CHAPTER XXI
SYSTEM OF EDUCATION
THE STUDENT
When a child in China reaches the age of five or six years, his parents, no matter what their position may be, begin to think about giving him a master, so that his education may be commenced. Although instruction is not compulsory in China, I do not know of any children who do not go to school. Of course, more or less time is spent there by the different scholars, according to their several intelligences or the position of their parents.
A lucky day at the beginning of the year is chosen, and on this day the child is sent to some celebrated man of letters to receive his first lesson, which consists in learning the three first lines of an elementary book called San-Tse-King, in which every sentence consists of three syllables, and which resumes the history of China and the duties of man.
This task having been accomplished, the boy is sent to school, where his real instruction commences, for the course we have spoken about is a mere preliminary formality, undertaken by an honorary professor. As soon as he has got safely through the San-Tse-King, the boy passes on to a second book, called the Tsien-Tse-Weng, a work which contains one thousand different letters. At the same time, the scholar has to paint over in black letters drawn in red in his copy-book by the schoolmaster. At first the child is taken on the knees by his master, who guides his hand, but little by little he is left to himself. Later on, he is given a copy to trace through transparent paper, and so on. A more serious course of instruction, including the four classical works of Confucius and of Meng-Tse, and the five King, or sacred, books, follow this preparatory course. Whilst these studies are going on, the professor instructs his scholars in the poetry of the land. As an exercise, he gives as a daily task a line of seven words, the child having to compose a parallel verse. As an example, heaven, earth, mountain, water, and so on. When a child is able to give the parallel of a line of seven words his intelligence may be considered to be fairly well developed, as we shall see.
I remember one day at school the professor gave us the following theme, which in Chinese is a line of seven words, and which was suggested to him by a phenomenon which he had just witnessed:—