Confucius' ideal is to realize a world full of love between people. To achieve world harmony, the key is to instill benevolence into the masses, so we should cultivate a large number of benevolent gentlemen who are interested in carrying forward and carrying forward benevolence. Such a person with lofty ideals should not only have the ambition of being broad-minded and benevolent, but also have the ability and integrity of being broad-minded and benevolent.

Ambition means: "Believe in learning and die well" (The Analects of Confucius Taber). "People with lofty ideals are benevolent, do not harm benevolence, and kill life into benevolence." (The Analects of Confucius Wei Linggong).

Virtue and ability refer to the virtue and ability in six aspects: wisdom, benevolence, courage, art, courtesy and happiness, that is, Confucius said: "If you hide the knowledge of Wuzhong and are not afraid of the skills of Bian Zhuangzi and Ran Qiu, you can become an adult, be elegant and happy." Because "unwilling" means "self-denial", according to "self-denial is benevolence", "unwilling" means reaching benevolence, so it can be interpreted as "benevolence". It can be seen that cultivating gentlemen or people with the above aspirations and talents is the training goal of Confucius education.

Regarding the role of education, the pre-Qin Confucianists, represented by Confucius, paid attention to the social role of education as well as the role of education in personal development. The famous exposition in The Book of Rites about "attaching importance to knowledge, honesty, integrity, self-cultivation, keeping the family in order, governing the country and leveling the world" not only explains the process and steps of Confucian university education, but also clearly shows the Confucian view on the role of education: honesty and integrity can be realized by attaching importance to knowledge (that is, establishing correct ethical concepts to avoid being influenced by various selfish and evil thoughts). On this basis, everyone actively contributes to the harmony and happiness of the family (family is the cell of society) and the prosperity and stability of the country (managing the country), which is the role of education in social development. Some scholars believe that Confucian educational thought only considers the social function of education, but ignores the development of individuals and even suppresses the development of personality. This view is unfair. In fact, Confucian educational thought attaches great importance to personal development, and "the similarity of sex is far more than learning" is the theoretical basis for Confucianism to promote personal development. However, the personal development of Confucianism is not only emphasizing "self" but ignoring the development of extreme individualism of others, but aiming at perfecting personality and being in harmony with the group. This is the difference between Confucius' educational thought and western educational thought, and it is also the greatness of Confucius' educational thought.

The object of education can be summarized by Confucius' famous saying "Education has no class" (The Analects of Confucius, Wei Linggong), that is, education can be accepted regardless of rank, China and Di Yi. At the end of the hierarchical slave society, when Di Yi was regarded as a non-native "jackal", Confucius could have such an understanding of the object of education and always took it as the school-running policy in practice, which undoubtedly showed that Confucius had great revolutionary courage and boldness.

In order to achieve the above-mentioned training objectives, Confucius identified six courses: etiquette, music, archery, bending, calligraphy and mathematics. Duke Zhou ruled the world with rites and music, and "rites" were used to maintain various human relations and moral norms; "Music" is to make students accept moral edification emotionally through music, dance, poetry and other artistic means, so ceremony and music are both internal and external, and * * * jointly complete the moral education task; "Shooting" is archery, and "Imperial" refers to the skill of driving chariots, which belongs to military skills; "Book" includes literacy and knowledge of nature, which is equivalent to modern cultural and scientific knowledge; The teaching of "number" not only refers to general mathematical knowledge, but also includes calendars for keeping track of days, months and years, and even "gossip" belongs to the teaching of number [1]. As can be seen from the Six Arts, Confucius' teaching contents include moral education, scientific and cultural education and skill training. However, these three parts are not equal, from "the disciple is filial, the younger brother is good, the sincerity is trustworthy, and the love of the public is benevolent." Learn literature if you have spare time. Judging from this important definition of benevolence, Confucius clearly emphasized "learning to be a man", that is, moral education, as the foundation or primary position. Because "music" teaching is equivalent to modern aesthetic education, military skills are equivalent to modern military sports, and scientific and cultural knowledge is intellectual education, we can say that Confucius clearly put forward that the teaching content should include four aspects: morality, intelligence, physique and beauty 2,500 years ago, and it should be based on moral education and put moral education first. This educational thought still has important practical guiding significance.

Regarding the "book" in the Six Arts, some scholars think that it only includes literacy and does not include natural science knowledge. Many people think that Confucius only talks about ethics and ignores natural science, which is completely misunderstood. In the "General History of China's Educational Thought" (Volume I) published by Professor Wang and Professor Yan Guohua in June 1994, a large number of examples about Confucius personally imparting natural science knowledge (including meteorology, astronomy, calendar, animals and plants, geography and paleontology) to his disciples were listed, and some of them also came from the information provided by cultural relics unearthed from Mawangdui Han Tomb. There are also many records of such cases in Guoyu Lu Yuxia. Therefore, it is untenable to think that Confucius values literature over reason, or only teaches ethics and morality without teaching natural science. Confucianism's contempt for natural science is the behavior of Han Confucianism and Song Confucianism, which is contrary to Confucius' educational thought. At this point, we must draw a clear line between pre-Qin Confucianism represented by Confucius and later Han Confucianism and Song Confucianism.

