Yan Yuan

1. Yan Yuan (1635-1704), also known as Yi Zhi and Huran, also named Xizhai, was directly under the jurisdiction of Beiyang Village, Boye County in the Qing Dynasty (today's Belongs to Hebei Province) people. Materialist thinker and educator.

He became enlightened at the age of 8 and studied under Wu Chiming. Wu is capable of riding, shooting, sword, and halberd. He is good at fighting and observing tactics. He is proficient in medical skills and has great skills in medicine. Therefore, the education Yan Yuan received since childhood was different. At the age of 19, he studied under Jia Zhen again. Jia advocated taking "practical" as the criterion of life and advocated "telling the truth and doing practical things", which had a great influence on Yan Yuan's later "practical learning" thoughts. In the same year, he became a scholar, but soon "abandoned his career". 20 years old, "studying astronomical phenomena, geography and military strategy". 21 years old, "reading "Tongjian", forgetting to sleep and eat." 22 years old, studying medicine. At the age of 23, he "learned the art of war, studied tactics of battle and defense, and stayed up all night", and also learned martial arts. Such extensive involvement laid the foundation for his innovation in educational thought.

Yan Yuan’s academic thoughts went through a process of change and development. At the age of 24, he "fell deeply in love with Lu and Wang and copied a volume of "Essentials" by hand." At the age of 26, he began to understand the purpose of Cheng-Zhu Neo-Confucianism. At the age of 34, "Due to the Six Virtues, Six Elements, and Six Arts of Zhou Gong and the Four Teachings of Confucius, Zhengxue; sitting quietly and reading, King Cheng Zhu was immersed in Zen and secular studies. Fornication is not a proper thing to do." (1 From then on, he advocated the restoration of the Tao of Yao, Shun, Zhou and Confucius, and violently criticized the doctrines of Cheng, Zhu, and Lu. He changed from a firm believer in Neo-Confucianism to an outstanding representative of critical Neo-Confucianism, and his academic thoughts underwent a fundamental change.

Yan Yuan devoted his life to Educational activities. At the age of 62, he was appointed by Hao Gonghan to preside over the Zhangnan Academy in Feixiang. He personally planned the scale of the academy and formulated the school's purpose of "preferring to be rough and practical, not arrogant and false", which reflected his Yan Yuan trained many students throughout his life, among whom there are records of more than 100 students. Li Gong (1650-1733), named Gangzhu, nicknamed Shugu, inherited and developed Yan Yuan's teachings. , formed a relatively famous school at that time, which was later known as the "Yan-Li School"

Yan Yuan's works were originally collected in the "Jifu Series" and "Yan-Li Series", and are now edited. There are two volumes of "Yan Yuan Ji", one and two volumes, among which the main educational works include "A General Introduction to Confucian Lectures", "Books of Mr. Lu Juanting in Shangtaicang", "Xingli Commentary", "Zhangnan Academy Notes", etc.

Yan Yuan

Yan Yuan was an outstanding educator in the late Ming and early Qing dynasties. He profoundly criticized Cheng-Zhu Neo-Confucianism's book-based education that was divorced from reality, and tried his best to advocate "practical learning" and "practical" education. . His educational thoughts played an innovative role in the development of modern education in China. Therefore, Yan Yuan’s educational thoughts play an important role in the history of Chinese education.

1. Life and main educational activities<. /p>

[Edit this paragraph]

Yan Yuan (1635-1704), also named Yizhi and Hunran, named Xizhai, was directly under the jurisdiction of Beiyang Village, Bo County (now part of Hebei Province) ) man.

He became enlightened at the age of 8 and learned from Wu Chiming. Wu was good at riding, shooting, sword and halberd. His education was different. At the age of 19, he studied under Jia Zhen. Jia advocated "telling the truth and doing practical things" as the criterion of life, which had a great influence on Yan Yuan's later "practical learning" thought. In the same year, he became a scholar, but soon "abandoned his career". At the age of 20, he "studied astronomical phenomena, geography and military strategy". At the age of 21, he "forgot to sleep and eat". At the age of 23, he studied medicine. "Learning the art of war, studying tactics, staying up all night," and also learning martial arts laid the foundation for his innovation in educational thought.

