Chapter 8 Section 7 The Rise of Scholars’ Tutoring

The patriarchal patriarchal system began to decline in the early Spring and Autumn Period, and gradually disintegrated from the end of the Spring and Autumn Period to the beginning of the Warring States Period.The disintegration of the patriarchal patriarchal system was directly related to the increase and mass flow of the population, especially the disintegration of the well field system.The increase in population made it difficult for the well fields in the village to maintain taxes and life, which aroused social conflicts between the common people and the nobles.In addition, as the population of the noble clan multiplied, it was difficult to maintain the aristocratic status of the collateral descendants of the branch and common people.This led to the inevitable increase in the number of civilians below the soldiers, intensified conflicts within the clan, and promoted class differentiation.Because of these, the past feudal system of "country" and "field" in which clansmen lived in cities, suburbs, common people, and ruled aliens gradually collapsed, thus shaking the clan system and well field system.

The collapse of the clan system and the field system will inevitably lead to the reorganization of the social and family structures.Coupled with the continuous social turmoil and political reforms during the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, there was a class of taxis who first came from declining aristocrats and later rose from the commoner class.The scholar class belongs to the new class, and it is a new force that emerged with the collapse of the slave system and the establishment of the feudal system. Transformation from slavery to feudalism.There are not many people in the scholar class, but their social activities are very powerful.Whether they are from the declining nobles or the intellectuals who have risen from the commoner class, they are not willing to descend to the commoner class and become self-reliant laborers, but hope to enter the political arena through the road of "learning and being good, and becoming an official". Officials for generations.Therefore, the tutors of the scholar class have some characteristics of their own.

First of all, as intellectual laborers, scholars earn their living by cultural knowledge, so one of the outstanding features of their tutoring is to pay attention to imparting cultural knowledge, instead of taking farming, skills or business as tutoring like farmers, small handicraftsmen or businessmen. main content of .The family education of the scholar class is consistent with the professional requirements of the scholar, mainly book knowledge such as rites, music, poems, books, etc. and the way of "cultivating oneself and governing others".In a book, it records the situation of Confucius' family education. Confucius' students have carefully observed the difference between Confucius' education for his son and his education, and found that the content and method of education are the same.This reflects that the family education of scholars has the characteristics of emphasizing culture and education, focusing on cultivating children's ability to be scholars.

Second, the family education of scholars aims to prepare their children for official career.During the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, there were many kinds of scholars. It is generally believed that they can be divided into two types: warriors and scholars.At this time, warriors are different from soldiers who rely solely on physical strength or martial arts, or those who are assassins and knights. They are strategic talents who have studied military matters, such as Sun Wu, Wu Qi, Sun Bin, Le Yi, etc. "Dedication" and "devotion".Scholars "offer wisdom" to the ruler, that is, advise the ruler to formulate policies. There are strategists such as Su Qin and Zhang Yi, and scholars and educators such as Confucius, Mencius, Xunzi, Mozi, Laozi, Zhuangzi, etc. .Whether it is a samurai or a literati, because they regard serving the ruler as their livelihood, they not only pay attention to the training of their own political ability, but also attach great importance to the cultural education of their children. It is not easy to spread it to the outside world, so as to ensure that his children maintain an advantage in being promoted to official positions.

Since the spring and Autumn period and the Warring States period, the family education of the scholar class has been gradually consolidated and developed.With the development of society and the increase in the number of students, in ancient feudal society, tutoring of intellectuals became a necessary preparation and an important supplement for school education.