近代知识分子和教育是近代社会的产物，而近代社会是从传统社会演化而来的。所以本文将知识分子与教育置于社会变迁中进行研究，从社会史和文化史的视角来把握和梳理近代知识分子和近代教育的兴起、发展和嬗变，并由此揭示出近代知识分子和近代教育各自的特征以及二者之间的相互关系。中国教育近代化的总体历程和具体变迁因此得以清晰而完整地展现出来。 古代中国是以皇权为基础的政治社会与以家族和地域为基础的乡土社会的二元社会体系，而古代知识分子和教育则是沟通政治社会与乡土社会的重要桥梁之一。古代知识分子通过儒学教育而实现社会升迁，获得各种身份、地位、特权和利益，而为了维护其既得权益，古代知识分子就努力坚守和发展儒学教育。这样，古代知识分子与古代教育之间就形成了相互依赖相互支援的共生关系。正是这种关系决定了中国传统知识分子在近代对传统教育和近代教育的反应模式，决定了中国近代教育的兴起和发展初期的基本状况和特点。 以此为基础，本文从政治、经济、军事和文化等方面分析了近代西方资本主义入侵和中国社会内在的力量变动所引发的社会结构变迁，传统的二元社会逐渐演变为近代的政治社会、乡土社会和城市社会（市民社会）的三元社会体系。而社会结构的变革又是与阶层结构的变革向表里的，传统的士农工商结构被打破，而军人和商人的地位不断上升，由社会的边缘而走向社会的中心，而文化人的地位则在相对和绝对意义上都下降了，由社会的中心而日益边缘化。为了继续保持较高的社会地位和谋生需要，新旧知识分子都向军人和商人迁移，形成知识分子在军人、商人阶层中的大量集结，从而导致了近代军人和商人的知识化。由此近代知识阶层就分化为军人、商人和文化人三种类型。不同类型的知识分子与近代教育构成了不同的关系。 在内战中一部分知识分子以军功而官至督抚，战争经验使军功官僚开启了中国的军事近代化。而由军事近代化又引发了军事教育的近代化。近代军事教育培养了大批近代官兵，他们不仅成为军事近代化的骨干，而且最终控制了国家政权。军人是尚武精神和军国民教育的倡导者，军阀政治对教育发展也产生了重大影响。 商人知识阶层较早接受近代知识和技能的教育，是中国工业化的重要参与者。商人知识分子很早就对西方学校制度、近代教育精神有较深的了解，因此不断呼吁改革传统教育，兴学校，学西学。商人还是重商主义和实利主义教育的鼓吹者，对中国近代的实业教育作出巨大贡献。商人的财富是中国近代教育发展不可或缺的经济基础。 绅士阶层与传统教育的共生关系使得其在近代教育兴起之初成为近代教育发展的阻力，而当社会变迁使得传统教育丧失了社会流动的作用时，绅士就立即转向近代教育，并成为近代教育发展的最大动力。近代知识分子是近代教育思想和教育科学的引进者，并最终完善了中国近代教育制度，建立起中国本土的近代科学教育和学术研究体系。 归结之，在中国社会结构的近代变迁中，在知识阶层和教育重构的同时，知识阶层与教育之间的关系也在同步重构着。

Modern intellectuals and modern education are the products of a modern society, which derives from a traditional one, therefore this study combs the complexity of the rising-up, developing and transforming of the two in the angle of the History of Society and History of Culture. The characteristics of both modern intellectuals and modern education are to be uncovered in this study,and the historical procedures of the modernization of education in China on the whole and in thepartial are to be disclosed clearly and substantially as well.Chinese society in the ancient time was a duality of a political society of regime and an earthboundsociety of clans and localism. Intellectuals and education constituted a bridge to communicate the two. On the one hand intellectuals obtained social status, priority and benefits through the channel of up social mobility provided by the education in the ideals of Confucian, and on the other hand in order to maintain the vested interest they had to stand fast to such a form of education and take efforts tobroadcast it as much as could. As a result, a co-existence was shaped up between the intellectuals andthe specific form of education characterized by the mutual reliance and mutual supporting of the two.It is the specific interrelationship between the two - co-existence that determines intellectuals' attitude and reaction mode towards the modern education in the post-traditional era, hence greatly shaped the characteristics of the incubation and development of the modern education in China.Basing on this, the writer incisively investigates the transformation of Chinese society, which wasintrigued by the west colonialists who broke in and echoed by the powers insides. The traditionalduality social structure was hence collapsed and restructured into a more complex one - a trinity ofpolitical society, an earthbound society and an urban (civil society). The class structure in accordance was reorganized: intellectuals in the field of military and merchant marched to the center of the social life while contrasting the intellectuals once the most powerful potential competitors for power hence marginalized. This soon intrigued the wide shift of intellectuals from the occupation of education to that of business and military, in result reshaped the group border of intellectuals. Besides the original cultural intellectuals, there were still two other types: military intellectuals and merchant intellectuals,hence the interrelationship between intellectual class and education was greatly enriched. The process of modernization of Chinese society is a rather passive one, which accompanied with various forms of military fighting, both in the nature a national one with the west colonialists one anda civil one among the warlords. This opened the modernization of military, and soon the militaryeducation. Advocating a martial spirit, military education was a totally different form of educationcomparing with the traditional cultural one, and hence broadened the conception of education andcontributed a large buck of content to the education system. The merchant intellectuals were the earliest group that got in touch with the knowledge andtechnology from the west. Most of them were involved in the industrialization in China and were infact the processors of it. Facing the great problem of lacking suitable talents for industrialization, they strongly advocated the reform of the traditional education system. Although they did not run schools directly, they were the pioneers of the modernization of education in China in the sense of setting up new types of schools and introducing new talents into the field of education. In fact they provided the indispensable economic foundation for the modernization of education in the civil society.Furthermore as the advocators of enterprise spirit and pragmatism, they contributed a lot to theenterprise education, therefore broadened the conception of education too.The interrelationship of co-existence between the cultural intellectuals and traditional education atfirst hold against the modernization of education, but when education lost its function as the channelof up social mobility, they soon transformed themselves to be the advocators of the modernization of education to keep their influence in this field. Introducing the modern education system andeducational philosophy systematically into China, they helped to finish the process of transplantingand localizing of the education institution. In fact they accelerated the process of modernization ofeducation in China, and built the relevant science education and academy system as well.As a word, the post-traditional era in China witnessed the synchronism of the reconstruction of the intellectual class and that of education in the meaning of modernizing itself, and the restructuring of the interrelationship between the two as well.