Platon (427- 347 BC), the most famous idealist philosopher in ancient Greece, was the first person to establish a complete objective idealist philosophy system in the history of western philosophy.
Comparison between the two:
1. Attach importance to the educational function of music education in educational thought.
Confucius set up a private school, taking rites and music as the main part of his teaching content. "Confucius taught his disciples with poetry, calligraphy, ceremony and music, covering three thousand years, and there were two people in seventy" (historical records show that the six arts are: ceremony, music, shooting, imperial, calligraphy and counting. In the teaching content, music teaching is put in the second place; In the selection of teaching materials, six books, Poetry, Shu, Li, Yue, Yi and Chunqiu, are the basic teaching materials.
As the embodiment of systematic education, Confucius' educational contents include the four teachings of "Wen, Xing, Loyalty and Faith" ("Zi teaches four things: Wen, Xing, Loyalty and Faith") and The Analects of Confucius). It also includes knowledge, courage, art, righteousness, courtesy and joy. And "music" is an important subject in "literature", one of Confucius' "four religions". "Lutz asked an adult, and Confucius said,' If Zang Wuzhong's knowledge (wisdom), public desire, Bian Zhuangzi's courage, and Ran Qiu's skill, he can also become an adult. "("Xian Wen "), he thinks that people's all-round cultivation can't be without music, and those who lack musical talent are not complete, so he puts forward that" it is based on poetry, ceremony and joy "("Taber ").
Confucius said,' Take Tao as the aim, virtue as the basis, benevolence as the basis, and swim in art' (Shu II), in which' Tao' is constant,' virtue' is the foundation,' benevolence' is refuge, and' art' is a free game. The "art" that Confucius said is the "six arts". "Recreation" is not only the deficiency of the first three, but also the completion of the first three. It is through the comprehensive grasp and application of objective laws that people's freedom is realized in reality, and the all-round development and personality course of people with ambition, virtue and benevolence are completed. Associated with "entertainment" is Confucius' educational proposition of "music". Just as "wandering in art" is higher than "ambition", "virtue" and "benevolence", "success" means that the completion of personality is higher than "prospering in poetry" and "standing in ceremony", and it is to cultivate an all-round development person through the cultivation of "happiness". In Confucius' view, from the perspective of personal growth, we should also follow the principle of "poetry is flourishing, ceremony is standing, and joy is achieved". What needs to be pointed out here is that "music" in The Analects of Confucius has two different meanings: first, it means "taking ceremony as pleasure", which is related to the operation of music ("art"); Second, it refers to the happiness of music education, which is a summary of music education behavior. Confucius advocates the cultivation of musical achievements, and through the subtle influence in the process of musical aesthetics, people's spiritual realm tends to be perfect and become a "benevolent" who meets the political requirements and moral norms of Confucianism. Here, music is regarded as an important means to cultivate and shape people ("adults"). The main contents of Confucius' music education mentioned above can be summarized by 2 1, that is, the so-called: taking Tao as the purpose, relying on morality, relying on benevolence, taking art as the line, taking poetry as the prosperity, taking ceremony as the foundation and taking music as the joy. Obviously, the completion of "music" here is the last stage of his education. Prior to this, learners have never left the realization of music education in music art education on the premise of completing the study of poetry and rites and music. Therefore, it cannot be equated with general music education, which just proves that music education is taught by Confucius as a whole.
The education system is indispensable at any time.
Plato attached great importance to the important role of music education in talent training, and thought that music had a subtle influence on people's education. "Music education is much more important than other education" (Plato's National Character) advocates that music is a compulsory course for all national education, and children should learn music from an early age. He pointed out in his education plan: "As future rulers, children, whether boys or girls, must devote themselves to physical education and music learning before 17 years old and 18 years old. Music is regarded as an important compulsory subject, followed by arithmetic, geometry, astronomy and acoustics (mathematical theory of music); At the age of 30, choose the best and study.
Dialectics (or philosophy) is the science of goodness. Literature is used to introduce them to the great achievements of mankind, and music is used to reveal the true meaning of beauty and goodness in their imagination, so that their lives are "rhythmic", "melodious" and full of "harmony" like music, and their behavior is beautiful. Therefore, music education in children's stage is the most critical. A child has received a good education since childhood, and rhythm and harmony have been immersed in his heart, where he will become gentle and polite; If your education is not good, the result will be the opposite. Furthermore, a properly educated child will hate ugly things very much, appreciate beautiful things, feel their inspiration and draw nutrition from them, so that his mind can grow into a beautiful and kind person. He can unconsciously condemn anything ugly, although he is still young, but he doesn't know why. When he grows up and is rational, he will feel deja vu, because his upbringing makes him feel the same way, which is natural. Influenced by their thoughts, Sparta in ancient Greece established schools, taught them to learn cultural knowledge, sang hymns and war songs, and combined music education with religious dance and military training in order to make them strong fighters and educated "butlers".
