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The term mengxue [méng!] 蒙學 "teaching for the ignorant" refers to elementary learing in traditional China. During the Han period 漢 (206 BCE-220 CE), it became common for children of the higher classes, to obtain education at latest in the age of eight sui (corresponds to six or seven years according to Western reckoning). In special preparation schools (waishe 外舍) they started learning Chinese characters and how to read and to write. This was called the small learning (xiaoxue 小學), or learning the smaller arts (xiaoyi 小藝) i. e., not the Confucian Classics. The schools were called waishe, waifu 外傅, xueguan 學館 or shuguan 書館, the teachers were called shushi 書師. As textbooks served character dictionaries like the Cangjiepian 倉頡篇 or Jijiupian 急就篇, but also some Confucian Classics like the Xiaojing 孝經 "Classic on Filial Piety" or the "Confucian Analects" Lunyu 論語.
From the Song period 宋 (960-1279) on the official schools were called guanxue 官學 "studies for officialdom", while the private schools were called shuyuan 書院 "academies". Both types served for the preparation to the state examinations. The most important textbooks of elementary learning of that period were the Sanzijing 三字經, Qianziwen 千字文 and Baijiaxing 百家姓, and then the canon of the Sishu 四書 "Four Books". The elemantary schools of the Ming 明 (1368-1644) and Qing 清 (1644-1911) periods were called mengguan 蒙館 and were established throughout the country. In 1902, statutes for the establishing of schools were issued, the Xuetang zhangcheng 學堂章程, in which three levels of education were defined: mengxuetang 蒙學堂 "primary school", xunchang xiaoxuetang 尋常小學堂 "common school" and gaodeng xiaoxuetang 高等小學堂 "high school". The school age started with five sui, or four years. The curriculum included XXX 设修身, characters, reading the Classics, history, geography, mathematics, 体操 XXX.
The traditional bibliographic categories of China do not include a section for elementary learning. Books for this purpose were either totally neglected in the compilation of catalogues or included in other sections, like the Confucian treatises, the arts section, the stories, encyclopedias sections, or in the poetry sections of the category of belles-lettres.
For girls, there was an own tradition of a small corpus of writings because girls did not attend schools until the early 20th century. Girls were educated at home by their mothers, and there were some books on girls' education compiled by female writers. The content of such books was an explanation of the duties of a women before and after marriage towards her parents, her husband, and her parents-in-law. Managing the household and overseeing the servants was another important issue of the small canon of books for female education. These books were to be used additionally to the primers used for learning reading and writing. Not one of the books for female education is included in traditional collections of writings, and except Ban Zhao's 班昭 Nüjie 女誡, and such books are not easily accessible.
* not included in the imperial collectaneum Siku quanshu 四庫全書
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Chinese literature according to the four-category system
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