(East-West Question) Special Plan for the Roots of Civilization (3) No. 8: Li Yun: Why is the "Belt and Road" not neo-colonial?
China News Agency, Beijing, February 28th: Li Yun: Why is the "Belt and Road" not neo-colonial?
China News Agency reporter Pang Wuji
Where will a rising China go?
The question caught the world's attention.
In recent years, with the eastward shift of the world's economic center of gravity, China, as the "hub" of the global supply chain, has become an inseparable part of globalization.
How does China get along with the world?
Will China's door open wider and wider?
Why is the "Belt and Road" initiative proposed by China definitely not neo-colonial?
Most of these questions can be answered from history and culture.
China News Agency's "East and West Questions" column recently interviewed Li Jun, a professor at the School of Politics and Public Administration of China University of Political Science and Law, trying to decode the "open" element from the genes of Chinese civilization.
The interview transcript is as follows:
China News Service reporter: From a historical perspective, what do you think of the open elements in the genes of Chinese civilization?
Li Jun:
In fact, Chinese civilization has always been very open.
From a geographical point of view, there must be "east, north, south," and then "zhong", so the name of China and the most important cultural symbol "zhong" are assumed. We are with others, and others also gather to us. .
In addition to the concept of geography, the use of the word "中" as a cultural symbol also integrates human nature and how Chinese civilization views people.
For example, it is said in "The Doctrine of the Mean": "The joys, sorrows, sorrows and joys are not released, which is called the middle."
In addition, there are many images of openness buried in the root of Chinese culture.
For example, when Confucius traveled around the world, he knew the existence of barbarians and told everyone: "Don't think, don't have to, don't be rigid, don't be me", that is: don't be self-centered, we do not exist alone.
More than 2,000 years ago, open cultural genes were deeply planted in the root of Chinese civilization.
For example, "The Analects of Confucius" says that "there must be my teacher in three people's walks", which is such an open attitude to learn from others.
Confucius Temple in Beijing, primary school students recite Chinese classics.
Photo by Zhang Hao issued by China News Agency
Most of the cultural sages after Confucius inherited such genes.
For example, "Records of the Grand Historian" describes the surrounding worlds of Central Plains cultures such as Korea, Dawan, and Dongyue in the form of biographies.
Later, "Twenty-Four Histories" covered the wider world.
This shows that China's orthodox history books do not only write about the Central Plains, but take into account the wider area and preserve it as a tradition.
Therefore, openness is very abundant in the root of Chinese culture.
China News Service reporter: There have been many civilizations in human history. Some people say that the Chinese civilization is the only civilization that can last for thousands of years. What role do you think openness plays in that?
Li Jun:
Actually, it is not necessarily the only Chinese civilization that has not been interrupted.
How to measure "continuous", race, culture, region or history?
For a civilization that has lasted for thousands of years, the race will change, or it will be mixed with other ethnic groups, and it is difficult to guarantee who is pure and pure.
The most important thing is to preserve the essence of culture.
For example, the Greeks left reason, and the Romans left the republic. Although the Greek city-state world perished, and the Roman republic was replaced by the monarchy, these good things of mankind have survived.
Some civilization seems to have disappeared, but its essence has been merged by another civilization.
In the long history, various civilizations have inherited and blended with each other, and the body of each civilization has accepted the soul of others and has become a part of itself.
Chinese civilization itself brings together the outstanding achievements of other civilizations.
In this sense, the continuity of Chinese civilization is not only its own achievements, but also the result of openness, tolerance, and active acceptance.
China News Service reporter: Specifically, how did opening up shape Chinese civilization?
Li Jun:
Roughly speaking, we can see how the open Chinese civilization has expanded and upgraded step by step from the three stages of the changes in Zhou and Qin, the changes in the Han and Tang Dynasties, and the changes in the Ming and Qing dynasties.
A change: At first, Chinese civilization was only concentrated in the so-called Central Plains, but when the Qin Dynasty unified, elements that were originally different from the Central Plains culture were integrated.
In the territory of the Zhou Dynasty, in addition to the Central Plains, the state of Qi in the east has formed a maritime business culture, the state of Qin in the west has a martial style, and the state of Chu in the south has the characteristics of witchcraft culture.
During the Zhou and Qin dynasties, these cultures were first-class, and China was no longer a single cultural substance, but a "compound".
Dragon boat racing on the Dragon Boat Festival originated in the ancient state of Chu, which had a witchcraft culture.
Photo by China News Agency reporter Lu Wenwei
The second change: This kind of opening and integration was further expanded in the Sui and Tang dynasties.
The Xiongnu, Xianbei, Jie, Di, and Qiang all merged into the Chinese civilization, and the mixture of the north and the south reached a new peak. Compared with the Qin emperor and Han Wu's "rejection of the Xiongnu from the north", the pattern is very different.
Three changes: By the Ming and Qing dynasties, a Chinese territory similar to the big rooster that people are familiar with now was formed geographically.
In addition to Manchu, Mongolian, Han, Tibetan and Hui, there are more ethnic groups included, and this "compound" of culture has expanded again compared to the Sui and Tang Dynasties.
