From Literati To Modern Teachers: The Identity Transformation of The Educated Elites in Early Twentieth-Century China

The Chinese Historical Review
ISSN: 1547-402X (Print) 2048-7827 (Online) Journal homepage: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/ytcr20
From Literati to Modern Teachers: The Identity

Transformation of the Educated Elites in Early
Twentieth-Century China
Xiaoping Cong
To cite this article: Xiaoping Cong (2017) From Literati to Modern Teachers: The Identity
Transformation of the Educated Elites in Early Twentieth-Century China, The Chinese Historical
Review, 24:2, 146-165, DOI: 10.1080/1547402X.2017.1369220
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The Chinese Historical Review, 24. 2, 146165, November 2017
FROM LITERATI TO MODERN TEACHERS:

THE IDENTITY TRANSFORMATION OF THE
EDUCATED ELITES IN EARLY TWENTIETH-
CENTURY CHINA*
XIAOPING CONG
Downloaded by [Australian National University] at 09:08 12 November 2017
University of Houston, USA
This article focuses on how part of traditional educated literati transformed into
modern teachers. It argues that teachers schools became a tool of social transform-
ation that recast surplus officials and old literati into public resources as educators
and professional teachers. It was teachers schools that provided a considerable
number of individuals who were trained for imperial civil service examinations with
a new and independent identity, and supplied the state more manpower for the expan-
sion of its educational activities than it ever had before in twentieth-century China.
KEYWORDS: teachers schools, educated elites, teacher training, identity transform-
ation, modern teachers
INTRODUCTION
In 1904, Chinas central government announced its first modern educational system,
and then, in a fateful move, in 1905 the Qing court announced the abolition of the
thousand-year-old civil service examination system, to be replaced by the modern,
Western and Japanese based school system. Building a modern educational system,
however, also created social discontinuity between the old literati and the new
system, and the serious educational and social dislocations. The educational modern-
ization of early twentieth-century China manifested a strong characteristic of continu-
ity from its imperial past as well as inheriting its longstanding problems. Out of
concern for the political and social consequences of the reforms, the reformers gave
deliberate consideration to the question of how modernization would affect those
who had previously depended on the imperial examination system. A smooth tran-
sition for those individuals was considered part of the governments strategy for
extending its educational and political controls. Thus, in the process of state building,
teachers schools became a tool of social transformation that recast surplus officials
and old literati into public resources. It was the establishment of teachers schools
that institutionalized the separation of teachers from the bureaucratic system, and
*This article is originated from the authors 2007 book by UBC Press. The author is very grate-
ful that the UBC Press grants a permission for its publication.
The Chinese Historical Review 2017 DOI 10.1080/1547402X.2017.1369220

FROM LITERATI TO MODERN TEACHERS 147
teachers schools functioned as a safety valve, releasing some of the pressure that had
long been accumulating among dissatisfied expectant officials and frustrated examin-
ation candidates. Teachers schools provided such individuals with a new and inde-
pendent identity, and they provided the state more manpower for the expansion of
its educational activities than it ever had before.
By using the documents of the Guangdong and Guangxi Advanced Teachers
Collage (Liang Guang gaodeng shifan xuetang) as well as the materials of other
schools, this article examines the rapid expansion of teachers schools in the first
decade of twentieth-century China and analyzes the social and educational trans-
formation through this special type of educational institution. I will argue that,
first, the establishment of a teachers school system further institutionalized the long-
standing split between education and the regular governmental bureaucracy.
Second, the teachers schools became an important instrument that, through

special rapid training programs, granted old literati new social identity by trans-
forming them into modern teachers.
INSTITUTIONALIZING THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN PROFESSIONAL EDUCATORS

AND BUREAUCRATS
Before 1905, the imperial civil service examination system had generated twenty to
thirty thousand licentiates (shengyuan) nationwide each year and thousands of
middle and high level degree-holders in the triennial examinations. In addition
those who taught and studied in imperial dynastic schools and various local edu-
cational institutions also were also considered literati, though some of them did
not hold any degree. What would happen to this large group of men under the
new system? Moreover, advancement up the education ladder was now associated
with age limits, which excluded a large number of adult literati, who had studied
in the imperial system and had even earned primary degrees, from continuing
their move up the social ladder. The educational reform also threatened to disqualify
those educational officials in the dynastic schools, old literati and schoolteachers
who were already teaching or working as educational instructors and
administrators.
Anticipating the possible social unrest caused by implanting a full Western-style
system, the architects of the 1904 schooling system modified the system by establish-
ing an independent teachers school system. Teachers schools adopted much more
flexible rules in enrolling old literati and had more diverse programs than those of
regular middle schools. Within several years after the promulgation of the 1904
system, new schools were founded with great speed. According to incomplete stat-
istics collected by the Board of Education (BE), the number of Western-style
schools1 increased from 222 in 1902 to 16,895 in 1907. Teachers schools (shifan
xuetang) were a rapidly growing component of the new educational system and,
in fact, constituted almost half of all schools above the elementary level. In 1907,
there were 541 teachers schools, compared with seventy-four specialized colleges
1
This number includes elementary schools, middle schools, vocational schools, teachers
schools, and institutions of higher education.
148 XIAOPING CONG
(zhuanmen xuetang), 137 vocational schools (shiye xuetang),2 and 398 ordinary
middle schools (putong zhong xuetang).3
The modern teacher has been both the instrument and the product of the trans-
formation of education in the industrial age. In France, teachers were harbingers
of enlightenment and of the Republican message that reconciled the benighted
masses with a new world, superior in wellbeing and democracy.4 During the
Third Republic pioneering female teachers challenged a predominantly male pro-
fession and advanced the cause of sexual equality.5 Teachers also played the part
of rabble-rousers: they educated and mobilized peasants in the early twentieth-
century Russian and Mexican Revolutions.6 In spite of being a product of industrial
society, the formation of teachers as a professional corps, their methods of training,
and the role they played in the social and political arena varied in each society due to
different cultural heritages and sociopolitical situations. In China, the emergence of

