At that time, Confucianism and Mohism were outstanding schools, with many disciples all over the country. But the class positions of the two factions are obviously different. Kong Qiu aims to maintain the rule of declining slave owners and nobles, while Zhai Mo reflects the requirements of the rising "agricultural workers", that is, small producers. Their interests are antagonistic, so the two factions are antagonistic. Because of the different positions of Confucianism and Mohism, social and political thoughts also run counter to each other. Confucianism advocates "differences in love" and Mohism advocates "universal love"; Confucianism believes in "fate" and Mohism believes in "non-fate"; Confucianism despises productive labor, while Mohism emphasizes that "those who are not poor in strength are not born"; Confucianism "thrives on ceremony", while Mohism is thrifty; Confucianism distinguishes between righteousness and benefit, while Mohism advocates "righteousness and benefit"; The motto of Confucianism is "If you are poor, you will be immune, and if you are successful, you will be immune", and the motto of Mohism is "Stick to your heels and benefit the world" and so on. Therefore, the educational thoughts and practices of these two schools also have their own characteristics.
First, about the role of education.
Confucianism believes that education is a means of ruling, and it is superior to politics and law at the same time. It can influence and conquer people's hearts, produce a kind of power of moral belief, and thus receive the effect of "ruling the country by virtue and ruling the country by courtesy". "The road to politics, together with punishment, people are free and shameless; Tao is virtuous, qi is polite, and shame is combined. " At the same time, it puts forward the theory of human nature. Although there is no consensus on the goodness and inherent evil of human nature in this period, Confucianism recognizes that education can make human nature develop in the direction of goodness, which provides a theoretical basis for "benevolent governance" and "rule by virtue". Mohism understands and expounds the function of education from the standpoint of equality of human nature. Mo Zhai said: "People who walk on foot in the world know little about righteousness, but those who teach the world to be righteous have more merit." For society, education realizes the perfection of society by making people in the world "know righteousness", that is, education is a society that promotes advantages and eliminates disadvantages for people; In the development of human beings, he opposed fate, attached importance to the role of education and environment, and put forward the famous "theory of staying in four places".
Second, about the purpose of education.
Confucianism believes that education is to cultivate a gentleman with both ability and political integrity, so that he can be loyal to the monarch and brave, which is reflected in the education of "learning is the best for an official, and learning is the best for an official". This shows that learning is the way to be an official, with special emphasis on "excellence", that is to say, only talents with excellent learning and both ability and political integrity can be an official, which embodies the Confucian thought of "valuing talents" and puts forward the idea of "promoting talents", which makes it possible for civilians to participate in politics, and also means that ancient education in China is basically an official-oriented education model. Education serves politics and trains political talents and candidates for various officials for the country.
Mohist education is to cultivate "wise men" or "people who help others" to prepare for the responsibility of governing the country and benefiting the people. As a saint or part-time scholar, you must be able to "be honest with morality, argue with words, and know with Tao." Among these three virtues, virtue is the first, because "a scholar is learned, but his behavior is internal", which is quite similar to the Confucian view. However, Mohism emphasizes that "the powerful are sick and help others, the rich are willing to share with others, and the wise should teach others", which is different from Confucianism. Regarding speech, Mohism believes that whether the argument is reasonable, well-founded and convincing in the era of schools contending is related to the rise and fall of a school. Therefore, as a saint or part-time scholar, one must be eloquent and be able to publicize and transfer social atmosphere. Part-time scholars must also be "studious and knowledgeable". What they learn is not only the central idea of Mohism, but also the mastery of technology. Generally speaking, the saints or part-time scholars to be trained by Mohism must have the spirit of "universal love", be good at arguing, distinguish right from wrong, be knowledgeable and be beneficial to the world.
Third, about the target of education.
Confucius was the first person in the history of China to popularize education to the common people, breaking the limitation of "learning from officials" and starting the precedent of "learning from four foreigners". Confucianism believes that "sex is similar, learning is far away." People's temperament is almost the same, only because of the acquired education and study, people are different. Denied the hierarchical difference of people, and put forward the educational thought of "teaching without class" for the first time. Confucius not only put forward requirements, but also put them into practice. Confucius' students are complex in composition and large in number, coming from all walks of life, and are known as "three thousand disciples and seventy sages".
Mohism represents the interests of "the people of peasants and workers", which shows that "the people of peasants and workers" is the main object of Mohism; The educational thought centered on "universal love" advocated by Mohism shows that the educational objects of Mohism are all social.
