Private schools are privately run schools in ancient China, as opposed to official schools. Although Confucius was not the founder of private school, his private school was the largest, lasting more than two thousand years, and occupied an important position in the history of education in China.

As an important part of education, private schools have made great contributions to the development of Chinese civilization. It broke through the situation that "learning is in the government" and school education is monopolized by the government since the Western Zhou Dynasty, and expanded the educational target. It broke the old official education system of the integration of politics and religion and the integration of officials and teachers, and made education an independent activity.

Its rise marks that the school education of "learning in the official" has existed in name only.