Volume 107 Treatises 82: Selection and Examinations 2, Xue Xiao Er

志八十二

Treatise 82

選舉二

Selection and Examinations, Part 2

學校二

Schools, Part 2

學校新制之沿革，略分二期。同治初迄光緒辛丑以前，為無系統教育時期；辛丑以後迄宣統末，為有系統教育時期。自五口通商，英法聯軍入京後，朝廷鑒於外交挫衄，非興學不足以圖強。先是交涉重任，率假手無識牟利之通事，往往以小嫌釀大釁，至是始悟通事之不可恃。又震於列強之船堅砲利，急須養成繙譯與製造船械及海陸軍之人才。故其時首先設置之學校，曰京師同文館，曰上海廣方言館，曰福建船政學堂及南北洋水師、武備等學堂。

The development of the modern school system falls roughly into two periods. From the early Tongzhi era down to the year before the 1901 reforms (Xinchou) was the period of education without a unified system; from the Xinchou reforms through the end of the Xuantong reign was the period of systematic education. After the opening of the treaty ports and the Anglo-French occupation of Beijing, the court saw how diplomacy had failed and concluded that national strength could not be achieved without promoting education. Until then, weighty diplomatic business had usually been left to ignorant, profit-seeking interpreters, who often turned minor friction into major incidents; only now did the government grasp that such men could not be trusted. Shocked as well by the Western powers' modern fleets and artillery, the state urgently needed to train men in translation, shipbuilding and armaments, and naval and military service. The first schools founded in this period were accordingly the Tongwen Guan in Beijing, the Guangfangyan Guan in Shanghai, the Fujian Naval Administration School, and the naval and military academies of the Northern and Southern Fleets.

京師同文館之設，從總理各國事務衙門之請，始於同治元年。初止教授各國語言文字。六年，議於同文館內添設算學館。時京僚瞢於時務，謗讟繁興，原疏排斥眾議，言之剴切。謂：「西人制器之法，無不由度數而生。中國欲講求製造輪船、機器諸法，苟不藉西士為先導，師心自用，無裨實際。疆臣如左宗棠、李鴻章等，皆深明其理，堅持其說，詳於奏牘。且西人之術，聖祖深韙之矣，當時列在台官，垂為時憲，本朝掌故，不宜數典而忘。若以師法西人為恥，其說尤謬。中國狃於因循，不思振作，恥孰甚焉。今不以不如人為恥，獨以學其人為恥，將安於不如而終不學，遂可雪恥乎？學期適用，事貴因時，物議雖多，權衡宜定。原議招取滿、漢舉人，恩、拔、副、歲、優貢生，並由此出身之正途人員。又擬推廣，凡翰林院庶吉士、編修、檢討，與五品以下進士出身之京、外各官，年在三十歲以內者，均可送考。三年考列高等者，按升階優保班次，以示鼓勵。」詔從其議。

The Beijing Tongwen Guan was established in 1862 at the request of the Zongli Yamen (Office for the Management of Foreign Affairs). At first it taught only foreign languages and scripts. In 1867 it was proposed to add a school of mathematics within the Tongwen Guan. Capital officials were then ignorant of current affairs, and criticism was widespread; the original memorial rebutted these views in forceful, pointed language. It argued: "Western methods of manufacturing all derive from mathematics. If China wishes to master the building of steamships and machinery, it cannot do without Western teachers as guides; to follow one's own conceits alone will accomplish nothing in practice. Frontier governors such as Zuo Zongtang and Li Hongzhang all understood this principle well, held firmly to it, and argued it at length in their memorials. Moreover, the Kangxi Emperor had deeply approved of Western learning; it was recorded among the Astronomical Bureau's duties and handed down as a standard of the age—precedents of our dynasty that must not be forgotten while citing the classics. To regard learning from the West as shameful is an especially absurd notion. For China to cling to old ways and refuse to rouse itself—what shame could be greater? If we are not ashamed of being inferior yet are ashamed of learning from those who surpass us, and prefer to remain inferior rather than study—how can that ever restore our honor? The course of study must suit practical needs, and policy must adapt to the times; though criticism abounds, a firm decision is required. The original plan was to recruit Manchu and Han juren, enshi, bajian, fujian, sui, and you gongsheng, and other officials who had entered by the regular examination route. It was further proposed that Hanlin bachelors, compilers, and revisers, and capital and provincial officials of fifth rank and below who were jinshi and under thirty, might all be sent to enroll. After three years, those who ranked highest would receive preferential promotion in grade and quota as encouragement." The throne approved the proposal.

上海廣方言館，創設於同治二年。江蘇巡撫李鴻章言：「京師同文館之設，實為良法。惟洋人總匯地，以上海、廣東兩口為最。擬仿照同文館例，於上海添設外國語言文字學館，選近郡年十四歲以下資稟穎悟、根器端靜之文童，聘西人教習，並聘內地品學兼優之舉、貢生員，課以經、史、文藝。學成送本省督、撫考驗，作為該縣附學生。其候補、佐雜等官，年少聰慧者，許入館一體學習，學成酌給升途。三五年後，有此一種讀書明理之人，精通番語，凡通商、督、撫衙署及海關監督，應設繙譯官承辦洋務者，即於館中遴選派充。庶關稅、軍需可期核實；無賴通事，亦稍斂跡。且能盡閱西人未譯專書，探賾索隱，一切輪船、火器等巧技，由漸通曉，於自強之道，不無裨助。」上諭廣州將軍查照辦理。

The Shanghai Guangfangyan Guan was founded in 1863. Jiangsu governor Li Hongzhang wrote: "The founding of the Beijing Tongwen Guan is truly an excellent model. Yet the chief centers where foreigners congregate are the ports of Shanghai and Guangdong. He proposed to follow the Tongwen Guan model and establish in Shanghai a school of foreign languages, selecting bright, well-mannered boys under fourteen from nearby prefectures, hiring Westerners to instruct them and accomplished juren and gongsheng from inland to teach the classics, history, and literature. Upon completion they would be examined by the provincial governor and registered as county supplementary students. Young, able expectant and subordinate officials might also enroll; upon graduation they would receive appropriate advancement. Within three to five years there would be educated men fluent in foreign languages, and wherever treaty ports, provincial offices, or customs posts needed translators for foreign affairs, they could be chosen from the school. Customs revenue and military supplies could then be verified accurately; and unscrupulous interpreters would be somewhat checked. They could also read untranslated Western technical works, probe their depths, and gradually master the skills of steamships, firearms, and the like—no small aid to self-strengthening." The throne ordered the Guangzhou general to follow suit.

福建船廠，同治五年，左宗棠督閩時奏設，並設隨廠學堂。分前、後二堂。前堂習法文，練習造船之術；後堂習英文，練習駕駛之術。課程除造船、駕駛應習常課外，兼習策論，令讀聖諭廣訓、孝經以明義理。首總船政者為沈葆楨，規畫閎遠，尤重視學堂。十二年，奏陳船工善後事宜：「請選派前、後堂生分赴英、法，學習製造駕駛之方，及推陳出新、練兵制勝之理。學生有天資傑出，能習礦學、化學及交涉、公法等事，均可隨宜肄業。」尋葆楨任南洋大臣。光緒二年，奏派華、洋監督，訂定章程。船政學堂成就之人材，實為中國海軍人材之嚆矢。學堂設於馬尾，故清季海軍將領，亦以閩人為最多。

The Fujian shipyard was established in 1866 while Zuo Zongtang governed Fujian, together with an attached school. The school was divided into front and rear halls. The front hall studied French and shipbuilding; the rear hall studied English and navigation. Besides the required courses in shipbuilding and navigation, students also wrote policy essays and read the Sacred Edict and the Classic of Filial Piety to ground themselves in moral principle. The first director-general of the shipyard was Shen Baozhen, whose plans were ambitious and who placed special emphasis on the school. In 1873 he memorialized on the shipyard's follow-up work: "Students from the front and rear halls should be sent to Britain and France to learn shipbuilding and navigation, and the principles of innovation, military training, and victory in war. Students of outstanding ability might also study mining, chemistry, diplomacy, international law, and related subjects as suited their gifts." Shen Baozhen was soon appointed minister for the Southern Seas. In 1876 he memorialized for the appointment of Chinese and foreign superintendents and the drafting of regulations. The talent trained at the Naval Administration School were in truth the pioneers of China's modern navy. Because the school stood at Mawei, late Qing naval officers were predominantly Fujianese.

天津水師學堂，光緒八年，北洋大臣李鴻章奏設。次年招取學生，入堂肄業。分駕駛、管輪兩科。教授用英文，兼習操法，及讀經、國文等科。優者遣派出洋留學，以資深造。厥後海軍諸將帥由此畢業者甚夥。

The Tianjin Naval Academy was established in 1882 on Li Hongzhang's memorial as Beiyang minister. The following year students were recruited and enrolled. It had two branches: navigation and marine engineering. Instruction was in English, together with drill, the classics, and Chinese composition. Outstanding students were sent abroad for advanced study. Many later naval commanders were graduates of this academy.

鴻章又於光緒十一年奏設天津武備學堂，規制略仿西國陸軍學堂。挑選營中精健聰穎、略通文義之弁目，入堂肄業。文員原習武事者，一併錄取。其課程一面研究西洋行軍新法，如後膛各種槍砲，土木營壘及布陣分合攻守各術。一面赴營實習，演試槍砲陣勢及造築台壘。惟學生系挑選弁目，雖聘用德國教員，不能直接聽講，仍用繙譯，展轉教授，與水師學堂注重外國文者不同。初制，學習一年後，考試及格學生，發回各營，由統領量材授事。其後逐漸延長年限，選募良家年幼子弟肄業。迨庚子之變，學堂適當戰區，全校淪為灰燼矣。

Li Hongzhang also memorialized in 1885 for the Tianjin Military Academy, modeled broadly on Western army schools. Able, literate sergeants from the camps were selected for enrollment. Civilian officials with military training were admitted as well. The curriculum covered Western campaigning methods—breech-loading arms, fieldworks, and the tactics of deployment, maneuver, attack, and defense. Students also trained in camp, drilling with firearms and formations and building batteries and fortifications. Because the students were sergeants, however, even with German instructors they could not follow lectures directly; teaching still went through interpreters—unlike the naval academy, which stressed foreign languages. Originally, after one year, passing students returned to their units for commanders to assign duties according to ability. Later the course was lengthened and sons of respectable families were recruited while young. During the Boxer uprising of 1900 the academy lay in the war zone and was burned to the ground.

此外廣東水陸師學堂，則粵督張之洞於光緒十三年奏設。之洞調任鄂督，二十一年又奏設湖北武備學堂，其辦法課程，水師分管輪、駕駛兩項，陸師分馬、步，槍、砲，營造等項，大略參照北洋成法。洎海軍成立，新軍改建，此類學堂，南洋及各省增設日盛，不具述。

Guangdong's combined naval and military academy was also established in 1887 on Zhang Zhidong's memorial as governor of Guangdong. Transferred to Hubei, he memorialized in 1895 for the Hubei Military Academy, with naval branches in engineering and navigation and land branches in cavalry, infantry, firearms, artillery, and construction—broadly following the Beiyang model. Once the navy was organized and the new army reformed, such schools proliferated in the south and the provinces; they are not described here in detail.

