Author: Zhu Hanmin (President of China Academy Society, Professor of Yuelu Academy, Hunan University)
At the time of the Tang and Song dynasties, Confucian scholars and doctors rose and further strengthened their consciousness as cultural subjects, not only leading and promoting the ideological and cultural changes at the time of the Tang and Song dynasties, but also hoping to build a courtyard centered on "books" between the mountains and rivers to carry their own spirit of teachers and humanistic ideals. The new type of cultural and educational institutions they have established and painstakingly operated are called "academies."
(i)
In the upsurge of establishing colleges, the Song Dynasty scholars and doctors always emphasized that the reason why they wanted to run another academy in addition to the official Taixue Prefecture School was because the academy was different from the official school in terms of educational concept and purpose of running the school. This is the "spirit of the academy" affirmed by the academic and educational circles later. In fact, this is the spirit of the Song Dynasty scholars. From the Middle Tang Dynasty to the early Song Dynasty, there was a very strong call among the scholars, that is, when criticizing the Han and Tang scribes for indulging in the study of chapters and phrases, they strongly called for the revival of the spirit of the early Confucian scholars. "Confucianism" originally originated from the "teacher Confucianism" with the mission of education, and Confucius called on Confucians to "aspire to the Tao", which is actually the spirit of "Master Tao" that emphasizes the combination of the teacher and the Tao. Mencius particularly emphasized the dignity of the teacher's tao, affirming that the Confucian undertakes the "way of Yao Shun", so he gave the "teacher" a lofty mission and spiritual authority of the "tao". During the Tang and Song dynasties, Confucian scholars actively advocated the revival of the early Confucian "Shi Dao" and hoped to re-enter the historical stage with the spirit of Shi Dao.
The revival and reconstruction of Confucianism by the Song Dynasty began with the revival of Shi Dao. Ouyang Xiu said in the article "The Tomb Table of Mr. Hu": "Shi Dao has been abandoned for a long time, since Jing You and Ming Dao, scholars have had teachers, but Mr. Wei (Hu Yan) and Taishan Sun Mingfu and Shi Shoudao are three people. Ouyang Xiu affirmed the important contribution of Hu Yan, Sun Mingfu, and Shi Shoudao to promoting the revival of Shidao, and the three of them began to suspend the history of "the abolition of Shidao for a long time" and began to make "scholars have teachers", affirming their contribution to the creation of the Song Xue system.
It can be found that Song Ru often encouraged themselves to "think of themselves as teachers", and their sense of responsibility for "teachers" was rich in connotations: on the one hand, Song Ru advocated "taking the teacher's way" and expanded the education of the emperor, and developed the song dynasty's very distinctive sutra feast lectures; on the other hand, Song Ru "regarded himself as a teacher" and expanded the indoctrination of the people, so he founded a large number of academies. In the active activities of the Song Dynasty scholars, there was an important idea running through them, that is, a kind of teacher's spirit of government and learning, which was especially reflected in their academy education. Regarding the close connection between the revival of Song Confucianism and the education of the academy, Wang Chuanshan once commented on the Ming and Qing dynasties, saying: "In the fourth year of Xianping, the Nine Classics were given to the place where the disciples were taught, and the state and county schools, etc., and the beginning of this academy. He was sun mingfu and Hu Andingqi, shi Daoli, scholar Xing, and Cheng Hu Zhou, Cheng, Zhang, and Zhu Zhisheng. He believes that Song Xue's transition from the beginning to the great prosperity is inseparable from the academy education under the leadership of Shi Dao. In the early years of the Northern Song Dynasty, the rise of the academy, especially the promotion of Sun Mingfu, Hu Anding and other early Song Confucians, made the teachers stand up and scholars flourished, promoted the rise of Song Xue, and eventually formed the "Zhou, Cheng, Zhang, zhu Zhisheng" of Song Xue.
(ii)
The spirit of the Song Dynasty Academy is embodied in many aspects, and the most concentrated embodiment is the establishment of the purpose of the Academy by Song Ru. There is an important cultural phenomenon: since the Song Dynasty, the Confucian scholars who founded and presided over the academy have always taken the undertaking of "Tao" as the basic purpose and educational goal of founding the academy. The "Case of Song Yuanxue" once recorded an important dialogue, Wen Jing (Yang Shi) said: Learning without hearing the Tao, still not learning. (Cheng) RuoYong also knows: Creating a college without explaining this way is equivalent to not having a college. Cheng Ruoyong very clearly linked the founding of the academy with the mission of the teacher. From the beginning of the Song Dynasty, Confucian scholars began to advocate the revival of the Confucian and Mencius way with "Shi Dao" as the ideological purpose, and later developed a neo-Confucian trend of thought with "Taoism" and "Taoism" as the mainstream. They advocate that the spirit of teachers is concentrated in folk academies, and the academies they lead are the best places to express their spirit of teachers.
