Confucianism in Spring and Autumn and Warring States Period Education

Confucianism is one of the important schools of thought during the Warring States period, which took Confucius as its teacher during the Spring and Autumn Period, adopted the Six Arts as its law, advocated "propriety and music" and "benevolence and righteousness", advocated "loyalty and forgiveness" and the impartiality of the "middle way", favored "virtue" and "benevolent government", and attached importance to moral and ethical education and human self-cultivation. It is a school of thought that emphasizes moral and ethical education and self-cultivation by advocating the "middle way" and advocating the "rule of virtue" and "benevolent government".

Confucianism emphasizes the function of education and believes that emphasizing education and punishment is the way to stability and prosperity for the people. It advocated that "there should be education for all" and that both the rulers and the ruled should be educated so that the whole nation would become morally upright.

Politically, it also advocated the rule of the state by rituals and the subduing of people by virtue, calling for the restoration of the "Rites of the Zhou", which it considered to be the ideal path to the realization of ideal politics. By the time of the Warring States period, there were eight schools of Confucianism, the most important of which were the schools of Mencius and Xunzi.

The founder of Confucianism was Confucius. Confucius, surnamed Kong Qiu (孔丘) and Zhongni (仲尼), was a native of Zuoyi (陬邑) in the State of Lu (魯國) at the end of the Spring and Autumn Period (春秋期). He was honored by the later generations as the "Teacher of the World". The core of his theory is "benevolence", and he advocates "loving people", which requires people to love each other and get along with each other; to realize 'benevolence', one must be tolerant of others, "Do not do what you do not want done to you, do not do what you do not want". "Do not do unto others what you would not have them do unto you". The system or code of conduct that embodies benevolence is to "restrain oneself and return to propriety". Confucius pioneered private teaching, advocating "teaching without prejudice" and "teaching according to ability", believing that everyone has the right to education regardless of wealth. At the same time, he broke the monopoly of culture and education by the aristocracy. Confucius advocated that the ruler should be sensitive to the people's feelings and cherish the people's strength, "govern with virtue", "save and love people", so that the people would have "enough to eat", the state would have "enough soldiers", and the state would have "enough soldiers", so that the people would have "enough to eat", and the state would have "enough soldiers". "He was opposed to tyranny and arbitrary punishment and killing. He was against tyranny and arbitrary punishment and killing. This kind of thinking includes the people-oriented thinking, which is also the moral and ethical concepts he advocated. He emphasized moral education, especially personal cultivation, caring for others, and restraining one's behavior by social norms.

Writings: "Spring and Autumn Annals" Confucius organized the "Poetry", "Book", "Rites", "Yi", "Music" five kinds of teaching books, together with the "Spring and Autumn Annals" was later called "Six Classics". Among them, "Music" was later lost, and the existing "Poetry", "Book", "Rites", "Yi", "Spring and Autumn" is known as the "Five Classics".

Confucianism split after Confucius, and in the middle of the Warring States period Mencius became a representative figure. Mencius was a native of Zou during the Warring States period, and was a disciple of Confucius' grandson, Zi Si, who was known as Kong Kai (孔伋), and was known as the "Sage of Asia". Mencius was a retrogressive and conservative advocate, and was regarded as an anachronism by many of the lords of his time. He advocated a "benevolent government" and further proposed that "the people are the most important thing, the gods of earth and grain come second, and the ruler is the least important thing". His ethical view was that "nature is inherently good".

Confucianism was also represented in the Warring States period by Xunzi. Xunzi's name was Fong, and he was honored as Xunqing (荀卿). In politics, he advocated "benevolence and righteousness" and "the way of the king", "to convince people by virtue", and proposed that "the ruler is the boat and the people are the water. Water carries the boat, but it also overturns the boat". Philosophically, Xunzi insisted that "Heaven has its own way of doing things" and that "Heaven's order should be made and utilized". Xunzi believes that life is born with sensory requirements, hungry to eat, cold to wear clothes, which forms the people's "good profit", "good sound and color" nature needs. However, through the study of etiquette and the rule of law, it is possible to turn a small person into a gentleman, and an ordinary person into a saint. Xunzi's claim is known as the "theory of sexual evil". Xunzi transformed Confucianism, synthesizing the positive and rational elements of Legalism and Taoism to make Confucianism more responsive to the needs of society.

Meng Zi and Xun Zi summarized and transformed Confucianism, and absorbed the positive and reasonable components of other schools of thought, making the Confucian system more complete and the thinking of Confucianism more adaptable to the needs of society. In the latter part of the Warring States period, Confucianism developed into a major school of thought among the various schools of thought!

Representative figures: Confucius, Mencius, Xunzi.

Representatives: Confucius, Mencius, Xunzi.