Freedom And Harmony

Some western countries among which the United States takes the leading place advocate the political ideas of freedom and democracy and interfere with other nation's internal affairs and make lots of international disputes and regional turmoil in order to grab the most national interests. On the contrary, however, Chinese government put forward the political ideas highlighting a harmonious society, a harmonious world, which benefits not only to deal with the turmoil situations of the international community but also to solve many social problems at home. In addition to political strategies, enhancing the quality of education has also become one of the most important policy decisions for many countries to promote its citizenship, to develop its high-level science and technology and to empower its international competitiveness. As a matter of fact, whether the political ideas of freedom or the political position of harmony , both are closely related to the education of each country and the individual educated by such edcuation. Therefore, the issue existing is that what education can better meet pepole's need and to help the turbulent world to develop along the right direction. This dissertation argues that Cai Yuanpei's thought of "Educating Five Domains Simultaneously" provides a unique perspective of observation for us, the pusuit to freedom and harmony can annotate our expectation.Besides preface and epilogue, the main body of this dissertation consists of five chapters.In preface, the study background together with the reason why to research, research literature, value and study methodology is introduced.Chapter 1 interprets the connotations and relative background of the five domains of education including militarizing education,pragmatism education, citizen-moral education, world outlook education and aesthetic education.Meanwhile, the different ideological forms of these five domains of education are interpreted at the angles of politics, edcational history, psychology, education and educational methodlogy in this chapter.The ideological origins of Cai's "Educating Five Domains Simultaneously" are explored in Chapter2. Firstly, the edification of Chinese and Western culture which is the cultural reason of forming Cai's "Educating Five Domains Simultaneously" is discussed, by tracing back to the nurturing of Cai's clan and the influence of the old-education, inquiring the influence of western culture and aesthetics. Secondly, the practical causes of Cai's "Educating Five Domains Simultaneously" are analyzed. Cai's advancement tendency to seeking freedom and compatibility in educational practice both at school and in society is anlalyzed. Cai's internal feeling to his ideal pursuit is displayed completely and carefully by analyzing the harmony of calmness and rebellion in his character and by interpreting the topics raised by him in the school education. Thirdly, the philosophical basis of Cai's "Educating Five Domains Simultaneously" is explored. The fact that Cai was affected by Confucianism, Mohism and other theories is pointed out, and a progressive and compatible Confucious gentleman is described and displayed. Meanwhile, the fact that Cai was deeply influenced by the philosophy from Kant and Schopenhaur as well as evolutionism, utilitarianism and anarchism expresses his pursuit to free thought and new ideas. The educational function of philosophy is also revealed from the shaping of Cai's thought.In Chapter3 the essence of Cai's "Educating Five Domains Simultaneously" is dissertated. Firstly, it contains the idealogically free spirit and purisuit to utility, the need of that epoch facing the national peril when education attatched to politics, the breakthrough to the tradition of adhering to Confucianism which values justice above material gains. The education beyond politics assimilates Chinese, Idian and European philosophy and break the tradition of valuing Confucius only as well as the bondage of Confucian. Aesthetic education aims to help people break away from the disturbance of noisy and boring world of phenomenon, to embellish and modify people's interests and hobbies, to fulfill world outlook education so as to reach the world of reality with spiritual freedom. The necessity of Utopia in education is advocated highly. Secondly, "Educating Five Domains Simultaneously" prefers to overall consideration: promoting level by level, taking aesthetic education as bridge and principles as captain and have the tendency to the harmony of the entity. Thirdly, the base point which "Educating Five Domains Simultaneously" pursues is the shaping of independent personality which is cultivated by all round development of morality, physique and intelligence and aesthetics. Cai Yuanpei himself was the typical model of independent personality in practice. Fourthly, the idea advocating "Educating Five Domains Simultaneously" established certain relationship between Chinese culture and western culture. Though there is difference between these two cultures, still they can be inosculated by engrafting the spirit of freedom in west with the harmonious idea in Chinese culture.Chapter4 differentiates and analyses the connotation of Cai's "Educating Five Domains Simultaneously" from semantic sense and points out its deficiency and the social surrounding it encountered. Moreover, this chapter expounds that Peking University with Cai as the principal practised faithfully the essence of Cai's "Educating Five Domains Simultaneously". The historic significance of Cai's "Educating Five Domains Simultaneously" and the practice of its essence in enlightenment of thought is pointed out in this chapter.The enlightment to contemporary age gained from Cai's "Educating Five Domains Simultaneously" is clarified in Chapter5. This section first analyses the inner link between Cai's "Educating Five Domains Simultaneously" and contemporary educational policy, exploring the latter's probloms and its being perfected by absorbing the former's quintessence.Then,the value pursuit of "Educating Five Domains Simultaneously" and the plight of contemporary educational practice are examined, interpreting the loss of subjectivity in contemporary education and the inharmony in educational context, and questioning closely the Chinese education in the future.The epilogue summarizes Cai's "Educating Five Domains Simultaneously" from three ideological dimensions of some philosophical lessons, cultural inspiration and systematic importance and argues that this shows the inner relationship among edcuation and philosophy, culture as well as politics which reflects the great spiritual power of Cai's "Educating Five Domains Simultaneously".