The main educational ideas in The Legend of the Giant;
(A) "ideal of new people"-educational goal
The Renaissance brought a new world view. In the struggle against the feudal church, the emerging bourgeoisie resisted the asceticism and the idea of being born in the Middle Ages, advocated the worship of healthy, active and cheerful people, and put forward the ideal of new people.
This new bourgeoisie is a free man who has reached the peak of balance and harmony in body, mind and wisdom and developed in an all-round way. Based on his theory of good nature, rabelais thinks that man has a natural nature, which urges him to seek good and avoid evil. Through education, everyone can become a "giant".
In the novel, the giant КаΥан Du Ya, the son of a king, drank 179 13 cows' milk as soon as he was born, with a huge appetite and a tall trunk. People sew clothes for babies. More than 12000 pieces of cloth were used at one time. He came out of his mother's left ear when he was born. He lived the same life as other children when he was a child. In rabelais's words, he drinks, eats and sleeps. Eat, drink and sleep; Sleep, drink and eat. Naughty, lively and playful.
It is such a child that the king also saw his extraordinary wisdom and ingenious understanding from him, and thought that as long as he was educated well, he would surely become a truly "smart" giant.
The Renaissance revived the spirit of ancient Greece, which was highly developed. Our ancient civilization was presented to Europeans by relearning Greek. The colorful and healthy pictures of ancient science, literature, art education and sports are in sharp contrast with the European reality under the rule of the medieval church. In ancient Greece, the characters with healthy and lively literary form, strong physique, developed mind and full of rational spirit became the model for Europeans to pursue knowledge during the Renaissance. The artistic images created by rabelais, Du Ya, КаΥан and his son, the giant Gué e, are all physical giants. They have gained extensive knowledge through new humanistic pedagogy and become rational, intelligent and savvy people. Such a giant is a man with harmonious body and mind. The meaning of "giant" is not only physical, but also rational, intelligent and moral.
Rabelais's new ideal is a knowledgeable, articulate, lively and healthy, Protestant humanist. I hope that the educated can be "mature and thoroughly proficient in virtue, words and deeds, knowledge and all academic, moral, social and physical skills." (Biography of the Giant, 2 1 1 page. Only page numbers are shown below).
Rabelais's ideal as a newcomer is embodied in the life of a monk in Deriame Monastery. Delianmei Monastery is an ideal society conceived by rabelais in his novels. Different from Moore and campanella, this monastery did not establish an ideal country on the basis of public property system, but Delemei monastery is a special organization in private ownership society. The main members are composed of knowledgeable male and female monks. The building of the monastery is resplendent and magnificent, and all expenses are paid by King Du Ya of КаΥан. The material life of the Drummond Monastery is very luxurious, just like a paradise on earth. In addition to various buildings in life, the monastery also has various sports and entertainment facilities, such as sports ground, football field, horse riding field, swimming pool, shooting range, stage and playground. At the same time, it also has a rich collection of books, Greek, Latin, Hebrew, French and Spanish books.
It is the establishment of such an ideal kingdom of intellectuals that rabelais can comprehensively describe what a happy life is and what an ideal new bourgeoisie is, and praise the liberation of individuality and human freedom.
The monks and nuns in the temple are all perfect people shaped by rabelais, with good looks, good figure, profound knowledge and all-round development. They truly embody the wisdom, strength and beauty of the times. According to the rules of the hospital, all the people who enter the monastery are beautiful, moderately built and gentle women, as well as lofty-looking, burly and gentle men, so they are naturally good. These people are well educated at the same time. "No one, male or female, can't read, write, sing, play various musical instruments, speak five or six languages, and write poems and articles in these languages. Except here, who has seen such a brave, humble, agile, vigorous and active knight step down immediately? Except here, who has seen such a beautiful, elegant, graceful, witty, decent and free woman who has done such fine work in sewing and sewing? " (Page 165) There is no provision in delia Mei Temple that restricts or interferes with people's freedom. People can freely enter and leave monasteries, arrange food, sleep, work, games and sports at will, implement equality between men and women, break artificial boundaries between men and women, and freely choose their own way of life. Traditionally, monasteries must make three wishes: chastity, poverty and stability, and observance of religious rules; However, delia Meisi Temple stipulates: "Men and women monks can get married aboveboard, and everyone can live a rich and free life." (page 153) Here, people's free will is respected, and any restraint and suppression of people's freedom is opposed, which fully reflects the requirements of the times in pursuit of individual liberation since the Renaissance. There is only one rule in delia May Monastery: Do whatever you want. (Page 165)
It is in this way that rabelais's ideal new person is liberated from the bondage of theocracy and monarchical power and "turns to subvert and destroy this slavery." The new bourgeoisie with noble moral character, superior intelligence, kindness and courage is a new bourgeois anti-feudal fighter with a complete humanistic education and few narrow prejudices.
