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Introduction
For centuries, Chinese traditional education took place in two types of institutions: Si-shu (私塾, or home-based private schools) and Shu-yuan (书院, or academies of classical learning). Si-shu emphasized basic education (some had only a single grade) and were intended to prepare students for “county examinations” (the lowest level of China's imperial examination). Shu-yuan were often more advanced schools intended to prepare students for “provincial examinations” (the national-level imperial exam). Both Si-shu and Shu-yuan could be privately owned and operated, but many Shu-yuan were run by the imperial government.
During the long imperial history of China, Si-shu could be found in nearly every town and village. Indeed, most young people who had a chance to receive education spent their school days in Si-shu. In modern times, however, these old-style schools have vanished – displaced by new-style public schools. With the abolition of imperial exams during the late Qing dynasty, most Shu-yuan were remade as public schools, but since the Si-shu were non-governmental institutions, many of them persisted as private schools. Although the government (first the imperial government and later the new republican government) sought to reform them, few compulsory measures were taken. As a result, for a long time, modern schools and traditional Si-shu co-existed.
Still, the historical trend was clear. As the pace of educational change quickened after the Republic of China introduced the Renxu School System (壬戌学制) in 1922 and the Wuchen School System (戊辰学制) in 1928, more and more new-style schools replaced old-style Si-shu. At the same time, governmental as well as non-governmental agencies sought to reform the Si-shu that remained. While a number of Si-shu preserved traditional education during the Anti-Japanese War of the 1930s and 1940s, the Communist Party of China deemed Si-shu counter-revolutionary and took steps to close them. In this context, Si-shu were either transformed into modern schools or died out. It took nearly a century after the appearance of the first new-style (“modern” or “western”) schools for the last Si-shu to disappear.
Modernization as east–west negotiation
The dominant narrative in the history of education in China since the 19th century emphasizes the introduction, development, and success of “western” school systems. Historians have paid less attention to the fate of Si-shu and other forms of...