Mengxue 蒙學, Elementary Learning

The term mengxue [méng!] 蒙學 "teaching for the ignorant" refers to elementary learing in traditional China. During the Han period 漢 (206 BCE-220 CE), it became common for children of the higher classes, to obtain education at latest in the age of eight sui (corresponds to six or seven years according to Western reckoning). In special preparation schools (waishe 外舍) they started learning Chinese characters and how to read and to write. This was called the small learning (xiaoxue 小學), or learning the smaller arts (xiaoyi 小藝) i. e., not the Confucian Classics. The schools were called waishe, waifu 外傅, xueguan 學館 or shuguan 書館, the teachers were called shushi 書師. As textbooks served character dictionaries like the Cangjiepian 倉頡篇 or Jijiupian 急就篇, but also some Confucian Classics like the Xiaojing 孝經 "Classic on Filial Piety" or the "Confucian Analects" Lunyu 論語.
The traditional bibliographic categories of China do not include a section for elementary learning. Books for this purpose were either totally neglected in the compilation of catalogues or included in other sections, like the Confucian treatises, the arts section, the stories, encyclopedias sections, or in the poetry sections of the category of belles-lettres.
For girls, there was an own tradition of a small corpus of writings because girls did not attend schools until the early 20th century. Girls were educated at home by their mothers, and there were some books on girls' education compiled by female writers. The content of such books was an explanation of the duties of a women before and after marriage towards her parents, her husband, and her parents-in-law. Managing the household and overseeing the servants was another important issue of the small canon of books for female education. These books were to be used additionally to the primers used for learning reading and writing. Not one of the books for female education is included in traditional collections of writings, and except Ban Zhao's 班昭 Nüjie 女誡, and such books are not easily accessible.