The edifying value of ecological culture

China's ecological cultural tradition is a great tradition that has lasted for thousands of years in the long agricultural civilization. Although it has many limitations of the times, the rich experience and profound wisdom it has left behind on the harmonious coexistence between human beings and the nature provide valuable resources for human beings to build an ecological civilization. In the author's opinion, the Chinese ecological cultural tradition has the following values for cultivating people's ecological cultural upbringing:?

First, the holistic thinking mode of generativism helps people form sound ecological thinking.?

The way of thinking is the habitual method, stereotype and specific tendency of a people to examine, think, know and understand the world in which they live, and it is the underlying structure of spiritual culture that influences the development of a people. Compared with the constitutive, exogenous and mechanistic way of thinking that led to the prevalence of subject-object dichotomy in the era of Western industrial civilization, the traditional thinking of the Chinese nation, which was able to form the idea of the unity of heaven and man, is a holistic mode of thinking that is existential, endogenous and organic. This holistic mode of thinking in Taoism is manifested in the form of "Tao gives birth to all things", and in Confucianism is manifested in the form of "Taiji gives birth to all things", whose **** the same feature is that all things in the entire universe are regarded as being born from the same source. Since all things do not originate from the same external source like God, but from the same natural source in the process of the creation of the universe, they have the power of evolution and unity from the same source, and are related to each other, just as the members of the same family come from the same ancestor. According to this way of thinking, it can promote people to understand the evolutionary process of the universe from inorganic matter to organic matter, from organic matter to life, and from life to human beings, so as to grasp the unity of all things and human beings with the same source and the same root, and to affirm that human beings have the characteristics of animals and organisms, and also have the characteristics of the earth and the characteristics of the universe.

At the same time, this way of thinking can also promote the understanding of the complex relationship between human beings and non-human beings on the web of life. For, all things sense and harmonize with each other out of the *** same origin and spontaneous causes, naturally forming a harmonious whole in dynamic balance, rather than a mechanical order. Human beings, as life, and all things are interdependent, people can not leave all things in heaven and earth and independent survival. Human beings are not only connected with all non-human species, but also connected with the inorganic environment in which they exist. This connection is a dynamic network, and different things are the knots on the network, and various threads of life weave the network of life, of which human beings are only one thread. Not only are flowers, plants, trees, birds, animals, insects and fish part of the web of life, but also the environment in which life exists, such as oceans, rivers, soil and air, is also part of the web of life. Based on people's direct experience of survival, Chinese ecological culture tradition, through the enlightened experience of changing natural rhythms and the organic order of biological ****similarity, has specifically and truly grasped the organic connection between human existence and the natural world, and has profoundly realized that human beings can only obtain a lasting and healthy existence if they maintain a long-term and harmonious ****survival relationship with the natural world. This ecological wisdom is still a precious survival treasure for modern people.?

