(East-West Question) Chen Ji: How many cultural genes and emotional visions does Fu Culture carry?
China News Agency, Fuzhou, February 14th, Question: Chen Ji: How many cultural genes and emotional visions does the blessing culture carry?
China News Agency reporter Long Min
In China, the traditional custom of posting "blessings" during the Spring Festival has continued so far.
At the Beijing Winter Olympics, IOC President Bach held the character "Fu" in his hand to send blessings to the Chinese people for the New Year of the Tiger.
How many cultural genes and emotional vision does the word "Fu" carry?
Chen Ji, vice president of the China Intangible Cultural Heritage Protection Association and an expert in blessing culture, recently accepted an exclusive interview with China News Agency "Dongxi Wen" to explain this.
The following is a summary of the interview transcript:
China News Service reporter: As an important part of Chinese culture, blessing culture has a long history. What is the historical accumulation and cultural connotation? At present, what is the practical and world significance of promoting blessing culture?
Chen Ji:
The Chinese blessing culture has a long history, and it lasts forever.
The word "Fu" appeared in the oldest hieroglyphics in China, with a history of about three thousand years.
Experts have verified that the custom of pasting blessing characters has started at least since the Southern Song Dynasty. At the same time, various ceremonies and activities such as blessing, praying for blessings, blessings, asking for blessings, receiving blessings, receiving blessings, and touching blessings have also been passed down to this day and become a unique life of the Chinese nation. Customs and cultural symbols.
On January 1, 2022, people held a blessing and a New Year's celebration under the Liuhe Pagoda, a thousand-year-old pagoda in Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province.
Photo by China News Agency reporter Wang Gang
Xu Shen's "Shuowen Jiezi" contains: "Fu, you are also. Cong Shi, the sound of the sound." The word "Fu" in oracle bone inscriptions shows that a person holds a utensil full of wine with both hands and dedicates it to the gods or ancestors It shows that since its birth, "blessing" contains two parts: beautiful cultural connotations and blessing rituals mainly based on "sacrificial sacrifices".
The family has surplus grain and wine for sacrifices, which means that the life is rich. Therefore, in the blessing culture tradition of Chinese culture, "rich" is the proper meaning of the "blessing" title.
The Eastern Han Dynasty scholar Liu Xi said in the "Release of Names": "Fu is also rich."
In the process of dissemination, the Chinese have made a lot of generalizations on the connotation of "blessing", of which the most representative is the "five blessings".
"Five blessings" first appeared in "Shangshu·Hongfan", the so-called "five blessings", "one is longevity, the second is wealth, the third is Kang Ning, the fourth is good morality, and the fifth is life test", in fact, it is about longevity , wealthy, healthy, virtuous, old age without illness, that this kind of life is the most perfect.
In the Later Han Dynasty, Huan Tan adjusted the "five blessings" to "longevity, wealth, honor, happiness, and many descendants" in "Xin Lun, Distinguishing Doubts 13".
Today, after thousands of years of evolution, the "five blessings" have been summarized as "Fu, Lu, Longevity, Joy, and Wealth".
On February 1, 2022, the first day of the Lunar New Year, Beijing citizens bask in the word "Fu" in the Temple of Heaven Park.
Photo by China News Agency reporter Jiang Qiming
From the evolution of the connotation of the "five blessings", we can see that the "blessing" of the Chinese is a collection of "three thousand favors". The yearning for a happy life also expresses wishes for a better future. "Fu" has become a collection of auspicious and beautiful things.
At present, when we promote blessing culture, it is not only the inherent need to carry forward and inherit the excellent traditional Chinese culture, but also the practical need to strengthen the construction of spiritual civilization in the new era.
In the process of Chinese people's growth, "seeking blessings, receiving blessings, cherishing blessings, and blessings" are all familiar teachings and expectations.
After thousands of years, "blessing" has been inherited and precipitated in the long history of Chinese civilization, and it has become the core identity and the most persistent watch in the collective consciousness and national sentiment of the Chinese people, and it has become one of the well-deserved cultural genes.
From ancient times to the present, whether princes, princes or commoners, people have believed in, prayed for, and accepted blessings in various ways; whether in the Golden Palace in the Forbidden City or the thatched huts in the rural alleys, they all posted the same word for "blessing" and spread the same kind of blessing. "Fu" culture.
It can be said that blessing culture is the most sought after theme and positive energy throughout the ages, and it is even more so today when "people's yearning for a better life is our goal".
The character "Fu" and the Spring Festival couplets displayed in the shop are handwritten.
Photo courtesy of the interviewee
China News Service reporter: Why does Fujian promote the culture of blessing, build a brand of blessing culture, and promote the culture of blessing to go out?
Chen Ji:
Fujian is a place where Chinese blessing culture gathers together.
Fujian and Fuzhou are the only provincial-level administrative regions and capital cities in China named with the word "Fu" respectively. They contain a rich and colorful blessing culture and have nurtured an eye-catching "benefit" cultural heritage.
In terms of "benefiting" cultural heritage, Fuzhou has seen the world's first man Lin Zexu in modern times, Shen Baozhen, the father of Fujian shipping, modern enlightenment thinker Yan Fu, Lin Shu who first translated Western literary works, and Lin Xu who devoted himself to reform and reform. , Lin Juemin who died in the Guangzhou Uprising and other "Fuzhou Ten Heroes".
These people not only made outstanding achievements for Fuzhou and Fujian, but also became enlighteners and promoters of China's modernization.
Among them, Lin Zexu's political responsibility of "Going Li's country's life and death, why avoid it because of misfortune and good fortune", Lin Juemin's "Book with Wife", "I am happy to sacrifice the welfare of my body and your body, and seek eternal happiness for the world". It can be called the common aspiration and aspiration of China to benefit people from generation to generation.
