trace their views concerning philosophy and define the province of each does not belong to our present theme. Suffice it to say that most of them were Confucian scholars, but evidences are not wanting to show that their mental activity was stimulated and its direction determined by the speculations of Buddhist and Taoist writers. However, they took care to follow neither, betraying the influence of these sectarians chiefly by the pains taken to steer a middle course between the two. To the one school, mind is the only entity, and matter a deceptive figment of the imagination; to the other, matter is the sole essence, and mind one of its products. Each inculcated a species of monism. The thinkers of the Sung dynasty, combining these one-sided conceptions, boldly asserted a dualism in nature, and fixed on "li and ch'i" force and matter, as the seminal principles of the universe. Those who have made a special study of Chinese philosophy assert that the speculations of the Chinese have in more than one instance anticipated the teachings of modern science, making generalizations which to us appear as among the late results of modern science.

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Among the philosophers of this period are the following: Chou Tun I, Shao Yung, Cheng Hao, Cheng I, Chang Tsai, Liu Chiu Yuan, and Chu Hsi. Of these, the last named exerted the greatest influence over education, and is by far the most celebrated. He was a voluminous writer. In addition to his revision of the history of Ssu Ma Kuang, which, under the title of T'ung Chien Kang Mu, is still regarded as the standard history of China, he placed himself in the first rank of all commentators on the Confucian Canon. "He introduced interpretations either wholly or partly at variance with those which had been put forth by the scholars of the Han dynasty and hitherto received as infallible, thus modifying to a certain extent the prevailing standards of political and social morality. His guiding principle was merely one of consistency. He refused to interpret words in a given passage in one sense, and the same words occurring elsewhere in another sense. The effect of this apparently obvious method was magical; and from that date the teachings of Confucius have been universally understood in the way in which Chu Hsi said they ought to be understood."

'Martin: The Lore of Cathay, p. 37.

Giles: Chinese Civilization, pp. 94-95.

In marked contrast with the philosophers stands the great reformer and economist Wang An Shih (1021-1086) whose public career also exerted a great influence over the development of education during the Sung dynasty. He made a new interpretation of parts of the Confucian Canon in order to justify some of his radical reform measures. He also attempted to reform the examination system, requiring from the candidates not so much grace of style as a wide acquaintance with practical subjects. "Accordingly," says one Chinese author, "even the pupils at the village school threw away their text-books of rhetoric and began to study primers of history, geography, and political economy." "I have been myself," he tells us, "an omnivorous reader of books of all kinds, even, for example, of ancient medical and botanical works. I have, moreover, dipped into treatises on agriculture and on needlework, all of which I have found very profitable in aiding me to seize the great scheme of the great Canon itself." But like many other great men, he was too far in advance of his age. He fell into disfavor at court and was dismissed to a provincial post; and although he was soon recalled, he returned to private life, shortly afterwards to die, though not before he had seen the whole of his policy reversed and his commentary on the great Confucian Canon suppressed.

Before leaving the Sung dynasty we must notice briefly the educational condition among the Liaos and the Chins, two of the Tartar tribes who occupied in turn a portion of the territory in the northern part of China. The Liaos, in imitation of the Sungs in the south, established colleges and examination systems in Liao-tung and other parts of North China. The Chins, who succeeded the Liaos, followed their footsteps in this respect. They restored the competitive examinations in Chinese literature for the selection of men to fill the vacant posts in the conquered provinces. They translated the Chinese classics into their native language, printing them in both Chinese and Chins, and using them in the schools for the education of the children of the conquered race. They also held competitive examinations in their own language, and thus at one time gave degrees of Chü Jen and Chin Shih in both Chinese and Chins. Furthermore, they instituted examinations in law and for precocious youths, and also founded numerous colleges of medicine scattered throughout their own kingdom.

The mention of the presence of the Tartars in the north reminds us of one other fact which should not be left unrecorded. The Chinese court in the south in the presence of the Tartar tribes in the north, who were always threatening the rest of China, remembered from time to time that military skill should not be entirely neglected. Thus Kao Tsung in 1135 founded a competitive examination in archery, and in 1157 sanctioned the establishment of a military school in the capital. In 1169 military degrees, similar to the literary degrees, were given in the Chinese army then defending the frontier.

Development of Education under the Yüan or Mongol Dynasty. (A. D. 1280-1368)

At the beginning of the thirteenth century, the Mongols appeared upon the scene, and the Chinese formed an alliance with them to attack the kingdom of Chin; but after its downfall, which happened in the year 1235, the Mongols turned their armies against the emperor Sung, who thought that these nomads were returning to their desert homes with their booty. One can easily imagine the distress of the Sung dynasty which made one appeal after another for men to fight in its defense, but finally fell and left the Mongols the peaceful possessors of all China.