Therefore, all scholars who aspire to revive Confucianism and rebuild Confucianism will always establish the purpose of founding the academy as the "Tao" and carry forward the spirit of the Teacher's Tao, which is particularly publicized by the Scholars and Doctors of the Song Dynasty. From the "Third Gentlemen of the Song Dynasty" in the Northern Song Dynasty to the "Four Gentlemen" of the Southern Song Dynasty Qianchun, they all revived the Shidao by founding the Academy, which is as the theorist Yuan Xie said: "The ancient school has been set up, and there is a Ze Palace." The Yuelu of Present-day Changsha, the Stone Drum of Hengyang, the Jingshe of Wuyi, and the White Deer of Xingzhu, living in Lize in groups, and obeying the ancient precepts are enough to support the school. ”
(iii)
During the Two Song Dynasties, those scholars and doctors who pursued the spirit of teachers and Taoism were also the most academically innovative Song scholars. For example, Shi Jie has a very clear pursuit of the goal of "Taoism", and he has a distinct sense of Taoism that inherits and revives the Confucian way, and combines this Taoist consciousness with the construction of the academy. In his invitation to compose the "Records of Taishan Academy", he unified the inheritance of The Taoism with the mission of the Academy, saying: "The way of Fu Yao, Shun, Yu, Tang, King Wen, King Wu, Zhou, and Kong, the way of the world is always the way of the indelible." ...... If I learn the way of the saints, and those who attack the way of my saints, I must not fail to attack the other. "Shi Jie undertook the inheritance of the Confucian way with the academy education, which is the spirit of Song Confucianism. In addition, he has long presided over the lectures of the Laolai Academy, and is known as "Mr. Lailai" by scholars.
In particular, the famous Zhu Xi Minxue, Zhang Yuhu Xiangxue, Lu XiangshanXue and other major schools of science in the Southern Song Dynasty clearly aimed at reviving the pre-Qin Confucian way in the process of establishing the academy, which is actually to combine the construction of the academy with the spirit of the teacher's Tao. For example, during the Southern Song Dynasty, Zhu Xi founded the Hanquan Jingshe, Wuyi Jingshe and Bamboo Forest Jingshe in WuyiShan, Fujian Province, which were expanded and renamed Cangzhou Jingshe due to the increase in apprentices. The reason why Zhu Xi actively founded the academy was closely linked to his missionary spirit. During the Chunxi dynasty, Won Ji wrote the "Record of Wuyi Jingshe", which expressed Zhu Xi's purpose of founding Wuyi Jingshe, that is, he hoped to solve the problem of not passing on the tao since the Qin and Han Dynasties, so as to "gain" the way of Confucius.
Another example is Zhang Yu's "Record of rebuilding Yuelu Academy in Tanzhou", which clarified the purpose of restoring Yuelu Academy: "Will you make the sub-group people talk about it, but for the sake of Deciding Kelilu?" Or is it that the Son's habit is only the work of speech and words? Gai wants to achieve talent, to preach the Word and to the people of Zis. He emphasized that the purpose and purpose of Yuelu Academy was to preach and help the people, which was also a revival of the study of the teacher's way, which was different from the teachings of KeJu Lilu and the Exhortation Dictionary.
Lu Jiuyuan led his disciples to create many academies such as Xiangshan in Jiangxi, and his disciple Yuan Fu also clearly pointed out in the "Record of Xiangshan Academy": "The construction of the academy is for Ming Daoye." Yuan Xie, in his "Records of the East Lake Academy", further clarified the characteristics of his school of teaching, saying: "Although the study of a gentleman is not a matter of crumbling at the end of the recitation, he will seek the Tao of Si. What is the Word? A: My heart is also. Yuan Xie was a famous disciple of Lu Jiuyuan, and he not only emphasized that the educational purpose of the academy was to seek the Tao, but also further pointed out that this tao was the "learning for oneself" and "self-sufficiency learning" of the Way of Confucius and Mencius, and he believed that this learning could only originate from "my heart".
(iv)
The reason why the Song Dynasty scholars generally established the purpose of the academy as the "Ming Dao" is actually to clarify that the core and soul of the academy's education is actually the spirit of the "Teacher's Tao", which is embodied in two inseparable aspects.