Secondly, the ecological morality of respecting the value of life is conducive to perfecting contemporary ecological ethics. In China's ecological cultural tradition, the evolution of nature as a whole is viewed not only as an eternal process of life creation, but also as a process of life value creation. All life comes from one source and is born from the same root, like different members of the same big family, so people should respect all life, love all things in heaven and earth, and treat all non-human life and its living environment ethically. This ecological morality is not only a grasp of cognitive rationality, but also requires an emotional experience of caring for life. Confucius regarded human moral attitudes as a natural outpouring of human inner feelings, and even believed that animals also had moral emotions similar to those of humans and could trigger human conscience. He said, "I have heard that the unicorn will not come to the countryside if the fetus is routed and killed, the dragon will not be in harmony with the yin and yang if the pond is exhausted, and the phoenix will not fly if the nest is destroyed. Why? A gentleman does not want to hurt his own kind. The birds and beasts of the unrighteousness still know how to open up, not to mention the mound!" ("Historical Records - Confucius family") Xunzi also believes that: "all born between heaven and earth, there is blood of the genus must know, have knowledge of the genus do not love its class. Now the big birds and beasts will lose their group of horses, over the month and over time, it will be anti-along, over the hometown, it will be wandering, chirping, tramping, and then can go. The smallest is the swallow sparrow still has a chirp of chewing, and then can go." ("Xunzi - Rites of Passage") Confucianism this to birds and beasts and insects with the same human sympathy for the same kind of moral psychology, to the ancient Chinese cherish animals, the protection of animal behavior to a far-reaching impact. The saying "I advise you not to beat the birds on the branches, for the son in the nest hopes for his mother's return" is a touching appeal to people to protect animals. It projects the compassion and care of human nature for its fellow human beings onto animals, emphasizing the oneness of human beings and animals in their life and emotional relationships in the world of life. Although this experience of "feeling because of things, feeling and then communicating" is exaggerated in terms of human empathy and grasping the emotional psychology of living creatures, the mutual sympathy for animals with blood and the ability to perceive and linking it to the human concern for human nature, which generates a strong emotional motivation to respect and protect the survival of living creatures, is the basis for the ecological ethics of ecological ethics. This is the innate love and sympathy for life from the depths of the heart that contemporary people lack in ecological ethics, and it is a kind of "emotional rationality" that urgently needs to be restored and cultivated. . Human love and care for living things, human ecological conscience, is not entirely out of the scientific understanding of the relationship between human beings and nature, but more importantly out of the need for emotional belonging, scientific understanding of nature as understood is very incomplete, human beings must emotionally experience nature, comprehend nature, and love nature, in order to respect and care for life from the bottom of their hearts, and in order to sincerely generate "All things are one", "people and things" of ecological care, in order to nurture human life of the natural world to generate feelings of gratitude, and truly establish an ecological ethics to protect the home of all life on earth, rather than just stop at the protection of the human living environment ecological ethics. Only then can we truly establish an eco-ethics that protects the home of all life on earth, rather than just the narrow realm of eco-ethics that protects the human living environment.

Thirdly, the unity of heaven and man is a powerful impetus for people to form an attitude of ecological survivalism, to change the vice of materialism, and to promote the pursuit of a healthy and civilized spiritual life. The unity of heaven and man is a fundamental theme in the Chinese ecological cultural tradition, and is also a guiding principle for coordinating the relationship between man and nature advocated by Confucianism and Taoism of the mainstream culture in China, as well as a supreme state of existence that people aspire to in the era of agricultural civilization. [4] It is a value ideal that purposefully maintains the global ecological environment for human existence, and even scientific ecology lacks the rationality of this cultural value. As Ralston puts it, "Although traditional cultures do not have ecology as science, they often have ecology in the etymological sense: the logic of habitat. They have a global perspective, based on which they purposefully inhabit a purposeful world. We can hardly say that science has so far given us a global viewpoint in which we find that we truly live in our own habitat." [5] The logic of habitat is a simple intuitive experience of human ecology, which is capable of experiencing the interaction and interdependence of all life in the sensual survival activities of human matter, consciously observing people's long-established habits of preserving the natural ecological environment, and rationally utilizing and conserving natural resources. It requires people, in addition to meeting the basic material needs of life, should restrain the material consumption desire of luxury life, and live a simple life of "less selfishness" and "contentment", and devote more time and energy to the rich social life and lofty spiritual life. and devote more time and energy to a rich social life and a noble spiritual life. By critically inheriting the value concept of the unity of heaven and man, we can change the contemporary concept of treating ourselves as "economic beings" and consumer animals, and change the morbid attitude of people who only realize their value of life by comparing their material consumption, and instead, we can consider the material life of human beings as an integral part of the ecological process of the earth, and consider the maintenance of our material life with lower consumption as an integral part of the ecological process of the earth, and consider the maintenance of our material life with lower consumption as an integral part of our ecological process. The concept of lower consumption of material life is regarded as an ecological obligation to restore the ecological environment of the earth. At the same time, the unity of heaven and man in the realm of life also enables people to y realize that to spend one's life's energy and time on hunting down luxury consumer goods and seeking sensual stimulation is the greatest loss in life, and a complete loss of life's significance. A meaningful human life can be enriched and perfected through the pursuit of spiritual values. Whether it is the exploration of science, the creation of art, the perfection of morality, or the development of one's talents and potentials, one can unveil for oneself a vast, wonderful, sublime, profound, and marvelous spiritual world. Moreover, the pursuit of the realm of the unity of heaven and man can not only regulate the balance between man's material and spiritual life and prevent him from unilaterally indulging in material pleasures, but also inspire people to independently choose life and create life, to experience and experience love for fellow human beings and care for all life, and to realize the pleasurable feeling of man and nature becoming one. Therefore, through understanding the thought and realm of the unity of heaven and man in Chinese ecological culture, we can deepen every member of society's understanding of the value of life, enrich their own experience of the meaning of life, and promote the formation of the necessary attitude of ecological survivalism, rebuild a healthy, civilized, and environmentally friendly way of life, and provide an inexhaustible historical source of the wisdom, morality, and spiritual atmosphere necessary for the construction of an ecological civilization. atmosphere needed to build an ecological civilization, and to provide an inexhaustible historical source of wisdom, morality and spiritual atmosphere.

