(East Ask) Exclusive丨Wang Jianbao: Can Chinese wisdom create global significance?

  China News Service, Beijing, July 8th, title: Can Chinese wisdom create global significance?

  ——Interview with Wang Jianbao, Assistant Dean of the Institute of Advanced Humanities, Peking University

  China News Agency reporter Luo Haibing

  The world today faces many difficulties and crises between the East and the West. Some people attribute them to the "clash of civilizations."

The Chinese wisdom that advocates "the benevolent loves others", "the unity of nature and man", "harmony without difference" and "university under heaven" may provide spiritual resources for resolving the conflicts of civilizations and breaking through anthropocentrism.

  Wang Jianbao, assistant to the dean of the Advanced Humanities Research Institute of Peking University, and a research scholar at the Cheung Kong Graduate School of Business and director of the Humanities and Business Ethics Research Center, recently pointed out in an exclusive interview with China News Service that the core of the so-called “clash of civilizations” is The difference between the core values ​​and ontology between the East and the West.

There is no distinction between good and bad civilizations. Today's world should have multiple modernity, not a Western one.

We should abandon the Cold War mentality, transcend the distinction between east and west, transcend the debate between ancient and modern, and transcend the dispute between body and function, and realize a community of shared future for mankind.

Wang Jianbao.

Photo courtesy of me.

  The summary of the interview record is as follows:

  China News Agency reporter: The world today faces many difficulties and crises between the East and the West. Some people attribute them to the "clash of civilizations."

Spiritual humanism advocates the resolution of civilization conflicts through civilization dialogue. What do you think is the core of the conflict?

  Wang Jianbao: To discuss the conflict of civilizations, we must first distinguish between culture and civilization. The two are both different and overlapping.

Culture is the result of various human activities.

Civilization can make a person a complete person.

  In the Eastern context, humans are not created, humans are born from their parents. In this respect, humans are biological humans.

At the same time, a person is a cultural person.

A series of cultural elements gradually merged and developed, forming a civilized community.

In the Chinese world, civilization is a phenomenon in which human activities are reaching perfection. The Book of Changes says: “Civilization ends, and humanity is also.” Once civilization is formed, people are shaped by that civilization, and a part of human life is taken by civilization. Hanshe, this is called "human culture success".

  In the context of Western Greece, people are considered to be city-state animals, and civilization focuses on a set of political systems.

  In the Hebrew context of the West, people were created by God, and their parents just brought them to the world.

  If so, the difference in "humanities-transformation" between the East and the West has appeared.

The origin of Western civilization is the "two Greek civilizations", that is, Hebrew civilization and Greek civilization, which believes that humans and gods are divided into two parts.

The source of Chinese civilization is the "Six Classics System". "Poetry", "Book", "Rite", "Yi", "Yue", and "Spring and Autumn" constitute the foundation and soil of Chinese civilization. The continuity of existence emphasizes "the unity of man and nature", and the unity of subject and object.

  Aside from geopolitics and national interests, the so-called "clash of civilizations", if there is any, is at the core of the difference in values ​​between the East and the West, and the difference in ontology.

Only by understanding the differences can we seek common ground and find overlapping consensus on the distant horizon.

Data map: Tourists visit the Acropolis of Athens, Greece.

  China News Agency reporter: You participate in organizing the annual "Songshan Forum" with the theme of "Dialogue between Chinese Civilization and World Civilization", and exchanges and discussions with representatives of different civilizations from all over the world.

Looking at the diverse civilizations of the East and the West, do you think there is a distinction between high and low, good and bad?

  Wang Jianbao: It does not exist.

  The German philosopher Jaspers proposed the "Axial Age" and divided the world’s major civilizations into four major axis civilizations: One is the Hebrew civilization that is divided between humans and gods, including Christianity and Islamic civilizations that are in the same line. , Is the civilization of "God".

The second is the Greek civilization that pursues rational science, a civilization of "reason".

The third type is Indian civilization. The pursuit of ultimate Nirvana is an "empty" civilization.

The fourth type is Chinese civilization. It is a "saint" civilization to achieve the personality of a gentleman in daily life.

These four civilizations appeared almost simultaneously around the world from 800 BC to 200 BC, forming the "Axis Age".

This division of Jaspers at least surpassed Eurocentrism, but there was also a problem. He did not see the major indigenous civilizations, such as American Indians and civilizations in Africa.

  Human beings must transcend the arrogance of the Axis Age and respect the major indigenous civilizations so that we can enter the Second Axis Age from the Axis Age.

In this process, China's "harmonious but different" thinking can play a role, from acknowledging differences to rejoicing for them.

It is precisely because of differences and differences that there is heaven, earth and everything. This is the original meaning of "harmony without difference".

In short, there is no distinction between the major axis civilizations and the indigenous civilizations.

