Elementary Learning: A Book for a Child’s Moral Education

Abstract

Sohak is a book compiled by Zhu Xi, who was a Confucian philosopher, and his disciple, Liu Qingzhi, to promote the morality and personality in children. This book reflects Zhu Xi's philosophy of human nature and education and provides a way to observe proprieties and courtesy. The content and principle of this book is not likely to be easily understood or applied to people in the modern Korean society. Nevertheless, Sohak inspires us to have an insight on how the human relationship should be and what is the desirable moral education method for children to solve moral conflicts in real settings of complicated social interactions. Keywords: Sohak, Elementary Learning, Zhu Xi, moral education, child