中国美育传统中的准“民主”经验

Quasi-democratic Experience in Chinese Aesthetic Education Tradition

从孔子、孟子到禅僧、王阳明,以心性论为思想底色的中国先哲们串联起一条有关美育的准"民主"经验的历史线索。之所以呈现出准"民主"的特点,端赖其在理论上预先设定了每一个个体本自具足趋于完善的心性亦即自我学习、发展、成长的潜能。这一设定使得社会地位本不平等的中国古人在某个理想的领域内获得了理论上的平等,从而激发起自主探索、自我认知的热情,极大地推动了人的积极发展。中国的心性论美育传统通过对个体心性之平等性的理论论证把学习者从压迫式的社会关系中解放出来,在教学实践中也能够有效激发学习者的创造性和可能性,其教育实况在很多方面已经接近现代民主教育所要求的内容,但两者仍有很大差异。唯有以现代民主教育的要求和未来人类发展的理想方向为导引,以国外的先进经验为参照,才有可能重新激活我们自己的心性论美育传统,使之与当下、未来接续流通,成为真正意义上的"活的传统"。

From Confucius and Mencius to Zen monks and Wang Yangming, Chinese philosophers with the theory of mind and nature as their ideological background have linked up a historical clue about quasi-democratic experience of aesthetic education. The reason for the quasi-democratic character is that it presupposes in theory that every individual has the potential of self-study, development and growth, which tends to be self-sufficient and perfect. This proposition enables the Chinese ancients with unequal social status to achieve theoretical equality in an ideal field, thus arousing the enthusiasm of self-exploration and self-recognition, and greatly promoting the positive development of human being. The Chinese aesthetic education tradition guided by mind-nature theory liberates learners from oppressive social relations through theoretical demonstration of the equality of individual mind and nature. In addition, it can effectively stimulate learners’ creativity and potentials in teaching practice, the content of which has more or less been achieved required by modern democratic education in many aspects, but there are still great differences between the two. Only when we are guided by the requirements of modern democratic education and the ideal direction of future human development with reference to the advanced experience of foreign countries, can we revitalize our own spiritual aesthetic education tradition, serve as a connecting link between the present and the future, and become a real “living tradition”.