The Disquisition Of The Moral Education Value Of Confucius’ Aesthetic Thoughts

Confucius is a great thinker and educator of ancient China. There is much aesthetic wisdomin his thought. He applies the aesthetic elements in the process of education with the content ofbenevolence education, the esthetical education methods and the flexible and diverse educationalapproaches. It makes good harmony and unity in teaching, which internalized in students’ heartsand externalized in their daily words and deeds in this way.As a result, it encourages the studentsto make continuous efforts on the image of the ideal gentleman. Accompanied with benevolenceas the core in Confucius’ thought, it has the characteristics of people foremost and neutralizationin his aesthetic thoughts. It has great significance in the moral education of the time by studyingon these aesthetics. Through the analysis of Confucius’ aesthetics, we can absorb its reasonablecompositions and use the traditional aesthetics to modern moral education. It will not only createopportunities for the traditional thought to have a burst of modern vitality, but also provide a newvision and a thinking way for moral education research and practice.The first part of the paper mainly discusses the main contents of Confucius’ aesthetics.Confucius’aesthetics covers a wide range including the aesthetics of art, the aesthetics of societyand the aesthetics of nature. The aesthetic thoughts not only show the characteristics of “thebeauty of neutralization and harmony” as the core of aesthetic judgments and theethic-orientation of unify of beauty and goodness, but also embody the humanism life care andco-exist of both the characters of practice and transcendence. The connotation and characteristicsof Confucius’ aesthetics reveals a correlation of Confucius’ aesthetics and the development ofmoral education, which has a certain referential significance for the development of moraleducation.The second part analyzes the moral education value of Confucius’ aesthetics. First of all,Confucius’ aesthetic thought has important theoretical values. Its application is conducive to thedevelopment of the localization of moral education and it has surpassed the utilitarianism in moral education. Moreover, it enriches the research methods of moral education and it isconducive to show the ultimate concern of moral education. It also has important value for thecultivation of core socialist values. The use of Confucius’ aesthetics opens a new field for theresearch of educational theory. Secondly, the study of Confucius’ aesthetics thought hasimportant practical values. The educated people are in the subject position in the process ofaccepting moral influence. To make sure moral education play a role in people, we should payattention to stimulating initiatives of the educated through their moral cognition, moral emotion,moral will and moral behavior habits and so on. Through the attention and influence to theeducated, it will promote their moral cognition comprehensively, moral emotion naturally, moralwill firmly and finally form the good habit of moral behavior. Then it will make morality of theeducated change from the inside out and impel the realization of moral education’s effects.Thirdly, Confucius’ aesthetics also has some limitations because of the historical backgrounds.Confucius’ thought is more about personal moral cultivation and it reflects the tendency of thepersonal standard. When the conflict happens between the individual and society, it is easy tomake people pay attention to themselves and neglect the development of the society. Confuciusattaches great importance to the cultivation of moral beauty of person, but he neglects thedifferent developing stages of the educated. He pays attention to the combination of beauty andgoodness, but he ignores the combination of beauty, goodness and “true”. It is an importantcultural reason for Chinese later to fail to produce systemic science and technology.The third part mainly discusses the referential significance of Confucius’ aesthetics on thecontemporary moral education. Firstly, referring to Confucius’ aesthetics is the urgent need ofmoral education. It is necessary to introduce Confucius’ aesthetics into moral education becausethe moral education is lack of beauty of content, form and practice. Secondly, Confucius’aesthetics provide reference for moral education content system. His social aesthetic ideasnourish the social basic morality and his natural aesthetic ideas expand the realm of moraleducation. Thirdly, Confucius’ aesthetics is a reference to the optimization of the process ofmoral education. It expounds the enlightenment from Confucius aesthetics on the optimization ofthe process of moral education. From the three aspects of moral educators, moral methods andmoral environment, we can promote the process of the moral education and the implementationof the effect of moral education.