YUKUN JIANG
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In high school history textbooks standardized by the Ministry of Education of the People’s Republic of China, Chinese students learn about the prosperity and cultural export of the great Tang Dynasty, the power of the unrivaled Mongolian cavalry of the Yuan Dynasty, and the technological advancements and economic development of the Song Dynasty. However, when the same students turn to the section on the Qing Dynasty, they will only see decline, the consequent Chinese suffering under imperialism, and a loss of sovereignty. This is a common perspective on the Qing Dynasty shared by many Chinese scholars after the rise of China in the last three decades. For example, historian Chen XuLu argues that after the first Opium War, “the Qing Dynasty [was] forced to start modernization under the fire of western guns” (54). However, I argue that scholars should not ignore the active role of the late Qing Dynasty in modernization, particularly with emphasis on educational reform as an essential component of modernization. More broadly, in this essay, I will not focus on the Qing Dynasty’s feudal limitations and failures, but, rather, take a contextual view that Late Qing laid a solid foundation for further modernization. The Qing government, I argue, did not override the educational system by fully adopting Western science, but, rather, made sophisticated political efforts to localize Western science in ways that would nurture well-rounded talents for the country. Furthermore, the Qing government’s retainment of title rewards in the new exam system was a sophisticated move that both encouraged more students to participate in the new education system and stabilized the court.
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