Education And Being:the Ontological Interpretation Of Chinese Education

Ontological interpretation of Chinese education falls into the category of the philosophy of Chinese education. The current development of Chinese education theory and practice in China calls for the arrival of the philosophy of Chinese education. As a new area of Chinese education research, the philosophy of Chinese education’s arrival and thriving contribute to the breakthrough of the discipline, and the construction of its philosophy of education system from the macro-horizon of philosophy and education.From the ontological perspective, both Chinese and education are the essential parts and common sources in the internal structure of the Chinese education discipline; the philosophy of education is the fore-horizon of the philosophy of Chinese education. Therefore, with the coexistence of philosophy, education and Chinese, the philosophy of Chinese education is the fore-runner in Chinese education theory and practice.From the ontological perspective, Chinese education has forgotten many themes, of which Being is the most basic in the ontology of Chinese education. The fact that Chinese education forgets Being means that Chinese education forgets its own being and it forgets the many problems with the beings of Chinese education on the basis of Being. As the ontological basis of Chinese education, Being is the topmost priority in Chinese education. Therefore, the questioning of the Being of Chinese education is one of the fundamental tasks of Chinese education ontology.Forgetting Being, Chinese education is faced with a series of dilemmas of its own which are seldom being noticed. Firstly, in terms of research paradigm, the traditional metaphysical reflections on “what Chinese education is” conceal the ontological contemplation of “how Chinese education is”, resulting in the loss of itself on the road of Chinese education essentialism; secondly, in terms of fundamental state of being, the authenticity and inauthenticity of Chinese education have rarely been touched on, as a result, the authenticity of Chinese education has not contemplated on its everydayness in a clear and present manner; thirdly, in terms of basic spatial-temporal relations, attention has rarely been paid to the spatial-temporal presence and switch of Chinese education, rendering its theory and practice unable to be present on its phenomenological stand of “ to things per se” in a real sense and deepening the crisis of Chinese education theory being distanced from its practice and vice versa.Chinese education does not forget Being accidentally without any reason. Firstly, as the being of beings, Being has always been concealed by beings because of its veiled and inherent nature. In addition, ignoring the distinction between Being and beings, traditional metaphysics forgets Being by substantiating Being and considering beings as Being. Secondly, by questioning the essence of Chinese education, the essentialism of Chinese education leads to the single essence theory, avoiding the contemplation on Being; although closest to the study of the Being of Chinese education, traditional ontology of Chinese education considers language as the Being of Chinese and focus on studying the Chinese language, leading to the misplacement of Being; Focusing only on the substantive knowledge of Chinese, the epistemology of Chinese education arrogates the focus on the knowledge of Being. It can be said that traditional metaphysics’ forgetting of Being is the philosophical reason why Chinese education forgets Being while the historical fate of Being and the self-exile of Chinese education both contributes to the oblivion of Being in Chinese education.The ontological turn and the arrival of the Daseins of Chinese education offer great opportunities for questioning the Being of Chinese education. On the one hand, Being reemerges with the end of traditional metaphysics, resulting in the unveiling and awakening of ontology from metaphysics. The awakened ontology differentiates Being and beings and put forwards the priority of Dasein’s questioning of Being. On the other hand, the arrival of Dasein offers the ontological priority of the appearance of the Daseins of Chinese education. As special beings in the area of Chinese education, the Daseins of Chinese education are beings present which can question and comprehend Being, and are beings in the world which are different from the extant beings in Chinese education. The Dasein teacher and student are the core beings of Chinese education and plays a prescriptive role in the fundamental states of the Being of Chinese education.Authenticity and inauthenticity are the two fundamental states of being of Chinese education. Instead of the higher or lower state of being, inauthenticity of Chinese education refers to the everydayness displayed explicitly therein, and the average state therein every day. In such everyday state, the ordinariness of the Daseins of Chinese education, the everydayness of the life thereof and the besorge(worry and concern) thereof are daily manifestations of the inauthenticity of Chinese education. Manifesting itself by evading and veiling authenticity, it leads to the everyday ways of manifesting emotions in Chinese education, such as the diffusing of “fear”, the loss of “angst” and the fragmentation of poetic words in Chinese education.Authenticity of Chinese education conceals itself implicitly in its inauthenticity. Rather than the one-dimensional state, authenticity of Chinese education is its original and potential-of-being state shown at the two extremes of temporality. The original state is the clarified and unveiled origin back to itself. The Potentiality-of- being state is the potential free state of Chinese education with an upward tendency of movement, which furthers the sustainable development of the theory and practice of Chinese education. In addition to being opposing states of Chinese education, the authenticity exists within the inauthenticity, and the two are coexistent according to ontology.Rather than denying and abrogating the existing theories and practices of Chinese education, the ontological reconstruction thereof means promoting and improving the existing ones on the basis of respecting Chinese education traditions. In terms of its value orientation, the ontological reconstruction of Chinese education pursues the awareness of illuminating both oneself and others, the free self-nature and the poetic flavor of words. In classroom teaching reform, it focuses on the priority of theory, the differentiation of reality and the contemplation of reform from the potentiality-of-being. In regard to selecting knowledge of the Chinese curriculum, it emphasizes returning to the sources, the priority of classic knowledge and appropriate selection of new knowledge. As regards the teacher-student relations, it attaches importance to the features of Being for the Daseins of teacher-and-student and their potentiality-of-being.