In primitive society, moral education is only the object of people's spontaneous practice and perception, and people have only simple practical experience in moral education.
In slave society, with the development of people's cognitive and practical ability and the rich practical experience of moral education, people put forward and discussed what teaching is and the problems arising from it, put forward many viewpoints on moral education, and produced some preliminary moral education ideas.
For example, the works of a hundred schools of thought contend and other ancient books, such as Confucius, Mencius, Zhuangzi, Xunzi, Confucianism, Mohism, Taoism, the works of many wise men and philosophers in ancient Greece and other ancient books, all contain rich moral education thoughts.
But at this time, the research on moral education is scattered and individual, and the formed views and ideas are obviously primitive and comprehensive, that is, empirical or descriptive, descriptive, even speculative, with poor theory and integration with philosophy, literary thoughts and other contents.
For example, in The Analects of Confucius and The Republic, when discussing political, philosophical and ethical issues, Confucius and Plato respectively put forward their own views on moral education, which contained rich thoughts on moral education.