民國初期的中國，因西方的各種思想，如同颶風般地吹進中國境內，引起了思想上極大的盤旋和混亂。同時對當時的教育理念亦產生莫大的影響。可是筆者研究民初中國教育時發現，前人對於本期（民元至北伐）的教育情形尚未研究出具體的成果，尤其是對教育思想的研究非常薄弱。因此筆者研究本文之主要目的有三：其一，從民國初期的各家言論中，發掘此時期教育思想的演變與發展歷程。其二，針對民初紛紜的各種思想，考察其來龍去脈；並藉此提供後續研究者，做深入探討時之參考。其三，系統地探討民初教育思想之重點主張，及其始終一貫的中心思想之所在和意義，以及對後來的影響。

本文將章節安排亦以此為準，共分六章，其大要及論點如下：第一章為「緒論」，旨在闡明撰寫本文的研究動機與目的、研究方法與研究方向、研究範圍與研究限制以及論文大要及主要論點。第二章為「民初教育思想的淵源與思想背景」，為了更具體的了解民初教育思想的淵源，本章分三節來探討。首節，概略地探討鴉片戰爭前的教育思想。第二節，探討從鴉片戰爭到甲午戰爭時期之教育思想。第三節，探討從甲午戰爭到辛亥革命成功之教育思想。第三章為「民初各種教育思想的盤旋轉型」，經鴉片戰爭、戊戌變法、甲午戰爭、辛亥革命，國內興起模倣西洋學問的熱潮，中國傳統教育自此面臨重大危機。因此，本章分三節來詳細探討。第一節，分析傳統教育思想崩潰的原因。第二節，分析民初教育思想與教育措施的配合。第三節，分析中西文化衝突下教育思想的分歧。第四章為「民初教育思想盤旋中主要教育思想的演進」，則透過民初教育思想的分析探討結果，歸納出具有時代意義性的六個教育思想來深入分析。其內容為各思想的背景、來源、發展情形以及時代意義。第五章為「民初教育思想演變的影響與總評」，第一節，配合民初教育政策與思想，以分析當時教育獨立思想的抬頭。第二節，分析民初教育思想對後來教育發展的影響，民初儒家思想的新省思、留學生的全國性影響、及大眾教育的普及與發展。第三節，探討當時中國教育無中心思想的原因、左傾思想的抬頭，及民初教育思想新趨勢與評析。第六章，是總結上述各章的分析及討論，並提出筆者研究本論題所得到的心得與結論。

總之，筆者研究民初教育思想演變時發現，當時的教育思想家之通病有二：其一，對於自己所主張之思想，無法徹底之研究與堅決之奮鬥。其二，對於他人之思想，則不肯為評審之考察與坦然熱烈之辯論。故對於自己之主張，則往往淺嘗即止再鼓而衰，此乃是當時的教育思想之所以多為曇花一現之主因。筆者研究本文過程中，深深感覺到，教育家是中國未來希望的根源。他們有宗教家的心腸，哲學家的腦筋，因此能將教育思想上的缺失，大大地蓋改進一番；針對自己的責任，徹底地覺悟一番，藉以改革中國的教育，只要中國教育的希望無窮，中國的希望就會無窮。

In the early years of the Republic of China, different Western ideas and thoughts were like cyclones blowing all over China. These Western ideas not only caused great conflict and confusion in the thinking of many Chinese, but also greatly influenced the educational beliefs of the period. However, while studying Chinese educational development in the early years of the Republic, I found that most o scholars had concrete results about the educational perspectives in the period from the founding of the Republic to the Northern Expedition (1912-1927), especially they were weak in building some definitive ideas of education. Therefore, the purposes of the research are three-folded. First, I would like to find out the development of the thoughts on education and the process of the development during this period among different theories in the early years of the Republic. Second, I wish to examine the "cause and effect" of the thinking in the early years of the Republic and to provide what I have found for later researchers as reference. Third, I intend to probe systematically into the highlights of the concepts of education of the period. Meanwhile, I hope to find out the basic ideas and meanings of these theories and their influence on the days after them.

Thus each chapter in the dissertation is arranged accordingly. The dissertation is then divided into six chapters. The main points are as follows:

Chapter 1 is "An introduction." Its purposes are to clarify the motivation and goal, the method and direction, the domain and limitation of the research, and the preliminary remarks and main points of the dissertation.

Chapter 2 covers "The origin and background of educational thoughts in the early years of the Republic." To discuss the origin concretely, this chapter is further divided into three sections. Section 1 roughly invertigates the period before the Opium War of 1840. Section 2 investigates the thinking from the Opium war to the Sino-Japanese War of 1894. Section 3 investigates the period from the Sino-Japanese War to the Revolution of 1911.

Chapter 3 covers "Different educational changes in the early years of the Republic." Through out the Opium War, the Sino-Japanese War, the Wu-shu Reform of 1898, and the Revolution of 1911, there were ardent wishes to imitate Western ideas in China, which resulted in a crisis upon Chinese traditional education. Therefore, chapter 3 is divided into three sections. Section 1 is an analysis of the reasons why Chinese tradional thinking about educaton collapsed. Section 2 is an analysis of the coordination of the education concepts and measures in the early years of the Republic. In Section 3 the divergence of the education concepts under the conflict between Chinese and Western culture if analyzed.

Chapter 4 covers "The main development of the educational thoughts during the conflict of the education in the early years of the Republic." Through analysis and investigation about the educational concepts in the early years of the Republic, I induce six meaningful educational theories for deeper analysis. The six schools are as follows: Military Education, Civics and Ethics. Uutilitarianism, Popular Education, Socialism, and Nationalism.

Chapter 5 covers "The influence of the educational development in the early years of the Republic and general summary." In setion 1, I coordinate the educational policy and thinkings to analyze the arising of the independent education concepts of the period. In Section 2, I analyze the influence of the education concepts in the early years of the Republic to later educational development, including the new introspection of the Confucianism in the early years of the Republic, the overall national influence of the retumed students from abroad, and the spread and development of popular education. In Section 3, I inverstigate why there was no core thoughts of education in China in this period. I also inverstigate the arising of the ideas of the LEFT and the new trend of education ideas in the early years of the Republic, and make comments on them.

Chapter 6 is the summary of the analysis and invetigation of each chapter above. I provide the insight I gained in studying the subject and make a conclusion.

To sum up, I found out, while I was educators in the period. One was they could not study one school thoroughly and insisted on what they advocated. The other was they did not give comments and critiques on other's theories honestly and reasonably. These made the thinkers dilute what they advocated, and failed to progress their thinking. And that is why the educational thoughts in that period often lasted briefly.

During my study of the subject, I deeply feel that educators are the source of hope in China. They have the hearts of religious people, and the brains of philosophers. Thus, they can greatly inprove the shortcomings of the educational thinking and thus reform Cinese education. In my view, where there is endless hope in Chinese education, there in endless hope in China.