Yan Yuan has a certain academic thought. The process of change and development. At the age of 24, he "loved Lu and Wang deeply and copied a volume of "Yao Yu" by hand." , Six Arts, the four teachings of Confucius, orthodox learning; sitting quietly and reading, King Cheng Zhu was immersed in Zen and secular studies, and it was not a serious business." (1) From then on, he advocated the restoration of the ways of Yao, Shun, Zhou and Confucius, and fiercely criticized King Cheng, Zhu and Lu Yan Yuan has been engaged in educational activities throughout his life.

At the age of 62, he was appointed by Hao Gongxin to preside over Zhangnan Academy in Feixiang. He personally planned the scale of the academy and formulated the school's purpose of "preferring to be rough and practical, not vain and false", which reflected his educational ideas in a concentrated way. Yan Yuan trained many students throughout his life, more than 100 of whom have records. Li Gong (1650-1733), a student with the courtesy name Gangzhu and Shugu, inherited and developed Yan Yuan's teachings and formed a relatively famous school at that time, which was later known as the "Yan-Li School".

Yan Yuan’s works were originally collected in the Jifu Series and the Yanli Series. Today, there are two volumes of Yan Yuan Collection, one and two volumes, among which the main educational works are General Introduction. Lectures by Confucians", "Books of Mr. Lu Jueting in Taicang", "Xingli Commentary", "Notes of Zhangnan Academy", etc.

2. Main educational ideas

[Edit this paragraph]

(1) Criticism of traditional education

Criticizing traditional education, In particular, the criticism of Neo-Confucianism education in Song and Ming dynasties was a prominent feature of the trend of practical education, and Yan Yuan was an important representative of this trend of thought. His criticism mainly has three aspects.

1. Expose the shortcomings of traditional education that are seriously divorced from reality

Yan Yuan pointed out that one of the most prominent shortcomings of traditional education is that it is divorced from reality and mistakes reading and studying for exegesis or casual conversation. , or Buddhism and Laoism, and Cheng-Zhu Neo-Confucianism is both, so its disconnection from reality is even more serious. The people trained by traditional education can neither carry out the holy path nor save the world and the people. Therefore, he believes that this kind of education "is harmful to the heart if it is centered on the heart, harms the body if it is centered on the body, and harms the family and country if it is centered on the family." He pointed out: "It is the learning of the Song people who mislead talents and ruin the world." (2) This shows his deep hatred for traditional education, especially Cheng-Zhu Neo-Confucianism education, which is seriously out of touch with reality.

2. Criticize the opposition between justice and benefit in traditional education

Another shortcoming of traditional education is that in terms of ethics and moral education, "righteousness" and "benefit" and "reason" are ” is in opposition to “desire”. In response to this prejudice, Yan Yuan inherited and developed the thoughts of the Southern Song Dynasty's meritorious school, and clearly put forward the proposition of "correcting one's friendship (righteousness) to seek benefits, and clarifying one's ways and calculating one's merits." He believes that "profit" and "righteousness" are not absolutely opposite, but can be unified. Among them, "profit" is the basis of "righteousness", and the purpose of "righteousness" and "clear way" is to "seek wisdom". "profit" and "accounting for merit". At the same time, "profit" cannot be separated from "righteousness", and "profit" must conform to "righteousness". Yan Yuan's thought broke through the constraints of tradition and made ancient China's understanding of justice and interests almost scientific.

Criticizing the stereotyped writing system for recruiting scholars

Yan Yuan profoundly exposed the harm of the stereotyped writing system for recruiting scholars to school education and fiercely criticized the stereotyped writing system for recruiting scholars. He believes that schools are a legitimate way to cultivate talents, but the traditional imperial examination system, which selects scholars based on historical essays (eight-legged essay), uses eight-part essays instead of practical learning. It not only fails to select real talents, but will lead scholars astray and waste talents. . Therefore, he pointed out: "The world is full of eight-legged writing, so what is the use of it! Therefore, the eight-legged writing is practiced but there is no scholarship in the world. Without scholarship, there is no political affairs. Without political affairs, there is no political merit. Without political merit, there is no peace. Therefore, the harm of the stereotyped writing is even greater than Burning pit". (3) The fierce attitude against the eight-part essay system for recruiting scholars is vividly reflected on the paper.

