What is China's traditional cultural concept?

The New Concept of China Traditional Culture

Stepping into the 2 1 century, my eyes are still shaking, with many vacant eyes. There is no goal in life, no goal in life, no correct life path and no normal life rules. This is the sorrow of modern people! Although everyone is walking his own life path, there are many thorns, reefs, hidden traps and legal traps on these roads. Many people walked round and round on this road until they died, and they didn't take the broad road. They didn't understand all this. This is also the sorrow of modern life!

In fact, in 1070 BC, Zhou Wenwang, the monarch of Xiaobang State, a vassal state of Yin Dynasty, realized these problems and left a book of Zhouyi with great insight and profound wisdom. After a lapse of 500 years, Laozi, Confucius, Ceng Zi, Zisi, Mencius and others in the Spring and Autumn Period left books such as Tao Te Ching, University, The Doctrine of the Mean, The Analects of Confucius, Mencius, Xunzi, etc., to elaborate and describe interpersonal relationships, explore people's psychology and behavior, and think and summarize their painful lives. However, all these works later became powerful weapons for feudal literati such as Dong Zhongshu in the Han Dynasty and Zhu in the Song Dynasty to safeguard the "three cardinal guides and five permanents" of the ruling class. Relying on the power of feudal monarchy, they further codified, mystified and dogmatized Taoism and Confucianism, thus suppressing and hindering the existence and development of all progressive materialism. With the development of feudal society, in the later period, the conservative and reactionary role of this cultural and ideological absolutism became more obvious and became the spiritual shackles of the ideological and cultural development of the Chinese nation. This is human sorrow!

To see, understand and study problems, we must study the most fundamental things in order to solve problems; Just like studying plants, you can never understand plants by studying their branches, leaves, flowers and fruits. However, for more than two thousand years, people have only studied all these works on the surface, which is equivalent to just standing on the ground to study the branches and leaves of plants, and no one has gone to see what their roots are, so the thoughts and concepts of hundred schools of thought in the pre-Qin period since the Book of Changes have been misunderstood and distorted again and again! Zhouyi became a divination book, The Analects of Confucius, The University, The Doctrine of the Mean and Mencius became an eight-part essay on feudal ethics, and Tao Te Ching became a qigong book for Taoists and Taoists. This is also the sorrow of mankind! I am fortunate to have a quiet leisure, sad mood, desperate patience and tenacious anxiety, just like Don Quixote waving his spear (China traditional culture original solution series), fighting against the modern windmill (habitual thinking). Finally, I dug out the thick mud with my bloody hands, dug up the most primitive root-Zhouyi, and made the original interpretation of these works one by one, which is now dedicated to everyone. I hope people can find some time to find money, love, fun and boredom, and find their own ideas, concepts and life paths from these works, and spend their lives happily!

Everyone wants to pursue happiness and happiness, and the spirit of happiness is spiritual comfort, tranquility and self-sufficiency. A person's spiritual happiness does not need wealth and money. These things do not belong to life itself. True happiness comes from the essence of life and from the inner spirit of oneself. Nature's obedience to human nature is the connotation of happy personality. Happiness is associated with the desire for life and the hope for the future. And pleasure means no goal in life, no belief in life, and no pleasure in creation. Hedonists believe that life has no faith and meaning, and life is just for eating, drinking and having fun. Happiness is never peaceful and self-sufficient. Behind the enjoyment is illness and disappointment. As soon as the old stimulus is over, we have to seek new stimulus immediately, otherwise, hedonists will feel bored and nervous. The reason why many people lose themselves in a materialistic society and are willing to sell themselves as commodities and lose their humanity is to exchange them for money and materials to satisfy their greedy desires. Away from the nature of nature, abandoned innocence, but also think smart. When people lose their sincerity, mutual understanding and sympathy become empty talk. Sadly, our society uses power as a balance to eliminate innocent people. The terrible twisted society has become a hell of human nature, and human beings have pried open the door of their graves unconsciously!

Give yourself a frank space and ask yourself how much insincerity and conscience we have had. All these prove that we are fooling and distorting our own nature! With this kind of pain in life, will we still have the happiness of being a human being? Losing the foundation of life will lead to such pain. Only by finding the natural basis of life can we have happiness, and human beings can get out of the misunderstanding and move towards the light.

