Wake up（231）

 

231

 

After Han Erniang and Chai Jianhua left Professor Wei Zhongzhi's home, they returned home talking and chatting. Unexpectedly, not long after the two sat down, two guests came to the house. The guest was Wang Ji, Han Erniang's retired colleague in the university library, and the other was Wang Ji's daughter, Chen Xiaoyan. The young Chen Xiaoyan works as a teacher in a middle school, teaching Chinese.

Wang Ji smiled and said to Han Erniang: "I heard that my old girlfriend's wife is here, so I came here with my daughter Xiaoyan to see the groom!"

Han Erniang smiled: "I am already 96 years old, I am more than 20 years older than me, can I still be called the bridegroom officer?"

Wang Ji looked at Chai Jianhua with a smile and said, "Why can't I see your age? What kind of medicine are you taking to keep your body so young?"

Chai Jianhua replied: "I don't take medicine, and I don't usually do much activity."

Wang Ji was stunned: "You don't take medicine? How can you maintain your body?"

Han Erniang pointed to Chai Jianhua and said to Wang Ji: "His body is stronger than mine. If you want to talk about the secret of health preservation, it is very simple. He is an old Chinese doctor!"

Wang Ji's daughter Chen Xiaoyan was overjoyed: "Wow, old Chinese medicine doctor, teach me how to beautify me from now on, I'm afraid of old wow."

While joking, Wang Ji asked, "Where did you go just now?"

Han Erniang said to Wang Ji: "Just now we visited the old professor Wei Zhongzhi and listened to him talk about "Xueji"."

Wang Ji said to his daughter Chen Xiaoyan: "Mr. Wei must have strongly recommended "Xue Ji." She turned around and asked Han Erniang: "He must not have mentioned Confucius' educational thought? Do you know why he doesn't like Confucius?"

Wang Ji's chatterbox opened. She began to recount Confucius' educational thoughts to Chai Jianhua, an old Chinese doctor.

Wang Ji said: Few people in China know "Xue Ji", let alone Le Zhengke in ancient China. People only know that Confucius was born in China, and he is the greatest educator in China.

Confucius was the first person in the history of education in our country to devote his whole life to the cause of education. He had a profound influence on the educational activities of later generations. Confucius' ideology and his deeds were recorded by his disciples, and later compiled into a book called "The Analects", which is the most important material for studying Confucius' educational thought.

The era of Confucius was the historical transitional period when the slave society was gradually declining and the new feudal system was gradually rising. Confucius was a transitional figure in this transitional period. Confucius' thoughts basically represented the relatively enlightened thoughts of slave owners at that time, and to a certain extent reflected the tendency and requirements of social progress.

Confucius was born in an aristocratic family of declining slave owners. He was "less and cheap". He lived among the lower classes for a long time and understood the wishes and demands of the people. The reason why the thought of being loyal to the emperor and loving the people came into being.

The state of Lu where Confucius was born was the center of culture at that time, and the laws and regulations of the Zhou Dynasty were preserved most completely in the state of Lu. Confucius was influenced by Western Zhou culture since he was a child, so he was very familiar with and admired the rituals of Zhou. Words from the heart.

This is why Confucius admired the thought of "emphasizing the people" and "benefiting the people".

Confucius opened a private school at the right time, summarized and developed the traditional ancient culture of our country at that time, and included poetry, books, rites, music and other classics into the scope of his teaching materials, which had a great influence on our country's cultural education. All these formed an important part of Confucius' educational thought part.

During the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, Confucius' theories were not valued by the rulers, and some conservative parts were opposed by progressive thinkers; after the Qin and Han Dynasties, a unified landlord class regime was established, and Confucius' theories were strongly supported by the feudal aristocracy. It has gradually become the dominant ideology in our country for more than 2,000 years; Wang Mang of the Han Dynasty was the first to confer on Confucius as Baocheng Xuanni Gong; Confucian throne was reduced to the position of master; at the end of the Qing Dynasty and the beginning of the Republic of my country, when the Manchu Qing Dynasty was restored, Confucius was respected as the "leader". After the "May 4th" Movement, the status of Confucius has undergone a fundamental change. As the representative of feudal culture——Confucius, his cultural dominance must of course be overthrown. However, in the Kuomintang ruled areas, in order to enslave the needs of education, Confucius was quickly restored to the same lofty status as heaven, earth, sun and moon.

History has developed to this day, how should we study Confucius?

People have different opinions on Confucius' educational thought in different eras and different historical periods.

The world view is the ideological motivation that governs a person's work, and Confucius' world view is the source of his educational thoughts and practices. It is a characteristic of Confucius' worldview not to be superstitious about destiny, ghosts and gods. Confucius talked about "fate" basically all about personnel. He advocates practicality rather than fatalism. The belief that world phenomena are constantly changing is another feature of Confucius' worldview. The possible influence of the change principle of "Yi" on Confucian thought is also one of the characteristics of Confucian worldview.

