Study Of Cai Yuanpei's "Substituting Aesthetic Education For Religion"

Cai Yuanpei was a famous democratic reformer, thinker and educator in Chinese modern history. He put forward the ideology of "Substituting Aesthetic Education for Religion" at the beginning of the last century, which owned significant value in theory and had great influence on the academic field. This ideology revealed the essence of religion, and affirmed the important function of aesthetic education. Meanwhile, it strongly refuted the thoughts that saving the nation by religion as well as the movement of reviving Confucius' old custom. This ideology was profoundly meaningful. This study includes three sections:The first section mainly introduces the historical background and theoretical source of the concept of "Substituting Aesthetic Education for Religion". Under the circumstance of the overflowing thoughts of saving the nation by religion, the heating movement of Confucianism and the ever-growing force of parochial education, Cai Yuanpei brought forward the ideology of "Substituting Aesthetic Education for Religion", which was very pertinent, timing and progressive. Theoretically, he absorbed Kant's dualism, transcendency and universality of aesthetic feeling, Schiller's view of aesthetic education, as well as the cultural essence of Chinese tradition.The second section deals with the main idea of "Substituting Aesthetic Education for Religion". Theoretically, the concept includes three parts: Cai Yuanpei's thought on aesthetic education, Cai Yuanpei's thought on religion, and Cai Yuanpei's concept of "Substituting Aesthetic Education for Religion". In the beginning of the section, it probes into the definition and essence, function, and implementation of aesthetic education. Cai Yuanpei thought that religion was only a product of uncivilized time; he believed that the primary religion included education, which had no eternal nature and would finally be replaced by philosophy. The last part deals with three problems: the precondition of "Substituting Aesthetic Education for Religion": aesthetic education was independent from religion; the necessity and possibility of "Substituting Aesthetic Education for Religion". In the meantime, "Substituting Aesthetic Education for Religion" was not only conceptual and remained to academic study, but also put into active implementation.The third section explores the significance of "Substituting Aesthetic Education for Religion". From the educational point of view, on one hand, this ideology helped to retain education independence, brought the function of education into full play, and cultivated the students that met the social needs. On the other hand, it facilitated the well-functioning of aesthetic education, and promoted harmonious development of moral, intellectual, physical, Weltanschauung, and aesthetic education, so as to achieve the goal of education: creating an integral person. Form the social aspect, this concept aimed at reconstructing people's belief through aesthetic education, achieving the ideal of humanism, rebuilding the nation's character and finally enlightening the people.