Young Chinese usher 'guoxue' into modern era

According to Gong, modern education should draw from the benign conventions of traditional education and develop a general syllabus with emphases on classical literature, interpersonal skills and physical fitness.

"In order to rejuvenate our educational traditions, we should constantly reflect on our modes of teaching and incorporate into modern education the spirit and practices of traditional learning," Gong says.

Yang Dongping, director of the 21st Century Education Research Institute, concurs with Gong in saying that traditions of ancient education should be inherited. "Schools are the center of China's education," he notes. "We should inherit the tradition of small-class teaching in order to provide humanitarian and individualized education."

Zhu Xiangfei, a visiting professor at Beijing Normal University, founded the Kongyang Confucian Studio in 2009, which is aimed at popularizing guoxue education in both schools and wider society.

He says that classics such as The Analects of Confucius should be taught throughout every stage of education. "It should first be taught in middle schools, then studied at a deeper level in universities and, finally, for the rest of one's life. It is essentially the task of the entire society to study traditional culture."