At the beginning of school, I believe many people have experienced the fear of being dominated by unfinished homework when school starts on September 1st. Even though no one reminds me, before this day comes, they must be crazily making up for homework. homework situation. However, have you ever thought about why September 1st is the first day of school? Why not at other times? If it were placed in ancient times, what would ancient students do and what should they prepare when school starts?
Seeing the naughty kids carrying small schoolbags, do you think of the mood you felt when school started? Finally, you don’t have to hand in summer homework in college! It feels so good! Count on your fingers, from the age of 7 to 1 From the first grade until we graduate from college at the age of 22, we have to experience a total of 32 starts of school every year.
Have you ever wondered why primary, secondary and university schools across the country have agreed to start school on September 1st? Take a look at the following replies from various young gods:
Ordinary young people said: Summer is over, the weather has turned cooler, and the weather in September is more suitable for studying. As for the 1st, it may be to facilitate the calculation of class hours.
The literary youth said: Our country is a big agricultural country, and autumn is a busy farming season. The autumn harvest has not yet begun on the 1st, so it is relatively leisurely. The new school year starts on this day.
The strange young man said: History has stipulated that this date may have been set since ancient times.
None of these are entirely correct. History happened like this:
As early as 1912, September 1st became the unified start time of school in our country. This was determined by Dr. Sun Yat-sen. But before that, there were certain historical factors in our country’s decision to start school in the fall. At the beginning of the 20th century, the Qing government ordered Zhang Baixi, Rongqing, and Zhang Zhidong to re-draft the school charter based on the Japanese academic system. In January 1904, the "Guimao Academic System" was announced, which was scheduled to start in the autumn.
"Guimao Academic System" is the first officially implemented academic system in modern China. In 1902, Zhang Baixi, the Minister of Education, drafted the "Regulations of the Imperial School", which is the Renyin school system, but it was not implemented in time.
The "Guimao Schooling System" is the first systematic schooling system promulgated by the state and implemented nationwide in modern China. For the first time, it clarified the unified start time of primary and secondary schools across the country (equivalent to early September in the Gregorian calendar). However, the lunar calendar was still in use at that time, so the statement that school would start on September 1st was still uncertain.
Until 1912, Sun Yat-sen announced that he would change the lunar calendar to the Gregorian calendar that is universally accepted around the world. From September of that year to August of the following year, the Nanjing Provisional Government successively promulgated various school regulations, which were historically known as the "Renzi Guichou Academic System". Among them, the opening time of primary and secondary schools continued to be proposed by the Qing government, and was further determined as September 1 of the Gregorian calendar, and is still used today.
It turns out that the origin of September 1st has such a long historical allusion. Did you guess it correctly?
What did children in ancient times do when they "started school"?
In the Han Dynasty, there were three admission times a year. Cui Shi, a political commentator in the Han Dynasty, recorded the specific admission times in the "Four People's Monthly Orders": in the first month when farming was leisurely, in August when the summer retreated, and in November when the ice gradually began to freeze, these three The time is all during the off-season, so that parents don’t have to delay farm work because their children go to school. In the Northern and Southern Dynasties, school opening times were unified, and winter schooling became customized. However, school opening times were different in previous dynasties. For example, in the Song Dynasty, school started in October of the lunar calendar. Lu You wrote in the poem "Winter Suburbs", "Children study in winter and make noise among neighbors. According to the case, the Confucians are ignorant but they cherish themselves." It is recorded in detail in the annotation that "Farmers send their children to school in October, which is called winter school." The change of school start time basically follows the rule of "not taking away the farming time."
In the ancient "opening ceremony", you must dress properly and use cinnabar to enlighten your mind.
The ancient academic system was not as regular as it is today. However, the admission of freshmen still received great attention, and the "entrance ceremony" It is regarded as one of the four great gifts in life, along with coming-of-age ceremony, wedding and funeral. In ancient times, children generally entered private schools between the ages of four and eight, which was called "opening a book", "breaking a school" or "breaking a monk". It was similar to today's children's primary education, which was handed down according to the "Book of Rites" and "Disciples' Regulations" The "opening ceremony" usually includes dressing up, performing apprenticeship ceremonies, purifying hands and mind, and enlightening one's mind with cinnabar, etc.
According to the "Book of Rites": "The beginning of etiquette lies in correct appearance, uniform color, and correct speech." Therefore, the first lesson of the ancient opening ceremony is "correct clothing and hats." When entering the school, the new students should stand up one by one, and the teacher will help the students tidy up their clothes in turn. Then, "neatly dressed" people lined up to assemble in front of the school. After standing respectfully for a moment, you can enter the school under the leadership of your teacher.
