suffering.After the Second Opium War, several officials of Qing dynasty as Yi Xi, Tseng Kuo-fan, Zuo Zongtang and Li Hongzhang, etc. had begun a campaign of Westernization Movement aimed for"self-strengthening" and "seeking rich". They deeply understand the dangerous situation of Qing dynasty and they take on a difficult historic mission out of the firsthand class interests.During late years of Qing dynasty, Chinese traditional education had become useless, whether the central official school or local official schools, all levels and types of which have become the vassal of Imperial Examination System. School education without independence, from the teaching content to the test, is organized for the purpose of entering political stratum. Intellectuals who were trained through the feudal tradition, bent on delving into the eight-part essay, and they knew nothing about the world outside. With the Westernization Movement started, Yi Xi, Li Hongzhang, etc. as the representatives of the Westernization Group, increasingly frequent contacts with the Western powers. They realized that a huge gap between China and Western countries on the aspects of science, technology, military and education. They had also witnessed talent under the Western-educated and created a strong sense of change. After having overcome many obstacles to change, they opened the curtain of the Westernization education.As a leader of Westernization and the backbone of the Westernization Group, Li Hongzhang made a number of advanced educational ideas in the field of education, and set an example to follow the above education. For example, he advocated reform the traditional system of examination , attempted to establish a new education system, actively advocated and sending students abroad to learn advanced Western science and technology; to run a variety of modern new schools and train new personnel; establish the Jiangnan Manufacturing Bureau of Translation Center and organize translation of Western science and technology books. It is precisely because of the efforts of Li Hongzhang , China had built the first batch of new schools and sent out the first batch of abroad students to the United States and Europe. Due to Li Hongzhang and others's efforts, China's traditional feudal education in the educational concept, education system, teaching contents and methods of all levels of education and training have emerged in a modern sense of the change in the trend. Since then, the traditional Chinese education embarked on history of educational modernization. Meanwhile, Westernization education that was founded by Li Hongzhang, brought up the first generation of modern Chinese talents on diplomatic, military, education, science and technology, culture and other fields, promoted changes of the late Qing society from traditional to modern.In this paper, literature method and historical research methods have been used to analyse Li Hongzhang's life and the formation and development of his educational thinking, and also describe the main content of his education thinking and educational practice. Moreover, on this basis, the author analyses the historical role and their limitations of Li Hongzhang's educational thought and educational practice.Full-text is divided into four parts:Part I: introducing Li Hongzhang's life and discussing the formation of his thought on this basis.Part II: based on historical materials, discussing the main educational thinking contents of Li Hongzhang. This part mainly discusses his ideas of talent training and imperial examination reform in details.Part III: representing Li Hongzhang's educational practice activities in detail. This section includes his founding new schools, planning and support for students of education, the establishment of translation Museum and his organizing translation of Western books of three aspects of educational practice to discourse.Part IV: evaluating Li Hongzhang's educational thinking and practice and analysis of their historical roles and limitations.