modern professional teachers first meant a divorce between the already marginalized
educational personnel from the regular political bureaucracy.
Teachers in imperial society were either an attachment to the bureaucracy or
by-products of the civil service examination system. In late imperial society (from
the Ming to the Qing periods, c. 13681911), educational personnel were divided
into three types: officials and teachers in the dynastic school system; teachers in
private academies; and teachers in family schools, private schools, charitable
schools, and community schools. Personnel in the dynastic school system can be
divided into two categories: educational officials in provincial government, and
teaching officials and instructors at prefectural, district, and county schools.
During the Ming and Qing periods, the duty of the provincial education commis-
sioners was to promote and supervise educational affairs within their provinces;
they did not have any actual teaching duties. At the lower levels, teaching officials
included district (zhou) education directors (jiaoshou), prefectural education direc-
tors (xuezheng), and county education directors (jiaoyu), were aided by two to four
teaching assistants (xundao) at each level.7 Theoretically, educational officials were
in charge of administering the educational affairs of their respective administrative
2
This division is based on the categories used in Xuebu zongwusi, ed., Di yi ci jiaoyu tongji
tubiao [First Statistical Tables on Education] (1907).
3
Ge sheng zhuanmen xuetang xuesheng tongji biao [Statistical table on specialty schools
and students in the provinces], Ge sheng shiye xuetang xuesheng tongji biao [Statistical table
on vocational schools and students in the provinces], and Ge sheng putong xuetang tongji
biao [Statistical table on regular schools and students in the provinces], in Xuebu zongwusi,
ed., Di yi ci jiaoyu tongji tubiao, 1920, 2122, 2526. Regular middle schools (putong
xuetang) included both junior high and high schools, which were often separate institutions.
4
Eugene Weber, Peasants into Frenchmen: The Modernization of Rural France, 18701914
(Sanford: Stanford University Press, 1976), 303.
5
Jo Burr Margadant, Madame le Professeur: Women Educators in the Third Republic (Prin-
ceton: Princeton University Press, 1990), 113.
6
Scott J. Seregny, Russian Teachers and Peasant Revolution: The Politics of Education in 1905
(Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1989); Mary Kay Vaughan, Cultural Politics in Revolu-
tion: Teachers, Peasants, and Schools in Mexico, 19301940 (Tucson: University of Arizona
Press, 1997).
7
Wu Zhihe, Mingdai de ruxue jiaoguan [Educational Officials of the Ming Dynasty] (Taibei:
Taibei xuesheng shuju, 1991); Ma Ma, The Local Education Officials of Ming China, 1368
1644, Oriens Extremus, 22, no. 1 (1975): 1127.
areas and served as teachers and headmasters of the dynastic schools as well.8 Suppo-
sedly, the dynastic schools were the places for inculcating official ideology, training
moral exemplars, and providing able men for the imperial bureaucracy. In fact,
since the Song period, dynastic schools had been test-centers for preparing for the
examinations.9 The dynastic schools were in decline by the latter half of the Ming
and they became merely places for students to register for governments subsidies,
but up to the late Qing period the teachers of dynastic schools were still responsible
for local educational administration and had power to rank students in seasonal
and yearly examinations. These special duties of educational administration later
helped these teachers to transfer into the modern educational bureaucracy. The
number of imperial educational/teaching officials can be estimated based on the dis-
tribution of dynastic schools by jurisdiction. It appears that during the Ming dynasty
there were over four thousand officials,10 which had risen to about 6,000 due to the
reason of expanding the Qing territory and reshaping the jurisdictions.
In spite of being a part of the imperial bureaucratic system, educational/teaching
officials were largely excluded from political power. This situation was the result of
many factors. The low rank of teaching officials in the bureaucratic system and the
method used to select them not only limited the quality of the teaching personnel
but also marginalized them. Ming regulations decreed that no official with a rank
higher than the second class of the ninth rank (cong jiupin)the lowest level on
the bureaucratic laddercould serve as a prefectural education director. Later, the
rank of the prefectural education officials was degraded to unranked (wu pinji)
and then to miscellaneous positions (zaliu).11 Ming educational officials occupied
such low official status that they had no say in administrative affairs in their local com-
munity or county political activities. Teaching officials were actually excluded from
the official bureaucratic system. If promising students were to enjoy the most favor-
able intellectual climate, their teachers should have been drawn from the more accom-
plished pool, but this ideal was never realized. The founder of the Ming in early time
did indeed make a plan to select teaching officials from the pool of advanced scho-
lars (jinshi) by adding a special title, fubang jinshi (supplementary list of jinshi,
metropolitan degree-holders), for top degree holders who went into education.
This plan, however, soon failed because everyone with an advanced degree tried to
avoid teaching assignments since they only offered a miserable professional status
and paltry income in the dynastic schools. Since the mid-Ming, the education officials
were further marginalized through their long terms of service. Whereas administra-
tive officials normally served three-year terms before being considered for promotion
or relocation, Ming educational officials served for nine years in each term, effectively
depriving them of any hope for political power.12 Although the Qing court tempted
8
See Wu Zhihe, Mingdai de ruxue jiaoguan. Since these people performed two distinct func-
tions, I have used the terms education officials and teaching officials to discuss their activities.
9
See John W. Chaffee, The Thorny Gates of Learning in Sung China (Cambridge University
Press, 1985).
10
Wu Zhihe, Mingdai de ruxue jiaoguan, 1920. Toi-Loi Ma estimated that there were about
4,200 state teaching positions at any given time during the Ming (see Ma, Local Education Offi-
cials, 18).
11
Zhang Tingyu, Mingshi [History of the Ming Dynasty] (Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 1974),
185152; also see Wu Zhihe, Mingdai de ruxue jiaoguan, 814.
12
Wu Zhihe, Mingdai de ruxue jiaoguan, 25354; Ma, Local Education Officials, 1924.
150 XIAOPING CONG
educational officials with the prospect of a promotion to county magistrate, the large
number of officials waiting for positions created a bleaker reality.13 Since some faculty
of the academies was drawn from off-duty officials and those who held no official
rank, they too lacked any direct connection to political power.14 The lower pay
received by teaching officials and village teachers, and their shabby, isolated rural
life, further pushed this group of literati away from the political realm. The Ming gov-
ernment had no choice but to recruit the secondary degree-holders (juren, provincial
degree-holders) and its equivalents, university students (jiansheng), and tribute
students (gongsheng), to serve as teachers.15 Little changed in the Qing: although
the rank of teaching officials was raised to the regular seventh rank (zheng
qipin), the highest rank for teaching officials at the prefectural level was still barely
equal to the rank of a county magistrate.16 This way of selection led to the decline
of academic quality among teaching officials such that many teachers were unable
to conduct their professional activities by the Qing period. The situation further dete-
riorated over the course of the dynasty: by the mid-Qing many teaching posts were
held by men who did not possess even the most rudimentary qualifications and the
posts were sold for cash (juanna).17
Those who taught in private academies were outside the bureaucratic system, but they
had some connection with it. They were referred to by a variety of titles, such as shanz-
hang (academy director), yuanzhang (academy head), zhujiao (assistant teacher) and so
forth, and they had achieved far greater academic distinction than their official counter-
parts. While the majority had passed the palace or provincial examinations (these were
the highest and intermediate level examinations), a few had only passed the qualifying
examination. Many had retired from officialdom, had been excused from government
service to observe the traditional period of mourning a dead parent, or had previously
taught in government schools.18 Research has also shown that there were inevitably
some poorly qualified academy teachers due to favoritism.19 Due to their connection
with government, or their original status in the bureaucratic system, they moved
easily between two roles: teachers of semi-private academies and bureaucrats.
The connection of educators in dynastic schools and academies with bureaucracy
is well known since they were directly related to the civil service examination.
Dynastic schools held the key of examination quotas (xuee) while most academies
dealt with the preparation for the examinations; only a small number of them
engaged in academic research. However, little is known about those who taught
in Ming-era clan schools, charitable schools, and community schools. We can
13
Zhao Erxun, Qingshi gao [A Draft History of the Qing Dynasty] (Beijing: Zhonghua shuju,
1977), vol. 12, 3099119.
14
Sheng Langxi, Zhongguo shuyuan zhidu [Chinas Academy System] (Zhonghua shuju,
1934), 13334.
15
Wu Zhihe, Mingdai de ruxue jiaoguan, 1219; Ma, Local Education Officials, 1617.
16
Zhao Erxun, Qingshi gao [A Draft History of the Qing Dynasty] (Beijing: Zhonghua shuju,
1977), 335859.
17
Ibid., 3099119.
18
Liu Boji, Guangdong shuyuan zhidu yange [A History of the Academy System in Guang-
dong] (Shanghai: Commercial Press, 1939), 21795; see also Fan Kezheng, Zhongguo shuyuan
shi [A History of Chinese Academies] (Taibei: Wenjin chubanshe, 1995), 17186; Sheng Langxi,
Zhongguo shuyuan zhidu, 77129.
19
Fan Kezheng, Zhongguo shuyuan shi, 33132.
only have a glance at their condition through works of seventeenth-century fiction in

