What does "university" mean?

Knowing knowledge from things is an important concept in China's ancient Confucianism, which originated from The Book of Rites? As stated in the eight goals of the university-honesty, knowing and doing, sincerity, integrity, self-cultivation, keeping the family in order, governing the country and leveling the world-"If you want to be sincere, let him know first; Knowledge exists in things. The content is known, and the knowledge is sincere. However, this passage is the only passage in Da Xue, but no explanation was given afterwards, and the words "Wu Ge" and "Zhi Zhi" were not quoted in ancient books in the pre-Qin period, which made the true meaning of "Wu Ge Zhi Zhi" a mystery of Confucianism. The fifth edition of Modern Chinese Dictionary published in 2005 interprets "knowing knowledge by studying things" as "reasoning about the principles and laws of things and summarizing them as rational knowledge".

The author explains that the meanings of "things" and "knowledge" in the Four Books are to acquire knowledge by exploring objects. This is exactly the same as the basic field of modern academic exploration, that is, experiment. The purpose of traditional education is not to seek new knowledge, but to adapt to a fixed social system, so the true meaning of knowledge is buried. Taking the bamboo in Wang Yangming's yard as an example, the author shows that Wang Yangming mistook exploring the outside world for exploring himself, which was decided by the traditional Confucian viewpoint.

I think the true spirit of understanding things is indispensable not only in academic research, but also in coping with today's world environment. In today's general education, we need to cultivate experimental spirit. In other words, whether studying science, humanities or personal actions, we should keep a skeptical and realistic attitude and rely on practice to discover the truth of things. Nowadays, the world and social environment are changing rapidly. The communication between different cultures in the world is getting closer and closer. We can't blindly accept the truth we thought in the past, nor can we wait for instructions from "academic authority". We should have our own judgment. In today's drastic environmental changes, we should re-recognize the true meaning of things by studying the things in the scriptures thousands of years ago. This meaning has two aspects: first, the only way to seek truth is to explore things objectively; Second, the process of exploration is not passive and passive, but imaginative and planned exploration. I hope that our generation will have a new understanding and thinking about the concept of "matter and knowledge", so that the experimental spirit can truly become a part of China culture.

The advantage of China's basic education is that it attaches importance to the teaching of basic knowledge and skills, but the disadvantage is that it ignores the cultivation of students' innovative spirit and practical ability. In today's society, this shortcoming can even be said to be fatal, which makes our students unable to meet the needs of the times, thus affecting the rejuvenation of the nation and the future of the country. Of course, this shortcoming is not sudden. It has a long cultural background and is related to the current examination system. There is still a long way to go to overcome this shortcoming.