"Nurtured In Education":A Study On Subsidy-Scholarship For Academy Students In Qing Dynasty

The system of scholarship and subsidy was implemented in academies in the Qing Dynasty.In the first month of the eleventh year of Yongzheng(1733 AD),under the circumstances of increasing difficulties in obtaining official posts caused by the surge in the population of the imperial examination and the long-term decline and difficulty in reviving the examination function of official schools,the central government of the Qing Dynasty ordered governors of each province to set up provincial academies in the places where they were stationed and gave them one thousand taels of silver as the money for the scholars to gather together to study,which marked the formal establishment of the academy system of Scholarship and Subsidy in the Qing Dynasty.After that,officials all over the country rose up,and the plastering system was also widely promoted in the Yongzheng and Qianlong time among the government,state,county academies.Until the end of the Qing Dynasty,raising funds and establishing plastering regulations of the system of scholarship and subsidy were one of the central work of the Qing academy.The system of scholarship and subsidy was mainly set up to take care of the livelihood of poor scholars,and the central government,local government and the academy itself played a major role in promoting it.Although the three aim to use this system as a tool for educating and raising scholars in general,their intentions are slightly different.The central government hoped that the establishment of the system of scholarship and subsidy could effectively attract scholars to study in academies and make them always willing to accept official educational content and governing strategies,so as to achieve the purpose of controlling scholars and consolidating the rule.The local government was responsible for local indoctrination.As the number of talents under its control was closely related to the quality of customs and the evaluation of officials,the purpose of the local officials building and maintaining the system of scholarship and subsidy in academies was to foster literary style and increase political achievements.Local academies are specifically responsible for the implementation of the regulations and rules of plaster.In the case that the issuance of plaster directly determines the practical interests of the students,the academies aim to effectively carry out teaching activities and regulate the behavior of scholars by playing the role of persuading and punishing the system.Although the central government of the Qing Dynasty called on local governments to establish the system of scholarship and subsidy in their subordinate academies,it did not include the funds of academies into the regular financial expenditure of government at all levels.In addition to the provincial government’s financial allocation at the beginning of the establishment of provincial capital academies,the majority of provincial,prefecture and county academies’ funding mainly came from the local officials’ efforts to raise funds or the joint contribution with the gentry,merchants and people under their control.For the income of the gypsum funds,the Qing academy often under the auspices of local officials and gentry to put it into operation in appreciation,the development of interest and property collection rent for the two main ways.In the process of operation,in order to prevent the loss of asset and income of scholarship and subsidy,the Qing Academy will also strengthen the management,the main measures are strict implementation of official supervision gentry management,detailed industrial information and improve the way of rent and interest collection.Since the Qianlong Dynasty of the Qing Dynasty,the teaching mode of academies was based on examinations,so examination results became the main basis for the academy to send scholarships and bursaries to the educatee,and at the same time,they would also refer to their residence and native place.In terms of the form of distribution,most of the academies directly distributed money and food in kind,while a few of them issued the ticket of scholarship and subsidy,which were received from their students to the bank.In terms of the distribution process,most colleges will send supervisors,seniors to the government,shops and college directors to collect the payment and then distribute it to the college at the specified date and time.From the effect of the scholarship and subsidy of academy,it has indeed played a significant role in improving the enthusiasm of scholars around the study and education and the imperial examination rate.As a kind of educational organization that played an important role in Qing society,the scholarship and subsidy of academy was also closely related to the society at that time,which was mainly reflected in its influence on the livelihood of scholars,its association with famine and its entanglement with the Buddhist industry.In the Qing Dynasty,with the promotion and popularization of the academy plastering-fire system,the system of scholarship and subsidy was generally positioned as "helping the educatee to live" in the impression of all sectors of society.With the efforts of local officials and academies,the system of scholarship and subsidy played an effective role in helping scholars to maintain their studies and take care of their families.On the one hand,system of scholarship and subsidy was destroyed by the war,which was particularly obvious in the Taiping Army and the Nian Army uprising in the late Qing Dynasty.On the other hand,the system of scholarship and subsidy played a role in the relief of natural disasters in the Qing Dynasty.In Qing Dynasty,the entanglement between academy asset and Buddhist and Taoist asset was mainly manifested in local officials’ improvement of Buddhist and Taoist asset based on the purpose of raising funds for academies.The fact that the monastery asset was used as the academy asset of Scholarship and Subsidy mainly occurred in the Qianlong period,which was the formation and popularization period of the system of scholarship and subsidy in the Qing Dynasty.It can be seen that the transformation of the Buddhist and Taoist industry into the academy asset of scholarship and subsidy was also an important social and economic basis for the comprehensive establishment of the system of scholarship and subsidy in the Qing Dynasty.In the late Qing Dynasty,with the further increase of the population of the imperial examination and the rapid replacement of the old and new societies,the positive role of the system of scholarship and subsidy in the cultivation of scholars could no longer be effectively played,but its disadvantages in the corrupt style of learning and hindering the development of new education were increasingly revealed.Therefore,from the early years of Guangxu,this system began to go from repair to reform,and then to the process of elimination.Before 1894,the academy of the Qing Dynasty mainly reduced the loopholes in the process of sending plums by means of increasing the number of courses,filling in registration books,and re-examination after examination.From 1894 until the abolition of the academy system,the students’ dependence on the scholarship and subsidy was broken by stopping subsidies,retaining rewards or providing meals.After the abolition of the academy system,the new school education gradually replaced the traditional school education,and the system of scholarship and subsidy also ended.On the surface,the reform and abolishment of the system of scholarship and subsidy resulted from its inadaptation to the changes of the social situation in the late Qing Dynasty.In fact,it was the inevitable result of the transformation of the old and the new in the modern society.The orientation of education of the state changed from"correct the behavior of scholars"to"open the people’s wisdom".On the whole,during the 170 years of the implementation of the system of scholarship and subsidy in the Qing Dynasty,it effectively guaranteed the education rights of the educatee from poor families,and thus promoted the educational equity and social stability in the Qing Dynasty.This is worthy of full recognition,but also left us with a lot of experience and enlightenment.