How to evaluate the traditional culture of China?

First, the Chinese nation has survived for 5,000 years, which is a rare phenomenon in world history. Although China faced the danger of national subjugation and extinction in modern times, after a hundred years of struggle, it finally declined but did not perish, rose again, and even had the opportunity to revive China today. "Poetry" said: "If there are nine, there must be one." The reason why the Chinese nation can stand on its own feet among the nations of the world must have its internal spiritual foundation; If this spiritual foundation (or soul of china) does not die, the Chinese nation will develop. Therefore, this spiritual foundation should be affirmed.

Then, what is the spiritual basis for the Chinese nation to survive for 5,000 years and rise again in modern times? In my opinion, this is the spirit pointed out by Mr. Zhang Dainian: "A gentleman strives for self-improvement." . The Chinese nation has unparalleled national cohesion, and the so-called gentleman's self-improvement means the nation's self-improvement. With this spirit of self-improvement, the Chinese nation will develop and will not perish. Indeed, the Chinese nation has fallen behind after modern times, and the spirit of self-improvement has been distorted into arrogance and blind xenophobia. But when the external pressure reaches a certain level, the Chinese nation will eventually have a group of people who "open their eyes to see the world" first. Although there will be contradictions between the self-improvement of the Chinese nation and the absorption of foreign cultures under certain historical conditions, its essence is ultimately unified. There is a simple reason. When the Chinese nation can't strengthen itself without absorbing the achievements of foreign cultures, as long as the Chinese nation has the spirit of self-improvement, it becomes a matter of course to absorb the achievements of foreign cultures. After the Opium War, the pace of development of China's modern thought was in a hurry (in contrast to the steady and slow development of China's ancient thought). People with lofty ideals bravely sought the truth of saving the country and the people from the west, and finally found Marxism after 80 years of struggle. Let's take a look at China people's efforts to learn advanced western science and technology, actively explore and implement economic system reform, and loudly call for ideological modernization. Aren't these the embodiment of the Chinese nation's spirit of self-improvement in modern times?

China's traditional culture is dominated by Confucianism, and Confucianism and Taoism complement each other. The philosophy of Yi Zhuan is vigorous, but in its vitality, it combines the softness of Taoism. "Classical Chinese" said: "Those who know how to advance and retreat without losing their correctness are saints!" "Cohesion" said: "A gentleman knows its details, is soft and firm, and is the hope of everyone." Therefore, it can be said that the character of the Chinese nation is both rigid and flexible: with rigidity, there is a spirit of being mighty and unyielding; Only with softness as a supplement can we have a flexible, lasting and indomitable spirit. Together, these two spirits are the spirit of "nature is against nature, and the day after tomorrow is against nature", that is, the spirit of the Chinese nation to constantly strive for self-improvement.

Second, the Chinese nation once created splendid ancient culture, and China's economic and technological level in the early and middle feudal society once occupied an advanced position in the world at that time. However, China's feudal society was backward in the later period, and China's traditional culture did not produce natural science in the modern sense, which made China not get rid of the backward situation of economy and science and technology for a long time. Compared with Christian rule in the Middle Ages, China's traditional culture has its advantages. Compared with the rapid development of science and technology after the Western Renaissance, China's traditional culture has its defects. The significance of these two aspects should be affirmed.

The quality of China's traditional culture is determined by its characteristics. There is a saying in "Da Yu Mo in Shangshu", "The use of virtue is to be lenient with others, and to be harmonious but different." Although Great Mo Yu was a fake book published after the Han and Wei Dynasties, this sentence was taken from the "virtue, utility and generosity" contained in Zuo Zhuan's Seven Years of Wengong, which is called three things. The words "three things" and "water, fire, gold, wood, earth and valley" are also called "nine virtues" or "nine virtues", which can explain the characteristics of China's traditional culture, and Professor Pang Pu calls it "humanism". Humanism is relative to the theological rule in the Middle Ages in the West, but it is completely different from the humanism after the Renaissance in the West.