Spartans are temperate and cultured, so "the spirit of discipline and obedience prevails in Sparta" (the Spartan city-state of Xenophon). Athens education in ancient Greece formed a relatively complete educational system to cultivate the harmonious development of body and mind. From the age of seven, boys will go to grammar school to study grammar, and study music in music school (also called piano school), mainly learning singing, musical instruments and poetry.
2. Pay attention to the social function of music moral education.
Confucius attached great importance to the social moral education function of music. "Confucius said,' What is the courtesy of being heartless? "What's the fun of being heartless?" (The Analects of Confucius, Eight Shu), from which we can see that courtesy without benevolence and the order of rank and distinction stipulated by etiquette cannot be maintained. " People are heartless. What are you happy about? "At this time, we fully realized that music has the characteristics of making peace between monarch and minister, between father and son, between brothers and between the world. In Confucius' view, "music" is the most suitable for promoting benevolent government, which can make interpersonal relationships harmonious and hierarchical relations harmonious. At the same time, in the content of music, it is required to make up for the deficiency of ceremony with benevolence, to make the content of music fit with ceremony, to advocate the use of ritual and music means, and to implement the theory with benevolence as the core. He used "music" as a means to cooperate with "ceremony", endowed "music" with the political function of governing the country and leveling the world, and put forward "ruling the country with ceremony and music" Change customs, not good at music. " The idea of "Rites are external practice and joy is internal practice" aims at regulating people's external behavior with rites and cultivating people's internal quality with joy. This thought reflects his intention to transform social atmosphere with music.
Plato attached great importance to the educational function of music. He believes that music education can make them "behave beautifully", and make people with proper education have noble souls and "the ability to keenly discover omissions or mistakes in art or nature" (Plato's protagoras). In Plato's view, excellent music can change people's mental outlook and influence people's behavior; It can promote people to form a perfect personality and develop good behavior habits. These are not only the qualities that the managers and defenders of the polis must possess, but also the "realm" that all citizens should strive to achieve. Even women should be influenced by poetry and music, but the "songs" used should be different from those used by men.
3. Evaluation criteria of music aesthetics
The evaluation standard of music aesthetics determined by Confucius-the best.
Confucius not only emphasized the ideological and educational functions of music, but also attached great importance to the artistry of music. "I heard that Shao Zaiqi, but I don't know the taste of meat in March. I said,' I don't want to be happy, but I'm so happy!' ""(The Analects of Confucius) "Shao" music is the music and dance of the Shun era, and it is a work that reflects the highest level of primitive society. The so-called "90% flute, phoenix musical instrument" (Shangshu Yiji), the style of this kind of music and dance is "wet and harmonious, like the south wind" (Music Micro-sound Musical Instrument), beautiful and lyrical, like the spring breeze. The height (perfection) of art is fascinating. The content is good (perfect). The content of this work is to praise Yao's virtue. "Confucius said:' Less' is both beautiful and good. "The Analects of Confucius Shu Er Ba Shu"), it believes that this kind of music and dance can best reflect the purpose of the close unity of the content ("virtue") and art (art form) it pursues. Confucius said, "Wu is perfect, not perfect." Wu is a musician and dancer. The content is: "Cut off the Zhou Dynasty to eliminate its harm, and its virtue can make a military success" ("Zhou Li Chun Guan Da"). The content of the work is to praise Zhou Wuwang's martial arts and show the music and dance in the process of King Wu's attacking Zhou Quan. It is a very famous martial dance with high artistic quality in ancient music and dance. He thinks that although the artistic level of music and dance is very high-beautiful, it is a fly in the ointment.
The content of the Music and Dance Department is to take the world by force, not the peaceful replacement of the world political power advocated by Yao Zanshun and Shun Ranyu, so he made an evaluation of "perfection, not perfection". Confucius believes that a good work should be a perfect combination of form and content, that is, both beauty and goodness should be paid equal attention, and the beauty of form (art) and the goodness of content should be unified. This dialectical thought established the aesthetic evaluation standard of China ancient music.
Plato thought: "We always exercise our bodies with sports and our minds with music." "Rhythm and melody have the most power to immerse themselves in the depths of the soul. If the education method is proper, it will infiltrate the soul with beauty, thus being beautified ... ""Besides paying great attention to moral and social purposes, music education must also take exploring beautiful things as its own purpose and educate people to be good "(Plato's Republic). Music, centered on attractive feelings, has an overall impact on the value of life and the charm of people.
Enrich, cultivate sentiment, improve quality, and finally promote the harmonious and good development of personality.
By comparison, we can see that there are many similarities between Confucius and Plato's musical thoughts. Both of them attach great importance to the aesthetic function and educational function of music education in their education system, and regard music education as an important content and means of educating people. They don't simply regard music as an aesthetic object, but make full use of the aesthetic characteristics of music to cultivate people's ability to appreciate beauty, feel beauty and create beauty. They all emphasize the influence of music on people's emotion and quality and its ethical enlightenment.
The music education thoughts of Confucius and Plato are two bright pearls in the treasure house of world culture. Learning, learning from and studying them is of far-reaching practical and historical significance for strengthening people's understanding of the cognitive and social functions of music education.