A Christian Approach to Chinese Classical Education

tice it earnestly.”41 Christian teachers may imitate Zhu Xi by hanging this passage above their classroom door. Another valuable inheritance from the Confucian tradition—particularly the Neo-Confucian tradition—concerns the pursuit of li (理) (not to be confused with “rites” (li 礼)). In his commentary on the Great Learnin g, Zhu Xi explains “the investigation of things” ( gewu 格物):

“The extension of knowing lies in the investigation of things” means that if we wish to extend our knowing it consists in fathoming the principle (li 理) of any thing or affair we come into contact with…After exerting himself for a long time, one day [a man] will experience a breakthrough to integral comprehension ( guantong 贯通). Then the qualities of all things, whether internal or external, refined or coarse, will all be apprehended…”42

For Zhu, properly knowing a thing does not entail simply understanding its material cause—an emphasis of modern education. We can only truly know a thing when we understand its li, the mysterious “principle” that gives it form and order. All things share in one ultimate li, the taiji (太极), and when we comprehend that principle (qiongli 穷理) we can understand the true nature of all things and how they are interrelated. For Zhu, this principle was a mystery, but God has made this mystery known in Christ. “All things were created through him and for him. And he is 41 “ before all things, and in him all things hold together (Col. 1:16–17).” Like Zhu, we should not be satisfied with teaching mere “facts” about the world. The ultimate goal of Christian educators is to help students to see Christ in all things—to see “the moon reflected on ten thousand streams”43 —and through Him to understand how all knowledge is interconnected. In his treatise on Christian education, Hugh of Saint Victor uses very similar language as Zhu to describe Christ, calling Him “the primordial Idea or Pattern of things” in whose “likeness all things have been formed.”44 Hugh says that philosophy is essentially a love for and a pursuit of this Idea or Pattern.

Chinese classical education does not promote “specialization” like much of modern education, which compartmentalizes knowledge and leads students to believe that literature has no relation to biology or that history has no relation to mathematics. The ancient Chinese recognized the unity of the cosmos. Rather than promoting “majors,” they promoted “broad learning” (boxue 博学): “By extensively studying all learning (boxue), and keeping himself under the restraint of the rules of propriety (li), one may thus likewise not err from what is right.”45 Zhu Xi particularly emphasized this point. “Of the books under heaven, there is none not to be ‘broadly studied’ (boxue).”46 “Scholars should know about all things

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