Education in the Qin and Han Dynasties
1 min readThe first emperor of China and the founder of the Qin Dynasty was Qin Shihuang.He unified China，Chinese characters and metrology，and proposed law.However，he also burned books，eliminated support of Confucianism，and disallowed private schools.The teaching of laws was emphasized and government officials were appointed as teachers.
In the Han Dynasty，the imperial system of education，recommended by Dong Zhongshu（179-104BC），was founded by Emperor Wu in 124 BC.Dong competed with devotees to alchemy who tried to distill gold or the elements that would impart everlasting life from different substances，and whose followers included some emperors.But his interpretation of Confucian learning was actually a synthesis of many schools of thought.Dong Zhongshu was the first Chinese imperial scholar who proposed to canonize Confucian learning into the state ethic，and he successfully convinced the Emperor to adopt Confucianism.
The official schools were founded，and China’s education system began to take shape，which established the supremacy of Confucian learning in China in the next two millennia.There were two kinds of official schools in the Han Dynasty:central and local.The”Great School” was the most important central official school，and“Hongdumen School”and“Noble School”were special types of central official schools.Local official schools were also called“County Schools.”In addition，private schools were restored.
