The Study Of Tao Xingzhi’s Aesthetic Education Thoughts

The education theory and practice of Mr. Tao show us his wisdom for the future, which is of great instructional significance for our today’s education nationwide. On account of this, few researchers focus on his own unique insight and thoughts for aesthetic education. Theories of Mr. Tao in aesthetic education still have guiding significance for our current aesthetic education theories and practice. Especially Mr. Tao’s thoughts in aesthetic education is the treasure for educators who devote themselves to the aesthetic education.This paper centres on the following five aspects:The first part: introduction. Analyze the current situation, the research of Tao in aesthetic education and illustrate the reason why this paper studies Tao’s aesthetic thoughts in order to find the breakthrough for the research of this paper.The second part: Mr. Tao’s perspective in aesthetic education — “trinity for truth, goodness, beauty”. The so-called "truth": one is for cognition, which is the pursuit of truth. The other one is “kindness”. It refers to a person’s moral culture. Tao holds the view that the root of being a person is his or her moral that concretely presents “trinity for wisdom, benvolence and bravery”. “Wisdom” is wit; “Benvolence” is the unified appellation of a variety of moral actions. “Benvolence” means that one person should love other people as well as the world full of love; “Bravery” presents the capacities of practice for moral actions. That is a self-conscious and high level of defending the norm of ethics spirit which a person can proceed without hesitation; The value of "beauty" is the unity of the truth and the kindness. In Tao’s opinions, “truth, kindness and beauty” cannot be separated. The aesthetic education is to create the personality of "the unity of truth, kindness and beauty” which are the way of life.The third part: Tao’s perpective of aesthetic education curriculum — "the trinity for knowledge, emotion and will". For a long time, aesthetic education is regared as emotional education and emphasizes the positive function of aesthetic education in promoting people’s effective thinking while the rational thinking is excluded from aesthetic education. For this situation, Mr. Tao puts forward the concept of “ the trinity of cognition, affect and will” in aesthetic education. The education about cognition is the will that attract the children’s interests in society and activities. The emotional education adjusts and enlightens the affect for the pursuit of truth. The way of adjusting their emotion is the cognition education and the pursuit of truth is also the education of will. So the truth, affect and will are a whole that cannot be separated. In a word, aesthetic education is the emotional education and also the education of knowledge and will. Aesthetic education is the unity of “truth, emotion and will” with the function of enlightening reason, emotion, cultivating the sense of moral and developing intellect. Aesthetic education is the education of the ‘truth, emotion and will’.The fourth part: Tao’s aesthetic education views for practice — "the trinity of teaching, learning and doing".Teaching is the core of teaching, learning and doing. To teach is to learn and to learn is to do. Doing is for doing things while doing is learning for onself. The effect on others is teaching. Teaching, learning and doing occur and work at the same time. So the teaching and doing must be a unity. Tao’s aesthetic education views for practice is as follows: first, the implementation of the art of education through painting, music, drama, dance and other forms of activities to enhance the students’ judgement of aesthetic perception and focus on cultivating the students’ ability of creation in art and the ability of performance. Second, creating art environment. Above all the natural environment edifies the human. He proposed that four basic elmments for choosing a place for a school: magnificent, beautiful, large, be rich in history. Next is the beauty of social environment in order to transform the environment in a spirit of art and create beauty through labour. Thirdly, cultivating the creativity of children. From the point of Tao’s thought, aesthetic education goal is to develop the living of “truth, kindness and beauty”, so it is particularly important to arouse the creativity of children. Therefore, he puts forward the six aspects of liberation” about how to cultivate children’s creativity: the emancipation of the children’s mind, eyes, hands, mouth, space and time; "Three needs" : adequate nutrition, developing habits, teaching students according to their aptitude.The fifth part: the basic characteristics of Tao’s aesthetic education thoughts: harmonious coexistence, comprehensive construction, holographic presentation. Harmonious coexistence emphasizes whether it is “truth, kindness and beauty”, “cognition, emotion and will”, and “teaching, learning and doing”, they must be a unity and work together. On that condition, the education is able to cultivate the man who develops comprehensively and harmoniously. Being short of one aspect will lead to the one-sided development of human beings. Comprehensive construction is for setting courses of the aesthetic education that should take cognition, emotion and will into account and insist on the instructional principles, the unity of "teaching, learning and doing". Holographic presentation refers to the same information among parts, between the part and the whole. That is to say truth contains kindness and beauty while beauty also contains truth and kindness. Aesthetic education is the education of knowledge and the education of will; Teaching just do one thing — doing by teaching, doing by learning. Doing by teaching is teachers’ jobs and doing by learning is sudents’ jobs.