Pre - Qin Confucian Educational Thoughts

Confucian's thought of learning during pre-Qin periods produced under the great background of "study in the government authorities" change into "academic under movement". Early Confucianism is a theory of human, this characteristic and the thought of learning are closely linked. The main objects of Confucius' thought of learning are "humaneness" and "rite". Focus on these two key points, Confucius constructed a complete set of theory based on learning conditions, learning contents, learning methods, learning stages, and learning goals. As the thought of learning, Confucius was the first man who builds it, thus leaves a blue script of exploring learning problems for posterity. The "Da-xue" and "Zhong-yong" respectively extracted a set of theory mainly from the supreme goal of learning and learning methods. Mencius discusses learning problems on the basis of "goodness of humanity". In fact, he established a learning theory mainly on "cultivate mind", the essence of which is inherited Confucius learning object of "humaneness". Xun-zi discusses learning problems on the basis of his special theory of human nature. He emphasizes the significance of learning on changing human nature, thus take Confucianism classics, the political practices, and ritual standards as learning objects. Its essence mainly inherited the aspect of Confucius' learning of "rite". Though both of Mencius and Xun-zi are inherited Confucius' theory, between them also show some certain differences. Generally speaking, Confucian's thought of learning during pre-Qin periods take the theory of human nature as the logical beginning, the union of knowing and practicing as method, and "for oneself then "love others" as goal. These characteristics had determined the early Chinese thinking approaches transformation, Confucianism itself and social development.It has had a profound and far-reaching influence.