1. Qin Shihuang
Positive evaluation
When Qin Shihuang was in power, he annexed the six countries and sent troops to conquer the north and south. History records that "the land of Baiyue" , everyone bowed their heads", "expanded thousands of miles to the north", "King Qin swept Liuhe". Looking at the map of the Warring States Period, the territory was almost twice as large as the control area of ??the Seven Heroes of the Warring States Period. Moreover, Qin Shihuang "set up prefectures and counties" and focused on governance and system construction in the conquered land, unlike other conquerors of the same period, such as Alexander of Macedonia or Caesar of Rome, who only emphasized conquest and not system construction; therefore, The unified land rule was stable, which laid the foundation for China's current territory. Later generations believe that "nothing has done more than Emperor Qin and Emperor Wu of Han". It means that Qin Shihuang ranked before Emperor Wu of Han in terms of achievements, and was unparalleled in history.
The Qin State has attached great importance to governing the country by law since Shang Yang's reform. Qin Shihuang inherited this tradition and highly respected the Legalist figure Han Fei. He once lamented to himself, "If you travel with him, you will have no hatred." The generals will be rewarded for their merits and punished for their crimes in accordance with the law. Although Qin Shihuang was authoritarian and believed that "I am the world," the Qin generation still governed the country according to law. The reason for Chen Sheng and Wu Guang's uprising was also that "Qin's laws were harsh". Their crimes were punishable by death and they had no choice but to rebel. This was because the law forced the people to rebel. It was not because of serious corruption that the officials forced the people to rebel, as in later generations, when "the wealthy families smelled of wine and meat, and the roads were frozen to death." Later Confucianism advocated the rule of man, and the rule of the country was not based on the law, but was decided by the monarch's words. However, today's rule of man, the trend of flattery still exists.
Qin Shihuang pioneered the post station system and built post roads. It laid the technical foundation for the communication of government orders in the huge empire and the resulting imperial state with a system of counties and counties. "Building post roads and setting up counties and counties" is a necessary condition for China to adopt an advanced system of counties and counties instead of a feudal system similar to the West. At the same time, Rome could not effectively control the occupied areas and could only set up governors with great power (the governors held the military and political power of a place, they were all nobles, and the grassroots organizations relied on the original local organizations). It was still similar to the feudal system. This is A very important reason why the Roman Empire later split. The county system is a civilian system, and its military and political leaders are appointed by the emperor. Military merit can be promoted or demoted based on political performance, and they can be transferred equally. This has led to the emergence of professional bureaucrats and professional soldiers. Both professional bureaucrats and professional soldiers can come from civilians. The county bureaucracy effectively guarantees the rights of civilians (commoners) to participate in and discuss politics (such as Li Si, Meng Ao, etc. are all commoners, and they are promoted to generals and prime ministers based on military merit and political performance). The aristocratic politics of feudalism was undoubtedly a great historical progress. The civil service and military systems of modern countries originated from this.
The Qin Empire established by Qin Shihuang laid the foundation for China to become more advanced than the West in terms of political system for nearly 1,700 years, and thus became more developed than the West. The so-called "Han inherited the Qin system" means "the system has not changed since Qin" and "Qin's political laws have been followed for a hundred generations." During the two thousand years of imperial power, China basically followed the Qin Dynasty's political system.
Li Bai's poem "Ancient Style": "The king of Qin swept Liuhe, how majestic the tiger is looking at!"
Sang Hongyang's treatise affirmed Qin Shihuang's achievements in unifying China.
In modern times, Zhang Taiyan also praised Qin Shihuang in his "Qin Zheng Ji" written in 1913.
Negative evaluation
Because Qin Shihuang promoted the Legalist theory of "ruling the country by law", and subsequent Chinese rulers have promoted Confucianism with benevolence and moderation as its core. Therefore, Qin Shihuang often appears as a negative example in various prose and historical records. Such as Jia Yi's "On the Passage of Qin" and so on.
"Historical Records: The Chronicles of the First Emperor of Qin" quotes Jia Yi's "On Passing the Qin":
1. The King of Qin was greedy and acted on the wisdom of self-improvement. He did not believe in meritorious officials and was not close to the people. The king's way establishes private rights, prohibits documents and imposes torture on the law, deceives power first and then benevolence and righteousness, and begins with tyranny for the world.
⒉ One man made trouble and seven temples fell, and he died at the hands of others. What is the reason for the laughter of the world? If benevolence is not applied, the offensive and defensive momentum will be different.
Qin Shihuang is regarded by many historians as a tyrant who will do whatever it takes to gain power.
The Great Wall, Qin Chi Road, Ling Canal, Epang Palace and the Mausoleum of the First Emperor of Qin are all extremely large in scale, requiring the entire country to build them. Many documents have criticized the construction of many casualties during the construction process, but in addition, On the one hand, it will further develop transportation in various places and help future transportation, economy and trade, and the integration of various ethnic groups. Therefore, it has always been a point of debate among historians whether Qin Shihuang's achievements were too great or too great.
2. There is no doubt that various problems have arisen in today's society. The ecological crisis, spiritual crisis, moral crisis and value crisis are profoundly affecting the healthy development of human society. The destiny of mankind and the destiny of the earth are once again severely affected. challenge. Professor Fu Yongju, director of the Confucius Institute, pointed out that Confucian ideological resources can provide valuable wisdom and ideas for treating and resolving these problems. Dr. Montenegro from the Republic of Slovakia said that in order to create a moral society without any unprovoked conflicts, the moral principles and unremitting efforts established by Confucius, the great teacher of mankind, have still been surpassed by no one to this day. Now, for ourselves and for our descendants, we must do our best to improve living conditions. Only the ethical principles advocated by Confucius can help us do this.
