倚仗生生而不息的社會人群，其生活技能、特殊知識，如何由長而幼，代代相傳，一向是人類社群存活、成長、擴張或消亡關鍵之一繫。過去學者析述人群間知識更替，技藝移轉之歷史時，嘗關注典範移轉（paradigm shift）的問題，以為漫長的思念傳承，大抵循直線而前進（linear progression）的基本預設。
以近世中國蒙學與幼教發展觀之，上層社會之重視蒙學，一般人群之企求神童早慧，早見於古史，惟若檢繹當時所遺文獻，即便有清一代，清初、中葉而清季，聞似「開明」、「進取」之幼蒙倡議，與執信奇慧、神蹟等福澤積善之追求，彼落此起，喧嘩多聲。在清代早期固可見相當自由、放任的幼教態度，與相當體恤、合情合理的幼蒙設計，進步之聲音、努力，直抵晚清，興而未艾；然而民間類書、坊間文肆，種種白描神啟幼慧的故事亦流行未艾。如此便形成了一幅理性進步與封建迷信並列、開明與落後雜存的矛盾情景。
故擇清初、盛清至晚清三組代表性素材，試析中國社會在此步向教育普及的漫漫修旅中所遭遇的疑難與掙扎。即清代童年文化與幼教傳承之演變，現中國近代啟動之前，傳統童年文化與幼教論述，本含一番省思與斟酌，而今重揭清代幼教演變之面紗，省視過去幼慧、幼蒙思維下醞生之幼教，舊貌與新思間別有一番契機。

This is a study of discursive changes regarding early education during the Ch’ing period (1368-1644). Positioned against the assumption of linear progression in history, or the enlightenment to modernity thesis in some historiographical narrative, this essay attempts to uncover and construct a development in childhood culture that is at once multi-facet and complex. Based on an investigation and discussion on three sets of primary sources on children’s education and childhood culture in early-Ch’ing, mid-Ch’ing and late Ch’ing periods respectively. In which exercise, it is shown that some advocacy and teaching materials circulating during the seventeenth century could be quite liberal and liberating. Although at the same time, throughout the late-Ming and entire Ch’ing period, conservative voices spreading a view about children’s intelligence and childhood development as pre-determined by ancestral blessing and super-natural forces continued to circulate and remained popular. For the mid-Ch’ing or eighteenth century period, against this background of a more sympathetic and child-friendly attitude toward early education that was part of a elitist advice for a gentle and less-pushy approach to child education, popular beliefs in and ordinary people’s pursuits for child prodigy was wide-spread and influential. As history moves on to the late-Ch’ing or nineteenth century, we see that reformist’s ideas a less disciplinary, more understanding attitude toward early education continued to grow as they connect with early modern western convictions in childhood education rooted in enlightenment thesis. Furthermore, modern notions in pediatric physiology and child psychology began to make their way into Chinese newspaper and social thoughts. So much so that physical punishment, along with the harsher ways in children’s treatment were see as outdated and reactionary.
To conclude, the paper argues that a chronological reviewing of childhood culture and early education during the early-, mid-, and late- Ch’ing periods reveals that the historical developments in this area are by no means progressive in the linear fashion. Contrarily, the overall picture is one of ambivalence, contradiction, uncertainty as advocates, teachers, parents, and commoners moved back and forth among numerous progressive, liberal, or traditional, conservative even reactionary options.