What were the main characteristics of the family in ancient China?

Men plowing and women weaving, clear division of labor;

Subordinate to agriculture, does not occupy the main position;

For the purpose of supporting the family, the products are owned by themselves

Mostly self-produced and self-marketed, and only a small part of them are sold on the market;

Manually, the process of production is simple and the scale of the production is small, and the technology is single.

In the late Spring and Autumn period (475 BC), China began to enter a feudal society. Due to the collapse of slavery, the emergence of a new landowning class on the political stage, as well as the growth of the scholarly class, the private schools flourished, expanding the target of education, enabling more people to master the knowledge of culture and morality, which had been monopolized by the aristocracy, and providing the possibility for more families to implement pre-school education, and thus the pre-school education of children was also further developed.

I. Preschool Family Education in Feudal Society

In feudal society, the family is the basic cell of society, the earliest point of contact between the children and the society, and also the place where the children in ancient times of China received preschool education.

1. The purpose of pre-school family education in feudal society

(1) to serve the cultivation of ruling talents

In feudal society, successive rulers have attached great importance to education, the establishment of schools, and their main purpose is to cultivate ruling talents for the feudal society to build the country and the people through school education. In China's ancient earliest book of pedagogy, "the record of learning", once said: "the gentleman, such as wanting to turn the people into a custom, it must be by the study of it. ...... Therefore, the ancient kings built the country and ruled the people, and teaching was the first priority." (The Record of Learning, An Ancient Chinese Education Anthology, People's Education Publishing House, 1979 edition, p. 95.) The establishment of the Imperial College in the Han Dynasty can also illustrate this point. The establishment of the Imperial College was an important official institution in feudal society, and its initial motivation was the acceptance by Emperor Wu of the Western Han Dynasty of the famous educator Dong Zhongshu's statement that "the most important thing in raising a scholar is the Imperial College; the Imperial College is the gateway to the wise and the source of education and culture" (Ban Gu, "The Book of the Han", vol. 56, pp. 95, and "Dong Zhongshu's Biography", vol. 27, no. 1). Dong Zhongshu's Biography", vol. 56, 1962 edition of the Zhonghua Shuju Bureau, p. 2512). It was established to create a reserve army of bureaucrats. After the Sui and Tang dynasties, although the school became increasingly subordinate to the imperial examination system due to the influence of the imperial examination system, its ultimate goal was still to cultivate ruling talents.

Pre-school education is the foundation of school education, its purpose is naturally consistent with the purpose of school education, are for the cultivation of feudal society needs of the ruling talent service, so many families in feudal society in the implementation of the pre-school family education process, the elders are often to "learning and excellence" of the ideological education of the children to the knowledge of the future to seek officialdom. In the process of implementing preschool family education in many families in feudal society, the elders often educated children with the idea of "learning to be a good scholar" to enlighten them with the knowledge of seeking official positions in the future. At the same time, the rulers also attached great importance to pre-school family education, as an important part of feudal education and the beginning of the education of talents to create a reserve army of bureaucrats.

(2) The foundation of the family and the state

"The Book of Rites. University" says: "The ancient desire to brighten virtue in the world, the first to rule their country; want to rule their country, the first to qi their family; want to qi their family, the first to repair their body ...... heart is correct and then body repair, body repair and then the family is aligned, the family is aligned and then the country is ruled, and the country is ruled and then the world is leveled." "His family is not teachable, but those who can teach others, no." Confucius also said, "The home is reasonable, so the rule can be moved to the government." (Gu Yanwu, "日知錄? Family Matters, Selected Materials on the History of Chinese Preschool Education, People's Education Press, 1989 edition, p. 44.) It can be seen that the ancients attached great importance to family education, and took it as a kind of test for the foundation and management ability of the future career and ruling the country. At the same time, because "everything under the sun has its beginning. The family's establishment of education, at the beginning of the child's birth." (Qiu? The first volume of "Supplement to the Diffractions of the University" (Siku Quanshu). Therefore, the preschool education of young children in the family is the basic content and starting point of family education. In this sense, it is also one of the purposes of preschool family education to lay the foundation for the future of the family and the country.