Fourth, the practical experience of agricultural ecology in coordinating the relationship between human beings and nature can promote the formation of good behavioral habits of consciously maintaining the ecological environment. China's ecological cultural tradition has gradually developed and matured through nearly 10,000 years of ecological practice in agricultural civilization. As early as in the ancient times of the Three Emperors and Five Emperors, our ancestors already had the tradition of protecting the environment and regulating people's production and living behavior. According to legend, the Yellow Emperor taught his people to "sow all grains and grasses, keep birds, animals, insects and moths in good condition, and to use the sun, moon, stars, water, earth, stone, gold and jade, and to work hard and save water and fire and property" ("The Records of the Grand Historian - The Chronicles of the Five Emperors"). The Book of Yi Zhou contains the ban of the Xia Dynasty: "Yu's ban, spring March mountains and forests do not board the axe, in order to become the growth of grass and trees; into the summer of March Chuanze not netting, in order to become the growth of fish and turtles." In the Zhou Dynasty, there were even more severe ecological protection regulations "Chong Decree": "Do not fill the well, do not cut down the trees, do not move the six animals. Anyone who does not fulfill the order will not be pardoned." The Zhou Dynasty also established the world's earliest environmental protection and management organizations, setting up "Shan Yu" (in charge of mountains and forests), "Ze Yu" (in charge of lakes and swamps), "Lin Heng" (in charge of forests), "Chuan Heng" (in charge of rivers and marshes), "Chuan Heng" (in charge of forests), and "Chuan Heng" (in charge of forests), (in charge of forests), "Chuanheng" (in charge of rivers and swamps) and other organizations, which better protected the animal and plant resources of the time. On the basis of comprehensively inheriting the experience of the predecessors, Xunzi put forward a plan for the lasting utilization of resources and environmental protection called "The System of the Sacred King": "The system of the Sacred King: when the grasses and trees are in their glory and fruitfulness, the axes and cattles do not go into the mountains and forests, and do not prematurely abort their births and do not cut off their growth; when the soft-shelled turtles and alligator, the fish and turtles, the loaches and miciples are conceived, the poisonous drugs do not go into the forests. When the soft-shelled turtle and the loach and acipenser are conceived, the axe and the poison do not go into the zephyr; they do not abort their life and do not cut off their growth. ...... The pollution of the ponds, swamps, rivers and lakes, and the time of prohibition, so the fish and turtles are excellent and the people have more than enough to use; chopping and cutting and raising the long time is not lost, so the mountains and the forests do not have children and the people have more than enough to use." ("Xunzi - King's System") Xunzi's system of the holy king had already implemented the protection of the ecological environment, the sustainable use of biological resources and the implementation of sustainable development into the practical requirements of the political system of the king's authority, and the subsequent dynasties had all added to the system and regulations of ecological environmental protection. Although the enormous pressure of survival due to population increase led to the intensification of local ecological damage within a certain period of time, this long-term ecological practice of coordinating the relationship between human beings and nature still largely mitigated the global outbreak of ecological crises, and safeguarded the ecological prerequisites for the long-term continuation of China's agrarian civilization. Today we study the historical experience in the ecological practice of China's agricultural civilization, so that under the influence of this long tradition, we can develop a habit of good behavior to consciously protect the ecological environment and the literacy to consciously abide by ecological laws and regulations, which can improve the ability of the general public to build an ecological civilization, and carry forward the great tradition of practice to protect the ecological environment in the new situation. Especially for leading cadres at all levels, these valuable experiences of ecological practice can serve as important reference to improve their ability in ecological protection and environmental governance in decision-making, and inspire and motivate them to make more practical and efficient performance in leading the people to build an ecological civilization. History is the mirror of human development. The study of ecological culture requires an ecological perspective on the entire history of human civilization and human society, an analysis of the existing cultural diversity, and a summary of the experience of synergistic development between human beings and the environment from the lessons learned, so that human society can be sustained while preserving the diversity of species in the biosphere and protecting the homeland of the earth.

