Moral education is recognised as the most important part of Confucian humanistic education. In most East Asian societies the Confucian view holds sway in educational ideas and practice in spite of its antiquity. At the level of primary and secondary education, the Confucian tradition is the main reference of moral and citizenship education. At the level of higher education, the Confucian model is still dominating. As the Chinese influence is increasing all over the world, many Western societies are attempting to adopt parts of Chinese education in their own educational system. For example, Mandarin as a second language is taught to children in more and more schools in the West. The first bilingual Chinese-English school—Kensington Wade—in Europe is set up in London and will start in September 2017. Kensington Wade will offer immersive Chinese and English education for children from aged 3 to 11. As for adults, Confucian Institute, which is affiliated with the Ministry of Education of China, was already set up across countries to promote Chinese language and culture. With the global trend of learning Chinese language, the influence of Chinese culture and tradition is increasing and spreading.

As the Chinese influence is readily apparent in education, traditional Chinese texts are used more often in schools. Since the 1990s there has been a trend among teachers and parents in improving children’s learning of classical texts in Chinese heritage cultures (CHCs), especially in Taiwan and China. It is called Dújing Education Movement, meaning Reading Classics Education Movement. The main materials are Confucian classical texts. There was a heated debate over the appropriateness of teaching children the classical texts in modern schools. Nowadays the debate cooled off somewhat but the activity of reciting classics continues. Reading groups on Confucian classics are organised for children by enthusiastic adults—teachers in schools and parents in community.

One of the most read text is the Rules for Students (弟子規, Dì Zĭ Gui). The Rules for Students (RFS) was written by a Confucian scholar Lee Yùxìu at the time of the reign of the Kongxi Emperor (1661-1722) in the Qing dynasty. From the seventeenth century to the present time the Rules for Students has been the most popular teaching material for children in schools in CHCs. The RFS is written in three-character verses and rhythmic structure. Originally written for children, it is taught in some general education courses in colleges and universities in CHCs. The main body of the content is the interpretation of Section 6 of Chapter 1 (Xíe Ér) of the Analects. Incorporating the segment of the Analects, the RFS has overall more than 1000 words. Teachers and parents devoted to the dújing classics education claim that RFS is a viable and useful tool for improving moral education.

Thus, in this paper I intend to discuss the possible problems and dangers of the Confucian approach to moral education by examining the Rules for Students (RFS) and the widely-accepted way of teaching it—recitation—in schools and in classics reading groups. Some argue that classics like the RFS can provide children with a moral language for life as long as recitation is not the only way of teaching it. However, in my view, the problem of the Confucian traditional approach to moral education has a deeper crux. It lies in the over-simplification of humanity and lifeworld, whose complexities and dynamics involved in ethical situations and issues are overlooked.

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