Study On The Confucius’ Thoughts Of Moral Education And Its Contemporary Value

In recent years, the party and the government pay more and more attentions to carry forward the excellent traditional culture. Xi Jinping, the general secretary of the communist party of China, stressed the significance of carrying forward the excellent traditional culture to realize the "Chinese dream", in a series of important speeches. Confucius’ thoughts of moral education are important parts of the excellent traditional culture. In the new period, drawing lessons critically from Confucius’ ideas and methods in the moral education, promoting the development of the contemporary theory and practice, are important topics in the theoretical study and practice of the moral education,. In this paper, the author will study Confucius’ thoughts of moral education systematically, and elucidate its contemporary value. In addition to the introduction, the full text is divided into four parts.In the first part, this text will discuss the background and the process of Confucius’ thoughts of moral education. Confucius’ thoughts of moral education are generated in the specific historical conditions. Its formation and development has experienced three stages roughly.In the second part, this text will discuss the content of Confucius’ thoughts of moral education. Confucius’ thoughts of moral education include many aspects, such as the purposes of moral education, the contents, the principles and the methods. The purposes of Confucius’ moral education include two levels. One is to shape ideal personality; the other is to keep political order. The contents of Confucius’ moral education take "benevolence" as the core, including the specific contents of etiquette, fraternity, filial piety and fraternal duty, loyalty and forgiveness. The main principles of Confucius’ moral education include making the moral education first, making no social distinctions in teaching and so on; The methods of Confucius’ moral education include teaching students in accordance of their aptitude, doing moral introspection and so on.In the third part, this paper will discuss the limitations of Confucius’ thoughts of moral education. The author argues that the limitations of Confucius’ thoughts of moral education mainly include three aspects. The first one is that there is too much emphasis on the political functions of the moral education. The second is that Confucius pays less attention to morality education. The third is that Confucius ignores the moral value of labor in the moral education.In the fourth part, this paper will discuss the contemporary value of Confucius’ thoughts of moral education, in accordance with the requirements of the development of contemporary theory and practice of the moral education. The author argues that the modern values of Confucius’ thoughts of moral education mainly include four aspects. The first one is to straighten the status of moral education in schools, and give full play to the role of moral education. The second is to respect the subjectivity of the students and pay attention to the two-way interaction. The third is to pay attention to unify the effects of moral education which could promote the personal development and the social development. The fourth is to give full play to the exemplary role of the workers of moral education.