Therefore, Zhou Wenwang (about 65438 BC+0070 BC) took the lead in writing the Book of Changes, a book full of wisdom, and expounded the fundamental foundation for the founding of the country. Zhouyi is not a divination or divination book at all, nor a superstitious divination book, nor a simple philosophical work. It is our ancestors' overall understanding of the world around them in the ancient society with extremely low productivity and underdeveloped technology. It is the earliest attempt of the ancients to explore the mysteries of the universe and life from their own practical experience. It is the first book to expose the road and law of natural operation and change, and it is the summary and record of Zhou Wenwang's life and practical experience, and also the summary and record of Zhou Wenwang's discussion and management of natural phenomena and state domination. Xia and Shang worshiped ghosts and gods, and regarded mysterious phenomena that could not be explained by nature as ghosts and gods. However, Zhou Wenwang initiated ancestor worship, that is, worshipping people, because only people are the greatest and most advanced in the world. Therefore, in the eight hundred years of the Zhou Dynasty, there was no religion that worshipped ghosts and gods. Today, through the development of modern science and technology, more and more people know that there are no ghosts and gods in this world. However, many people are superstitious about religion and worship ghosts and gods. This is not ignorance. What is it? Because all witchcraft and religion were born because human beings personified and mystified unexplained natural phenomena, which won the trust of many people and evolved into religion. However, nature is like this. It doesn't want to be mysterious, but human beings haven't realized it yet. This shows how advanced it was for Zhou Wenwang to get rid of religious superstitions three thousand years ago. However, 3000 years later, some people cursed "ancestor worship" and tried to make people worship God. Is this advanced? Don't! This is backwardness and stupidity! If Zhou Wenwang and Confucius knew what was under the spring, they would be indignant. Sixty-four hexagrams of the Book of Changes, each of which is compact in structure, interlocking, echoing from beginning to end, and connected before and after; Every six-pointed star has a clear theme and a prominent center. It takes natural phenomena as the table, connects with personnel, and excavates the essential things behind the phenomena. It has considerable insight and profound wisdom, and its awareness of worrying about the country and the people is broad. Therefore, those who say that "the divination is the ambition of divination, or the ambition is arranged without divination, and the name of divination is based on words" are self-defeating. Because people can't erase an obvious fact, different hexagrams have their own meanings in different hexagrams, which are fixed and cannot be mixed. Moreover, there is a reason why this essay is tied to this hexagram instead of other hexagrams, and only the author can explain it. Therefore, it is very important to re-understand the Book of Changes and restore its true colors.

After the chaos of the quiet and complete era of the Western Zhou Dynasty, during this period, until the Spring and Autumn Period (around 550 BC) when Laozi and Confucius lived, during this 300-year period, Zhou Guo and the people of various vassal States did not get a good rest, nor did they really live and work in peace and contentment, and they have been living in war. This period can be called the first "cultural fault" period. Lao Tzu felt it necessary to explain "Tao and law between man and nature", so he wrote Tao Te Ching. In Tao Te Ching, the word "Tao" refers to the road, and the word "De" refers to the law, with no other meaning. "The world is called my way and seems to be corrupt. The husband is old, so he looks corrupt. If it is Xiao, it will be good for a long time! " Just because the road is too big, it doesn't look like it If they are all the same, the road will become smaller after a long time. Just because this road is invisible and intangible, it is not a specific road that people usually take, so it will not become smaller because of a long time like a specific road. So why don't many people understand this?

