Chapter 42 How do we educate children?

brigade falcon When I saw the mention of "Kong Yiji" [2], I remembered how China has always educated children. Of course there are all kinds of textbooks now, but there are also textbooks in the village school [3].In the last years of the Qing Dynasty, some people read "Poems of a Child Prodigy" [4], which says "The Son of Heaven values ​​heroes, his articles teach you, everything is inferior, but reading is high", boasting the glory of "students"; some people read "Chaos At the beginning of the opening, the universe begins to lay, the light and clear float up to form the sky, and the heavy and turbid ones condense down to form the earth." "Youth Learning Qionglin" [5] teaches the clichés of ancient prose.I don’t know how to go further, but I heard that in the late Tang and early Song Dynasties, "Taigong Family Education" [6] was used, which had been lost for a long time, and was only discovered later from the Dunhuang Grottoes, while in the Han Dynasty, it was read "Ji Jiu Pian" [7 〕some type of.It is the so-called "textbook". In the past thirty years, I really don't know how much it has changed.Suddenly saying this, suddenly saying that, today is such a purpose, tomorrow is such a proposition, without "education", it will be enough, once "education" is added, many conflicting people will be created in the school, and because of the old On the one hand, it is still an old antique of "the beginning of chaos, the beginning of the foundation of heaven and earth".

China needs writers and "literary heroes", but it also needs real scholars.If someone writes a history, using books to make a clear record of the methods of educating children in China, so that people can understand how our ancients and even us were nurtured, then his merits and virtues should not be attributed to Yu (although he Maybe it's just a worm) [8]. Contributors to "Freedom Talk" often have people who are knowledgeable about the past and the present. I think there are very competent people for this job.I don't know if anyone is interested in this?Now that this question is raised, Gai also knows that it is easier to do than it is, so he can only talk in plain language, and hope that it will be cultivated by the healthy.

August fourteenth. [1] This article was originally published in "Shen Shen Free Talk" on August 18, 1933. [2] Refers to the article "Revisiting Kong Yiji" written by Chen Zizhan. The content is about the textual research and explanation of the red-painted formula "Shang Daren, Qiu (Kong) Yiji..." used to teach students calligraphy in the old school, contained in 193 August 14, 3rd year, "Declaration · Free Talk". [3] According to legend, it was written by Wang Yinglin of the Southern Song Dynasty (one said that he lived in Qu Shizi in the late Song Dynasty and early Yuan Dynasty). According to legend, it was made by people in the early Song Dynasty.They are all literacy textbooks used in the old school.

〔4〕 "Child Prodigy Poetry" is a kind of primary reading material in the old school. It is said that it was written by Wang Zhu in the Northern Song Dynasty.Here are the opening sentences of the book. 〔5〕 "Children Learning Qionglin" is an old primary school children's book, edited by Cheng Yunsheng and others in the Qing Dynasty.The content is a collection of various idioms and allusions about astronomy, human relations, utensils, skills, etc., all of which are parallel prose.The third and fourth sentences quoted here are written in the original text: "When the qi is light and clear, what floats up is the sky; when the qi is heavy and turbid, what condenses down is the earth."

〔6〕 "Taigong Tutor" is an old primary school children's book, the author is unknown.Taigong is great-grandfather or great-grandfather.This book was quite popular in the Tang and Song Dynasties, but it was lost later. In the late Guangxu period of the Qing Dynasty, a volume of manuscript was found in the stone room of Mingsha Mountain in Dunhuang, including a photocopy of Luo Zhenyu's "Ancient Lost Book of Mingsha Stone Room". 〔7〕 "Ji Jiu Pian" is also called "Ji Jiu Zhang", an old-time study of consciousness words, written by You You in the history of the Western Han Dynasty.There are annotations by Yan Shigu and Wang Yinglin in the Tang Dynasty.The content is roughly compiled into rhymes according to the classification of names, clothes, food, utensils, etc., most of which are seven-character sentences.

[8] Its merits and virtues should not belong to Yu. This is what Han Yu of the Tang Dynasty praised Meng Ke in "Yu Meng Shang Shu Shu": "However, if you don't have the Meng family, you will all obey Zuo Yi's words and leave you alone. Therefore, the more you try to respect Mencius, that’s why those who think that the merits are not due to Yu.” Yu is a worm, which is the view put forward by Gu Jiegang in his 1923 article discussing ancient history, see note [4] on page 13 of this volume.