中国古代大学的原初理念及其对社会发展的作用

The Original Ideas of Ancient Chinese Universities and Its Impact on Social Development

通过考察中国古代大学的原初理念和中国传统大学教育的体制基础,并与西方大学对比可以看到,西方大学缘起于形而上层面的宗教神学,而中国大学缘起于世俗层面的经世致用;西方古代大学的理念集中表现为对精神信仰的支持和延续,而中国古代大学的理念则集中表现为对社会政治伦理结构的支撑和维护。中国古代大学,无论是官学还是私学,对中国以政治伦理为核心的社会文化结构的维护和完善发挥了重要作用,但在促进社会文明的同时,其所形成的积弊和劣根性也在中国现代化进程中成为主要的障碍和阻力。

By analyzing the original ideas of ancient Chinese universities and the institutional basis of Chinese traditional universities education, and comparing with the-western universities, it is found out that the western universities resulted from the metaphysical theology of religions, while Chinese universities resulted from secular practical statecraft. The ideas of western ancient universities focused on the support and continuity on spiritual belief, while the ancient Chinese universities focused on the support and assistance on the social politics and ethnic structure. The Chinese ancient universities, no matter the government or the private, has played an important role on the maintenance and improvement on the structure of social culture with political ethnics as the core. However, when the Chinese universities has promoted the development of social civilization, the abuse and deep-rooted bad habits have become the main obstacle and resistance in the course of modernization of China.