Confucius held an idealist view on social and historical issues. He believed that morality was the main force driving history, and he attempted to use "moderate" methods to improve society. These thoughts are mainly based on the idealism of Confucius himself.

Confucius' view of the role of education is that "education is inseparable from politics, and education is a form of political work." Confucius worked hard on education, that is, to cultivate his own strength, as political capital, in order to more effectively promote his political ideas. Based on this purpose, Confucius attached great importance to education, and he regarded education, population, and wealth as the three major elements of establishing a country. He believed that ordinary people should be educated, and it should be said that these ideas were a big step forward from the era of slavery.

Confucius recognized that both knowledge and morality must be cultivated through learning, and that education is an important reason for the formation of individual differences. Therefore, he said: "Sex is similar, but habits are far away." The idea of "sexual proximity" originated.

Confucius' view that "only the superior wisdom and the inferior fools are unshakable" is Confucius' classification of "learning". This thought of Confucius denies the universality that everyone can learn and improve.

What is the purpose of Confucius' education? The main object of Confucius teaching is scholars, and his educational purpose is to train scholars to become his ideal talents...so as to improve the situation of "there is no way in the world" since the Spring and Autumn Period, so as to realize his ideal society.

"Sage" and "Gentleman" are the ideal talents considered by Confucius. The main purpose of Confucius' education is to train scholars to become gentlemen. And what are the qualities that a gentleman should possess? The character of a gentleman can be divided into two aspects: the ability to "cultivate oneself" toward oneself, and the ability to "safety others" and "safety the common people" toward others.

The ideal society that Confucius wants to achieve is the highest ideal society of "as far as the Tao is concerned". He took the vision of the Yao and Shun era as his ideal, which was also a reflection of his dissatisfaction with the reality at that time. However, this vision cannot be realized in a class society. Therefore, the educational purpose of Confucius has an idealized color.

Confucius educated students with "literature, behavior, loyalty, and trustworthiness", and "action, loyalty, and trustworthiness" belonged to the category of morality. As for "wen", it refers to classics such as poems, books, rites, and music. The main content of "wen" teaching can be summed up in two categories of "benevolence" and "ritual". "Li" mainly refers to the traditional Western Zhou regulations, customs and habits, while "benevolence" includes almost all moral qualities. The main direction of Confucius' lifelong efforts is to "return the world to benevolence", to reform society with a gentle method of teaching from the top to the bottom, and inject a new spirit of "benevolence" into the old "rituals". In a class society, morality has a distinct class nature, and many of Confucius' moral teachings basically served the interests of slave-owners and nobles at that time. The emperors of all dynasties often used or distorted some of Confucius' moral thoughts as an important tool to paralyze and rule the people.

Confucius raised the teacher's morality to the height of "benevolence", which is not only a requirement for himself, but also a standard for being a teacher.

Why did Mao Zedong criticize Confucius? Because he advocated class struggle, he regarded Confucius' thought as a cancer.

The "May 4th" Movement and the New Culture Movement advocated science and democracy. It was a national salvation movement that embraced the Western "Mr. The Chinese communist movement started from the "May 4th Movement", and of course it was branded as anti-traditional. According to the analysis method of Marxist periodization of ancient history and class struggle, Li Dazhao called "Confucius the talisman of the autocratic emperors of the past dynasties" and "the remains of thousands of years ago".

But no one could guess Mao Zedong's attitude towards Confucius. Mao Zedong visited Qufu twice in his life, both because of Confucius. The first time was in 1919, on the eve of the May 4th Movement, Mao Zedong, at the age of 26, visited Kong Lin and visited the tomb of Confucius. The other time was in 1952. During his inspection of the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River, he specially spent half a day in Qufu to visit the Confucian Temple and Confucian Mansion.

In November 1962, many famous historians and philosophers across the country gathered in Jinan and started the first national Confucius Research Association. The number of people who support Confucianism is the largest, and the number of people who oppose Confucianism is the least. However, not long before this seminar, Mao Zedong had just issued a call to the whole party to "never forget class struggle", "class struggle must be discussed every year", "monthly", and "every day". But in At the meeting, most scholars refused to talk about "class struggle", but talked about how great Confucius was.

