Spread Chinese civilization and promote mutual learning between China and the West

——Keynote speech at the 7th Nishan Forum on World Civilization

On September 27th, Pan Yue, vice minister of the Central United Front Work Department and director of the Overseas Chinese Affairs Office of the State Council, delivered a keynote speech at the 7th Nishan Forum on World Civilizations.

Photo by China News Agency reporter Sheng Jiapeng

　　First of all, on behalf of the Overseas Chinese Affairs Office of the State Council, which participated in the host for the first time, I sincerely wish the China (Qufu) International Confucius Culture Festival and Nishan World Civilization Forum a complete success in 2021.

At the celebration meeting for the centennial of the founding of the party three months ago, President Xi Jinping solemnly declared that socialism with Chinese characteristics has created a new form of human civilization.

This is a very important conclusion, and for the first time socialism with Chinese characteristics has been elevated to the level of civilization.

This is because five thousand years of Chinese civilization has shaped the roots and background of this new form of civilization.

Mainly reflected in five aspects.

First, the Chinese civilization contains the way of unity and stability.

Chinese civilization has never been interrupted, and its roots are in unification.

The great unification is the first political concern of the Chinese people. It is a collective consensus formed by countless blood lessons. No foreign theory can be shaken.

The Great Unification has a whole set of systems to support it, such as the county system, the imperial examination system, the civil service system, the squire system, the supervisory system, the historian system, and so on.

As long as you are Chinese, you have to recognize Chinese civilization; as long as you recognize Chinese civilization, you have to recognize great unification; as long as you recognize great unification, you will inevitably defend the political bottom line of indivisibility of the country, the country in chaos, the nation cannot be separated, and the civilization cannot be broken.

Obviously, this is not the dictatorship that the West has attacked us with only "one voice", but a symphony composed of various voices, which is inseparable from the octave unison of all voices, let alone the commander-in-chief. The centering coordination.

Nowadays, some Western countries have fallen into the predicament of political tearing, and it is time to listen to our Chinese symphony amidst the noise.

　The second is that Chinese civilization contains the principle of pluralism and unity.

President Xi Jinping said at the National Work Conference recently that the Chinese nation and Chinese civilization embodies the connotation of "multiple unity" everywhere.

Historically, China has no shortage of diverse ethnic groups and diverse religions.

But no matter how diverse ethnic groups are, they can always be united by their destiny; no matter how diverse their religions are, they can always coexist harmoniously because of mutual learning and exchanges.

Because the multi-unity structure is maintained not by race, by blood, nor by religion, but by recognition of Chinese culture.

When any ethnic minority regime decides the Central Plains, it actively inherits the Chinese institutional system and ethical system; any religion enters China without the exclusiveness of one or the other and integrates into the thought system of Chinese civilization.

You can count how many ethnic minority emperors have erected monuments for Confucius in Qufu.

All these provide a reference for the international community to deal with ethnic, religious, and ideological conflicts today.

　The third is that Chinese civilization contains the way of tolerance and openness.

The Chinese civilization has a learning spirit that draws on the strengths of various schools, and has the grandeur of tolerating foreign civilizations.

From the east spread of Buddhism to the "Eastern Confucianism", and from the "western learning to the east" to the reform and opening up, Chinese civilization has always been innovating in all aspects.

The sinicization of Islam was completed in Nanjing and Yanzhou in Shandong hundreds of years ago.

The greatest integration in this century is precisely the combination of Marxism and Chinese excellent traditional culture.

Marxism is the seed of truth for the rejuvenation of the Chinese nation, and the excellent traditional Chinese culture is the cultural soil where Marxism takes root and results.

The deep integration of the two demonstrates the Chinese characteristics of socialism.

The story of socialism with Chinese characteristics strongly proves that history cannot be ended. It should be the arrogance and prejudice of Western centrism that should be ended.

China's continuous learning from the West does not mean that it will become the West, nor does it mean that it will threaten the West.

Chinese and Western civilizations should move towards the exchange and mutual learning of you and you, and should not fall into a life-and-death, either-or hostile conflict.

Facing Western civilization, Chinese civilization has always opened the door to dialogue and exchanges.

　The fourth is that Chinese civilization contains the ethics of responsibility.

Unlike Western civil society, which places more emphasis on contractual rights, Chinese civilization pays more attention to the ethics of responsibility, which is reflected in the dedication of loyalty, filial piety, and Xiu Qizhiping.

