With the development of globalization, China's education should be in line with international standards. This year, my middle school classmate Hao Ping, who came from Qingdao, served as the vice minister of education and was responsible for international exchanges. I believe that the doctor who returned from studying in the United States will be qualified for this job.
Education is one of the most fundamental reasons that determine the development level of a modern country and nation, which is believed to have been proved by history. As a comparison of national education, it can be divided into system, content, purpose and object. Different countries and nations have different understandings and practices, so the results are different. For example, China and Japan, which are also considered as Confucian cultural circles, have obvious differences in this respect.
The differences in educational policies and educational concepts between China and Japan are important factors that lead to the different development processes of the two countries in modern times. To put it bluntly, whether in Meiji era or after World War II, the educational advantage of Japan has always played the most important role in achieving the rapid development of national strength one step ahead of China.
So, what is the fundamental difference between Chinese and Japanese education? It's simple. China's education is more utilitarian, while Japanese education emphasizes the improvement of people's quality.
After living in Europe and America for many years, Russian Mechnikov came to Japan to teach foreign languages in 1874, and later wrote Memories of Meiji Restoration. He wrote in the book that Japanese coolies, maids, grooms and other people at the bottom of society often read books. Although most of those pamphlets were popular novels, he was surprised by such a high literacy rate. Compared with the experience of western countries, he did not hesitate to call it "abnormal". Other foreigners who came to Japan during the Meiji era had similar impressions. In fact, before 1872, Japan began to implement the compulsory education system.
Meanwhile, what's the situation in China? Kang Youwei estimated that there were about 3 million young people in the late Qing Dynasty, and there were even fewer literati and scholars. Therefore, the cultural class with formal education in China can only account for a very small number of the total population of more than 400 million. Most people in China are illiterate and semi-illiterate, while Japanese people can read and write even if they are pawns. From this point of view, compared with the general cultural level of the people at that time, China was not as good as Japan as a whole.
One view is that the success of Meiji Restoration in Japan is due to the "advantage of backwardness". Compared with China, this "backwardness" means that the level of Japanese cultural development is not as good as that of China, so it is easier to get rid of the burden of the past. The overall educational level of the Japanese is higher than that of China, which is undoubtedly an excellent question for the above statement. The advantage of Japanese cultural level is also reflected in the prevalence of "Lan Xue". Lan Xue, with western science, technology and culture as its content, also flourished during the Edo period. Lanshi is respected by all walks of life and has a high income.
On the other hand, Japanese scholar Yoshida Yoshida mentioned in "Modernization of Japan: Comparison with China" that China and Feng Guifen wrote "Learning from the West" in 1860. Feng Guifen said, "Those who are used to outsiders know things very well", "People in the city are familiar with them, but they don't look down on the countryside ... Their quality is Shandong, their knowledge is shallow, and their thoughts are contemptible ..." Yitian experts pointed out that people who know western things in China have a very different status from their Japanese counterparts. This is also the reason why Wei Yuan's Chart System has a greater sensation and influence in Japan than in China. Another argument against the so-called "latecomers" in Japan, Guo Hai Tu Zhi found a large number of readers in Japan on the basis of orchidology, while in China, Wei Yuan could only sigh that he was too advanced. Why is there such a gap? Yoshida Jia Qian believes that the fundamental reason is that China has an imperial examination system, while Japan does not.
What is the connotation of the imperial examination system? Education is closely related to the pursuit of personal interests to change a person's identity and status. Especially in the Ming and Qing Dynasties, stereotyped writing of literati standardized and institutionalized the relationship between "learning" and official career. This extremely utilitarian mentality is still a major problem in China's educational philosophy.
The famous advertisement "knowledge changes fate" actually continues to promote the same idea. The growth of knowledge may of course bring about changes in fate, but with the urgent mood of pursuing changes in fate, the former is undoubtedly more prone to deviation and failure than the educational concept of calming down to enrich and improve one's literacy.
Professor Zhu Zongbin of Peking University praised in the article "On the Historical Role of Eight-part Writing" that the eight-part writing lowered the threshold of learning (as long as you mastered the eight-part writing based on the four books) and contributed to the increase of the number of scholars from several hundred thousand in the Song and Yuan Dynasties to several million in the Ming and Qing Dynasties, so the number of intellectuals in China increased, "the degree of civilization was greatly improved, which promoted the progress of history". This is a specious and absurd view.
As mentioned earlier, the popularization of compulsory education in Meiji era is different from stereotyped writing in China. Even if the number of stereotyped writing candidates increases, it is still an elite minority education, which is far less than popularizing and improving the overall cultural level of the people. The increase in the number of scholars is the same as today's university enrollment expansion. It's just that the number of scholars has increased and the quality has declined. Stereotyped writing has lowered the threshold, but it has also cultivated many models of "intellectuals". Compared with the Japanese, stereotyped writing did not bring a large number of people, such as Toshiichi Kubo, Ryuji Kato, Saigō Takamori, Hirofumi Ito and Fukuzawa Yukichi.
The story of assistant minister Peng Yulin in Qing Dynasty was written in the congratulatory message. Peng's family farmed, but the whole family worked hard, and even hired someone to farm instead of him, barely paying for his schooling, just to let him be a scholar and "honor his ancestors." Taking this as an example, Zhu Wen explains that the eight-part essay "promotes the children of ordinary people to take exams and improve their cultural quality", but ignores that the premise of Peng's study is that the whole clan, including "uncles and Zhu Kundi", should give up the right to study. This way of expecting a person to take exams, to worship his ancestors and to change his destiny is the best embodiment of the utilitarian educational concept.