至湖北自強學堂，亦之洞創設。初分方言、格致、算學、商務四門。惟方言一齋，住堂肄業，餘三齋按月考課。其後算學改歸兩湖書院教授，格致、商務停課，本堂專課方言，以為西學梯階。方言分英、法、德、俄四門，亦類似同文館之學堂也。

The Hubei Self-Strengthening Academy was also Zhang Zhidong's creation. It was first divided into four departments: foreign languages, natural science, mathematics, and commerce. Only the language department had resident students; the other three held monthly examinations. Later mathematics was taught at the Two Lakes Academy, natural science and commerce were dropped, and the academy devoted itself solely to languages as a gateway to Western learning. Languages were taught in English, French, German, and Russian—a school much like the Tongwen Guan.

光緒丙申、丁酉間，各省學堂未能普設，中外臣工多以變通整頓書院為請。詔飭裁改，禮部議准章程，並課天算、格致等學。陝西等省創設格致實學書院，以補學堂之不逮焉。齋大抵此期設學之宗旨，專註重實用。蓋其動機緣於對外，故外國語及海陸軍得此期教育之主要，無學制系統之足言。惟南洋公學雖亦承襲此期教育之宗旨，而學制分為三等，已寓普通學校及豫備教育之意旨。

Around 1896–1897, when modern schools could not yet be established everywhere, officials repeatedly petitioned to reform the traditional academies instead. An edict ordered their restructuring; the Board of Rites approved regulations requiring instruction in astronomy, mathematics, and natural science. Shaanxi and other provinces founded academies of practical science to fill gaps the new schools could not yet meet. Roughly speaking, the aim of schooling in this period was overwhelmingly practical. Because the impulse came from foreign pressure, foreign languages and naval and military training dominated this period's education; there was as yet no real school system to speak of. The Nanyang Public School alone, while sharing this period's practical emphasis, divided instruction into three grades and already embodied the ideas of general and preparatory education.

先是光緒二十一年，津海關道盛宣懷於天津創設頭、二等學堂。頭等學堂課程四年，等一年習竣，欲專習一門者，得察學生資質酌定。專門凡五：一工程學，二電學，三礦務學，四機器學，五律例學。二等學堂課程四年，按班次遞升，習滿升入頭等。意謂二等擬外國小學，頭等擬外國大學。因初設，采通融求速辦法。教員既苦乏才，學生亦難精擇，無甚成效。

In 1895 Tianjin customs intendant Sheng Xuanhuai had founded first- and second-grade schools in Tianjin. The first-grade school offered a four-year course; after one year of general study, specialization could be chosen according to each student's aptitude. There were five specializations: engineering, electrical science, mining, machinery, and law. The second-grade school also ran four years, with promotion by class; graduates advanced to the first grade. The second grade was conceived as equivalent to a Western primary school, the first grade to a university. As a new venture, flexible shortcuts were adopted to launch quickly. Qualified teachers were scarce and students hard to select carefully; little was accomplished.

二十三年，宣懷又於上海創設南洋公學，如津學制而損益之，經費取給招商、電報兩局捐助。奏明辦理，因名公學。分四院：曰師範院，曰外院，曰中院，曰上院。外院即附屬小學，為師範生練習之所。中、上院即二等、頭等學堂，寓中學堂、高等學堂之意。課程大體分中文、英文兩部，而注重法政、經濟。上院畢業生，擇尤異者咨送出洋，就學於各國大學。意謂內國大學猝難設置，以公學為豫備學校，而以外國大學為最高學府。論者謂中國教育有系統之組織，此其見端焉。後改歸郵傳部管轄，定名高等實業學堂。其課程性質，非復設立之初旨。此第一期無系統教育之大略也。

In 1897 Sheng Xuanhuai founded the Nanyang Public School in Shanghai, adapting the Tianjin model; its funds came from the China Merchants Steam Navigation Company and the Telegraph Administration. He memorialized for imperial approval and named it a public school (gongxue). It was divided into four colleges: Normal, Primary (Outer), Middle, and Upper. The Outer college was the attached primary school where normal students practiced teaching. The Middle and Upper colleges corresponded to the second- and first-grade schools—the equivalents of middle and higher schools. The curriculum was divided chiefly between Chinese and English, with emphasis on law, government, and economics. Outstanding Upper college graduates were recommended and sent abroad to attend foreign universities. The idea was that national universities could not be set up overnight; the public school would serve as preparatory school and foreign universities as the summit of learning. Commentators regard this as the first sign of a systematic organization of education in China. Later it passed to the Ministry of Posts and Communications and was renamed the Higher Practical School. Its curriculum no longer reflected its original purpose. Such was the first period of education without a unified system.

自甲午一役，喪師辱國，列強群起，攘奪權利，國勢益岌岌。朝野志士，恍然於鄉者變法之不得其本。侍郎李端棻、主事康有為等，均條議推廣學堂。光緒二十四年，德宗諭曰：「邇者詔書數下，開特科，改武科制度，立大、小學堂。惟風氣尚未大開，論說莫衷一是。國是不定，則號令不行。特明白宣示中外，自王公至士庶，各宜努力發憤，以聖賢義理之學植其根本，博採西學切於時務者，實力講求，以救空疏迂謬之弊。京師大學為各省倡，應首先舉辦。凡翰林編、檢，部、院司員，各門侍衛，候補、候選道，府、州、縣以下各官，大員子弟，八旗世職，各省武職後裔，均准入學肄業，以期人材輩出，共濟時艱。」下軍機大臣、總理各國事務王、大臣，妥議奏聞。尋議覆籌辦京師大學堂。擬定章程，要端凡四：一寬籌經費，二宏建學舍，三慎選管學大臣，四簡派總教習。詔如所擬。命孫家鼐管理大學堂事務，經費由戶部籌撥。

After the defeat of 1894–95, with armies lost and national honor shattered, the powers scrambled for concessions and the state's position grew ever more desperate. Officials and reformers alike suddenly saw that earlier reforms had missed the root of the problem. Vice Minister Li Duanfen, Clerk Kang Youwei, and others all submitted detailed plans to expand schooling. In 1898 the Guangxu Emperor decreed: "Edicts have lately been issued again and again—opening special examinations, reforming the military examination system, and founding universities and schools. Yet public sentiment has not fully shifted, and opinion remains divided. Without a settled national policy, no decree can be enforced. The throne therefore proclaimed to all, from princes to commoners, that each should strive to master the moral teachings of the sages while earnestly studying Western learning useful for present needs, so as to cure the ills of empty pedantry and absurdity. The Imperial University in the capital should lead the provinces and be founded first. Hanlin compilers and revisers, ministry and yamen clerks, guards, expectant officials, local magistrates, sons of high officials, Banner hereditary officers, and military descendants nationwide were all to be admitted, so that talent might emerge to meet the national crisis." The matter was referred to the Grand Council and the Zongli Yamen for deliberation and memorial. They soon memorialized on organizing the Imperial University. Draft regulations set forth four essentials: secure ample funding, expand buildings, choose a superintendent of studies with care, and appoint a chief instructor. An edict approved the plan. Sun Jianai was appointed to manage the university; the Board of Revenue was to supply funds.

五月，又諭各直省督、撫，將各省府、廳、州、縣大、小書院，一律改為兼習中、西學之學校，其階級，以省會之大書院為高等學，郡城之書院為中學，州、縣之書院為小學。頒給京師大學章程，令仿照辦理。各書院經費，侭數提作學堂經費。紳民如能捐建學堂，或廣為勸募，准奏請給獎。有獨立措捐鉅款者，予以破格之賞。民間祠廟不在祀典者，一律改為學堂，以節糜費而隆教育。是時管學大臣之權限，不專管理京師大學堂，並節制各省所設之學堂。實以大學校長兼全國教育部長之職權。

In May another edict ordered every governor to convert all provincial, prefectural, and county academies into schools teaching both Chinese and Western learning—provincial academies as higher schools, prefectural as middle schools, and county as primary schools. The Imperial University regulations were issued as a model. All academy endowments were to be transferred entirely to the schools. Gentry who built schools or raised funds might petition for rewards. Those who raised large sums on their own were to receive exceptional honors. Folk temples not on the official register were to become schools, to save waste and promote education. The superintendent's authority extended beyond the Imperial University to all provincial schools. In effect he combined the roles of university president and national minister of education.

又以同文館及北洋學堂多以西人為總教習，於中學不免偏枯。且外國文不止一國，學科各有專門，非一西人所能勝任。必擇學貫中、西，能見其大之中國學者，為總教習，破格錄用，有選派分教習之權。蓋以管學大臣必大學士或尚書充任，而總教習則不拘資格，可延攬新進之人才也。學生分兩班，已治普通學卒業者為頭班，現治普通學者為二班，猶是南洋公學之舊法。課程分普通、專門兩類。普通學，學生必須通習；專門學，人各佔一門或二門。普通學科目為經學，理學，掌故學，諸子學，初級算學，初級格致學，初級政治學，初級地理學，文學，體操學，語言文字學。專門學科目為高等算學，高等格致學，高等政治學、法律屬之，高等地理學、測繪屬之，農學，礦學，工程學，商學，兵學，衛生學、醫學屬之。考驗學生，用積分法。學生月給膏火銀兩有差。上海設編譯局，各學科除外國文外，均讀編譯課本。籌辦大學章程之概要如此。

Because the Tongwen Guan and Beiyang schools chiefly employed Westerners as head teachers, Chinese learning was inevitably neglected. Foreign languages are many, and each subject requires specialists; no one Westerner could cover them all. A Chinese scholar thoroughly versed in both traditions who grasped the larger picture had to serve as chief instructor, appointed by exception with power to choose assistants. The superintendent had to be a grand secretary or minister, but the chief instructor was not bound by rank and could recruit rising talent. Students were divided into two classes: those who had finished general studies formed the first class; those still in general studies formed the second—the old Nanyang Public School arrangement. Courses fell into general and specialized categories. General studies were compulsory for all; specialized studies allowed one or two subjects per student. General subjects included the classics, Neo-Confucian philosophy, institutional history, masters' texts, elementary mathematics, natural science, political science, geography, literature, gymnastics, and languages. Specialized subjects included advanced mathematics, natural science, political science and law, geography and surveying, agriculture, mining, engineering, commerce, military science, and hygiene and medicine. Student progress was tracked by a points system. Students received monthly stipends in varying amounts. A translation bureau was established in Shanghai; except foreign languages, all subjects used translated textbooks. Such was the general outline of the university regulations.

