Ngo, K. (2025) Unlocking the Treasury: Elementary Learning for Boys in Qing China. Ann Arbor: Lever Press
New Open Access book on the Treasury of Elementary Learning (Youxue qionglin 幼學瓊林)
The is the first major European study of the Treasury of Elementary Learning (Youxue qionglin 幼學瓊林), a traditional Chinese children’s primer from Qing dynasty China.
In recent years, renewed interest in traditional Chinese elementary educational material has led to an increased use of these texts as teaching materials in Chinese schools, as well as in popular literature and academic research. Unlocking the Treasury seeks to address the gap in Occidental scholarship regarding pre-modern Chinese primary education, its theories, and textbooks. Using the concept of interpretive communities, this monograph explores the impact of socio-political influences and differences in Qing schools of thought, including the school of principle, the school of heart-mind, and practical learning. As such, this study examines the Treasury through three critical readings of the text: as a handbook for practical learning, a child-oriented reading of the school of heart-mind, and the instrumental perspective of education as examination training.
Unlocking the Treasury reframes the curricular content, skills, learning approaches, and teaching strategies of Chinese pre-modern elementary education with the goal of facilitating a broader transcultural dialogue in contemporary education. Far from the notion of traditional Chinese elementary education being monolithic and “rote learning,” this study reveals that elementary learning in the Qing dynasty offered a sophisticated and complex educational agenda with diverse learning goals of examination, preparation, moral development, and textual scholarship training that were shaped by intellectual trends of the time. An engaging text for scholars of Qing China and historians of education alike, this book is essential to understanding the philosophical, historical, literary, and psychological dimensions of education and educational theory in the Qing era.
Link to PDF and ebook: https://www.fulcrum.org/concern/monographs/jd473066c
Reviews
“Katherine Ngo’s Unlocking the Treasury offers a groundbreaking study of Qing-era education through a critical examination of the Treasury of Elementary Learning. It challenges assumptions about rote learning, offering a nuanced view of traditional Chinese education’s complexities—a must-read for those interested in Chinese history, education, and society.”
–Limin Bai, Victoria University of Wellington
“Treasury of Elementary Learning was a widely used textbook in Qing China for teaching basic literacy. Despite its popularity, it has often been overlooked. This well-researched monograph is the first complete English analysis of its content and educational importance, providing valuable insight for scholars studying historical Chinese education.”
–Ren-yuan Li, Academia Sinica