Students were dotted on their forehead by their teacher at the First Writing Ceremony. [Photo/Xinhua]

The First Writing Ceremony

On entrance day, parents would take their children to attend the First Writing Ceremony. Before that, children would kneel on the ground to kowtow for the statue of Confucius 9 times, and kowtow for their teacher 3 times.

The First Writing Ceremony, also called Qi Meng (Enlightenment) Ceremony, was a very important ceremony for every student before they were admitted to their school. During the ceremony, the teacher would put a red dot on the child's forehead representing the opening of wisdom's eye since the word "dot" is pronounced the same as "wisdom" in Chinese. Children would also ring a bronze bell to start a new term. After that, they could finally sit down in their seats and begin to study.

Every day, students would arrival at school earlier than their teacher, and kowtow to the statue of Confucius, then go back to the seats. Usually the teacher would give a new name to every child, to be used when taking the imperial examination in the future.