未幾，八月政變，由舊黨把持朝局，卒釀成庚子之禍。逮二十七年，學校漸有復興之議。其首倡者，則山東巡撫袁世凱也。初，世凱奏陳東省開辦大學堂章程，有旨飭下各省仿辦，令政務處會同禮部妥議選舉鼓勵章程。尋議言：「東西各國學堂，皆系小學、中學、大學以次遞升，畢業後始予出身，擬請按照辦理。小學畢業生考試合格，選入中學堂。畢業考試合格，再選入大學堂。畢業考試合格，發給憑照。督、撫、學政，按其功課，嚴密扃試。優者分別等第，咨送京師大學堂覆試，作為舉人、貢生。其貢生留下屆應考，原應鄉試者聽。舉人積有成數，由京師大學堂嚴加考試，優者分別等第，咨送禮部。簡派大臣考試，候旨欽定，作為進士，一體殿試，酌加擢用，優予官階。查世凱辦法，以通省學堂一時未能遍舉，先於省城建立學堂，分齋督課，其備齋、正齋，即隱寓小學、中學之規制。既經諭令各省仿辦，應酌照將來選舉章程，用資鼓勵。」報可。所議混合科舉、學制為一事，謂之學堂選舉鼓勵章程，各省多未及實行而罷。

Soon the coup of September 1898 put conservatives in control and ultimately led to the Boxer catastrophe of 1900. By 1901 discussion of reviving the schools had begun. The first advocate was Shandong governor Yuan Shikai. Yuan had memorialized regulations for a Shandong university; the throne ordered provinces to follow suit and directed the Office of Government Affairs and Board of Rites to draft selection and incentive regulations. The deliberation stated: "Western schools advance from primary through middle to university and grant office only after graduation; we propose to follow this. Primary graduates who pass examination enter middle school. Middle-school graduates who pass enter the university. University graduates receive credentials. Provincial authorities conduct rigorous sealed examinations according to coursework. The best are graded and sent to the Imperial University for re-examination as juren or gongsheng. Gongsheng wait for the next cycle; those eligible for the provincial examination may still take it. When enough juren accumulate, the Imperial University examines them strictly and refers the best to the Board of Rites. Imperial commissioners examine them; the throne names them jinshi, they take the palace examination, and ranks are assigned accordingly. Yuan's plan, because schools could not be built everywhere at once, began with a provincial school whose preparatory and main halls embodied primary and middle grades. Since provinces were ordered to follow suit, future selection rules should be adapted as incentives." The proposal was approved. This fusion of examinations and schooling—the "school selection and encouragement regulations"—was largely never implemented before it lapsed.

辛丑，兩宮迴鑾。以創痛鉅深，力求改革。十二月，諭曰：「興學育才，實為當今急務。京師首善之區，尤宜加意作育，以樹風聲。前建大學，應切實舉辦。派張百熙為管學大臣，責成經理，務期端正趨鄉，造就通才。其裁定章程，妥議具奏。」旋諭將同文館併入大學堂，毋庸隸外務部。二十八年正月，百熙奏籌辦大學堂情形豫定辦法一條，言：「各國學制，幼童於蒙學卒業後入小學，三年卒業升中學，又三年升高等學，又三年升大學。以中國准之，小學即縣學堂，中學即府學堂，高等學即省學堂。目前無應入大學肄業之學生，通融辦法，惟有暫時不設專門，先設立一高等學為大學豫備科。分政、藝二科，以經史、政治、法律、通商、理財等事隸政科，以聲、光、電、化、農、工、醫、算等事隸藝科。查京外學堂，辦有成效者，以湖北自強學堂、上海南洋公學為最。此外如京師同文館，上海廣方言館，廣東時敏、浙江求是等學堂，開辦皆在數年以上，不乏合格之才。更由各省督、撫、學政考取府、州、縣高材生，咨送來京，覆試如格，入堂肄業。三年卒業，及格者升大學正科。不及格者，分別留學、撤退。大學豫科與各省省學堂卒業生程度相同，由管學大臣考驗合格，請旨賞給舉人。正科卒業，考驗合格，請旨賞給進士。惟國家需材孔亟，欲收急效而少棄才，則有速成教員一法。於預備科外設速成科，分二門：曰仕學館，曰師範館。凡京員五品以下、八品以上，外官道員以下、教職以上，皆許考入仕學館。舉、貢、生、監，皆許考入師範館。仕學三年卒業，擇尤保獎。師範三年卒業，擇優異者帶領引見。生准作貢生，貢生准作舉人，舉人准作進士，分別給予准作小學、中學教員文憑。蓋豫科生必齲年歲最富、學術稍精者，再加練習，儲為真正合格之才。速成生則取更事較多、立志猛進者，取其聽從速化之效。至增建校舍，附設譯局，廣購書籍、儀器，尤以寬籌經費為根原。經費分兩項：一，華俄道勝銀行存款之息金，全數撥歸大學堂；一，請飭各省籌助經費，每年大省二萬金，中省一萬金，小省五千金，常年撥解京師。」從之。

In 1901 the court returned to Beijing. Deeply wounded, they pressed urgently for reform. In December an edict declared: "Promoting education and cultivating talent are urgent national tasks. The capital, as the nation's model, must especially nurture talent to set an example. The university previously planned must be earnestly established. Zhang Baixi was appointed superintendent and charged to manage affairs, set a proper course, and train versatile talent. He was to draft regulations and memorialize. An edict soon merged the Tongwen Guan into the university, removing it from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. In February 1902 Zhang Baixi memorialized on the university and proposed: "In every country, after elementary schooling children enter primary school for three years, then middle school for three, higher school for three, then university. In Chinese terms, primary school is the county school, middle the prefectural, higher the provincial. No students were yet ready for university; the interim plan was to establish a higher school as the university preparatory division without specialized departments. It was divided into civil and technical tracks: the civil track covered classics, history, politics, law, commerce, and finance; the technical track covered physics, chemistry, agriculture, engineering, medicine, and mathematics. Among effective schools, the Hubei Self-Strengthening Academy and Shanghai Nanyang Public School ranked highest. The Beijing Tongwen Guan, Shanghai Guangfangyan Guan, Guangdong Shimin, Zhejiang Qiushi, and others, open for years, also supplied qualified students. Provincial authorities were also to examine and send talented local students to the capital; those who passed re-examination would enroll. After three years, those who passed advanced to the university proper. Failures were retained for further study or dismissed. Preparatory graduates matched provincial school level; the superintendent, after examination, would memorialize for juren rank. Proper-course graduates who passed would receive jinshi rank by memorial. Because the state urgently needed talent and sought quick results without wasting ability, an accelerated teacher-training track was added. Besides the preparatory division, an accelerated course offered two halls: Official Studies and Normal. Capital officials from fifth rank down to eighth rank up, and provincial officials from circuit intendant down and educational officials up, might enroll in the Official Studies Hall. Juren, gongsheng, students, and supervised students might enroll in the Normal Hall. Official Studies graduates after three years; the best received preferential recommendation. Normal graduates after three years; the outstanding were presented at court. Students received quasi-gongsheng status, gongsheng quasi-juren, juren quasi-jinshi, with credentials authorizing them as primary or middle school teachers. Preparatory students had to be the youngest and best prepared, to be trained into fully qualified talent. Accelerated students were older, more experienced men seeking rapid transformation. Expanding buildings, adding a translation bureau, and purchasing books and apparatus all depended above all on ample funding. Funding came from two sources: interest on Russo-Chinese Bank deposits went entirely to the university; provinces were to contribute annual subsidies—twenty thousand taels for large provinces, ten thousand for medium, five thousand for small." The proposal was approved.

七月，百熙遵擬學堂章程，疏言：「古今中外，學術不同，其所以致用則一。歐、美、日本諸邦現行制度，頗與中國古昔盛時良法相同。禮記載家有塾，黨有庠，州有序，國有學。比之各國，則國學即大學，家塾、黨庠、州序即蒙學、小學、中學。等級蓋甚分明。周以前選舉、學校合而為一，漢以後專重選舉，及隋設進士科以來，士皆殫精神於詩、賦、策、論，所謂學校，名存而巳。今日而議振興教育，必以真能復學校之舊為第一要圖。雖中外政教風氣原本不同，然其條目秩序之至賾而不可亂，不必盡泥其跡，不能不兼取其長。謹上溯古制，參考列邦，擬定京師大學暨各省高等學、中學、小學、蒙學章程，候欽定頒行各省，核實興辦。凡名是實非之學堂及庸濫充數之教習，一律從嚴整頓。」詔下各省督撫，按照規條實力奉行。是為欽定學堂章程。教育之有系統自此始。

In July Zhang Baixi, following his draft regulations, memorialized: "Learning differs across ages and nations, yet practical purpose is one. Present systems in Europe, America, and Japan resemble China's ancient flourishing institutions. The Book of Rites records family tutors, district schools, state academies, and the imperial college. The imperial college corresponds to the university; family, district, and state schools to elementary, primary, and middle schools. The grades were clearly distinguished. Before the Zhou, selection and schooling were one; after Han, selection dominated; since the Sui jinshi degree, scholars poured effort into examination essays—schools existed in name only. To revive education today, truly restoring schools must be the first task. Though Chinese and foreign institutions differ, their orderly structure cannot be ignored; one need not copy every detail yet must take the best of each. Tracing ancient institutions and consulting foreign models, he drafted regulations for the Imperial University and provincial higher, middle, primary, and elementary schools for imperial approval and provincial implementation. Schools that were nominal only and unqualified teachers were to be strictly rectified." An edict ordered provincial governors to enforce the regulations earnestly. These were the imperially approved school regulations. Systematic education began here.

京師大學堂分大學院、大學專門分科、大學豫備科。附設者，仕學、師範兩館。大學院主研究，不講授，不立課程。專門分科凡七：曰政治科，曰文學科，曰格致科，曰農業科，曰工藝科，曰商務科，曰醫術科。政治科分目二：政治，法律。文學科分目七：經學，史學，理學，諸子，掌故，詞章，外國語言文字。格致科分目六：天文，地質，高等算學，化學，物理，動植物。農業科分目四：農藝，農業化學，林學，獸醫。工藝科分目八：土木，機器，造船，造兵器，電氣，建築，應用化學，採礦冶金。商務科分目六：簿記，產業製造，商業語言，商法，商業史，商業地理。醫術科分目二：醫學，藥學。豫備科分政、藝兩科。政科課目：倫理，經學，諸子，詞章，算學，中外史，中外輿地，外國文，物理，名學，法學，理財，體操。藝科課目：倫理，中外史，外國文，算學，物理，化學，動植物，地質及礦產，圖畫，體操。為入專理某科便利計，得增減若干科目。各三年卒業。仕學館課目：算學，博物，物理，外國文，輿地，史學，掌故，理財，交涉，法律，政治。師範館課目：倫理，經學，教育，習字，作文，算學，中外史，中外輿地，博物，物理，化學，外國文，圖畫，體操。

The Imperial University comprised a research faculty, specialized departments, and a preparatory course. Attached were the Official Studies and Normal halls. The university faculty conducted research without lecturing or fixed curriculum. Specialized departments numbered seven: political science, literature, natural science, agriculture, engineering, commerce, and medicine. The political science department comprised politics and law. The literature department comprised seven subjects: classics, history, Neo-Confucian philosophy, masters, institutional precedents, literary composition, and foreign languages and script. The natural science department comprised six subjects: astronomy, geology, advanced mathematics, chemistry, physics, and zoology and botany. The agriculture department comprised four subjects: agronomy, agricultural chemistry, forestry, and veterinary medicine. The engineering department comprised eight subjects: civil engineering, machinery, shipbuilding, arms manufacture, electrical engineering, architecture, applied chemistry, and mining and metallurgy. The commerce department comprised six subjects: bookkeeping, industrial production, commercial languages, commercial law, commercial history, and commercial geography. The medicine department comprised medicine and pharmacy. The preparatory course was split into political and technical streams. The political stream covered ethics, classics, masters, literary composition, mathematics, Chinese and foreign history and geography, foreign languages, physics, logic, law, finance, and physical education. The technical stream covered ethics, Chinese and foreign history, foreign languages, mathematics, physics, chemistry, zoology and botany, geology and mineral resources, drawing, and physical education. Subjects could be added or reduced as convenient for specializing in a particular department. Each required three years to complete. The Official Studies Hall taught mathematics, natural history, physics, foreign languages, geography, history, institutional precedents, finance, diplomacy, law, and politics. The Normal Hall taught ethics, classics, education, penmanship, composition, mathematics, Chinese and foreign history and geography, natural history, physics, chemistry, foreign languages, drawing, and physical education.

