Lao Tzu’s Thoughts Of Harmonious Society With The Spiritual Education On Contemporary College Students

College students are the successors of the socialist construction. Overall, an energetic and positive outlook is the mainstream of contemporary college students. However, as science and technology advances, while enjoying richer and richer material lives, people are facing more and more natural and social problems, such as value diversification, belief crisis, life pressure, fast-paced life and fierce competition, which have deep influence on the spiritual growth of contemporary college students. College life is full of vigor and pride of youth as well as depression and problems of growth. The increase of college students’ mental problems and rate of suicide and crime makes us to have a reflection on the spiritual education on contemporary college students. As Jaspers said, “The essence of education is the education of the soul.” Strengthening college students’ spiritual education and shaping them into adults with correct belief and values is the new requirement of the new age of education.The Chinese civilization has a long history and accumulated abundant theories on spiritual education. Among them, Lao Tzu, a thinker in the Spring and Autumn Period, wrote his thought about harmony in Tao Te Ching, which is very enlightening and is a treasure of the spiritual education for contemporary college students. Tao Te Ching is the first complete philosophy work in China. It is concise and comprehensive, with the thoughts of harmony, and has a profound influence on Chinese civilization. Thus, exploring the influence of Lao Tzu’s thoughts of harmony on contemporary college students is of great significance in guiding them to set up the correct values, build a healthy mind and promote their comprehensive development.In this thesis, methods of documentary research, comparative research, case analysis and questionnaires was taken to discuss the historical background and theoretical basis of Lao Tzu’s idea of harmony, as well as its basic connotation, theoretical features and historical position; deconstruct contemporary college students’ spiritual education situation and the existing problems; seek for an effective way to combine Lao Tzu’s thoughts of ‘harmony with nature’, ‘harmony with people’ and ‘harmony with self’ with the spiritual education on contemporary college students.Outline:There are 5 chapters in this thesis.Chapter 1: Introduction. Explained causes of the selection of the subject, significance of the research, present academic research on this topic and methods used in this research.Chapter 2: Historical background and theoretical basis of Lao Tzu’s idea of harmony.Chapter 3: Basic components of Lao Tzu’s idea of harmony.Chapter 4: Influence of Lao Tzu’s idea of harmony on the spiritual education of contemporary college students.Chapter 5: Conclusion. Summary of research results of this thesis, review of experiences and lessons and prospection of the future application.