A Comparative Studies Of Wenzi MengQiu And ZiKe TuShuo

This paper is mainly based on two children's primers in the late Qing Dynasty –WenZi MengQiu and ZiKe TuShuo,Giving a comparative research on the literacy education and literature features of the elementary textbooks.WenZi MengQiu selected2050 commonly used characters from Shuowen Jiezi and was arranged in four volumes on basis of pictographic characters,associative characters and phonogram.Common and simple language was used to explicate these characters.The ZiKe TuShuo was being the enlightenment textbooks compiled by Chengzhong Private School,one of the earliest modern schools in China's history.The book consists of four volumes and eight issues,and it includes 3291 Chinese characters and 762 illustrations.It is well illustrated for easy understanding.Many literature values in the book are worth our in-depth exploration.The paper is comprised of five chapters: chapter 1 is the Introduction part which outlines the development of initiation education,the two textbooks from which the materials are extracted,and the research on initiation education at home and abroad.Chapter 2 is a comparative study on the similar and different features of the two enlightenment textbooks.chapter 3 gives detailed comparison of their features in terms of philology including structure of Chinese characters,the cited ancient character forms and the usage of Chinese characters.This is also the most important part for this paper.chapter 4 puts forward the limitations in the two textbooks to enable readers to have an objective and impartial view of them.Hopefully it can give some reference to the textbook compiling in the future.Chapter 5 is the author mainly discusses the influences of the two textbooks on later education,such as their status in enlightenment education on literacy,as well as their influence on later education and text book compiling.