It can be seen that when every nation and every so-called heterogeneous factor, when we are open to acceptance, and reach a stable, reciprocal and common identity, the Chinese civilization will expand and upgrade.
This process has been repeated, and Chinese civilization has become rich and graceful.
China News Service: Before the advent of modern means of transportation, China already had the Silk Road. In 2013, China proposed the "Belt and Road" initiative. What do you think of the inheritance of the Silk Road across time and space?
Li Jun:
The ancient Silk Road cannot be simply understood as a one-way trade.
It is a complex with various contents such as trade, politics, religion, military, etc.
It's not just a road, it's a "world".
The proposal of the "One Belt, One Road" initiative shows that China is not only capable, but also has the tolerance to create a new "world", which is the inevitable result of the self-improvement of Chinese civilization.
If any big country wants to develop, it must "go out".
In the new era, the "Belt and Road" initiative is one of the ways for China to "go global".
It is not only a process of finding business opportunities and partners, but more importantly, it is also an evolutionary process of Chinese civilization re-polishing itself in the new era.
China News Service reporter: Why do you say that from the perspective of cultural genes, the "Belt and Road" is by no means neo-colonialism?
Li Jun:
China's "going out" will not be "colonialism".
On the one hand, it has to do with our meme.
Neither the teachings of Confucius nor the empires of China have ever used colonialism to occupy new territories and plunder resources.
Moreover, in modern times, China has been bullied by others, understands the pain, and will not bully others in this way.
On the other hand, China actually has some kind of "flaw".
China has no experience and skills of colonial rule at all.
The colonial game has its own specific rules and conditions.
First of all, politically, the nation-state is the unit, with the standing army, the bureaucratic taxation team, and a series of state "hard machines" as the backbone.
Second, the global expansion of capitalism is an important motivation.
Third, it requires the connection between the capitalist core country, the source of raw materials, and the place where commodities are dumped in the production process.
These conditions were not met in China in modern times.
So some wrong or even evil things, China has not been contaminated.
The name of the city "Semarang", the capital of Indonesia's Central Java Province, originated from Zheng He.
The picture shows the statue of Zheng He erected high in the Sanbaogong Temple, a famous local scenic spot.
Photo by China News Agency reporter Liu Kegeng
China News Service reporter: China once experienced the closed-door country during the Ming and Qing Dynasties. What lessons did the negative side of opening bring in throughout China's history? How did Chinese civilization learn this lesson?
Li Jun:
According to the understanding of the modern world, it is usually thought that the isolation of the country brings the limitation of economic scale.
Adam Smith said at the beginning of The Wealth of Nations that the effectiveness of a market economy is proportional to its scale. The larger the scale, the finer the division of labor, the higher the labor productivity, and the stronger the competitiveness.
If it is a prison and self-limited scale, a country's economic competitiveness will naturally be worse than an open system and will be surpassed sooner or later.
Another very important aspect is that closure can lead to mental blockage, lack of imagination and knowledge, resulting in defiant and self-willed.
Mr. Mao Haijian wrote in "The Collapse of the Celestial Dynasty" that after the Emperor Daoguang had lost the Opium War to the British and signed the Sino-British Nanjing Treaty, he also asked where is England and what kind of barbarian is he?
Paintings reflecting the Opium War.
Photo by Guo Junfeng issued by China News Agency
If you lose the war, you don't know who your opponent is. This is the result of the closure of the Ming and Qing Dynasties for hundreds of years.
Therefore, in modern times, after being closed and injured, an endless stream of people with lofty ideals is also finding a state of openness, diversity, tolerance and acceptance.
For example, when Wei Yuan wrote "Maps of the State of the Sea", he started from "learning from the barbarians to control barbarians".
China News Service: Since the Third Plenary Session of the Eleventh Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, China's economy and society have developed rapidly in the course of reform and opening up. Has this process strengthened the weight of opening up in Chinese culture and the perception of the Chinese people?
Li Jun:
Of course, the opening up over the past 40 years can be said to be the largest and most profound opening that has never been seen in Chinese history.
In history, a lot of opening up was ignorant and passive, but the 40 years of reform and opening up have been very conscious from the very beginning.
Everyone understands, touches, perceives, and embraces openness in their own life practice.
After more than 40 years of opening up, it has become a consensus that "China is the China of the world, and the world is a world with China".
Now we share the same sorrow and joy with the world, and resonate with the same frequency.
For example, when the basketball player Kobe Bryant died in a plane crash the year before, Chinese fans felt sad; last year, when Messi left the team, Chinese fans were also angry.
A collection of jerseys dedicated to NBA star Kobe Bryant displayed on Nanjing Road in Shanghai.
Photo by Chen Yuyu issued by China News Agency
Therefore, for Chinese people, opening up is already a state of habit and nature, and there is no need to describe any high-end philosophy or political science in theory. It is a state that everyone does not know in their daily life.
Judging from the long cycle of historical development, as a nation with openness as the gene of civilization, once the door is opened, it will not be closed again.
(over)
Interviewee Profile:
Photo by China News Agency reporter Han Haidan
Li Jun is a professor and doctoral supervisor at China University of Political Science and Law.