(B) the relentless attack on the philosophy education of the old scholasticism.
Biography of the Giant is a masterpiece full of fighting, and it is a blockbuster thrown at the ancient fortress. Laughing and cursing deeply exposed all the dark, decadent, backward and ignorant things in medieval society, and criticized the legal system and courts as tools to maintain medieval feudalism. At the same time, as a well-traveled monk, rabelais knew the life, thoughts and feelings of churches, theologians and clergy at all levels like the back of his hand. He understood the reactionary nature of Christianity as the pillar of feudalism and regarded it as the object of satire in his novels. Biography of the Giant is a verdict on the feudal system, which embodies the critical spirit of this great era and mercilessly lashes, mocks and attacks the old scholastic philosophy education.
The ideal of Xinmin is a beautiful vision of humanists, but this bourgeois Xinmin cannot be cultivated by old education. Old education will destroy human nature and cannot form a sound reason. The old scholastic philosophy education will only teach children with good nature into fools who are confused, demented and lose their sound judgment.
The novel begins to describe КаΥан Du Ya's nature, which is as stubborn as other children. But the king sees КаΥан Du Ya's keenness, profundity and novelty, which seems to come from the help of heaven, and thinks that КаΥан Du Ya can achieve great wisdom as long as he is properly educated. Later, he was recommended a doctor of scholastic theology named Mr. Dubard Lu Fen. He spent five years and three months teaching КаΥан Du Ya to read square letters, and spent 13 years, six months and two weeks teaching him to read Latin grammar, ethics books, religious textual research and Aranas fables, and asked him to copy these books. Later, it took11more than a month to teach him to read the complete works of meaning and the notes of various factions. КаΥан Du Ya can recite these books like a book, and he can read them like a book. Later, it took 65438+2006 two months to teach him to read almanac. At this time, the teacher died of sexually transmitted diseases. Later, an old cough ghost named Mr. Qiao Bolan Blaizhao was invited. He taught КаΥан Du Ya Greek grammar, kindergarten syllabus, articles and word theory, tests, appendices, songs and saints, dinner ceremonies, four lines of main virtues, and sleep sermons. КаΥан Du Ya studied according to the requirements of the philosophy teacher of Jing Yuan. His lifestyle is corrupt. His daily activities are nothing more than eating, sleeping, drinking and attending mass, and he only does his homework for half an hour every day. He always gets up at eight or nine o'clock, then has breakfast and goes to church, "more than 65,438+06 hermits say prayers." Read another half hour of worthless books. After that, we have lunch, play cards, roll dice, take a three-hour nap, and then wake up and drink. Playing cards after meals forms a bad lifestyle. I worked very hard to manage Kagandoya's study in the early days, and spent all my time, but I didn't get any benefits. On the contrary, he became dull, listless, dull-eyed and dull-tongued. After such education, КаΥан Duya became an honest man who "will never be roasted again". The king saw that his talented son did not make progress after education, but almost became a dementia person and became a "hat to protect his brain. Snuff and tears flowed together, and no one could force him to say a word, just like a dead donkey could not force a fart." (page 56). The king was very angry and fired the scholastic teacher in a rage.
Here, rabelais vividly described the emptiness, corruption and uselessness of scholastic education with romantic and exaggerated methods. Such an academic teacher has no knowledge except winter baking and absurdity. Learning from such a teacher is better than learning nothing. If you don't learn anything, you can at least keep the natural nature of your body and mind. This kind of education will only spoil excellent and noble talents and delay the youth of young people.
