Shanxi Education Under The Christianity

In this paper Shanxi's church education and local education in modern times is taken as study objects. on the basis of the large amount of historical materials and comprehensive reference to senior research this paper brings two totally different education systems under a special state in China into cultural perspective and explores deeply the resistance and integration in the exchange between western culture with church education as its representative and Shanxi traditional culture with local education as its representative. And through this process Shanxi education under the Christianity's influence will be discussed and Western education's guiding and modeling roles in Shanxi's education reform in modern times will be researched on in-depth.This paper is divided into five parts. In the introduction the background of education reform in modern China and the role of Western missionaries to the process of Chinese education reform will be presented. Simultaneously this part will summarize the value and train of thought of this research.The first chapter does main research on the missionizing means chosen by the missionaries and the changing role of church schools. And the role of China's social reality to the amendment of the missionaries'subjective intention also will be discussed. Because of the requirement of religion spread, many missionaries do not advocate education as the first major work at first, but traditional missionizing approach makes it difficult to convert the Chinese people to Christians. At the same time, some missionaries use education to open the door for converting the Chinese people to Christians. Inspired by the success stories, the Church education begins to grow. The requirement of religion spread lets the early church schools to put special attention to religious education in schools. However, with the advancement of Chinese education reform, the church schools are facing the challenges of the new schools in China, and because of the competition the missionaries' enthusiasm for religious education is distracted. And the awakening of Chinese national consciousness has forced the church schools to fade their religious and aggressive ideas. Also the Church schools were forced to change their educational ideas and revise their functions gradually to meet the needs of Chinese society as the media of knowledge.The second chapter discusses the Church education's role in the leading to a series of changes in Shanxi local education as education in different cultures and its reform under the resistance and the edification of Shanxi's local education. The exchanges between foreign culture and local culture are full of not integration, but conflict. And in the process of conflict and integration, both sides will gradually deviate from their original route and eventually incorporate as a harmonious whole. This chapter has a discussion about the response of Shanxi local education and church education respectively and also it reflects the respective changes of Shanxi's local education and Church education in the process of resistance and integration.The third chapter discusses the modeling and guiding roles of the Church education as a foreign culture in the educational change of modern Shanxi. Although we cannot exaggerate the impact of church education, but we cannot ignore its pioneering influence on Shanxi's modern education, as well as its impact on the feudal traditional culture of Shanxi as a representative of western culture. Church education brings an unprecedented change to Shanxi education, first the modernization of education system and education content as well as modern western educational model. It also expands the scope of education, not only the lower classes have the educational opportunities, but women they also enjoy the same rights to men of education. And social education, a new form of education, also is created and the evaluation criterion for traditional value system of talent is touched. These mutations cause a chain of reaction that changes Shanxi traditional training model and value opinion for talent.In the conclusion this paper summarizes and reiterates the interaction on the development of modern education in Shanxi between church education and Shanxi's local education. And the Church education's guiding and promoting role in Shanxi's social modernization as a foreign culture is confirmed.In short, the development of education in modern Shanxi is for more or less the impact of church education. If there were not the church education's modeling and guiding role, for the modernization of Shanxi education there might be a longer time to finish.