Abstract:

Chinese education in the past century has undergone a series of major transformation. Most previous studies discussed the transformation either from the aspects of ideas, systems and culture, or from the aspects of specialized subjects, such as science education, Chinese education, history education, physical education and health education, etc. Such research tends to overlook the value and subjectivity of human in education. The research on education history from the perspective of body is a new trend in the field of academic research in recent years. It can change the status quo of fragmentation, highlight the subjectivity of human, and expand the research on the history of Education. Along with both domestic strife and foreign aggression, the national crisis compelled some enlightened people like Liang Qi chao and Yan Fu put forward the thought of “building a strong country to protect the Chinese”. Among them, Cai’e, a then well known general, emphasized the importance of education for the shaping of the national body and put forward the idea of military nationalism education. This had a tremendous impact on the transformation of modern education. The focus of “Saving the nation” was on the transformation of national characteristics, especially the national body. And education played an important role in transforming the national body. As the most basic part of national education, the elementary school education is the most important part of the national body shaping. In this paper, body shaping mainly referred to the educational activities required to shape the standardized body image based on certain standard for ideal personality. The premise of body shaping is man’s being unaccom plished. The main targets of shaping were the primary school students. Body shaping emphasized the concurrent development of the external shaping and self cultivation, mainly including the shaping of behavioral habits of health, physical education, etiquette, order and so on. The body shaping of the pupils consisted of the external shaping and the self cultivation. As the Gui mao school system promulgated during the late Qing Dynasty in 1904, the government exercised its control of the enactment of body shaping. Some journals, especially educational journals, such as Educational Review, the Chinese Education Circles and other publications, published a large number of pictures of the primary school students, disseminating the ideas and values among the pupils. Meanwhile, the schools laid down some guidelines to direct the behavior of students, and the school staff came up with the implementation details. The pupils’ diaries showed that they had a comprehensive understanding of their body and that they tried to improve their health by physical activities. They believed their own body connected to the country. When it came to physical punishment, they stressed self reflection and self admonishing. The process of pupils’ body shaping in modern China has the following main characteristics: internalization rather than externalization, multiple driving forces, a trend of particularization, etc. In short, the pupils’ body shaping made great contributions to the transformation of modern education in modern China.

Key words: pupils, body, body shaping