Mass education is one of the most important parts in educational history during the Period of Republic of China. The curriculum of mass education has its unique nature and it is worth studying for researchers. In this study, the term mass education refers to the mass education movement, forwarded by James Yen under the Chinese National Association of the Mass Education, aiming at “making new people”. Based on the complete work and the teaching materials edited by James Yen, the mass education leader, the author studies two important issues: the general situation of the mass education during the Period of Republic of China and the analysis of the text of “The Common People’s Thousand Characters Textbook”. The results are presented in note and chart formats. “The Common People’s Thousand Characters Textbook” demonstrates James Yen’s ideal of saving the nation by education. It was misunderstood and controversial in the past, but millions of young illiterates graduated from people’s schools and their eventual contributions to the country are unimaginable and unforgettable. The educational reformation in the past makes the education nowadays, and today’s reviews and thoughts in education will shape the future. The design of “The Common People’s Thousand Characters Textbook” basically follows the curriculum design process, but the implementation of the entire curriculum has problems because a complete set of evaluation system is not available at that time. In addition, reading materials for grouped vocabularies and reasonable amount of exercises are also lacking in the textbooks. To sum up, there are limitations in this study. The author can only analyze the texts of “The Common People’s Thousand Characters Textbook” but this study still IV be able to help understand the values and problems of these textbooks. This study also systematically introduces relevant texts in mass education authored by James Yen. The author hopes that it can provide references for developing language teaching materials for editors and also extend the studies in mass education.

民國教育史上平民教育是最濃墨重彩的一筆。平民教育在設置課程、選用 教材和教法上的獨到之處，是非常值得學者研究的。本研究中平民教育大部分 專指由晏陽初領導的平教會所推行的以“作新民”為宗旨的大規模教育活動。 立足於平民教育領袖晏陽初的全集文稿和千字課原版教材，筆者研究了兩個重 要問題，即：民國平民教育概况和平民千字課教材分析。分別用了記錄筆記和 圖表分析的方法呈現。平民千字課濃縮了晏陽初教育救國的理想主義，雖也曾 在歷史中遭到誤解和爭議，但數百萬文盲青年畢業於平校，對國家日後起到難 以想像的推進作用，功勞是不可磨滅的。 當年浩蕩的教育改革運動造就了今日的教育，而今日對教育的審視和思考 也終將影響未來。千字課符合基本的課程設計歷程，但整個課程實施也有缺陷， 便是當時沒有一套完整的課程評鑒系統。另外，教材本身缺乏串字的閱讀材料 和合理的多樣練習。 總體來說，本研究雖然有所限制，但仍在限制內分析出平民千字課教材的 眾多優點和些許不足，並用筆記方式系統介紹了晏陽初平民教育相關的文稿， 希望能給語言教材編寫者和平民教育研究者以幫助和參考。