Where's Tao Can't see, touch or hear this Tao? It is precisely because this "Tao" is in a state of "nothing". Although it is invisible, inaudible and intangible, it is "present" and its existence is undeniable. It has existed since ancient times. Because this "Tao" is invisible, inaudible and intangible, and can only be grasped by human rational thinking, philosophers have always defined this "Tao" as an invisible, silent and intangible metaphysical way. Why does Lao Tzu preach and teach the law? Philosophy originates from human's problem consciousness, and from human's confusion and doubt about their own living conditions, environmental conditions and prospects. It is a generalization and summary of human knowledge of nature and society, and a knowledge system of people's fundamental views on the whole nature, society and people's thinking. The fundamental problem that philosophy pays attention to is the problem of human heart and heart, heart and things, that is, how human beings understand nature. Since mankind began to think, the first thing that comes to mind is the magical nature. The word "wisdom" of wisdom consists of knowing the sun, which means knowing the sun. The word "Hui" consists of a comet and a heart, which means to understand the comets in the sky with your heart. When our ancient ancestors stared at the sky with their eyes in the long night and began to think, the philosophy of wisdom came into being. Unable to explain the magical and changeable nature, some people call ghosts and gods by some magical natural phenomena, which leads to ghost worship and even religious worship. Since Zhou Wenwang, people began to get rid of superstition and religious worship, unveil the mystery of nature, and re-understand nature, so that the mysterious nature is no longer mysterious. Laozi, on the other hand, systematically described the path and laws of heaven, earth, everything and people. Nature is composed of many small natures, such as people and animals, crops and trees, mountains and rivers, water and fire, wind and thunder, heaven and earth, etc. All these different beings have their own paths and follow their own paths. Every day, the sunrise and sunset, the full moon and the waning moon, the alternation of four seasons, the growth, germination, flowering and fruiting of plants, the birth, growth and death of animals all have their own unique paths. The universal road consists of many paths, all of which have their own natural ways to follow, from the beginning to maturity and finally to the end. Therefore, if we master the way of heaven and earth and the law of heaven and earth since ancient times, we can know the origin of all things in the universe, and we can also know the procedures, clues and essentials of the avenue of the universe, so that human beings can survive better. Therefore, we can't deny this way! Therefore, Tao runs naturally and moves according to its nature. The unique path of all things naturally runs along this cosmic avenue and moves according to their nature. But all these paths should follow the principles and rules of the avenue and follow their own unique path of life and death.

Since there are Tao between heaven and earth, all these Tao will have different laws of operation and change. Living between heaven and earth and nature, human beings must understand the path and law of heaven and earth and nature. Only by understanding these roads and laws can we know the roads and laws of human beings and the life of each of us. Each of us should follow our own life path. Everyone's life path is different, and its laws are different. Some are tortuous, some are flat, some are difficult, and some are suffering. Walking on your own life path, whether fast or slow, or stopping to rest, or derailing, or even taking a fork in the road, depends on yourself. As for the stumbling blocks, mountains, rivers, gullies and other difficulties on the road, they are also overcome by themselves. As for the wealth, fame and status that appear on the road, it depends on whether you can distinguish it and get it. Therefore, Laozi used "I have three treasures, persevere and persevere." One is kindness, the other is thrift, and the third is not daring to be the first in the world. Using heaven has advantages and disadvantages; The sage's way, if you don't argue, you will have "to illustrate these problems. Thus, people know the path and laws of heaven, earth and everything, and recognize their own path and laws before they can recognize their mission.

Later, Confucius began to systematically think and expound "the way and method of interpersonal relationship". Why did Confucius' students compile this Analects? What language do they really want to speak? Since Xunzi, it seems that no one has figured it out anymore. How should human beings survive in this complicated and changeable world? I don't know how many years of exploration and thinking, people finally realize that they can only live by groups; We must not only fight against unpredictable natural disasters, but also fight against the invasion of other creatures, relying on groups, and planting and creating means of subsistence must also rely on groups. As a result, group life has become the guarantee of human life, and group consciousness has also emerged. People should protect the group for their own survival needs, live and work for the benefit of the group, and pay their own blood and life. This is a key step for human beings to move from natural existence to conscious existence. The unity of people lies in the love between people. If we want to unite people, we must establish a loving relationship between people (benevolence); In order to establish a loving relationship, we must choose the best behavior (righteousness); To choose the best behavior, we must abide by certain social behavior norms (rituals); To abide by certain social behavior norms, we must have wisdom (wisdom); Wisdom alone is not enough, but also honesty (trust). In this way, with honesty, wisdom, observing certain social behavior norms and choosing the best behavior mode, we can establish the love relationship between people. This is the focus of The Analects.

Confucius' teaching materials are poems, books and rituals.

