《童幼教育》与明清之际西方儿童教育思想的导入

Child Education and Introduction of Child Education Ideas from the West in the Late Ming and the Early Qing Dynasties

明清之际,西方的宗教文化和科技知识等伴随着“西学东渐”的浪潮和耶稣会士的来华而传入中国,这一时期以耶稣会学校为代表的西方教育也随之被导入,艾儒略撰写的《西学凡》和《职方外纪》就是两部众所周知的代表作。相比之下,高一志撰写的《童幼教育》却鲜为人知,也未经学界充分研讨。从历史上看,它标志着西方教育思想传入中国之始,也堪称中国古代儿童教育论著百花园中的奇葩。

The Italian Jesuit A.Vagnoni set out on his journey to China in 1603. Two years later, he arrived in Macao, then in Nanjing. Due to the Nanjing Missionary Incident, Vagnoni was expelled and banished to Macao. During his stay there, he taught such courses as theology at College of St. Paul. Meanwhile, he also wrote the book Child Education and had it published. Consisting of 20 chapters in two volumes, the book probes into various aspects of child education from two perspectives： teaching and learning. For example, the book discusses physical nurturance and mental education, covers family and school education, focuses on knowledge teaching and moral development, and concerns children＇s study and their daily lives. It embodies the spirit and essence of education by introducing ideas of western child education and absorbing theories and viewpoints of child education in ancient China. For example, the book emphasizes the importance of healthy pregnancy and scientific nurturing to children＇s growth and highlights the significant role of parents and teachers in child education. In addition, the book pays close attention to the teaching methods and materials in child education. It quotes extensively from the Bible, the recorded utterances by Pythagoras, Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, Zeno, Seneca, Plutarch, M. Aurelius, St. Augustine and I. Loyola, as well as traditional western mottoes and allusions. In the book, the stories about the education and the growth of many celebrities in Western history are enumerated. Noticeably, the book accepts the proper viewpoints of Greek and Roman educationists and is also influenced by educational thoughts of Renaissance humanism. Attempts are also made to explain the Western concepts on child education by drawing on those of traditional Chinese education. This clearly indicates the efforts made by the author to integrate the Chinese and Western concepts on child education. After its introduction to China's Mainland, Child Education attracted the attention from the intelligentsia during late Ming and early Qing Dynasties. For instance, HAN Lin, a gentleman from Shanxi, wrote a preface for the book and quoted much from the book in his D uoshu. Chen Yuan, the famous modern historian, found the book and attached great importance to it. It had also been republished many times since then. In 1919, the famous educationist, Ma Xiang Bo, wrote a postscript for it and illustrated its realistic significance from the perspective of “Saving the country by means of education”. Academically, the book is undoubtedly a very important document in the history of educational exchange between China and the outside world. The significance of its introduction of theories and ideas of western child education has yet to be further studied.