The Research On The Moral Education Thoughts Of Xunzi

Attaching great importance to ideological and moral education has always beenone of the biggest features of traditional Chinese education. Ancient Chinesephilosophers believed that education cultivates and perfects man’s moral character.Rulers of different dynasties in China make full use of education to cultivate people’sideological and moral beliefs, guide various social relationships, improve and perfectpeople’s moral characters. As precious spiritual wealth of mankind, traditionalChinese education resources, especially thoughts about moral education attract muchattention among which Xunzi’s ideas on moral education are quite unique.As an important representative of the Pre-Qin Confucianism, Xunzi had his moraleducation thoughts established against the special social background of the end ofWarring States Period, leaving us with ideas about moral education that are significant,unique, and helpful even for today’s moral education in China that aims at highmorality and comprehensive development of people. However, there are still fewsystematic and professional researches on Xunzi’s thoughts about moral education.Therefore, a further study of Xunzi’s thoughts of moral education is both academicallyand practically valuable.By resorting to the literature home and abroad and a comparative analysis, thisthesis consists of five parts exploring Xunzi’s moral education ideas. The first partanalyzes the background of Xunzi’s thoughts on moral education. Both the socialcondition of the end of the Warring States Period and the prosperity of the pre-Qinthinkers’ academic thoughts are important factors. The second part focuses on thetheoretical foundation of Xunzi’s thoughts on moral education. It’s “the separation ofTian and Human Being theory” and “Bad Human Nature Theory” that constitute therationale of his moral education thoughts. The third part centers on the analysis of themain contents of Xunzi’s thoughts about moral education, including of the objective,the logic starting point, the core content and the method of Xunzi’s moral educationthoughts. The fourth part further discusses the basic characteristics of Xunzi’sthoughts about moral education. In the background of great social transformation, Xunzi not only inherited Confucius’ and Mencius’ theories, but also fused pre-Qinthinkers’ thoughts to put forward new ideas about moral education and consequentlyrealized a theory innovation. Finally, the thesis holds that Xunzi’s thoughts on moraleducation can enlighten both the theory and practice of ideological and politicaleducation in today’s China.