Beijing, 3 Mar (ZXS) -- How to reveal the modern significance of Chinese civilization in the comparison of civilizations?
The author: Zhang Xiping is a professor at Beijing University of Foreign Chinese and a distinguished professor at Beijing Language and Culture University
Xi Jinping, General Secretary of the CPC Central Committee and President of the People's Republic of China, recently proposed the Global Civilization Initiative, pointing out: "We must jointly advocate attaching importance to the inheritance and innovation of civilization, fully tap the value of the times of the history and culture of various countries, and promote the creative transformation and innovative development of the excellent traditional culture of all countries in the process of modernization." "This is very important for us to re-understand the value of Eastern and Western civilizations."
For a long time, both Chinese and European history studies have been carried out on a country-by-country basis. In fact, in addition to internal factors, the exchange and interaction with external civilizations is also an important reason for the development and change of various civilizations and even countries.
Liang Qichao once said that the study of Chinese history can be divided into three stages: "China of China", "China of Asia" and "China of the world". Mr. Lei Haizong, a well-known historian, once pointed out that the study of world history should pay attention to the connection and mutual influence between China and other parts of the world, and pay attention to China's contribution to the development of human civilization in the world. The current research on the history of cultural exchanges on the Silk Road in academia and the history of cultural exchanges between China and the West in the Ming and Qing dynasties all show that we need to redefine the cultural relationship between China and the West, and need to re-explore the contemporary significance of Confucian culture from the perspective of the history of world civilization.
Musicians dressed in traditional Han dresses perform at a ceremony commemorating the 2568th anniversary of the birth of Confucius. Photo by Guo Haipeng
Re-understand the cultural relationship between East and West from a long-term global history
Why did Europe lead the rest in the 19th century? What is the reason for the rise of the West? For a long time, "Eurocentrists" believed that this was due to Greek civilization or Christian faith, and countries outside Europe did not have such cultural genes, such as Confucianism and Taoism in China, so only by accepting Greek civilization and Christian civilization, backward regions and countries could have hope.
Is this true history? Non also. Greece is the root of Western culture, this is what "Eurocentrists" often say. But in fact, the formation of Greek culture was mainly influenced by Eastern cultures such as Egyptian culture and Assyrian culture. Herodotus, the father of Greek history, was a Persian who later settled in Greece. He believes that Greek ceremonies and customs were moved from Egypt. The Greeks learned divination from Egypt and brought to Greece "much of what he learned in Egypt almost intact... Almost all the Greek gods had their names in Egypt." Why are Greece and Egypt so closely related? Because Greece was a colony of Egypt. This is based on sufficient historiography, and a large number of ancient languages of the Near East, such as Egyptian, Syriac, etc., can still be found in the Greek tragedy.
Although Karl Theodor Jaspers proposed the "Axis Age", there is no Greek civilization in the ancient source of mankind, but Egyptian civilization, two-river valley civilization, Indian civilization and Chinese civilization. The Assyrian, Sumerian culture of the Near East, that is, the inhabitants of ancient Mesopotamia, created the world's first glorious civilization. It was from the Eastern Two Rivers Valley civilization and Egyptian civilization that Greece learned writing, literature, art, religion, science and technology. J.J. Clark, a historian of contemporary British thought, pointed out in his book "Eastern Enlightenment" that Babylonian and Assyrian civilizations are the ancestors of the West, and the East is the root of Western culture.
Aerial photograph of the bed of the Yellow River in early spring. Photo by Baocheng
The first Renaissance in Italy was the retranslation of Greek texts translated from Arabic into Italian, from which new ideas emerged. The Renaissance therefore began with the exchange of European and Arab cultures. This shows that historically Baghdad was at the center of the global economy, embracing and reinventing new ideas from Asia, and then spreading to the Spanish region of Islam and thus to Europe.