各省高等學堂為中學卒業之升途，又為入分科大學之豫備。分政、藝兩科。課程與大學豫科同。三年卒業。高等學外，得附設農、工、商、醫高等實業學堂，亦中學卒業生升入。教授用專科教員制，各任一門。中學堂，為高等小學卒業之升途，即為入高等學之豫備。課目：修身，讀經，算學，詞章，中外史，中外輿地，外國文，圖畫，博物，物理，化學，體操。四年卒業。中學外，得設中等農、工、商實業學堂，高小卒業生不原治普通學者入之。又附設師範學堂，課目視中學，惟酌減外國文，加教育學、教授法。得合兩班或三班，以兩三教員各任數科目，分教之。小學堂分高等、尋常二級。兒童自六歲起，受蒙學四年。十歲入尋常小學，修業三年。此七年定為義務教育。十三歲入高等小學，三年卒業。得附設簡易農、工、商實業學堂，尋常小學卒業者入之。尋常小學課目：修身、讀經、作文、習字、史學、輿地、算術、體操。高等小學課目，增讀古文辭、理科、圖畫，餘同尋常小學。教授採用級任制。正教習外，得置副教習。蒙學堂屬義務教育，府、廳、州、縣、城、鎮、鄉、集均應設立。凡義塾或家塾，應照蒙學課程，核實改辦。課目同尋常小學，惟作文易以字課。蒙學宗旨，在於改良私塾，故章程規定，頗注重教授法之改善，於兒童身心之體察，三致意焉。至學生出身獎勵，小學卒業，獎給附生；中學卒業，獎給貢生；高等學卒業，獎給舉人；大學分科卒業，獎給進士。各省師範卒業，照大學師範館例給獎。其大較也。欽定章程雖未臻完備，然已有系統之組織。頒布未及二年，旋又廢止。

Provincial higher schools were the next step for middle school graduates and prepared students for the university's specialized departments. They were divided into political and technical streams. The curriculum matched that of the university preparatory course. Three years to complete. Higher schools might also have attached agricultural, industrial, commercial, and medical vocational schools, which middle school graduates entered as well. Instruction used specialist teachers, each responsible for one subject. Middle schools were the next step for higher primary graduates and prepared students for higher schools. Courses included moral cultivation, scripture reading, mathematics, literary composition, Chinese and foreign history and geography, foreign languages, drawing, natural history, physics, chemistry, and physical education. Four years to complete. Intermediate agricultural, industrial, and commercial vocational schools might also be established for higher primary graduates who did not wish to pursue general studies. Attached normal schools might follow the middle school curriculum, with foreign languages somewhat reduced and pedagogy and teaching methods added. Two or three classes might be combined, with two or three teachers each covering several subjects in rotation. Primary schools were divided into higher and ordinary levels. Children from age six received four years of elementary instruction. At ten they entered ordinary primary school for three years. These seven years were designated compulsory education. At thirteen they entered higher primary school, completing in three years. Simple agricultural, industrial, and commercial vocational schools might be attached for ordinary primary graduates. Ordinary primary courses included moral cultivation, scripture reading, composition, penmanship, history, geography, arithmetic, and physical education. Higher primary courses added classical prose, natural science, and drawing; the rest matched ordinary primary. Instruction adopted the homeroom-teacher system. Besides the head teacher, assistant teachers might be appointed. Elementary schools were part of compulsory education and were to be established in every prefecture, department, subprefecture, county, city, market town, village, and hamlet. All charity schools and private tutors' schools were to be verified and reformed according to the elementary curriculum. The courses matched ordinary primary, except that composition was replaced by character drills. Elementary schools aimed to reform private tutoring schools; the regulations therefore emphasized improved teaching methods and repeatedly addressed the care of children's minds and bodies. As for student honors and rewards: upon completing primary school, one was granted the rank of government licentiate; upon completing middle school, one was granted the rank of tribute student; upon completing higher school, one was granted the rank of provincial graduate; upon completing a university specialized department, one was granted the rank of presented scholar. Provincial normal school graduates received awards according to the precedent of the Imperial Normal Hall. Such was the general outline. Although the imperially authorized regulations were not yet fully complete, they already formed a systematic organization. Less than two years after promulgation, they were abruptly abolished.

先是百熙招致海內名流，任大學堂各職。吳汝綸為總教習，赴日本參觀學校。適留日學生迭起風潮，諑謠繁興，黨爭日甚。二十九年正月，命榮慶會同百熙管理大學堂事宜。二人學術思想，既各不同，用人行政，意見尤多歧異。時鄂督張之洞入覲。之洞負海內重望，於川、晉、粵、鄂，曾創設書院及學堂。著勸學篇，傳誦一時；尤抱整飭學務之素志。閏五月，榮慶約同百熙奏請添派之洞會商學務，詔飭之洞會同管學大臣釐定一切學堂章程，期推行無弊。

Earlier, Zhang Baixi had invited celebrated figures from throughout the realm to fill the Imperial University's various posts. Wu Rulun served as chief instructor and went to Japan to inspect schools. Just then Chinese students in Japan repeatedly stirred up disturbances; slander and rumor proliferated, and factional strife grew fiercer by the day. In the first month of the twenty-ninth year [1903], Rongqing was ordered to join Zhang Baixi in administering the Imperial University. The two men's scholarly outlooks already differed; in appointments and administration their views diverged still more sharply. At that time Huguang Governor-General Zhang Zhidong came to the capital for audience. Zhang Zhidong enjoyed great prestige throughout the realm; in Sichuan, Shanxi, Guangdong, and Hubei he had founded academies and schools. He authored Exhortation to Learning, which was widely circulated for a time; and had long cherished a resolve to reform educational affairs. In the intercalary fifth month, Rongqing and Zhang Baixi jointly memorialized requesting that Zhang Zhidong be additionally assigned to consult on educational affairs; an edict ordered Zhang Zhidong to join the Minister of Education in settling all school regulations so that implementation might be free of abuses.

十一月，百熙、榮慶、之洞會奏重訂學堂章程，言：「各省初辦學堂，難得深通教育理法之人。學生率取諸原業科舉之士，未經小學陶鎔而來，言論行為，不免軼於範圍之外。此次奉諭會商釐定，詳細推求，倍加審慎。博考外國各項學堂課程門目，參酌變通，擇其宜者用之，其於中國不相宜者缺之，科目名稱不可解者改之，過涉繁重者減之。無論何等學堂，均以忠孝為本，以中國經史之學為基，俾學生心術壹歸於純正。而後以西學瀹其智識，練其藝能，務期他日成材，各適實用。擬成初等小學、高等小學、中學、高等學各章程，大學附通儒院章程。原章有蒙學名目，所列實即外國初等小學之事。外國蒙養院，一名稚園，參酌其意，訂為蒙養院章程及家庭教育法。此原章所有，而增補其缺略者也。辦理學堂，首重師範。原訂師範館章程，系僅就京城情形試辦，尚屬簡略。另擬初級、優級師範學堂章程，並任用教員章程，京城師範館改照優級師範辦理。此外仕學館屬暫設，不在各學堂統系之內，原章應暫仍舊。譯學館即方言學堂；進士館系奉特旨，令新進士概入學堂肄業，課程與各學堂不同，並酌定章程課目。又國民生計，莫要於農、工、商實業，興辦實業學堂，有百益而無一弊，另擬初等、中等、高等農、工、商實業學堂章程，附實業補習普通學堂、藝徒學堂、實業教員講習所各章程。此原章未及，而別加編訂者也。又中國禮教政俗與各國不同，少年初學，胸無定識，哤雜浮囂，在所不免。規範不容不肅，稽察不容不嚴。特訂立規條，申明禁令，為學堂管理通則。並將設學宗旨、立法要義，總括髮明，為學務綱要。果能按照現定章程認真舉辦，民智可開，國力可富，人才可成，不致別生流弊。至學生畢業考試，升級、入學考試及獎勵錄用之法，亦經詳定專章，伏候裁定。」

In the eleventh month, Zhang Baixi, Rongqing, and Zhang Zhidong jointly memorialized on the revised school regulations, stating: "When provinces first establish schools, it is hard to find persons thoroughly versed in educational theory and method. Students were mostly drawn from those who had formerly pursued the civil service examinations; without the shaping of primary schooling, their speech and conduct unavoidably fell outside proper bounds. This time, obeying the imperial command to consult and settle the matter, we examined it closely and proceeded with redoubled caution. We broadly examined the courses and subjects of foreign schools of every kind, adapting them as we saw fit: what suited China we adopted, what did not we omitted, incomprehensible titles we changed, and what was excessively burdensome we reduced. Whatever the school, loyalty and filial piety were to be the foundation and Chinese classics and history the base, so that students' minds might uniformly return to purity and rectitude. Only then would Western learning enrich their intelligence and train their skills, with the aim that in time they would become productive talents, each suited to practical employment. Regulations were drafted for elementary primary schools, higher primary schools, middle schools, and higher schools, together with regulations for the university and the attached College of Universal Learning. The original regulations used the term "elementary learning," but what they listed was in fact what foreign countries called elementary primary schooling. Foreign countries had nursery schools, also called kindergartens; considering their intent, regulations for nursery schools and family education were drafted. These were items already in the original regulations, now supplemented where they had been incomplete. In running schools, teacher training came first. The originally drawn regulations for the Normal Hall were merely a trial arrangement suited to the capital and remained quite bare. Separate regulations were drafted for elementary and advanced normal schools, along with regulations for the appointment of teachers; the capital Normal Hall was converted to operate as an advanced normal school. Beyond this, the Official Studies Hall was temporary and lay outside the school system; the original regulations were temporarily left unchanged. The Translation College was the School of Dialects; the Presented Scholars College was established by special edict requiring all newly minted jinshi to enter for study; its curriculum differed from other schools, and regulations and courses were likewise drawn up. Moreover, nothing mattered more for the people's livelihood than agricultural, industrial, and commercial vocations; establishing vocational schools yielded a hundred benefits without a single harm. Separate regulations were drafted for elementary, intermediate, and higher agricultural, industrial, and commercial vocational schools, together with regulations for vocational supplementary general schools, apprentice schools, and vocational teacher training institutes. These were matters the original regulations had not reached, now separately compiled and added. Moreover, China's rites, teaching, politics, and customs differed from those of other countries; youths just beginning to study, with no settled judgment, inevitably fell into confused clamor and strident behavior. Standards could not but be strict, and oversight could not but be rigorous. Special rules were established and prohibitions clearly set forth as general regulations for school administration. The purposes of establishing schools and the essential principles of legislation were likewise summarized and expounded as the general outline of educational affairs. If the presently settled regulations were earnestly carried out, popular intelligence could be awakened, national strength enriched, talent formed, and no further abuses allowed to arise. As for graduation examinations, promotion and entrance examinations, and methods of reward and employment, separate chapters had also been carefully drafted, pending imperial approval."

