China has attached great importance to preschool education since ancient times, calling children who begin to receive education "children's education", calling primary education for children "nurturing" or "confusing", and calling schools that provide children with enlightenment education "learning", "museums" or "nursing homes". The pre-Qin classic Yijing and Gua said: "Enlightenment is also a sacred work." It is proposed that pure education should be given from childhood, so as to create the road to success and raise "nurturing" to the height of life practice philosophy. It can be seen that "nurturing" has an important beginning significance for people to understand and observe the world. Because children are ignorant, naive, curious, carefree and unrestrained, and have their own age characteristics and physical and mental growth laws, the education they receive at this stage should be based on art games. Therefore, "education" is education, in fact, it is a kind of aesthetic education of "entertaining". Looking at children's aesthetic education through "nurturing" has many rich philosophical meanings.
One is "alive". As a practice of children's aesthetic education, the spirit of "education" is rooted in China's traditional aesthetics of respecting life and generations. The Book of Changes says, "The great virtue of heaven and earth means life" and "Life means change". There is a saying in the preface to the hexagrams: "everything must be born, so it is covered by it;" A fool is a fool, and things are naive. " Everything in the world is born. At the beginning of creation, people or things are bound to be in a state of ignorance like newly unearthed young grasses, which is characterized by "sprouting". "Meng" symbolizes the primitive and innocent state of life. The Book of Changes is built by Yin and Yang, and swallowing and dreaming mainly symbolize the initial state of everything. After Gan and Kun, life in the universe began to breed and create. It can be seen that "Meng" has a profound symbolic meaning of life here. Contemporary aesthetic scholars advocate inheriting and carrying forward the creative wisdom of China's traditional art, and promoting the national artistic literacy through "creative art education", which is almost in line with the spirit of "education". Creative aesthetic education includes not only the care and cultivation of young life, but also the process of generation. This generation is a process of enlightening children through aesthetic education.
The second is "naivety". The nature of childhood is innocence. "The Book of Changes Meng Huo" says: "The person is also a discipline." The original meaning of the Book of Changes explains: "Pure one does not listen to people, so it is like' childhood'." Children are simple and obedient, and teachers teach them. The true state of nature is undoubtedly auspicious and beautiful. This contains the real beauty of life. This love and pursuit of pure beauty has been integrated into the whole China cultural tradition. The Book of Songs Zhou Song Tian Wei Biography says: "Wei Tian's life is infinite. This is not obvious, Wang Wen's virtue is pure. " Heaven is pure but not miscellaneous, which is the natural state and nature of heaven, so the Doctrine of the Mean says, "This day is also heaven." This is the Confucian pursuit of pure nature. Taoism and Buddhism also seek to return to such a pure state. Laozi advocates returning to nature with "baby's heart" and appreciates this clear and pure life realm beyond utility. Ji Kang, a poet in Wei and Jin Dynasties, said in the poem "Wandering Immortals": "Teach me the way of nature, and I will be enlightened if I am broad-minded." Ge Hong also described the simplicity, innocence and natural innocence of life in Bao Pu Zi Bao Pian with "childlike innocence". "Besides, my husband is old-fashioned and simple, but he hasn't changed, and he is still childlike and his mind is not moving." In the Ming Dynasty, Li Zhi tried to sweep away the dust that covered his soul with the childlike innocence of "the first thought", so as to reach the realm of truth and innocence. According to China's aesthetics, this "naivety" is the essence of life, from which life and art all start and return. Children are born so naive, so from the perspective of children's aesthetic education, we should look at the baby's body with innocent eyes and keep it completely naive, instead of confusing it with utilitarian secularism. In this sense, children's aesthetic education should be characterized by conforming to children's own natural nature, so as to cultivate them.
The third is "freedom". Freedom is the natural expression of nature, and aesthetic education is the experience and recognition of freedom. The "Opinions" require that in the curriculum, "art games suitable for children's physical and mental characteristics should be carried out in the preschool education stage". As an important part of children's aesthetic education, art games are essentially an education of experiencing freedom. Confucius' theory of "recreation" can be understood from one side as accepting art education in the form of games. Zhu explained "swimming" and said: "A traveler is known to play with things to adapt to his feelings." Therefore, art games can be understood as an aesthetic education to experience physical and mental freedom. On the contrary, art education is also an aesthetic game to experience freedom. This concept has also penetrated into the traditional education of children. For example, the children's book "The Enlightenment of Rhythm" shows that the ancients attached importance to the "enlightenment" education of children through literature and art, and children swam in art games, thus cultivating their temperament.
The fourth is "creation". Education is enlightenment, that is to say, it is a creative practical activity from scratch. Zheng Meng, written by Zhang Zai, a thinker in the Song Dynasty, promoted the role of Meng in the invention of Zheng Xue to an unprecedented height. Wang Fuzhi, a thinker in the Ming and Qing Dynasties, said: "He who is deceived will only know." Enlightenment is the earliest act of opening the mind in life. Mencius has a saying: "When you start to be organized, all things are wise." In this regard, Wang Fuzhi said: "If you don't start right, you can't do it." This requires paying attention to the education of the starting point of life, beautifying people with beauty, guiding children to the correct track of seeking truth, goodness and beauty, making them conform to the right path, and finally learning to be adults, thus being "logical". Curiosity and exploration of the unknown in the initial stage is, in a sense, creation. This kind of creation is full of infinite hopes and possibilities. In the Kangxi period of Qing Dynasty, Mongolian cuisine was established to encourage and promote the creation of human skills. "The Draft of Qing History" records: "Anyone who has a skill is often called for direct support." Among them, compiling music law is music education. Fang Bao, a representative of Tongcheng School, once compiled music laws here and engaged in music art creation. Shi Tao, a great painter in Qing Dynasty, noticed this primitive creativity, and introduced the idea of "nurturing" in Zhouyi into his artistic philosophy, striving to return to the original creative state of HarmonyOS system through pen and ink. Creation is the embodiment of the universe, and children's aesthetic education should encourage and guide children to sprout new ideas and try to explore the world.
The opinion puts forward: "Aesthetic education is aesthetic education, emotional education and spiritual education, and it is also an education that enriches imagination and cultivates innovative consciousness." The essence of children's aesthetic education lies in caring for new students. It is not only the proper meaning of children's aesthetic education, but also the practical principle and spiritual pursuit of children's aesthetic education to follow their innocence and promote their creation.
(The author is from the School of Humanities of Southeast University, and Qiao Guanghui is the vice president, doctoral supervisor and professor of the School of Humanities of Southeast University. This paper is the result of Jiangsu Postgraduate Scientific Research Innovation Project 20 19 "Study on the Potential of Wang Chuanshan" [KYCX19 _ 0131]).
China Education News, 8th Edition, 202 1 May 6, 2008.
Author: Peng Guanghui