Chapter Four Traditions of Chinese Education and Their Fundamental Characteristics

Chinese education is an important component of Chinese culture. On the one hand, Chinese education serves as a tool for the selection, dissemination, and processes of change in the culture; on the other hand, Chinese education has developed its own traditions on the foundation of Chinese culture. Primitive society covered the uncivilized and savage stages. The May Fourth Movement criticized the traditional culture of China. It also criticized the old educational thoughts and practices. During the worker and peasant revolution, new educational strategies were developed in the revolutionary bases and through the preparation of cadres. The several thousand-year long Chinese education traditions can be divided into two major stages. The first stage ranges from ancient times to the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949. Between the Opium War and the Liberation, China experienced a semi-feudal and semi-colonial society in which the feudal system of education gradually collapsed.Keywords: Chinese culture; Chinese Education; feudal system of education; liberation; May Fourth Movement; Opium war; peasant revolution; People's Republic of China; semi-colonial society