Shangyang

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

To meet Wikipedia's quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup.
Please discuss this issue on the talk page, or replace this tag with a more specific message. Editing help is available.
This article has been tagged since August 2006.

Shangyang (上庠) was a school founded in Youyu (有虞) period in China. Shun (舜, 2257 BC–2208 BC), the king of the State of Youyu, founded two schools, one was Shangyang(shang(上), means up, high), and the other one was Xiayang (下庠, xia (下) means down, low) ^1,2. Shangyang was a place to educate noble youth. Teachers at Shangyang were generally erudite, elder and noble persons.

The original meaning of Yang (庠) may be provide for (養) ³. So Yang(including Shangyang and Xiayang) was a place to provide for the aged persons and later to become a place for teaching.

Shangyang in Zhou dynasty mainly taught six skills (or six arts, 六藝): Li (禮, convenance), Yue (樂, music), She (射, archery), Yu (禦, charioteering), Shu (書, literature), Shu (數, maths).

Shangyang may be the origination of higher education institute of Guoxue (國學, National School, the nation's supreme school, later to be Taixue (太學) and Guozijian (國子監)) in China.