Abstract. The educational system in China has a thousand-year history. The culture of teaching children in Chinese family schools testifies to the preservation of the tradition of transmitting from generation to generation through classical texts not only knowledge and ideas about the world, but also ethical values that lay the foundation for humanity and rules of conduct in society. The purpose of the article is to provide information about family education and private schools, their significance for the cultural and historical memory of modern China. The novelty of the research lies in the description of the contents of the museum exposition of the ancestral estates of Chinese aristocrats as centers of education and care for future generations. The main methods in the work are axiological and activity-based approaches, which make it possible to reveal the history of Chinese family schools as a cultural and historical phenomenon. The article uses examples from Chinese fiction, as well as materials from museum exhibitions of the Du family estate. The functional importance of such family schools testifies to the foresight of the fathers of Chinese families who seek to prepare their sons for public service.

Key words: China, history, family, school, traditions, children, museum.