Some Chinese scholars have put forward the idea of establishing a new civilization for mankind - a green civilization that lives in harmony with nature - and have called the agricultural civilization a "yellow civilization", while the industrial revolution since the 18th century and the ensuing environmental crisis have been called a "black civilization". and the industrial revolution since the 18th century and the ensuing environmental crisis as a "black civilization". The reason is that agricultural and industrial civilization means that human beings have, to a certain extent, sacrificed the environment in exchange for economic and social development, and the price paid for such development has been a heavy one. In the natural world, human beings, no matter how they advance their civilization, cannot get rid of the dependence of civilization on nature and the constraints imposed by nature on civilization. The decline of the natural environment will ultimately be the decline of human civilization. Nowadays, "sustainable development" has become the strongest voice in the world, and a green wave of environmental protection is sweeping across the globe, which impacts on the production mode, life style and way of thinking of human beings, and signals an "ecological and cultural revolution" in human history. This revolution is an inevitable product of historical development. This revolution is an inevitable product of historical development, through which human beings will re-examine their own behavior, abandon the "yellow civilization" and "black civilization" at the expense of the environment, abandon the concept of black GDP with pure economic growth, and actively promote the ecological and valuable green GDP and recycling. Abandon the concept of black GDP, which is based on pure economic growth, and actively promote ecological green GDP and a circular economy that has a price. Establish a green civilization that lives in harmony with nature. The creation of an ecological civilization is a cause related to the fate of the relationship between man and nature, a cause related to the continuation of human civilization. Whether or not this cause can achieve ultimate success depends fundamentally on the conditions of the main body as the creator of the ecological civilization, on the qualities and abilities of each member of society to build an ecological civilization, and on the long-term, unremitting and sustained efforts of several generations. In order to meet this arduous historical task, it is necessary to seriously explore how to raise the ecological cultural upbringing of the entire population as effectively as possible. In view of the extreme complexity of this issue, which requires cross-cutting and integrated research in different disciplines, the author can only offer a few thoughts on the direction of efforts to improve the ecological cultural education of the whole population.

Improving the ecological cultural education of the whole nation should take the ecological culture needed for the construction of ecological civilization as the direction of efforts. It is based on combining the goal of building an ecological civilization with China's national conditions, especially on combining it with China's ecological and cultural traditions, while at the same time absorbing contemporary knowledge of the natural sciences and humanities and social sciences in order to develop a contemporary ecological culture. Although ecological civilization is a new form of civilization to be pursued by all countries and nations*** in the future, it is not a work of exact replication according to a certain standard model; it can only be realized by different countries and nations in their own unique ways. Although the western developed capitalist countries such as Europe and America were the first to experience ecological and environmental crises and caused global ecological crises due to the overdevelopment of their industrial civilization, they did not propose to solve the problem of ecological crises fundamentally by means of ecological civilization, but rather, based on the cultural tradition of advocating scientific and technological rationality, they attempted to improve the production mode of industrial civilization by means of ecological modernization, so as to solve their own countries' ecological and environmental problems. Problems. Although ecological modernization has played a role in the environmental recovery of Europe and the United States, it has mainly depended on acquiring a large amount of resources from developing countries, while transferring polluting industries that cannot be produced in their own countries to developing countries and exporting large amounts of toxic wastes to developing countries, thus realizing environmental degradation at the expense of developing countries and the world as a whole. However, China's national conditions of overpopulation, shortage of resources, great pressure on the ecological environment, and a low level of development of industrial civilization, all of which fully reflect the major difficulties of economic development in most developing countries, are not in a position to copy the Western model of solving ecological problems. At the same time, China is a large developing country with a long tradition of ecological culture, a tradition that gives our ecological civilization construction a firm foundation, by abandoning the worldview and values of industrial civilization, absorbing its reasonable factors, and actively making use of the achievements of modern scientific knowledge, we can establish an ecological culture related to that needed for ecological civilization on this basis, and use it as a basis for improving the ecological culture upbringing of the whole population, and promote the The formation of an ecological civilization model with Chinese characteristics will also have a positive impact on the construction of an ecological civilization in most developing countries, and thus will also bring hope for success in the restoration of the global ecological environment. On the contrary, if we abandon our own profound ecological cultural tradition and hope to imitate the weakly rooted post-modern ecological culture produced by the Western rational cultural tradition and use it as the direction of our efforts to educate and cultivate people's ecological cultural literacy, it will definitely be contrary to our wishes, and ultimately lead to failure due to the loss of cultural genes and social soil.