The teachings of the academy are embodied in the realization of confucian humanistic ideals. Song Ru inherited the core values of early Confucianism, so that Song Ru's teacher's way not only involved the relationship between teachers and students in the school, but also closely related to the "way of the world" of the family and the world, and the key to the realization of the ideal of the royal way was the "teacher". This brings about a series of characteristics of the Taoist spirit of the academy: the fundamental goal of the scholars to establish the academy is not only the "Tao", they firmly believe that it will eventually be implemented in the "governance"; the most important content imparted by the academy is not knowledge and skills, but the "adult" of human culture. Therefore, Zhu Xi's "Revelation of the White Deer Cave Academy" takes the value system of the Confucian way as the basic content. The "Revelation" first takes "father and son have relatives, kings and subjects have righteousness, husband and wife are different, elders and children are orderly, and friends have faith" as the "five teachings" of the academy's education, and then takes "erudition, interrogation, careful thinking, discernment, and dedication" as the "order of learning" of the academy's teaching; it also takes "faithful in words, acts with respect," "punishing suffocation, and changing the good" as the "key to self-cultivation" of students' personality education, and "doing what you don't want, don't do to others; if you can't do it, you ask for yourself." It can be seen that the reason why Song Ru despised the study of lexicography and exhortation was because they firmly believed that the spirit of shidao truly represented the humanistic ideals of Confucianism, and restored the educational responsibility of the Zhou Li that "shiru" should be "to win the people with merit" and "to win the people with the tao". The spirit of the teacher's Tao that Song Ru expected was to strive to achieve harmony between the family and the country and the world through academy education, and to establish a world order that conformed to the "Tao". Therefore, the spirit of the academy includes two aspects: First, in the academy, it advocates the study of self-cultivation and improves one's personality, that is, the so-called "qualities, knowledge, righteousness, sincerity, and self-cultivation"; second, to rule the world with the "Tao", to improve social order through preaching and walking, and ultimately to achieve the goal of "uniting the family, governing the country, and leveling the world".
The spirit of the college is also embodied in an academic spirit of intellectual rationality. Confucian culture is a culture of humanistic rationality, and Confucianism emphasizes that the value belief and practice of the "Tao" must be based on the intellectual rationality of "learning". Therefore, in the process of the educational purpose and teaching practice of the college, the pursuit of the Tao and the study of learning should be unified and connected. Therefore, the value care of the academy reflects the pursuit of personality ideals and social ideals, and can never exclude knowledge education. The Song Dynasty Academy has always attached great importance to the education of the "Four Books", and the opening chapter of the "Analects" emphasizes "learning and learning from time to time", the opening chapter of "University" emphasizes "the knowledge of qualities and things", and the "Zhongyong" also emphasizes "erudition" and "Taoist learning", which are the classic basis and ideological sources of the strong academic spirit of college education. Song Ru Bao Hui said extremely transparently in the "Record of Xushan Academy": "The husband takes the name of the academy, and the master is also reading... However, it is said that the book of the sages is the clear way, the book is the way, the way is the book, there is a book outside the tao, there is a way outside the book, and it is two things. The problem is that people read books in fictitious languages, but do not understand the Tao with real reason, so they write books from themselves, the Tao is self-tao, and people are self-human, and the three judgments are fragmented... If the reader thinks that he has taken the medium of Kodi and fished for the bait of Lilu, he is a virtuous person. "The pursuit of knowledge in the Song Dynasty Academy is very urgent, and the academic spirit is very strong, but the academy education is not knowledge for the sake of knowledge, and academic innovation is always aimed at exploring the value care of the Confucian way." Therefore, the academy became a place for Neo-Confucian scholars to discuss intellectual learning after the Song Dynasty. The study of scripture and history, with the interpretation of the meaning of man, the harmony of society, and the governance of the world as the core, became the main learning content of the ancient academy. The combination of Neo-Confucianism and shuyuan in the Song Dynasty not only enabled the Song Dynasty scholarship to gain support for development, but also enabled the academy to gain new development space.
After the Song Dynasty, the development of ancient Chinese scholarship has undergone many transformations and developments, and different academic trends of thought and the formation of different schools are closely related to the academy. The academic innovation spirit of the college is constantly developed and developed with the help of the spirit of the teacher, and the spirit of the teacher's tao has become the driving force of the academic innovation of the college and the continuous renewal of the academic thinking of the college.
Source: Learning Times