Febexjary 14, 1908] 



SCIENCE, 



257 



The content of this prolonged course is 

 quite as significant of the modern touch as 

 is its length. Throughout the nine years 

 of the primary and the common school 

 Chinese is the chief subject, representing 

 ten hours a week. Writing covers six 

 hours the first year, but diminishes, becom- 

 ing only two hours in the ninth. Arith- 

 metic begins with three hours, but increases 

 to four at the close of the course. History 

 and geography begin in the fourth year, 

 each subject being allowed two years, but 

 in the sixth year the allowance of time 

 granted to history is increased one hour, 

 In each year of the four of the common 

 school some science is taught two hours a 

 week, and drawing one. Throughout the 

 whole period two hours are given to ethics 

 and three hours to physical drill. 



A similar scheme of equal elaborateness 

 is prescribed in the middle school of five 

 years. In this whole period, Chinese is 

 still studied for six hours. English is in- 

 troduced, being allowed also six hours; 

 mathematics is continued for four hours, 

 including algebra, geometry and trigonom- 

 etry as Avell as arithmetic. Drawing and 

 ethics are also continued, each having one 

 hour, and physical drill still has its former 

 allowance of three hours. Both foreign 

 and Chinese history is studied in the fii-st 

 two years four hours, and in the last three 

 years three hours a week. Such are the 

 "constants" of this higher school course. 

 In addition the "variables" are significant. 

 For four years geography commands two 

 hours a week. For three years four hours 

 a week are given to sciences in which chem- 

 istry and physics fittingly occupy a lead- 

 ing place, and allied with them are physi- 

 ology and hygiene, physical geography, 

 geology and mineralogy. But the sciences 

 are not suffered entirely to exclude literary 

 studies, for political economy and law are 

 studies of two hours a week each for the 

 last year of the long course. 



The student who has completed these 

 three schools, the primary, the common and 

 the middle, covering in all no less than 

 fourteen years, has reached the age of at 

 least twenty— the age of the ordinary 

 sophomore in the American college. On 

 reaching this stage he may pass on to the 

 college of his province. He may enter the 

 normal school, preparing himself to be a 

 teacher to his countrymen, in a course 

 covering either one year or three years. 

 This school includes such subjects as would 

 be found in a good American normal 

 school. Or, this graduate of a middle 

 school may desire, probably does, to be- 

 come an official. In this case he enters a 

 special school. The prospectus of one of 

 these schools— that at Ningpo— says : 



To teach the modern methods of law and gov- 

 ernment, especially as they are related to those 

 of China, and laying emphasis on the study of 

 Japanese law and methods of government. Resi- 

 dent students must, previous to their entrance, 

 have taken a Chinese degree, or be graduates of 

 a middle school. The course extends over two 

 years and the students who have been successful 

 in their examinations will receive certificates, and 

 will then be recommended by the prefect to the 

 governor for official appointment, or for further 

 study in Peking. 



The course of study includes commercial law, 

 theory of governnaent, international law, penal 

 law, judicial law, army organization, Japanese 

 and a little English. 



Such, in bare and bald outline, is the 

 educational system which China has adopt- 

 ed. As a system, comprehending the chief 

 subjects of modern learning, it deserves 

 and receives the highest commendation. 

 The government merits great praise for 

 laying such foundations under most serious 

 difficulties. 



Schools to teach these studies have been 

 established throughout the empire. Some 

 of the sehoolhouses are large and impres- 

 sive structures. Thousands of these schools 

 are now trying to educate hundreds of 

 thousands of Chinese boys and girls. The 