Improving the ecological culture of all people should be thoroughly carried out in the whole process of ecological culture education. The author advocates that the purpose of such education is to cultivate people with profound ecological and cultural upbringing, which requires the establishment of the value ideal of ecological and cultural upbringing as the fundamental purpose of such education. Domestic and foreign academics often refer to ecological education and environmental education, which in itself only emphasizes the lack of minimum ecological and environmental knowledge that people should have about the earth, which is in a serious ecological crisis, and it seems that as long as people have such knowledge, they can ensure that the ecological environment will be consciously maintained by the people. This can easily lead to the neglect of the ecological and cultural characteristics of human beings in different living environments. Since knowledge itself cannot be regarded as a completely self-made end, it is only a means to serve human well-being, especially knowledge about ecological science, which is inseparable from the environmental interests and values of human existence. As a matter of fact, ecological science is more developed in the West, but it has not been seriously and thoroughly applied to the restoration of the global ecological environment. Some scholars have even gone so far as to distort the truth for the sake of their own country's economic interests, and for many years they have been arguing for global cooling while disregarding the obvious facts of global warming. On the contrary, there are many indigenous peoples in the world who, although they do not have rich knowledge of ecological sciences, have a long tradition of ecological culture and an ecological attitude, and are able to practically combine their own survival interests with the protection of the ecological environment in their survival practices, and on the contrary, they have effectively preserved the ecological environment of the regions in which they live for a long time. Therefore, in the education of ecological culture, we should not only ask people to master the knowledge of modern ecological and environmental sciences, but also emphasize the national cultures of human beings adapting to the complex ecological environment in different ecological regions, i.e., we should highlight the ecological and cultural qualities of different countries and nationalities, or else this kind of education can only be purely the education of ecological knowledge, not the education of ecological culture. Of course, this does not mean that the education of ecological culture and the education of ecological knowledge are two separate kinds of education, but that the education of ecological culture should integrate the education of modern ecological scientific knowledge into the ecological and cultural traditions of the nation, so that this ecological and cultural tradition can be modernized and be more helpful in solving the special ecological problems of different nations. From the viewpoint of the cultural prerequisites required for the construction of ecological civilization in different societies, it is only when all countries and peoples of the world have formed their own ecological cultures that a colorful, multifaceted and mutually complementary global ecological culture will emerge, and only then will it be possible to improve the ecological and cultural upbringing of all countries and peoples and to build societies with their own unique ecological civilization. Therefore, we should establish and continuously improve the unique ecological culture education system with the educational concept of cultivating people with the ability to build an ecological civilization and with ecological culture education, so as to carry out long-term and comprehensive ecological culture education to ensure that the ecological culture quality of all people meets the needs of ecological civilization construction.

Education to improve the ecological culture of all the people is a lifelong and continuous education, in view of the restoration of the earth's ecological environment needs at least a few centuries of long-term human **** with the efforts, so there should not be the idea of the end of the day, this education as a short-term task, but must establish a sober consciousness: this is every person from childhood until old age need to accept the Lifelong education; education to improve the ecological culture of all people is a kind of education with the participation of all people, so it cannot be expected to rely solely on the education sector to accomplish it, and only with the active participation of the public and the support of all walks of life can it be persisted in the long term and make constant progress; education to improve the ecological culture of all people is a kind of comprehensive education, because this kind of knowledge is in itself a comprehensive whole of many natural sciences and humanities and social sciences, and it should open up new ways to improve the ecological culture of all people. Education to improve the ecological culture of all people is a comprehensive education, because this kind of knowledge itself is a comprehensive whole of many natural sciences and humanities and social sciences knowledge, and it should be carried out by new educational methods, rather than the traditional method of dividing up the disciplines. The knowledge, morality, wisdom and all the abilities gained from this education should be applied to each individual's way of being, and through each individual consciously and actively playing his or her maximum role in daily life, it will promote the gradual development and maturity of the Chinese social model of ecological civilization.