It is true that Yan Yuan criticized traditional education in the name of the ancients, which is the so-called "one must break through Cheng and Zhu before entering into Kong and Meng." However, under the social conditions at that time, "I dare not speak out what is not the teachings of Zhu Xi, and I dare not practice what is not the etiquette of Zhu Xi's family". He was not afraid of "risking his life and death" and dared to criticize traditional education fiercely, especially focusing his criticism on Cheng Zhu Neo-Confucianism, this is a fearless and brave spirit. This caused a huge shock in the ideological circles at that time. Liang Qichao said that Yan Yuan was a big bomb in the ideological world at that time, which is quite insightful.

(2) Schools are the "foundation of talents"

Yan Yuan attaches great importance to the important role of talents in governing the country, pointing out: "Talents are the foundation of politics", " Without talents, there will be no political affairs, and without political affairs, there will be no peace and no people's destiny." (4) Treat talents as the foundation for governing the country and bringing peace to the people. Therefore, in his policy of "Nine Characters to Safeguard the World", he ranked "promoting talents" as the first priority.

He said: "If Heaven does not abolish it, it will enrich the world with seven words: to cultivate wasteland, equalize fields, and promote water conservancy; to strengthen the world with six words: everyone is a soldier, and all officials are generals; to make the world peaceful with nine words: to promote talents, to uphold the classics, and to prosper Ritual and music." (5)

Yan Yuan not only valued talents, but also further pointed out that talents mainly rely on school education. In his view, "The court is the foundation of politics; schools are the foundation of talents. Talents have no political affairs." (6) "Talents are the foundation of politics, and schools are especially the foundation of talents." (7) Therefore, from the perspective of talents, Yan Yuan's above opinion is indeed reasonable, and it correctly reveals It highlights the relationship between schools, talents, and governance, and highlights the important position of school education. It is of great significance for us to correctly understand the strategic position of education in the cause of socialist modernization.

Yan Yuan also has specific opinions on the training goals of school education. He believes that if “all the schools in the world are filled with talented and virtuous people, then all the people in the imperial court will be economic ministers.” If “all the schools in the world are filled with talented and virtuous people, then all the people in the imperial court will be mediocre. minister". (8) It can be seen that he advocated that schools should cultivate "people with real talents and virtues", that is, talents with noble moral character and real talents and practical knowledge. Although the purpose of Yan Yuan's proposition is to maintain feudal rule, that is, he said that "all the people in the imperial court are economic ministers" and can "assist the king in governing and support the world", this is the limitation of Yan Yuan's thought . However, he attaches great importance to the important role of talents in governing the country and emphasizes that talents mainly rely on school education. These are all correct. At the same time, the goal of cultivating "people with real talent and virtue" he proposed has obviously broken through the shackles of Neo-Confucian education and has a distinct characteristic of being practical and practical, reflecting the new requirements for talents from the emerging citizen class who are demanding the development of social production. , was undoubtedly progressive at the time.

(3) The educational content of “careful learning” and “practical learning”

Yan Yuan’s ideas on educational content are anti-traditional, anti-dogmatic, anti-Confucianism and divorced from reality. The fighting stance of education in books and texts appears. Therefore, in order to cultivate "people with real talents and virtues", Yan Yuan put forward the proposition of "true learning" and "practical learning" in terms of educational content. Its characteristic is that it values ??"real" and despises "virtual". It is in tit-for-tat opposition to traditional education, especially Cheng-Zhu Neo-Confucianism. Useless generation. Yan Yuan believed that the scholarship in the Yao, Shun, Zhou and Confucius eras was "true learning" and "practical learning", so he vigorously advocated the "six mansions", "three things" and "three things" at that time. The "six mansions" and "three things" mentioned here are "water, fire, metal, wood, earth, grain" and "zhengde, utilization, and welfare" mentioned in "Shangshu Dayu Mo"; "three things" "That is, the "Six Virtues" (knowledge, benevolence, saintliness, righteousness, loyalty, and harmony), the "Six Elements" (filial piety, friendship, harmony, marriage, responsibility, and compassion), and the "Six Arts" mentioned in "The Rites of Zhou·Diguan" "(Rites, Music, Shooting, Yu, Shu, Numbers). In Yan Yuan’s view, “three things” and “three things” have the same name but the same reality. Among the "three things". Taking the "Six Arts" as the foundation, the "Six Virtues" and the "Six Elements" are the functions and manifestations of the "Six Arts" respectively. Therefore, Yan Yuan advocated "six mansions", "three things" and "three things". Its core is to emphasize the "six arts" education.

