Appreciation of the Cultural Connotation of China in Ji Xianlin

Try to read Ji Xianlin's Sinology: the Connotation of China Culture.

I once divided culture into two categories: narrow culture and broad culture. In a narrow sense, it refers to philosophy, religion, literature, art, politics, economy, ethics, morality and so on. Broadly speaking, it refers to everything created by spiritual civilization and material civilization, including cars, planes and so on. Zhou Yiliang once divided culture into three levels: narrow sense, broad sense and deep sense. There is no need to discuss the first two in detail. Mr. Zhou has his own views on the third party, and his cultural background is profound. He said: "In some different fields of narrow culture, or in some unrelated fields of narrow culture and broad culture, we should further synthesize, generalize, condense, refine, abstract and sublimate, and get a similarity that exists in many fields." This kind of thing can be called profound culture and is the most essential or distinctive thing in a national culture. " He took Japanese culture as an example. He believes that the deep culture of Japan is characterized by "bitterness" and "laziness". Specific performance is simple, simple, slender, subtle, quaint, cited but not made, not carved and so on. Mr. Zhou's exposition and observation are very enlightening. In my opinion, these phenomena listed by him basically belong to the category of national psychological state or psychological quality and life interest. What will happen if this observation is applied to China culture? I don't want to explore from the national mentality. I think from another angle, we can also show the deep structure or connotation of China culture. On this issue, Mr Yin Ke has actually whipped me first. In the preface to Ode to Mr. Wang Guantang, Mr. Yin Ke wrote: The definition of Chinese culture is based on the theory of three cardinal guides and six disciplines in White Tiger Tong, and its significance is the highest realm of abstract ideal, which is superior to the so-called concept of Greek Plato. I think this is a very incisive point of view. Let's talk about some of my own ideas in the next interview. There are many differences between China's philosophy and foreign philosophy. One of the most important differences is that China's philosophy likes to talk about knowing and doing. I want to divide China culture into two parts according to two categories: knowledge, understanding, appreciation and so on, which belong to the category of knowledge; Part of it is discipline, ethics, social morality, etc., which belongs to the category of behavior. These two parts together constitute the culture of China. There is a most essential, distinctive and profound China culture behind these two parts. Regarding the history of China's thoughts, Mr. Yin Ke pointed out that in the Southern and Northern Dynasties, there were three major religions: Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism. Therefore, from the Jin Dynasty, China's thoughts can be represented by Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism. Although this is a popular saying, the facts of the old history, based on the human feelings of this world, the theory of the three religions should be irreversible. Therefore, for two thousand years, the Chinese nation has been deeply influenced by Confucianism, that is, the public and private life of institutional law may not be as good as Buddhism and Taoism. That's what happened. According to the dichotomy of China culture I mentioned above, a careful analysis of the history of China's thoughts will reveal that Confucianism is the main influencing factor in practice, while Buddhism and Taoism are the decisive factors in knowledge. The most profound culture with China characteristics lurking behind them is the ethical things such as the Three Cardinals and Six Disciplines. As far as Buddhism is concerned, its theory and practice also have two aspects: knowing and doing. The most fundamental teachings of primitive Buddhism, such as impermanence, selflessness, suffering, and twelve karma, all belong to knowledge. Between knowing and doing, the eight meanings and four noble truths include both knowing and doing. Practicing Buddha worship, nirvana, jumping out of samsara and other activities closely related to knowledge are completely unethical. After it was spread to China, its thought of "no father, no gentleman" was completely opposed to China's Three Cardinals and Six Disciplines. In the fierce impact on China culture, if Buddhism can't adapt to the reality, it can't stand in China, so Buddhism can only make some disguises to survive. In some places in the early Buddhist scriptures, the word "filial piety" was particularly emphasized, that is, the original meaning was distorted to meet the requirements of China's strong discipline culture. It can also be seen that China's profound cultural strength is great and irresistible. Many domestic scholars have felt this. I'll just give you a few examples. These examples are all from the first lecture of China Institute of Culture, On China Traditional Culture. Mr. Liang Shuming said: China people value human feelings and solve how to get along. Mr. Feng Youlan said: Christian culture emphasizes heaven and stresses "heaven learning"; Buddhism mostly talks about things after death, such as hell and reincarnation. This is "ghost learning", which is about ghosts; China's culture stresses "progress" and people. Mr. Pang Pu said: If the Greeks pay attention to the relationship between people and things, the Middle East pays attention to the relationship between people and God, and China pays attention to the relationship between people, then the characteristic of our culture is to pay more attention to social problems and attach great importance to real life. These opinions are very correct. In fact, Confucius is the representative of this opinion. "Zi does not talk about the strange, powerful, chaotic and divine things" is proof. He himself said, "If you don't know life, you won't know death." Some visionary thinkers abroad have seen this, such as Goethe, the greatest poet in Germany. 1827 65438+1October 29th, when talking with Aikman about The Legend of China, he said: China people are almost as peaceful as us in thought, behavior and emotion, which makes us feel that they will soon be our own kind, but everything there is clearer, purer and more moral than here. There are also many allusions about morality and etiquette. It is this strict restraint in all aspects that has kept China going for thousands of years, and it will continue all the time. Even in aesthetic psychology, China people, China thought and China culture all have their own characteristics. Japanese scholar Saburo Iwayama said: Westerners attach importance to beauty, while China people attach importance to commodities. Westerners like roses because they look beautiful, while China people like orchids not because they look beautiful, but because they have good taste. They are symbols of personality and expressions of some kind of spirit. This aesthetic thought of attaching importance to commodities is the expression of China's spiritual value, which is noble. What I have discussed above is just to show that the culture of China, like that of other countries in the world, must have its own characteristics. What I want to emphasize here is its characteristics. In my opinion, the characteristics of China culture are most obviously reflected in the culture with profound meaning, which is its ethical color, its three cardinal principles and six disciplines and the spirit of solving the relationship between people. This article is excerpted from Ji Xianlin's article "Mr. Chen Yinque's Tongde Chapter". Zhou Yiliang: History of Sino-Japanese Cultural Relations, Jiangxi People's Publishing House, 1990, p. 18. Feng Youlan's Review Report on the History of China Philosophy (Volume II), Ancient Books Publishing House, 1982, pp. 250 ~ 25/kloc-0. Feng Youlan's Review Report on the History of China Philosophy (Volume II), Ancient Books Publishing House, 1982, p. 137. Feng Youlan's Review Report on the History of China Philosophy (Volume II), Ancient Books Publishing House, 1982, p. 140. Feng Youlan's Book Review on the History of China's Philosophy Volume II, Ancient Books Publishing House, 1982, p. 75.