论明代社学与学校教育

On the Community Schools and School Education in Ming Dynasty

明代学校教育的宗旨是为科举考试服务,在此前提下,明代地方府、州、县学均为官办学校。以往史学界对明代基层社学的论述总的倾向是社学游离于官学之外,我通过对明代大量文献资料的分析研究,认为社学是明代官学系统的最基础部分,它对于准确理解《明史》所说“科举必由学校,而学校起家可不由科举”,具有重要的意义。

The purpose of the school education of Ming Dynasty is to serve for the imperial examinations. Under such circumstances, the schools run by the local counties, prefectures and provinces all pertain to the central government. The conclusions made by the former historical cycle tended to believe that the community schools were separated from the official schools. But by analyzing and studying a pile of documents of Ming Dynasty, it has been found that the community school is the most fundamental part of the official school system in Ming Dynasty, which has an important significance to the understanding of the sentence “imperial examinations were to start from schools whereas the start of schools did not depend on imperial examinations.” （Extracted from the History of Ming Dynasty）.