东方文化关于“儿童是谁”的历史先声——《老子》儿童观探析

The First Historical Voice of Who the Child Was in Eastern Culture: An Analysis on Viewpoints on Children from Tao Teh King

传统文化之所以能够历久弥新,是因为其内涵的博大精深与外延的普适致用。先秦道家代表作《老子》对儿童的天性、德性、形态、潜质、发展及其途径等均有独到的立论,可谓我国早期文明创建儿童观的历史先声。在《老子》看来,儿童乃天赋自然之人,其天性不仅体现为身体的柔弱性,而且体现为天赋的生命力及其思虑无邪和机敏聪慧。儿童因合于自然性而天然地具备德性,成人应向儿童学习",常德不离,复归于婴儿"。对儿童来说,其日后的发展即是保全自然性、不损德性,成人应遵循"生而不有,为而不恃,长而不宰"的原则,实施顺乎儿童本性的知识教导方式和"抱一为式"的榜样教育。探究先秦原始道家关于"儿童是谁"的观点,不仅可以对中华文明早期的儿童观进行溯本清源,进而以正视听,而且可以与长期以来占主导地位的儒家乃至西方的儿童观参照互补,为我国学前教育提供诸多理论与实践的启发。

The Taoist scholars in pre-Qin Dynasty initially put forward systemic and independent viewpoints on children, which covered many aspects of children such as nature, virtue, morphology, potential, activity, and its development approach, etc. This may be called the first historical voice of ＂viewpoints on children＂ proposed from our nation＇s early civilization. The benefits from the discussion on the Taoist scholars＇ viewpoints on children are as followed. First, it is to date back to the early time of Chinese civilization for the root of viewpoints on children; second, it is complementary to the dominating Confucian viewpoints and even the western ones on children; finally, it is to give us lots of enlightenment on the theory and practice of children＇ s education.