Yue However, after the death of Confucius, Confucius' students realized that Shi, Shu, Li and Yue could not adapt to reality, that is to say, the "reasoning" system of Shi, Shu, Li and Yue was not perfect enough to convince people. So they compiled the Analects of Confucius according to Confucius' words and deeds. "Theory" means discussing, measuring, evaluating, commenting, arguing, researching, analyzing and explaining things; "Language", talk, talk, old sayings and words; Taken together, The Analects is a book of reasoning that discusses, measures, evaluates, comments, demonstrates, studies, analyzes and explains things. Confucius cited so many examples to show that people's social code of conduct needs a * * * understanding and recognition. The Analects of Confucius, as a teaching material, is obviously much better than poetry, books, rituals and music, because it is a kind of humanistic knowledge to grasp how to be a person and what kind of person to be from the perspective of social integrity, rather than technical and instrumental knowledge.

Ceng Zi, a student of Confucius, thought that what Confucius said was the most important thing, so he wrote The Way and Method of Honesty-University. To clarify virtue is to understand the clear path and law between man and nature. If we want to govern the whole country well, we must first implement equality in the family. People who want to implement equality in the family must first cultivate themselves; If you want to cultivate yourself, you must first correct your mentality; If you want to correct your heart, you must first make your heart sincere; People who want to make their ideas sincere must first have a clear understanding; The way to achieve sober understanding lies in measuring and measuring the principle of things. Only by measuring and measuring the principle of things can we know thoroughly and thoroughly, then our thoughts will be sincere, our minds will be sincere, our minds will be correct, then we will have self-cultivation, then we will make people in our family equal, then the whole country will be governed, and then the world will be peaceful. Focusing on the theme of "law" in life, the whole "University" expounds in detail the different stages of "self-cultivation, governing the country and leveling the world", with special emphasis on the importance of personal spiritual cultivation.

Zi Si, a student in Ceng Zi, thought that his grandfather Confucius didn't elaborate on life style, so he wrote Life Style and Law-the golden mean. The lifestyle with moderate demands and requirements is the lifestyle that people need to follow most according to the road and laws of all things in the world. Whether to follow this lifestyle depends on everyone's own wishes. Because only by following this lifestyle can life be happy; If you are forced to follow this lifestyle and cause pain, it is wrong. Therefore, this golden mean is not far away from us, just around us, and can be seen and found anytime and anywhere. However, Zisi did not stop at the issue of personal lifestyle. He expanded from the individual to the nature of heaven and earth, and extended to the whole mankind. Heaven and earth nurture all things, seeking nothing but possession and nothing in return. However, people ignore the nature of heaven and earth, want to possess everything, want to return everything, endlessly ask for it from nature and use all available resources, so they lose their nature. If we can realize that heaven and earth are like this, so am I, then we can do our best in human nature. Only by being thorough and thoughtful about the world can we fulfill our nature. What is nature? That's the way it is, that's the way it is. What's honesty and dishonesty? That's it. That's honesty. Only people who are not like this will be dishonest. Therefore, heaven and earth can fulfill their nature, and people can fulfill their humanity; However, why can't many people be like this? Is that they don't realize that heaven and earth are so much. Therefore, the lifestyle of human beings must also be maintained at moderate demands and requirements. This has promoted the golden mean of all mankind. If people can fulfill human nature, they can fulfill the nature of things; Just like heaven and earth treat human beings, human beings treat all things well, nurture all things, do not possess all things, and do not require all things to return. Then, everything can become its own nature.

Mencius, a student of Zisi, thought that the most important problem was the way of human behavior, so he left the book "Ways and Methods of Behavior"-Mencius. This is a monograph devoted to the study of human behavior. Modern psychology defines human behavior as: when people interact with things around them in life practice, there must be subjective activities and behaviors of one kind or another. This is a person's psychological activity, referred to as psychology. Specifically, external things or changes in the body act on the human body or senses, and through the information processing of the nervous system and brain, feelings and perceptions, memories and representations of things are generated, and then analysis and thinking are carried out. When people deal with objective things in practice, they always have an attitude towards them and form various emotions. In life practice, people have to deal with and change things around them through actions, which are manifested as will activities. The psychology founded by Feng Te only prospered for thirty or forty years before it met with difficulties. The problem arises from the definition that "psychology is the science of studying consciousness". Because to recognize this definition, we must first recognize the existence of consciousness. However, this is not something that everyone in psychology can agree with. American psychologist J B Watson first challenged Feng Te's psychology. Watson pointed out that if psychology is to become a science and be on an equal footing with other disciplines of natural science, it is necessary to have a thorough revolution and give up consciousness as the research object of psychology. Watson said that consciousness is a subjective thing, and no one can see or touch it, let alone put it in a test tube for testing. This illusory thing can never be the object of scientific research. He believes that scientific psychology should be based on objective observation. The behavior of human and animals can be observed objectively, so behavior is the object of psychological research. Watson set off a far-reaching behaviorism movement in the field of psychology.