Regarding the implementation of teaching content (that is, the teaching process), Confucius clearly put forward that it should be divided into four stages: learning, thinking, learning and doing. The first two stages are the process of learning knowledge, and the last two stages are the process of externalizing knowledge-requiring students to apply what they have learned to practice. Confucius was the first educator who integrated the thought of combining learning with thinking and the unity of knowing and doing into the teaching process. His thoughts were inherited and developed by post-Confucianism, and in the name of Confucius, they are summarized as "erudition, doubt, thinking, understanding and faith" (the golden mean), in which erudition and doubt belong to the process of learning, while deliberation and discernment are the process of thinking. To some extent, these five stages reflect the internal relationship of the teaching process, which is the earliest theory of teaching process put forward in China and has had a great influence on ancient Chinese teaching. "[2]

With regard to teaching methods, Confucius has many brilliant creations, such as following the instructions, teaching students in accordance with their aptitude, combining learning with thinking, unifying knowledge and practice, not being angry or threatening, step by step, beating at both ends, drawing inferences from others and other effective methods, which have been passed down through the ages and still play a role in the teaching of various schools at all levels.

In the later years of Confucius, the Six Classics (Poems, Books, Rites, Music, Book of Changes, Spring and Autumn) adapted from numerous poor classics was the first complete textbook in China, and was later honored as the Six Classics by Xunzi. Except Le Ji, the other Five Classics are the most basic textbooks for official and private schools in China feudal society for more than two thousand years.

It can be seen that Confucius has made outstanding achievements in many aspects, such as training objectives, the role of education, teaching objects, teaching contents, teaching processes and teaching methods, which not only laid a solid foundation for the establishment of China's Confucian educational thought system, but also has its lofty position in the history of world education. Among them, we are particularly proud of Confucius' contribution to educational thought and theory, which is manifested in the following aspects:

The first is about moral education.

Confucius' moral education has the following two distinct characteristics:

First, pay close attention to the fundamentals of moral education. As mentioned above, moral education is put in the first place in moral, intellectual, physical and aesthetic education. Therefore, moral education itself, whether there is a foundation or not, is still a problem that has not yet attracted people's attention. "Confucius is famous for his moral education. His success lies in discovering and strengthening the' basic education' of moral education, and the' foundation' of moral education is what he calls business books." [ 1]。 "A gentleman serves learning" (The Analects of Confucius). The "foundation" here is the foundation of being a man, and the "service" is to learn to be a kind person who can "love the people" and "give to the people and help them", that is, a person who can seek benefits for the people. Mencius further developed Confucius' thought that the essence of moral education is to "teach students to be human beings", and pointed out that to be a truly moral person, one must have a perfect personality. The process of moral education is the process of shaping and perfecting personality. Mencius believes that whether there is personality is a sign to distinguish between man and beast, and without personality, it will become an animal. Therefore, cultivating personality is the fundamental task of moral education. Mencius' exposition on the connotation of personality, although some of them are not completely suitable for today's situation, has played a great role in the history of the Chinese nation. As Mr. Zhang Dainian pointed out: "All progressive thinkers, writers, politicians and artists are influenced by this personality standard" [4]. Taking the perfection of personality as the goal of life and the cultivation of ideal personality as the fundamental task of moral education-this brilliant thought of Confucius and Mencius is not only of great practical significance, but also can be said to be "to the point" for the current educational situation in China.

The second is to attach importance to methods and approaches. Confucius' moral education not only pays attention to the root cause, that is, it has a clear goal of moral education-cultivating ideal personality, but also gives concrete ways and methods to achieve this goal. As mentioned above, the highest goal of Confucius' moral education is to cultivate people who have the greatest kindness and can "love the masses" and "give to others and help them", that is, people who can seek welfare for the people. Only such a person can achieve "wealth can't be lewd, poverty can't be moved, and power can't be bent", so this is the most ideal and perfect person. However, such a lofty goal cannot be achieved overnight, only in one step. There should be appropriate ways and means to gradually improve the shaping of personality and achieve the ultimate goal. "From the near to the far, pushing yourself and others" is the best way to achieve this goal. The specific implementation steps are: filial piety, filial piety, loyalty and faithfulness, that is, to cultivate a kind heart from the people closest to you (this is the easiest thing to do, and it is also the minimum requirement of moral education), and then it will be gradually developed in vertical and horizontal directions: vertical development means that on the basis of filial piety to parents, it is necessary to further enhance the respect and love for elders, superiors and even national leaders; Be loyal to your country. This means that at the critical moment of national peril, we should be brave enough to die for our country; But in peacetime, we should be loyal to our duties, our own cause, the interests of the country and the people. Push down, you need to be "good" to your child (a good father can make your son filial), and care, love and help your subordinates like a child. Horizontal expansion is to push further to the left and right on the basis of brotherhood, that is, to be friendly to peers and sincere and trustworthy to friends. This is the requirement of filial piety, filial piety, loyalty and faithfulness (that is, the requirement of "cultivating benevolence" at different levels). When these steps are accomplished, we should further demand the moral cultivation of "caring for others" (that is, the cultivation of loyalty and forgiveness of "don't do to others what you don't want others to do to you" and "stand up for others and reach out if you want"). In this way, it is not difficult to further expand the heart of love to the whole society on the basis of the above, and achieve the requirement of "universal love". It can be seen that Confucius' methods and ways to implement moral education are very clear: the method is "from near to far, pushing oneself and others", and the specific ways and steps are shown in the following figure:

