Chapter 38 Section 12 Textbooks for Beginners in the Tang and Song Dynasties

In ancient my country, we not only paid attention to family education, but also attached great importance to the compilation of family education teaching materials.Since family education should be based on literacy enlightenment education, compiling elementary school teaching materials has become a major issue that people generally care about. Throughout the history of the development of family education in ancient China, since the Western Zhou Dynasty or earlier, the ruling class began to compile family education textbooks.As for the compilation of elementary school textbooks, the pre-Qin period attached great importance to them, but not many have been handed down.During the Han, Wei and Six Dynasties, the compilation and application of elementary school textbooks were relatively common, and a lot of experience was accumulated.During the Tang and Song Dynasties, because family education was quite developed, great achievements were made in the construction of elementary school textbooks.

In a nutshell, the textbooks compiled and preserved before the Tang and Song Dynasties include Cang Jie by Li Si, Yuan Li by Zhao Gao, and Bo Xue by Hu Mujing. 〕Pian".The Luli calligrapher in the early Han Dynasty compiled them together into a literacy textbook for common people, collectively called "Cangjie Pian".Later, there were "Pian of Fanjiang" by Sima Xiangru, "Pian of Jijiu" by Shi You, "Pian of Yuan Shang" by Li Chang, "Pian of Xun Zhuan" by Yang Xiong, "Pian of Pang Xi" by Jia Bing, and "Pian of Pang Xi" by Zhang Yi. "Picang", Cai Yong's "Encouraging Learning", "The Holy Emperor", "Huang Chu", "Nv Shi", Ban Gu's "Tai Jia", "Zai Xi", Cui Yuan's "Flying Dragon" ", Zhu Yu's "Youth Learning", Fan Gong's "Guang Cang", Lu Ji's "Wu Zhang", Zhou Xingsi's "Thousand Characters", Shu Xi's "Enlightenment", Gu Kaizhi's "Enlightenment", and "Miscellaneous Characters" and "Varuin Difficult Words", etc.Most of these elementary school textbooks were compiled to meet the needs of literacy education for the children of royal families and official families, and belonged to the so-called "primary school" (ie literacy) textbooks.Some were constantly eliminated during the teaching process, and some might belong to the royal family or be handed down by officials' families. Therefore, only two pieces of "Jijiupian" and "Thousand-Character Essays" have been handed down to the world.Among them, the remaining biography of "Thousand Characters", in addition to its excellent layout, is mainly because it was compiled by Zhou Xingsi, a Liang man in the Southern and Northern Dynasties. He extracted 1,000 characters different from Wang Xizhi's posthumous writing. meet the needs of primary education.

After the Tang and Song Dynasties, due to the implementation of the imperial examination system and the rise of cultural education for common people, the types of elementary school textbooks gradually expanded from single literacy textbooks to comprehensive knowledge, moral education, reading ability improvement, and children’s temperament training. Various categories. The comprehensive knowledge-based textbooks focusing on literacy include "Enlightenment Essentials", "Learning Characters", "Words and Words" and "Miscellaneous Characters" books. "Kaimeng Yaoxun" was handed down in the Tang Dynasty and the Five Dynasties. The 1,400-character book uses four-character rhymes to introduce natural famous objects, social famous objects, clothing and sleeping places, physical diseases, utensils and tools, etc. in sequence.Most of the characters used are commonly used characters in daily life, which have an influence on the compilation of miscellaneous characters in later generations.It is an elementary school textbook that collects Han surnames into four-character rhymes.It was written in the Northern Song Dynasty.According to legend, it was compiled by Wang Yinglin in the Song Dynasty, and was added successively in the Ming and Qing Dynasties. By the beginning of the Qing Dynasty, the book had 1140 characters. Examples of "showing relatives and making famous" by studying hard in school.The book has extensive knowledge, flexible syntax, and popular language. It is one of the most famous home education textbooks in ancient China. It is compiled from more than 2,000 commonly used characters in the anthology, and uses the rules of Chinese character creation to drive literacy teaching materials. "Comparison of Characters" is a literacy textbook with pictures and texts that appeared at the end of the Song Dynasty.Practical miscellaneous character books have existed in the past dynasties, but it is the first literacy textbook that combines pictures and texts and pays attention to the intuitive teaching effect.Later, , , and so on also imitated this kind, with both pictures and texts.

In addition to the long-used "Book of Filial Piety", "Taigong's Family Education" written by an unknown person in the Tang Dynasty, "Primary School" by Zhu Xi in the Song Dynasty, "Shaoyi Waizhuan" by Lu Zuqian, etc. Lu Benzhong's "Tong Meng Xun", Cheng Ruoyong's "Xing Li Zi Xun" and so on.These elementary school textbooks also had a great influence on later generations, such as "Xiao Er Yu" by Lu Desheng in the Ming Dynasty, "Continued Xiao Er Yu" by Lu Kun, compiled by Zhu Sheng; "Disciple Regulations" by Li Yuxiu in the Qing Dynasty, compiled by Wang Xiang, and The circulated "Words of the Past", "Sheng Xun Guang Yu" and so on.They mainly advocate feudal ethics and morals such as "Three Cardinal Guidelines and Five Constant Principles", "Three Obediences and Four Virtues", and "Propriety, Righteousness, Honesty and Shame".

There are also many elementary school textbooks that focus on social and natural knowledge.It originated from the "Rabbit Garden Book" in the Tang Dynasty, followed by Li Han's "Mengqiu". According to legend, "Rabbit Garden Book" was compiled by Yu Shinan in the Tang Dynasty for the study of the royal children, and it was widely used in rural schools during the Five Dynasties. "Mengqiu" was also a textbook for the family education of the upper-class rulers in the Tang Dynasty. The whole book tells mostly historical allusions. Each sentence has four characters, and the upper and lower pairs. Sun Jing closed the household, Sun Kang Yingxue, and Che Yunjuying.After the Song Dynasty, various "Mengqiu" and similar readers appeared successively, such as "Seventeen History Mengqiu", "Guangmengqiu", "Xugu Mengqiu", "Chunqiu Mengqiu", "Mengqiu of Past Dynasties" , "Famous Things Mengqiu" and so on.Originally edited by Cheng Dengji in the late Ming Dynasty and supplemented by Zou Shengmai in the Qing Dynasty, "Youth Learning Qionglin" was popular all over the country in the Qing Dynasty and had a profound influence. "Youth Learning Qionglin" is called "Youth Learning" for short, and its original names are "Instructions for Young Learning", "Idioms Test" and "Story Searching".It consists of four volumes, which are divided into more than 30 categories such as astronomy, geography, personnel, birds and animals, and flowers and trees.Its achievements surpassed the Tang and Song Dynasties, but were based on the Tang and Song Dynasties.

For interesting reading materials aimed at improving reading ability, Hu Jizong's "Shuyan Stories" created a precedent. Later, such textbooks developed greatly, such as "Diary Stories" by Yu Shao in Yuan Dynasty, and "Mengyang Stories" by Xiao Liangyou in Ming Dynasty. (Later revised by Yang Chenzheng and renamed as "Longwenbianying" Volume 1 and 2), "Longwenbianying Two Episodes" edited by Li Huiji and others in the Qing Dynasty, Ding Youmei's "Tongmeng Guanjian", in addition to "Twenty-Four Filial Piety Illustrations" " and other interesting readers based on feudal ethics stories have been used in primary schools and private schools in common people's homes.

In addition, there are poetry reading books for cultivating children's temperament.The most famous one is "Hundreds of Poems", the main content of which is based on the works of people in Tang and Song Dynasties, which is still popular today.

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