Data map: Liangzhu Ancient City Ruins Park.

Photo by Zhang Yuhuan

  China News Agency reporter: You were invited to attend the UN "International Conference on Deepening Cooperation in Development, Environment and Peace" and delivered a speech. You believe that Confucianism, which is obscured by locality, has global significance and provides a universal language for dialogue among civilizations.

What role do you think Chinese wisdom represented by Confucian culture can play in the dialogue among civilizations?

  Wang Jianbao: Confucianism is a local value, which has the potential to create a global meaning and contribute spiritual resources from China to the entire community of human destiny.

  First of all, whether it is Hegel's absolute spirit, Christian doomsday judgment, or Fukuyama's so-called "end of history", they all believe that history has a beginning and an end. It is a linear view of time, and the spiritual structure behind it is surprisingly consistent.

The world today is not a linear historical view of "your today is my yesterday, and your tomorrow is my today". It does not want to be completely Westernized, but should have multiple modernity, not just a Western modernity.

  Secondly, Confucius advocated that "the benevolent loves others", and Wang Yangming said that "everything is affectionate", which provides spiritual resources for breaking through anthropocentrism.

Once the anthropocentrism is broken and the state of harmony between man and nature is reached, not only the ecological and environmental protection problems between man and nature can be solved, but also the problems between people and nation-states.

  Third, China has not only the historical repercussions of the pre-Qin era, but also the realistic concern for the modern nation.

Gu Yanwu believes that "everyone is responsible for the rise and fall of the world." Chinese leaders advocate a "community with a shared future for mankind", or the modern transformation of this view of the world is a kind of historical responsibility for the "university of the world."

Data map: Panorama of the Confucius Museum.

Photo courtesy of Confucius Museum

  China News Agency reporter: Can the clash of civilizations be resolved with Chinese wisdom?

  Wang Jianbao: Yes.

  If Confucianism sums it up in one sentence, it is "learning for oneself."

"Do not do to others what you do not want it to" is a golden rule.

I don't want you to do to me, and I won't impose it on you.

Thinking carefully, "Do not do to others what you do not want to do" may seem negative, but in fact it guarantees peace and respect between each other. This is a kind of "forgiveness."

At the same time, there is a kind of positive "loyalty", called "self wants to build up people, self wants to reach people", I also let you be good.

  Confucian civilization is a civilization of learning.

In Chinese history, there were no professional clergymen who went to preach everywhere.

A civilization of learning rather than a missionary civilization, let alone a civilization of invading and conquering others, can embrace all rivers, and in the process of forming an organic community, it may eliminate all kinds of centralism and extreme ideas.

This tradition can provide very good spiritual resources for the dialogue among civilizations.

  For example, the United Nations was established shortly after World War II, but the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, one of its basic laws, was difficult to sign due to its multiple contexts.

Chinese scholar Zhang Pengchun suggested that the "Manifesto" should take into account other ideas than Western thought, and "Consciousness", "Duty" and "Brotherhood" should be written into the "Manifesto", breaking the deadlock at that time.

  The example of the "Manifesto" shows that Eastern values ​​need to be awakened by Western values, and Western values ​​need Eastern values ​​to remedy their shortcomings.

vice versa.

On June 8, the "Light of Ancient Shu" exhibition was held at the Fengxian Museum in Shanghai.

The picture shows citizens entering the exhibition hall to visit.

Photo by Yin Liqin

  China News Agency reporter: In the process of dialogue with Western civilization, how can Chinese civilization be better understood and accepted?

  Wang Jianbao: The biggest problem in China is that it has not found its own discourse system and has not formed a collective common consciousness with a critical spirit.

Although China now has audiences from all over the world and has entered the center of the global stage, how to tell the Chinese story well in a language understood by others, especially Westerners, is worthy of everyone's joint thinking and efforts.

  On the one hand, China should return to its own spiritual tradition, establish cultural identity with cultural consciousness, and build cultural self-confidence; at the same time, it should continue to communicate and dialogue with the world, and resolve the conflicts of civilizations in the process of global civilization dialogue.

  Of course, China must sympathize with the difficulties of Western civilization.

First, "Monotheism" is working hard to develop a universal language that transcends the teachings of this religion; second, modern society, which has dispelled the sense of sacredness and awe, needs to be "reenchanted"; third, the values ​​of freedom and human rights generated since the Enlightenment may be It is universal, but it is not enough. After all, the global gap between rich and poor is so wide that freedom and justice cannot justify.

  "All things grow together without harming each other, and Taoism does not contradict each other." We should abandon the Cold War mentality, transcend the distinction of things, transcend the debate between ancient and modern, and transcend the dispute between body and function.

No matter what the west is, the world is one family.

Take benevolence as the body to realize a community with a shared future for mankind.

(Finish)