which one routinely encounters schoolteachers who lived in abject poverty.20 If they
held degrees at all it was the licentiates, and many had failed the examinations time
after time. Recent research indicates that most schoolteachers were drawn from the
local literati and that their employment conditions varied considerably depending on
their professional achievements, the type of school in which they worked, and the
generosity of the schools management.21 The situation of schoolteachers in rural
communities hardly changed much during the Qing in that most schoolteachers
were selected by school administrators or clan or village leaders from among the
local literati who held the lowest degrees or were preparing to sit for the lowest
examinations.22 This was a group of literati who were totally excluded from bureau-
cratic and political power. For many, their goal was to enter that power circle by
eventually passing the examinations. Unfortunately, only a few were lucky enough
to do that; almost by definition, the majority never passed the examinations and
remained trapped in village teaching jobs. They were a by-product of the civil
service examination system.
A range of factors, including social origins, educational background, and close-
ness with well-placed officials, influenced the lot of teachers in late imperial
society. Those who taught in academies (some of which were state sponsored)
enjoyed higher salaries thanks to their distinguished performance in the examin-
ations and the status that accompanied their elite jobs. The director of an
academy could draw from several hundred to one thousand silver taels annually,
supplemented by student gifts. But an assistant teacher in the same school might
only make forty taels.23 Paltry official salaries obliged some state teachers to rely
on donations from students.24 Teachers in village schools received very low pay;
when they were paid, it was often in kindperhaps with a bag of rice, a piece of
meat, or a bundle of vegetables. For instance, teachers in Guizhou village schools
received only ten taels a year, and most teachers in clan and family schools and com-
munity schools were paid between ten and forty taels per year, probably determined
by the level of the students they taught.25
20
See Feng Menglong (15741646), Su zhixian luoshan zai he [Magistrate Su Is Reunited
with His Family Through a Knitted Shirt] and Zhao Chuner chong wang Cao jia zhuang
[Zhao Chuner Revitalizes the Cao Family], in Jing shi tong yan [Popular Tales to Warn the
World], reprinted (Shenyang: Chunfeng wenyi chubanshe, 1994), 12453, 46779.
21
Liu Xiangguan, Zhongguo jinshi difang jiaoyu di fazhan: Huizhou wenren, shushi yu chuji
jiaoyu, 11001800 [The Development of Local Education in Early Modern China: Literati,
Schoolteachers, and Elementary Education in Huizhou, 11001800], Jindai shi yanjiusuo jikan
[Institute of Modern History Quarterly], 28 (1997), 2835. See also Evelyn Sakakida Rawski, Edu-
cation and Popular Literacy in Ching China (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1979), 96
97; and Stig Thgersen, A County of Culture: Twentieth-Century China Seen from the Village
Schools of Zouping, Shandong (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2002), 2224.
22
Rawski, Education and Popular Literacy in Ching China, 4243.
23
Liu Boji, Guangdong shuyuan zhidu yange, 296304. Chang Chung-lis estimate for the sal-
aries of teachers at famous academies is significantly higher than this, but he noted that other tea-
chers were paid much lower salaries. See Chang Chung-li, The Income of the Chinese Gentry
(Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1962), 92109.
24
Wu Zhihe, Mingdai de ruxue jiaoguan, 910.
25
Rawski, Education and Popular Literacy in Ching China, 5461.
152 XIAOPING CONG
When we examine the birth of the modern educational system and the first cohort
of professional teachers, we should remember that for centuries teachers had been
the most marginalized group in Chinese officialdom and literati life.26 The margin-
alization of teaching officials in imperial times paved the way to the modern separ-
ation of the educational group trained in teachers schools from government officials
who were trained elsewhere and held real political power. From this point, the emer-
gence of professional educators as an independent social group can be seen as a con-
tinuity of late imperial development and a Chinese way of modernizing education.
TEACHER TRAINING IN THE 1904 SCHOOL SYSTEM

The 1904 school system installed in China showed some parallelism to the imperial
school system, though with a new appearance. The 1904 system required that the
regular middle schools be set up in each administrative city and town at the provin-
cial, prefectural, and county levels. In practice, the resilient semi-official shuyuan
system became the foundation of the regular educational system under the 1904
reform.27 Due to the lack of finance most local governments took a shortcut, con-
verting the academically advanced shuyuan in provincial capitals into colleges and
middle schools, shuyuan in prefectural cities into middle schools, and shuyuan in
county towns into higher primary schools,28 which corresponded approximately
to their academic level in the pre-reform period. These regular schools, like the
shuyuan in the pre-reform period, received only a portion of their funds from
local governments and had to depend for the remaining school expenses on stu-
dents who paid for tuition, fees, boarding, textbooks, and uniforms.29 Meanwhile,
existing community, charitable, village, and private schools, which taught basic
reading and writing skills, were now brought into the lower primary school
network. During this transition, many new schools were established by both offi-
cials and local gentry, but many old schools remained and retained their traditional
curricula.
At the same time, the 1904 system also established an independent system of tea-
chers schools training teachers for lower and higher primary schools as well as
26
Alexander Woodside also noted the divorce between the political center and education in
late imperial China, but he saw this in terms of the decline in the state control of education as
private education expanded. See Alexander Woodside, The Divorce Between the Political
Center and Educational Creativity in Late Imperial China, in Education and Society in Late Imper-
ial China, 16001900, eds. Benjamin A. Elman and Alexander Woodside, (Berkeley: University of
California Press, 1994), 45892.
27
In his paper on the Guangdong academy system, Tilemann Grimm points out that in the
nineteenth century there was a hierarchy in terms of administrative region and academic renown
among Guangdong academies. Schools at a lower level (in both senses) sent their students to
higher level shuyuan. See Tilemann Gramm, Academies and Urban Systems in Kwantung in
The City in Late Imperial China, ed. G. William Skinner, (Stanford University Press, 1977),
47598. This hierarchy became the basis of part of the regular schools in the new school system.
28
Chen Gujia and Deng Hongbo, Zhongguo shuyuan zhidu yanjiu [Studies of Chinas Acade-
mies] (Nanjing: Zhejiang jiaoyu chubanshe, 1997), 46263.
29
Xue bu (Board of Education), Zhong xuetang zhangcheng [Regulations for middle
schools] and Gaoden xuetang zhangcheng [Regulations for Colleges], in Xuezhi yanbian [Evol-
ution of School Systems], comp. Ju Xingui and Tang Liangyan, (Shanghai: Shanghai jiaoyu chu-
banshe, 1991) (Hereafter cited as XZYB), 31739.
secondary schools.30 The teachers schools authorized by the 1904 regulations oper-
ated at both secondary and tertiary levels of education, but the secondary schools
made up the majority of schools in the teacher training system in the first decade
of reform. They differed, however, from regular middle schools not only in the
purpose of training and curriculum, but also in many other aspects. Compared to
regular middle schools and colleges, the local governments at each level had full
control over teachers schools; they carried out the policy of the BE in selecting tea-
chers, admitting students, appointing principals and presidents, and were also fully
responsible for the financing of teachers schools. Unlike regular middle schools, tea-
chers schools were entirely financed by local governments; their students not only
enjoyed a special policy of free tuition and free room and board as well as subsidies
and sometimes even textbooks and uniforms.
Based on the policy of the 1904 system, middle schools did not have much
restraint on students geographic origins, but teachers schools only accepted stu-
dents from their own regions, as previous dynastic schools had done. While
regular middle schools prepared students for a range of options, whether continuing
on to higher education, entering government service, or engaging in business, the
teachers schools prepared students for teaching in primary schools. Therefore the
curricula of these two types of schools were designed for achieving distinct goals:
middle schools set up the courses to meet college requirements while teachers
schools devised their courses for the needs of elementary schools. The students
who graduated from middle schools were facing a free job market while graduates
from teachers schools were required to accept teaching positions assigned to them
by the governments. At the tertiary level, teachers colleges were parallel to specialty
colleges (Gaodeng zhuanmen xuexiao) but had similar features with respect to
financial support, student origins, and the obligation of graduates to teach. The cur-
riculum of teachers colleges aimed at meeting the needs of secondary education, and
graduates would be assigned to teach middle schools.31
It was clear that the 1904 educational system used the Japanese model as a refer-
ence, but the designers and the Qing court took account of conditions particular to
China. Chinese scholars Qian Manqian and Jin Linxiang saw a considerable differ-
ence between the 1904 Chinese school system and that of Japan, believing that the
Chinese system refashioned extant models, including Japans, to suit the conditions
and needs of Chinese society. The adapted Chinese school system showed many
differences from that of Japanese system, especially the teachers schools. For
instance, in teachers schools, students were required longer schooling years than
that of Japanese schools, Confucian classics were ubiquitous in new curriculums,
and a range of refinements was made to teachers training.32 Most importantly,
the modifications were based on features of the old dynastic schools, particularly
30
Xue bu, Chudeng xiao xuetang zhangcheng [Regulations for the Primary Level of Elemen-
tary Schools], Chuji shifan xuetang zhangcheng [Regulations for Primary Teachers Schools], and
Zouding renyong jiaoyuan zhangcheng [Imperially Approved Regulations on the Appointment
of Teachers], in XZYB, 291306, 398414, 42830.
31
Xue bu, Chuji shifan xuetang zhangcheng and Youji shifan xuetang zhangcheng [Regu-
lations for Advanced Teachers Colleges], in XZYB, 398415.
32
Qian Manqian and Jin Linxiang, Zhongguo jindai xuezhi bijiao yanjiu [Research on Com-
parative Schooling Systems in Modern China] (Guangzhou: Guangdong Jiaoyu chubanshe, 1996),
93123, 1001, 11721.
154 XIAOPING CONG
in terms of financial support, admissions policies, restrictions on students status,

