Charitable Schools as a Social Welfare Project in the Ming Dynasty

Abstract

This article aims at discussing charitable schools in the Ming dynasty, which was one form of primary schooling beside the village schools. Focus is on their aims, founders, teachers, and students, as well as what is possible to infer from the material about the content of studies and the pedagogy. Furthermore, the relation between Neo-Confucianism and primary schooling will be discussed. Several well-known works have been written on the higher levels of education and the examination system, but lower levels such as village schools and charitable schools are still not sufficiently studied. In the present article, I argue that the charitable school as a school form is a part of larger charitable projects established by local officials to improve social welfare. The locations of those schools were not necessarily in rural areas as was the case with the village schools, but more often in urban areas. However, the aims were the same, that is, to transform poor boys into well-behaving and morally good adults and to make them literate, most likely in that order, that is, moral transformation first and practical skills next.