又奏：「奉旨興辦學堂，兩年有餘。至今各省未能多設者，經費難籌也。經費所以不能捐集者，科舉未停，天下士林謂朝廷之意並未專重學堂也。科舉不變通裁減，人情不免觀望，紳富孰肯籌捐？經費斷不能籌，學堂斷不能多。入學堂者，恃有科舉一途為退步，不肯專心鄉學，且不肯恪守學規。況科舉文字多剽竊，學堂功課務實修；科舉止憑一日之短長，學堂必盡累年之研究；科舉但取詞章，學堂並重行檢。彼此相衡，難易迥別。人情莫不避難就易，當此時勢阽危，除興學外，更無養才濟時之術。或慮停罷科舉，士人競談西學，而中學無人肯講。現擬章程，於中學尤為注重。凡中國向有之經學、史學、文學、理學，無不包舉靡遺。科舉所講習者，學堂無不優為；學堂所兼通者，科舉皆所未備。是取材於科舉，不如取材於學堂，彰彰明矣。或又慮學堂雖重積分法，分數定自教員，保無以愛憎而意為增損。不知功課優絀，當堂考驗。教員即欲違眾徇私，而公論可憑，萬難掩飾。臣等尚恐偶有此弊，故於中學考試，歸學政主持，督同道、府辦理。高等學畢業，請簡放主考，會同督、撫、學政考試。大學畢業，請簡放總裁，會同學務大臣考試。不專憑本學堂所定分數。凡科舉掄才之法，已括諸學堂獎勵之中，實將科舉、學堂合併為一。就事理論，必須科舉立時停罷，學堂辦法方有起色，經費方可設籌。惟此時各省學堂，未能遍設，已設學堂，辦理未盡合法，不欲遽議停罷科舉。然使一無舉動，天下未見朝廷有遞減以至停罷之明文，實不足風示海內士民，收振興學堂之效。請查照臣之洞會同袁世凱原奏分科遞減之法，明降諭旨，從下屆丙午科起，每科遞減中額三分之一。一面照現定各學堂章程，從師範入手，責成各省實力舉行，至第三屆壬子科應減盡時，尚有十年。計京、外開辦學堂，已逾十年以外，人才應已輩出。天下士心專註學堂，籌措經費必立見踴躍。人人爭自濯磨，相率入學堂，求實在有用之學，氣象一新，人才自奮。轉弱為強，實基於此。」詔悉如所請。是為頒布奏定章程之期，時科舉未全廢止也。迨三十一年，世凱、之洞會奏：「科舉一日不停，士人有僥倖得第之心，以分其砥礪實修之志。民間相率觀望，私立學堂絕少。如再遲十年甫停科舉，學堂有遷延之勢，人才非急切可求。必須二十餘年後，始得多士之用。擬請宸衷獨斷，立罷科舉。飭下各省督、撫、學政，學堂未辦者，從速提倡；已辦者，極力擴充。學生之良莠，辦學人員之功過，認真考察，不得稍辭其責。」遂詔自丙午科始，停止各省鄉、會試及歲、科試。尋諭各省學政專司考校學堂事務。於是沿襲千餘年之科舉制度，根本劃除。嗣後學校日漸推廣，學術思想因之變遷，此其大關鍵也。

They further memorialized: "By imperial command schools were established; more than two years have passed. Yet the reason provinces have still been unable to establish many is that funds are hard to raise. The reason funds could not be collected through donation was that the civil service examinations had not been suspended; scholars throughout the realm believed the court's intent did not yet specially favor schools. Unless the examinations were reformed and reduced, people would inevitably wait and see—what gentry or wealthy men would be willing to contribute? Funds absolutely could not be raised, and schools absolutely could not be multiplied. Those who entered schools relied on the civil service examinations as a fallback and were unwilling to devote themselves wholeheartedly to study, nor willing to observe school regulations. Moreover, examination essays were often plagiarized, whereas school work required solid attainment; the examinations judged by a single day's performance, whereas schools required years of sustained research; the examinations valued literary composition alone, whereas schools also weighed conduct and character. Weighed against each other, the difficulty differed vastly. Human nature ever shuns difficulty for ease; at this time of perilous crisis, apart from promoting schools there was no other means of nurturing talent and serving the age. Some feared that if the examinations were suspended, scholars would all talk of Western learning while no one would study the Chinese classics. The presently drafted regulations gave particular emphasis to middle schools. All the classics, history, literature, and Neo-Confucian philosophy that China had long possessed were encompassed without omission. Whatever the examinations taught, schools did no less well; whatever schools additionally mastered, the examinations had never provided. That recruiting talent from the examinations was inferior to recruiting from schools was abundantly clear. Others further feared that although schools relied on a cumulative grading system, since grades were set by teachers, there might be deliberate inflation or deflation out of personal favor or dislike. Without in-class examinations, there is no way to tell strong work from weak. Even a teacher inclined to favor pupils against the general view would find public scrutiny hard to evade. Fearing that such abuses might still arise, they placed middle-school examinations under education commissioners, with circuit officials and prefectures jointly overseeing the process. Higher-school graduates were to be examined by imperially appointed chief examiners, acting together with governors-general, governors, and education commissioners. University graduates were to be examined by an imperially appointed chief superintendent, together with the Minister of Education. Final standing was not to depend on the home school's marks alone. Every path by which the old examinations had chosen talent was now folded into school rewards—the two systems had effectively become one. In logic, only an immediate end to the examinations could revive school practice and free up the money to sustain it. Yet schools were still far from universal, and those that existed did not yet meet the rules—so an abrupt abolition of the examinations was not yet proposed. To do nothing, however, would leave the country without a clear court promise of step-by-step reduction ending in abolition—hardly enough to move scholars nationwide toward the schools. They asked that the court adopt Zhang Zhidong and Yuan Shikai's earlier plan of staged cuts, and proclaim that from the next Bingwu examinations each round would trim provincial quotas by one-third. At the same time, under the new school rules, each province was to push normal schools first and carry the work out in earnest; ten years would remain before the third Renzi round, when quotas would reach zero. By then schools at court and in the provinces would have been running for more than a decade, and trained men ought already to be coming forward. Men of learning would turn their hopes to the schools, and money for them would flow in at once. People would polish themselves, flock into schools, and seek learning of real use; the mood would change, and ability would rise of its own accord. The road from weakness to strength would begin here. The throne granted everything they asked. That was when the approved school code was issued—while the examination system still stood, though not for long. In the thirty-first year Yuan Shikai and Zhang Zhidong wrote together: "While the examinations continue even one day, scholars will keep hoping for a lucky pass, and that hope will split their will to train themselves in earnest. The public hung back and watched; private schools were almost none. Wait another decade to end the examinations, and schools would keep slipping backward while the need for trained men grew urgent. Not until twenty years had passed would the state have enough educated men to employ. They therefore asked the throne to decide alone and abolish the examinations at once. Governors-general, governors, and education commissioners in every province were commanded: where schools did not yet exist, establish them quickly; where they already existed, expand them with all possible force. Student quality and the performance of school staff were to be rigorously reviewed, and no one might evade that duty. An edict followed: from the Bingwu examinations onward, provincial and metropolitan tests, annual examinations, and supplementary examinations were abolished throughout the empire. Shortly after, provincial education commissioners were told to devote themselves to inspecting and administering schools. In this way a system more than a millennium old was cut out at the root. Schools then spread year by year, and learning and thought shifted with them—the decisive hinge of the age.

是時學務之組織，尚有一重要之變更，則專設總理學務大臣也。二十九年，之洞言：「管學大臣既管京城大學堂，又管外省各學堂事務。當此經營創始，條緒萬端，專任猶虞不給，兼綜更恐難周。請於京師專設總理學務大臣，統轄全國學務。另設總監督一員，專管京師大學堂事務，受總理學務大臣節制考核，俾有專責。」詔允改管學大臣為學務大臣，並加派孫家鼐為學務大臣，命大理寺少卿張亨嘉充大學堂總監督。奏定章程，規定學校系統，足補欽定章程所未備。

Educational administration also underwent a major change: the creation of a Minister of Education to govern the whole system. In the twenty-ninth year Zhang Zhidong wrote: "The Superintendent of Education was charged both with the Imperial University in the capital and with schools in every province. In these first years of building, the work was endless; one man alone could barely manage it, and two great tasks together risked leaving both half done. He asked that the capital appoint a Minister of Education devoted solely to governing national school affairs. A separate Chief Supervisor should run the Imperial University alone, answerable to the Minister of Education for oversight and appraisal, so each office had a defined charge. The throne agreed: the Superintendent of Education became Minister of Education; Sun Jianai was added to that post; and Zhang Hengjia, vice minister of the Court of Judicial Review, was named Chief Supervisor of the Imperial University. The approved regulations laid out the school system and filled gaps left by the earlier imperial code.

其分科及課目，較舊章亦多有變更。大學設通儒院及大學本科。通儒院不講授，無規定課目。大學本科分科八。曰經學科，分十一門：周易、尚書、毛詩、春秋左傳、春秋三傳、周禮、儀禮、禮記、論語、孟子，附理學。曰政法科，分二門：政治、法律。曰文學科，分九門：中國史、萬國史、中外地理、中國文學、英國文學、法國文學、俄國文學、德國文學、日本國文學。曰醫科，分二門：醫學、藥學。曰格致科，分六門：算學、星學、物理、化學、動植物、地質。曰農科，分四門：農學、農藝化學、林學、獸醫。曰工科，分九門：土木、機器、造船、造兵器、電氣、建築、應用化學、火藥、採礦冶金。曰商科，分三門：銀行及保險、貿易及販運、關稅。各專一門。經學原兼習一兩經者聽。各學科分主課、補助課。三年畢業。惟政治、醫學四年畢業。

Its faculties and courses also diverged widely from the previous rules. The university comprised an Academy of Universal Learning and an undergraduate college. The Academy of Universal Learning offered no lectures and set no fixed courses. Undergraduate study was organized into eight faculties. There was a Faculty of Classical Studies with eleven branches: Changes, Documents, Mao's Poetry, the Zuo Commentary, the Three Commentaries on the Spring and Autumn Annals, Rites of Zhou, Ceremonies and Rites, the Book of Rites, the Analects, Mencius, and Neo-Confucian philosophy. There was a Faculty of Politics and Law with two branches: politics and law. There was a Faculty of Letters with nine branches: Chinese history, world history, Chinese and foreign geography, Chinese literature, and the literatures of England, France, Russia, Germany, and Japan. There was a Faculty of Medicine with two branches: medicine and pharmacy. There was a Faculty of Natural Sciences with six branches: mathematics, astronomy, physics, chemistry, zoology and botany, and geology. There was a Faculty of Agriculture with four branches: agricultural science, agricultural chemistry, forestry, and veterinary medicine. There was a Faculty of Engineering with nine branches: civil engineering, mechanical engineering, shipbuilding, arms manufacture, electrical engineering, architecture, applied chemistry, explosives, and mining and metallurgy. There was a Faculty of Commerce with three branches: banking and insurance, trade and distribution, and customs and tariffs. Each student was to concentrate on a single branch. In classical studies, students who had already combined one or two classics might keep doing so. Every faculty distinguished major courses from supporting courses. The course of study lasted three years. Politics and medicine alone required four years.

