Reading Notes

Recently, I am making up the history of ancient ideology and culture, such as China Culture by Qian Mu, China's Historical Spirit, Bai Yang's White, Hu Shi's philosophy class at Peking University, Li Zehou's History of Beauty, and the History of Ancient China Thought. Honestly, it's a little difficult. Qian Mu is a military speech, but it is easy to understand. On the basis of facts, Bai Yang literally translated ancient prose and read comments directly. Li Zehou's exposition is clear, systematic and incisive, and many viewpoints are amazing. Hu Shi, on the other hand, mostly quotes classics, but only has a large number of ancient texts, so he can't read them.

Times have changed, times have turned upside down, Yao Shunyu has become a legend, and Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism have become non-mainstream, but this can't change our past, including nationalities, cultures, traditions and customs. As long as we live in this society, even if we have no education, our parents, relatives, friends and people around us will influence each other through word of mouth, so that our words and deeds are more or less branded with tradition. In the writings of predecessors, we have a deeper understanding of the influence of traditional culture on modern society and each of us. Only by knowing where to come from and where to go can we move towards the future better.

China's traditional view of history is all about the country and the world, and the purpose of education is to govern the country with sincerity and cultivate one's morality. "Mencius" has a cloud: if you are poor, you will be alone, and if you are good, you will help the world. The Four Books and Five Classics are the compulsory bibliography of ancient education. The focus of training is a person's moral quality, not the skills to make a living. It emphasizes that things are moist and silent, and the beginning of life is good. Only by instilling moral sentiments of truth, goodness and beauty from an early age can we cope with the sinister social life. This seems to be a paradox. Since social life is so sinister, how should everyone adapt to society? Then give them countermeasures, fight poison with poison, fight poison with poison. It seems that only worse and more poisonous can we survive better. But for the whole society, if everyone is a villain, it will become a triad society, which is a disaster for most people. The reason why we educate truth, goodness and beauty from childhood is to fundamentally solve social problems. It's easy to be a bad person, but you can be bad without teaching. It is difficult to be a good person, so it is necessary to continue education, and educating people is the most essential function of education.

Education is our tradition, Confucius is our leader, and the current cultural penetration rate is also high in the world, but our moral and cultural level does not match it. The fifties and sixties were revolutionary culture and education, which brought together a large number of hard-working talents. After the reform and opening up, a large number of enterprise management talents centered on economic construction have appeared, but our education has become more and more utilitarian and snobbish. Making money has become the mainstream of education, and our hearts have become more and more empty. Foreign cultures have impacted people's thoughts. Early western thoughts had a far-reaching influence. Later Japanese anime and Korean Wave conflicted with China's inherent moral and cultural values, which was originally a cultural exchange. However, if there is no corresponding education, or if it is not well integrated, it will be completely externalized, resulting in conflicts and leaving a generation with nowhere to put it.

Our current education is the lack of the most basic moral and cultural education, and we must first solve the problem of national identity. Reform and opening up have opened the window of western civilization, but the following worship of foreign things and flattery are rampant. Everything is foreign, and the moon is rounder than China. Many people lose their way and stick to their own opinions. Some people in Hong Kong and Taiwan are engaged in independence and division, which is essentially a matter of education. Long-term colonial rule and indoctrination have made a generation of young people blur history and lose their national identity. They have only yellow skin and black eyes, and they have lost the plot of the Chinese nation in their hearts.

However, your national identity cannot be changed. No matter where you are or where you come from, even after several generations of immigration, the dominant characteristics of the nation still exist, not to mention that there are more people living in China. It is undeniable that our nation is still a developing country after suffering and humiliation, but we don't care about the ugliness of our mother. What we have to do is not to give up, abandon and leave, but to revitalize and revive our nation. In the 70 years since the founding of New China, especially in the 40 years since the reform and opening up, we have made remarkable achievements in economic aggregate, social undertakings and ecological civilization, and completed the development course of developed countries for hundreds of years. And with the passage of time, the Chinese nation has achieved great rejuvenation.

Secondly, we should solve the problem of cultural self-confidence. Throughout the four ancient civilizations and all nationalities in the world, no nation has ever been so hardworking, intelligent, persevering and timeless. No matter the change of imperial dynasties, the administration of ethnic minorities and the influence of foreign religious culture, the continuous development of Chinese civilization has not been interrupted. With its strong inclusiveness, inclusiveness, absorption and transformation, it has created a dazzling Chinese civilization. It is obviously short-sighted and unworthy to completely deny the development of Chinese civilization for thousands of years and lose the national self-esteem and self-confidence that we depend on for survival just because of the sinking of the modern century and our temporary backwardness. Looking back at the development history of the Chinese nation, similar dark moments and turbulent times did not happen. After a long time, it will be divided. That time, we didn't hold our heads high. This is the resilience of our nation.

Modern China spread and introduced advanced western philosophical theories, combined with the reality of the Chinese nation, found the way out of China's new democratic revolution, overthrew the oppression and exploitation of semi-feudalism and semi-colonialism, and established an independent new China; In the period of socialist construction, we have also gone through detours, but we have the courage to admit our mistakes, innovate, constantly improve and improve ourselves, promptly correct the direction of progress, especially the implementation of the reform and opening up strategy, actively learn from the achievements of modern science and technology, and boldly explore social governance innovation, which has formed a powerful driving force for social progress and development; The handling of this epidemic has once again demonstrated the will and strength of the Chinese nation. We should see our own shortcomings and backwardness, but we should not sell ourselves short and ignore the great vitality of the Chinese nation. We should have such national confidence.

Third, we must solve the problem of inheritance of education. Respecting teachers and attaching importance to teaching is the traditional virtue of the Chinese nation. The profession of teacher has always been highly respected. Being a teacher is the ideal of many people. Qian Mu and Ye Shengtao worked as primary school teachers, while Lu Xun and Zhu Ziqing worked as middle school teachers. However, in the past, being a teacher has become a helpless choice. Even now, only a handful of people are interested in becoming teachers. Many teachers are not a little worse than engineers of the human soul. In class, we should pay attention to courtesy, justice, honesty and shame, and after class, we should pay attention to society. Of course, this is closely related to the general environment in which we live, the social trend of thought that values profit over righteousness, and the concept of who to educate and cultivate. In addition to schools and teachers, society and family are all such values.

In my opinion, the first priority of education should be to be reasonable and to be a man. "Teacher, so preach and teach." Then there is learning knowledge and skills. To tell the truth, it's hard to tell the truth. I can't say it well, and I won't see the effect for a while. Children in kindergartens and primary schools can still fool, but students in middle schools and universities simply don't listen. And all we can see is the result. In the past, it was "learning mathematics and physics well and traveling all over the world is not afraid", but now it is "not losing at the starting line", but it does not include a person's personality. Many shameful wonders that have appeared since the epidemic are the best witness. Apply the golden sentence of the network: "hooligans are not terrible, just afraid of being educated."

Professor He Fan once said: Nothing that is unsustainable will not last long. The education of the arms race is ultimately unsustainable, which is only the length of time. Fortunately, we have been exploring, changing and making progress. The outbreak of epidemic this spring is a great test of human nature and a realistic test of our education. Respect for individuals, reverence for life and responsibility for society have become the main theme of the whole society. It is a hero who retrogrades in the face of catastrophe, and it is also commendable to persist. Timely reporting to quarantine is also worthy of respect. This is a universal education of humanity, morality and responsibility of the whole people. I believe that the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation will not be far away.