China's traditional culture has undergone a process of development and change. During the Yin and Zhou Dynasties, the worship of "God" prevailed, and "God" was the personality god who "supervised the people and judged the righteousness" (Shangshu Gaozong Day). During the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, Confucian culture transformed the external form of "virtue" and "ritual" in theology into people's moral consciousness. At this time, people gradually regard the sky as "qi" and think that everything in the world is formed by gasification. Thinkers after the Pre-Qin Dynasty inherited the achievements of Chyi Chin's theory and Confucian moral theory. They did not introduce people's thoughts into heaven, but asked people to consciously abide by the human order. In Confucianism, the monarch was placed in the supreme position. Some thinkers also tried to limit the monarchy, "condescending to heaven" and deify the gods again, but failed. China's traditional culture is moral, not religious, and imperial, not sacred, which is in contrast to the Christian rule in medieval Western Europe. China's traditional culture contains the philosophy of Qi, which is a view of nature that combines simple materialism with simple dialectics. Although this view of nature is always painted with a layer of moralism or placed under moralism, it still allows people to explore the material world to a certain extent, which is quite different from the logical proof of "God exists" and the discussion of "how many angels can stand on the needle tip" in medieval Western Europe. Because of this, the economy and science and technology of China feudal society in the early and middle period were able to leap to the advanced position in the world at that time. We should affirm the historical value of China's humanistic and cultural traditions.

However, China's traditional culture has its inherent defects. It values morality more than nature, collectivity more than individuals, tradition more than creation, hierarchical order more than human rights and equality, practical application more than scientific theory, intuition more than logical analysis and experimental proof, which also greatly restricts the development of ancient economy, science and technology in China. Xunzi said: "A gentleman can argue with benevolence. Words are unkind, words are silent, and their arguments are not awkward. " ("Xunzi ChristianRandPhillips") and said: "useless arguments, do not rush to judge, abandon and die." ("Xunzi Tian Lun") Zhu Yue: "Today, learning is not poor, knowing human relations, telling sacred words and knowing the world is deliberately between animals and plants. What kind of knowledge is this? If you want to get something in this way, it is to cook sand and turn it into a meal. " (Answer Chen Qizhong, Collection of Zhu Wen Official Documents, Volume 39) These can well explain that the traditional culture of China advocates ethics, despises and rejects empirical science and formal logic.

On the one hand, Confucian moral theory advocates "loving many people", on the other hand, it advocates "loving the poor", "pro-killing" and "pro-estrangement", which is essentially the expansion of blood clan feelings including primitive humanitarian heritage. In the Xia, Shang and Zhou Dynasties, the blood clan emotion has been intertwined with the hierarchical order within the clan and the country. Duke Zhou's "ritual and music system" is to regulate the hierarchical order within the clan and the country through the forms of "ritual" and "music" to restrain people's behavior. Confucius' contribution lies in transforming the external form of "ceremony" and "joy" into the internal conscious moral consciousness, which is "benevolence for oneself". Benevolence puts forward moral requirements for every member of society, so that people regard the whole society as a whole, and every member should consciously fulfill his obligations for the survival and development of this whole. However, due to the different status of members in the overall hierarchical order, their respective obligations are also different ("Zhuzi Language" Volume 18: "Everything has its own principle, and the principle is homologous, but in different positions, the reason is different"), that is, the so-called "loyalty to the monarch, filial piety to the father, respect for brothers, respect for friends ..." and so on. Obviously, in addition to mutual moral obligations, there is also the oppression of the lower class by the upper class, and there is inequality between obligations and rights. However, Confucianism affirmed this inequality in the form of "the monarch is the minister, the husband is the woman, and the father is the son". Feudal ethics played a coordinating and stable role in the political and economic life of feudal society, but it undoubtedly restricted the development of individual personality. In order to prevent the outbreak of social contradictions, the feudal rulers put the feudal ethics in an exclusive position, so that they later regarded it as the foundation of biology and the source of the world, and had to delay and hinder the development of China society.

Third, although China was backward in modern times, it has the opportunity to revive today; Although the west is advanced in modern times, its culture is not perfect. Marxist criticism of western capitalist currency fetishism is not out of date today; Westerners' lamentations about the indifference and moral decay of western society are not all moans without illness; After realizing the limitations of western culture in solving social problems and natural science problems, western scholars turned to reevaluate eastern culture. Although there are far-fetched and over-touted words, they are not all "appreciating antiques." It would be our own carelessness to dismiss western scholars' praise of China's traditional culture as "curiosity" and "appreciation of antiques". Although the spirit of Ah Q should be strictly guarded, Jia Gui's attitude is unacceptable. The reasonable factors in China's traditional culture are still valuable today and in the future, and should be affirmed.