age and geographic origins, student subsidies, postgraduate employment, and
quotas. The 1904 system specified a separate teacher training system, including
both secondary and tertiary levels, independent from the regular secondary
and higher education system. This represented a significant concern of the
designers that the new system take advantage of existing structures, to the extent
possible.33
After the promulgation of the 1904 reforms, the BE urged each province to
implement the new system. The establishment of teachers schools had an urgent
motivation: teachers were desperately needed.34 Controlling teachers schools
would enable also the state to mold the modern school system on its terms. In A
Program for Educational Affairs (Xuewu gangyao), written by three prominent
Qing officials Zhang Baixi, Zhang Zhidong, and Rong-qing at the end of 1903 or
the beginning of 1904s35 expressed concern over the uncontrolled educational
scene: Although there are some middle schools and colleges in a number of provin-
cial cities, they wrote, [we should] not let them create their own pedagogical
methods, as they might mislead students in the future.36 The state had to intercede.
Through the above measures, the state guaranteed that the entire teacher training
system remained in the hands of the state, just as dynastic schools had been.
The 1904 regulations on teachers schools offered flexibility for their implemen-
tation so that there would be a smooth social and educational transformation.
Local governments were granted the authority to modify the regulations to suit
local conditions, especially in the early stages. The 1904 regulations required that
each prefecture, district, and county set up one lower teachers school (chuji
shifan xuetang), but they also stated that initially one in the provincial capital
would suffice. Once the advanced teachers colleges (youji shifan xuetang) were pro-
ducing enough teachers, lower teachers schools were to be established at the county
level.37 The regulations for advanced teachers colleges allowed lower teachers
schools to merge with them to form combined teachers schools.38 From 1904 to
1910, the central government built nineteen teachers colleges in twenty-three pro-
vinces.39 Efforts were also made to provide teacher training in those provinces
33
Zhang Zhidong, Zhang Baixi, and Rong-qing, Xuewu gangyao [A Program for Edu-
cational Affairs], in Jindai Zhongguo jiaoyu shiliao [Historical Materials on the Education of
Modern China], ed. Shu Xincheng, (Shanghai: Shangwu yinshuguan, 1927) (Hereafter cited as
JZJS), vol 2, 9.
34
Xue bu, Tongxing gesheng guiguang shifan sheng minge dian [A Telegram Urging All of
the Provinces to Promote Enrollment in Teachers Schools], in Xue bu guanbao [Official Bulletin of
the Board of Education] (Hereafter cited as XBGB), ed. Xue Bu, no. 1 (1906), 6b.
35
During this period, three officials from both Han Chinese and Manchus, Zhang Zhidong,
Zhang Baixi, and Rong-qing were assigned to be ministers of the Board of Education (xue bu).
36
Zhang, et al., Xuewu gangyao, 10.
37
Xue bu, Chuji shifan xuetang zhangcheng [Regulations for Primary Teachers Schools], in
XZYB, 398414.
38
Xue bu, Youji shifan xuetang zhangcheng [Regulations for Advanced Teachers Colleges],
in XZYB, 41415.
39
Xue bu zongwusi, Xuantong yuannian jiaoyu tongji biao [Tabular Educational Statistics
for 1909], in Shiye jiaoyu, shifan jiaoyu [Vocational education and teacher training], comp. Ju
Xingui, Tong Fuyong, and Zhang Shouzhi (Shanghai: Shanghai jiaoyu chubanshe, 1994) (Here-
after cited as SJSJ), 62325. This source lists how many programs each school had (for example,
and regions that did not yet have proper teachers schools. Estimating the number of
lower teachers schools is very difficult since records were categorized on the basis of
programs, not the number of schools. Incomplete statistics suggest that there were
about ninety-two complete programs (wanquan ke) and 112 simplified programs
(jianyi ke) by 1909.40 The total number was still less than the sum of all of
Chinas counties. However, if we count the number of short-term teachers
schools (chuanxi suo or jiangxi suo), which numbered 303 in 1908, the campaign
to open teachers schools across the country may be counted a success to a certain
extent.41
Local governments were ordered to allocate funds for teachers schools. Nothing
would be recouped from students, as tuition was to be free.42 Rather than invest to
new buildings, local officials very often conveniently assigned a new function to the
old examination halls and government-financed academies. For example, Sichuan

