淸末の學堂奨勵について : 近代學制導入期における科擧と學堂のあいだ

Abstract

This article clarifiesthe introduction and implementation of the award system for graduates of modern schools circa the time of the abolishment of the civil examinations, and the processes that lead to their being criticized within the court and educational circles. It also considers the causes of the transformation of the educational structure under the civil examination system that linked regional society state to the monarchial. The award system for modern school graduates, which provided traditional degree titles (jinshi 進士, juren 舉人, etc.) and official posts to students whose grades met the standard at graduation, was introduced with the aim of extending the control function of the culture and thought behind the civil examination system into the modern educational system. The "integration of the modern schools and the civil examination system, "which would order the modern schools according to degree titles and testing systems just as had been done in the period of the civil examinations, was regarded at first as a necessary measure by the enlightened gentry who sought to promote modern education. It had seemed that the award system would function efficiently due to this integration. However, the standardization of the modern school that was to be achieved through the system of awards, had to depend in reality on the capacity of local officials and provincial commissioners of education who served under the provincial governors. Ironically, this caused the phenomenon of people cutting back their years of education and skipping over lower-ranking schools completely and seeking degree titles in upperranking schools. The control function of the award system for graduates of modern schools grew weaker than that of the civil examination system. On the other hand, within and outside the court criticism of the award system arose early on from the view point of the spread of the national education system, and particularly in the Xuantong era (1909-11) the gentry, who aimed for the overthrow of despotism and the establishment of constitutionalism, vehemently criticized the "integration of the schools and the civil examinations" and pursued the ministry of education to change the awards system. For the constitutionalist gentry and the intellectuals the abolishment of the awards system was a political struggle to separate the students from the authority of the monarchy. The rejection of the awards system that promised individual success in the world in return for following the moral standards designated by the state was a necessary outcome for those who promoted the constitutional movement and saw the system as a relic of despotism.