(East-West Question) Special Plan for the Root of Civilization (3) Part 1: Liu Cheng: Why do you say that the connotation of peace is far more than "no war"?

  China News Agency, Beijing, February 21, Question: Why do you say that the connotation of peace is far more than "no war"?

  ——Interview with Professor Liu Cheng, Professor of the School of History, Nanjing University, Chair of the UNESCO Chair in Peace Studies, and Director of the Institute of Peace Studies

  China News Agency reporter Zhu Fangfang

  At the beginning of 2022, the leaders of the five nuclear-weapon states of China, France, Russia, the United States, and the United States simultaneously issued the Joint Statement on Preventing Nuclear War and Avoiding an Arms Race, once again demonstrating that peace is the common value of all mankind and bringing more hope to the world.

  Peace, which has been in the blood of the Chinese since ancient times, has been one of the core demands of the Chinese nation for thousands of years.

The first sentence of "Sun Tzu's Art of War" clearly states: "The soldier is the major event of the country, the place of life and death, the way of life and death, and it must be observed." The essence of it is to fight carefully and not fight.

How to understand and shape peace from a broader perspective?

What will China's concept of peace bring to the world?

Liu Cheng, a professor at the School of History of Nanjing University, the host of the UNESCO Chair of Peace Studies, and the director of the Institute of Peace Studies, recently accepted an exclusive interview with China News Agency "East and West Questions" to explain.

The first sentence of "Sun Tzu's Art of War" clearly states: "The soldier is the major event of the country, the place of life and death, and the way of life and death, which must be observed."

Photo by Zhang Bingtao issued by China News Agency

The following is a summary of the interview transcript:

China News Agency reporter: Peace and war often appear in correspondence. Can it be called peace without war?

Liu Cheng:

The destructive consequences of war, especially the damage to human life, have repeatedly appeared in human history, leaving behind painful memories.

Especially since modern times, war has posed a threat to human civilization.

Thus, war becomes the opposite of peace, there is no peace without war, or in other words, peace means no war.

But this is a static way of thinking that ignores the institutional structural and cultural reasons for war.

  Peace without war is of course very important, and it focuses on all aspects of preventing war, such as eliminating nuclear weapons, weapons of mass destruction, reducing the number of troops, etc.

This kind of peace can be called "negative peace", which is more concerned with current and short-term security issues.

Roman-style peace is a typical negative peace. People must obey Roman law and must be socially and politically controlled.

Achieving peace through the "balance of power", establishing the League of Nations and the United Nations, promulgating international law, establishing an international tribunal, etc., are all means of trying to achieve negative peace.

On September 21, 2021, the general debate of the 76th United Nations General Assembly opened at the United Nations Headquarters in New York.

Photo by China News Agency reporter Liao Pan

  But the negative peace without war has never been realized, which led to the pessimistic conclusion of Kant, Einstein and others that it is impossible for mankind to eliminate war.

Wars are decided by people, driven by their interests, sometimes to preserve the freedom and justice of the people, and sometimes to preserve the self-interest of groups or individuals, that is, their power, religion, and economic influence.

War is cruel and all moral rules hardly work in war.

  After World War II, academic circles began to rethink the meaning of peace, and the concept of "positive peace" came into being.

Positive peace goes beyond the connotation of "absence of war", it includes key themes such as healthy living, human rights protection, racial equality, gender empowerment, ecological protection, etc. It means creating a beautiful and safe space that can be home, family, Communities, schools, workplaces, nations, international societies where people can live in abundance and survive decently.

  Positive peace includes four aspects: First, natural peace, which refers to cooperation between species rather than struggle.

The second is direct peace, including verbal and material benevolence, concerned with the basic needs, survival, happiness, freedom, and identity of all people. Love is the epitome of it, that is, the fusion of body, mind, and soul.

The third is structural peace. Freedom replaces oppression and equality replaces exploitation. The way to achieve this replacement is dialogue rather than penetration, integration rather than division, unity rather than isolation, and participation rather than marginalization.

Fourth is cultural peace, replacing the legitimacy of violence with the legitimacy of peace, within religion, law, ideology, language, arts and sciences, in schools, universities and the media, to create a positive culture of peace, it means Open rather than inhibit the different tendencies and talents of human beings.

In November 2021, in the Ta'er Temple in Qinghai, believers light butter lamps to pray for peace and auspiciousness.

Photo by China News Agency reporter Zhang Tianfu

China News Service reporter: Peace is one of the core concepts of traditional Chinese culture. What are the commonalities and differences between Eastern and Western understandings of peace?

Liu Cheng:

People's pursuit of peace may be as old as human history.

The English Peace comes from the Latin Pax, which means the absence of war under the hegemonic order.

"Peace" in Chinese means harmony, stability and order.

Literally speaking, compared with the peace in China, the peace in English lacks the content of positive peace.

However, the English adjective Peaceful also has the connotation of positive peace.

  The concept of peace is a historical category with different key connotations in different historical stages. Even within the same country or nation, its meaning will change with the times.

There was such a debate at a peace conference abroad: a scholar from a Western country emphasized the threat to peace from the global arms trade.

At the same time, a scholar from the East believes that eradicating hunger or extreme poverty is a more urgent task to achieve peace.

  Peace Studies originally originated in European and American countries, but the core concepts originated in the East, such as the non-violence of India, the balance of yin and yang of Chinese Taoism, and the ideas of "harmony in living things, but no success in the same", "universal love and non-attack", and "turning war into jade and silk".

Calton, the father of peace theory, believes that "peace is the creative realization of the transformation of conflict in a non-violent way".