Provincial Teachers College and Guangdong and Guangxi Advanced Teachers
College were both housed in former examination halls, while Jiangsu Teachers
School and Hunan and Hubei Teachers College were built on the ruins of academies
previously sponsored by the government.43
Teachers schools had special requirements for students status and their geo-
graphic origins. Students who had attended dynastic schools and literati who had
studied for the imperial examinations were to be admitted to teachers schools
before other applicants. Administrators at teachers schools in the provincial capi-
tals, districts, and counties were ordered to select students from among tribute stu-
dents (gongsheng), regular students (linsheng), added students (zengsheng),
supplementary students (fusheng), and imperial university students (jiansheng)
within the provincesin other words, men who already held degrees from the
prior examination system.44 Furthermore, the modern schools would draw their stu-
dents from the same areas from which the dynastic schools had drawn theirs.45
Baoding Primary Teachers School specified that no student would be admitted
wanquan ke and jianyi ke might be established in one school but were often calculated as sep-
arate programs). Since some schools may have had more than one program, I calculated the number
of colleges by looking at the listings under the category of geographic distributionat the time it
was rare to have more than one teachers school in a province.
40
Xue bu zongwusi, Xuantong yuannian jiaoyu tongji biao, 62325.
41
Ibid., 62025. Frontier regions such as Qinghai, Xinjiang, and Mongolia did not have tea-
chers school until later.
42
Xue bu, Chuji shifan xuetang zhangcheng, in XZYB, 398414; Bensi tongchi geshu
rushu zhaojie Baoding shifan xuetang jingfei shen shao qing su chouban bi nian shicuo zha
[Notice to all subordinate branches on the insufficient obligatory funds sent to Baoding Teachers
College: please immediately send the balance of the funds to prevent impropriety], in SJSJ, 644.
43
Luo Zhenyu, Jiangsu shifan xuetang ji [Memoir of Jiangsu Teachers School], in SJSJ, 645;
Sichuan zongdu Xiliang zou gaishe tongsheng shifan xuetang [Memorial from Sichuan Governor
Xi-liang on establishing the provincial teachers school], in SJSJ, 677; Zhang Zhidong, Zha xue-
wuchu gai xiu Liang Hu shifan xuetang [Memo to the provincial bureau of education on repairing
the Hunan and Hubei teachers school], in SJSJ, 680; Liang Guang youji shifan xuetang zhang-
cheng [The regulations for Guangdong and Guangxi Advanced Teachers College], in Liang
Guang youji shifan xuetang yi lan [Brochure for Guangdong and Guangxi Teachers College],
1910, Shanghai Metropolitan Archives, file no. Q0-12/1086.
44
Xue bu, Zouding chuji shifan xuetang zhangcheng, in XZYB, 411.
45
Ibid.
156 XIAOPING CONG
without a degree from the defunct examinations.46 Other schools, though not quite
as strict, also required degrees from most students; for example, teachers schools in
Sichuan and Zhejiang had the similar admissions policy as above schools.47 Data
from Guangdong and Guangxi Advanced Teachers College show that 100
percent of the students in the administrator training program in 1904 were
degree holders, and over seventy percent of the students who were in accelerated
and simplified programs before 1907 held imperial degrees and titles.
Teachers schools applied quotas based on administrative level and local popu-
lation. The regulations stated that quotas had to be in keeping with the number
of local children eligible for elementary education. Since no reliable census figures
existed, each province was provisionally allowed to set its quota at 300 students
and each district and county at 150; advanced teachers colleges at the provincial
level were to admit 240.48 These quotas were sometimes adjusted. For example,
due to Zhilis special position in the traditional administrative and educational
systems, Zhili Teachers College (a provincial college) set its quota at 800, with
each of its counties allowed a certain number of slots. Each large and each
medium county was to enroll eight students and each small county had a quota of
four.49 Due to its leading position in northern China in the late Qing, Beiyang
Advanced Teachers College, established in 1906, admitted 160 students to its com-
plete program each year. Of these, sixty were assigned to other provinces in northern
China where teachers schools had not yet been established.50
Students who wished to attend advanced teachers schools had to be rec-
ommended by local officials before taking an entrance examination.51 Some
advanced teachers schools had local governments set special quotas for some stu-
dents for guaranteed admission after passing an entrance examination.52 Although
the 1904 system required an entrance examination for all students and did not
necessitate recommendations, out of habit all schools instituted the system along
46
Yuan Shikai, Zhili zongdu Yuan Shikai zou ban Zhili shifan xuetang ji xiao xuetang zhe (fu
zhangcheng) [Memorial from Governor-General of Zhili Yuan Shikai on establishing Zhili Tea-
chers School and Elementary School [with regulations attached], in SJSJ, 62837; Baoding
chuji shifan xuetang shuwuzhang Wang Zecheng gai tang qingxing bing [A report from Wang
Zecheng, director of admissions at Baoding Lower Teachers School, on the schools situation],
in SJSJ, 73842.
47
Sichuan tong sheng shifan xuetang de dansheng [The birth of all Sichuan Provincial Tea-
chers School], in SJSJ, 65961, 67780; Zheng Xiaocang, Zhejiang liangji shifan he di yi shifan
xiao shi zhi yao [Highlights from the history of Zhejiang Compound Teachers College and the
Number One Teachers School], in SJSJ, 696712; and Liang Guang youji shifan xuetang
zhangcheng.
48
Xue bu, Chuji shifan xuetang zhangcheng, in XZYB, 400; Youji shifan xuetang zhang-
cheng, in XZYB, 415.
49
Yuan Shikai, Zhili zongdu Yuan Shikai zouban Zhili shifan xuetang ji xiao xuetang zhe (fu
zhangcheng), SJSJ, 62837.
50
Yuan Shikai, Zou wei sheli beiyang shifan xuetang yi guang jiaoyu zhe [A memorial on
establishing Beiyang Teachers College in order to promote education], in SJSJ, 65961;
Beiyang shifan xuetang shiban zhangcheng [The regulations for the trial program at Beiyang Tea-
chers College], in SJSJ, 66163.
51
Xue bu, Youji shifan xuetang zhangcheng, in XZYB, 425. In spite of recommendation,
this group of students was not guaranteed admission.
52
Examples include Baoding Teachers College, Sichuan Provincial Teachers College, Beiyang
Teachers College.
with entrance examinations,53 as they did exactly in the previous civil service exam-
ination system.
The 1904 regulations also set up an honor system that granted imperial degrees
and titles to those graduating from new schools.54 The students who graduated
from universities would receive advanced scholar (jinshi) degrees and the official
titles that were equivalent to previous jinshi degrees could work for the various
departments of central government. Those who graduated from specialty colleges
and teachers colleges would be given recommended literatus (juren) degrees
and the official titles that were previously given to juren degree-holders at the
level of prefectural and district offices. The graduates of secondary vocational
schools, middle schools, and primary teachers schools were awarded special
tribute student (bagong), excellent tribute student (yougong), and yearly
tribute student (suigong). Among these new degree-holders from various secondary
schools, those from vocational and middle schools were not promised any official
titles or positions; they were simply allowed to find jobs for themselves (ting qi
zi ying sheng ye).55 In contrast, graduates from primary teachers schools were
assigned official titles of jiaoshou, jiaoyu, and xundao, the titles of teaching
officials in the dynastic school system at prefectural, district, and county levels.56
Although the court hardly had a chance to put this title system into practice at
large scale, its establishment indicated the states view on how teachers schools
and various types of modern schools corresponded to the imperial school system.
The regulations published in 1904 required graduates of teachers schools to
become teachers. Graduates from lower teachers schools who had benefited from
government financial support had to teach for three to six years (depending on
the program students were enrolled in), while those who had partially paid their
way were under obligation for two to three years.57 Provincial officials could send
graduates of provincial lower teachers schools to teach in distant areas if there
was need, but the expectation was that they would work in local schools.58 The
teaching obligation for graduates from advanced teachers colleges was six years.
During their first two years of teaching, new teachers worked wherever provincial
officials sent them. Those who did not fulfill their obligation were required to
repay their educational fees and tuition.59 Records from Guangdong and Guangxi
Advanced Teachers College show that a majority of graduates did indeed become
teachers or administrators after graduation (see later section).
53
Baoding chuji shifan xuetang shuwuzhang Wang Zecheng gaitang qingxing bing, in SJSJ,
738.
54
Xue bu, Zou ding ge xuetang jiangli zhangcheng [Imperially approved memorial on the
regulations for degrees awarding to various graduates of new schools], XZYB, 51423.
55
XZYB, 51718.
56
Ibid., 51423.
57
At the early stage of the development of modern schools, since teachers schools composed a
major part of local secondary education, teachers schools also accepted students who were not
qualified for the entrance examination, or not covered by government quotas, by charging them
a certain amount of tuitions and fees. Their status was very much like supplementary students
under the imperial system. See Xue bu, Chuji shifan xuetang zhangcheng, in XZYB, 41213.
58
Xue bu, Chuji shifan xuetang zhangcheng, in XZYB, 412.
59
Xue bu, Youji shifan xuetang zhangcheng, in XZYB, 426.
158 XIAOPING CONG
THE EDUCATIONAL AND SOCIAL ROLE OF TEACHERS SCHOOLS