The four great inventions are the major contributions of Chinese civilization to world civilization. In the ancient cultural exchanges between China and the West, the four major Chinese inventions were introduced to Europe through the intermediary link of the Arab world, which then had a significant impact on the development of Europe, directly promoted the emergence and development of modern science and technology in Europe, and promoted the transformation of European society. Marx said: "Gunpowder, the compass, printing - these are the three great inventions that heralded the arrival of bourgeois society." Gunpowder blew up the knightly class, the compass opened world markets and established colonies, and printing became a tool of Protestantism. In general, it turned into a means of scientific revival, into the most powerful lever for creating the necessary prerequisites for spiritual development. ”
The absorption of Chinese culture by the European Enlightenment reveals the world significance of Confucianism. After the Jesuits who came to China translated the Chinese classics into European languages and published them, they inspired the European Enlightenment thinkers represented by Voltaire, and gradually formed the "China fever" in Europe in the 18th century. The emergence of the term "Chinoiserie" reflected the enthusiasm of France for China at that time.
Some scholars call European culture the history of "self-sanctification", as if the influence of foreign culture on Europe is not enough, Europe can develop in cultural exchanges, the fundamental reason is that it has a strong ability to self-adjust and develop. Such a view is untenable in the light of the long history of the world.
The compass, called Si Nan in ancient times. The picture shows the Si Nan model.
The concept of mutual learning between civilizations is the theoretical basis for understanding the history of cultural exchanges between China and the West
In cultural exchange, any culture's acceptance of another culture has the problem of re-understanding and interpretation, and there are problems of mutation and adaptation. The reinterpreted alien culture has been processed by the interpreter, who filters the foreign culture according to his own cultural structure. This filtered and interpreted alien culture is quite different from the original alien culture, and this "misreading" and "mutation" are self-sufficient. Hans-Georg Gadamer, a contemporary hermeneutics, said that prejudice is not necessarily incorrect or wrong, and that it does not inevitably distort truth.
It was inevitable that Voltaire's interpretation of Confucius was governed by his "prejudices." He held high the banner of enlightenment in France, opposed religious persecution, opposed irrational religious fanaticism, and at this time Confucianism, which was introduced to Europe by the Jesuits, was a kind of religious tolerance "Confucianism", a doctrine that regarded moral reason above irrational worship, which naturally attracted Voltaire's attention. In this way, Confucius became Confucius in Voltaire's eyes, and Chinese religion became the Chinese religion after Voltaire's interpretation.
Voltaire's ideal political system was an enlightened monarchy, which was completely different from the democracy of ancient Greece and the Roman monarchy. Ideological weapons could not be found in the West, and at that time the French aristocracy and the monastic class seriously hindered social development. The Chinese political system introduced by the Jesuits at this time—the combination of the emperor's dictatorship and the examination of civil servants, which made the vast country well-functioning and socially prosperous—provided them with an oriental example. Confucius became the ideal of enlightenment thinkers, and the Chinese political system became their example.
The development and change of any mature culture is driven by the need for its own internal change, and it is also through the exchange of knowledge and ideas with foreign cultures. Enlightenment thinkers borrowed some of Confucianism, but all their goals were determined by Europe's own cultural traditions.
In the process of world dissemination, Chinese culture is absorbed and utilized by European and American countries in order to seek the development of their own culture, revealing the global significance of Chinese culture; This also shows that the spread of Chinese culture in various countries in the world will produce various different mutations, which is the basic law of cultural exchange and mutual learning among civilizations.
People commemorate the 2573rd anniversary of the birth of Confucius at the Taiyuan Temple of Literature. Photo by Wei Liang
Re-understand the modern significance of Chinese culture from the comparison of civilizations
The 19th century became the century dominated by the West, and China fell under the guns of the great powers, and since then began a century-long era of "taking the West as a teacher". China, which has integrated into the world in the midst of suffering, has baptized its own spiritual world, and tolerance and learning have enabled Chinese culture to complete its metabolism.
At present, China has begun to embrace the world as an equal. How to deal with one's own history and how to deal with the position of traditional culture represented by Confucianism in people's spiritual world has become an unavoidable problem. China needs to understand its own culture over a long period of history and examine Chinese culture from the perspective of world cultural development and from a broader perspective. That is, what Mr. Liang Qichao called "studying China in the world".