The conquerors, who at first showed little taste for the civilization of the Chinese, were not much inclined to give the latter a part in the government, and consequently they were not at all in a hurry to re-establish the competitive examination system and the colleges. However, several of their enlightened rulers were steady patrons of literature and education. Thus, in the year 1269, Kublai, the first Mongol emperor, caused Bashpa, a Tibetan priest, to construct an alphabet for the Mongol language; in 1280 he caused the Chinese calendar to be revised; and in 1287 the national university (Kuo Tzu Chien) was opened. Under his sway public schools in the provinces also multiplied. During the reign of Jen Tsung, the examination system was reestablished in the capital as well as in the provinces. The candidates were examined by writing essays on the classics and on political subjects. As the classics had by that time been translated into the Mongol language, the candidates were divided into two groups, the Mongols having two tests in their own

language, the Chinese having three in theirs. As many Chinese as Mongols were admitted to the high civil offices, and in order not to displease the latter the number of offices was immediately doubled in each of the administrative branches. This equal distribution of offices lasted until the ascent of Chun Ti, who suppressed (1335) the literary competitive examinations and gave all the offices to the Mongols. In 1340 the same emperor, in order to appease the discontented of the conquered race, was forced to re-establish the examination system and to maintain it during the remainder of his stormy reign, which terminated with the expulsion of the Mongols into Tartary.

Kublai and his successors encouraged the three sciences which they considered to be useful, namely, medicine, divination, and astronomy. Under their reign China had in all its provinces special schools for the study of these sciences. Regular competitive examinations were open to graduates in medicine who could enter thereby the medical college of the court (T'ai I Yüan), while the graduates of the school of astronomy could, through examination, become assistants in the imperial observatory (Chin T'ien Chien).

When the public school system of the Mongol dynasty was at its best it had two series of schools, one in the capital and the other in the provinces. In the capital there were three national universities (Kuo Tzů Chien), one for the Chinese, one for the Mongols, and one for the Mohammedans. In the provinces the following educational institutions were maintained at public expense: a provincial college (Shu Yüan) in each province; a circuit school (Lu Hsüeh) in each circuit; a prefectural school (Fu Hsüeh) in each prefecture; and a district school (Hsien Hsüeh) in each district. In addition, there were also found, in the different circuits, schools for the study of, the Mongol language, as well as schools of medicine and of divination. A report dating about the middle of the dynasty gives the number of schools in the country as having reached 24,000. According to the records, however, many of the educational institutions of the Mongol dynasty had merely a nominal existence, and the decrees

Under the Mongol dynasty China was divided into thirteen provinces. This number was increased to fifteen by the Mings, and during the reign of K'ang Hsi, of the Manchu dynasty, a rearrangement of the empire was made by which the number of provinces was increased to eighteen.

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of Kublai and his successors were not completely carried out. This state of affairs is due to the fact that, generally speaking, the educational policy of the Mongol dynasty was adopted not from a real desire for education, nor from a firm belief in the importance and efficacy of education, but merely from the desire to please the Chinese in order to gain their confidence and support.

Under such circumstances the Mongol dynasty gave birth to few, if any, educators of reputation and achievement in the history of Chinese education. There is, however, at least one man who will long be remembered for his contribution to education. We refer to Wang Ying Lin, the author of a small primer for school boys known as "Three-Character Classic." For six or seven hundred years this primer was the first book put into the hand of every child throughout the empire. It is an epitome of all knowledge, dealing with philosophy, classical literature, history, biography, and common objects. It has been called a pocket edition of the Mirror of History. Written in lines of three characters each, and being in doggerel, it is easily committed to memory, and every Chinese who has learned to read knows it by heart.

Development of Education under the Ming Dynasty.

(A. D. 1368-1644)

As a whole the emperors of the Ming dynasty were liberal patrons of literature and education. T'ai Tsu, the founder of the dynasty, issued during the first years of his reign several decrees to organize the national university (Kuo Tzu Chien), the colleges and schools in the provinces, and the examination system. In these decrees he determined the titles of professors, the number of students to be admitted in each kind of college, the subsidy to be given to students, the course of study, the daily program, and the kind of examinations, as well as many other details relating to school organization and management. Being a fond admirer of ancient usages and institutions of learning, he added to the usual classical curriculum the study of military arts and mathematics. He also included military arts and mathematics in the competitive examinations of the province, as well as those of the capital. This plan of combining military and literary studies, however, did not produce