First, the cultural outlook of Xue Heng School
The philosophical basis of Xue Heng School's cultural view is Plato's "One World, Two Worlds". Xue Heng School's idea of cultural brewing is to emphasize the principle of choice in cultural development on the basis of firmly believing that culture has the unity of the world and history, so as to choose idealism that makes it perfect. This way of reasoning not only reflects the openness of its cultural thinking, but also draws a clear line with the general intolerant Orientalists. It also reflects its national character of attaching importance to tradition and culture, which is different from westerners. However, Xue Heng School was finally influenced by Plato's "world of ideas", and the above unity lies in moral idealism. Xue Heng's school is deeply worried that people pay attention to utility and material significance while ignoring spiritual value. It emphasizes that ideal personality and academic system are mutually external and internal, and provides and settles an internal cultural home for their "objective moral idealism". It is logical that they love traditional culture. Xue Heng School regards the spirit of human relations and ideal personality as things with eternal value in China's cultural tradition, and considers them as "the cornerstone of national culture". Xue Heng School believes that only by carrying forward the national spirit and "enhancing national dignity with personality" can the troubled Chinese nation "rebuild national self-esteem". In fact, on the basis of science and democracy revealed by the New Culture Movement, this paper puts forward a deeper problem: the rejuvenation of the Chinese nation must be based on "the cornerstone of national culture". Is Xue Heng School "reactionary" and "conservative" as some scholars say? The conclusion is negative. This can be seen from the differences between the Xue Heng School and the advocates of the New Culture Movement on the following three issues: First, the relationship between the old and new cultures. Xue Heng School, like the advocates of the New Culture Movement, advocates the development of a new culture, but they have differences in academic theory. The latter emphasizes transcending tradition, breaking the old and establishing the new; The former emphasizes inheriting tradition and innovation. So both have their own gains and losses. Second, China's ethics. Xue Heng School strongly criticized the view that the New Culture Movement attacked the ethical code to eat people, emphasizing that propriety is an inevitable product of the development of human society and ethical code is an important category of China culture. Third, the evaluation of Confucius. In response to the slogan "Down with Kongjiadian" in the New Culture Movement, Xue Heng School insisted on highly evaluating the historical position of Confucius, emphasizing that Confucius was not only a master of ancient China culture, but also a great cultural man in the world. At the same time, they opposed the deification of Confucius and praised Confucianism. The above viewpoint is logical, even from today's point of view, it should be said to be correct. Unfortunately, they failed to realize that the New Culture Movement was fiercely anti-Confucius, aiming at overthrowing Confucius' idol, which had been the amulet of feudal autocratic rule for thousands of years, so as to promote China people's ideological emancipation. From this perspective, the Xue Heng School is politically naive.
Second, the literary thought of Xue Heng School.
"Literature is the expression of life", which constitutes the basis of Xue Heng School's literary thought. Therefore, they draw three important insights from it: first, literature cannot be divorced from the times; Secondly, literature and politics complement each other; Third, literary creation must contain subjective and objective factors. Starting from literature for life, Xue Heng School emphasizes that writers engaged in creation must have certain literary qualities or elements: social responsibility, being good at observing and understanding life, and literary and artistic accomplishment. Xue Hengxue's discussion on the law of literary creation also involves the theoretical problems of reception aesthetics, and holds that a successful literary work must have two conditions: an outstanding writer and an intelligent reader, both of whom have works to spread. Generally speaking, Xue Heng School discusses the judgment of literary value from two aspects: first, it discusses the persistence of literary works from the perspective of content; Secondly, from the relationship between the content of the work and the artistic form, this paper discusses the division between moral standards and artistic standards. Although Xue Heng School's literary thoughts tend to be moral, they also contain a reasonable core, that is, emphasizing the social responsibility of literary artists. The differences between the Xue Heng School and the New Literature Movement, such as the dispute between scholars, the dispute between new poetry and old poetry, are mostly academic disputes, and the gains and losses are mutual. In the later period, the literary thought of Xue Heng School changed fundamentally, affirming new literature and returning to dullness. The traditional view that Xue Heng School is an old school opposed to new literature is too simple. In a word, we should affirm that the literary thought of Xue Heng School itself is an organic part of the development of new literature.