Yan Yuan’s pretext for emphasizing the “six arts” in the classics is not really to return to the era of Yao, Shun, Zhou and Confucius, but to rely on ancient reforms to “seek liberation through restoration”. In the “six arts” of ancient saints and sages, Under the banner of education, we promote our own ideas. In his later years, he planned Zhangnan Academy, furnished six studios, and stipulated the specific educational content of each studio. This was the clearest and most powerful explanation of his "true learning" and "practical learning" content. The educational contents of the six classes and each class of Zhangnan Academy are:

Wenshi Zhai: lessons on etiquette, music, calligraphy, mathematics, astronomy, geography and other subjects;

Wubei Zhai: lessons The art of war of the Yellow Emperor, Taigong, Sun and Wu, as well as offensive and defensive, camp formation, land and water warfare, archery, martial arts and other subjects;

Jingshizhai: lessons on "Thirteen Classics", history of dynasties, Subjects such as imperial edicts, chapter memorials, poetry and prose;

Yi Neng Zhai: lessons on water science, fire science, engineering, elephants and mathematics, etc.;

Neo-Confucianism Zhai: lessons on meditation, compilation , Cheng, Zhu, Lu, Wang Zhixue;

Tie Kuozhai: Lesson Eight-part Gu Jiye.

The reason why Zhangnan Academy has temporarily established "Neo-Confucianism Studio" and "Tiekuo Studio" is just to "adjust the time" and "to prepare for the correct practice", these two studios will be closed. Therefore, Yan Yuan’s educational content of “real learning” and “practical learning” is not only fundamentally different from Confucianism education, but also greatly surpasses the “Six Arts” education in both breadth and depth. In addition to knowledge such as classics, history, rituals and music, it also formally included many categories of natural science and technology knowledge, various military knowledge and skills into the teaching content, and implemented teaching by subject. This was indeed unique at the time and already contained the inspiration for modern curriculum settings. The germination has pushed ancient Chinese theories on educational content to a new stage of development. This is Yan Yuan's important contribution to ancient Chinese educational theories and deserves people's attention.

(4) "Practice" teaching method

Emphasis on the "Practice" teaching method, which is the most basic and important teaching method after Yan Yuan's academic thought change. proposition. When he was 35 years old, he "felt that thinking was not as good as studying, and learning must be done through practice", so he changed the name of his private school from "Si Gu Zhai" to "Xi Zhai".

Yan Yuan believes that in order to obtain truly useful knowledge, one must go through one's own "practice", "practice it and practice it", and seek objective practical things. Therefore, what he calls the "Xixing" teaching method emphasizes the need to connect with reality in the teaching process, and to persist in practice and practice. Only in this way can the knowledge learned be truly useful. Otherwise, it will not be consistent with one's own practice. Combined knowledge is useless.

Yan Yuan attaches great importance to the "practice" teaching method. On the one hand, it is closely related to his simple materialist epistemology. He advocates "seeing the truth in things, and knowing by doing" and believes that "reason" exists objectively. Among things, only by contacting them and practicing them can we obtain truly useful knowledge. On the other hand, the direct reason why he attaches great importance to the "Xixing" teaching method is to oppose the teaching method of Confucianists who sit quietly, read and talk about the nature of mind. In his opinion, "gaining insights and opinions from sitting quietly and giving lectures" is, first, because it is divorced from reality and cannot solve practical problems; second, sitting in the study all day long affects health. In order to change the teaching method of Neo-Confucianists who focus entirely on reading and speaking, Yan Yuan strongly advocated the "practice" teaching method.