At the same time, rabelais also satirized the knowledge swindlers who pretended to be scholars, completely tore off the hypocrisy of scholastics, theologians and ascetics, and lashed out at the ruling ideology at that time-scholasticism, that is, cumbersome philosophy and its pillars, the seminary of Paris University, courts and churches. From the standpoint of the emerging bourgeoisie, he made a fierce attack on the feudal education of fools and theocracy in the Middle Ages. He believes that ignorance is the root of all evil, and school education can only make fools. Therefore, it is impossible and absolutely impossible for rabelais to conceive a new man, a new king of philosophy, to be cultivated by scholastic philosophy education.
(C) praise for the new humanistic education
In order to get a good education in Du Ya, КаΥан, the king accepted the opinions of others and decided to invite a humanist teacher named Barnoclatt to give his son a brand-new education. Since then, КаΥан Du Ya has received a realistic education and started a new way of life.
Barnoclatte is a teacher who is familiar with the art of teaching. He adopted a new teaching method to educate Du Ya in КаΥан. Under the influence of this new spirit, КаΥан Du Ya made amazing progress and gradually became a real giant with developed body and mind.
Barnoclatt first observed the living habits of Du Ya, КаΥан, and was in no hurry to change the bad habits he had developed under the old education, because if he changed suddenly, he would be afraid of causing rebellious psychology. Rabelais described to us the process of КаΥан Du Ya's new education in a romantic style.
First of all, let КаΥан take a medicine to get rid of all the faults and bad habits formed in the old education and make him forget everything he learned from those teachers. He also contacted local humanities scholars to arouse his enthusiasm for learning and enlighten his mind, and then let him concentrate on his studies and spend all his time studying literature and serious knowledge.
Since then, КаΥан Du Ya has started a new way of life, getting up at four o'clock every morning, observing the astronomical phenomena, making predictions, reviewing lessons learned a few days ago, reading for three hours, and then doing physical exercise outdoors. "Exercise lively, just like just exercising your mind." Exercise is usually until you sweat or feel tired. Continue reading after lunch, or get together and have a pleasant discussion: "They talk about the quality, characteristics, nutrition and preparation methods of all the good things on the table, such as bread, wine, water, salt, meat, fish, fruits and vegetables." (page 175). In this way, I quickly learned a series of works about food, health and medicine. I often talk about it. In order to find out the problem, I took the book to the dining table for reference. Then, I use dice and cards to learn all kinds of ingenious programs evolved from mathematics and cultivate my love for mathematics. I also studied geometry, music and astronomy. Continue to sing and play the piano. When I am refreshed and digested, I will spend three hours studying the main courses. The main content is to review lessons in the morning, learn new content and practice Roman regular script. After learning homework, everyone goes out to practice riding, shooting, fencing, swimming, archery, dumbbells, mountain climbing, sailing, tree climbing and so on. After the above-mentioned field exercise, I took a bath, observed trees and flowers on my way home, and made a comparative discussion with reference to botanical works. After dinner, I review my lessons at noon, study literature, play games, sing children's songs and play music for a while, and sometimes go out to attend a scholar's party and visit people who have traveled abroad. Before going to bed, observe the sky again, and then simply repeat to the teacher what you have read, seen, heard, known and done all day.
I don't go out to engage in outdoor activities in rainy days, and I work at home all afternoon, bundling grass, chopping wood, sawing wood and beating wheat ears as a fitness exercise, or learning to draw, carve and play chess. Then there are visits to handicraft workshops, craftsmen's skills and creations, lectures, martial arts exercises, pharmacies and performances by jugglers. In order to relieve mental stress, Barnoclatte also arranged an outing once a month to increase the interest of life and accept the influence of nature.
Under the guidance of this new education, КаΥан Du Ya finally became a giant with developed body and mind and noble character. The two different kinds of education got different results, which profoundly criticized the decay of Confucian philosophy education and vividly praised the humanistic education that focused on developing students' personality and intelligence.
