Discussing The Origin Of Ru From The Perspective Of Educational System

On the basis of summarizing the cultural knowledge and the system of education before Spring and Autumn Period time,this dissertation will re-explore the origin of Confucianism.The two governmental offices in Western Zhou-Qingshi Liao and Taishi Liao,represented two different intellectual groups,whose knowledge systems were entirely different in nature.Therefore,the hierarchies of culture and education derived from the two offices respectively were distinct from each other.Generally,there was a stable way of knowledge protection and imparting in the hierarchy of Taishi,which was the department serving the royal court with the professional knowledge.As a ruling class the noble of Zhou Dynasty had another knowledge system of the ritual and music in order to underpin their domination,though this system actually also relied on Taishi hierarchy(mainly relied on official musicians)to maintain and impart.So,on the one hand,the scion accepted the skill training and education from the musicians,on the other hand,they needed to learn the subjects of basic knowledge,virtue and politics from Shi Bao(the masters who took charge of noble education)as well.The noble politics Spring and Autumn Period time,partly was the reason of the prevailing social custom,that is,the moral integrity ofjunzi was higher than the form of etiquette.Because of that,the status of Taishi hierarchy declined obviously in the society.After Spring and Autumn Period time,the education authority gradually moved from the official to the civil organizations.And during this historical course,the nobility and musicians from different cultural and educational systems,made teaching manners as their profession.These people were the original Ru.As there were different knowledge systems and ideological trends between them,they separated into two categories,Junzi Ru and Xiaoren Ru.Confucius came from declining aristocrat,so he inherited the traditions of both the two groups at the same time.The level of specific knowledge he mastered was similar to the royal officials,while his ideological trend was directly inherited from the aristocrat of Spring and Autumn Period time.He combined the two characters.Consequently,the Confucian advocated the rituals paring down to the essence as well as encountered criticizing about unnecessary and over elaborate formalities.Only on the perspective of the evolution of cultural and educational system from Western Zhou,can we clear the complexity of the problem of Ru's origin,so that we can understand the conflicts at the beginning of Confucianism better and its development track in the later.