Chapter 2 Section 2 The Germination of the Ancient School

School education is the product of the development of human society to a certain historical stage.The emergence of a school does not happen overnight, but rather a long process of gestation, germination, and growth.According to literature review, the germination of ancient Chinese schools was at the end of primitive society. At that time, production developed, and people gradually had a surplus of labor products in addition to maintaining their own and family members' lives, so that a few people could use other people's labor. Engaged in mental work under the support of products.This prepared the conditions for the budding of the school.On the pottery unearthed in Dawenkou, Shandong Province about 5,000 years ago, regular ideographic characters have appeared; this casts new light on the exploration of the germination of ancient Chinese schools.The production of characters created favorable conditions for the accumulation of increasingly complex social and natural knowledge, and at the same time created the practical needs of schools.Because in order to master writing and the social experience preserved by writing, it is even more necessary to have special guidance and learning, that is to say, it is necessary to go through organized school education.The budding school is probably in the "Mingtang", and the original teacher may be the "Witch History" who has mastered writing.

According to ancient records: "Chengjun, the study of the Five Emperors." The "Five Emperors" are the Yellow Emperor, Zhuanxu [zhuan xu Zhuanxu], Di Ku [ku Ku], Yao, and Shun. They are the leaders of the tribal alliance at the end of the primitive society in the legends of later generations. "Chengjun" may be the name of the budding school during the "Five Emperors" period.There is also a record: "Milin, there is the Xiang of the Yu family (Shun)". "Xiang" is the name of Shunshi School.The original meaning of Xiang is "to raise", that is, to raise moral, experienced, and knowledgeable old people there, and specialize in educating the younger generation. Since "Xiang" is a place for the elderly, it needs to store a certain amount of grain, so later generations also called "Xiang" as "rice granary (cang)".The old people supported here are likely to be Wu and Shi who served the clan dignitaries.Therefore, we can say that "Chengjun" and "Xiang" may be the budding schools in ancient China. At the beginning, they were not specialized educational institutions, but gradually formed transitional institutions of schools, which played the role of educating the younger generation and paved the way for future generations. The emergence of specialized educational institutions laid the foundation.