淸末의 基督敎系 학교: 1, 2차 기독교 선교사 대회 前後를 중심으로

Abstract

Protestant missionary schools began as an indirect mission to convert Chinese people to Christianity, because it was difficult to get a good result through direct propagation. Education and medical mission were considered a right arm and a left arm of indirect mission respectively. The early protestant school was a subsidiary institute of church, where Christianity and English were taught to poor students. And naturally their concern was focused on the elementary education, since children was regarded easier to convert. The first General Conference of the Protestant Missionaries of China was held in Shanghai in 1877. One of the important topics in this conference, which is noteworthy in the sense that missionaries began to gather together, was groping the direction of the protestant schools. There was a general consensus on the necessity of education in China. However, there was conflict between two perspectives, one of which was an anxiety on the secularization of the education and the other was the insistence that Christian school should provide more advanced high education. This reflects the subtle change in the nature of education in Christian school. The decision was made on the organization of School and Text Book Series Committee in this conference, which was an epoch-making moment for the mutual cooperation and the specialization for the development of school and the publication of textbooks. The number of different levels of schools was 347, and total number of students was 5,917 this time. Girls' schools were more than boys', girls' boarding schools were more than boys', and American missionary schools were more than schools of Europe. The orientation toward advanced high education became stronger since the conference, which means that the missionary education grew more faithful to the original purpose of education itself. The second General Conference of the Protestant Missionaries in China was held, in which the common concerns on Christian School continued to be discussed. According to the report to the conference, 1,296 ministers of 41 Christian societies, 37,287 Christians and 16,836 students were in China. The School and Text Book Series Committee was decided to be reorganized into The Educational Association of China in the conference. The title of this association gives us an impression as if this association represented the Chinese whole education, which was not made by accident but was an expression of their pride that they were promoting the revolution in the Chinese educational system. This pride consolidated the theory that Christian missionary school should be dedicated to the education in itself beyond the mission, supported by the contemporary critics on the traditional Chinese education for secular success. Though they still kept their belief that education will help mission at length, the balance between the education for mission and the education for education itself began to reverse at this instance. Protestant schools grew up to 30,000 students of 1,766 day-schools and 4,300 students of 105 boarding schools and colleges around 1899. And foreign ministers were 2,461, the chinese ministers were 5,071, and believers were 80,682. Compared with the report of the first conference, the number of foreign ministers increased by 1,9 times, believers by 2,2 times and school students increased by two times in 1899. The change that the Chinese minister was twice more than foreign ministers was also noteworthy change in 1899. However, the protestant missionary school was seriously damaged because of the Boxers' Rebellion, with a lot of schools destroyed or stopped. 135 missionaries and 53 children of them were killed. Nevertheless, after the rebellion was suppressed together with the occupation of Beijing by the allied forces of 8 powers, the educational activities of the protestant Christians became more active and expansive. At the same time the colleges were also improved in system and educational level. Though this has partly been criticized as a "cultural invasion" which was promoted exploiting the change in policy of their own imperial states, the Chinese inner change in the recognition and the policies about education should be made consideration for. In 1901 the traditional state examination system was decided to be completely abolished in 10 years later, and a modern education or school system began to be discussed. In January 1904 Authorized School Regulation was promulgated to further promote the educational reforms. Confirmed of the power of the west, Ch'ing court had to launch a series of educational reforms, which situation gave a great assistance to the Christian education in China. The great reform to abolish the state examination system and build modern school system provided both the opportunity and the crisis for the protestant Christian schools. For the position and meaning of the protestant schools would be prominent, when the Chinese modern education did not have any progress. The many opinions that missionary societies should invest more on education were also suggested in the sense of crisis. In 1903 the number protestant schools except elementary schools was 287, and the number of students was 10,158. As modern school system started in China, the weight that Christian schools took in the Chinese education decreased. In 1912 the total number of students in all levels of schools was 3,077,571, among which the number of students attending the Chinese public and private schools was 2,938,634. And the students attending protestant Christian schools were 138,937, which occupied 4.51%, or 5∼6% when the students in Catholic school were added. Especially the students of middle education or high education almost approached 10%. The colleges participating in the Chinese Christian College Association established in 1919 were 14, and the students' portion among all the college students was 19.45%, which was much higher than that of elementary school or middle and high school students. The high portion in high education means that the nature of education had changed from education for mission to education for education. The number of western schools managed by the protestant missionary society was much more than the Chinese modern schools newly established since the period of self-strengthening movement. The western educational system, educational philosophy, educational curriculum, educational methodology, compilation of textbook, classification of learning, English class, 3 levels' school system that they demonstrated were completely new things which had not been seen in the Chinese traditional education system. Above all, the idea of national education that all the people should be educated beyond the difference between the rich and the poor, between man and woman, was able to supply a new inspiration and intuition for the Chinese educational reforms. The development of protestant missionary school in the late Ch'ing provides a good example which shows us that a human education increasingly changes itself to be faithful to the original purpose of education, even though it started from a special or specific purpose like propagation or mission. Further research will be needed to confirm whether this is universal phenomena or special case in China. Anyway missionary school which provided the provocation and the inspiration for the Chinese modern education became faced with the challenge of the Chinese leaders in the modern national education demanding them to be assimilated to the Chinese reality. Educational Right Recovery Movement of 1920s was waiting for them.