First, Lao Tzu
B. Xu Shen
C. Mencius
D. Zhu
Mencius first used the word "education". Mencius put forward in the twentieth section of Mencius with all his heart: to be educated by talented people in the world, three pleasures are also available. Mencius believes that it is the third kind of happiness to be nurtured by talents in the world.
The purpose of Mencius' education is to understand human relations and cultivate gentlemen. Mencius believes that there are five kinds of human relations in traditional society, namely, father and son, monarch and minister, couple, brother and friend. "Mencius Teng Wengong" recorded that "father and son are close, the monarch and the minister are righteous, husband and wife are different, young and old are orderly, and friends have faith".
Mencius believed that both sides in interpersonal relationship should abide by certain "rules": the father and son are related by blood, the monarch and the minister are polite and righteous, the husband and wife are affectionate but different from each other inside and outside, the respect and inferiority have priority, and friends have the virtue of honesty. These are the principles and codes of conduct for dealing with interpersonal relationships. This view of Mencius was summarized by later generations as the three cardinal principles and five permanents of China feudal social tradition.
Mencius believed that we should take intentional cultivation as the core, be determined to cultivate self-cultivation, persevere, and seek for ourselves, and finally achieve the ideal personality of being a gentleman. He advocated the cultivation of noble spirit, and believed that a gentleman should be worthy of heaven and cultivate an upright Confucian personality.