The 1904 system strengthened the system of teachers schools at the secondary level,
which trained elementary schoolteachers. These schools helped transform a large
number of degree-holders into modern teachers, and they furnished the rapidly
growing number of elementary schools with qualified teachers who were trained
by the state. Establishing a new public school system at the local level not only
brought about a basic transformation in education, but also created a more
unified education system. The establishment of teachers training schools created
a body of modern professional teachers with special training. Thus, by establishing
separate teachers schools with the specific goal of training teachers, and by mandat-
ing a teaching obligation, teachers were no longer the byproduct of the civil service
examination system. The establishment of teachers schools thus finally institutiona-

lized state efforts to separate the training of teaching officials from the training of
bureaucrats, a process that began in the Ming dynasty.
DIFFERENT TYPES OF PROGRAM IN TEACHERS SCHOOLS

Unlike regular secondary and tertiary schools, where a rather strict system regulated
the promotion of students from one level of study to the next, late Qing teachers
schools had to be more flexible about academic progress and other matters.
Unable to muster the staff and money needed to meet the demands of the new regu-
lations, many areas opened combined teachers schools offering teachers college
programs and lower teachers school courses (liangji shifan xuetang). This was a
way of saving money and providing a reliable pool of incoming students for the
higher levels. In 1905, Baoding Advanced Teachers College selected the ninety-six
best students from a total of 1,280 graduates from its primary teachers school to
continue on to college. The rest of the graduates were sent to teach in middle and
elementary schools.60 Data from other schools suggest that the custom of skimming
the cream off the top of local middle schools was widely practiced by new teachers
colleges. At the tertiary level, by 1911 thirteen independent teachers colleges had
opened in provinces, some of which were combined teachers schools.61 First
opened in 1904, the School of Teachers Training at Capital University recruited stu-
dents from the entire country.62
In these colleges, future teachers were assigned to a number of different programs,
from a thorough course of study (wanquan ke) that lasted six years, to the selective
major program (xuan ke) that took two years, to the single specialized program
(zhuanmen ke or zhuanxiu ke) that lasted one year, to a one-year a preparatory
program (yu ke). According to the 1904 regulations, a proper teacher training
60
Zhili xuewu chu (Education bureau of Zhili), Benchu cheng shifan xuetang kaoxuan youji
fen like wenke jiaoyou qing lian bing, 1905 [The report from the education bureau (of Zhili)
requesting confirmation on the selection of students for the advanced program of the teachers
school and on the division of students into science and humanities for the purpose of separate teach-
ing], in SJSJ, 64344.
61
According to 1909 data, there were nineteen teachers colleges. However, I have only been
able to identify fourteen that were called teachers colleges, including the School of Teachers Train-
ing at the Capital University.
62
This school later became an independent teachers college, the Capital Advanced Teachers
School (Jingshi youji shifan xuetang).
program, besides one year of preparatory course, would include one year of general
courses (gonggong ke), three years of courses in a major (fenlei ke), and one year of
advanced training (jiaxi ke)a total of six years.63 As one might expect, during the
first five years under the 1904 system hardly any students went through a six-year
program. Most colleges had to install a selective program, a special major
program, and a preparatory program to meet the urgent need for teachers.
Jiangsu Teachers College, established in 1904, had only a two-year selective
program and a one-year preparatory program.64 Baoding Teachers College had
three types of programs, ranging from one-half year to three years.65 Although
Beiyang Teachers School set up a complete program, the emphasis of the school,
as called for explicitly in Yuan Shikais memorial, was on the elective program,
which provided teachers for a number of different provinces.66 Zhejiang Teachers
College had a similar emphasis, but it offered only a three-year selective program.67
In 1907 there were 527 students in four-year complete programs, 2,603 students
in two- or three-year selective programs, and 894 students in one-year special major
programs.68 With this flexibility, these colleges produced a large number of teachers
in a short time. Nonetheless, compared to the population of China, this number of
students still would not be able to meet the needs of new schools, especially for the
rapidly growing primary schools.
From 1904 to 1909, these colleges, intended to train teachers for secondary edu-
cation, were actually carrying out the task of producing elementary schoolteachers.
For example, Jiangsu Teachers College had both an accelerated program (sucheng
ke) and a short-term program, each lasting one year.69 Beiyang Teachers College
had a simplified program (jianyi ke) that trained older students for one year
before sending them off to teach in elementary schools.70 Sichuan Provincial Tea-
chers College had two departments for training elementary schoolteachers: the
department for primary teacher training (chuji bu) for younger students, and the
simplified training department (jianyi bu) for older students. By 1908, there were
only sixty students in the advanced (college level) department, but 109 in the
primary and 173 in the simplified training departments.71
In general, lower teachers schools offered both a four-year complete program and
a simplified program.72 The 1904 regulations did encourage local governments to
build simplified programs but did not provide regulatory details regarding how
to operate them. Most schools set up the simplified program that lasted from one
63
Xue bu, Zouding youji shifan xuetang zhangcheng, in XZYB, 41428.
64
Jiangsu shifan xuetang xianxing zhangcheng [The existing regulations of Jiangsu Tea-
chers School], in SJSJ, 647.
65
Zhili zongdu Yuan Shikai zouban Zhili shifan xuetang ji xiaoxuetang zhe, in SJSJ, 629.
66
Yuan, Zou wei sheli Beiyang shifan xuetang yi guang jiaoyu zhe, in SJSJ, 66061.
67
Zheng, Zhejiang liangji shifan he di yi shifan xiao shi zhi yao, in SJSJ, 7001.
68
Xuebu zongwusi, Di yi ci jiaoyu tongji tubiao 1907, 2324.
69
Duan-fang and Xiao-zeng, Sufu Duanfang hufu Xiaozeng zou chen Su sheng xuetang banli
qingxing zhe [Memorial from Governor Duan-fang and Assistant Governor Xiao-zeng of Jiangsu,
Reporting on Educational Affairs in the Province], in SJSJ, 64445.
70
Yuan, Zou wei sheli Beiyang shifan xuetang yi guang jiaoyu zhe, in SJSJ, 660.
71
Sichuan tongsheng shifan xuetang de dansheng, in SJSJ, 678.
72
160 XIAOPING CONG
to two years. In 1907 there were sixty-four lower teachers schools attended by
6,390 students, and 179 simplified programs with 15,833 students.73
Besides the types of schools listed above, the 1904 regulations also encouraged
areas that did not qualify for formal teachers schools to set up short-term teacher
training schools (chuanxi suo or jiangxi suo). Teachers colleges designed their pro-
grams with different students in mind. Some colleges had a special department to
provide practical training for those who were already teachers (jiaoshou lianxi
suo or jiaoyuan jiangxi suo). Jiangsu Combined Teachers College set up a special
training program (jiangxi suo) that provided short-term training for elementary
schoolteachers.74 Guangdong and Guangxi Advanced Teachers College also had
a practical training program (danji jiaoshou lianxi suo).75 Teachers who had been
employed in old-style local schools were often enrolled in such schools for a short
period of training in order to learn new pedagogical methods and educational