高等學與大學豫備科性質相同。學科分三類：第一類為豫備入經學、政法、文學、商科等大學者治之，第二類為豫備入格致、農、工等科大學者治之，第三類為豫備入醫科大學者治之。學科除人倫道德、經學大義、中國文學、外國語、體操各類共同外，第一類課歷史、地理、辨學、法學、理財，第二類課算學、物理、化學、地質、礦物、圖畫，第三類課蠟丁語、算學、物理、化學、動物、植物。其有志入某科某門者，得缺科目或加課他科目，分通習、主課。三年畢業。中學科目：修身、讀經、講經、中國文學、外國語、歷史、地理、算學、博物、物理及化學、法制及理財、圖畫、體操。五年畢業。高等小學科目：修身、讀經、講經、中國文學、算術、中國歷史、地理、格致、圖畫、體操。視地方情形，可加授手工、農、商業等科目。四年畢業。初等小學科目：修身、讀經、講經、中國文學、算術、歷史、地理、格致、體操，為完全科。視地方情形，可加授圖畫、手工之一二科目。其鄉民貧瘠、師儒缺少地方，得量從簡略，修身、讀經合為一科，中國文學科，歷史、地理、格致合為一科，算術、體操，為簡易科。五年畢業。

Higher schools and the university preparatory course were equivalent in purpose. Curricula fell into three tracks: the first for students bound for classical studies, politics and law, letters, or commerce; the second for natural sciences, agriculture, or engineering; the third for medicine. All three tracks shared ethics, classical essentials, Chinese literature, foreign languages, and gymnastics; the first added history, geography, logic, law, and finance; the second added mathematics, physics, chemistry, geology, mineralogy, and drawing; the third added Latin, mathematics, physics, chemistry, zoology, and botany. Students aiming at a given faculty and branch might drop some subjects or add others, classed as general or major courses. The course lasted three years. Middle schools taught moral cultivation, Scripture reading and exposition, Chinese literature, foreign languages, history, geography, mathematics, natural history, physics and chemistry, law and finance, drawing, and gymnastics. The course lasted five years. Higher primary schools taught moral cultivation, Scripture reading and exposition, Chinese literature, arithmetic, Chinese history, geography, natural sciences, drawing, and gymnastics. Local conditions might warrant added instruction in handicrafts, farming, commerce, or other subjects. The course lasted four years. Lower primary schools taught moral cultivation, Scripture reading and exposition, Chinese literature, arithmetic, history, geography, natural sciences, and gymnastics as the full course. Drawing, handicrafts, or one or two similar subjects might be added according to local need. In poor villages with too few teachers, a reduced course was allowed: moral cultivation and Scripture reading as one subject, Chinese literature as another, history-geography-natural sciences as a third, and arithmetic and gymnastics—together forming the simplified track. That course also lasted five years.

中、小學科目，不外普通教育之學科。其特殊者，則讀經、講經一科也。學務綱要載中、小學宜注意讀經以存聖教一節，其言曰：「外國學堂有宗教一門，中國之經書即是中國之宗教。學堂不讀經，則是堯、舜、禹、湯、文、武、周公、孔子之道，所謂三綱五常，盡行廢絕，中國必不能立國。無論學生將來所執何業，即由小學改業者，必須曾誦經書之要言，略聞聖教之要義，以定其心性，正其本源。惟學堂科學較繁，晷刻有限，概令全讀十三經，精力日力斷斷不給。茲擇切要各經，分配中、小學堂。若卷帙繁重之禮記、周禮，止選讀通儒節本，儀禮止選讀最要一篇。自初等小學第一年日讀約四十字起，至中學日讀約二百字為止，大率小學每日以一點鐘讀經，一點鐘挑背淺解。中學每星期以六點鐘讀經，三點鐘挑背講解。溫經每日半點鐘，歸自習時督課。學生並不過勞，亦無礙講習西學之日力。計中學畢業，已讀過孝經、四書、易、書、詩、左傳及禮記、周禮、儀禮節本十經，並通大義。較之向來書塾、書院所讀所解，已為加多。不惟聖經不至廢墜，且經學從此更可昌明。」其立論甚正，可考見當時之風氣焉。齋蒙養院意在合蒙養、家教為一，輔助家庭教育，兼包括女學。

Middle and primary schools taught only the ordinary branches of general education. The distinctive feature was the combined course in reading and explaining the classics. The Educational Outline urged middle and primary schools to keep Scripture reading in order to preserve the sacred teaching, arguing: "Western schools teach religion; in China the classics are religion. Without classic reading in the schools, the Way of Yao, Shun, Yu, Tang, Wen, Wu, the Duke of Zhou, and Confucius—the Three Bonds and Five Constants—would be cast off altogether, and China could not endure as a state. Whatever trade a pupil might later follow, even if he left after primary school, he had to have recited the classics' chief passages and grasped the sacred teaching's essentials, so that character and root might be set right. Yet modern subjects were many and hours few; to read all Thirteen Classics in full would plainly exceed what students could bear. The most necessary classics were therefore chosen and distributed through middle and primary schools. Bulky texts such as the Book of Rites and Rites of Zhou were read in scholarly abridgments; Ceremonies and Rites was limited to its most important section. Daily reading began at about forty characters in the first year of lower primary school and rose to about two hundred in middle school; in primary grades, one hour was for reading and one for recitation with brief explanation. Middle schools allotted six hours a week to reading and three to recitation and explanation. Half an hour each day was set aside for review, checked during self-study. The burden would not overtax pupils, nor would it crowd out Western studies. By middle-school graduation a student would have read the Classic of Filial Piety, the Four Books, Changes, Documents, Poetry, the Zuo Commentary, and abridgments of the Book of Rites, Rites of Zhou, and Ceremonies and Rites—ten classics in all—and grasped their main import. That was already more than village schools and private academies had commonly read and explained. The sacred texts would not be abandoned; classical learning might even flourish anew. The argument was sound enough to reveal the temper of the age. Kindergartens were meant to join early nurture with home instruction, support family education, and embrace girls' schools too.

直系學堂外，並詳訂師範及實業學堂專章。其大異於舊章者，為優級師範學堂。學科分三節：一曰公共科，以補中學之不足，為本科之豫備。科目：人倫道德、群經源流、中國文學、東語、英語、辨學、算學、體操。一年畢業。二曰分類科，凡四類：第一類以中國文學、外國語為主。第二類以地理、歷史為主。第三類以算學、物理、化學為主。第四類以動植物、礦物、生理為主。科目除人倫道德、經學大義、中國文學、教育心理、體操各類共同外，第一類課周秦諸子、英語、德語或法語、辨學、生物、生理。第二類課地理、歷史、法制、理財、英語、生物。第三類課算學、物理、化學、英語、圖畫、手工。第四類課植物、動物、生理、礦物、地學、農學、英語、圖畫。分通習、主課，均三年畢業。三曰加習科，於分類科畢業，擇教育重要數門，加習一年，以資深造。科目：人倫道德、教育學、教育制度、教育政令機關、美學、實驗心理、學校衛生、專科教育、兒童研究、教育演習，並增入教授實事練習。優級師範附屬中學堂、小學堂。初級師範學科程度，與中學略同。完全科學科，於中學科目外，增教育學、習字。視地方情形，可加外國語，手工，農、工業之一科目或數科目。五年畢業。初級師範附屬小學堂。

Apart from the main ladder of schools, separate detailed chapters covered normal and vocational schools. The greatest departure from earlier rules was the higher normal school. Its course fell into three stages: a common curriculum to fill gaps left by middle school and prepare for the main program. That stage included ethics, origins of the classics, Chinese literature, Japanese, English, logic, mathematics, and gymnastics. It lasted one year. Second came the classified curriculum in four tracks; the first emphasized Chinese literature and foreign languages. The second emphasized geography and history. The third emphasized mathematics, physics, and chemistry. The fourth emphasized zoology and botany, mineralogy, and physiology. All four tracks shared ethics, classical essentials, Chinese literature, educational psychology, and gymnastics; the first added pre-Qin masters, English, German or French, logic, biology, and physiology. The second added geography, history, law, finance, English, and biology. The third added mathematics, physics, chemistry, English, drawing, and handicrafts. The fourth added botany, zoology, physiology, mineralogy, earth science, agricultural science, English, and drawing. Courses were split between general and major subjects, each track running three years. Third came a supplementary year after the classified course, devoted to a few key subjects in education for deeper training. Subjects included ethics, education, school systems, educational policy and administration, aesthetics, experimental psychology, school hygiene, specialized education, child study, and teaching practice, plus practical classroom training. Each higher normal school had its own affiliated middle and primary schools. Elementary normal schools were set at roughly the same academic level as middle schools. The full course added education and penmanship to the standard middle-school subjects. Local conditions might warrant adding foreign languages, handicrafts, or one or more agricultural or industrial subjects. The course ran five years. Each elementary normal school also maintained an affiliated primary school.

實業學堂之種類，曰實業教員講習所，曰高等農、工、商實業學堂，曰中等農、工、商實業學堂，曰初等農、工、商實業學堂，及高等、中等、初等商船學堂，曰實業補習普通學堂，曰藝徒學堂。實業教員講習所，以備教成各項實業學堂之教習。分農、商、工三種，農業、商業教員講習所，除人倫道德、英語、教育、教授法、體操為共同學科外，農業課算學及測量氣象、農業汎論、農業化學、農具、土壤、肥料、耕種、畜產、園藝、昆蟲、獸醫、水產、森林、農產製造、農業理財實習；商業課應用化學、應用物理、商業作文、商業算術、商業地理、商業歷史、簿記、商品、商業理財、商業實踐。均二年畢業。工業教員講習所，置完全科及簡易科。完全科凡六：曰金工科、木工科、染織科、窯業科、應用化學科、工業圖樣科。除人倫道德、算學、物理、化學、圖畫、工業理財、工業衛生、機器製圖實習、英語、教育、教授法、體操為共同學科外，金工科課無機化學、應用力學、工場用具及製造法、電氣工業大意、發動機。木工科課無機化學、應用力學、工場用具及製造法、構造用材料、傢具及建築流派、房屋構造、衛生、建築製圖及意匠。染織科課一切器用化學、應用機器、定性分析、工業分析、染色配色、機織及意匠。窯業科課一切應用化學、應用機器、定性分析、工業分析、窯業品製造。應用化學科課一切應用化學、機器、電鑄及電礦。工業圖樣科課圖樣、材料。均三年畢業。簡易科分金工、木工、染色、機織、陶器、漆工六科。課目較略。一年畢業。高等實業學堂程度視高等學堂，分豫科、本科。豫科授以各科普通基本功課。一年畢業。高等農業本科凡三：曰農學科，曰林學科，曰獸醫學科。高等工業分科十三：曰應用化學科，曰染色科，曰機織科，曰建築科，曰窯業科，曰機器科，曰電器科，曰電氣化學科，曰土木科，曰礦業科，曰造船科，曰漆工科，曰圖稿繪畫科，各授以本科原理、原則、應用方法及補助科目，多者至三十餘門，得斟酌地方情形，擇合宜數科設之。均三年畢業。中等實業學堂程度視中學堂，亦分豫科、本科，課目較高等為略。初等實業學堂程度視高等小學堂，分普通、實習兩種科目。均三年畢業。商船學堂亦分三等，以授航海機關之學術及駕運商船之知識技術。五年或三年畢業。實業補習普通學堂，以簡易教法授實業必須之知識技能，並補習小學科目。藝徒學堂，授平等程度之工築技術，俾成良善工匠，均可於中、小學堂便宜附設。

