The so-called "official learning" means "learning in the government", and the government has been able to build special public buildings for educational and administrative activities. Compared with the Yin and Shang Dynasties, the official school in the Western Zhou Dynasty had systematic, theoretical and planned teaching activities.
The biggest embodiment is the systematic division and planning of the "six arts" that must be studied in Western Zhou education, that is, the specific categories of learning subjects.
The so-called "six arts" refer to ceremony, music, shooting, royal, literary and numerical. Rites and music are inherited from Xia and Shang Dynasties, and they are also the knowledge mainly used for sacrifice or various ceremonies. Shooting and guarding are mainly military skills, shooting is archery, and guarding refers to driving chariots. The number of books is mainly about reading, writing and arithmetic education. Books are literacy, numbers are mathematics, and they are practical knowledge and skills.
In people's cognition in the Western Zhou Dynasty, there were obvious grade differences in the subjects of "Six Arts". "Rites and music" is the highest moral knowledge and the necessary skill for governing the country and the world, so it is called "great virtue" and "avenue". The number of books taken is just a "device".
Therefore, ancient education had obvious partiality, emphasizing morality over skill. People who study etiquette and morality have more status than those who shoot imperial books.
During the Western Zhou Dynasty, education was still only the patent of rulers and nobles, educational institutions were set up in the government, and educational resources such as academics, knowledge, classics and ritual vessels were controlled by the government, which was out of reach of ordinary people.
Therefore, the "official learning" in the Western Zhou Dynasty has several obvious characteristics: 1, only officials have books, but the people have no books. 2, only officials have tools, and the people have no tools. 3. Only the officials have knowledge, but the people have no knowledge.
Rulers and nobles monopolize educational resources and educational activities themselves. Teachers also serve as officials, and students are the children of officials. Schools are not only educational places, but also administrative places. For ordinary people, there is no chance to get in touch with any of them.
According to the geographical distinction, the official credits of the Western Zhou Dynasty are "Chinese studies" and "rural studies". Generally speaking, the school located in the king's capital is called Chinese studies, which is mainly for the children of princes, governors and officials in the capital. Schools located in administrative areas outside Wang Du are called "rural schools", and the enrollment targets are ordinary slave owners and aristocratic children.