Some experts believe that there have been two periods of contention among a hundred schools of thought in Chinese history, one in the pre-Qin period and the other in modern times. The 21st century is likely to see the third contention of a hundred schools of thought. It will bring about the prosperity of Chinese culture and at the same time contribute to the prosperity of world culture. In the Third Hundred Schools of Thought, the ancient Confucianism will once again be scrutinized, baptized, developed and innovated. In the integration with other different trends of thought, *** jointly created new ideas and new culture that are more suitable for the requirements of the times. Professor Shen Suzhen of Anhui University pointed out that the national spirit of the Chinese nation has always advocated "harmony", pursued "harmony" and insisted on "peace". In today's new historical period, this national spirit will surely write a great mark in the development history of all mankind. of a sum.
As if to provide an example of "Confucianism is a good medicine for today's society", in the mid-to-late 20th century, countries such as Singapore, South Korea, and Japan, which were influenced by the Confucian cultural circle, developed rapidly and became emerging industrialized countries. nation. The success of these countries has aroused widespread concern among scholars. One important aspect is the relationship between Confucian culture and economic development. To this end, during the group discussion, the Confucian practice carried out in Singapore in the 1980s and 1990s became an important topic, especially in terms of resisting Western individualism and emphasizing social awareness, hard work, tolerance, frugality, etc. as a guide for modern society. A new approach is affirmed.
The practical significance of Confucius’ educational thoughts
Revelation 1: In terms of the purpose of education—what kind of talents should be cultivated
Confucius’ educational thoughts are reflected in the " In the book "The Analects of Confucius", "doing politics" is the task of Confucianism, that is, "learning well will lead to officialdom". Therefore, the traditional Chinese education system under the influence of Confucius' educational thoughts aims to cultivate talents for Anbang
ruling the country. In modern terms, the majors are consistent and there is no problem of professional counterparts.
Enlightenment 2: In terms of educational principles - how to advocate "teaching without distinction"
"Teaching without distinction" is a major challenge and breakthrough of Confucius to traditional teaching. Its great contribution to education. Opening education to the people is the basis for breaking the system of senior officials and senior officials and promoting talents. The "class" of "education without class" refers to the various levels of social strata and the quality of students' personal qualities. Before Confucius, learning was in the government, and education was the exclusive preserve of the nobility. Confucius set the precedent of "education without discrimination" and opened up the restriction of education by the nobility. "I have learned more than self-improvement." ("The Analects of Confucius? Shuer") Confucius accepted and taught students without any As long as the most basic etiquette of becoming a disciple is met, Confucius will never give up a scholar. The origins of his three thousand disciples include: Lu, Chu, Qin, Jin, Chen, Song, Wu, Wei and other countries; in terms of age: Yan Lu, Zhong Yu and others are similar in age to Confucius, and younger ones such as Gongsun Long was fifty-three years younger than Confucius; in terms of life experience: Meng Aozi was the son of Shiqing, Zhonggong's father was a bitch, Zilu was a barbarian, Gongye was a criminal, Yan Tianju was a robber, Zigong was a wealthy businessman, Yan Hui and Yuan Xian were poor people, Fan Chi was a farmer... In short, there were all kinds of students, but except for Fan Chi who asked to study farming and was denounced as a villain by Confucius, Confucius treated them all equally.
Confucius’s teaching without distinction is, firstly, advocating the popularization of education, and secondly, advocating fairness in education. Teaching people the "six arts" did not begin with Confucius, but popularizing the six arts did. Confucius believed that all human beings are kind by nature and that all human beings are good in nature. Although people's character and temperament are different, to make all people avoid evil and do good, we can only rely on education. The educational concept of "education without distinction" contains the advanced educational thought of educational fairness. It is really a leap to propose the education concept of "education without distinction" in a slave society.
In relation to our current education, have we truly achieved universal education without distinction? The difference between urban and rural areas is becoming more and more obvious, and the difference between urban and rural education is also getting bigger and bigger. In key schools at all levels in the city, education is artificially divided into several grades, and unfairness in education abounds. The issue of school choice created by the privileged class of society has made students miserable, impoverished their parents, lost justice and fairness, and encouraged the prevalence of unhealthy social trends. Isn’t the educational concept advocated by quality education that every school in the community, every grade in the school, every class equally, and every student in the class equally? Can we teach the idea of ????without distinction? But in an era where choice and differentiation are the basic means of education, all equality can only be an idea and it is difficult to truly implement it into educational practice. Social investment and teachers are concentrated in key schools in the community, key classes in the schools, and outstanding student groups in the classes. Is this the teaching without distinction in today's education? Key schools, key classes, and hierarchical teaching. , euphemistically called teaching students in accordance with their aptitude, is actually a typical representative of classified teaching. Covering up one's wrong behavior with public theories that appear to be correct has become a specialty in today's society. Compared with Confucius' teaching without distinction during the slave society, contemporary education under socialism still embodies "education without distinction". As a relevant aspect of education Department, as educators, can we not be ashamed? It’s really time to wake up!
Revelation 3: In terms of academic philosophy - "Be diligent and never tire of learning"
Confucius is respected as the teacher of all generations, which naturally has its respectability. "The Analects" only records some of Confucius' words and deeds, but in the words and deeds of Confucius recorded in "The Analects of Confucius" we can still clearly see Confucius's educational concepts and feel that Confucius is a role model for others. His academic philosophy of “being tireless in one’s work” and “never getting tired of learning” still has a positive and vigilant significance for those of us engaged in education.