On the Functional Significance of Confucian Music Education

With the spreading of the consumerist culture, the contemporary Chinese musicology seems to focus on the performance skills of music, without emphasis on the moral connotation of music. Confucius attached great importance to the educational function, the communicative function and the political function in music teaching, and regarded music as the accomplishments of a moral personality. Creating the Ren (Benevolence) system and displaying the subjectivity of human being, Confucius reconstructed humanism of the traditional music, making music education and people's life style inseparable. Currently, it is very meaningful to make research into Confucius's music education and revitalize traditional music education.