The Pre-qin Confucian Moral Education Thoughts And Its Modern Value

As the main part of traditional Chinese culture, Confucianism has a far-reaching influence on the living and thinking patterns of the nation for thousands of years, and it is the soul and core of Chinese civilization. Confucianism, which has an obvious tendency of ethics, is also rich in morality education, thus an excellent cultural resource of morality education for the country. As the "axial times" of human civilization, the ideology of Pre-Qin days became the source and running water for later times.Confucian moral education has formed a relatively complete theoretical system in Pre-Qin days, which does not only have a full and deep impact on the feudal society as a whole, but also exerts a tremendous influence on the moral cultivation of socialist society with Chinese characteristics till today. Today, in the new historical background, moral education is challenged by new problems, which requires us to absorb and learn from the fine morality culture resources in history and to make further research on moral education of Pre-Qin period represented by Confucius, Mencius and Hsun Tzu. These efforts are of great theoretical and realistic importance to getting a clear picture of Confucianism, as well as to coping with new moral educational issues and promoting socialist morality cultivation. This paper is composed of four parts:The first part is the preface, which discusses the purpose and significance of the study, and also analyses the present researches of Confucianism, which are in immense numbers. The studies on moral education of Pre-Qin Confucianism, however, are relatively fewer and weaker, which, therefore, requires further researches. In this part, approach and innovation of the paper based on previous studies are also introduced, as any academic research is the inheritance and development of previous studies, and cannot be created without foundation.The second part talks about the social background and theoretical base of Pre-Qin moral education of Confucianism. Moral education of Confucianism of China came into being in the Spring and Autumn and the Warring States Periods, in which the economic development and political change laid the social foundation for Pre-Qin moral education of Confucianism. With the historical development, the ideas of "morality" and "courtesy" were completed and enriched, becoming the historical origin of the formation of Pre-Qin moral education of Confucianism. On the other hand, the enrichment of the theory of human nature, especially its huge development contributed by Mencius and Hsun Tzu provided a logical foundation for the formation of Pre-Qin moral education of Confucianism.The third part illustrates the basic contents of Pre-Qin moral education of Confucianism, which includes four aspects:The first aspect is about the argument of regarding "mercy" as the core of moral education."Mercy" is, first of all, a sincere emotion, which is regarded by Confucius as a basic requirement for a merciful person. As its form of expression,"courtesy" is closely related with "mercy". A merciful person is not only someone who is "loyal and tolerant","filial and sincere", but also the one who regards righteousness outweighing benefit. The second aspect concerns the theory of accounting "oracle" personality as the object of Pre-Qin moral education of Confucianism. Confucianism pursues the ideal personality----"oracle" as the final object of moral education, whose realistic object is to realize the personality of "Junzi", i.e., a person of noble character. The third aspect focuses on the theory of considering "morality and courtesy" as the policy to administer state affairs. Since Confucianism is of deep political character, the paper introduces the merciful political thoughts of Confucius, Mencius and Hsun Tzu. The fourth aspect is about the methodology of "cautiousness" and "diligence", which consists of employment of both learning and thinking, practice of what one preaches, competency-based instruction, and etc.The fourth part elaborates the modern value of Pre-Qin moral education of Confucianism. First and foremost, it probes into the re-thinking of the status of modern moral education. It illustrates the significance of moral education in a person’s all-round development, and necessity of re-establish the primary status of moral education in the contemporary period. Secondly, from the practice point of view, it explains the inspiration of Confucian practice view on todays’morality practice and on how to efficiently conduct morality education. Thirdly, the paper stresses on the value of Confucian people-oriented idea in today’s moral education, and explains that moral education should return to the nature, love the society, and be based on people, and especially on students. Lastly, it probes into the significance of Confucian idea stressing on both internal and external values on the morality practice of nowadays. The efficient development of moral education cannot go away with either the instruction of teachers or the shaping by environment. A good environment of moral education will have important significance on promoting people’s moral development.