Abstract:

We can examine the development and new mission of Chinese comparative education over the past two centuries through the dual lenses of culture and enlightenment as derived from the discussion of “world literature” in the “Communist Manifesto”. The enlightenment mission involves engaging in critical dialogue with global education, introducing the spirit of world education, and promoting the continuous modernization of Chinese education. The cultural mission involves participating in the construction of modern pedagogy, telling the story of Chinese education internationally, participating in international educational governance, connecting Chinese and foreign educational spirits; and constructing a shared “world literature” through the dialectic of enlightenment and culture. The dialectic of enlightenment and culture requires comparative education to adopt a rational critical attitude that aims to eliminate cultural one-sidedness and limitations in responding to the relationship between cultural confidence in education and “world literature.” In terms of value direction, it should aim to build a shared educational “world literature” to implement the new era’s vision of the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation, the common values of all humankind, and the world imagination of a community with a shared future for mankind. At the same time, this also involves reviving the invaluable “peace-making under heaven” dimension of our lost educational tradition in the modern process. In the era of globalization, all education researchers are to some extent scholars of comparative education, and the move towards a shared “world literature” is a call to all Chinese education scholars.

Key words: comparative education, enlightenment, culture, dialectics, world literature, world education spirit, peace-making under heaven