The Teaching Of Saints - The Pre-Qin Confucian Moral Education Paradigm And Its Modern Value

In essence,Confucian education and the present ideological and political education both belong to the realm of ideology,reflecting the ruling class's will.The systematic and profound study on the pre-Qin Confucian education paradigm provides history lessons and ideological resources for the promotion of modern ideological and political education.China since ancient times has paid attention to moral education,the paradigm of which was set by the pre-Qin Confucian education thought.This dissertation attempts to explore the pre-Qin Confucian indoctrination from the perspective of inherent complexity of ethical politics and explain the formation of this governing mode through all previous dynasties' governing practices and its significant role of being cohesive force and stabilizer of social order."Sage" the key word that can be found in the collated texts concerning the Confucian thoughts,perfectly unifies the multi-dimensional concepts of morality,cause ad contribution,realm,character and knowledge.Therefore,it is considered as the most suitable word to represent the Confucian idea "Human can carry forward morality",and the image it refers to has become a canon of the pre-Qin Confucian moral education.This dissertation,entitled as"Teachings of the Sage:the Pre-Qin Confucian Moral Education Paradigm and Its Modern Value," elaborates in detail the teachings of sage from the following three aspects,namely,the search of its origin,the interpretation of its paradigm and the exploration of its value.In the first part,the author explains the core concepts of the pre-Qin Confucian moral education such as "ethical politics" and "moralization",analyzes their corresponding historical backgrounds and interprets the implication of the pre-Qin Confucian moral education paradigm.Based on this,the author traces the origin of the teachings of the sage and asserts that the teachings of the sage are the inheritance and innovation of education of rites and music.Facing the collapse of rites and the decline of music,the pre-Qin Confucians represented by Confucius reinterpreted the spirit of rites and music and naturalized the heavenly rites and music,thus proposing a system of"rites and music of the sage"."The teachings of the sage"was a mode derived to enhance the rites and music culture.Since then,the mode of "sage being the paragon"has formed.Meanwhile,Confucius inherited the mission of the ethical politics of Western Zhou Dynasty,making "Six Classics" the basic documents of Confucian moral education,initiating the idea of "providing education for all people without discrimination" and popularizing the mass education.Confucius' theory and practice laid ideological basis and set the basic paradigm for Confucian moral education.Historically,teachings of the sage refer to the Pre-Qin Confucian ideological system established by Confucius,the sage,and his adherents.Viewed from its purpose,the teachings of the sage refer to the education paradigm of "the sage being the paragon" in Confucian ideological system.The second part discusses in detail the pre-Qin Confucian moral education paradigm.The author,by analyzing the political thoughts of the sage,argues that Confucian moral education serves for ethical politics,i.e.,to maintain the harmony and stability of the social order.This is the core of Confucian moral education paradigm.Tracing its origin,the tradition of paragon politics was the historical context for the Confucian strategy of administering a country—"rule by moral force".Based on this,Confucianism emphasized that it was the rulers' responsibility to set good examples to their subjects and educate them.And it put forward the sage's governing ideal "inner sagelihood and outer kingliness".Sage Movement was a campaign that shaped the image of the sage in turbulent times with an aim to educate people and restore the social unity and stability.The rulers' sageliness guaranteed the authority of moralization and demonstrated its political legitimacy.Confucian thought embodied the conjunction relationship between realpolitik and educational ideals,making morality actively involved in political practice and turning political implementation into the process of moral education.Confucian idea of "education being the root of policy" directly influences the theoretical construction and practical ways of the teachings of the sage.The author also expounds the theoretical ground of teachings of the sage theory.The "teachings of the sage" theory,constructed by pre-Qin Confucians,is mainly composed of three parts:The proposition and development of "human nature assumption" laid the theoretical premise of moral education.Although Confucius,Mencius and Xuncius had different views on human nature,they all agreed that human nature was highly adaptable,or "plastic".This laid the philosophical basis for the necessity and the possibility of implementing moral education.Besides,the god worship before the Western Zhou Dynasty turned into sage worship in the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period.This laid psychological foundation for the supremacy of the sage and guaranteed the construction of and the faith in the "teachings of the sage" theory.In addition,this political pattern determines the basic content of moral education,namely,"righteousness and faithfulness",the political value orientation of maintaining hierarchical order,the ethical value orientation of cherishing harmony,the social value orientation of respecting collectivism and the individual value orientation of being virtuous.The above constitutes the basic issues in Confucian theory of moral education.The author then explores the practice of "teachings of the sage".Confucianism believes that an ideal society should be built on the basis that all the social members'virtue be cultivated.The virtue could be achieved through two channels.One was self actualization,i.e.,individual's inner self-cultivation.The other was externalization.The sage(an emperor or a master)served as illuminati to cultivate social members to achieve virtue."Sagelihood" was difficult to attain.Therefore,under the sage,the cultivating targets were classified from high ranks to low as scholar,gentleman and virtuous man,with the aim to elevate the moral personality of social members from different classes.In the Confucian view,it is not so much important to become a sage as to learn to be a sage.The third part,by analyzing the historical evolution of "teachings of the sage"explores the value of Confucian education in modern society."Teachings of the sage"which originated in pre-Qin period has gone through various reforms and self-correction in the past 2,000 years.Up till now,it plays an effective role as ideological setters.The main reasons are as follows.First,Confucianism is officially recognized as the mainstream ideology due to its authority and institutionalization.Second,Confucian education infiltrates into the folk through clan network.Third,the Confucian educators who teach with a spirit of practice,has inspired the successors,thus inheriting and developing the Confucian education paradigm.With their efforts,Confucian thoughts have won wide support among people and led to good customs in society.In the modern Enlightenment Movement in China,Confucianism,losing support of the authority and system,increasingly collapsed.And its educational subject,object and goal all changed with the emergence of modern education.Mao Zedong,guided by Marxism in the process of leading China' revolution and the construction of new China,creatively and critically inherited "teachings of the sage",inspiring and initiating social members to voluntarily devote to the revolution and socialist construction.In the last part,the author,based on the analysis of the internal mechanism of pre-Qin Confucian education paradigm,discusses the wisdom of the pre-Qin Confucian education thought which provides valuable ideological resources for China to respond to the changes and challenges of modern ideological and political education.Its modern value is embodied in the following aspects.First,the Confucian ideas of "education being the root of policy" and "advance with the time" offer ideological and cultural resource for developing socialist core values.Second,the Confucian idea of "the educator being a paragon" can help foster the ethics of the officials,moral stand of the intellects and promotion of the folk models in contemporary ideological and political education.Third,the Confucian ideas of "bettering the customs and transforming traditions" and "persuading and educating people by reasoning with them" can improve the effectiveness of ideological and political education.