Curriculum History in China: Wisdom Traditions and Modernization

• In Event: 46.022 - Becoming Historical: Curriculum Research and Reform in China

Abstract

As early as 1920s, Chinese curriculum scholars appreciated the significance of curriculum history. Among the publications were two curriculum history books: Xu Zhi’s The Evolving History of Chinese School Curriculum (1929) and Sheng Langxi’s The Evolvement of the Elementary School Curriculum (1929). Xu Zhi traced the history of school curriculum from ancient Chinese society, i.e. the era of Tangyu (i.e. Yao-Shun-Yu, before 2070 B.C.) to the end of Qing Dynasty (1910). He explored the school curriculum in each dynasty over a period of more than 4000 years. Xu (1929) defined curriculum history as follows: “Since curriculum has been transformed according to the changeable needs of society, curriculum history is the study of the evolvement of school curriculum, in order to understand the causal relationship of its transformations (p. 6).” He argued for the vertical and horizontal meanings of the study of curriculum history. Vertically, the aim of historical studies on curriculum is “to compare current school curriculum with the past one, in order to understand the differences and discover origins” (p. 6). Horizontally, Xu thought that “human minds are often limited to what they are familiar with. Historical and comparative methods can help people go beyond the society in which they live and therefore adopt another perspective to observe their curriculum. They can then find the true face of their own and get new perspectives on curriculum” (pp. 6-7). Consciously noticing the verticality and horizontality of the study of curriculum history and systematically studying the whole historical span of Chinese school curriculum, Xu Zhi greatly contributed to the field of curriculum history and curriculum studies (see Pinar, 2007, pp. xiii-xv). Xu Zhi’s The Evolving History of Chinese School Curriculum is the first book on curriculum history in China, probably also the first one in the world. Xu not only wrote a curriculum history book, but also created history in the field of curriculum studies.
The second significant curriculum history book in China was Sheng Langxi’s The History of the Elementary School Curriculum (1934). It focused on the history of the school subjects, especially in the elementary school. It established linkages among the Chinese traditional school subjects and the modern school subject. For example, it explored the differences and similarities between the traditional subject of “cultivation of minds” (Xiu-Shen) and the modern conception of “citizenship” (Sheng, 1934, pp. 5-43), between the traditional “study of the world” (Ge-Zhi) and the modern “science” (pp. 137-165). I provided insight into the historical transformation of the traditional school subjects into modern ones. This important historical study raised a critical question concerning the process of curriculum modernization: What is the relationship between the tradition and the modernization? Working from these two canonical texts, I shall undertake to answer in this paper.

References

Sheng, Langxi. (1934). The Evolvement of the Elementary School Curriculum. China’s Press.

Xu, Zhi. (1929). The Evolving History of Chinese School Curriculum. Shanghai: Pacific Ocean Press.

Author

• Hua Zhang, Hangzhou Normal University