What does "learning from things" mean in traditional education?

In traditional education in China, the most important books are "Four Books". University, the second of the four books, says that the starting point of a person's education is "learning things" and "knowing things". In other words, knowledge is obtained from the object of exploration. It is no longer appropriate to use this word to describe modern academic development. The foundation of modern scholarship is field exploration, which is what we now call experiment.

However, traditional education in China does not attach importance to real things and knowledge. This may be because the purpose of traditional education is not to seek new knowledge, but to adapt people to a fixed social system. "University" itself says that the purpose of learning knowledge from things is to make people reach the fields of sincerity, integrity, self-cultivation, keeping the family in order and governing the country, so as to pursue the highest ideal of Confucianism-to level the world. In this way, the true meaning of knowing things is drowned out.

Everyone knows Wang Yangming, a theorist of the Ming Dynasty, whose thoughts can represent the traditional Confucian attitude towards experiments. One day, Wang Yangming will follow the instructions of "University" and start with "Wu Ge". He decided to plait the bamboo in the yard. So he moved a stool and sat in the yard, thinking hard about bamboo for seven days, and failed because of a headache. Obviously, this gentleman mistook exploring the outside world for exploring himself.

Wang Yangming's point of view was understandable in the social environment at that time. Because the traditional view of Confucianism holds that there is eternal truth in the world, and truth is realized by "saints" from the heart. When the saints know the truth, they pass it on to ordinary people. Therefore, the truth in the scriptures can be "pushed to the four seas and passed down from generation to generation." Experience tells us that this view is not applicable to today's world.