(D) The new spirit of humanistic education in rabelais.
Rabelais's Biography of the Giant highly praised the ideal of humanistic education. Rabelais himself was influenced by humanistic education, so he fully realized the influence of education on people. In Biography of the Giant, he highly affirmed the great role of education and discussed the role of education in the growth of giants with a lot of space and pen and ink. The reason why КаΥан Duya and Hugue Gu 'ai become giants with developed body and mind and harmonious development depends on good humanistic education. In a letter from КаΥан Du Ya to his son Hugue Gu 'ai, rabelais wrote through a character's mouth: "I encourage you to make good use of your youth, concentrate on your studies and cultivate your virtues. Now you live in Paris, accompanied by your master, Epistemon, etc. With their exemplary words and deeds and tireless teaching, your knowledge will naturally enter this country more and more. " (page 2 12-2 13). He believes that education plays a decisive role in children's personality development. He hopes that through education, children will be cultivated into knowledgeable, eloquent, lively and healthy Protestant humanists. He believes that children are naturally good, but what needs to be cultivated is to educate them to form good habits and morality. At the same time, he opposes the forced education, rote memorization and dogma indoctrination of asceticism that destroys children's body and mind, but demands respect for children's personality and education according to their nature. Rabelais's ideal couple can only be cultivated through this kind of education.
The giants of the Renaissance were all knowledgeable people. They are proficient in many subjects and can speak many languages. Rabelais is such a giant. This spirit of the times is also reflected in the educational thought of Biography of the Giant. In order to meet the requirements of the times, rabelais thought that letting children learn boring letters, tedious grammar and rhetoric, and empty prayers would make them poor in knowledge and insane, so he advocated letting children learn extensive knowledge. In Chapter 8, Part II of Biography of the Giant, КаΥан Du Ya listed an all-inclusive course in his letter to the giant Gough, which is also an ideal course for rabelais. In this course, we should first learn many languages: Greek, Latin, Hebrew, Cardet and Arabic. Special attention should be paid to the study of Greek, because it is the re-study of Greek that makes Europeans see a new world and revive all subjects. "Isn't it shameful for a person to call himself a scholar because he doesn't know Greek?" 2 1 1 page, to maintain the study of the "seven arts" in the Middle Ages. Among the "Seven Arts", geometry, arithmetic and music are especially valued. At the same time, in order to meet the bourgeois demand for natural science, rabelais advocated learning and exploring everything in nature. Natural science was despised and doubted at that time. On the other hand, rabelais tried to improve the status of this new knowledge. He wrote: "As for things in nature, I also hope that you will explore them with curiosity, so that there will be no rivers, lakes and seas where you don't know that they produce fish;" There are birds in the air, trees with thorns in the forest, grass on the ground, mineral deposits on the seabed on the mountainside, and gems in East China and South China. You all know these, and there are no names. " (page 2 13). In his class schedule, he also pays attention to the study of medicine, anatomy and law, pays attention to reading famous medical books and legal works, pays attention to human anatomy, and persuades people to do more hands-on anatomy to fully understand the small world of the human body. He is also an enthusiastic advocate of practical education, proposing that students should learn all kinds of skills, master all kinds of vocational skills, and visit and learn all kinds of technologies and inventions in workshops.
Rabelais opposes the traditional teaching method of rote learning. He advocates understanding and thinks that "knowledge without understanding is equal to waste." He advocated integrating theory with practice and attached importance to intuitive teaching. He advocated teaching astronomy by observing astronomical phenomena, teaching natural history by observing flowers and trees in nature, learning anatomy by dissecting human bodies, and mastering natural science and technical knowledge by visiting handicraft production. He inherited Aristotle's tradition and provided a preliminary artistic prospect for intuitive teaching. He also attaches great importance to the method of conversation. Even when eating, Barnoclatte will discuss the food on the table with students, review difficult courses together, and turn mechanical memory into creative learning. Teachers not only discuss problems with students, but also often lead students to attend scholars' parties, so that students can participate in the discussion of related issues. At the same time, he also attaches importance to visiting and broadens students' horizons. In rabelais's teaching thought, the significance of learning interest is attached great importance. Teachers are required to organize teaching into relaxed, enjoyable and attractive activities and implement the principle of happy learning. All the teaching activities of Du Ya and his teachers in КаΥан "have become so pleasant, relaxed and attractive that it feels like the king is killing time instead of students' study". In this kind of teaching, teachers use various games, such as cards and dice, to improve children's interest in learning, and flexibly adopt various forms such as visiting and traveling to stimulate children's interest in learning.