The "new stars of the left" who participated in the Confucius seminar this time came well prepared. They got all the conference papers, and organized assistants to search for "black materials", "reactionary viewpoints" and "black words" from them. Several people wrote articles overnight, and the next morning ordered the conference host to change the agenda and arrange for two of them to speak. Their point of view is very clear: a person's thought "in a class society is the theoretical expression of the fundamental interests of different classes, and there are no ideological systems and thinkers that transcend classes. Confucius' philosophy, politics, and ethics cannot be regarded as transcending classes." Confucianism is eternal, inherited without criticism, and modernizes Confucius.”; no matter how much Confucius’ theory has played a role in history, it is always the ideology of the exploiting class, and the proletariat must be critical of his inheritance, while It’s not about “sorting out”, “enriching” and “improving”; those who try to “serve the past for the present” and interpret Confucian thought in a modern way are all “innuendo”, “rightist speech”, “using the mouth of the ancients to attack socialism” and so on.

No one expected it, and no one was mentally prepared. In the summer of 1966, the "unprecedented Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution" broke out. In late August, the Red Guards led by Tan Houlan began to attack the "Three Kongs" in Qufu. Qufu County resisted for several months. By the end of November, the tomb of Confucius was destroyed, the stele was smashed, and the plaque "Teacher of All Ages" was burned. The "Three Holes" suffered the worst damage in history. At the same time, on November 28, a "Discussion Conference on Confucianism" was also held: some participants who participated in the 1962 Confucius Symposium were taken to the rostrum of the venue to show the public. They held their respective signs with their hands on which their names were written, with red crosses on them.

In January 1967, Yao Wenyuan published "Comment on Zhou Yang, the Two-Faced Counter-Revolutionary", which defined the nature of the Confucius Seminar in 1962: the so-called "Confucius Seminar" was a counterattack against the revolutionary spirit of the Tenth Plenary Session by Zhou Yang and a large number of ghosts and snakes. Immediately afterwards, the People's Daily published two criticism articles, "The "Confucius Symposium" is a black meeting where ghosts and snakes attacked the party" and "What kind of poison did the ghosts and snakes put on the "Confucius Symposium"".

In the middle of 1967, the criticism of Liu Shaoqi escalated, so the mastermind behind the scenes changed from Zhou Yang to Liu Shaoqi. People's Daily published an article "Why did Liu Shaoqi summon the soul for Confucius?" ". After the "September 13th" Lin Biao fled in 1971, there was another Lin Biao behind Confucius. The bourgeois careerist, conspirator, double-dealer, traitor, and traitor Lin Biao yelled again and again: "The only thing that matters is this, self-restraint and return to propriety." In just one sentence, Lin Biao exposed Lin Biao's wolfish ambition to change the party's basic line, subvert the dictatorship of the proletariat, and restore capitalism.

From destroying the tomb of Confucius to criticizing Lin and Confucianism, criticizing the law and criticizing Confucianism, in the mid-1970s, the reputation of Confucius in China fell to the lowest point since 2,500 years ago. Until the discussion of the standard of truth for the emancipation of the mind, articles speaking for Confucius have not been published for a long time. On July 18, 1978, "Guangming Daily" published an article of more than 5,000 words on the headline of the history edition with a column title and three-quarters of the page, "Confucius Educational Thought Trial Review", which unveiled the restoration of Confucius' reputation. prelude.

Wang Ji's daughter, Chen Xiaoyan, interjected at this time: I don't know about the criticism of Confucius during the Cultural Revolution, but I still don't understand why China today has established Confucius Institutes abroad? I visited several Confucius Institutes in the US and UK. Many overseas scholars regard Confucius as the representative of China's "retro-ism" and reactionary forces, and the root cause of China's cultural and educational backwardness for thousands of years; some scholars also call Confucius a "revolutionary" and "the foundation of modern democracy." People", "Teacher of All Ages" and so on.

Wang Ji said: Mao Zedong's criticism of Confucius was his criticism of the theory of the extinction of class struggle, and he advocated his theory of class struggle. At present, the country is vigorously promoting Confucius, which is essentially promoting Confucius' thoughts of "loyalty to the emperor" and "protecting the country", with the purpose of continuing Confucius' career path of cultivating elites for the imperial court. There is no doubt that Confucius' thoughts represent the interests of the ruling class. Can the establishment of Confucius Institutes overseas to promote Confucius' thought of loyalty to the monarch be accepted by Western countries that advocate democracy and freedom? Now that all countries have closed the Confucius Institutes established by China, it is worth thinking about for the Chinese. What is more worthy of consideration is to list Confucius' educational thoughts as a part of China's excellent traditional culture and even patriotic education. If Mao Zedong had a spirit in heaven, would he be happy?

Han Erniang smiled, and she said to Chai Jianhua: "You are an old Chinese medicine doctor, so I don't know what secret recipe Confucianism has in Chinese medicine?"

Chai Jianhua said to Wang Ji and Chen Xiaoyan: "Chinese medicine can't cure the disease that Confucianism is neglected, and Confucianism can't make Chinese medicine catch up with Western medicine. The cure for China must be developed by young people in the future. How to educate Chinese people is the key the most important."