Confucian Education

Confucius (551–478 BCE) Chinese

philosopher, government official, and educator who devised an ethical system still observed in China and other Asian countries. culture superior to all others, they looked down on foreigners as barbarians.2 Seeking to avoid other peoples and cultures, the Chinese attempted to shut out foreign influences.

Although they invented paper, printing, gunpowder, the propeller, the crossbow, and the cannon, the Chinese did not fully exploit these technological innovations as potential instruments of power. Eventually, imperial China’s reluctance to adapt technology from other cultures isolated and weakened it and, by the nineteenth century, made it vulnerable to foreign exploitation. At the end of the twentieth and into the twenty-first century, China made a dramatic change in its attitude and embarked on a concerted policy of economic and technological modernization.

3-2a confucian education

Unlike the Egyptian and Judaic cultures discussed later in the chapter, Chinese philosophy focused on living here and now rather than on universal questions about the immortality of the soul. Our examination of Chinese education begins in the third century BCE, when China suffered from political turmoil. During social and political crises, an important policy question is whether education should attempt to revive the traditions of the past to restore harmony, or develop new strategies for social and economic change. In answering this question, three philosophies—Legalism, Taoism, and Confucianism—proposed different paths for education in China.

During the Ch’in dynasty, Legalism, developed by scholar Shih Huang Ti, was decreed China’s official philosophy. Declaring that the emperor’s edicts were to be obeyed without questions, legalists established an authoritarian government, which ruthlessly maintained order and used education to indoctrinate people in their beliefs. Fearing dissent, legalists imposed a strict censorship to repress alternative philosophies such as Taoism and Confucianism.

As a more humane alternative to Legalism, Lao Tzu, a philosopher in the sixth century BCE, developed Taoism, which continues to influence Chinese culture and education. In his Tao Te Ching, “The Way and Virtue,” Lao Tzu began a philosophical journey to find the path to the true reality, which is often hidden by misinformation. All things, Lao Tzu claimed, come from and follow an unseen, underlying, unifying force that moves through the world. Unlike the legalists, who wanted to control others, Lao Tzu advised people to stop trying to control other people and events, go with the stream of life, and live simply and spontaneously.3 In Taoism, education’s purpose is to encourage the reflection needed to find one’s true self and to take the path to truth.

When they came to power in 207 BCE, the Han emperors rejected Legalism and made Confucianism China’s official philosophy. Unlike Western philosophers, Confucius (551–479 BCE) did not dwell on theological or metaphysical issues about the human being’s relationship to God or the universe. He believed it was much more useful to establish the standards to maintain a harmonious ethical society than to ponder unanswerable questions. Confucius structured his educational philosophy on an ethical hierarchy of responsibilities that began with the emperor and flowed downward, touching everyone in society. His ideal of hierarchical relationships can be depicted as an ethical ladder on which the person standing on each rung is connected to the people standing above and below. Education’s major purpose is to create and maintain a harmonious society in which everyone clearly knows her or his status, duties, and responsibilities, and the appropriate way of behaving toward others.

Confucian character education set standards for civility—polite, correct, and appropriate behavior. Endorsing the ideal of the teacher as a mentor, Confucius believed children learn to behave ethically when they have a clear model of appropriate

2W. Scott Mouton and Charlton M. Lewis, China: Its History and Culture (New York: McGraw-Hill, 2005), pp. 22–40. 3Chung-Yuan Chang, Creativity and Taoism: A Study of Chinese Philosophy, Art, and Poetry (New York: Jessica Kingsley Publishers, 2011), pp. 81–100.

behavior to emulate. Teachers need to personify this model of civility that students are to follow in school.

Taking the guesswork out of living, Confucius believed there was a correct or appropriate way to behave in every situation and that everyone should learn and follow this prescribed standard. Children should be taught these right ways to behave as a set of rituals or patterns that act out the correct procedures all people are expected to follow. The Confucian model of character formation removes the chance element from behavior presented when unexpected situations arise. Because the Confucian hierarchy defines a person as a father, mother, brother, sister, ruler, or subject, the purpose of character education is to learn how to correctly perform the appropriate behavior for one’s designated role and rank. When everyone knows their role and follows its duties and responsibilities, each individual will be in harmony with the larger society. Confucius established an academy to prepare officials for China’s imperial government. He wanted highly motivated students and set high admission standards for entry to his school. His curriculum included the Chinese classics, music, poetry, diplomacy, the rituals of polite behavior, and ceremonial court etiquette. Believing future officials should study the same general subjects, he established a core curriculum of selected great books such as the Classics of Change, Of Documents, Of Poetry, Of Rites, and the Spring and Autumn Annals. 4 These Confucian texts were prominently featured in imperial examinations from 1313 BCE to 1905 CE.

Like other effective teachers, Confucius developed a well-defined system of classroom management. He held high expectations for his students. As a mentor, he did not get too personally familiar with his students. He kept a proper distance from his students but remained approachable to them. He assessed his students’ work in a positive and constructive way. His students respected their teacher as “the master.” In China, teacher–student relationships, like other relationships, were well known and followed with precision. The Confucian teacher was entrusted with safeguarding and transmitting the heritage to maintain cultural continuity and social stability.5 As Confucius said, “A man worthy of being a teacher gets to know what is new by keeping fresh in his mind what he is already familiar with.”6

The Confucian concept of hierarchical ethical relationships places students into a series of rankings ranging from superior to inferior, which differs significantly from the American idea of equal and flexible relationships. In the Confucian system, it is more important to keep old friends than to make new ones. Making new friends might bring change that upsets the established social pattern.

In situations where relationships are equal and flexible as in the United States, individuals constantly moving from old to new relationships are continually redefining their relationships and creating new openings or boundaries for old and new friends. Character education in situations of equality carries the ethical prescriptions that we should treat each person as an equal and should respect and even value their differences from us.

In contrast, Confucian ethics esteem well-known patterns of behavior rather than flexible or fluid ones. People are accorded various levels of respect based on their age, position, status, and achievements. Character education means to learn one’s place in the social network of relationships that form the community and follow the prescribed role behaviors that maintain social harmony.

4Jennifer Oldstone-Moore, Confucianism (Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 2002), pp. 35–37; and Daniel K. Gardner, The Four Books: The Basic Teachings of the Later Confucian Tradition (Indianapolis, IN: Hackett Publishing Co., 2007). For a biography of Confucius, see Annping Chin, The Authentic Confucius: A Life of Thought and Politics (New York: Oxford University Press, 2007). 5Bryan W. Van Norden, Introduction to Classical Chinese Philosophy (Indianapolis, IN: Hackett Publishing Co., 2011), pp. 18–30, 34–44. 6Confucius, The Analects, Book II, in D. C. Lau, “Introduction,” The Analects, trans. D. C. Lau (New York: Penguin Books, 1979), p. 64. Also, see Confucius. The Analects; The Simon Leys Translations Interpretation, Michael Nylan, ed. (New York: W.W. Norton Co., 2014).