The logical link between family education and the rule of the country as a link to the patriarchal political rule, the throne to implement the system of succession of the firstborn, the people to the blood relations between the close and distant. Within the family, paternal authority was used to implement patriarchal management, while the supreme ruler of the country used the power of the monarch to implement the rule of the "world of the family", paternal authority and monarchical authority are different in name but the same in reality. After the Qin Dynasty, although the county system was implemented, the family was still the intermediary for the rule of the state over its subjects. The local administration of feudal China through the ages has generally taken the county as the lowest level of administrative unit, but the county has a vast territory and a large population, so in order to carry out effective rule, it must also rely on local self-governance of the village organization. Because of the characteristics of Chinese rural society, which is characterized by the gathering of clans, the family has become the basis of the village organization. Rural organizations exercise a joint rule of clan power and regime over the people, so the rule of the state ultimately relies on the strength of the family organization. "If the family is not at peace, it is difficult for the state to be at peace." As a result, many politicians and thinkers have put forward the idea that the foundation of the state is at home, and that in order to rule the state, the family must first be harmonized, and have given the family the triple functions of population production, material production, and education, so that the traditional Chinese family has a special significance.

(3) Shining Lintel

If the Qijia and ruling the country is the ultimate goal set by the politicians for the ancient preschool family education, then shining lintel is the substantial motivation and the closest practical purpose for the implementation of preschool education in the common family. There is a folk joke: a father let his beloved son ride on his neck to drive, a Taoist gentleman saw, accused: "Ride the father as a horse!" However, as soon as the words of the Taoist teacher left his mouth, the child cried out, "I wish my son to be a dragon!" The child's words spoke to the general mentality of the elders at that time, and this mentality was closely linked to the hope that the family would prosper.

The link between individual glory and family glory is rooted in the characteristics of Chinese society. Ancient China is a society that emphasizes blood relations, successive rulers formulated laws to punish criminals, are not limited to individuals, always involve the entire family, the so-called "one when the disaster, the whole family suffered", a person who breaks the law, the lesser offense and three families, the heavier one will be implicated in all nine families. Similarly, "one man gets the way, the chicken and the dog", a person out of the world, not only is an individual's honor, but also the honor of the whole family, such as in the era of the imperial examinations, if someone in the family high school graduate, scholar, the court to the big red newspaper to announce the joy, the whole family will be immersed in the joyful. It is because of the individual and the family between this related, honor and disgrace and **** relationship, making preschool family education in feudal society is particularly important. The elders of the family are regarded as children as private property, hope that the enterprise through the family education as soon as possible to make the children and grandchildren "become a dragon", in order to achieve the revitalization of the family business, the purpose of the family, at the same time, the children and grandchildren are also to the body of the family, the family to shine as their own goal and the best way to repay their parents the grace of parental upbringing.

2. The content of preschool family education

Taking an overview of the preschool family education in the feudal society for more than two thousand years, the content of education mainly includes ideological and moral education, life routine education, cultural knowledge education, physical health care and other aspects.

(l) Moral education

In ancient China, moral education was the main content of education, and Confucius said, "If you have the ability to do something, you should learn the language." (The Analects of Confucius? Xue而第一", The Analects of Confucius Translated and Annotated (Yang Bojun), Zhonghua Shuju Bureaus, 1980 edition, p. 5.) Xing refers to character and virtue, meaning that one can learn culture and knowledge only when there is room for character and virtue cultivation. Character and virtue first is not only the main theme of school education and social education in feudal society for thousands of years, but also becomes the "program" of pre-school family education. In Han Dynasty, Wang Xiu educated his own son: "Not necessarily read books and learn to be a human being." (Wang Xiu, "The Book of Commandments to the Son" (诫子書), All the Writings of the Three Dynasties, Qin, Han, Three Kingdoms, Six Dynasties? (全后汉文). Zhu Xi, a Southern Song educator, also said, "Since childhood, we should teach virtue, and we should teach what is virtuous and not what is laborious." (Lai Jingde: Zhuzi yuqi zhi class, vol. 7, China Bookstore 1986 edition, p. 123.) The main purpose of moral education for young children in the family is to enable children to form preliminary moral concepts and develop good behavioral habits. The content of this moral education mainly includes the following aspects:

① Filial piety and fraternal duty

"Lüshi Chunqiu? Filial piety and behavior" said: "The filial piety, the three emperors and five emperors of the original business." It can be seen that focusing on filial piety has a long history in China. After the Western Zhou Dynasty, filial piety and fraternal duty is even more fundamental to ancient morality, so in feudal society, cultivating filial piety and fraternal duty concepts in young children has become the primary task of preschool family education.

