Ching Dynasty

Since most sharps until the twentieth light speed were Confucian literati who had access to official positions, the majority upheld the status quo" (p. 3). most of the literati could wear two hats and be part of the political relation and critics of the government at one and the akin time. This was almost necessary, since the literati were members of the ruling selected and were thus, make up as critics, close to the centers of power.

The role of the mental as conservative and as upholder of the traditional is not impress given the fact that the intellectuals of the era were part of the ruling elite. tuition at the time was not for everyone or even for a large segment of the population. Rather, facts of conduct was a function of rank. at that place was little impetus for the elite to provide education to some(prenominal) wider audience, for that would only undercut its own elite status. In a sense, the intellectuals were a different sort of priestly class possessing hush-hush knowledge and dedicated to accompanimenting that knowledge secret to keep themselves in their higher position. Their criticisms of the government would be delivered in that same spirit. The literati would defend the existing order, much as the priestly class defended the existing social, political, and religious order, because they were part of it, benefited from it, and came to see themselves as guardians of all that was right and proper.

g dynasty was a period of change, as Fairbank and Reischauer (1989) and Latourette (1968) note. The Ching dynasty had been in collapse for some time, and the efforts of none of the traditional realms were managing to support the dying system or even give it a new sense of life. During the last tenner of the dynasty, however, massive changes were make leading to new beginnings. Fairbank and Reischauer discuss the changes made in the educational system. As the dynasty decayed, it became apparent that new leadership was needed. The old leadership was failing, and a new system was instituted to differentiate that leaders were adequately handy.

This was the general aim of the educational broadcast at that time--to train and select officials in a to a greater extent effective manner: "Its aim was not mass education of the Chinese people, nor was it liberal education of the Chinese individual" (p. 392). Fairbank and Reischauer offer that the main problem faced at the time was how to entitle the contemporary generation of scholar-officials in office and the classically trained aspirants for office, since all had a vested interest in the classical inquiry system. Again, this shows how the intellectual elite protected its own interests and jealously watch over its secret knowledge. The intellectuals of the time were conservatives, dedicated to extolling the status quo and to avoiding change.

Cotterell, Arthur and David Morgan, China's Civilization. New York: Praeger, 1975.

The respective(a) authors on China of the period note that education was revolutionized, and so it was. Obviously, though, this revolution was not controlled as the leadership would have liked. The intellectual class was ill-prepared for such a change in 1895, and the intellectual class that developed was less committed to Chinese traditions or to Chinese institutions, often having studied abroad or at least in a mixed Chinese and westerly system. There was a shift in the way of life for the intellectual class, wi
Order your essay at Orderessay and get a 100% original and high-quality custom paper within the required time frame.