The concept of positive peace is based on an understanding of broad social conditions, that justice and equality are fundamental elements of peace, and advocates the elimination of all forms of discrimination based on class, ethics, tribe, age, religion, race and gender, etc. , which focuses on a future, lasting, comprehensive peace.

This is consistent with the Chinese culture's understanding of peace.

Mozi's hometown in Tengzhou, Shandong Province, the ceremony of offering sacrifices to Mo.

"Universal love and non-attack" is the main ideological viewpoint of the Mohist school.

Photo by China News Agency reporter Yan Feng

  Since the 1960s, the concept of positive peace has been accepted by more people in Eastern and Western countries, including Eastern and Western countries.

Peaceology can be compared with medicine, medicine diagnoses people's health status, and peaceology diagnoses the violent state of human society; medicine can perform surgical resection (Western medicine) or physical conditioning (Chinese medicine), and peaceology can reduce direct violence (negative). peace) or improving living conditions (positive peace).

With the popularity of peace studies around the world, as Chinese culture is more known and accepted by the world, the understanding of the rich connotation of peace and the cognition of resolving conflicts through peaceful means will continue to converge.

China News Service: China has creatively transformed the traditional culture of harmony, put forward a new concept of international relations with win-win cooperation as the core, and issued an initiative to build a community with a shared future for mankind. Does this reflect China's concept of peace?

Liu Cheng:

China has become the world's second largest economy and a rising power.

Chinese traditional thought and history and culture contain rich concepts of peace. China's diplomacy has always followed the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence and pursued the policy of peaceful diplomacy. In recent years, it has put forward an initiative to build a community with a shared future for mankind, demonstrating China's peaceful image as a responsible major country.

China not only develops itself by maintaining world peace, but also maintains world peace through its own development.

Culture and fundamental interests determine that China is an advocate, defender and defender of world peace.

  From a global perspective, the relationship between cultures, religions and countries is divided into four different models, and the choices vary from country to country.

The first is the "self" model, which is the belief that one's own culture, religion, and ethnicity are the best and higher.

In this self-centered realization, all other cultures, religions, and nations cannot be compared to the self.

Such as imperialism, colonialism, racism are examples.

The second is the "plurality" model, which is a lifeworld where different cultures, religions and nations coexist.

In the process of each party's pursuit of self-equality, it is often accompanied by fierce competition, hostility, violence, and even war.

The third is the "interaction" model, that is, all our cultures, religions and peoples exist and develop through interaction, exchange and cooperation.

The fourth "integration" is the highest-level model, where all people sit in the same boat, live in the same world, have the same experiences, aspirations and troubles (e.g. ecological issues), and are bound together in a global social network as a whole.

Obviously, what the community with a shared future for mankind reveals is the goal and approach of this fusion model. It is the product of Chinese culture and wisdom, a non-violent approach to peace, and embodies China's concept of peace.

In December 2017, the first "South-South Human Rights Forum" with the theme of "Building a Community of Shared Future for Mankind: New Opportunities for South-South Human Rights Development" was held in Beijing.

More than 300 representatives, officials, experts and scholars from more than 70 countries and international organizations attended the forum.

The picture shows Willy Nyamitwe, the chief press adviser to the President of Burundi, reading the "Beijing Declaration".

Photo by China News Agency reporter Han Haidan

  Peace starts from common interests and understanding. Understanding is not the same as identification, but it can avoid conflicts caused by cognitive differences.

The second step is characterized by mutual tolerance, followed by reconciliation, forming an interdependent mind and force.

The third step is mutual acceptance beyond simple tolerance. Differences become the reason for enriching oneself.

The fourth step is to value the traditions and cherishing of others. When people build a bridge to each other together, they will find that another world is equally wonderful.

The final step is the interconnection of human society into a united and fraternal community.

  The 16-character motto put forward by Mr. Fei Xiaotong - "each is beautiful, the beauty of the beauties, the beauty and the beauty together, the world is harmonious", expresses this non-violent way to achieve peace.

Taking the Beijing Winter Olympics as an example, "beautiful beauty" means that athletes from all delegations can perform at their best on the stage of competition; , the audience appreciates the demeanor of the athletes; "beauty and beauty share, the world is united", through exchanges and mutual learning, the Winter Olympics presents a colorful world, displays multiculturalism, highlights "one world, one dream", and promotes a community with a shared future for mankind 's build.

On February 2, 2022, athletes train at the National Biathlon Center in the Zhangjiakou Division to prepare for the Beijing Winter Olympics.

Photo by China News Agency reporter Tomita

  Of course, differences are not unimportant.

The concept of a community with a shared future for mankind is not to ignore differences, but to respect and transcend differences by seeking commonalities, and ultimately achieve the common goal of positive and peaceful mankind in the new era.

(over)

Interviewee Profile:

  Liu Cheng is a professor and doctoral supervisor of world history at the School of History, Nanjing University, specializing in British history and peace studies.

He graduated from Nanjing University in 2001 with a doctorate in history.

He is currently the Holder of UNESCO Chair on Peace Studies at Nanjing University, director of the Institute of British and Commonwealth Studies at Nanjing University, and director of the Institute of Peace Studies at Nanjing University; concurrently serving as the International Association for Peace Studies ( Director of IPRA), member of the Steering Committee of the Northeast Asia Peace Education Institute (NARPI), and director of the International Peace Cities Association (ICP).

Selected by the Ministry of Education's "New Century Excellent Talents Support Program" (2008).

He has gone to universities in the UK, Germany, the United States, Canada, Belgium and other places for academic exchanges.