How does traditional culture cope with the challenges of contemporary society

Moderator: China traditional culture is a heavy accumulation of China's historical development, but it has encountered various challenges since modern times. Today, if we want to inherit and develop China's excellent traditional culture, how can we endow it with continuous vitality synchronized with this era?

Mao Peiqi: Culture is a long-flowing and subtle thing, and we can't expect it to happen overnight. The popularity of traditional culture in recent years can reverse its long-neglected situation, but it cannot immediately change the faults and defects of traditional culture, nor can it immediately cure the internal injuries caused by long-term depression. Measures must be taken to make traditional culture "make up lessons" and carry it forward. Not long ago, the central government promulgated a plan to inherit and carry forward excellent traditional culture, which contains many specific provisions, which are very detailed and operable. Seriously promoting the implementation of this plan will certainly promote the long-term dissemination and education of traditional culture.

Q Yongning: Some people worry that Confucian culture cannot be integrated into modern life, because our foundation has changed-the past was the era of agricultural civilization, and now it is the era of market economy. This idea seems to be right. It seems that few people in modern society have Confucian beliefs. But in fact, great changes have taken place in Confucianism in these two thousand years, from Confucius and Mencius in pre-Qin to Lu Jiuyuan and Zhu in Song Dynasty. Therefore, we should look at it more broadly, instead of locking Confucianism in a gown with bamboo slips, we should talk about its basic values or basic problem-solving methods, such as paying attention to loyalty, filial piety and benevolence, and caring for each other among families. In this way, Confucianism is actually "alive" in our lives.

Xu Qi: Now is an information age. Morality, etiquette, literature and art, including philosophy, cannot be spread and passed down in the previous way. However, those values and some lifestyles in the classical era, such as loyalty, filial piety and righteousness, supporting the elderly and bringing up the young, are eternal. How to express it? It must be expressed through networking and informationization. If someone tries to copy the past blindly, it is doomed to failure. We built the Confucius Institute in a place like Guizhou to carry forward and inherit the vital things in our excellent traditional culture, which is revival rather than retro.

Zhang Xinmin: There should be corresponding forms to rebuild culture, such as running academies, running newspapers, and running classes on Chinese studies, including poetry competitions on TV. First of all, it must be affirmed that, like this long-term cultural self-construction, it is generally a good thing to start to shine by yourself. However, a civilization is originally a work of a nation and a collective singing of a nation. After it is externalized, it must be internalized, and then our hearts will naturally flow out, just like the "Tintin" flow of mountain spring water, which will naturally make a sound and be very beautiful. Is culture for performance? When I was a child, my father recited poems, and so did I. When the mood came, I recited a poem and felt very comfortable. This is the vitality of culture.

"Home and everything" will not change in any era.

Moderator: China people have a long tradition of "farming and reading". What influence does this tradition have on today's contemporary society?

Mao Peiqi: "Farming and reading is a family heirloom" is a tradition left over from the agricultural society. "Agriculture" is the duty, and agriculture is the foundation of the country and also the foundation of the country. "Reading" is a kind of cultural education, a kind of moral and cultural accomplishment, and also the foundation of standing. Now it has entered the industrial society and post-industrial society, but the spirit of "farming and reading" can still be continued, or it should be inherited and continued. In today's era, we can understand "farming" as our own responsibility, working honestly and diligently, not opportunistic, seeking benefits by unfair means, keeping our duty and being upright. "Reading", of course, is mainly reading, but it should be extended to learning all kinds of knowledge and skills, improving cultural literacy, and improving and enriching yourself through learning. At present, we advocate "slow life" and return to nature. We should be inspired by the word "farming and reading".

Li Kuanding: Farming, Reading and Passing on the Family is a farming society. With the disintegration of farming society, the imperial examination system was abolished, and farming, reading, poetry and songs passed away one after another. "Four Books and Five Classics" is a source of traditional culture in China. Only when it is accepted by the people and transformed into its own ideology can it constitute culture. So, where is the real culture? It is in the mouth of the people, because it was accepted by the people after it was received, and it was used to teach their children and passed down from generation to generation. For example, at home, nothing will change at any time, because this is everyone's hope.

Zhang Xinmin: Times have changed, but this feeling will always exist. Since ancient times, China's poetry has been constantly changing its style. From the Tang and Song Dynasties to the Ming and Qing Dynasties, we used to be a big country of poetry. Old ladies in rural areas could recite poems, and children were very poetic. Now we are sitting in front of the TV watching the poetry conference, feeling fresh and excited, and we will sigh how this poem is still so meaningful, but the reason for the freshness is that the ancient world related to our life has come step by step. The "wind" in the Book of Songs is all sorted out. Ethnic minorities also have folk songs, and some people can sing poems. When these things slowly return to our lives, we won't feel fresh. This is a way of our existence.

