From the neat forms of Han fu and Tang poetry, we can see the ideological level of people at that time; From the pottery and figure paintings in the Han and Tang dynasties, we can see the simplicity of people's character at that time. Women's modest breasts in figure paintings in the Tang Dynasty (most ladies in the Tang Dynasty wore flat chests, low collars and big sleeves) showed the openness of people at that time! Li's and Li's poems are neat in form, such as "Mountain Covers the Day" and "Charcoal Man", but simple as vernacular. The imperial examination in Tang Dynasty is to select useful talents for the country, especially to enter the imperial examination. In addition to essays and poems, the examination content also includes suggestions on political views and current affairs. Talent selection is small and refined, and only 20 or 30 people are admitted to each subject. Only about 10,000 people were admitted to the Imperial Examination in the Tang Dynasty, but their achievements were remarkable. 80% of the prime ministers in the Tang Dynasty were scholars, and the rule of Zhenguan and the prosperity of Kaiyuan really benefited from the reserve of imperial examinations.
Since the Song Dynasty, China culture has undergone a turning point: the teaching of etiquette declined, the study of mind and nature flourished, and empty talk about affairs gradually became the trend, reaching its peak in the late Ming Dynasty; In art, literati landscape painting replaced figure painting as the mainstream in Han and Tang dynasties, that is, figure painting. The realistic style of the Tang Dynasty was replaced by the freehand style of the Song Dynasty, which reflected the change from the simplicity of the Tang Dynasty to the ethereal style of the Song Dynasty. By the end of the Ming Dynasty, "idealism" rose in literature and art, and Yangming's philosophy of "unity of mind and Zen" prevailed. In terms of imperial examinations, the Yuan Dynasty created the "two-list system" and prospered the "eight-part essay", but in the Qing Dynasty, both were implemented (in the Yuan Dynasty, the right list was Mongolian and Semu, and the left list was Han; The Qing dynasty was a list of Manchu and Han. Compared with the Tang Dynasty, the imperial examinations in Ming and Qing Dynasties paid special attention to Confucian classics, but lacked the current affairs and historical contents in the Tang Dynasty, which reflected that the imperial examinations had changed from the main way of selecting and recruiting talents to the means of controlling the scholars' thoughts to strengthen the monarchy.
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China's education is still deeply influenced by the way of thinking in that corrupt Confucian era, and neither moral education nor knowledge education is practical. Take moral education as an example. For a long time, China's Taoist educational theory has been used to promoting the educational principle of "caring for ideas and moving people with feelings". This theory makes people mistakenly think that moral education is only the education of moral reason and moral emotion, but as everyone knows, education limited to moral reason and moral emotion is only moral preaching, and moral reason can't be implemented at all by virtue of this moral preaching. Because moral practice does not simply put some moral principles and emotions into practical actions, but first transforms moral principles into moral norms, and then refines moral norms into a series of operable moral behaviors (specific moral behaviors can be followed) according to moral emotions, so that people can follow rules when dealing with complex and changeable interpersonal relationships in real life. The essence of moral education is not to "convince people with reason and convince people with emotion" at all, but to train the educated in moral behavior after transforming moral sense into moral behavior. As long as people are trained to see, listen, speak and move habitually according to these behaviors and manners, moral education will achieve its goal. However, only the moral preaching of "convincing people with reason and moving people with emotion" can only make the educated achieve "reasonable and well-founded" at most. In fact, due to the long-term neglect and lack of moral conduct education in China's moral education, the educated are "sensible" but "dizzy" and don't know how to deal with things in real life, so that they often unconsciously do things that violate their moral sense. The same is true of knowledge education in schools in China today. The phenomenon of "high scores and low abilities" is very common. Up to now, employers generally look down on college graduates in the talent market, because college knowledge education is only the giving and receiving of simple book knowledge, which almost completely ignores the cultivation of students' practical work ability, so the talents cultivated from this are generally just words and no deeds. In fact, the ability training in knowledge education is the same as that in moral education. Essentially, it is the training of technical behavior rules. This kind of behavior rule is the intermediary from theory to practice. Without this intermediary, theory and practice will inevitably be out of touch, leading to the separation of knowledge and action.
The etiquette teaching of Confucianism in the Han and Tang Dynasties was just a kind of etiquette education and a kind of technical behavior rule training. What China people lack most today is the awareness and education of rules of conduct. The fine style of obeying rules in the Han and Tang Dynasties is gone today. We should absorb the spirit of Confucian ethics in Han and Tang Dynasties, abandon the specific content of its ethics, and carry out etiquette education in line with modern life. In moral education, we should have a set of etiquette rules that people can follow in moral practice. We should not talk about the principle of serving the people, but should turn this principle into operational etiquette norms. Moreover, this kind of etiquette rule education should start from the enlightenment education at home and kindergarten, so that children can form the habit of observing these etiquette rules from an early age. The most critical period for the formation of this habit is from kindergarten to primary school. By the university stage, children have grown up and their behavior habits have long been formed, so it is too late to educate them morally. My son is studying at the University of Toronto. In addition to knowledge education, they have no moral education and no ideological and political education. However, since childhood, he has been taught manners and manners, and his good behavior habits have actually been developed in primary school. Therefore, without any moral education in the university, he can fully understand what should be done and what should be done. Look at the situation in our country. Children learn foreign languages in kindergarten, and primary and secondary schools only have the knowledge education of this book, and there is no etiquette education at all. After going to college, it will take them a year or two to give them ideological and political lessons. This kind of moral education is nothing more than empty talk, which is tantamount to wasting the great youth of college students. Moral education in contemporary China is completely putting the cart before the horse!