The Educational Thoughts And Practice Of Zhang Zhidong And Its Revelation For The Middle School History Teaching

Zhang Zhidong, an important figure of late Qing Dynasty, went through nearlyall the significant historical events from the First Opium War to the Revolution of1911in the late of Qing Dynasty. Born in a eunuch and literary family, he was ascholar-bureaucrat in feudal society who received orthodox Confucian education andan intellectual from landlord class aiming at maintaining the ruling of Qing Dynastyand the feudal laws and moral codes. Living in the age of upheaval with domestic strifeand foreign aggression, he accumulates the studies of ancient cultures and he finallysucceeds in the imperial examination, becoming an ambassador in frontier regions. Asa politician, his two main important contributions are the building of factories andestablishment of education. He was not a professional educator, but he got involved ineducation and dedicated all his life to it. Zhang Zhidong epitomizes the educationalthought of “Chinese learning as fundamental system and western learning for practicaluse”, and his educational thought is mainly published in Encouraging Learningin1898.It attains perfection through painstaking efforts, from his ten years’ experienceof administration learning to his governing in Shanxi, from a modest display of thethought when he governs his Guangxi and Guangdong to the gradual perfection whenhe governs in Hubei. And the practice of his educational thought is mostly embodied inKui Mao Examination System, which is issued by the government in1904and hasgreat influence on later generations. Zhang Zhidong’ s educational thought and practiceof “Chinese learning as fundamental system and Western learning for practical use” isnot only influential at that time, but also has inestimable significant to moderneducation. It is hard for people to connect Zhang Zhidong’s educational thought andpractice of “Chinese learning as fundamental system and western learning for practicaluse” with history teaching in middle school. In fact, it has strong realistic guidingmeanings on modern history teaching.This paper includes three parts: the introduction, the main body, the conclusion.The introduction presents the origin, research status and deficiency of ZhangZhidong’s educational thought and practice. It also briefly explains the research focus, difficulties, methods and innovations.There are three chapters in the main body.The first chapter introduces the establishment of Zhang Zhidong’s educationalthought “Chinese learning as fundamental system and western learning for practicaluse”. It mainly concludes Zhang Zhidong’ s family and educational background, hisimperial examination road, administration experience and the development, variationof educational thought and practice of “Chinese learning as fundamental structure andwestern learning for practical use” during the period of his governing his Shanxi,Guangdong, and Hubei.The second chapter presents us the overview of Zhang Zhidong’s EncouragingLearning, the historical origin of “Chinese learning as fundamental structure andWestern learning for practical use” thought, and the comprehensive interpretation of itseducational thought.The third chapter introduces the inspiration of “Chinese learning as fundamentalsystem and western learning for practical use” in Encouraging learning and Kui MaoExamination System. The inspiration can be divided into two part, the one part is theinspiration of “Chinese learning as fundamental system” to history teaching in middleschool, which mainly concludes the connection between the inspiration of ZhangZhidong’s protecting Confucius Mencius’s thought with applying traditional culture tohistory teaching in middle school. The second part is the revelation of the thought of“study tour” to history teaching in middle school.The conclusion summarizes the idea of the paper. The paper expounds theformation, development, perfection of Zhang Zhidong’s historical process ofeducational thought and practice of “Chinese learning as a fundamental system andwestern learning for practical use”. At the same time, it reveals the inspiration to thehistory teaching in middle school. That is, we need to fully study “Chinese learning asfundamental system and Western learning for practical use”; only in this way can weinstruct the reformation and perfection of the history teaching in middleschool..Moreover,it proves the morden value of the “Chinese learning as fundamentalsystem and Western learning for practical use”in thought and practice...