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Title:: Relationship between Popularity of Writings on Bamboo and Wood Slips and Education Transformation during Spring-Autumn and Warring States Periods

Keywords:: bamboo and wood slips; Spring-Autumn and Warring States Periods; text; reading; chanting and lecturi

Abstract:: This paper investigates education reform during the Spring-Autumn and Warring States periods through the perspective of the evolution of the medium for writing. Though bamboo and wood slips had been used as the medium for writing as early as in the Shang Dynasty, their popularity did not come until the productivity in making those slips had been substantially raised because of the widespread use of iron tools. The popularity of bamboo and wood slips used for writing promoted the spread of government-collected classics among the common people, who consequently got access to the schooling which had been confined to the noble class. In addition, it also helped transform the education from focusing on skill-training to acquiring the new form of text-based instruction, thus ushering in the new chapter of education based on text reading and lecturing.