Unlocking the Treasury: Elementary Learning for Boys in Qing China by Katherine Ngo ISBN 9781643150758, 9781643150741, 1643150758, 164315074X instant download

Unlocking the Treasury: Elementary Learning for Boys in Qing China by Katherine Ngo ISBN 9781643150758, 9781643150741, 1643150758, 164315074X instant download

In recent years, the renewed interest in traditional Chinese elementary educational material has led to an increased use of these texts as teaching materials in Chinese schools, as well as popular literature and in academic research. Unlocking the Treasury: Elementary Learning for Boys in Qing China seeks to address the existing gap in Western scholarship regarding pre-modern Chinese primary education, its theories, and textbooks. With a focus on the Qing dynasty textbook, Treasury of Elementary Learning (Youxue qionglin 幼學瓊林), this volume is the first major study of the Treasury in English and reveals a rich tradition of education through close and critical readings of the text.
-
Unlocking the Treasury grounds its study of primary education in the intellectual history of the period. Using the concept of interpretive communities, Katherine Ngo explores the impact of socio-political influences and differences in Qing schools of thought, including the school of principle, the school of heart-mind, and practical learning. As such, this volume examines the Treasury through three critical readings of the text: as a handbook for practical learning, a child-oriented reading of the school of heart-mind, and the instrumental perspective of education as examination training.