The practice of "from near to far, pushing oneself and others"

As can be seen from the picture, "filial piety" is the center and starting point of Confucius' morality, and loving the masses is its ultimate goal and destination. Obviously, such moral education methods and approaches have strong operability because of their clear steps, and each step is carried out in the order from near to far, from near to sparse, which not only embodies the principle of easy before difficult, but also makes people feel reasonable, in line with human nature and willing to do so. Therefore, it is convenient for students (especially primary school students) to practice, and it will not make people feel blunt "preaching" or "indoctrination".

On the other hand, how have we carried out moral education for primary and secondary school students for many years? Before the Cultural Revolution, the fifties and sixties talked about "five loves"-love for the motherland, love for the people, love for the collective, love for labor and love for public property. After the reform and opening up, it was "five stresses, four beauties and three loves". These moral education goals are correct and concrete, but the results are not great. Why? Every love in the "five loves" is very important and is the foundation and center of moral education. As a result, polycentricity equals no center. In addition, there are no specific ways and methods that primary and secondary school students can put into practice, so these correct moral goals just become beautiful slogans, which are difficult to implement in people's actions. "Five stresses, four beauties and three emotions" have similar disadvantages. This situation has not attracted the attention of education leaders for a long time. Coupled with the role of the baton in the college entrance examination, the phenomenon of paying attention to intellectual education while ignoring moral education is becoming more and more serious, and these problems in moral education are even more neglected.

The second is about educational psychology.

Educators do not attach importance to psychological research, and psychologists do not attach importance to educational practice-this is a quite common phenomenon in the field of educational psychology in China, and even becomes a prejudice. However, at the end of the Spring and Autumn Period, 2,500 years ago, when there was no science of psychology and people didn't know about psychological phenomena, Confucius was able to keenly observe people's psychological activities in the learning process, make a profound analysis of these psychological activities, and then use them flexibly in the teaching process, and achieved good results. Confucius' contribution to educational psychology is unique not only among ancient educators in China, but also among ancient educators in the world.

Below we only list a few main aspects, showing the depth of Confucius' educational psychology:

On the motivation of learning-"Nine times out of ten, I am determined to learn" (The Analects of Confucius for Politics) shows that Confucius realized that learning needs to be determined first, that is, to solve the motivation problem first, so that learning can have internal motivation and not give up halfway.

On Three Different Psychological Realms of Learning —— "Knowing is not as good as being kind, and being kind is not as good as being happy." The Analects of Confucius shows that Confucius has realized that the internal driving force of learning is not only related to motivation, but also to will and emotion, and according to the internal driving force, the psychological realm of learning is divided into three levels: wanting to learn, being eager to learn and being happy to learn. Among them, "music learning" is the highest level and can produce the greatest internal driving force. This discovery of Confucius is a great contribution to educational psychology.

Analysis of two key psychological states in the process of problem solving-"Don't be angry and bully yourself" (The Analects of Confucius) Confucius found that "anger" and "frustration" are two psychological states that students will inevitably appear when they encounter problems in the learning process (this problem will be analyzed in detail in the next section), and pointed out that the moment when students are in these two states is the best time for teachers to carry out heuristic teaching.

The relationship between innate talent and acquired efforts-"similar in nature, far different in habits." (The Analects of Confucius Yang Huo) Confucius pointed out that everyone's innate endowment is very similar, but everyone's habits (habits and personality) are very different, because everyone's learning results are very different. This sentence is tantamount to declaring that education not only plays a key role in cultivating people's knowledge and ability, but also plays a vital role in people's psychological development.

Teaching psychological characteristics that vary from person to person-Confucius pointed out that people's intelligence is divided into wisdom, stupidity and mediocrity, people's personality is different from that of Lu, people's psychological state is different from that of courage and retreat, and everyone's talents have different development trends (for example, some are suitable for literature, some are suitable for politics, some are suitable for military affairs, and some are suitable for businessmen).