Promote the development of Confucianism to adapt to contemporary life

Moderator: Confucianism is the representative of traditional culture. Should all traditional cultures be inherited? In the long history, has traditional culture ever hindered the development of social sciences in China?

Ouyang Zhenren: Are there any shortcomings in Confucianism? Is there negative energy? This is a problem. The problem is that these thoughts were slowly accumulated in the long history before Confucius. After Confucius and Mencius, different Confucius and Mencius were dressed up in different dynasties. Therefore, finding Confucius and Mencius is the most important thing in our time. As the Yangtze River rolls forward, we need scholars who can really sit down and study and develop Confucianism, and further push it into contemporary life to adapt to it.

Ding: As a Confucian researcher, I am also opposed to forcing a scientific explanation of Neo-Confucianism in Song and Ming Dynasties. But does Confucianism point to and develop into a scientific spirit? This is available. With humanistic feelings and the desire to save the world, there is bound to be a spirit of pointing to science. The problem is that ancient people in China have always applied this spirit to the construction of interpersonal civilization, from interpersonal civilization to the cognition of the whole objective nature.

Quiet Ru: Represented by Confucianism, in fact, tradition has been progressing, because society is changing, so we need to have an appropriate response. The progressive nature of Confucianism itself has endowed it with vitality for thousands of years. From the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period to the Song and Ming Dynasties, because the economic base is very different from the past, Confucianism has also undergone great changes, and representatives such as Zhu and Wang Yangming have appeared. However, since the19th century, unprecedented changes have taken place in China. Many pillars of traditional culture, such as the imperial examination system, the system of monarch and ministers and the dynasty, have been abandoned, so Confucianism is also facing great changes. In the process of development, we must attach importance to critical understanding, so that the traditional tomorrow will be better.

Li Kuanding: Speaking of culture can be said from three aspects: the first is the shallowest level, and what we see is language and writing. Different countries have different languages, but languages are only the carrier and form of culture; The second is people's living habits, from dressing and eating to productive labor, including folk customs; The third is the deepest level, that is, the way of thinking and values of this nation, which is the core of culture.

Do not forget to absorb foreign countries and face the future.

Moderator: What is the most important thing to carry forward Chinese excellent traditional culture? What other methods do you think are worth exploring?

Mao Peiqi: Excellent traditional culture is not a few books or classics, but an inseparable spirit that is integrated into the blood of China people. Therefore, in addition to reading and disseminating traditional cultural knowledge, we should also pay attention to bringing excellent traditional culture back to life. In the past, the principle of "sweeping away words and deeds" was all in it, and every field and detail of life should be the soil for the growth of traditional culture. Only by persistence and deepening can we talk about inheritance and development and gradually change the damage caused by radicalism in the past century. But we should pay attention to opposing retrogression, superstition and extremism. In inheriting and carrying forward excellent traditional culture, we should hold high the banner of progress and rationality, pay attention to the modern interpretation of traditional culture, and serve the present and the future.

Xu Qi: The most important thing to carry forward traditional culture is its value connotation. The mode of communication is a necessary condition, and the connotation is really important-from benevolence, righteousness, courtesy, wisdom, faithfulness, loyalty and filial piety to our socialist core values today. We have a policy of "two innovations" in dealing with excellent traditional culture, that is, creative transformation and creative development. These two sentences are equivalent to making the past serve the present and bringing forth the new. There are still three sentences that I think have been summed up very well: "Don't forget the original work, absorb the outside world and face the future." I think these three sentences should be adhered to in inheriting and developing any excellent traditional culture. The reason why China traditional culture has been continuously passed down to today for thousands of years is because of our open and inclusive mentality, and we can have all the good things. Therefore, culture should not be a shield, but a bridge. We're not doing this to go back.

Jing Anju: In the past ten years, only one or two people in the philosophy departments of all American universities taught China's philosophy every year, but this year it has increased, which shows that American academic circles have realized the necessity of further understanding China tradition and China's philosophy. But from another perspective, the current research trend of American philosophy is to combine philosophy with social sciences, such as the relationship between ethics and psychology. Philosophers often care about some normative norms. Comparatively speaking, the Confucian circles in China tend to interpret the classics, and seldom consider the application of Confucianism in the present, let alone regard it as the outlook on life that guides people's behavior. I believe that with the development of research in the future, there will be better results.