Research on the Traditional Chinese Education and the Fundamental Issues of Educational Modernization

Author: Huang Ji, Guo Qijia (Editor-in-Chief)
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2003-03-01
Features: This book is a research outcome of the "Research on the Fundamental Issues of Chinese Educational Tradition and Educational Modernization" under the National Key Project of the "Nineth Five-Year Plan" by the National Educational Science Planning Office. The entire study is guided by Marxist dialectical materialism and historical materialism, with history as the vertical axis and problems as the horizontal axis. It conducts a comparative and comprehensive investigation into several fundamental issues of Chinese educational tradition and educational modernization, based on substantial and reliable historical data. The book is divided into five chapters, each with a historical and logical connection.
Chapter 1 primarily explores the origins and evolution of the Chinese educational tradition, employing a wealth of historical facts and materials to deeply analyze the ideological origins, basic characteristics, formation process, and the socio-political, economic, cultural foundations, including the imperial examination system, of ancient Chinese educational tradition.
Building on Chapter 1, Chapter 2 focuses on the fundamental issues or contents of the Chinese educational tradition. It systematically and thoroughly discusses the influence of traditional Chinese culture's cosmology (including views on the Mandate of Heaven, the relationship between heaven and humanity, and theories of human nature), modes of thinking, ethical culture, and aesthetic culture on traditional Chinese educational content such as education based on the "Mandate of Heaven" and the "relationship between heaven and humanity," education on human nature and life, intellectual education, moral education, and aesthetic education. This chapter presents the framework or main components of the Chinese educational tradition, allowing readers to experience its profound depth and spirit of continuous innovation from both emotional and rational perspectives. At the end of this chapter, the researchers provide a comparative summary of the fundamental characteristics of the Chinese educational tradition, which helps people better grasp the long-standing educational tradition and thinking methods of the Chinese nation.
Chapter 3 continues from Chapter 2, systematically describing the journey of Chinese education and culture toward modernization and analyzing the background, process, and fundamental content of the modern transformation of the Chinese educational tradition. It summarizes and synthesizes the experiences and lessons of the modern transformation of the Chinese educational tradition over more than a century, helping people understand the arduous process and historical experience of the Chinese educational tradition moving toward modernization in the context of modern Chinese society.
Chapter 4 further analyzes the relationship between Chinese educational modernization and its connection with China's millennia-old tradition from the perspective of social modernization. It examines the complex connotations and basic approaches of the relationship between the Chinese educational tradition and modernization, as well as the impact of different types of modernization on education. Later, it briefly clarifies how to guide the modernization of Chinese education by adhering to Deng Xiaoping's "Three Faces Forward" and critically inheriting and promoting the Chinese educational tradition, advancing Chinese educational modernization to a new historical stage.
The final chapter explores the global influence of the Chinese cultural and educational tradition, including its impact on Southeast Asia, East Asia's "Confucian cultural circle," and developed Western countries. This chapter demonstrates, on one hand, the irreplaceable contributions of the Chinese cultural and educational tradition to world culture and education, and on the other hand, its unique charm and vitality in the global modernization process, including educational modernization. At the end of this chapter, it provides a high-level analysis of the significant value of China's excellent cultural and educational tradition for human survival in the 21st century, deeply elaborating its future and global significance, and enhancing our sense of pride, responsibility, and mission as descendants of the Chinese nation in preserving, developing, and spreading our own cultural and educational traditions.
The research and some of the arguments presented in this study have been unanimously affirmed and praised by five project review committee members.