In the era of European Enlightenment, how to bring ideas back to the world, let history go out of theology, and let reason dominate life is a question that Enlightenment thinkers must answer. In the long history of human civilization, Chinese civilization was the first nation to complete the transformation from a religious system culture to a secular system culture. Chinese wisdom has a set of theories and methods about maintaining morality and ideals in secular life and making people "moral people". In today's modern life, the traditional Chinese culture represented by Confucianism has become the spiritual home of Chinese, highlighting its modernity significance.
After the change of Yin Zhou, King Wen of Zhou changed the Shang Dynasty's practice of occupying everything and putting witches first, and established the culture of "people before ghosts" and "respecting virtue and protecting the people". From then on, Chinese culture began to change from admiration for heaven and social disorder to concern for life and a "moral community" with the concubine system as the core, and by the time of Confucius, this major transformation was completed theoretically.
Chinese thought had basically completed the transformation from god to man by the time of Confucius, and the focus of Confucius theory was on the human world. He did not completely abandon "heaven", and "heaven" and "god" still have their place in Confucius thought, which is the ultimate support and the spiritual support that can not be reached. The focus of his pursuit is to find the "way of heaven" from "humanity". Therefore, Confucianism is neither atheistic nor theistic, and can be called "far-theism".
"Why China" exhibition at the Palace Museum in Beijing. Photo by Hou Yu
This characteristic of Confucian culture has created two fundamental characteristics of Chinese culture at the same time:
Religious tolerance. The Confucian culture, which aims to respect the heavens and ancestors, has completely devoid of the religious characteristics of monotheism, and has created a cultural outlook of "harmony but difference" and a spirit of religious tolerance. China has become a country with few religious wars in the history of world civilization, and at the same time, it is tolerant and open to all foreign religions. Tolerance is a fundamental feature of modern society. Chinese culture has accepted the introduction of Buddhism, Islam and Christianity, and promoted the development of Chinese culture in interaction with foreign cultures. This enlightens that the world today should adhere to the civilizational concept of equality, mutual learning, dialogue and tolerance, understand the value connotation of different civilizations with a broad mind, respect the exploration of their own development paths by the people of different countries, transcend the barriers between civilizations through civilizational exchanges, transcend the clash of civilizations with mutual learning among civilizations, transcend the superiority of civilizations with the coexistence of civilizations, carry forward the common values of all mankind embodied in Chinese civilization, and promote the construction of a community with a shared future for mankind.
Cultural diversity. The great tradition of Chinese culture formed with Confucianism as the core has become the mainstream of society, but as Ma Xisha and Han Bingfang said in the "History of Chinese Folk Religion", "Chinese culture is not only three tombs and five classics, eight ropes and nine hills, but also a fiery and dynamic side full of vitality and vitality." "This is the small tradition of folk religion that constitutes it. The organic unity of large traditions and small traditions, and the interaction between Confucian orthodoxy and folk religion, constitute a diverse and vivid aspect of Chinese culture. At the same time, the integration and exchange of multi-ethnic cultures is the most important feature of Chinese cultural diversity. Inside and outside the Great Wall is the hometown, and the history of multi-ethnic integration has made Chinese culture splendid and colorful, thus forming completely different cultural characteristics from single-ethnic cultural countries. For a long time, the West has interpreted China with the experience of European modernization, and has been unable to understand the history of China's multi-ethnic integration, which is a manifestation of Western ignorance of Chinese history and culture.
The basis for learning all civilizations and cultures with an equal and inclusive attitude is self-confidence in one's own culture; Returning to the healthy cultural mentality of "the beauty of each other, the beauty of the beauty, and the beauty of the United States" is the basic point for studying and handling the cultural relationship between the East and the West. (End)
About the author:
Zhang Xiping, Professor of Beijing University of Foreign Chinese, Chief Expert of the Institute of International Communication of Chinese Culture, Distinguished Professor of Beijing Language and Culture University, Editor-in-Chief of International Sinology, former Vice President of the International Confucian Federation, and an expert with outstanding contributions from the State Council, enjoys special government allowances. He has long been engaged in the history of modern Western culture, the history of Sino-Western cultural exchanges from 1500 to 1800, the history of Western sinology and the history of Chinese Christianity, and is currently engaged in the history of Sino-Western cultural exchanges, early Western sinology research and the overseas dissemination of Chinese culture. He has published more than 10 monographs and more than <> papers in core academic journals.