theories.
This type of program offered students between six months and one year of inten-
sive training so that they would receive credentials for specific subjects that were
required by Western style schools, such as physical education, drawing, or music
courses. In 1907 the total number of short-term training institutions reached 276
and enrolled 9,844 studentsthere were more such schools than any other sort of
teacher training facility.76 More so than other schools, with their multi-stage pro-
grams and modern curriculums, these small local schools exhibited continuities
with the old system. These short-term schools dominated the national teachers
training program in the first five years after 1904. After an immersion of six to
twelve months, teachers from lower-level academies, community schools, charitable
schools, and so forth not only received new credentials that enabled them to teach in
modern schools, but also gained a new identitythat of a modern teacher.
ELASTIC CURRICULUMS
The curriculum of the teachers schools established under the 1904 system had some
resemblance to those of regular middle schools and colleges, but involved a greater
degree of flexibility. Future teachers studied a range of subjects before launching into
their pedagogy courses, and certain courses required at regular schools were mini-
mized or left out entirely.
Before starting courses in their majors, future teachers were required to take
general courses for one year. These included moral studies, Confucian classics, litera-
ture, foreign languages, logic, mathematics, and physical education. There was no
similar requirement for regular college students. In addition to the courses required
by their own majors, students at teachers colleges were required to take specific ped-
agogical courses such as theories of education, teaching methods, and psychology.
Such courses were, of course, absent from regular college curriculums.77
73
Xue bu zongwusi, Di yi ci jiaoyu tongji tubiao, 2224. It is difficult to calculate the number
of schools with any precision since some simplified programs belonged to formal teachers schools.
74
Luo, Jiangsu shifan xuetang ji, in SJSJ, 645.
75
Liang Guang youji shifan xuetang yi lan.
76
Xuebu zongwusi, Di yi ci jiaoyu tongji tubiao, 2224.
77
The curriculums of lower-level teachers schools were based on the needs of the
elementary schools where the young teachers would be sent. Meanwhile, the
schools also made some adjustments in the courses based on the existing knowledge
of traditional teachers. The basic courses were similar to those offered in regular
secondary-level schools: the 1904 regulations called for study of moral cultivation,
Confucian classics, literature, history, geography, mathematics, natural science,
physics, chemistry, and physical education at both middle schools and teachers
schools. Teachers schools often emphasized moral cultivation and Confucian clas-
sics while reducing hours of study in other courses. In addition, teachers schools
offered a special course that covered the history of education in China and
abroad, educational and psychological theory, a survey of recent edicts on edu-
cation, and educational administration. Nearly as many class hours were dedicated
to education courses as to classics, the course with the most class hours.78 Unlike
Japanese teachers schools, most Chinese teachers schools did not require the
study of foreign languages, since they were rarely taught to young students.79 Com-
pared to regular middle schools, all teachers schools were weak in foreign language
training. Instead they provided special courses in calligraphy, painting, handicrafts,
and introductions to agriculture, industry, and commerce, since these courses were
in the elementary curriculum. Another special course, practicing the official spoken
language (xi guanhua), offered guidance in how to teach the official national
language to children who had grown up speaking one of Chinas hundreds of
local dialects.80 The education courses and other courses related to teaching
primary school eroded the time for studying in depth the topics that generally
were required for regular secondary students. This issue became an important
topic of educational debate in the late 1910s and early 1920s, since some criticisms
of the teacher training system directly pointed to the low quality in students in tea-
chers schools.
All types of teachers schools were permitted to add or omit courses based on the
conditions of the school or needs of the students. Since most students at teachers
colleges had previously attended dynastic schools, teachers colleges were expected
to emphasize courses that had not been taught under the examination system, such
as mathematics and natural sciences.81 To meet the urgent need for certain types of
elementary and middle school teachers, teachers schools offered special short-term
programs in such areas as physical education or music.82 In 1907 there were twelve
college-level elective programs nationwide compared with only two comprehensive
programs. At teachers schools there were 179 simplified programs and only sixty-
four comprehensive ones. This ratio was roughly maintained in 1908, when at the
tertiary level the number of selective programs and special programs increased to
twenty-eight, while the number of complete programs grew no higher than five.
78
79
Zhang Baixi et al., Guanxue dachen yi fu yanxuan shifan biantong xin jinshi rutang yiye
pian [Memorial from the ministers of education in response to the discussion of how to apply rig-
orous standards to choosing students for teachers schools and of the need for flexibility in choosing
newly advanced jinshi degree-holders to study in teachers schools], in DFZZ, no. 1, 15556.
80
Xue bu, Zouding chuji shifan xuetang zhangcheng, in XZYB, 403.
81
82
Ticao zhuanxiuke biyesheng [Graduates of the physical education specialty program], in
162 XIAOPING CONG
At the same time, although the number of complete programs at lower teachers
schools increased to eighty-one and the number of simplified programs fell to
110, the number of short-term schools for teacher training increased rapidly to
303.83 This kind of flexibility facilitated the rapid transformation of students
drawn from the old literati into modern teachers.
TRANSFORMING LITERATI-OFFICIALS INTO MODERN TEACHERS: THE CASE

OF GUANGDONG AND GUANGXI ADVANCED TEACHERS COLLEGE, 190410
A close study of Guangdong and Guangxi Advanced Teachers College may help
provide an understanding of how teachers schools became special institutions for
transforming old literati-officials at the beginning of the twentieth century. Guang-

dong and Guangxi Advanced Teachers College (Liang Guang youji shifan xuetang)
was established the same year the 1904 regulations on education were promulgated.
Under its initial name, Guangdong and Guangxi Accelerated Teachers Academy
(Liang Guang sucheng shifan guan), the school recruited its first cohort of students
into a six-month accelerated program. The selection of the provincial examination
hall as the school location signaled the connection between this school and the
imperial examination system. At the same time, the school also provided a short-
term program for training school administrators (guanliyuan lianxi suo). Soon
other programs were set up for the old literati who needed new identities in an
age of transition. In its second year, after the abolition of the imperial examinations
in 1905, the school adopted what would become its permanent name.84
SCHOOLING OLDER LITERATI

The educational transformation of the late Qing inevitably altered the careers of
older literati. While traditional private academies and government schools had
always been open to the young and the old, modern regular schools set up strict
age limits for promotion from one grade to the next. Beginning in 1905 all those
above the age of twenty-five were barred from attending regular new schools at
the primary and secondary levels. Under this policy, a large number of over-aged lit-
erati had little choice but to turn to the new teachers training programs.
Data from Guangdong and Guangxi Advanced Teachers College reveal that the
school enrolled many older students in its administrator training program. Most of
the students in that program were between twenty-six and forty years old. In the
accelerated program, ages ranged from twenty-one to thirty. In the teachers licen-
sing program, the age range was broader, from twenty to seventy-three, with most
students falling between twenty-one and thirty-five.85 The 1904 school regulations
required that students at both advanced teachers colleges and lower teachers
83
Xuebu zongwusi, Guangxu sanshi si nian gesheng shifan xuetang xuesheng tongjibiao
[1908 statistics of teachers schools and students in each province], in Zhongguo jindai xuezhi
shiliao [Historical materials on the school system of modern China], 4 vols., comp. Zhu
Youhuan, (Shanghai: Huadong shida chubanshe, 1989) (Hereafter cited as ZJXS), vol 2b, 46667.
84
Yange lue [A Brief History of Guangdong and Guangxi Advanced Teachers College], in
85
Ben xiao xianzai xuesheng xingming biao [List of Enrolled Students at This School], Liang
Guang youji shifan xuetang yi lan.
schools be no older than twenty-five, no younger than eighteen. Students between

the ages of twenty-five and thirty were allowed to enroll in the simplified
program. At Guangdong and Guangxi Advanced Teachers College, the average
student age dropped over time; presumably most older-age literati attended less
expensive short-term schools closer to home. Also, as students finished their elemen-
tary training, the school admitted much more qualified younger students. In some
areas, this process was slower; for instance, before 1918 former private school tea-
chers continued to be admitted to teachers schools in Shandongs Zouping and
Changshan Counties and some were even at their seventies.86
Teachers schools applied a liberal age policy. A teacher involved with Zhejiang
Combined Teachers School wrote in his memoir that the school attached little
importance to age, permitting students from eighteen to forty to enroll in the
lower teachers schools.87 The 1904 regulations also gave teachers schools some
leeway in terms of their programs. For example, schools were encouraged to
allow older students and impoverished scholars in rural communities to audit
classes. Short-term schools were to give precedence to admitting former schooltea-
chers from old-style elementary schools aged thirty to fifty.88
The popularity of this program is shown by the growth in the number of short-
term teachers schools. In 1907 these schools numbered 276 and enrolled 9,844 stu-
dents; by the following year they numbered 303 and enrolled 10,558 students.89 In
1909 there were only 187 enrolling 7,670 students. The following year showed con-
tinued declines; average student age also decreased.90 One possible explanation for
this decrease was that these special programs had fulfilled their historic task of trans-
forming old literati into modern professional teachers. The teachers school system
could now be developed into a more formal system, a task for the next decade, the
1910s.
CREATING MODERN PROFESSIONAL TEACHERS

