The Research On Confucianism Dissemination Of Academies In Qing Dynasty

As one of the most important periods of academy and Confucianism dissemination, Qing Dynasty experienced the peak of their integration. Due to the enormous number, various types and mature system, academies in this stage were characterized as officialization, popularization, hierarchy and a rich collection of books. The development of Confucianism in Qing Dynasty was also uneven. In the early Qing Dynasty, Cheng-Zhu Neo-Confucianism revived and topped to the national ideology. Textual criticism turned into the academic mainstream in the mid of the Dynasty. In the late Qing Dynasty,statecraft thoughts began to spread.Emerging the Neo-Comfucianism and textual criticism developed to be the main choice of the intellectual.Concerning regional horizon, the academic Confucianism dissemination can be classified as the daily education within the intellectual in academies and spread toward local social。The main content of daily education in academy was Confucianism. Judging from the dissemination-oriented, official instruction and regulations, academies’learning rules and constitutions determined Confucianism to spread in academies.In the view of the teaching content,we can find that the idea of Confucianism permeate through not only Neo-Confucianism but also textual criticism. Great attention was attached to the teaching of classics, histories and even literature.Judging from the route of dissemination, sacrifice was emphasized to establish their belief in Confucianism.A few approaches were adopted to bring students and disciples into the spiritual world of Confucianism, including using wonderful natural environment to cultivate their minds, intimate teacher-student relationship to foster their virtue, and book-collection and book-inscribing to develop their self-learning spirit and enhance their knowledge accumulation.The spread toward loacl social nearly expanded to the whole society at that time and influenced people from all walks of life. Academic lrctures in Qing Dynasty were not only teaching methods,but also local academic gatherings. These gatherings opened to the intellectual and ordinary people and improved the influence of academic Confucianism dissemination.Rural academy mainly undertook the enlightenment education.Rural academy,coordinated with free schools,spreaded to many parts of counties. Rural academy played an important role in the improvement of moral standards and local custom.Academic education of family (ancestral halls), which involves such inside activities regarding clan sacrifice, publishing of genealogy as well as family meetings,was the important aspect of primary enlightment activities. In sum, the academies in Qing Dynasty has formed a huge network for Confucianism dissemination in the local society ranging from scholars to villagers to family within.Qing Dynasty’s spread of academy and Confucianism had a broad and profound impact over the society. First, it served as a powerful stimulus to the self-evolution and development of Confucianism. Cheng-Zhu Neo-Confucianism and textual criticism took the lead in different stages and the confluence pattern took shape in the late Qing Dynasty. Second, there was an influence on the intellectuals’habits and folkway. Among them were government bureaucrats in high position who were committed to governing and benefiting the people, scholars of imparting knowledge and educating people, who gave lectures and conducted studies with inheriting the Confucian orthodoxy as their mission, and Confucian scholars living among the common people, who carried out direct social education to the locals. Apart from that, its spread also had significant effect on other social groups such as gentry, businessmen as well as the ordinary people, and local learning style and folk custom. Finally, it also facilitated the prosperity of regional culture. In the highly-spread areas, the power of Buddhism and Daoism was on the decline gradually, while Confucian culture has begun to spread in the frontier minority regions, changing the local folk custom.From the late Qing Dynasty, especially at the end of that period, the academy’s systematism, officialization and hierarchy revealed that academy and Confucianism dissemination has developed to the history peak.Meanwhile, various drawbacks of the academy and Confucianism appearred in gradual, Confucianism failed to resist the strong shock spurred by the modern civilization with western learning as its focus. Thus, the academy and Confucianism spread was moving toward recession eventually, which deeply displayed the close connection between the them.