The education of "filial piety" for young children mainly requires them to develop the habit of not violating the will of their parents and obeying their parents' absolute authority. For example, Li Yuxiu, a scholar of the Qing Dynasty, said in his book "Rules of the Disciple": "Parents call, do not slow down; parents order, do not be lazy; parents teach, must respectfully listen; parents blame, must be obedient to." Sima Guang, a historian of the Northern Song Dynasty, also pointed out in "Home Miscellaneous Etiquette" that, "All young people, no matter how big or small, no specialization, must consult the parents." These requirements are all designed to emphasize the absolute authority of parents.

The education of filial piety for young children also requires them to develop the habit of honoring their parents since childhood. In the Book of Filial Piety? The book of filial piety says: "The filial son's service to his parents is also, living in order to achieve its respect, raising is to achieve its joy." This means that a filial son's way of serving his parents is to be respectful to them, not to slacken off, and to do his best to serve them and make them happy. In the Book of Rites? Qu Li" also requires a son to "keep his parents warm in the winter and clear in the summer, and to keep them warm in the winter but not in the morning". That is to say, he should keep his parents warm in winter and free from cold, cool in summer and free from heat, make a good bed for his parents at night, and greet them in the morning. Huang Xiang from the Eastern Han Dynasty can be considered a model for practicing this filial behavior, "Xiang was nine years old and could warm a seat." (Wang Yinglin, "The Three Character Classic," Review of Chinese Feudal Monastic Culture? Appendix, Shaanxi People's Publishing House, 1989 edition, p. 22.) It is said that when Huang Xiang was nine years old, he was so filial to his father that he was able to use his own body heat to warm his father's blanket in the cold winter. This is why he was listed as one of the twenty-four filial piety in ancient times, and became a role model for children to follow in feudal society.

Paying attention to the cultivation of filial piety from childhood is a reflection of the traditional moral sense of respecting the old and filial piety in our country, and at the same time, it is also in line with the law of children's moral formation as the starting point of their moral consciousness formation. Of course, the essence of filial piety in feudal society is to "correct the theory of father and son," in order to tighten the distinction between ruler and subject." The "filial piety" that emphasizes paternal authority aims to strengthen the "loyalty" to the imperial authority, and this kind of "loyalty" and "filial piety" are This "loyalty" and "filial piety" are "foolish loyalty" and "foolish filial piety" without questioning right and wrong. It completely stifles children's individuality and freedom, and becomes a breeding ground for slavery and servility, which is something we should criticize.

If filial piety is used to maintain vertical family relationships and plays a dominant role, then brotherly love is used to strengthen horizontal family relationships and plays a secondary role. The main purpose of teaching brotherly love to young children is to require them to be brotherly and friendly from an early age, to love and protect their younger brothers, and to respect and love their older brothers. It is said that when Kong Rong, a great scholar of the Eastern Han Dynasty, was four years old, he was able to give his elder brother a large pear to eat and took the smaller one. This story of Kong Rong giving up a pear was widely circulated in feudal society and has been cited in preschool family education as a typical example of teaching brotherly love.

