First, the origin of education and the germination of ancient schools

1. The origin of primitive social life and education

Education is a social phenomenon that appears simultaneously with human society. Education originated from the needs of productive labor and social life in primitive society and the needs of human physical and mental development.

Education is closely related to people and society from the beginning. There have been different views on the origin of education. For example, the French sociologist Little Noel put forward the "biological origin theory" of education, and the American psychologist Lu Meng put forward the "imitation origin theory". The main defect of this theory is that it talks about education without human and society, and denies that education is a purposeful social activity, thus fundamentally denying the sociality, historicity and class nature of education. According to Engels' thought, the educational circles in the former Soviet Union put forward the "labor origin theory" of education, which has been approved and accepted by the educational theorists in China since the 1950s. Since 1980s, scholars in China have put forward different views on this issue. Although no consensus has been reached, it is very beneficial to further understand the problem. Among them, the methods of discussing problems are worthy of attention, such as emphasizing the role of human social labor and human social life needs in education, and understanding the origin of education in connection with the birth of human beings and the formation of society.

In primitive society, there is no private property, no class, no common labor and consumption, so there is no class in education, except for the differences caused by age, gender and preliminary social division of labor, and there is no class boundary. Therefore, the purpose of primitive social education is to impart production experience and labor skills, as well as common sense of social life, including life customs education, primitive religious education (worship of nature, totem, ghosts and gods, ancestors) and primitive art education (singing, dancing, painting, sculpture, etc.). ), physical training, etc. The main way is through productive labor and social life practice, without special personnel and institutions; The means of education are through language, word of mouth, observation and imitation.

2. The germination of ancient schools

School is the product of the development of human society and education to a certain stage. According to the general law, the historical conditions for the emergence of schools are: the increasing development of social production may make some people break away from productive labor and specialize in education and educational work; Social affairs are becoming more and more complicated, and it is necessary to train specialized personnel to manage them; With the appearance of writing, cultural knowledge is richer, learning conditions are more convenient, and learning content is richer. It is necessary and possible to establish organized and planned specialized educational institutions, so schools have emerged. It is generally believed that schools probably came into being in the late primitive society or the early slave society. Of course, the emergence of schools, like other social phenomena, has a long-term development process from scratch, from incomplete to relatively complete.

According to ancient records, in the Five Emperors era before Tang Yu (2700 BC), there was a university named "Cheng Jun". The name of "Cheng Jun" was first seen in Zhou Li and Li Ji, and "Cheng Jun" was regarded as the University of Five Emperors, which originated from Dong Zhongshu. According to legend, schools in Yu Shun era were both places for providing for the aged and storing rice, which were divided into universities and primary schools. Nursing homes have gradually become schools that impart experience and knowledge in production and life. At the end of the clan society, with the initial level, the old people are different from the old people in the country and ordinary people, so there are different places to care for them, thus forming so-called schools such as "going up", "going down" and "rice".

According to the records of Shangshu Shundian and Shangshu Yu Shu, it seems that there was a special scholar to manage education in Yu Shun era, and this scholar has been divided into three parts: one is "Situ", who is in charge of the "five religions"; The second is the "Rank Sect", which is in charge of Boyi and presided over the "Three Rites"; The third is "classical music", which is in the charge of Kui and specializes in music education.

Two. Education in Xia, Shang and Zhou Dynasties

1. Xia education

(1) Schools in Xia Dynasty

Xia Dynasty was the first slave country in the history of our country, and it has entered a civilized era with written records. Schools in Xia Dynasty are also clearly described in ancient books, but there is still no direct evidence. For example, the Book of Rites and the Royal System records: "Xia Houshi is old in raising the country and old in the west." Therefore, there may be three kinds of schools in the Xia Dynasty, namely "East", "Xu" and "Xiao". Dong was inherited from the Yu Shun era, and "Xu" and "Xiao" were newly added. In order to conquer the external world and suppress the internal world, the Xia rulers paid special attention to learning shooting to train warriors. "Command, shoot" (Mencius Teng Wengong), "Xia Houshi made man by shooting" (Wen Tong Kao Jiao Kao), that is, training students in archery skills.

(2) The educational purpose and content of Xia Dynasty.

Educational purpose: to train the members of this class and their descendants into warriors who can shoot and fight well.

Education content: ① Military coach. At that time, bows and arrows were important weapons and became the main events of coaches, and shooting practice was the focus of military education. ② Religious education. This kind of religious education takes respecting heaven and ancestors as the core; Moral education is also an important part of school education.

2. Education in Shang Dynasty

Slavery in Shang Dynasty developed further, productivity increased day by day, culture was richer, science was quite developed, and education also made obvious progress. Schools in Shang Dynasty not only have ancient records, but also have abundant underground cultural relics as examples.

The school names of Shang Dynasty are Xu, Yao, Xue and Zhezong. Learning is a place to learn general cultural knowledge and carry out ideological and moral education. "Zhezong" was originally a ancestral temple for merchants to worship their music ancestors, and later developed into a place for children of Shang Dynasty to learn singing and dancing, which is called "controlling scholars with music". Oracle Bone Inscriptions's discovery and research confirmed that the records of business school in ancient books were generally credible. Teachers are state officials, and the contents of education include religious, ethical, military and general cultural knowledge.

Therefore, in the Shang Dynasty, there were relatively complete schools, but the educational contents of the schools were still combined with political, economic, religious and other activities at that time, and the education of general cultural knowledge only showed a preliminary differentiation trend.

Rules, but in the end, we still have to question the existing book knowledge itself and question the root of things. The significance of Zhuang Zhou's skepticism lies in learning to be good at doubting, not following books, traditions and saints.