Chapter 15 Section 3 Taixue in the Han Dynasty

The instructors of Taixue in the Han Dynasty were served by doctors.Doctors each specialize in one classic, or "Poetry", or, or "Yi", or "Li", or "Spring and Autumn", and teach their disciples in Taixue with the special one.These doctors were famous teachers and scholars at that time, the government gave them generous treatment, and the students especially respected them. The students of Taixue in the Han Dynasty were doctoral disciples, also known as "Zhusheng".When Taixue was first built, there were 50 Taixue students, which gradually increased later.In addition to the "regular students" who were directly selected by the capital, the local educated youths selected by the counties and counties were "special students".The age requirements are not strict, and some Tai students are talented and intelligent, and they should be selected when they are less than 18 years old.There are 12-13-year-old "boys" in Taixue, and there are also white-haired old people in their 60s.In terms of family background, most of the imperial students were from noble families, but there were also children from poorer families. "Official students" are paid by the government and paid by the government;There are some poor children who do small jobs while studying, or their mothers accompany them to Chang'an to weave cloth and make shoes for others to study.The number of Tai students had increased to 3,000 by the end of the Western Han Dynasty.With the continuous increase of students, the school was expanded on a large scale in the late Western Han Dynasty.During the Eastern Han Dynasty, the number of Tai students increased greatly, reaching more than 30,000 at the most, and the capital formed the Tai School District.Minorities such as the Huns also sent their children to Taixue.Taixue has doctoral dormitories and internal and external lecture halls.In the sixth year of Emperor Shun Yongjian (AD 131), "a total of 240 houses and 1850 rooms were built."Such a scale of Taixue appeared in the Han Dynasty of our country, and it was second to none in the history of world education, marking that the economy and culture of the Han Dynasty of our country were in a leading position in the world at that time.

Taixue uses Confucian classics as its teaching materials.At the end of the Western Han Dynasty, there was a dispute between ancient texts and modern texts.The Jinwenjing was written in the official script prevailing at that time, while the Guwenjing came out later and was written in the ancient characters of the Warring States Period.At the same time, there are also differences in the words, chapters and explanations of the scriptures.Jinwenjing received the support of the government, and the doctors established in Taixue were all Jinwenjing doctors.Ancient Chinese scriptures are only taught in private private schools.At that time, there were very few books and scholars were rare, and the reading of exegetical sentences [dou 豆] was all based on oral instruction, so the doctor's explanation of the scriptures emphasized the relationship between teaching and learning, forming the teacher's and family's methods.If a master of a certain scripture is recognized by the court and established as a doctor, the master's scriptures will become a teacher.Disciples passed it on, so there were different explanations. The words that formed a family, and then passed down, became a family law.Doctors in the Han Dynasty taught their disciples with the methods of teacher and family.Once there are different explanations for the same thing, different schools of thought have emerged academically.For example, if they set up their own schools, each family explained the chapters and sentences of the scriptures in detail, and even explained a sentence or an allusion with tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of words.The so-called "a doctor buys a donkey, three paper coupons, no donkey characters" is exactly the portrayal of this situation.

With the development of the feudal economy, the teaching methods of Taixue have made great progress compared with the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period.In the Western Han Dynasty, there was the technology of using plant fiber to make paper. After the invention of "Caihou Paper" by Cai Lun (?—AD 121) in the Eastern Han Dynasty, high-quality and cheap paper became popular in the world.At the same time, silk weaving technology has also made great progress, and it has been able to weave silk as thin as a cicada's wing.The increase in production of silk and the popularization of paper provided extremely convenient conditions for writing. The number of books copied on silk and paper gradually increased. And other libraries, and Taichang, Taishi, Doctors, etc. also have book collections. Luoyang in the Eastern Han Dynasty also had a "book shop" for buying and selling books.There are more books, and writing is more convenient. The teaching method has changed from individual dictation of question and answer teaching to large class teaching.The lecture hall of Taixue is ten feet long and three feet wide, and the number of people attending lectures at the same time is always more than several hundred.Students attend lectures with scrolls, paper and pens, which can be marked and recorded at any time, and a lot of materials have been accumulated.Students' learning is based on direct and indirect listening and self-study. In terms of time, most of the time is spent on self-study.Some Tai students use their abundant self-study time to study other Confucian classics or natural sciences in addition to their regular classes, and become famous scholars or scientists.In addition to listening to the doctor's lectures in the school, some students also worship the experts of a certain scripture outside the school as their teachers, such as Wang Chong (AD 27-about 97 years) worshiped Ban Biao (AD 3-54 years) as his teacher, and Fu Rong worshiped Li Ying. (110-169 A.D.) as teachers, and later they all became scholars with outstanding achievements and went down in history.

The teaching system of Taixue is not strict, there is no fixed number of years of study, and no attention is paid to attendance, but it pays great attention to examinations, which are used to supervise and check students' academic performance.At the beginning of the establishment of Taixue, Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty stipulated that the examination should be conducted once a year by the method of "setting subjects and shooting strategies", which is called "year-old examination".The so-called "shooting policy" refers to the drawing of lots for oral examination questions and answers, and the so-called "setting subjects" is divided into two subjects according to the difficulty of the test questions.Students can draw lots to take the test, and the test questions are written on the sign.After the examination, a few or a dozen students will be selected based on their merits in each of the two subjects, and they will be awarded different official positions, such as doctor or prince sheren.Students who are found to be unqualified or unable to pass the test will be expelled from school immediately.During Emperor Huan of the Eastern Han Dynasty, the two subjects of A and B were changed to upper, middle and lower grades, and later changed to a biennial exam.Awarded and unqualified candidates can try again after two years.Some students failed to pass the test repeatedly, and some even stayed in Taixue when they were over 60 years old.

Taixue in the Han Dynasty indeed cultivated many talents for the country, and some poor civilians from humble backgrounds became famous because of this.For example, Kuang Heng "received "Poetry" from a doctor. The family is poor, and Heng's servants make it for food and drink."Er (Ni) Kuan was "poor and had no means to use, so he tried to support his disciples", thinking that his classmates cooked meals in exchange for the opportunity to study.Another example is that Zhai Fangjin's family was poor, and his mother went to Chang'an with him to "weave shoes" for Fang Jin to study.Kuangheng, Erkuan, and Zhai Fangjin were all honored for their "shechejiake".Kuang Heng and Zhai Fangjin became prime ministers in common clothes, and Erkuan was an official to Yushi doctor.There is no shortage of scholars who came from humble backgrounds to enter the Imperial Academy, and the Imperial Academy has indeed opened up a way for those with low family status but diligent and studious to become officials.