Three Major Effects Of Chinese Confucianism On Korean Education

The Confucius culture is the oldest and the deepest cultural ideology in the Korean history. The Chinese Confucianism penetrated deep into each aspect of Korean people’s life. This research devotes to the ideas of Confucianism, and mainly focuses on its influence and effects on the Korean education system, for example, family education, school education, and social education there by bringing into lightning the importance and realistic significance of the Confucius thoughts.Being a Korean educated in Korea, the author has endeavoured to reveal how Chinese Confucianism has affected the Korean educational system such as the family education, school education and social education, based on her own education experience and the previous studies by the earlier researchers in this field. In the preface (the first chapter), the author has described briefly the importance of Chinese Confucianism towards Korea, related researches in this field, and the research goal, methodology and significance. In the second chapter, the author has defined the Confucianism she discussed in this essay, her understanding of the Korean Confucianism, and the spreading and growth of Chinese Confucianism in Korea, which provides a good foundation for further discussion. In the third chapter, the essay elaborates the effects of Chinese Confucianism on the Korean family education, which includes two aspects:the first is in which way and content that Chinese Confucianism exerts its impact on the forming of Korean moral character during the pregnant and pre-school stages from the perspective of the contemporary situation of antenatal training and early learning in Korea. The second is to illustrate how Chinese Confucianism influences the Korean family relationship by expounding the goal and method of the filial piety and love which are focused on by most Korean families. The fourth chapter talks about the Korean school education in two main points; first, to display the content and value of Chinese Confucianism in different stages by analyzing the content of the current Morality curriculum in Korean schools; second, to point out the influence of Chinese Confucianism on Korean teachers’teaching methodologies and its significance by analyzing the evolution process of the modern teaching methodologies in Korea. And then it further puts forward the author’s suggestion of modern education reformation by applying Chinese Confucian "Golden Mean" and "Communication". The fifth chapter is about the effects of Chinese Confucianism on the Korean social education in three aspects:to proclaim how Korean people use Chinese Confucianism to train the moral character, virtue and behavior in their daily social communication, living and working from the perspective of the influence of Chinese Confucianism on the moral education, behavior education and enterprise education in Korean society; to analyze the present status of the popularization of Chinese Confucianism in the Korean social education; to demonstrate the superiority and universality of Chinese Confucianism in Korean social education. In the conclusion, the author has summarized the research findings and its significance.Through this research, the author found that the influence of Chinese Confucianism on the Korean education had been very great. At first, it influences the family education. In Korea, antenatal education makes the parents be aware that they are models of their children. In order to cultivate their children, parents should act properly as a good example of their children. The pre-school education reinforces the responsibility and obligation of the family members, which helps the children learn how to handle family relations, build harmonious family atmosphere and serve others since their childhood. Education of "filial piety" and "love" is the foundation of the family harmony which trains the Korean’s sense of community spirit. This kind of family education will consequently form excellent family mode, which builds a solid foundation for the social stability and development. Moreover, in Korean school education, either educations for both morality and etiquette or education for scriptures are influenced by Chinese Confucianism. Such school education not only helps students establish a correct code of behavior so as to develop the abilities of thinking and evaluating in reasonably solving the moral problems, but also benefits the students in improving their self-cultivation, teamwork consciousness, and independent personality and living ability. Meanwhile, Chinese Confucianism also influences the Korean teachers’values, education method and attitude. The Confucian idea of loyal, forbearance, moderation and communication has played a positive role in the efficient communication between teachers and students in Korea. Finally, in social educational aspect, the influence of Chinese Confucianism on the educations for personality, behavior and enterprises fosters the Korean’s sense of social responsibility and ethical concept and establishes the Korean’s sense of responsibility and enterprise views. The popularization of Chinese Confucianism helps the acceptance of Chinese Confucianism both in Korea and worldwide.The author hopes her research help the further understanding of the contemporary influence of Chinese Confucianism on the Korean education system and make further contribution to boosting the cultural exchanges between Korea and China.