There is no question that Confucius was an important thinker, educator and cultural figure in ancient China. But it must be said that it is because of Confucius that the monopoly of official schools was broken and private schools were created. I'm afraid this is not a historical fact.
China has a tradition of attaching importance to education since ancient times. Before Confucius, the popularity and level of education probably exceeded many people's imagination. Book of rites? 6? 1 Xue Ji said: "The ancient teacher has a school at home, the party has problems, the technique is orderly, and the state has knowledge." Mencius also said: "Set it as a library sequence to teach the people, the library must raise it, learning must teach it, and the sequence must shoot it." In school, there are Xu and Zhou, and learning is shared by three generations. "("On Teng Wengong ") We are all familiar with the story that Zichan did not destroy the township school. Zi chan is about 30 years older than Confucius and is a contemporary. It can be seen that "rural studies" were very popular in the Confucius era. The scale of "township" is interpreted as 12500 and 3600. If even "townships" generally have "schools", it is hard to say that it is a monopoly of political science.
In the article "Reflections on Ancient and Modern Confucianism and Its Research", Professor Chen Lai expounded the origin of Confucianism and the educational situation before Confucius. The article also said: "The tradition of administrative education in the Western Zhou Dynasty, which consists of all the functions of reporting officials, is a part of the source of Confucianism, even a part of Confucianism that Confucius had before. Since the' teacher's morality' is a person who teaches the children of the village, this kind of professional education will not wait for Wang Guan to fall. "
Confucius said, "I was interested in learning when I was fifteen" (The Analects? 6? 1 for politics "), and claimed to be" I am also cheap "("The Analects of Confucius? 6? 1 Zi Han "). Since Confucius, who is "small and cheap", can receive a good education, it is hard to say that there is no class in education (The Analects of Confucius? 6? Wei Linggong (1) began with Confucius.
Confucius said, "A threesome must have a teacher" (The Analects? 6? 1 "), and said:" Don't be ashamed to ask "("The Analects of Confucius? 6? 1 Gongye Chang), it can be seen that Confucius is willing and good at learning from others. Confucius' greetings to Laozi are found in Zhuangzi, Book of Rites and Historical Records. "Lu Chunqiu? 6? 1 Midspring? 6? 1 Of course, "Confucius studied under Lao Dan, Su Meng and Uncle Kui Jing". So, do Laozi and others belong to the official school or the private school?
Confucius has many disciples, which is really outstanding. But no phenomenon will suddenly appear and exist in isolation. If it is vain for Shao Zhengmao to gather disciples to give lectures and compete with Confucius for disciples, then Deng Xi of Zheng is a real person, only a few years younger than Confucius who wrote Bamboo Punishment to help people go to court. According to Lu Chunqiu: "There are countless people who offer clothes to learn litigation", and there may be more disciples than Confucius.
So we can say that before Confucius, the boundary between "official learning" and "private learning" was probably not obvious. We can even assume that there may be no difference between official and private education for "China people", because theoretically every "China people" has the right to education. Of course, whether this hypothesis can be established requires more evidence.
Let's talk about some personal views on the advantages and disadvantages of Confucius' educational thought.
The deficiency of Confucius' educational thought;
1. Ignore science
Ignoring science is a criticism of Confucius by many people at home and abroad. More and more evidence shows that in the era of Confucius, China's natural science has made amazing development and accumulation, mainly including:
In astronomy, as Mr. Needham said, "China was the most systematic and accurate country in observing astronomical phenomena in all civilizations before the Renaissance." Moreover, China astronomy used the equatorial coordinate system from the beginning, which is different from the ecliptic coordinate system of ancient Greece and the Arabian horizon coordinate system, while modern astronomy used the equatorial coordinate system of China. The earliest solar eclipse record in the world is Shangshu? 6? The record of 1 Andrew occurred in 1970 BC or 20 19 BC. The record of the first nova explosion in the world is also the "New Big Star Outbreak" in Oracle Bone Inscriptions of Yin and Shang Dynasties in China, which is about 1300 BC.
Mathematically, decimal notation was widely used in Shang Dynasty. "Zhou Li? 6? 1 local official Stuart? 6? 1 There is a cloud in Bao Shu: "Bao Zhang remonstrates the evil of the king, educating the son of the country with Tao, and teaching six arts: one is five rites, the other is six music, the third is five shots, the fourth is five emperors, the fifth is six books, and the sixth is nine numbers. Zheng Xuan in the Eastern Han Dynasty quoted Zheng Zhong as saying: "Nine numbers: square field, millet, difference, less extensive, business merit, even loss, equation, insufficient victory, secondary; There are many differences, embarrassments and stocks today. "This is almost as little as the later Nine Chapters of Arithmetic. Judging from the time process of accumulation and development of any knowledge, it is reasonable to have the teaching content of "Nine Numbers" in the Western Zhou Dynasty. Of course, it may not be as profound as the content in Nine Chapters of Arithmetic. But as long as you have these concepts and the most superficial computing skills, you are obviously in a leading position in the world at that time.