明中期社学不盛的地域性考察——以南直隶江阴县为中心

Regional Investigation on the Weakness of Shexue in the Middle of Ming Dynasty:Taking the Jiangyin County of the South Zhili as the Center

明代嘉靖年间,江阴《县志》纂修者注意到,具有官方背景的基层教育机构——社学发展薄弱,因而怀疑本地文教不振。实际上,明代科举社会中,以教化为主要功能的社学已不能成为社会蒙学教育的主流,而江阴地区在宋元时期形成的良好蒙学教育体系,又进一步限制了其发展。明中期江南经济状况的变化,导致社学寄存基础的里甲制被破坏和以基层民众为主体的社学生源因贫困日益流失,加速了江阴社学的衰败。江阴社学只能在部分有识官员的支持下短期复兴。江阴社学的兴衰是明代江南地区社学发展的一个缩影,从中可以窥见江南地区社学呈现出"短兴长废"的发展态势。

During the Jiajing years in the Ming Dynasty, the Jiangyin county records showed that the development of Shexue, an official grassroots educational institution, was very weak, and therefore doubted the weakness of the local culture and education. In fact, during the Imperial Examination Society of the Ming Dynasty, the Shexue with teaching as the main function could not become the mainstream of Shexue, therefore the good Children Education system formed in the Jiangyin area in the Song and Yuan Dynasties was limited. The change of the economic situation in Jiangnan in the middle of the Ming Dynasty led to the destruction of the foundation system of Shexue storage and the increasing loss of social students as the main body of the grassroots people, which accelerated the decline of Jiangyin's Shexue. Jiangyin Shexue could only be revived in the short term with the support from knowledgeable officials. The rise and fall of Jiangyin Shexue is a microcosm of the development of Shexue in Jiangnan in the Ming Dynasty, from which we can see the development trend of "short prosperous long descending" presented by the Shexue of Jiangnan.