Section 465 The Concept of Education in the Book of Learning

The Xueji inherits the consistent thinking of pre-Qin Confucianism and regards education as the most effective means of implementing politics and social management, so the Xueji begins with a beautiful aphoristic discussion of the role and purpose of education. It says: Since ancient times, if a ruler who has made achievements wants to govern his country well, it is impossible to achieve his goal by merely relying on such means as issuing government decrees and recruiting talented people, and the ruler must develop social education and improve the cultural literacy and moral consciousness of all the people through the means of social education. In addition, although people are naturally good, they cannot understand the truth without education and study, let alone obey the laws of the ruler. This is like a piece of beautiful jade, although the texture is beautiful, but without careful carving, it cannot become a beautiful object. Ancient emperors deeply understood this truth, and in the process of building the country and ruling the people, they always attached great importance to the development of education, so that education should be given priority to development.

The author of Xueji expounded the role of education in changing customs and building the country and the people in the exquisite language of aphorisms, emphasizing the purpose of education to serve the society and politics, so as to closely link education with personal development and social progress, especially highlighting the political function of education, and forming a prominent feature of education in ancient China.

While emphasizing the role of education and clarifying the purpose of education, Xueji also planned the school education system and put forward specific measures for school management.

In terms of the school's education system, the author of Xueji first planned the education system in accordance with the way Togu reformed. The author proposes to establish schools of different levels in different local administrative institutions, and to establish national universities and elementary schools in the center to form a criss-crossing educational network. This proposal had a great impact on the formation of the education system in China's feudal society. After the Han Dynasty, an education system was gradually formed in which both the central government and the local government schools coexisted. Secondly, the author proposes the idea of establishing the establishment of the school year. The author of the book mainly talks about the length of study and the schedule of study at the university. He divided university education into two stages: Xiaocheng and Dacheng. The study period is 7 years in the Xiaocheng stage and 9 years in the Dacheng stage, which is the germ of the establishment of the grade system in ancient education.

With regard to specific measures for the management of schools, the "Xue Ji" first pays special attention to university entrance education and the daily management of students. It regards Confucian education as the beginning of university education, and requires that on the first day of school, the prince leads hundreds of civil and military officials to the palace to participate in the opening ceremony, and sacrifice the ancestors and teachers with fresh vegetables and fruits, to express the meaning of respecting teachers.

After the opening ceremony, the first content to be studied by the new students after entering the school is the three poems in "Xiao Ya", that is, "Lu Ming", "Four Peony" and "The Emperor Hua", which are three poems of the banquet of the monarch and the ministers, and the entrance education is to tell the students that university education is to train state officials, and going to university is equivalent to embarking on the first step in the official career, and it is necessary to think about how to be a good official who is loyal to the king, diligent and loves the people in the future. After the end of the school year, the daily teaching work must also be carried out strictly. During class, students can only open and take out books when they hear the sound of drums, with the aim of cultivating a serious attitude towards their studies. Teachers should be prepared to punish students before class, with the aim of strictly enforcing classroom discipline so that students do not dare to waste their studies because of slackness.

Government officials appointed by the Son of Heaven or the Son of Heaven himself should not come to the school to inspect and evaluate the students' academic performance until the summer festival is completed, so that the students will have more time to study calmly according to their own interests. In the process of teaching, teachers should often inspect the learning status of students, find problems in time, and provide correct guidance, but should not point fingers and talk too much, in order to give students room for independent thinking, so that students can fully experience the joy of learning, and cultivate a strong desire for knowledge and self-learning ability. Young students should pay attention to listening more and asking less questions, and follow the order of learning from shallow to deep, which is the basic rules and specific behavior guidelines for the daily education and teaching management of the university, which is clear, specific and has strong feasibility. The system of inspection by the Son of Heaven was inherited and became a fine tradition of feudal education in China.

The author of Xueji advocated that universities must establish a strict performance evaluation system, and that ordinary small examinations should be conducted frequently, and major performance evaluations should be conducted every other year, and each assessment must have clear standards. "Xueji" says: The university admits new students every year, and the big performance assessment is conducted every other year; In the first year, students' ability to analyze sentence segments for scriptures and their interest in learning are examined. In the third year, they will be examined whether they are dedicated and happy; In the fifth year, it will be examined whether they can learn from their own teachers; In the seventh year, his ability to learn and learn from friends is examined, and those who meet the standards are called Xiaocheng; In the next two years, that is, nine years, it is called Dacheng to test whether students can integrate knowledge, think and act firmly, and meet the standards.

It can be seen from this that the achievement assessment system advocated by the author of Xueji has the characteristics of gradual and equal emphasis on wisdom and morality, reflecting the ancient Chinese tradition of emphasizing virtue and wisdom.