However, it should be pointed out that Yan Yuan’s emphasis on “practice” does not exclude learning book knowledge through reading and lectures. He believes that what is recorded in books "is originally a collection of poor principles and ways of doing things. How can we not read them at all?" Therefore, acquiring knowledge through reading is "one of the things that leads to knowledge." However, "learning is all about reading" and "learning only for the sake of it", and the more books you read, the less you will lack the ability to actually do things. Similarly, speaking cannot be abolished, but it cannot be empty talk without being divorced from reality. Therefore, he advocated that reading and speaking must be combined with "practice", and more efforts and energy should be put into "practice".

Although Yan Yuan's "practice" refers to personal actions, it ignores the guiding role of "knowledge" in "action" and underestimates the importance of theoretical thinking. Therefore, it has no social practice. significance. However, he emphasized contact with reality, attached great importance to practice, and gained knowledge from personal practice. This can be said to be the last movement of fraternal liberation in the development of ancient Chinese teaching methods. It can be said to be a major innovation in the theory and practice of teaching methods. This was undoubtedly a breath of fresh air, refreshing and progressive in the "literary and ink world" where reading was regarded as a theoretical endeavor and speaking and writing as a theoretical career, which was divorced from reality.

(5) Labor education thought

Paying attention to the teaching of agricultural knowledge and the role of labor in cultivating talents is another important feature of Yan Yuan's educational thought.

Yan Yuan has lived in rural areas for a long time and personally participated in agricultural production and labor. Although he later engaged in education and academic research activities, he never left labor. Famous educators like him who never left agricultural production and labor throughout their lives are rare in the history of ancient Chinese education.

Precisely because he himself participated in agricultural production labor for a long time throughout his life, he was able to break through the traditional ideological constraints of Confucianism that despised agricultural production labor since Confucius, and had a new understanding of labor. Not only did he believe that everyone We should work, and we should also pay attention to labor education for students. This kind of labor education thought is mainly reflected in the following two aspects.

Attach importance to traditional agricultural knowledge. Yan Yuan has always placed teaching agricultural knowledge to students at an important position in his educational activities. He once said: "To practice etiquette, music, military, agriculture, mind, life, life, and work together is the correct learning." (10) In the "Xi Zhai Dogma" formulated by himself, it is stipulated that "everyone who is my disciple should be determined to Learn etiquette, music, archery, imperial education, calligraphy, mathematics, military affairs, agriculture, money, grain, water, fire, engineering, and Yu." (11)

Pay attention to the role of labor in cultivating talents. Yan Yuan believes that labor can not only promote economic development and contribute to the prosperity of the country and society, but also has an educational effect on people. First of all, labor has the significance of moral education. It not only enables people to "rectify their minds" and "cultivate their moral character" and get rid of evil thoughts, but also makes people diligent and overcome laziness and fatigue. Secondly, labor also has sports significance. Labor can strengthen the body and is an important way to maintain good health.

It needs to be pointed out that although Yan Yuan attached great importance to labor education for students, his thoughts still did not go beyond the barrier of governing people by those who work hard, and governing people by those who work hard. This is the core of Yan Yuan's educational thought. The negative side is the limitations of history and class that he cannot overcome.

3. Brief introduction

[Edit this paragraph]

With his fearless fighting spirit, Yan Yuan profoundly exposed and violently criticized traditional education, especially Chengdu education. Zhu taught Neo-Confucianism and created an educational theoretical system characterized by "practical learning" in his criticism. He advocated that schools are the "roots of talents" and must cultivate "people with real talents and virtues." He proposed that "real learning" and "practical learning" including many categories of natural science and technology knowledge, various military knowledge and skills should be taught, emphasizing contact. In fact, the "practice" teaching method of acquiring knowledge from practice and the emphasis on labor education for students were unique and brilliant at the time. These insights of Yan Yuan also had a certain impact on the emergence and development of modern education in China. Therefore, Yan Yuan made a glorious contribution in the history of ancient Chinese education.

2. Yan Yuan (1860-1934), whose courtesy name was Chunsheng and whose late name was Semi-Deaf layman. A native of Suzhou, Jiangsu. The father of oil painting master Yan Wenliang. In his early years, his teacher Ren Bonian copied dozens of his paintings. Get its essence. Good at painting figures and Buddha statues.