Zhu Huiyun(Department of Philosophy　Baoji University of Arts and Sciences,Baoji　Shaanxi　721016)



Contemporary Value and Educational Enlightenment of Zhu Xi’s Moral Education Thoughts

Zhu Huiyun
(Department of PhilosophyBaoji University of Arts and Sciences,BaojiShaanxi721016)

As a philosopher and educator,Zhu Xi is famous for his rich moral education thoughts.The formation of these moral education thoughts was not only closely associated with his own moral education activities and academic research,but also indispensible from his own Confucian family background,social context of his time,and his own thoughts and cultural background.Zhu Xi’s moral education thoughts are of great contemporary value,serving as reference for the construction of people’s values,a harmonious society,civic virtues and civic education.Among these,his thoughts especially give significant enlightenment to modern education in China.

Zhu Xi;moral education thoughts;contemporary value

Ⅰ.Content and causes of Zhu Xi’s moral education thoughts

1.Major content of Zhu Xi’s moral education thoughts.Zhu Xi’s moral education thoughts are of abundant connotations,〔1〕encompassing the objective,value orientation,modes and approaches,ways and methods,and content design and development of moral education,epitomizing moral education thoughts of different schools before him.

First,objective of moral education.Zhu Xi maintained that moral education should consider its purpose and objective at least from two aspects.The first is from the national and social level.Aiming at the situation of moral depravity during the Southern Song Dynasty,Zhu Xi proposed to vigorously overhaul the social morality of the whole country and reconstruct the moral order of the overall society.The second is from the regulating function of moral education on personal moral qualities and behaviors,that is,to take the sages as example and spare no effort to enhance the education and cultivation of the morality and conduct code of citizens.

Second,approaches and modes of moral education.Zhu Xi argued that moral education should adopt a multi-pronged approach,fully exerting the power of school,family,society,and individuals to promote the diversified development of modes of moral education.First,school education should be promoted actively and take moral education as its priority to bring school’s role of main channel in moral education into full play.Second,Zhu Xi held that moral education is also indispensible from active coordination of family education.Third,Zhu Xi advocated vigorous overhaul of the social morality to purify environment of moral education by virtue of good social morality.At last,he highly emphasized the mode of self-education and he put forward several methods of self-education,such as self-examination,self-inspection,etc.

Third,ways and principles of moral education.In this respect,Zhu Xi also presented a lot of instructive suggestions and methods,such as taking positive education as the primary means and actively preventing all sorts of unhealthy thoughts as the supplementary means in moral education;instead of trying to accomplish moral education at one stroke,the step-by-step method should be adopted and different education methods and content be tailored for students of different ages;moral education should adhere to the combination of theoretical moral knowledge and hands-on practice.He also took the lead in practicing theoretical moral knowledge and actively encouraged his students to combine the theoretical moral knowledge with daily life,study and work to form the interactive and win-win development trend of theory and practice.He suggested that moral education is not a unilateral matter,and the principal role of both the educator and the educatees should be fully motivated;the educators should proactively dominate the whole course of moral education,while the educatees should actively exert their principal role.These ways and principles of moral education all reflect the characteristics of Zhu Xi’s moral thoughts.〔2〕

Fourth,content design of moral education.On this,Zhu Xi made clear advancement than the educators of his time.He believed that instead of generalizing moral education,different moral education content systems should be arranged and designed in accordance with different stages of the students.At the stage of primary school,the emphasis should be laid on regulating daily behavior and etiquette,as well as how to behave oneself in society,strengthening regular education of the students.〔3〕At the stage of college,the students’ theoretical moral knowledge should be enhanced.

2.Causes of the formation of Zhu Xi’s moral education thoughts.About this,like any other thought systems,Zhu Xi’s moral education thoughts were not made behind closed doors,but were generated under all sorts of subjective and objective conditions.The major subjective condition was the Chinese traditional thoughts and culture Zhu Xi received and his own theoretical research and all kinds of educational practice.From the objective conditions,the major reason was that the social conditions and regional culture of Zhu Xi’s time provided a wide social and cultural environment.The specific backgrounds and conditions are presented as below:

First,the social context during the Southern Song Dynasty provided Zhu Xi’s moral education thoughts with a lot of objective conditions.Like the Northern Song Dynasty,the Southern Song Dynasty was trapped in cumulative weakness and poverty,intensified class contradictions,growing depravity of social morality,and deepened anomie of moral behavior.〔4〕Theses phenomena forced Zhu Xi,as a thinker and educator,into worry and pushed him to present a series of resolutions for moral issues.

Second,the overall thought and cultural background.From the pre-Qin period to the Southern Song Dynasty,China had accumulated numerous thoughts and cultures and generated various schools of thought,such as a lot of philosophical ideas and moral education concepts put forward by famous neo-Confucians in the Northern Song Dynasty,the ideas and content of Confucian moral tradition that had been emphasized in China since the pre-Qin period,and regional cultures of the Southern Song Dynasty,i.e.,the Xiang-Hu School and other philosophical ideas.These ideas and cultures in Chinese history and the Southern Song Dynasty all provided nutrition and resources as reference for the formation and development of Zhu Xi’s moral education thoughts.

