Research On Contemporary Non-governmental Traditional Classics Education

Since the end of the 20th century,non-governmental traditional Chinese classics education has been rising in China.An upsurge that anybody reads and learns the traditional classics,and experiences and practices the value of the classics,no matter in urban and rural areas,regardless of the occupations,from infants who learn to speak to the elderly,appears in the society.Its purpose is to continue the tradition,inherit the cultural heritage,revive the moral order,explore a brand new educational mode,and defense the crisis of modernity.Essentially,the traditional classics education is a kind of public moral education spread by the way of educational means and cultural influence.To clarify the concept of traditional classics education and define the time-space extent of its researches is facilitated to analyze the object of this thesis and to put forward the targeted constructive approach.I will analyze the contemporary non-governmental traditional classics education from the perspective of education and history,and found the occurrence and development of the traditional classics education are inevitable in theory and practice,and indeed a popular cultural appeal naturally arising from the political,economic and cultural development of China today.The contemporary non-governmental traditional classics education went through the incubation,trial operation,and rapid promotion to great development.Since the end of the 20th century,with the support of International Confucian Association(China),Wang Dianqing from Institute of Oriental Morality Beijing Youth Politics College has conducted teaching experiments on "Chinese traditional virtue education";In 1995,Zhao Puchu et al.proposed Urgent Call for the Establishment of Young Classics Schools in the Eighth National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference that calls for taking protective measures for the traditional classics education;Since 1994,Wang Caigui from Taiwan has tried the "movement of children's classics reading "in Taiwan.Those early preparations lay a basis for the great revival of the traditional Chinese classics education.Having experienced a lot in education on"classics reading",Wang Caigui spread his idea of "movement of children's classics reading" to more than twenty provinces in China while being promoted by Nan Huaijin.Impacted by Wang Caigui' idea of "classics reading",China Youth DevelopmentFoundation initiated the "Reading Project of Chinese Ancient Poetry" in the funded hope primary schools,which was actively supported by the schools and parents.Since then,the traditional Chinese classics education among children was expanded and diversified.There are several forms,such as unprofitable after-school reading of poems or texts of the traditional enlightenment,profitable private training about the Sinology,and closed pure classics reading activities.Besides,the reading and research activities of traditional Chinese classics initiated in clubs and organizations of the colleges and universities were also started in the 1990s.This is the beginning of the traditional Chinese classics education for adults.In 1996,Yan Binggang and his students founded"Mingxin Chinese Traditional Culture Club" in Shandong University.They offered the Confucian classics education for teachers and students for more than ten years,and cultivated many education-oriented experts on Chinese traditional classics.The traditional Chinese classics education for adults covers a wide scope and continues to be developed.Then the traditional Chinese classics education at all levels has been launched,and their social influences have been growing after its official leading position had been gradually established,the core force of colleges and universities and scientific research institutions had gradually grown up,and the contemporary academies had become the important places for the morality cultivation,while the civil societies and educational institutions had actively taken their responsibilities;the public had spontaneously conducted the multi-channel self-organizing education,and the traditional classics education on all levels had been continuously conducted.Over more than twenty years of the exploration of traditional Chinese classics education,this moral cultivation movement based on the local culture and theoretical resources gradually forms its own advantages:It gathers joint efforts of the public and the government,national sentiments of the patriots,and efforts of professionals,to jointly promote the development of the traditional classics among the common people,and it demonstrates the modern Chinese cohesiveness;by exploring the multiple organizational forms and educational approach presenting the new things by the old mode and the like,it attracts numerous people to participate in,and is stabilized on a wide mass basis.Furthermore,through joint efforts of related parties and non-governmental practices for more than twenty years,the traditional Chinese classics education has a certain achievement:First,it has created a basis for harmonious social order,and established a social moral order in compliance with the nature and laws.Second,it has rebuilt the moral value identification of the public in the eddy of the modernity,tries to pull the value judgment criteria of the public out of the secular material world,and switch to the spiritual world filled with truth,good and beauty.Third,by reading and understanding the texts of the traditional classics,the public has not only enriched their own knowledge system,but also formed a sound personality,and the general quality of the participants has been well shaped.Fourth,to respond the mode of the commodity economy,"business ethics",as a new theoretical growing point,becomes a concern,which promotes the theoretical explanation.In addition,a good practical exploration has been conducted by many Chinese enterprises through learning and implementing Disciple Gauge.Fifth,with the revival of the texts of the traditional classics among the public,the contemporary value of the local traditional cultures has been taken seriously and deeply explored.Of course,because the contemporary traditional Chinese classics education initiated by the public is different from the "classics reading" movement promoted by the government,considering the blindness of the movement self-developed by the public,the former is bound to face different dilemmas and controversies in the exploration.This is reflected in the following aspects:I.Dilemmas and controversies on the educational approaches.There is a huge difference between the mode idea of the traditional classics and that of the contemporary education.Traditional methods to read Chinese classics,such as "reciting without understandings,are examined,questioned and criticized by the contemporary educational scholars;the legality of some traditional education forms on Chinese classics is questioned in the contemporary society.From the first "Meng Mu Tang" without any educational qualification that organizes children to "learn at home",to the phenomenon that some teenagers who participate in the closed pure classics reading activity present with confusion and growth problems,the legality of the "contemporary private school",a school-running pattern without any official standard,qualification definition,review mechanism and supervision mechanism,is always in disputes.II.Different circumstances