| The academy system,which has lasted for thousands of years,is an important part of China’s traditional culture,an important organizational mode of traditional higher education,and a precious resource and spiritual wealth that must be relied on in the process of nationalization of contemporary higher education in China.However,in order to overcome the great difference of times and explore the value of the traditional academy system to the contemporary higher education,we must dig deep into the spiritual core of the academy system,especially to extract the internal connection and interaction mode between the traditional academy places and the Chinese society.The study starts from "academy places",focuses on "academy spirit",takes "reference significance" as the foothold,and interprets academy places from three dimensions: academy and culture,academy and politics,academy and society.Each dimension is further explained by three progressive levels: material,behavior and spirit.The first part explores the relationship between the spiritual world of scholars,the high wall and nature through the climbing of the "high wall and mountain forest" of the academy site.The site selection,environment construction and building regulations of academies follow four principles: atmosphere seeking tranquility,geomantic omen seeking good fortune,scenery seeking scenery and humanity seeking respect.The single buildings of the academy are in strict geometric shape,and the layout of the buildings is in good order,which is deeply influenced by the Confucian concept of "ritual system".The academy is solemn and simple,gentle and elegant,teaching in the site and so on all reflect the typical characteristics of literati site.It is believed that the opposition between "high walls and mountains and forests" is essentially "the interaction between ritual architecture and natural elements",which is the result of the joint action of traditional Chinese epistemology of situational interaction and the cultural thinking of "the unity of nature and man".The two characteristics of "master worship" and "reconstruction" embodied in the academy places of learning,sightseeing and sacrificial activities reveal the essence of the academy education activities--moral education.The profound origin of the academy and the system of zen forest shows that its moral education is a kind of religious practice in essence,and as a place for Confucian practice,it has the characteristics of "absolute inheritance and limited innovation",which objectively hinders the differentiation of Chinese traditional social knowledge system.The second part,from the political perspective of "river lake and temple",clarifies the internal logic of the coexistence of the ancient Chinese scholar group’s idea of becoming an official by learning and being excellent and the idea of seclusion of academies.By constructing the classification model of ancient Chinese human geography and analyzing the administrative location of Yuelu Academy,the research finds that traditional academies take "the nearest secluded place to the administrative center" as their political location principle,which highlights the essence of the academy’s entry into the world.The structure of academy’s value orientation and the duality of the relationship between academy and official schools contain the tension of the relationship between academy and imperial power,which is carried by the core mechanism of "the integration of Taoism and official culture".The third part,"The Bell and the Sound of the Market",is a metaphor for the antagonistic relationship between the dependence and transcendence of the academy and the secular world.The ideal goal of traditional academies is to create a small world of tranquility and prosperity in populated areas,which is the inevitable result of Chinese traditional academies’ choice between their secular roots and their transcendence.The academy system has brought great influence to the traditional Chinese society.The function of talent enrichment affects the horizontal flow of social members,while the function of class leaping affects the vertical flow of society.Although the historical movement of academy education promoted the expansion of ancient Chinese higher education,the lack of matching social innovation led to the serious introversion of higher education in the late feudal society of China.The fourth part extracts the contemporary value of academy spirit on the basis of the previous discussion.Although there are obvious differences between traditional academies and contemporary higher education,their innovation based on inheritance,emphasis on the spirit of dialogue in education,emphasis on the means of moral education characterized by "learning" and emphasis on the potential of private schools still have strong reference significance for contemporary higher education.From the perspective of education mode,the traditional academy system will certainly provide valuable experience for the development of contemporary private higher education in China.From the perspective of educational content,the Confucian concept of "dialogue spirit" as the basic characteristic of traditional academies provides a possible direction for a new kind of global citizenship education. |