The purpose of emphasizing the cultivation of the virtue of brotherly love in family education is to enable brothers to live in harmony, the family to prosper, and the individual to be able to establish himself in society in the future. Xiang Lang of the Three Kingdoms once admonished his son, "Poverty is not a human problem, but harmony is precious." "If the nine clans are in harmony, they will be able to move what they want and be at peace." (Xiang Lang: "Last Words and Admonitions to His Son," All the Writings of the Upper Three Dynasties, Qin, Han, Three Kingdoms, and Six Dynasties? All Three Kingdoms Writings.) The Northern Qi educator Yan Zhi Tui, on the other hand, explicitly stated, "Brothers are people who are separated from each other by form and breath. ...... Since the death of the two parents, brothers should look after each other as if they were the shape of a shadow and the sound of a voice." (Yan Zhiwei, "Yan's Family Trainings? Brothers," Yan's Family Traditions Collected Explanations, Shanghai Ancient Books Publishing House, 1980 edition, pp. 37, 40.) If sibling rivalry, then sons and nephews also do not love each other, when there is a foreign disaster coming, who will be there to help? In the Book of Wei? Tugukhun Liezhuan" also recorded a story: Tugukhun king A Jackal had 20 sons, he called his sons in front of him when he was dying, and said, "Each of you take one of my arrows and break it on the ground." All his sons broke their arrows. Then he said to his mother and brother, "Take 19 arrows and break them together." His mother and brother could not break them. Jackal then said, "Do you understand? It is easy to break an arrow alone, but it is difficult to break many arrows together. Only when you work together can the country be strengthened." This story is precisely a moral of the truth that there is strength in brotherhood and unity.

②Thrift

China was an agricultural civilization in ancient times, and the stability of the countryside determined the safety and security of the imperial court. Agricultural production is arduous, the harvest is hard to get, as the Tang poem said: "Who knows what's on the plate, all the grains are hard work." Therefore, it has become a traditional virtue of the Chinese people and an important part of family education to treasure food and honor frugality.

In feudal society, the father created the family business, the younger generation to enjoy the success, it is difficult to know the hardship. "It is easy to go from frugality to extravagance, but difficult to go from extravagance to frugality." (Sima Guang, "Discipline and Thrift Showing Kang," The Collection of Family Transmission, vol. 67, Siku Quanshu? Collected Works? Bieji zhi class.) If you do not make your children develop frugal living habits, they may become the son of a defeated family, which is an important reason why many families attach importance to the education of children in respect of frugality.

In order to make young children establish the concept of reverence for thrift, some insightful people in feudal society often taught children in the family that thrift is a virtue and extravagance is the greatest sin, such as the Song Dynasty literati Lu You, in his "Fangweng Family Training", who warned his descendants, "Things in the world are often accomplished by hardship and defeated by extravagance." That the life of the poor, frugal, often promote people to advance, success, while specializing in luxury will make people fall into the abyss. The late Ming and early Qing dynasty Zhu Bailu in its famous "Zhu Zi family training" has also asked children: "a porridge and a meal, when thinking about the place is not easy; half silk and half a wisp, always think of the material force Weiqian."

In order to cultivate children's frugal living habits, for young children's diet and clothing, the ancients advocated not to be too elaborate, such as the "Book of Rites". Qu Li" has stipulated that "children do not wear fur."" This is not only because it is too warm is not conducive to the development of children, more importantly, because it is expensive is not conducive to the children to develop the habit of thrift. Tang Biao of the Qing Dynasty made this very clear when he said, "When a child is young, he should not be clothed in furs and garments, for fear that he will be inspired to extravagance, and he will not be able to change when he grows up." (Tang Biao, "Life Must Be Read," Selected Materials on the History of Preschool Education in China, People's Education Publishing House, 1989 edition, p. 68.)

