What are the characteristics of traditional culture

Characteristics of traditional Chinese culture

In general, there are many characteristics of traditional Chinese culture, the most important of which are the following three characteristics:

1. "Heaven and earth, the basis of life" of the farming culture.

For thousands of years, people grow and rest in the "yellow earth", the land as their lifeblood, in the generations facing the yellow earth back to the sky of the long years, the yellow children have developed a down-to-earth sincerity and honesty and solidity of character. The concept of land is the core of agrarian culture, therefore, in our country in ancient times, every village and community has a land temple, all to worship the land god, the emperor every year to the altar of heaven and earth to worship heaven and earth, symbolic plowing, praying for the wind and rain, the country and the people in peace.

Agriculture's law of spring plowing, summer plowing, autumn harvesting and winter storage requires people to be down-to-earth in everything, not to violate the farming season, and make progress in a gradual manner, but avoid being over-ambitious and detached from the actual situation, and it is not possible to pull out the seedlings to help them grow. Therefore, traditional Chinese culture is characterized by practical culture. For example, in science and technology, the most prominent is the military, agriculture, medicine, art of the four major practical culture; in the humanities, pay attention to the daily use of ethics, and do not seek the afterlife and the kingdom of heaven; in the way of thinking, emphasize the "world of practicality", "seek truth from facts" spirit.

Agricultural culture takes the harmony of interpersonal relationships and the relationship between man and nature as its ideal goal. Confucius's senior disciple, Yuzi, said: "The use of etiquette, and the value of harmony". Mencius said, "Timing is not as good as location, and location is not as good as harmony." The Medieval Times says, "Harmony is also the way to reach the world." In terms of ethnic relations, our ancestors have always respected the rule of culture and education, advocating, "Harmony and harmony among all nations," and forming a tradition of ethnic unity and national unity. The purpose of small peasant production is not for market needs but for self-sufficiency. What was needed to ensure the smooth running of this simple reproduction was the stability of the social order. Therefore, it is emphasized that the individual must be subordinated to the interests of the society and the group, denying the individual's sense of independence and melting the individual into the group.

Agricultural society relies on the sky for its food, and in the relationship between heaven and man, it does not emphasize its antagonistic side, but its homogeneous side. The so-called "unity of heaven and man" is to harmonize the relationship between man and nature.

Smallholder production seeks to satisfy its own needs of use value, rather than the exchange value of business profits. Therefore, the idea of "averaging" came naturally. Confucianism said "do not suffer from poverty, but suffer from uneven", the Mohist said "love each other", "cross-benefit", are in line with the "average" idea of small farmers. All of these are in line with the small farmer's idea of "average". In addition, the small-scale production of small farmers, narrow, simple production process, the production order is stable, so people are often in a state of self-satisfaction, lack of pioneering spirit and sense of competition.

2. "Ancestors are the foundation of the class" is the ethical characteristic of blood ties.

The primitive crowd, matrilineal clan and patrilineal clan societies are all formed on the basis of blood relatives. The "filial piety" of honoring one's ancestors and relatives, carrying on the family line and extending the lineage, is the core concept of the ritual order in traditional Chinese culture.

The patriarchal systems of the Xia, Shang and Zhou dynasties were derived from the blood relations of the clan societies. The King of Zhou called himself the Son of Heaven, i.e., the son of heaven. He was both the political ****lord and the great patriarch of the world. His throne was inherited by his first-born son, while his brothers were appointed as vassals or ministers. The patriarchal system applied not only to the nobles of the same surname, but also to the nobles of different surnames who were divided up by the Zhou Dynasty. The relationship between nobles of the same surname was that of brothers and uncles, while the relationship between nobles of different surnames was that of nephews and uncles. Both the same-surname nobles and the different-surname nobles were linked by blood ties, becoming a tough and huge net.

