Wang Shouren put forward the theory of educational process characterized by "preservation and cultivation". He believes that the starting point of education is not erudition proposed by Zhu Cheng School, but "to conscience". "Conscience" is the natural "justice" of human heart, the moral concepts of loyalty, filial piety, benevolence, loyalty and faithfulness, and the ability to distinguish right from wrong, good and evil without learning. Due to the cover-up of people's "selfish desires", people's "conscience" is chaotic and relaxed, and their behavior falls into "non-exorcism". "Zhi" means "stop and exist", "stop and exist when there is something, and stop when there is nothing." He said that the function of reading is only to confirm the "conscience" in the heart. The educational process of "to conscience" is to teach people to do the kung fu that people want to maintain justice directly. That is, "guard its heart."
Wang Shouren believes that the theory of "knowing after the prophet" in Neo-Confucianism has led to the inconsistency of scholars' thoughts and behaviors since the Song and Ming Dynasties. In order to overcome this shortcoming, Wang Shouren advocated the theory of "unity of knowledge and action". It is believed that "the ontology of knowing and doing" is integrated, and all "true knowledge" must be expressed as action, which further classifies people's subjective thoughts, motives and feelings into the category of action, confuses the boundary between knowing and doing, and denies the transformation process from knowing to doing. The purpose is to emphasize the strict unity of moral motivation and moral behavior. As far as moral education is concerned, it still has its important significance.
Neo-Confucianism pays attention to the significance of hard and fast rules in cultivating children's moral behavior habits, while Wang Shouren criticizes that this kind of education destroys children's body and mind, and thinks that children's education should conform to the boy's mood of "love playing and fear of being arrested" and focus on inducing, encouraging and edifying. He paid special attention to the educational significance of "songs and poems".
Although his educational theory was based on subjective idealism philosophy, he advocated a critical attitude towards various theories, especially Zhu's theory, which inspired people to think independently at that time.
During the Ming and Qing Dynasties, with the intensification of internal contradictions and ethnic contradictions in feudal society, the germination of new capitalist modes of production and the rise of urban citizens, the Enlightenment School was formed, with representatives such as Gu, Huang Zongxi, Wang Fuzhi, Yan Yuan, Li and Dai Zhen. Influenced by utilitarianism schools such as Chen Liang and Ye Shi in the Southern Song Dynasty, they formed their own educational theory system in criticizing Zhu Cheng's Neo-Confucianism and Wang Luxin's educational view. Based on the simple materialistic position of monism of principle and qi, the Enlightenment school criticized the wrong views such as "nature is principle" and "mind is principle" and put forward that principle lies in things. There is no "natural justice" in human nature or human heart, but it has the ability to understand reason and justice. Wang Fuzhi believes that this ability to understand reason and justice lies in human mechanics, where every birthday is new and "every day is a success". Dai Zhen believes. "temperament" means "blood and gas know", that is, "desire", "emotion" and "knowledge" Affirm the rationality of "desire" and its positive role in moral cultivation. Enlightenment school cleared the transcendental form imposed on human nature by Neo-Confucianism and psychologists, and understood human nature as an innate physiological quality, which was close to the innate endowment of science. It is said that the Enlightenment at that time experienced the pain of national subjugation, hated Neo-Confucianism and psychology, taught people to sit still, cultivate their minds and be "useless people". The training of the eight-part essay on accusation imprisons people's thoughts and destroys talents, which is more harmful than burning pits. They inherit the tradition of martial arts, advocate "making friends for their own use, knowing their ways and calculating their merits", advocate the knowledge of "applying what they have learned", learn practical knowledge and skills in military, finance, agriculture, water conservancy, handicrafts and forestry, and cultivate economic talents. The Enlightenment School put forward the theory of teaching process which emphasized the characteristics of behavior. They not only oppose the theory of "knowing before acting", but also deny the theory of "unity of knowing and doing", advocate the theory of "knowing before acting" and reinterpret the theory of "erudition, interrogation, deliberation, discernment and loyalty". They think that knowing and doing are different and cannot be sold to knowing, but knowing and doing are always inseparable, and doing is the foundation. Doing is not only the source of knowledge, but also permeates all aspects of learning, questioning, thinking and discrimination, while the Enlightenment school emphasizes doing, learning, learning, learning and doing. The two complement each other. The enlightenment school's view of knowing and doing and its teaching process theory combined spontaneous dialectics with simple materialism to a certain extent, which opened the way for the emergence of modern bourgeois educational thought.