Comrade Mao Zedong pointed out in On Contradiction: "Any form of movement has its own contradictions. This contradiction constitutes the special essence that things do not do other things. " This shows that the essence of things is determined by the special contradictions within things. The main contradiction in the process of moral education is the special one. Because it is this special contradiction that distinguishes moral education from other educational processes.

How to solve the contradiction between the requirements of moral education in a certain society and the ideological and moral situation of the educated? In this contradiction, the requirement of moral education in a certain society is the main aspect of the contradiction, which determines the nature and development direction of the moral education process. The purpose of moral education is to make the educated form the ideology and morality required by society and become social people who adapt to the political, spiritual and ethical life of a certain society. Therefore, educators are required to urge the educated to accept the moral education requirements of the official society through the contents and methods of moral education, raise students' ideological and moral qualities to the height required by society, and realize the submission of individual moral qualities. The socialization of individual morality is realized through the individualization of social morality. The realization of individualization of social morality requires educators to transform the requirements of social moral education into individual students' ideology and morality through the contents and methods of moral education. Therefore, the essence of the process of moral education is that educators transform the moral education requirements of a certain society into the ideological and moral qualities of individuals who are tested by education, and it is a unified process of individual moral socialization and social moral individualization. It can also be said that it is a unified process of purposeful or selective moral social transmission and individual moral experience.

Purposefully promote the individualization of social morality, that is, purposefully form a complete ideological and moral structure for the educated. Because the complete ideological and moral structure is the internal mechanism of forming ideological and moral character. Any change in an individual's ideological and moral character stems from the change of ideological and moral structure, that is, the psychological content, psychological form or ability that constitutes ideological and moral character, or the addition of "new components", or the change of degree, or the combination of various elements. Therefore, the essence of moral education can also be said to be the process of forming the complete ideological and moral structure of the educated, and the process of promoting the continuous improvement and development of the ideological and moral structure of the educated to a higher level.