Third, the historical thought of Xue Heng School.
Xue Heng School responded positively to the change of western historiography thought: first, new historiography concept. Xue Heng School pointed out that textual research on historical materials is only the first step of historical research. "The second step is needed here, that is, to explain the causes, changes and results of historical events and their relationship with the past and the future. Second, the new concept of expanding the scope of historical research. Xue Heng School disapproves of the disadvantages of the old historiography which emphasizes political history, thinking that it does not cover all human activities, and the historical scope is all-encompassing. Xue Heng School is very much in favor of the new historiography school, emphasizing the social functions of historiography: first, understanding the causal relationship of history, observing the past and helping social evolution; The second is to develop people's concept of time and space, thus forming a vigorous and enterprising spirit, knowing more about what to say before doing it, and enhancing moral feelings; The third is to see the achievements of the sages and cultivate the patriotism of the people. Xue Heng School not only affirms the relativity of historical understanding, but also does not doubt the scientific nature of history. To sum up, Xue Heng School's historiography thought has changed from positivism tradition to new historiography, which shows that their overall grasp of the development trend of China's historiography is forward-looking and contains great wealth and great historical rationality.
Fourth, the educational thought of Xue Heng School.
The educational function in the eyes of Xue Heng School includes cultivating "the ability of managing affairs and learning" and "self-cultivation interests and habits". Both are equally important and indispensable. The purpose of Xue Heng School's so-called education is to make the educated become citizens of the new era with all-round development in morality, intelligence, physique and beauty, which highlights moral and patriotic education. It not only reflects the reflection on the European war, but also reflects the deep thinking on the national conditions. Xue Heng School emphasizes the cultivation of ability. To achieve this, we must pay attention to the following issues in educational ideas and concepts: First, pay attention to macro-education to avoid students' narrow knowledge structure. Secondly, "adapting to students' personality", that is, the curriculum structure and personnel training specifications cannot be modeled, but teaching students in accordance with their aptitude and giving full play to people's talents. Third, pay attention to teaching methods and students' scientific research training. Xue Heng School put forward the idea of "professionalization of national education". In other words, in addition to teaching, primary education should also increase the skills of earning a living. Higher education must be further improved. University education is not only expensive, but also professional, and students should have more opportunities to give lectures and research freely. For this reason, there should not be too many professional settings. Starting from the fundamental educational idea that the purpose of education is to cultivate a sound personality, that is, citizens with all-round development in morality, intelligence and physique, Xue Heng School emphasizes that school education should pay attention to the cultivation of students' ability, and then puts forward the idea of respecting students' personality development, reforming the existing school curriculum structure, paying attention to the infiltration of arts and sciences, broadening students' horizons and optimizing knowledge structure. In today's view, there is no lack of reference. Of course, the educational thought of Xue Heng School was too indifferent to the political changes at that time, so it was inevitable to talk about education. Therefore, although it is reasonable to emphasize the cultivation of sound personality, it is difficult to do so.
Fifth, the moral thought of Xue Heng School.
The core of Xue Heng School's cultural thought is its ethics, that is, the proposition of "morality is the body and science is the use", which deliberately emphasizes that human beings should protect their spiritual values, have a spiritual home and pursue the ultimate care of the best state under the condition of material civilization. Whether people agree with it or not, the moral thought of Xue Heng School became a unified statement at that time, especially the abstract moral concepts and moral religious beliefs and gentleman spirit they advocated, which strongly expressed people's demands for humanistic spirit. The moral thought of Xue Heng School is the product of a new worldwide trend of thought that reflects on the cultural contradiction between modernism and capitalism after the European War. Although it is too idealistic because of the gap of the times, it has a reasonable core and lasts for a long time.
The cultural thought of Xue Heng School is not only an important topic in the history of modern culture in China, but also a necessary condition for studying the changes of social and cultural thought in China in the 1920s and 1930s. It broadens people's horizons and enriches and promotes the development of China's social and cultural thoughts. What's more, the important proposition that Xue Heng School repeatedly emphasized that human society should not ignore humanistic care in the process of pursuing progress and development is undoubtedly valuable and forward-looking. Today, people's voice for humanity and humanistic spirit is getting higher and higher, and its inherent rationality is becoming more and more obvious.