The biggest feature of the imperial examination is that through education, people can leap to the official class. No matter how poor you are, you can win "fame" by passing the exam. Therefore, the imperial examination objectively eased the class contradictions within the society and contributed to the political stability of the unified country. Many scholars have discussed this point. However, it is still necessary to point out that Zhu Wen's statement that stereotyped writing brings "civilization progress" and "historical progress" is absurd. China's traditional civilization declined in the Ming and Qing Dynasties, and stereotyped writing was an important means for the government to alleviate the increasing pressure within society, which was also the reason for expanding the number of people.
Just like today's university enrollment expansion, its purpose is not to set up education, but to stimulate GDP growth. However, the biggest drawback of the imperial examination is that education is completely utilitarian, which makes it more like an investment that evaluates gains and losses with a rate of return. In old novels, there are many "maxims" expressing similar ideas, the most typical of which is "learn written martial arts and sell them to the royal family".
The situation in Japan is completely different. Before the Meiji Restoration, Japan had always adopted the hereditary and bloodline system, with a clear social class, and no imperial examination system could be broken. However, in the Edo era, the shogunate played an important role in promoting cultural popularization in order to alleviate social contradictions and encourage and support the fashion of learning knowledge from all walks of life. Farmers, businessmen and small soldiers can pursue their favorite knowledge, but even if they master it, their status cannot be changed. The only benefit of knowledge is to improve one's ability, which can be said to be the core of Japanese educational philosophy.
? On the surface, the imperial examination system that transcends class barriers seems to be more civilized and scientific than Japan's lineage hereditary system, but to judge the merits of a historical system, it must be combined with the realistic environment at that time. The imperial examination system had different meanings in Tang and Song Dynasties and Ming and Qing Dynasties.
Stereotyped writing does make sense, but it is reasonable to let a civilization live, and it is unreasonable from the point of view that civilization needs a new life. Japan's bloodline and hereditary system are unreasonable, which arouses the rebound of the lower class and turns it into a driving force for change.
Japanese educational idea lacks the utilitarian color of China, but it is closer to the original Confucianism to some extent. For example, the real connotation of Confucius' "teaching without class" should only emphasize the universality of education, which is not different because of the different status of the educated, and does not mean to choose from it.
Although China's past education system seemed "classless" and the poor also had the opportunity to be elected officials, the result of this "getting ahead" was only the destruction of "classlessness". As far as education in China is concerned, it is even difficult to teach if there is no class on the surface.
As mentioned above, the class separation in Japan makes all social classes give priority to their practical and common use when learning knowledge. Farmers naturally pay attention to agronomy, businessmen ponder to promote commodity sales, and craftsmen ponder to improve technology ... China's works such as Heavenly Creations and Encyclopedia of Agricultural Politics have been highly praised in Japan. This fine tradition has been maintained in Japan to this day, especially those skilled technicians who graduated from professional schools or even relied on self-study have become the core driving force for Japan's national strength to take off again.
In China, however, the utilitarian nature of the imperial examination made people narrow-minded, and only regarded the knowledge of the examination as knowledge, while others were ignored, and even "useless" academics were not regarded as academics. The stereotyped writing of scholars, in particular, is limited to limited classics, but divorced from reality. Today, the exam-oriented education in China has developed to an abnormal level, and its "key schools" system embodies the clear purpose of "choosing the best for the middle school" (according to Tian's words), which leads to the wrong result that "there is no need for comprehensive education for underachievers".
? Regarding the purpose of learning, Yi Tian Xi's family heard many Japanese farmers say that education is "necessary to improve common sense", which is quite different from China people's "starting from simple daily needs". On the premise of no utilitarian purpose, education is more about improving personal cultivation and comprehensive quality. The situation of foreign language education in China and Japan is the most telling. Foreign language education in China is linked with a series of utilitarian purposes such as examination, promotion and evaluation of professional titles, which is sometimes unreasonable.
Japan, on the other hand, pays more attention to the benefits of foreign language education to personal quality. Although there are some qualification examinations, they are only for necessary relevant personnel. The most thought-provoking examples are the Japanese amateur foreign language school NOVA and China's "peer" New Oriental. The latter has reached the peak of exam-oriented foreign language education, while the former students are men, women and children who are interested in a foreign language from all walks of life; The former's ultimate dream is to be able to easily cope with the narrow foreign language test and get a passport and a full scholarship, while the latter's promotional materials say that the highest goal is just to "understand foreign movies without subtitles."
However, the annual turnover of a listed company's foreign language education industry reached 615 billion yen, while the turnover of Japanese amateur foreign language education industry actually reached15 billion yen. This figure clearly shows the Japanese people's persistent enthusiasm for quality education. What Japan is doing now is to promote "lifelong education". Under the trend of aging, the prospects of various industries for educating retirees are promising. Of course, retirees' enthusiasm for learning has no purpose or purpose, but the perfection of quality education is enough to make Chinese people feel ashamed.
There are many differences between an educational concept of utility first and an educational concept of quality first, each of which happens to be China's weakness and Japanese strength. It is necessary for China people to learn from Japan, and the first thing they should learn is education.