Vocational schools fell into several types: teacher-training institutes; higher, middle, and elementary schools of agriculture, industry, and commerce; higher, middle, and elementary merchant-marine schools; general supplementary vocational schools; and apprentice schools. Teacher-training institutes existed to prepare instructors for every kind of vocational school. There were agricultural, commercial, and industrial tracks. Agricultural and commercial teacher-training shared ethics, English, education, teaching methods, and gymnastics; agriculture then added mathematics, surveying and meteorology, general agriculture, agricultural chemistry, farm tools, soil, fertilizers, cultivation, animal husbandry, horticulture, entomology, veterinary medicine, fisheries, forestry, farm-product processing, and practical agricultural finance. Commerce added applied chemistry and physics, commercial writing and arithmetic, commercial geography and history, bookkeeping, commodities, commercial finance, and practical business work. Both tracks lasted two years. Industrial teacher-training offered full and abbreviated courses. The full course had six divisions: metallurgy, woodworking, dyeing and weaving, ceramics, applied chemistry, and industrial drafting. All six divisions shared ethics, mathematics, physics, chemistry, drawing, industrial finance and hygiene, machine-drafting practice, English, education, teaching methods, and gymnastics; metallurgy then added inorganic chemistry, applied mechanics, workshop tools and manufacturing, essentials of electrical industry, and engines. Woodworking added inorganic chemistry, applied mechanics, workshop tools and manufacturing, construction materials, furniture and architectural styles, building construction, sanitation, and architectural drafting and design. Dyeing and weaving added general applied chemistry, applied machinery, qualitative and industrial analysis, dyeing and color matching, and mechanical weaving and design. Ceramics added general applied chemistry, applied machinery, qualitative and industrial analysis, and ceramic manufacture. Applied chemistry added general applied chemistry, machinery, electrotyping, and electroplating. Industrial drafting covered drafting and materials. All full divisions ran three years. The abbreviated course had six divisions: metalwork, woodworking, dyeing, mechanical weaving, pottery, and lacquerwork. Its subjects were more limited. It lasted one year. Higher vocational schools matched higher schools in level and were split into preparatory and undergraduate programs. The preparatory year taught the basic general courses of each field. It lasted one year. Higher agricultural schools offered three undergraduate divisions: agriculture, forestry, and veterinary medicine. Higher industrial schools had thirteen divisions—applied chemistry, dyeing, mechanical weaving, architecture, ceramics, machinery, electrical appliances, electrochemistry, civil engineering, mining, shipbuilding, lacquerwork, and technical drawing and painting—each teaching principles, fundamentals, applied methods, and supporting subjects, sometimes more than thirty in all. Local conditions determined how many divisions were actually established. All ran three years. Middle vocational schools matched middle schools in level, with preparatory and undergraduate stages and a narrower curriculum than the higher schools. Elementary vocational schools matched higher primary schools and divided their subjects into general and practical courses. Both tracks lasted three years. Merchant-marine schools also had three levels, teaching navigation, marine engineering, and the knowledge and skills needed to command merchant ships. Courses ran either five or three years. General supplementary vocational schools used simplified methods to teach essential vocational skills while also making up primary-school subjects. Apprentice schools taught trades at a uniform level to train skilled craftsmen and could conveniently be attached to middle or primary schools.

其不在學堂系統內者，曰譯學館，曰進士館。先是同文館併入大學堂，設英、法、俄、德、日本五國語文專科，後由大學分出，名譯學館。仍設英、法、俄、德、日本文各一科，無論習何國文，皆須習普通及專門學。普通科目：人倫道德、中國文學、歷史、地理、算學、博物、物理及化學、圖畫、體操。專門科目：交涉、理財、教育。五年畢業。進士館令新進士用翰林部屬、中書者，入館肄業，講求實用之學。課目：史學、地理、教育、法學、理財、交涉、兵政、農政、工政、商政、格致。得選習農、工、商、兵之一科或兩科。西文、東文、算學、體操為隨意科。三年畢業。

Outside the main school ladder stood the School of Translation and the Jinshi Hall. The Tongwen Guan had first been merged into the Imperial University as specialized programs in English, French, Russian, German, and Japanese; later it was split off again as the School of Translation. Each of the five languages still had its own program, but every student, whatever language he studied, had to take both general and specialized courses. General subjects included ethics, Chinese literature, history, geography, mathematics, natural history, physics and chemistry, drawing, and gymnastics. Specialized subjects covered diplomacy, finance, and education. The course ran five years. The Jinshi Hall required newly minted jinshi appointed to Hanlin posts or as secretaries to enter for study in practical subjects. Subjects included history, geography, education, law, finance, diplomacy, military administration, agricultural administration, industrial administration, commercial administration, and general science. Students might elect one or two of agriculture, industry, commerce, or military affairs. Western languages, Eastern languages, mathematics, and gymnastics were optional. The course ran three years.

各學堂管理通則之規定，與舊章大體相同。月朔，監督、教員集諸生禮堂，宣讀聖諭廣訓一條。皇太后、皇上萬壽節，至聖先師孔子誕日，春、秋上丁釋奠，為慶祝日。堂中各員率學生至萬歲牌前或聖人位前行三跪九叩禮。畢，各員西鄉立，學生向各員行三揖禮，退。開學、散學或畢業，率學生至萬歲牌前、聖人位前行禮如儀。學生向監督、教員行一跪三叩禮。監督等施訓語，乃散。月朔，率學生至聖人位前行禮如儀。每日講堂授課，多者不得過六小時。房、虛、星、昴日為休息例假，慶祝日、端午、中秋節各放假一日。每年以正月二十日開學，至小暑節散學，為第一學期。立秋後六日開學，至十二月十五日散學，為第二學期。學生賞罰，由教員、監學摘出，監督核定。賞分三種：曰語言獎勵，曰名譽獎勵，曰實物獎勵。罰分三種：曰記過，曰禁假，曰出堂。學生以端飭品行為第一要義，監督、監學及教員隨時稽察，詳定分數，與科學分數合算。

The general rules for running schools largely followed the old regulations. On the first of each month the superintendent and teachers gathered the students in the hall and read one passage from the Sacred Edict and Amplified Instructions. Celebrated days included the birthdays of the Empress Dowager and the Emperor, the birthday of Confucius, and the spring and autumn shangding sacrifices. All staff led the students before the Long-Life tablets or Confucius's seat and performed the three kneelings and nine prostrations. When the rite was done, the staff stood facing west while the students bowed to them three times and withdrew. At opening, closing, or graduation, students were led before the Long-Life tablets and Confucius's seat to perform the prescribed rites. Students then performed one kneeling and three prostrations before the superintendent and teachers. The superintendent and others gave admonitions, and the assembly broke up. On the first of each month students were led before Confucius's seat to perform the prescribed rites. Daily classroom instruction could not exceed six hours. Regular rest days fell on Fang, Xu, Xing, and Mao; celebrated days, the Dragon Boat Festival, and the Mid-Autumn Festival each brought one day off. The first term opened on the twentieth day of the first month and closed at Minor Heat. The second term opened six days after Beginning of Autumn and closed on the fifteenth of the twelfth month. Teachers and student supervisors proposed rewards and punishments, which the superintendent confirmed. Rewards took three forms: verbal praise, honors, and material prizes. Punishments took three forms: demerit marks, denial of leave, and expulsion. Proper conduct came first: the superintendent, student supervisors, and teachers watched students constantly, graded conduct in detail, and combined those scores with academic marks.

學堂考試分五種：曰臨時考試，曰學期考試，曰年終考試，曰畢業考試，曰升學考試。臨時試無定期，學期、年終、畢業考試分數與平日分數平均計算。年考及格者升一級，不及格者留原級補習，下屆再試，仍不及格者退學。評定分數，以百分為滿格，八十分以上為最優等，六十分以上為優等，四十分以上為中等，二十分以上為下等，謂之及格，二十分以下為最下等，應出學。

School examinations fell into five types: spot tests, term exams, year-end exams, graduation exams, and promotion exams. Spot tests had no fixed schedule; term, year-end, and graduation marks were averaged with daily grades. Passing the annual exam advanced a student one grade; failure meant repeating the year and retesting; a second failure brought dismissal. Grades ran to one hundred points: eighty or above counted as highest excellence, sixty as excellence, forty as middling, twenty as lowest pass—all deemed passing; below twenty was failing and meant leaving school.

畢業考試最重，視學堂程度，由所在地方官長會同監督、教員親蒞之，照鄉會試例。高等學畢業，簡放主考，會同督、撫、學政考試。大學分科畢業，簡放總裁，會同學務大臣考試。分內、外二場：外場試，就學堂舉行。擇各科講義精要一二條摘問，令諸生答述。內場試，擇地扃試。分兩場：首場以中學發題，經、史各一，經用論，史用策。二場以西學發題，政、藝各一，西政用考，西藝用說。通儒院畢業，不派員考試，以平日研究所得各種著述，評定等第，進呈，候欽定。其獎勵章程，比照獎勵出洋遊學日本學生例，通儒院畢業，予以翰林升階，或分用較優京、外官。大學分科畢業，最優等作為進士出身，用翰林院編修、檢討。優等、中等均作為進士出身，分別用翰林院庶吉士、各部主事。大學選科，比照分科大學降等給獎。大學豫備科及各省高等學畢業，最優等作為舉人，以內閣中書、知州用。優等、中等均作為舉人，以中書科中書、部司務、知縣、通判用。中學畢業，分別獎以拔貢、優貢、歲貢。高等小學畢業，分別獎以廩、增、附生。初等小學屬義務教育，不給獎。優級師範畢業，最優等、優等、中等均作為舉人，分別以國子監博士、助教、學正用。初級師範畢業，分別獎以拔貢、優貢、歲貢，以教授、教諭、訓導用。高等實業學堂畢業，最優等、優等、中等均作為舉人，分別以知州、知縣、州同用。中等實業學堂畢業，獎勵視中學。奏定章程規定之概要如此。

Graduation exams mattered most: according to a school's level, local officials joined the superintendent and teachers in presiding, on the model of the provincial and metropolitan examinations. Higher-school graduations were examined by appointed chief examiners together with governors-general, governors, and education commissioners. University division graduations were examined by an appointed chief superintendent together with the Minister of Education. Exams were split into outer and inner sessions; the outer session was held at the school. One or two essential points from each subject's lectures were chosen for questioning, and students answered orally. The inner session was held at a sealed examination site. The inner exam had two parts: the first tested Chinese learning with one classics essay and one history policy question. The second tested Western learning with one question on Western politics and one explanatory essay on Western arts. Academy of Universal Learning graduates were not examined by appointed officials; their research writings were graded and submitted for imperial approval. Rewards followed the precedent for students sent to study in Japan: Academy graduates received Hanlin advancement or assignment to better capital or provincial posts. University division graduates of highest excellence received jinshi status and appointment as Hanlin compilers or reviewers. Those of excellence and middling rank also received jinshi status and appointment as Hanlin probationers or departmental secretaries. University elective students received reduced awards compared with full division graduates. University preparatory and provincial higher-school graduates of highest excellence received juren status and appointment as Grand Secretariat secretaries or prefects. Those of excellence and middling rank also received juren status and appointment as secretaries, departmental clerks, magistrates, or assistant prefects. Middle-school graduates were rewarded with the titles of chosen, excellent, or regular tribute student. Higher primary graduates received stipendiary, supplemented, or attached licentiate status. Elementary primary education was compulsory and carried no awards. Higher normal graduates of highest excellence, excellence, and middling rank all received juren status and appointment as Imperial College instructors, assistant instructors, or educational directors. Elementary normal graduates received chosen, excellent, or regular tribute student status and appointment as professors, instructors, or local education officers. Higher vocational graduates of highest excellence, excellence, and middling rank all received juren status and appointment as prefects, magistrates, or sub-prefects. Middle vocational graduates received the same awards as middle-school graduates. Such was the outline of the approved regulations.

