The Application of Confucian Enlightenment and Education in Humanistic Education of Chinese Teenagers

Abstract

The Confucianists always take “learning for oneself” as their highest pursuit. The core of Confucian enlightenment and education lies in its educational concepts. Based on “learning for oneself”, Confucius has formed his educational concepts, like training all-round qualified persons and teaching them to apply their learning to practical use, learning actively to perfect their personality, and cultivating both soul and body to maintain harmony. These concepts are related with humanistic education of teenagers. Putting particular emphasis on people’s quality is the essence of Confucian enlightenment and education, which should be applied to humanistic education of teenagers in a flexible and proper way so as to help cultivate talents needed by the society, who obtain not only modern scientific knowledge but also humanistic quality.