There is a pair of couplets known as the best in Fujian. The first couplet is "Fuzhou, Fuqing, Fuding, Fu'an, Fu'an and Wufu Linmen", the bottom couplet is "Yong'an Hui'an Nan'an Zhao'an Hua'an Four Seasons Peace", and the horizontal "Changle Yongan".
This couplet uses all the place names in Fujian.
Therefore, to vigorously promote the blessing culture, build the blessing culture brand, and promote the blessing culture to go out, Fujian not only has the unique conditions, but also the historical logic and practical logic of accelerating the development for the benefit of the people.
The light show by the Minjiang River in Fuzhou showcases the blessing culture.
Photo courtesy of the interviewee
China News Service reporter: Does the West also have blessed culture? What are the similarities and differences between Chinese and Western blessing cultures?
Chen Ji:
Many Western philosophers, experts and scholars have studied and expounded on the cultural construction of happiness.
For example, in the Bible, there is a saying of the "Better Beatitudes", which are called the poor in spirit, the mourning, the meek, the hungry and thirsty for righteousness, the merciful, the pure in heart, the peacemaker, and the Those who are persecuted by righteousness are "blessed", but this "blessing" is not the same concept as the Chinese "blessing", it is the blessing of God in the Christian guilt culture.
There is no doubt that "happiness" is the common pursuit of people both at home and abroad.
Although affected by the historical development and cultural differences between the East and the West, the specific definition and thinking of happiness will be different.
In general, the pursuit of happiness by Westerners has different paths such as sensibility, rationality and virtue, forming different factions such as sensualism, asceticism and rationalism, and rational speculation and religious color will be more prominent.
But wherever and whenever, yearning for a better life is the common wish of people of all countries and a common value respected by the international community.
In February 2018, in New York, the United States, elementary school students from Beijing and New York displayed the character "Fu" they wrote.
Photo by China News Agency reporter Liao Pan
China News Service reporter: How to promote Fu culture to the world and promote exchanges and mutual learning between Chinese and Western civilizations?
Chen Ji:
President Xi Jinping emphasized in his 2022 New Year's message: "All countries in the world stand together through thick and thin, unite and cooperate to write a new chapter in building a community with a shared future for mankind." Pursuit, all countries work together to benefit the people of the world, and the world will be blessed.
Fu Culture is speeding up to the world.
Last year, I wrote five "Fu" characters in the five styles of Chinese calligraphy, including seal, clerical, cursive, regular, and xing, and combined with Fuzhou's characteristic lacquer art, I made the "Five Fu" lacquer calligraphy work "Blessed State, Blessed Together". ", was selected as the official cultural publicity material by the 44th World Heritage Conference, and was loved by guests from all over the world.
During the Spring Festival of the Year of the Tiger, the Fu Culture logo of "Fu Xing Gao Zhao, Bless China" appeared on the big screen of Times Square in New York for three consecutive days; on February 8, Fu Culture entered the mayor's residence in New York and appeared in the newly-appointed New York Mayor Adams in the celebration of the Lunar New Year of the Tiger Year of the Tiger.
"Five blessings" lacquer calligraphy work "Blessed states share blessings".
Photo courtesy of the interviewee
In building a community with a shared future for mankind, the "blessing culture" can be a good propellant and lubricant.
In order to promote the Chinese "blessing culture" to the world and be known, recognized and accepted by the people of the world and the international community, the key is to use a variety of media to tell the story of Chinese blessing culture, and advocate and call on all countries in the world to join hands to benefit the people of the world.
Among them, three basic consensuses should be established:
First, adhere to common prosperity.
"Rich" is the basic meaning of "Fu".
Economic strength is the basis of comprehensive national strength and an important prerequisite for people of all countries to live a happy life.
For the world to be prosperous, it is not spring to stand alone, but a hundred flowers bloom in spring, and a win-win situation and common prosperity are the only options.
The second is to adhere to the value of peace.
Although "harmony" does not appear in the "five blessings", no matter what kind of "blessing", "harmony" is the background color.
No happy life can be built on conflict and war.
Although peace and development are still the mainstream in today's world, local conflicts and wars have never ceased.
Every time I see those people who have been displaced or even lost their lives in conflicts and wars, especially those innocent women and children, it makes me feel sad and cherish peace and tranquility.
In February 2021, the shape of the word "Fu" posted on the Ming City Wall in Nanjing, Jiangsu.
Photo by China News Agency reporter Yang Bo
The third is to insist on seeking common ground while reserving differences.
The famous American scholar Samuel Huntington proposed that in the post-Cold War world, the basic source of conflict is no longer ideology, but cultural differences, and the "clash of civilizations" will dominate the world.
The prevalence of the "Clash of Civilizations Theory" has bolstered the "political correctness" of the Western logic of supremacy of power and hegemony.
China's "blessing culture" is precisely the corrector of the "clash of civilizations" theory.
The experience of human history shows that the diversity of civilization is the inevitable result of the development of human history. The greatness of civilization lies in its variety. The right path of civilization should be mutual respect and tolerance and a natural integration and development, rather than artificial conflicts. .
There is only one earth for human beings, and the world should be like a family with "blessing".
(Finish)
Interviewee Profile:
Chen Ji, Vice President of China Intangible Cultural Heritage Protection Association, Researcher of Chinese Calligraphy Court of China National Academy of Arts, Expert of Fu Culture, Judge with Senior Title of Fine Arts (Calligraphy) Major of Ministry of Culture and Tourism, Evaluation Expert of National Art Fund-funded Project, "Fujian Nationality" Director of the Steering Committee of the "Rescue Project for Famous Calligraphy and Painting", chief expert of intangible cultural heritage research at Fuzhou University, and vice-chairman of the 4th Fujian Calligraphers Association.