The Modern Si-shu Reform in China

The reform of Si-shu (private school run by a family or a teacher) was an important part of the modernization of China's primary education. As the traditional education resource, the Si-shu had undergone the changes of the times, with its reform process reflecting the basic law and characteristics of the said modernization. It resulted from the competition between the traditional cultural idea and the modern primary educational practice. Various kinds of experience and lessons that occurred in the reform were a profound reflection of the essential law of the modernization. The reform was carried out in major aspects, such as management system, curricula, teaching content, teaching staff, and teaching method.The essence of the sishu reform lies in the modernization of primary education, which is also a significant constituent of the Chinese social reform. The conflict between ancient and modern, Chinese and foreign brought about a change in the sishu, thus making it move gradually toward modernization. In fact, the pattern of China's primary education in the modern period, which featured the coexistence of the traditional sishu and the modern primary school, demonstrated both the conflict and blending between the traditional idea of Chinese education and the modern idea of Western education as well as the interplay between the educational reform and the entire social change. The implementation of the sishu reform mainly found expression in two aspects: the establishment and perfection of the educational administrative departments of the governments and the formulation of state laws and decrees on the Si-shu reform, which promoted the improvement of the sishu in terms of gradual institutionalization. In addition, the reform in education and teaching idea was the primary motivation in modernizing the sishu. The said idea was influenced not only by advocators of the Westernization Movement in the 19th century Qing government but also bourgeois reformists. And it constituted the then liberation movement of social thought. It was important to note that during the reform in educational and teaching idea, the advanced factor and the conservative factor showed two aspects of their constant struggle while remaining one unity. The Si-shu reform began as a nongovernmental movement, but was completed finally by the government. In was because of this top-bottom reform model that private education was gradually replaced by government and public education. Accordingly, school as a special organization became more and more identificational and standardized, while later weakening the initiative and creativity of Chinese primary school in education and teaching.