The rise of teachers schools in the first decade of the twentieth century accomplished
not only a reformation of the old educational system, but more importantly a trans-
formation of a portion of the old literati class. Helen Chaunceys study on the edu-
cational elites of Jiangsu notices that changing of social status was closely related to
modern education and the graduates of new schools gradually replaced the old
gentry elites.91 During the late 1900s and the early 1910s, imperial degrees and
modern school credentials were often juxtaposed in various documents for educa-
tors to claim their educational qualifications. However, by the end of the 1910s
this phenomenon had changed; educational administrators at provincial and
county levels were omitting their imperial degrees and only recording their
86
Thgersen, A County of Culture, 65.
87
Zheng, Zhejiang liangji shifan he Di yi shifan xiao shi zhi yao, in SJSJ, 711.
88
Xue bu, Zouding xuetang zhangcheng, in XZYB, 399.
89
Xuebu zongwusi, Guangxu san shi si nanfen di er ci jiaoyu tongji tubiao [The Second
Compilation of Educational Statistics, 1908], in SJSJ, 62021.
90
Xuebu zongwusi, Xuantong yuan nian fen di san ci jiaoyu tongji tubiao [The Third Com-
pilation of Educational Statistics, 1909], in SJSJ, 62425.
91
Chauncey, Schoolhouse Politicians, 8889.
164 XIAOPING CONG
modern school qualification. Imperial degree-holding was sometimes indicated only

if the person did not have any modern school experience.92
We do not have statistics for the total number of teachers who graduated from tea-
chers colleges and teachers schools during this period. However, based my esti-
mate,93 from 1907 to 1909, short-term teachers schools sent at least 28,852
graduates to teach at elementary schools. Based on my estimate, by 1909 at least
31,569 graduates from primary teachers schools were working in elementary
schools. There may have been about 60,000 graduates from various types of tea-
chers schools working in elementary schools. In the same year, about 7,043 gradu-
ates of advanced teachers colleges would have become middle school teachers. In
1907 there were 1,955 higher primary schools, 29,199 lower primary schools,
and 2,451 primary schools for both levels in the provinces, and on average each
elementary school would have had about two teachers who were trained in teachers
schools.94 By 1907, according to the first survey of teachers carried out after the
reforms, the percentage of teachers who had graduated from teachers schools had
already reached 34.2 percent in advanced elementary schools and 39.8 percent in
primary elementary schools.95
The level of modern education improved into 1909. Of the teaching staff in
normal schools, forty-three percent had graduated from teachers schools, while
only twenty-four percent had no modern educational training. The remaining
thirty-two percent of teachers in teachers school were either foreigners or graduates
of overseas schools or other types of educational institutions.96 From 1904 to 1911,
this group of modern teachers gradually replaced the old literati in educational insti-
tutions, especially in schools above the advanced elementary level. Therefore, 1904
10 can be considered the critical transitional period for both Chinese education and
the Chinese literati.
CONCLUSION
This is not to say, however, that teachers schools were the only avenue old literati
who wished to teach could follow in the late Qing. The path for transforming
literati-officials varied depending on the individuals age, family finances, personal
status and fame, and connection with power. Literati accounted for only a small
portion of the graduating class of any given school, but for literati whose age
barred them from attending newly established regular schools, military schools,
and vocational schools, or who were too poor to study abroad or in big cities or
too marginal and petty to be involved in political institutions, the teachers
schools played a crucial role in vocational training.97 Many in this group had
92
See Xiaoping Cong, Teachers Schools and the Making of the Modern Chinese Nation-State,
18971937 (Vancouver: British Columbia University Press, 2007), chapter 3.
93
See Cong, Teachers Schools and the Making of the Modern Chinese Nation-State, 69.
94
Xuebu zongwusi (comp.), Di yi ci jiaoyu tongji tubiao, 2526. I do not have the statistics for
1909, so I will use 1907 data. This number does not include schools in the capital.
95
Xuebu zongwusi, Di yi ci jiaoyu tongji tubiao, 5051.
96
Xuebu zongwusi (comp.), Xuantong yuan nianfen di san ci jiaoyu tongji tubiao, in SJSJ,
62425.
97
Some influential literati successfully transformed themselves into modern politicians in the
local constitutional movement, as is shown by Joseph Esherick, Reform and Revolution in China:
already been teaching for a living and lacked professional alternatives. Some older
literati did not make the transition to the modern educational system during the
late Qing at all; during the Republican period other institutional reforms were
made in an effort to co-opt this minority. This process lasted for several decades.
Among these old literati who transformed into modern teachers, the changing
lives of Liu Dapeng (18571942) and his family members did not only accepted
this series of drastic conversions but also caught the tide of the social change. Liu
had managed to pass the provincial examination in 1894 but had failed the metro-
politan examination thrice. His sons had been following his example, studying for
the examinations while teaching at local private and family schools (si shu) off
and on. Amidst the educational reform at the turn of the twentieth century, Liu
anxiously watched the social trends. In his diary, Diary from a Retreat (Tuixiang
zhai riji), Lius observed the difficulties teachers and students in his communities
and near regions who had to adjust themselves to a new age. However, he under-
stood that good old days were gone and he must make a good plan for his family.
Soon he arranged his younger son to enter the provincial teachers school and his
elder son to receive some modern teacher training program. In the wave of building
local new schools in the 1910s, due to his reputation and his experience, he was
hired as a schoolmaster of a modern elementary school and his sons were also
enjoyed teaching positions in various local schools.98 By the 1910s, Liu and his
family, as well as many other literati and their families, completed the transform-
ation to modern teachers. This is their way to a modernized twentieth-century
world in China.
NOTES ON CONTRIBUTOR
Xiaoping Cong is a professor of history at the University of Houston. She is the author of Mar-
riage, Law, and Gender in Revolutionary China, 19401960 (Cambridge University Press,
2016) and Teachers Schools and the Making of Modern Chinese Nation-state, 18971937
(Toronto: The University of British Columbia Press, 2007).
Correspondence to: Xiaoping Cong. Email: xcong@central.uh.edu.
The 1911 Revolution in Hunan and Hubei (Berkeley: UC Press, 1976), and Mary Rankin, Elite
Activism and Political Transformation in China, Zhejiang Province, 18651911 (Ann Arbor:
The University of Michigan Press, 1979).
98
Liu Dapeng, Tuixiang zhai riji (Diary from a retreat) (Taiyuan: Shanxi renmin chubanshe,
1990), passim. The manuscript of this diary was published in 1990.

From Literati To Modern Teachers: The Identity Transformation of The Educated Elites in Early Twentieth-Century China

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From Literati to Modern Teachers: The Identity

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FROM LITERATI TO MODERN TEACHERS:

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The Chinese Historical Review 2017 DOI 10.1080/1547402X.2017.1369220

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CREATING MODERN PROFESSIONAL TEACHERS

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