Rabelais also attaches importance to religious and moral education. In the novel, КаΥан Du Ya asked the giant ancient Egypt to spend several hours reading biographies of sages every day, first reading the Greek New Testament and the Apostle, and then reading the Hebrew Old Testament. But he believes that religious education is the basis of moral education. Because through religious education, many good personalities can be cultivated. Of course, his religious education is very different from that of medieval scholasticism. In moral education, his respected character is "kindness, diligence, courage and justice." Benevolence means loving the people and "protecting the oppressed, comforting the suffering and helping those in need". Diligence means loving labor. Courage means resisting aggression. Justice is to distinguish between good and evil, right and wrong, love and hate. He quoted the prophet Solomon as saying: "Wisdom does not enter the despicable soul, and unconscious knowledge is enough to make the soul bankrupt." (page 2 14). He preached science and asked people to learn scientific knowledge, but he attached importance to moral education. It is believed that only people with noble morality can make good use of knowledge and become "giants". The purpose of study is to defend the country, protect the people and resist aggression. This kind of righteousness, pride and courage can only be cultivated through moral education.
Rabelais also attaches great importance to physical education and labor education, and attaches great importance to the study of music and art. КаΥан Du Ya does physical exercise twice a day under the guidance of his teacher. Sports events are all-encompassing, covering almost all sports events at that time. He also paid attention to combining sports with military training, and took horse riding, gun and archery as important practice items. He also attached importance to labor education and asked people to love labor. An important learning content of Duya in КаΥан is to visit and learn the skills of various craftsmen. On rainy days, КаΥан Du Ya "went to see how people smelt metals and cast guns, or visited jewelers, goldsmiths, masons, refiners, coiners, loggers, weavers, weavers, clockmakers, mirror makers, printers, musical instruments, dyers and other craftsmen, invited people to drink everywhere, asked people for advice, and paid attention to watching the craftsmanship and creation." (page 80). Rabelais doesn't despise labor at all. In the book, I satirize those priests who are idle and not engaged in production. Call them parasites. But full of sympathy for the working people.
Another shining idea in the legend of giants is to attach importance to women's education. Rabelais advocates equal access to education for men and women. In Teglia Mei Monastery, both men and women can read, write and sing, know many kinds of weapons and speak five or six languages. Women live freely in monasteries. Even women can see the door of learning and be proud of it. These are completely different from the oppression and discrimination against women in the Middle Ages.
As a literary work, Biography of the Giant vividly reflects rabelais's educational thought. Many new ideas only stay at the descriptive level. At the same time, the religious atmosphere in the novel is very strong. These are all caused by the limitations of style and times. On the other hand, as the famous educational historians Boyd and Edmund King said, rabelais paid little attention to adapting his thoughts to the requirements of practice, so his direct influence on educational work may be very small.
Biography of the Giant is an image summary of humanistic education thought in the Renaissance, which is deeply influenced by Plato's Republic and Moore's Republic. Plato wanted to train a philosopher king in an ideal country through education, while rabelais dreamed of training a new philosopher king and a new bourgeoisie through humanistic education. His thoughts are broad and profound. The impact is very far-reaching. As belinsky said, "rabelais's works represent the spirit and significance of an entire historical era." His works are recognized as one of the world's classic works, and have nurtured great writers such as Moliere, La Fontaine, Balzac and Hugo in the history of literature, and are regarded as "maternal geniuses" like Homer, Shakespeare and Dante. His educational thoughts reflected the progressive requirements of the emerging bourgeoisie for education and had a positive impact on the development of bourgeois pedagogy, especially French educational thinkers Montaigne and Rousseau, who were greatly inspired by him.