Confucius attached such importance to filial piety mainly because he wanted to use blood ties to maintain the ritual order of traditional society. During the reign of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, Dong Zhongshu, based on his theological theory of "Yin is inferior to Yang", put forward the theory of "Three Principles": "The righteousness of the ruler and his ministers, the father and the son, and the husband and wife are all based on the Yin-Yang Way, with the ruler as the Yang and the ministers as the Yin; the father as the Yang and the son as the Yin; The husband is yang and the wife is yin." Yang is dominant and Yin is subordinate. Thus, the ruler and minister, father and son, and husband and wife all become relationships of dominance and submission. "The three principles of the king's way can be sought in heaven." In this way, the relationship of rule and obedience of "the king is the program of the minister, the father is the program of the son, and the husband is the program of the wife" is said to be the arrangement of heaven, which is sacrosanct and unchangeable forever.

The "Three Principles" are a kind of "identity orientation," and the "Five Constants," i.e., benevolence, righteousness, etiquette, wisdom, and trust, are used to regulate various kinds of identity orientation under the conditions of "identity orientation. The "Five Constants", i.e. benevolence, righteousness, propriety, wisdom and faith, are the eternal moral norms used to adjust all kinds of interpersonal relationships under the condition of "identity orientation". Generally speaking, the Three Principles and Five Constants are the development of Confucius' doctrine of the proper names of the ruler, the minister, the father and the son, and the idea of the "rule of etiquette". Later generations collectively referred to it as the "Program of Names and Teachings". It is essentially a general outline of the order of the rule of etiquette in traditional Chinese society.

Interpersonal relations in feudal China were summarized in two formulas:

ⅠThe sky, the earth, the ruler, the relatives, and the teacher ⅡThe ruler and the ministers, father and son, husband and wife, brothers and friends

The former is the essence of the five Confucianisms, and the latter is the extension of the five Confucianisms to the interpersonal relations. In Romance of the Three Kingdoms, Liu Bei, Guan Yu, and Zhang Fei are in a political relationship, the relationship between a ruler and his ministers, so why should they become kith and kin brothers in the Peach State? Because only by establishing such a kind of kinship brotherhood can they find a more reliable bond than their kind of political relationship.

In the feudal era, there were two highest value codes in China, one called loyalty and the other called filial piety. Loyalty is a political concept, and voluntary obedience and following is called loyalty. The other one is called filial piety, which is also called Xiao, i.e. emulation. The concept of loyalty and filial piety still exists today, only in a somewhat different form. For example, we often use the word "obedient" to evaluate a good subordinate or a good child. When it is used as a political value, it means nothing more than "loyalty," and when it is used to evaluate a child, it means nothing more than "filial piety.

3, "the gentleman teacher, the foundation of the rule also" of the gentleman teacher unity within the sage outside the king type of cultural characteristics.

In Chinese feudal society, the highest representative of political power is the king, and the highest representative of ethical authority is the sage. The unity of ruler and teacher is the unity of politics and ethics. The Confucian doctrine of the inner sage and the outer king is the theoretical system of the unity of the ruler and the teacher, which is the basic structure of the "ethical-political" cultural paradigm.

Confucius' "rites" are external constraints, while "benevolence" is an inner consciousness. Ritual" is about objective social norms, and "benevolence" is about subjective ethical cultivation, the latter being the so-called "benevolence" science, or the "inner saint" science; the former being the "inner saint" science; and the former being the "inner saint" science. The latter is called "ren", or the study of "inner sainthood"; the former is called "rite", or the study of "outer kingship". In the case of Confucius, the two are one and the same.

