A Study Of Educational Modernization From The Perspective Of Language Reform (1892-1949)

Since modern times,China has entered an eventful period.Facing the increasingly serious domestic and foreign troubles and the era proposition of saving the nation from subjugation and survival,intellectuals are eager to seek good strategies to save the country.In the view of some reformers,the weakness of the country lies in the ignorance of the people,the ignorance of the people lies in the difficulty in popularizing education,and the difficulty in popularizing education lies in the complexity of language and character.Thus,the initial idea and practice of reforming the language and character came into being,and then led to a series of language and character reform movements,such as Chinese alphabet movement,Mandarin Movement,vernacular movement,simplified Chinese character movement,Latinized New character movement and so on,in an attempt to popularize education and develop people's wisdom through language and character reform,so as to realize national salvation and rejuvenation.language and character is the most important tool of education.The reform of language and character not only has a profound impact on the evolution of Chinese and Chinese characters,but also plays an important role in the modernization of China's education.Based on the interdisciplinary research path,the theory of new cultural history and external history of education,this study adopts the methods of literature research,historical research and case study,and regards the reform of language and writing and the modernization of education as two areas of mutual influence.On the basis of combing the historical process of the reform of language and characters in the late Qing Dynasty and the Republic of China,this paper analyzes the implementation process of the reform of language and character in the field of education and the modernization of education caused by it,and then probes into the relationship between the reform of language and characters and the modernization of education.The first chapter discusses the influence of the vernacular movement in the late Qing Dynasty and the early Republic of China on the enlightenment education of the people at the bottom.At the end of the Qing Dynasty,under the background of national crisis,some intellectuals put forward the proposition of "opening the people's wisdom" to save the nation.It is difficult to enlighten the public with the obscure classical Chinese,so they put forward the idea of enlightening the people with vernacular,and set off a vernacular movement,in which vernacular newspapers became the core position.Although vernacular newspapers run newspapers in vernacular,aiming at enlightening the public,and arranging contents around this purpose,it is difficult for vernacular newspapers to enlighten the public directly because the people at the bottom are literate and have less money to buy newspapers.Although the vernacular movement in the late Qing Dynasty and the early Republic of China promoted the Enlightenment of the people at the bottom to a certain extent,the role of the stylistic reform in enlightening the people was limited,and the more fundamental way than the stylistic reform was to solve the problem of illiteracy of the people at the bottom.The second chapter discusses the influence of the Chinese alphabet campaign in the late Qing Dynasty on universal education.In order to solve the problem of the illiteracy of the people at the bottom,some intellectuals,inspired by the "church Roman characters",have created the idea of creating Chinese alphabet to popularize education,which led to the movement of Chinese alphabet.Although Chinese alphabet was not recognized by the Qing government,with the support of some enlightened officials and gentry,Chinese alphabet school was promoted in some areas such as Beijing,Tianjin and Jiangning.Although it is easier to learn,it is difficult to popularize it under various obstacles,so it can not realize the ideal of universal education.In the end,Qieyin characters were defined as phonetic symbols,which were used to annotate Chinese characters and became a powerful tool to unify Mandarin.The third chapter discusses the role of Mandarin Movement in the modernization of Mandarin education.The idea of unified Mandarin originated from the movement of Chinese alphabet in the late Qing Dynasty and the idea of unified Mandarin in Japan.It was widely spread in the New Deal period of the late Qing Dynasty and gradually became a social consensus.After the founding of the Republic of China,the Chinese alphabet were changed into phonetic alphabets to mark the pronunciation and unify the mandarin,and a series of laws and regulations were issued to promote the mandarin education.The implementation of Mandarin education has changed the curriculum,textbook compilation,teacher training and teaching methods of national schools,and promoted the modernization of Mandarin education.The fourth chapter discusses the overall relationship between stylistic reform and educational modernization.From the perspective of philosophy,language is the tool and medium for human beings to understand the world.Human beings not only live in the objective world,but also in the subjective world constructed by language.Classical Chinese and vernacular are not only two different written languages,but also contain two different world outlooks,which are transmitted to the educated through the inheritance of education."Classical Chinese education" inherits the "synchronic world view" and guides people into the ancient world view."Vernacular education" carries the "real world view" and guides people to face the real world.The change from classical Chinese to vernacular is not only the change of style,but also the change of world outlook and education system.The fifth chapter discusses the effect of simplified Chinese character movement on literacy education.Since modern times,through the comparison with Western phonetic script,Chinese people have realized that there are many problems in Chinese characters,such as complex strokes,many variants,large number,different pronunciation and so on,which have become a major obstacle to universal education.After the failure of the attempt to create Chinese alphabet,the character reformers went to the road of simplifying Chinese characters.There are two ways to simplify Chinese characters: "simplify Chinese characters strokes" and "reduce the number of Chinese characters".The former is mainly realized by using the popular method of "simplified Chinese characters",while the latter is mainly solved by developing "common vocabulary".The reformers not only theoretically demonstrated the necessity of simplifying Chinese characters and the path,principle and method of simplifying Chinese characters,but also proved the feasibility of simplifying Chinese characters through the psychological experiment and teaching practice of literacy education.However,under the historical conditions at that time,it was still difficult to escape the fate of "easy to learn and difficult to practice",and simplified Chinese characters failed to obtain the legal status in the period of the Republic of China.The sixth chapter takes the Latin new literacy education movement in Shaanxi Gansu Ningxia border area as an example,and analyzes the practice,effect and predicament of Latin new words in literacy education.Under the stimulation of Latin literacy education carried out by the Soviet Union,the Communists also launched the Latin literacy education in revolutionary base areas.The advocates of Latin new characters believe that language and writing have certain class character.The difficult Chinese characters are the tools of ruling the masses and even the "stupid people".The simple and easy to learn Latin new words are the weapon for the people to get rid of ignorance and dominance.Therefore,Chinese characters should be abolished and Latin new characters should be replaced.The government of Shaanxi Gansu Ningxia border region has given Latin new characters the same legal status as Chinese characters,and carried out a Latin literacy education campaign,which proves that the literacy efficiency of Latin new words is higher than that of Chinese characters.However,due to the change of the revolutionary situation,the obstacles of literacy education and the defects of Latin new words,the literacy education of Latin new words is finally stagnant.Based on the analysis of the influence of language and character reform on education modernization in the late Qing Dynasty and the Republic of China,this study summarizes the relationship between language and character reform and Education Modernization: while language and character reform in the late Qing Dynasty and the Republic of China promoted the modernization of education in three aspects of tools,practice and value,education modernization also provided the development power and "experimental field" for language and character reform in the late Qing Dynasty and the Republic of China,and promoted the promotion and popularization of the reformed language and character.In a word,there is a "coupling" relationship between the reform of language and character and the modernization of education,that is,the two interact and influence each other to form a symbiosis of common existence and common development.