《中庸》诚论思想中的教育伦理诉求及当代启示

On the Ethics Education Appeal in the Theory of “Cheng” in Zhong Yong and Its Contemporary Enlightenments

《中庸》是儒家的修炼法门和传授心法。相对于探求道德本体,它更强调以诚立德、以诚立人的教育实践意义,其中包含着丰富的教育伦理思想。《中庸》构建了一个围绕"诚"而展开的教育伦理思想体系:首先,《中庸》关注人,人是《中庸》的依归,《中庸》言诚是为探寻成人之路;其次,《中庸》在构建一个教育伦理体系,诚是其基础;再次,《中庸》探求道德完成的理想途径,提出自明而诚和自诚而明的不同修养路径。如今重读《中庸》中的诚论思想具有重要意义,它提醒我们大学德育应以人为本,以诚为本,采用自诚明与自明诚内外兼修的道德修养方式。

The Zhong Yong(中庸,The Doctrine of the Mean) advocates that following the Dao(道,way) of dealing with all things to an extent that is just right, not going too far or falling short, is an approach to uniting the practice and teaching method of the Confucianist. It attaches great importance to this perfection, described as the 'Cheng(诚,sincerity,realness)' in the Zhong Yong. It can be said that the Cheng is the most abstruse and profound in the Zhong Yong. Rather than exploring moral ontology, the Zhong Yong places greater emphasis on the educational significance of establishing ethics and bringing other people to perfection through the Cheng. With much space for repeated arguments for perfecting the self, others, and things with the Cheng, the Zhong Yong releases a strong appeal for educational ethics, and connotes a wealth of education ethics thought. The Zhong Yong says that the quality of Chengdoes not simply consist in perfecting oneself. It is whereby one perfects all other things. The purpose of advocating the Cheng is to spread a concept of educational ethics, and centering on it build an system of education ethics. Firstly, people is the goal as well as the starting point of the Zhong Yong, in which the advocating of the Cheng is to search for a foundation for the education ethics from the perspective of human nature; At the same time, it also pays attention to how to shape and perfect people from the perspective of human nature. The Zhong Yong advocates that the Cheng is the key to the cultivation of the Dao in oneself, and to elucidate the Cheng is to look for a moral shaping theory. Secondly, building the Confucian education ethical system with the Cheng as the fulcrum is the mission of the Zhong Yong. The Zhong Yong, successfully proves that the Cheng is the fulcrum of teaching and cultivating in oneself the Way, thus completing the foundation for Confucian education ethical system.By revealing the intrinsic logic among the 'destiny', 'the human nature',the Dao, the Zhong and the Yong(中庸,being no more or less than perfection), and the Cheng, the Zhong Yong establishes the legitimacy and the logic of the Cheng, which has been seen as the foundation for self-cultivation. At last, the Zhong Yong searches for the ideal way for moral perfection and proposes two ways to self-cultivation, that is from the Ming(明,enlightenment)to the Cheng or from the opposite direction. The former way concerns the moral cultivation from within, which is an advanced and active training mode, and requires a certain of innate foundation, so not everyone can master; The latter, a moral cultivation from without(i.e.,assisted by others), is considered a low-level and passive way of selfcultivation, applies to the general public. Nowadays, we are faced with a lot of social dilemmas, such as the moral landslide, the loss of honesty and so on. While we manage the society with legal and administrative means, we should consider how to rectify students, especially college students, through moral education before they enter the society-- honesty should be carved in their minds. So re-reading the theory of the Cheng of the Zhong Yong can bring a great deal of valuable enlightenment. Firstly, a striking feature of the Zhong Yong is to emphasize and focus on people. It claims that morality should be not far from people, which reminds us that university moral education should be people-oriented, based on human nature, and cares for students' moral needs. The so-called focusing on people's moral requirements is focusing on actual life and complex society. At the same time, university moral education should first focus on how to be a real man and to meet the most basic needs of life in order to cultivate students to be qualified citizens. Secondly, honesty is foundation of the human relations, the starting point of various walks of life, so the university moral education should take honest as this and start from it. Regarding this point it can be approached from two aspects: on the one hand, the university moral education should be based on honesty, for example, university moral education should be dealt with in various course. Moral education can be combined with every courses, foundational or specialized ones, by all the teachers of those courses. As for moral evaluation of college students, it cannot be evaluated with written test as usual, it should be conducted in the formative assessment program. In addition, assessment results should be linked to social integrity system, and the four years of moral evaluation can be recorded online. On the other hand, the university moral education should adopt approaches to moral cultivation with the way from the Cheng to the Ming and the way from the Ming to the Cheng both included,because the university moral education is an internal and external mechanism as well as individual moral construction.