The Chinese civilization not only advocates "what should I own", but also emphasizes "what should I bear"; it not only emphasizes that individuals rely on the collective, and that responsibilities precede rights, but also emphasize that as much power we have, we must bear as much responsibility.

It is out of the ethics of responsibility that the Chinese always want to leave the green waters and mountains to future generations, take "get rich first and help rich later" as a matter of course, and take it as the party's mission to assume unlimited responsibility to the people.

Therefore, the Chinese Communist Party is not a representative of the interests of a small number of people, but a representative of the interests of the whole nation; it is not an electoral machine, but a mission-oriented party that governs for the people; it is not a group of powers that separates from the people, but does not export revolution but continuously revolutionizes itself. The advanced party.

　Fifth, the Chinese civilization contains the way of Zhongzheng and peace.

Traditionally, China has always maintained the neutrality in its handling of foreign relations, pursuing the beauty of each, the beauty of each other, the value of peace, and the harmony of all nations.

For thousands of years, even when our national power was at its peak, we never conquered and expanded outward, but relied on commerce and trade to cherish people from afar; never colonized neighboring countries, but relied on the tributary system to exchange rituals; never did foreign missions. Cultural hegemony, in Qufu, the government of the past dynasties has never organized a Confucian student to preach abroad.

In a word, there is no foreign expansion, no colonial plunder, no gunboat policy, and no forced cultural export in the history of Chinese civilization.

This is fundamentally different from the old and new imperialists that follow the law of the jungle.

　　Understand the way of Chinese civilization, we can understand that socialism with Chinese characteristics, as a new form of civilization, must be a peaceful, not a repetition of the rise of Western empires; it must be an autonomous, not a modernized version of the West; it must be a modern version of the West. Progressive, rather than the lonely self-admiration of the ancient civilization.

Although the Chinese civilization is the only great civilization in the world that has never been interrupted in the form of a country, many Western politicians and philosophers have never read Chinese history for hundreds of years. Of course, they don’t understand the way of Chinese civilization, let alone enter China. In the spiritual world of human beings, it can form self-righteous civilizational prejudice, or it can cause strategic misjudgment that harms others and self.

They will misjudge the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation as the rise of a new empire, misjudge the Eastern wisdom of the Pacific, which is large enough to accommodate the two great powers, to compete with the United States for hegemony, and misjudge the mutual learning and mutual learning of Chinese and Western civilizations as replacing the West. civilization.

Misreading other people's civilization is a small matter, and endangering human peace is a big deal.

Now is a crucial moment for Chinese and Western civilizations to sit down and get to know each other deeply.

　　Nowadays, many ancient civilized countries are striving to explore a non-Western modernization path rooted in their own civilization traditions.

These countries have been brilliant in ancient history, and have been invaded by the West in modern history. Later, they all began to learn from the West, and then they all gradually returned to their ancient civilization traditions after they had completed their modernization.

The key to this is both modernization and nationalization; it is necessary to learn from the West without becoming the West.

Because ancient civilizations contain valuable experience in resolving real dilemmas in the long history of history, they can better understand how to find a balance between tradition and modernity, diversity and unity, order and freedom.

　　Human society has once again come to a crossroads.

The development path competition rooted in different civilizations is sliding into the "new cold war" trap of hegemonic thinking; the development of emerging technologies and artificial intelligence is changing the operating logic of modern society; the epidemic, ecological crisis, and the polarization of the rich and the poor that mankind are facing together Such issues are testing the survival resilience of different civilizations.

We need dialogue, not confrontation.

The so-called universal values ​​promoted by the West are destined to be Western values ​​if they do not communicate and learn from Chinese civilization.

If the Chinese civilization does not engage in dialogue and exchanges with world civilizations, it cannot achieve innovative development either.

Any zero-sum game strategy based on "civilization superiority" has never been a civilization that can sustainably develop and grow. On the contrary, it is a sign that this civilization is becoming closed and declining.

Only cooperation and win-win is the ultimate way for human civilization, and only the exchanges and mutual learning of diverse civilizations can refine the common values ​​of mankind to meet the common challenges of the world.

Let us keep working hard!

(Author: Pan Yue, Vice Minister of the United Front Work Department of the Central Committee, Director of the Overseas Chinese Affairs Office of the State Council)