First, Wang Shouren's life.
Wang Shouren was born in 1472 (eight years in Chenghua, Ming Xianzong) and died in 1529 (seven years in Jiajing, Shizong, Ming Dynasty). When he was young, he lived in Yangming Cave, Wan Wei, and was named Yangming Mountain. Later, he was called Mr. Yangming.
Yangming became an official at the age of 28. He has served as the minister of punishments, the minister of war, the magistrate of a county, the minister of official affairs, Yuan Wailang, Langzhong, Nanjing Taifu and Hong. It can be said that he is a civilian in charge of catch-up. When he sent his troops, he tried his best to catch the general. He used the wind to build a boat and subdued the dragon. It's a pity that Luo Zhi set me up, so I took giving lectures as my real ambition. From the opening of Longchang Post in Guizhou to the reconstruction of Shaoxing and Yuyao Academy, his life has always been accompanied by learning and giving lectures. Later, he died on the way home with his troops.
Second, Mr. Yang Ming's thought of spiritual education
Like Zhu Cheng's Neo-Confucianism, Wang Shouren believed that "reason" existed and was the noumenon of the universe, and regarded it as the foundation of feudal hierarchy and feudal education. But he disagreed with Zhu's theory that "nature is reason" and thought that reason lies in the heart, and "heart is reason". Starting from "mind is reason", he further believes that "there is nothing outside the heart, nothing outside the heart, unreasonable outside the heart, meaningless outside the heart, and no goodness outside the heart." . The function of education is to inspire educators to seek and realize justice from their own hearts. In other words, the heart is the subject and object of cognition, and the completion of this cognitive process does not need an external intermediate bridge.
He called the justice in people's hearts "conscience". Conscience is the essence of the heart, that is, the heart of right and wrong. Learning without skill is an inherent "magic weapon" in the heart. With conscience, we can know right and wrong, good and evil a priori, know the truth of everything in the world, and feel what to do and what not to do. That is, "all people are equal in moral personality, and everyone has the possibility of being educated and becoming a saint." In his view, people's conscience always exists in their life, which will not be reduced or lost, but may be blinded by customs and selfish desires. Therefore, people should be educated.
Starting from the values of moralism, Wang Shouren deduced his understanding of the value of teaching materials. Although he regards Confucian classics as the most valuable teaching materials like his predecessors, the difference is that he thinks that the Six Classics are important not because they were written by saints, but because they are all standard classics about "mind learning" and "to conscience". Moreover, in the interpretation of Confucian classics, people are strongly encouraged to break the sense of authority and advocate understanding and using classics according to the requirements of "my heart" and "conscience". Learning cannot be a private study of Confucius and Zhu.
Third, the understanding of Mr. Wang Shouren's educational theory and its influence on education.
(A) the understanding of Wang Shouren's spiritual education thought
According to the theory that the mind is the cause and the conscience leads to the cause, everyone has a conscience in his heart. Therefore, self-cultivation is mainly an effort of "seeking the heart inward" and "introspection", which is actually consistent with the traditional Confucian thought of introspection and private prosecution. In his theory, censorship is to completely eliminate the lust in consciousness and restore conscience.
He put forward the unity of knowing and doing, emphasized the consciousness of moral consciousness, and asked people to work hard on their inner spirit; On the other hand, it also attaches importance to the practicality of morality, pointing out that people should be tempered in practice, and their words and deeds are consistent. It should be pointed out that Wang Shouren's thought of "unity of knowledge and action" has made progress compared with his predecessors. He regards "the conscience of my heart" as "knowledge", "making my conscience work for things" as "action", takes "mind is reason" as the premise, and takes "the unity of knowledge and action" as the purpose, thus achieving the purpose of understanding conscience. This kind of epistemology, in terms of its cognitive method of dissecting itself to deduce the truth of all things, contains the dialectical factor of "ubiquitous among individuals" Therefore, due to the development of subjective initiative, Wang Shouren's theory of "unity of knowledge and action" reached an unprecedented height of idealistic epistemology, added a new category to Neo-Confucianism in Song and Ming Dynasties, opened up a new realm for the development of epistemology, and also inspired the establishment of materialistic view of knowledge and action in later generations.
(B) the impact on modern education and teacher education
1. The significance of the unity of man and nature in Wang Shouren's educational thought to education.
"Harmony" has been the cognitive concept and practical pursuit of China society since ancient times. On the issue of harmony between man and nature, Wang Shouren extended his theory of mind and nature, especially his theory of conscience, to all things in nature. His thought of "the unity of mind and matter" is very similar to the development strategy of "the unity of man and nature" that we are practicing, which undoubtedly contributes to modern ecological construction, ecological education and even modern ecological ethics construction.
2. The positive enlightenment of Yangming's educational thought to the construction and development of educational culture.
Educational culture is a part of social industrial culture and a combination of material culture and spiritual culture in the process of education. Its main feature is that education should be endowed with the spirit of culture and ideas, and excellent, scientific, national and popular culture should be the necessary connotation of education, which should accompany the process of education and teaching and always accompany the cultivation of talents. The goal of educational culture is to improve people's comprehensive quality, enhance people's virtue and promote their all-round development through the organic combination of educational culture and cultural education.
"The essence of cultural education is to enhance human nature, and cultural education focuses on the cultivation of emotion and spirit. Cultural education attaches importance to the promotion of skills to personality, and cultural education is conducive to restoring the moral character and honor of education. Based on the above understanding, we should reflect on Yangming's educational thought, that is, emphasizing learning, putting moral education first, Xiu De's "to conscience", "everyone can think freely", "diligent in learning", "reform", "responsibility for goodness", "unity of knowledge and practice", "innovation", "teaching" and "educating people", and independent thinking and enjoying themselves. Morality, intelligence, physique, beauty and labor are all indispensable to "being a man" and cannot be neglected.
In a word, the current educational culture is short-sighted and impetuous in phenomenon, mechanically blind in method, homogeneous in content, shrinking in innovation consciousness and anxious for quick success in thought, which is worrying. For example, the current exam-oriented education has greatly reduced the function of education and produced many drawbacks and contradictions. How to cultivate all-round high-quality talents, realize the organic combination of education and culture, and change the derailment of education and culture requires us to be alert and guide, and in this process, the reasonable and beneficial components of Yangming's educational thought should not be ignored. The correct attitude is to sum up the past, reflect on the practice and look forward to the future on the premise of "taking its essence and discarding its dross", and constantly give the voice of the educational and cultural era to reflect its inherent concept, spirit and value.