Abstract Family school was an important institution which was used to educate children and grandchildren in the middle and upper class families in the Song Dynasty. According to different family situations, family school teachers included three kinds of persons, father and brother, learned friends, and relatives or employed private teachers. Father and brother acted as family school teachers when they were waiting for official duty or at other special time. Families that owned a long tradition of learning usually had some learned friends and relatives and they could be hired as temporary teachers. Most family school teachers were hired. Some families spent a huge sum of money in order to hire a famous teacher, but common families usually hired nearby poor scholars according to their family economic situations. The evaluation criterion for family teachers was the student’s imperial examination outcome and the teacher’s morality.Most family school students were children of the family and relative orphans. Some parents who had great insight invited bright non-family children into their family schools. The purpose of the parents was that these bright students could be good company for their children. Such parents existed among both the high officials and the common people families. There were male and female students in the family school. Family schools were open the whole year round with holidays on the basis of the local customs. Class time was elastic. The students were usually five or more than ten years in age.Family schools contributed to the grassroots scholar enlightenment and full growth, especially for women. The education would be useful not only to themselves but also to their children. Family schools also fostered many political talents for the emperors. At the same time they were useful to the inheritance of family learning and cultural development in the Song Dynasty. Family school’s main disadvantage was that both its teaching and learning aimed at the imperial examinations. Education could not be a free stage in feudal imperial autocracy in ancient China, especially in the Song Dynasty which was the peak of the imperial examination system.Family school curriculum in the Song Dynasty included two parts according to the student age primary and adult education. The main courses were set up for learning rules and cultural knowledge. The rules concerned not only learning and life habits but also family, state and world rules and moralities. Reading and writing, especially some common knowledge, were acquired in the primary part. With the students growing up, Confucianist courses were added, including Confucian classics reading, essay and poetry writing, and other contents that would be required for the imperial examination. Some family schools also compiled textbooks in order to keep up with their own teaching process. Some of these textbooks reached a very high level.
2023, Vol. 53 
