周公是中国礼乐文明的创建者和奠基者,对中国传统思想文化产生了重要影响。研究周公教育思想的主要材料是《周书》。周公的教育思想主要表现在为君之道、政治管理、政策思想教育等方面。周公偏向性善论,强调后天学习的重要性及人的主动性。周公重视继承发扬前代的优秀传统(包括统治术),强调圣王的重要性,重视家庭伦理教育。周公的教育法有:因材施教,循循善诱,引用史例,譬喻说明,说理,鼓励法等,其在教育史上更具有重要的意义,且具有超时代的眼光。

It was Zhou Gong who established and laid a foundation on Chinese ritual civilization. At that time, he was one of the most important politicians and educators; therefore, his thoughts and theories have a significant influence on Chinese traditional ideology and culture. Unfortunately, there are few types of research and studies about his educational thoughts. Therefore, this research tends to make up this gap, analyzing the topic of the educational thoughts of Zhou Gong. The main resource of this research is Zhou Gong’s remarks in Book of Zhou (The eight royal edicts during the beginning period of the Western Zhou Dynasty). The educational thoughts of Zhou Gong tend to emphasize monarch, political management, policy, and ideological education. His educational targets are imperial members, officials and district princes in the Zhou Dynasty. The educational methods he uses include teaching methods, citing historical methods, and teaching students in accordance with their aptitude. The foundation of Zhou Gong’s educational thoughts is theory of HeartBrain and Human Nature. He prefers the theory of Born Good, emphasizes that the essential of acquired learning and initiative. From his perspective, education is necessary and important. The educational thoughts involve that the imperial members should inherit the excellent traditional culture(include the Rule of Governance). The emperor must guide and appease the people from various measures. In addition, Zhou Gong thinks that the emperor should be bright and be of high morality. It is the personality of bright and high morality that helps the emperor to know who he is and how significant his role is. The emperor should promote excellent policies for people, and be cautious about the punishment. The aim of politics is to make people better. Zhou Gong praises sage sovereign and emphasizes the importance of sage sovereign. When Zhou Gong elaborated on the thoughts to his targets, he would use some methods of education. He cites historical events as an example or uses an analogy to make his statement more convincing. The teaching methods he uses, which are the method of teaching in accordance with students’ aptitude and the method of encouragement, have extraordinary significance in the history of education.