③Integrity

Integrity is honesty and non-deception. Li Zhi, a Ming man, said, "If a child's heart is true, it is also true." (Li Zhi: "Burning Books? Children's hearts say", Selected Materials on the History of Chinese Preschool Education, People's Education Press, 1989 edition, p. 48.) Young children's nature is pure and beautiful, "absolutely false innocence", however, due to the incorrect influence or young children themselves due to boast or fear of the reason, sometimes will lie, which is later on the growth of fraudulent heart bud, in the long run, its "childishness" will be gradually lost, "if we lose the childishness". "If you lose the heart of a child, you lose the true heart; lose the true heart, you lose the real person; people and not the real, the whole is no longer there in the beginning." (Li Zhi, "Burning Books? Children's Heart," Selected Materials on the History of Chinese Preschool Education, People's Education Press, 1989 edition, pp. 48, 49.) In order to protect the honesty of the "child's heart" and keep it intact, elders should first educate them in a positive way. As young children are ignorant and have difficulty in distinguishing between right and wrong, elders should also guide young children with their own honest behavior, as stated in the Book of Rites. Ceremony," said: "The young child routine without deceit." The same as the view, the same show. Yuan Chen? The explanation is: "Always show them that they are not to be deceived, so they can learn to be honest." (Chen? The Book of Rites: A Collection of Notes, The Four Books and the Five Classics, China Book of Books. Li Ji ji ji zhi zhi" (Collected Notes on the Records of Rites), China Bookstore, 1984 edition, p. 4.) Zeng Sen of the Spring and Autumn Period had set an example for people in this respect. According to Han Fei Zi? The Words of Foreign Reserves", one day, Zeng Sen's wife was going to the street to buy something, and the child cried and wanted to go with his mother, so Zeng's wife coaxed the child, saying, "Stay at home, and mother will come back to kill a pig for you to eat." When his wife came home from shopping, Zeng Sen wanted to catch a pig and kill it, but his wife quickly stopped him, saying, "I was just talking to my child for fun, why do you really want to kill a pig?" Zeng Sen convinced his wife, "Children can't be deceived. Children are so young and ignorant that they can only follow their parents' example and listen to their teachings. Now you don't count your words and coax the child, but you are actually teaching the child to lie. When a mother deceives her child, her son will think that his mother's words are not to be trusted, and it will not be effective to educate him in the future." So Zeng Sen ended up killing the pig.

The story of Mencius' mother, who taught her son not to be deceived, is also recorded in the "Extra Chronicles of Han Shi": When Mencius was a child, he once saw a neighbor's family killing a pig, and asked his mother, "What are they doing killing the pig for?" Meng's mother casually replied, "For you to eat." Then she regretted it and thought: she was deceiving her child with falsehoods and teaching him dishonesty. So she went and bought pork from her neighbor's house and gave it to Mencius so as not to have a bad influence on the child. Once a child tells a lie for some reason, the parents should admonish and correct him or her in order to prevent such things from happening again. Shao Bo in the Song Dynasty in the "heard after the record" has recorded the historian Sima Guang childhood a past event: when Sima Guang is only 5, 6 years old, once peeled walnuts to eat, will not peel, his sister to help him, he insisted on refusing. Later, a servant girl helped him with hot water to the walnuts after scalding, it is easy to peel the skin. When his sister came back, she saw that he had already peeled the walnuts, and asked him who had helped him peel them, to which Sima Guang replied that he had done it himself. It so happened that his father was there to witness the incident, and when he heard Sima Guang's answer, he reprimanded him sternly: "How dare you talk nonsense?" Sima Guang never dared to lie again.

④For Goodness

Goodness, in feudal society, mainly refers to what is morally right and decent. Ancient pre-school family education pays great attention to make young children develop the concept of good and evil, often educate young children in addition to filial piety at home, respect for their parents, love for their brothers and sisters, outside of all the morally sound things that benefit people should be told, due to the young children, it is not possible to make a shocking big good things, so many parents attach great importance to educating young children to do a small amount of good into a small amount of evil, accumulating a small amount of goodness into a big virtue. For example, Liu Bei in the Three Kingdoms had a legacy edict to teach the latter that: "Do not do small evils, do not do small good things." (Liu Bei: "遗诏敕后主", "全上古三代秦汉三國六朝文? All Three Kingdoms Writings.) The Qing man Zhang Cuxiang also said in his Discipline of the Son, "Goodness not accumulated is not enough to make a name for oneself; evil not accumulated is not enough to destroy one's body." Jia Yi of the Western Han Dynasty, in his New Book, also recorded a story about an ancient man who taught his son to be good: Sun Shu Ao of the Spring and Autumn Period, when he was young and playing outside, saw a two-headed snake, and cried to his mother when he returned home, "I've heard that those who see two-headed snakes are bound to die, and now that I've seen one, I'm afraid I won't live long." When his mother asked him where the snake was, he said, "I was afraid that others would see it again, so I killed it and buried it." His mother said, "You need not worry, for those who do good deeds will be protected by God." The ancients emphasized the importance of educating young children to accumulate virtues for good, and to accumulate small virtues into big virtues, which is undoubtedly very desirable.

(2) Life routine education

Feudal society, the family of pre-school children to implement life routine education, mainly including daily life in the etiquette routine training and hygiene habits.