Fourthly, about the content of education.
The content of pre-Qin Confucian education includes political morality and cultural knowledge, among which political morality education is the key. Zi teaches four things: literature, conduct, loyalty and faith. Among them, "behavior and loyalty" belong to the moral category. "Literature" belongs partly to moral education and partly to cultural knowledge. It can be seen that moral education occupies a primary position in the whole Confucian education, and the basic task of cultural knowledge is to serve moral education. The main teaching materials of Confucianism are poetry, calligraphy, ceremony and music.
Mohism, on the other hand, takes "universal love" and "non-aggression" as its teaching, and at the same time attaches importance to the mastery of literature and history knowledge, the cultivation of logical thinking ability, and the teaching and learning of practical technology. Mohist disciples mostly come from "agriculture and industry", and have accumulated a lot of experience and increased a lot of scientific knowledge in class struggle and production struggle. Classics, classics, classics and classics, classics and classics, as well as Daqu and Xiaoqu, are probably the crystallization of Mohism's post-learning, which has been constantly summarized and improved in the contention of a hundred schools of thought. The epistemology, nephrology, geometry, mechanics and optics involved all reached the advanced level at that time.
Verb (abbreviation of verb) on teaching methods
"Learning and knowing" is the dominant thought of Confucianism in teaching, and learning is the only way and means to seek knowledge. Starting from learning, thinking from learning. Enlightening and inducing, teaching students in accordance with their aptitude, thirst for knowledge and seeking truth from facts are also common educational methods used by Confucianism in education. For example, "if you don't get angry, you will be threatened." "Learning without thinking is useless, and dying without learning is dangerous." Mohism, on the other hand, shows great differences in teaching. Regarding the source of knowledge, Mohist school put forward: "knowledge: smell, speech and proximity." Among these three sources of knowledge, "pre-knowledge" and "pre-knowledge" in "pre-knowledge" are the basis of all knowledge. Because "intimate knowledge" can only know part of it, and "hearsay" is unreliable, we must attach importance to "speaking knowledge" and rely on the method of reasoning to pursue rational knowledge. There are also three famous methods for understanding objective things and checking the correctness of understanding, that is, "those who have this, those who have this and those who are useful". Mohism attaches importance to the development of thinking and the enlightenment of logical concepts. Mo Zhai is good at preaching. In addition to saying that he is a storyteller, he also draws on the experience of daily social life and industrial and agricultural production, either directly or as a metaphor. Concrete and vivid, can inspire disciples' thoughts, and is more easily accepted by others. Mo Zhai also pays special attention to the positive educational attitude of "emphasizing people", which is in sharp contrast with the Confucian "learning by courtesy but not teaching".
Intransitive verbs on moral education
In Confucian education, moral education occupies the primary position. Moral concept is based on cultural knowledge, and moral education is mainly carried out through knowledge transmission. The process of moral education is first of all moral understanding. We should be able to distinguish between good and evil, further form moral beliefs and then turn them into moral behavior practice. Confucianism advocates "courtesy" as the moral norm and "benevolence" as the highest moral standard. The main contents of moral education are "courtesy" and "benevolence". The main principles of Confucian moral education are: determination, self-denial, practice, moderation, introspection and reform.
Mohism puts moral cultivation in the first place in education. He attached importance to labor, which reflected some ideological consciousness and moral quality of working people. He advocated that "those who rely on the strong will be born, and those who are not poor in money will not be born." He advocates hard work and plain living, and opposes "idleness, gluttony and laziness in politics". Moral education lies in example and influence.
Generally speaking, pre-Qin Confucianism is a trinity of education, morality and politics, in which education is the foundation. "study tirelessly and treat yourself like this; Never tire of teaching, so treat others. " Autonomy is self-cultivation, which belongs to the category of morality and is cultivated by learning to educate ethics; Governing the people belongs to the political category and is cultivated by education, educational politics. Confucianism hopes to achieve the goal of rule through moral education, which is the premise and foundation of managing the family, governing the country and leveling the world, and embodies a positive American political ideal. Mohist moral education, debate education and science education all have their limitations, but they all have the same positive factors, that is, attaching importance to practice and combining it with practice. Mohism emphasizes that words must be kept, actions must bear fruit, words and deeds are consistent, and words must be carried out. Mohist school opposes "saying more and doing less", thinking that saying more and saying well without implementing it will not lead to good results. Only by "practicing by yourself", that is, only by guiding practice and seeing action, can you become a "scholar" and teach people through practical actions.