Mengzi's theories on the goodness of nature, the cultivation of qi, and benevolent government all emphasize personal cultivation, or "internal saintliness". The University, on the other hand, emphasizes personal cultivation as the starting point, and comprehensively explains the way of "internal sainthood and external kingship" of cultivation and governance. In the Song Dynasty, Cheng Zhu Theory further developed this "inner sanctity" line by taking "inner" as the foundation and "outer" as the end. Thus, in terms of value orientation, special attention was paid to the cultivation of morality. On the positive side, it honors virtue, emphasizes moral integrity, and inspires people to consciously safeguard national interests and social justice, so that "the rich and the noble cannot be lustful, the poor and the lowly cannot be shifted, and the mighty and the powerful cannot be subjugated" until "killing oneself to become a benevolent man" and "sacrificing one's life for righteousness". to the point of "killing one's own body to fulfill one's benevolence" and "sacrificing one's life for righteousness". Among the intellectuals and people nurtured by this ethical culture, countless heroes have emerged, who, in the fight against the internal and external dark forces, have been unrelenting and persevering, and have demonstrated their righteousness at the historical juncture of the country's survival and extinction. For example, Qi has the Tai Shi Jian, Jin has the Dong Hu Pen, Qin has the Zhang Liang Shi, Han has the Su Wu Festival, Shu has the Exodus Table, Song has the Yue Fei Soul, Jin has the Oar of Crossing the River, and the Southern Song has the Song of Righteousness of the Scholarly Chancellor Wen Tianxiang, etc. Their cultural temperament and ethical sentiments bred by the traditional Chinese culture will always inspire the benevolent people of the future generations. However, this ethical culture also has its negative side, which is to emphasize the cultivation of morality one-sidedly, while neglecting the seminar of knowledge and the pursuit of utilitarianism. As a result of the development of such cultural concepts, the intellectuals have become a trend of talking about the nature of the heart and ignoring the practice. They were obsessed with searching for "heavenly reason" and "conscience" in their hearts, and were not interested in exploring the outside world, which ultimately blocked the path of pursuing knowledge, developing science, and transforming the world.

Confucianism, after being established in the Han Dynasty, has a quasi-religious nature, and the unity of the emperor and the teacher actually plays the role of the unity of church and state. On the one hand, the emperor was called the Son of Heaven, representing God. On the other hand, the emperor also respected Confucianism and worshipped the Confucian saint. The ruler and the teacher depended on each other, which was conducive to the stability of the feudal state. China's Confucianism advocates sage style, lack of intellectual temperament, can not jump out of the "saint inside and outside the king" arena, thus hampering the development of scientific thinking, blocking the transition process to modern culture, its inward-looking, closed negative role, can not be underestimated. This negative effect is also manifested in the architectural culture. For example, traditional Chinese housing is characterized by the construction of a courtyard, using a closed circular structure, from the shape of the family's exclusivity. A high, thick wall separates the house from the outside world. The centerpiece of the old-style courtyard is the dang house, the largest and best dang house, which usually does not house people but serves as a symbol of the power of the entire family, enshrining ancestral tablets in the middle and serving as a meeting place for family meetings. The side rooms and compartments around the hall are the rooms where people live, the higher generations live on the right side (the ancients were still right), the lower generations live on the left side, the courtyard separates the family as an independent blood unit, economic unit from the outside world. The Forbidden City in Beijing, although the Imperial Palace, in the form and function of the actual just is also a large and magnificent courtyard. Ancient Chinese cities were four-sided cities. The Great Wall was also a spatially enlarged quadrangle, built by the ancients not only for the purpose of defense against foreigners, but also for the purpose of isolating China from foreigners. So in China, the home is a courtyard, the city is a quadrangle, and the country has the Great Wall. The former residence of Hu Xueyan in Hangzhou also typifies this. Here is a very thought-provoking historical issue that has so far gone unnoticed by historians.

The above reveals the social foundation, value orientation and special qualities of traditional Chinese culture from three aspects of "farming culture, blood ties, and the unity of ruler and teacher", in which heaven and earth are the basis of agricultural economy, clansmen are the basis of blood ties, and "the unity of ruler and teacher" is the basis of ethical politics. "is the basis of ethical politics.

Chinese culture itself is the result of the long-term fusion of multiple cultures into one. Its continuity and stability have a tough cohesive effect on the unity of our nation and the unity of our country. The process of its diversification and fusion also plays an important role in inspiring us to accept and digest heterogeneous cultures. These fine traditions are worth cherishing. But on the other hand, the ethical culture centered on Confucianism has the tendency of inward pursuit and self-enclosure, and its negative side still creates a psychological barrier for us to realize socialist modernization, which must be criticized and transformed.