Research On Chinese Textbooks In The Late Qing Dynasty And The Early Republic Of China

During the current curriculum reform,popular science in Chinese textbooks has been concerned,but the problem of what scientific knowledge the popular science articles should present and how to present scientific knowledge has not been solved.In the late Qing Dynasty and the early Republic of China,the commercial press explored the popular science articles in Chinese textbooks.From 1904 to 1912,the Chinese textbooks published by the commercial press in response to the requirements of the school system reform reflected the occurrence and evolution of popular science in the Chinese textbooks.In this paper,we will study the content and form evolution of the popular science articles in Chinese textbook of the late Qing Dynasty and the early Republic of China,and further explore the Enlightenment of its evolution to the compilation,selection and teaching of the popular science articles.In order to explore the occurrence and evolution of popular science articles in Chinese Textbooks of this period,two generations of primary school Chinese textbooks published by the commercial press in 1902 and 1912 were selected in this study,namely,the latest elementary Chinese textbook in 1904 and the new Chinese textbook in the Republic in 1912.The reason for the selection is that the textbooks of these two generations correspond to the two school system reforms in the late Qing Dynasty and the early Republic of China,that is,the RenyinGuimao school system and the Renzi-Guichou school system.It is found that the popular science in Chinese textbooks has experienced a transformation from the scientific discourse of ‘saving the nation' to ‘new people'.Specifically speaking,from the perspective of scientific knowledge presented by popular science,popular science articles in the latest elementary Chinese textbook focuses on presenting utilitarian "practical" scientific knowledge,pointing to ‘Chinese(learning as the)essence and Western(learning for its)utility',while the new Chinese textbook of the Republic focuses on presenting scientific knowledge about "human" and national geographic knowledge,pointing to national identity.From the perspective of the expression of popular science texts,the latest elementary Chinese textbooks are more inclined to adopt narrative story,character dialogue,author's comments,which still have the color of traditional moral education of teaching by words and deeds,while the narration of "elders" and "author's" comments in the new Chinese textbook of the Republic of China are less in popular science texts,and more inclined to adopt objective,written,rigorous and explanatory text to discuss "science".The reason is that the occurrence and evolution of popular science in Chinese textbooks and the evolution of educational purpose,the change of curriculum goal of "Chinese language" brought about by the reform of education system,the knowledge structure and educational care of textbook writers,the attempt of science localization,the change of educational time and space,etc.all have impacts on popular science articles in Chinese textbooks.Based on the investigation of the evolution of popular science in Chinese Textbooks in this period,the author believes that the discovery and review of the original intention of popular science education can help us to solve the teaching problems in the field of Chinese Education: first,we should understand and grasp the educational function and value of popular science articles;second,the compilers of Chinese textbooks should pay attention to the real life of children,and select new articles in line with the characters of times;Finally,teachers can carry out cross-border and integrated teaching activities,integrate the teaching resources inside and outside the Chinese discipline,use modern teaching tools,create new education space of popular science,and play the educational value of popular science.