Mencius' thought of students' repentance is just like the modern western behavioral psychology theory. His theory holds that the research object of psychology should be behavior that can be proved and observed, not consciousness. Behavior is a combination of various body reactions used by organisms to adapt to the environment, which is nothing more than muscle contraction and gland secretion, and is usually caused by various environmental stimuli. The task of psychology is to determine the law between stimulus and response, so as to predict and control human behavior. The research methods of psychology should be objective observation, conditioned reflex, speech report and test, not introspection. Later, a kind of "new behavioral psychology" emerged in the United States (founded in 1930s, represented by tolman, Hull and Skinner). His theory inherited the basic position of early behaviorism, kept the objective research of early behaviorism on human behavior, found out the method of the law between stimulus and response, and tried to establish a rigorous theory about human learning or behavior change. Different from early behaviorism, he absorbed some concepts of other schools of psychology and began to pay attention to the study of internal conditions, behavioral motives and behavioral integrity of the body. But it still hasn't got rid of the position that early behaviorism refused to study consciousness. Now it seems that behaviorism theory is too simplistic and absolute, and we can't deny the existence of human thinking and consciousness just because the activities in our minds are invisible. Psychology, after all, should study the internal process of human psychology. Moreover, people's social activities are extremely complicated, which cannot be explained by simple behavioral engineering. Psychoanalytic school believes that psychology is the function of studying the "unconscious". Its main interest is to explore the basic psychological motives in people's lives. It is believed that people's fundamental psychological motivation is unconscious impulse. It is this powerful "unconscious" psychological activity that plays a decisive and fundamental role in people's lives. As for the conscious psychological process, it is just some isolated fragments exposed on the surface. In recent years, new psychoanalysis no longer emphasizes the role of biological impulse, but pays more attention to the social relationship between people. In western society, the incidence of mental illness is very high, and many causes are related to moral degeneration, so psychoanalytic theory is easily accepted.

Mencius did not stop at the problem of "behavior". When discussing human behavior, he was deeply rooted in people's hearts and put forward the famous theory that human nature is good. In other words, Mencius believed that people's behavior originated from psychological activities, and they would do whatever they thought. If you can't think of it in your heart, you can't do it. Therefore, by observing people's behavior, we can know the psychological content of this person and know the psychological content of this person, and we can also identify whether this person's psychological essence is good or evil. Why should we discuss the issue of "nature is good"? This is not a whim of Mencius and Gao Zi, but a logical extension of Mencius' exposition on the best behavior. People, since they want to live and work, must make a difference; And every time people do something, they will always face the problem of choice. What kind of behavior to choose is something that many people feel confused and painful. When they can't decide what to choose, many people make a mess and regret it afterwards. Therefore, Mencius believes that the problem of behavior plays an important role in people's life! It meant well, but it did something wrong and did something bad. This is the reason why people are not educated enough, have little knowledge, refuse to think and can't think. This is exactly the problem discussed in Mencius.

Of course, from Laozi to Confucius and then to Mencius, they mostly discussed the psychology and behavior of rulers, so Xunzi felt it necessary to elaborate on the roads and laws of leadership and management, so he synthesized ancient and modern times and wrote Xunzi, detailing the behaviors of leaders and managers, as well as their roads and laws of leadership and management. In Xunzi, different from the Analects of Confucius and Mencius, he has several titles for the identity of a leader, such as monarch, ruler, monarch, master and user of the country. These titles do not refer exclusively to rulers, but to leaders of different status. Xunzi fully realized that rulers, leaders and managers are different and have different responsibilities, so he demonstrated this difference from several examples and discussed their different behaviors, paths and laws. This is a management monograph that even modern management can't catch up with.