Third,Zhu Xi’s family background also provided certain educational foundation for the formation of his moral education thoughts.Although his family prosperity was ebbing,thanks to relatives’ help,Zhu Xi was able to receive education from all sorts of Confucian thoughts and other schools’ thoughts of his time.This kind of family education that spared no effort to provide him with all sorts of education played a key role in the formation of his moral education thoughts.It can be said that Zhu Xi’s success in the fields of education,idea and culture was largely determined by his family education.

Ⅱ.Analysis of contemporary value of Zhu Xi’s moral education thoughts

1.They have significant guiding value for the construction of professional ethics,public morality and family virtues in modern China.In modern China,there have been constant phenomena of moral anomie,insufficient professional credibility,and industry anomie;and divorce rate has also kept going up.Zhu Xi’s moral education thoughts bring about a lot of enlightenment for solving these problems.

2.They have important value for the construction of idea,culture and Sinology in modern China.China’s construction and development of Sinology include the inheritance and development of important thoughts in Chinese history and Zhu Xi’s moral education thoughts are of course part of it.Zhu Xi’s moral education thoughts encompass rich philosophical,educational,and moral thoughts,providing extensive resources for Sinology construction in modern China.

3.They have great significance for Chinese citizens’ learning,self-cultivation and construction of values.One important characteristic of Zhu Xi’s moral education thoughts is strong emphasis of self-education and self-inspection cultivated from moral qualities.This inspires China to encourage citizens to motivate their own subjectivity,actively enhance personal moral cultivation and qualities,and construct upright values and outlook on life.

4.They have great value for the construction of a harmonious society in modern China.Zhu Xi’s moral education thoughts mention that people should care about one another,stress benevolence,and restrain avarice.These moral education thoughts provide certain methods and resources for the construction of a harmonious society in modern days,i.e.,to strive to cultivate people’s philanthropism and kindness.

5.Zhu Xi’s moral education thoughts also have important value for political construction.Zhu Xi’s moral education thoughts mention that officials should enhance their self-cultivation,strive for incorruptness,and reduce avarice.These moral education thoughts provide certain reference for today’s official team construction and political construction,i.e.,to pay attention to the construction of work style and ethics of government officials.

Ⅲ.Educational enlightenment of Zhu Xi’s moral education thoughts

1.In the aspect of value orientation and functional role of education,although Zhu Xi’s moral education thoughts never present explicit value orientation and function of education,considering the objective of moral education in his thoughts,it is observed that Zhu Xi advocated exerting the social and personal value of education and returning to the nature of education.This inspires modern education to avoid the simply utilitarian value orientation to the greatest extent,and instead to pay more attention and try to help with the growth and development of individual,emphasizing the regulation and advancement of the individual ideological qualities and moral behaviors of each citizen.

2.In the aspect of objective of education,Zhu Xi’s moral education thoughts put forward the educational objective of “keeping the celestial law existence and killing off human desire”.Despite its slight extremism,it plays an immensely enlightening role for the reconstruction of today’s educational objective,that is,the aim of education should cultivate and construct the students’ knowledge system and improve their world of spiritual cultivation as far as possible.In the aspect of content of education,Zhu Xi proposed all-round education with moral education as the priority and advocated that school education must emphasize moral education,which inspires today’s education in China to change the present examination-oriented education,genuinely carry out quality-oriented education,vigorously develop national education,and enrich education content system in accordance with modern development,thus striving to realize that education progress is for people’s genuine development.

3.In educational approaches,Zhu Xi presented that equal emphasis should be given to school education,social education,personal education and family education.The role and function of education by environment are repeatedly mentioned in Zhu Xi’s moral education thoughts,which enlightens that today’s education in China must fully employ and develop all sorts of public spaces including cyber space and constantly explore these spaces’ educational function,to formulate a great and civilized atmosphere in the whole society so as to construct an abiding and effective education mechanism.

4.In education principles and methods,Zhu Xi’s moral education thoughts contain very instructive educational methods and resources,such as knowledge as action,positive education,progressive education,and individual self-inspection.First,his moral education thoughts advocate the education principle and method of knowledge as action.Second,his moral education thoughts propose the education method and principle of adhering to active guidance and precaution.Third,his moral education thoughts also advocate the education principle and method of progressive step-by-step education.

In conclusion,Zhu Xi’s moral education thoughts are the most important part of his thought world,reflecting his care for morality and humanity,revealing a lot of his great insights about moral education,and presenting much enlightenment for today’s China.For the education sector in China,the most crucial point at present lies in actively assimilating the beneficial elements in his moral education thoughts and practical activities and applying them into the current moral education practice in China so as to better exert the value of his moral education thoughts.

References:

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〔2〕涂爱荣：《朱喜德育方法的特点探微》，《社科纵横》2007年第5期，第121-122页。

〔3〕雷小波：《朱熹常规教育思想的现实启迪》，《常德师范学院学报(社科版)》2001年第2期，第85-87页。

〔4〕傅文玉、王欢：《论朱熹德育思想的形成》，《淮北职业技术学院学报》2011年第1期，第100-101页。

About the author：Zhu Huiyun(1982—),MA,lecturer of Department of Philosophy,Baoji University of Arts and Sciences.