After entering the school, an apprenticeship ceremony must be held first. Students must first kowtow to the throne of the most holy teacher Confucius, kneel on the ground and kowtow nine times; then they must bow to the teacher and kowtow three times. After paying homage to the teacher, the students presented six rites to the teacher. The so-called six rites of repair are the six kinds of gifts that disciples gave to their masters during the apprenticeship ceremony in ancient times. They are: celery: meaning diligent and studious, and good at work; lotus seeds: lotus seeds are hard-working, meaning painstaking education; red beans: meaning good luck Gao Zhao; red dates: meaning early and high school; longan: meaning perfect merit; dried lean meat strips: to express the disciple's thoughts.
After the apprenticeship ceremony, the students must put their hands in the basin to "clean their hands" according to the teacher's request. The method of "cleaning hands" is to wash the front and back once, and then dry them. The meaning of washing hands is to purify your hands and mind, remove impurities and retain essence, so that you can concentrate on your studies in the future without any distractions.
Cinnabar Qizhi, also called cinnabar Qizhi or cinnabar dot mole, is the last procedure in the opening ceremony. The specific method is that the teacher holds a brush dipped in cinnabar and puts a red dot like a "mole" on the student's eyebrows. Because "mole" and "wisdom" are homophonic, the cinnabar-spotted mole actually means "wisdom". I hope students can learn in a simple way in the future.
Learn to recognize the four directions at the age of 6. You can enter primary school at the age of 10.
The ancients attached great importance to enlightenment. The philosopher Wang Chong of the Eastern Han Dynasty entered school at the age of 8, and the king of medicine Sun Simiao entered the school at the age of 7. Mengguan is today's kindergarten and primary school. Since the country did not carry out large-scale early childhood education, government-run primary schools were generally limited to children of aristocrats, so early childhood education was not popular at the beginning.
In the Sui Dynasty, the imperial examination system rose, especially after the Song Dynasty. The idea that "everything is of inferior quality, only those who study well" was deeply imprinted in the minds of the people at that time. It has become the goal pursued by the world, so private education (especially private education) has risen on a large scale. During the Ming and Qing Dynasties, Menggguan (private schools) became popular throughout the country.
The learning content is not the same across the dynasties. Take the Western Zhou Dynasty as an example: in kindergarten, children learn to read numbers and recognize four directions at the age of 6; understand the differences between men and women at the age of 7; become familiar with the etiquette of receiving people and things at the age of 8; and memorize the days and signs of the month at the age of 9. Year: You can enter primary school at the age of 10. The main learning content in primary school is "Book" and "Number" among the "Six Arts", which are basic cultural courses. "Book" refers to the writing class, and "number" refers to the algorithm and counting class.
During the Song and Yuan Dynasties, detailed teaching plans were initially formulated. In particular, the "Yearly Schedule for Studying in Cheng's Family School" formulated by Cheng Duanli in the early Yuan Dynasty became the most typical "teaching plan" in school education in the Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties. ”, which has a profound impact to this day. It mainly implements the elementary school curriculum represented by "Three, Hundred, Thousand, Thousand", which is also known as "Three Character Classic", "Hundred Family Surnames", "Thousand Character Classic" and "Thousand Family Poems". The teaching content mainly includes three stages: literacy, writing and reading. Literacy is the foundation of cultural learning and is also the first thing children start learning after entering school. Private schools in the Ming and Qing Dynasties mostly focused on literacy. Literacy teaching generally refers to several methods such as object literacy, card literacy, book literacy, and comparative literacy. Writing, also known as calligraphy, used brush writing in ancient times and paid attention to calligraphy. Basic skills must be practiced from elementary school.
Moreover, the ancients attached great importance to calligraphy. For example, in the Tang Dynasty, "neat and beautiful calligraphy" became an important criterion for the selection of officials. Most of the calligraphers were officials. For example, the calligraphers Su Shi, Huang Tingjian, Mi Fu and Cai Xiang who best represented the calligraphy achievements of the Song Dynasty were all high-ranking officials. Beautiful handwriting was a major requirement for ancient literati.
In the process of primary school education, based on the characteristics of children with "more memory and less comprehension", children are required to recite as much as possible when they are young and have good memory, and then digest it when they grow older. This is what we call Said by rote.
But at this time, teachers pay more attention to the cultivation of reading habits, emphasizing "mind, eyes, mouth" and correct posture to develop good study habits and facilitate future learning.