encountered by the texts of the traditional classics in the contemporary society:While crowds are enthusiastic about the texts of the traditional Chinese classics,the sound of objections standing from the new cultural movement is still strong.Surprisingly,Disciple Gauge,a Confucian book for the enlightening education,becomes widely known within a few short years at the beginning of the 21st century,and it is also the most controversial book.It is strange that the huge controversies about Disciple Gauge are spread through the network;however,there are few doubters on the academic journals that position its academic research orientations based on the description and summary of its actually analyzed positive roles.A deep analysis indicates that there are three reasons for dilemmas and controversies of the contemporary non-governmental traditional Chinese classics education:First,the pace of the contemporary non-governmental traditional Chinese classics education is out of balance because of opposite cultural position of the ideological circle in China today,divergent cognition of the texts of the traditional Chinese classics,no empathetic understanding of the public,and mutual repulsion of scholars in the ideological circle rather than and fusion and mutual dialogue.Second,in practices of the traditional Chinese classics education in the contemporary society,because the educational approach and educational content are out of norm,"what to read" and "how to read" always trouble all walks of life.Chinese parents,without any theoretical basis of the traditional Chinese classics,have no idea how they can deal with and identify emerging training about Chinese classics.Third,the security and protection provided by the legal system is not enough to provide satisfactory supervision towards relevant institutions and protection to the rights and interests of the minor.Considering the modern traditional classics education with so complicated content and complex problems,how can the contemporary traditional Chinese classics education become normalized?How can the traditional theoretical resources be used reasonably?How can the positive cultural influence be formed better?How can an effective civil moral cultivation system be established?In order to respond those questions,it is imperative to explore the approach of the traditional classics education.To optimize approaches of the contemporary non-governmental traditional classics education,the existing realistic difficulties and disputes should be considered,and the approaches should be designed from the following aspects,namely,correcting the standpoints,urging the modern transformation of the traditional classics,constructing the content system of the traditional classics education,improving the education methods and approaches as well as setting up and improving the legal system and supervision.First,the basic standpoint of the non-governmental traditional classics education should be correct.For this purpose,we should keep the moderate local standpoints and conscious cultural standpoint.Second,the modern transformation of the traditional classics education should be urged.To realize this vital modern transformation,the modern concept transformation and paradigm innovation of traditional classics education should be conducted.For the first aspect,the concept transformation includes educational concept transformation and thinking method transformation.The above-mentioned innovation forms the three-dimensional innovation of traditional Chinese classics education from persons,subgroups to groups,generating the comprehensive effect.For the second aspect,the paradigm innovation on the traditional classics education is to implement the vision of the contemporary traditional classics education.The modern transformation of the traditional classics education in China is not only a manifestation of the vitality of Chinese culture,but a practice of the construction of cultural era.Third,the content system of the traditional Chinese classics education should be constructed.First of all,the traditional classics are selected based on the original classics matched with the times,and the selection principle of thinking for change,keeping constant in changing,demanding the perfection and seeking truth should be established.In this way,the selection,extraction and level division can be conducted to the texts of the traditional Chinese classics;Next,a modern interpretation of the traditional classics should be conducted by marching with the times,which not only focuses on the textual research of the traditional classics,but strengthens the interpretation of the modern context awareness,and focuses on the comparative reading of different cultural texts;The texts of the traditional Chinese classics should be positioned from the view of the diversity and compatibility,which not only defines the position of the major traditional Chinese theoretical resources and Confucian classics in the traditional Chinese resources,but determines the position of traditional Chinese theoretical resources in the multicultural coexistence in the world,and the position of the traditional Chinese classics in the contemporary society.In addition,it also strives to jointly build the traditional Chinese classics and folk beliefs.Third,the approaches of the contemporary non-governmental traditional Chinese classics education should be improved.Fourth,the educational approaches of the traditional Chinese classics should be revised,and the requirements of proper guidance,flexible reading,teaching at different levels and comprehensive reading should be reached.Fifth,the legal system and supervision should be established and improved.The laws and regulations should be improved;the school-running admission outside the system,review and other mechanisms should be perfected;the supervision on the organizations and activities about the non-governmental traditional Chinese classics education should be strengthened.In conclusion,the traditional classics education is an indispensable part of contemporary moral education resources,but it is only a traditional resource of the humanistic knowledge and cannot replace the knowledge education and all educational contents of children education.The traditional Chinese classics education is a carrier to jointly build the emotional system of a nation and its public,and an approach to keep moral order and mental ease of the public.Though the contemporary traditional classics education is non-governmental,it will develop in all levels.The non-governmental foundation is a good soil for the traditional Chinese classics education to take root,while its blossoming requires the efforts of all walks of life.Upon decades of effort of the non-governmental traditional Chinese classics education,and combined with the support of the government on the traditional cultural inheritance,many of the traditional Chinese classics are included into the teaching references within the system.The traditional Chinese classics education gradually transforms to the systematization from the pure non-governmental initiation.It is envisioned by many scholars within the system that through the corresponding laws and regulations,the state guarantees that the traditional Chinese classics education is conducted in a uniform and reasonable manner within the institutional schools according to the planning while gathering the wisdom of domestic experts and scholars,and all functional departments.