三十一年，詔以各省學堂次第興辦，必須有總匯之區，以資董率而專責成。特設學部，命榮慶為尚書，熙瑛、嚴修為侍郎。裁國子監，歸併學部。明年，學部奏請宣示教育宗旨，略言：「今中國振興學務，宜注重普通教育，令全國之民無人不學。尤以明定宗旨，宣示天下，為握要之圖。中國政教所固有，亟宜發明以距異說者有二：曰忠君，曰尊孔。中國民質所最缺，亟宜箴砭以圖振起者有三：曰尚公，曰尚武，曰尚實。」上諭照所陳各節通飭遵行。尋奏定學部官制，於本部各司、科分掌教育行政事務外，設編譯圖書局、調查學制局、京師督學局。又擬設高等教育會議所，屬學部長官監督。其議員選派部員，及直轄學堂、各省中等以上學堂監督，暨京、外官紳，學識宏通，於教育素有經驗者充任。又擬設教育研究所，延聘精通教育之員，定期講演，以訓練本部員司焉。先是直督袁世凱奏陳學務未盡事宜，以裁撤學政為言。雲南學政吳魯奏請裁撤學政。至是學部會同政務處復議，言：「各省教育行政及擴張興學之經費，督飭辦學之考成，與地方行政在在皆有關係。學政位分較尊，事權不屬，於督、撫為敵體，諸事不便於稟承，於地方為客官，一切不靈於呼應。且地方寥闊，官立、公立、私立學堂日新月盛，勢不能如歲、科試分棚調考之例。而循例按臨，更日不暇給。勞費供張，無裨實事。擬請裁撤學政，各省改設提學使司提學使一員，統轄全省學務，歸督、撫節制。於省會置學務公所，分曹隸事。選派官紳有學行者，別設學務議紳四人，延訪本省學望較崇之紳士充選。議長一人，學部慎選奏派。」從之。嗣是各省學務始有確定之執行機關矣。

In the thirty-first year an edict declared that as schools rose across the provinces, a central office was needed to lead the effort and hold sole responsibility. The Ministry of Education was created, with Rong Qing as Minister and Xi Ying and Yan Xiu as Vice Ministers. The Imperial College was abolished and absorbed into the Ministry of Education. The next year the Ministry asked that the educational aim be proclaimed, writing in summary: "In reviving China's schools, the emphasis should fall on general education until every person in the country is taught. Above all, a clear aim proclaimed to the realm is the essential step. Two principles inherent in China's polity and teaching must urgently be upheld against heterodox doctrines: loyalty to the sovereign and reverence for Confucius. Three qualities most lacking in the national character must urgently be cultivated for renewal: public spirit, martial spirit, and practical spirit. The throne ordered every point circulated and obeyed throughout the realm. The Board of Education soon submitted regulations for its own organization; beyond the departments and sections that handled routine educational administration, it set up bureaus for compiling and translating books, investigating school systems, and supervising education in the capital. It also proposed a Higher Education Council under the supervision of the Board's senior officials. Members were to include ministry staff, supervisors of directly administered and provincial middle and higher schools, and learned officials and gentry in the capital and provinces with long experience in education. It also proposed an Educational Research Institute that would engage education specialists to lecture on a regular schedule and train the ministry's own personnel. Earlier, Zhili governor-general Yuan Shikai had memorialized on remaining problems in educational administration, urging the abolition of education commissioners. Yunnan education commissioner Wu Lu likewise memorialized to abolish the post. The Board of Education and the Bureau of Government Affairs then reconsidered the question and argued: "Provincial educational administration, the money needed to expand schooling, and the performance reviews for supervising schools are all bound up with local government at every turn. Education commissioners outranked local officials yet did not belong to the provincial chain of command; treated as equals of governors-general and governors, they could not easily report up or receive orders, and as outsiders in the province they found it hard to get anything done. Provinces were vast, and government, public, and private schools were multiplying daily; it was impossible to keep up the old practice of touring separate examination sheds for annual and supplementary tests. Even making the rounds on the old schedule would leave no day free. The labor, expense, and ceremonial display would do nothing for real educational work. They proposed abolishing education commissioners and replacing them in each province with a single education intendant, heading an Education Intendant's Office to oversee all provincial schools under the governor-general and governor. Each provincial capital would have a public education office with specialized sections under it. Learned officials and gentry would be chosen, and four education advisers appointed from the province's most respected scholars. One chair would be carefully chosen by the Board of Education and appointed by imperial order. The proposal was approved. From then on, every province had a stable executive body for educational affairs.

勸學所之設，創始於直隸學務處。時嚴修任學務處督辦，提倡小學教育，設勸學所，為廳、州、縣行政機關。仿警察分區辦法，采日本地方教育行政及學校管理法，訂定章程，頗著成效。三十二年，學部奏定勸學所章程，通行全國，即修呈訂原章也。勸學所由地方官監督，設總董一員，以縣視學兼充，綜核各學區事務。區設勸學員一人，任一學區內勸學之責，以勸募學生多寡，定勸學員成績之優劣。其章程內推廣學務一條，規定辦法凡五：曰勸學，曰興學，曰籌款，曰開風氣，曰去阻力。又奏定各省教育會章程，省會設立者為總會，府、州、縣設立者為分會，以補助教育行政，與學務公所、勸學所相輔而行。皆普及教育切要之圖也。

Educational promotion offices were first created by the Zhili Bureau of Educational Affairs. When Yan Xiu headed the bureau, he promoted primary education and set up promotion offices as the administrative organs of prefectures, departments, and counties. Modeled on police districting and drawing on Japanese local educational administration and school-management law, the regulations proved notably effective. In 1906 the Board of Education memorialized regulations for promotion offices and applied them nationwide—the very rules Yan had drafted. Local officials supervised each promotion office; a general director, who also served as county school inspector, coordinated all school districts. Each district had one promotion officer responsible for recruiting students; performance was judged by how many pupils were enrolled. The section on expanding educational work listed five tasks: encouraging study, founding schools, raising funds, changing public attitudes, and removing obstacles. Regulations for provincial education associations followed: general associations at provincial capitals and branch associations in prefectures, departments, and counties, to assist educational administration alongside public education offices and promotion offices. All were vital steps toward universal education.

學部設立後，於各項學堂章程多所更正。其要者，如改訂考試辦法，詳定師範獎勵義務，變通中、小學課程，中學分文科、實科之類，然大致不外修正科目，確定限制，其宏綱細目，不能出奏定章程之範圍。所增定者，則女學堂章程也。先是學部官制已將女學列入職掌。三十三年，奏定女子師範、女子小學章程，以裨補家計，有益家庭教育為要旨。師範科目：修身、教育、國文、歷史、地理、算學、格致、圖畫、家事、裁縫、手藝、音樂、體操。四年畢業。音樂得隨意學習。小學分兩等，高等科目：修身、國文、算術、中國歷史、地理、格致、圖畫、女紅、體操，得酌加音樂，為隨意科。初等科目：修身、國文、算術、女紅、體操，得酌加音樂、圖畫二隨意科。均四年畢業。其授業鐘點，較男子小學減少，與男子小學分別設立，不得混合。宣統三年。奏設中央教育會議，以討論教育應行改進事宜及推行方法。則根據學部原奏，擬設高等教育會議所之規定行之。此為第二期有系統之教育制度也。

Once the Board of Education was in place, it revised regulations for many types of schools. Major changes included new examination rules, clearer incentives and duties for normal schools, revised middle and primary curricula, and the division of middle schools into literary and practical tracks; but these were mostly adjustments to subjects and limits, and the broad framework still fell within the memorial-approved regulations. The chief addition was a set of regulations for girls' schools. The Board's own organizational regulations had already placed girls' education within its jurisdiction. In 1907 regulations for women's normal and primary schools were approved, emphasizing support for household economy and improvement of home education. Normal-school subjects were ethics, pedagogy, Chinese, history, geography, mathematics, natural science, drawing, domestic science, sewing, handicrafts, music, and gymnastics. The course ran four years. Music was optional. Primary schools had two levels. The higher level taught ethics, Chinese, arithmetic, Chinese history, geography, natural science, drawing, needlework, and gymnastics, with music optional. The elementary level taught ethics, Chinese, arithmetic, needlework, and gymnastics, with music and drawing optional. Both levels required four years. Instructional hours were shorter than in boys' primary schools; girls' schools were to be separate and not combined with boys' schools. In 1911. A Central Education Conference was established to discuss needed reforms and how to carry them out. It followed the Board of Education's earlier proposal for a Higher Education Council. This marked the systematic educational order of the second period.

至考驗遊學畢業生，光緒二十九年，鄂督張之洞奏准鼓勵遊學章程。三十一年，學務大臣考驗北洋學生金邦平等，援照鄉、會試覆試例，奏請在保和殿考試，給予出身，分別錄用。迨三十二年，學部奏定，自本年始，每年八月舉行一次。並為綜覈名實起見，妥議考驗章程。將學成試驗與入官試驗分為兩事，酌照分科大學及高等學畢業章程，會同欽派大臣，按所習學科分門考試。酌擬等第，候欽定分別獎給進士、舉人等出身。仍將某科字樣加於進士等名目之上，以為表識。考試分兩場：第一場就所習學科擇要命題；第二場試中國文、外國文，罷廷試。明年，學部憲政編查館會奏遊學畢業廷試錄用章程，仍暫照三十一年成案。於欽派大臣會同學部考試請予出身後，廷試一次，分別授職。廷試用經義、科學、論、說各一，其醫、工、格致、農等科大學及各項高等實業學堂畢業者，免試經義。時遊學日本、歐、美畢業回國者，絡繹不絕，歲舉行考驗以為常，終清世不廢。

As for examining students returning from study abroad, Hubei governor-general Zhang Zhidong had won approval in 1903 for regulations encouraging overseas study. In 1905 the Minister of Education examined Beiyang students such as Jin Bangping and, following the precedent of provincial and metropolitan re-examinations, asked that they be tested in the Hall of Preserving Harmony, granted degrees, and appointed to office. In 1906 the Board of Education fixed annual examinations beginning that year, to be held each eighth month. To match credentials to real accomplishment, it also drafted careful examination rules. Graduation testing and entry into office were separated; following the regulations for specialized universities and higher schools, imperially appointed officials would examine candidates by field of study. Grades were proposed pending imperial approval, with jinshi, juren, and other degrees awarded accordingly. The field of study was still prefixed to titles such as jinshi for identification. The examination had two parts: the first tested the candidate's major subjects; the second tested Chinese and a foreign language, and the palace examination was dropped. The next year the Board of Education and the Constitutional Compilation and Investigation Office jointly submitted rules for palace examination and appointment of returned students, temporarily following the 1905 arrangement. After imperial appointees and the Board examined candidates and petitioned for degrees, a palace examination was held once more and offices were assigned. The palace test required one essay each on classical interpretation, science, disquisition, and exposition; graduates of medical, engineering, natural science, and agricultural universities and of higher vocational schools were exempt from the classical essay. Graduates returning from Japan, Europe, and America now arrived in a steady flow; annual examinations became routine and continued until the dynasty's end.

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