Starting from Dong Zhongshu, The Analects of Confucius was dismembered to pieces, and so were other works! In order to meet the needs of feudal rule, Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty carried out the so-called theoretical generalization and theological transformation of Confucian ethics in the pre-Qin period, and formed a systematic theoretical ethics system with the "three cardinal guides and five permanents" as the core and the theory of the induction between man and nature and the theory of Yin and Yang and the five elements as the theoretical basis. Thus, Confucius and Mencius thought became the Confucianism of Dong Shi. On the surface, "exclusive respect for Confucianism" means that Confucius thought is supreme and Confucian culture is fundamental, but in fact Confucianism has existed in name only, and its rich development possibilities and vitality have been stifled under this ideological and cultural policy. The social and educational functions of Confucianism became the tools and weapons of feudal autocracy after being carried to a frightening height by the rulers. Although Dong Zhongshu raised the banner of Confucianism, he did not set up a "cultural fault" (the merger war in the Warring States period was more intense, frequent and larger than that in the Spring and Autumn Period. By 222 BC, the Qin Dynasty attacked Liaodong, wiped out Qi and unified China. During this period, it was over 200 years. Although Confucius and Mencius thought did not disappear, it rarely passed down. In particular, Qin Shihuang's "burning books to bury Confucianism" is undoubtedly a great blow to the inheritance of these ideas. This is the bridge of the second "cultural fault". Then in the Song Dynasty around 1 150, Zhu took Cheng Yi's disciple as his teacher and discovered the "flaw" in the study of Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism, so he devoted himself to studying Confucianism, inherited the second course and developed independently, forming his own system, which was later called Neo-Confucianism. On the basis of Dong Zhongshu's theory of Yin-Yang and Five Elements, he integrated Buddhism and Taoism into Confucianism. He is a master of "rites" and one of the main representatives of Confucianism in China feudal society. His academic thought, in the Yuan, Ming and Qing Dynasties in China, has always been the official philosophy of the feudal ruling class, marking a more complete ideology of feudal society. The class interests of the ruling class consolidated the theoretical basis of Zhu Xue's political and cultural autocracy as a superstructure and became a powerful spiritual pillar to consolidate the ruling order of feudal society. It strengthened the "three cardinal guides and five permanents" and hindered the later changes in feudal society, especially the variation of Confucius and Mencius' thoughts (this is the third "cultural fault"). 19 19 The May 4th Movement was a new cultural movement against feudal culture. On the one hand, we expect and demand the realization and development of freedom, rationality, rule of law and democracy, on the other hand, it is the rise and proliferation of all-round anti-tradition. Until the "Cultural Revolution" in the 1970s, the idea of total westernization was still stirring. Today, there are still many people who denounce Confucianism as feudal dross and think that only "science" can strengthen the country and save the country.

The "cultural fault" marks the collapse of the axiomatic interpretation system of human society, so people, every living thing on the earth, will only worship "God" (the mysterious phenomenon in the unknown field) (the religious reasoning system), will only close themselves up with limited explanations, build their own "fortress" of mind, and then treat others, other things and unknown things with limited knowledge and narrow world outlook and outlook on life. Faced with a series of life and death problems in real life, people naturally form various interpretation rules based on villages, regions, customs and habits, and specific cultural atmosphere. The collapse of the social axiom interpretation system established by Zhou Wenwang, Confucius, Ceng Zi, Zi Si and Mencius made the rulers of China all defend their own interests first, then barbaric, and then rational. In this "cultural fault", most people in China are at a loss because of the destruction of Confucianism, so ordinary people "enjoy themselves" in an independent production unit, construct their own narrow self-centered reasoning system and lifestyle on the basis of their own narrow self-centeredness, and dream of a bright future.

What does Confucius rely on to make his students obey? It depends on "reasoning" and certain social behavior norms and social axiom interpretation system. The same is true of Tao Te Ching, Da Xue, The Doctrine of the Mean, Mencius and Xunzi. They are "reasoning" books for discussing, measuring, evaluating, commenting, demonstrating, researching, analyzing and explaining things, reasoning about the code of conduct of human society, explaining the axioms and value orientation of human society, and reasoning about human beings. This is the traditional culture of China!