2 1 Century Traditional Culture's Influence on China

In the past two decades, Chinese mainland's economy has developed strongly, and in the near future, it may become a veritable world economic power. At the same time, if the situation in the Straits is stable, the economic strength of Taiwan Province Province is expected to grow rapidly, which will once again amaze the world.

With the peaceful rise of the Chinese nation, it can be predicted that the influence of China's traditional culture on the world will be unprecedented in the late 2/kloc-0 century. Due to the trend of world economic integration and the urgent need of the development of human civilization, this influence is far more profound than that of the Tang Dynasty a thousand years ago, and it has evolved into the second Renaissance of mankind.

First, China's time culture and western space culture are beautiful and symmetrical.

To see through the influence of China culture on the world, we must first understand the nature of China traditional culture and its position in the world culture. Only in this way can we know where she will promote human progress and play a unique and irreplaceable role.

There are all kinds of cultures in the world, and cultural diversity is a necessary condition for cultural prosperity and development. But as far as the nature of culture is concerned, fundamentally speaking, there are two cultures that have the greatest influence on human life: one is space culture, and the other is time culture. The former is mainly represented by western culture originating from ancient Greece and Rome, while the latter is mainly represented by China culture born in the Yellow River and Yangtze River basins. Other cultures are somewhere in between.

Time and space are two basic attributes of everything. Everything in the world has its own time and space, and time and space are unified and inseparable. But time and space are two separate and independent aspects. When people face the world, it is impossible to pay equal attention to time and space, but they must make a choice: or take space as the standard and look at the existence of time and everything from the perspective of space; Or take time as the standard and look at the existence of space and everything from the perspective of time. These two attitudes and practices have different meanings and values, which are both necessary and beneficial to human beings. The reason why there are these two choices is that people's thinking and perception can only have one attention center at the same time. Therefore, when dealing with external things, either space or time is the main thing, and these two practices can only be carried out separately, not in the same process.

This is how human culture is divided into two sources. The mainstream of traditional culture in China tends to pay attention to time, while the mainstream of western culture tends to pay attention to space. After thousands of years of accumulation and development, two different but beautiful and symmetrical cultural forms have been formed.

The different time and space choices between Chinese and western cultures can be explained by all the manifestations of the mainstream of these two cultures. You can only choose what you want here.

West: Philosopher before Socrates in ancient Greece, who only discussed the problem of space, but not the problem of time. Most of them take some tangible physical entities such as water, gas and soil as the origin of the universe. Democritus's atomism is the most representative and has the greatest influence on later generations. This view of the universe is obviously based on space. In science, Euclid's Elements of Geometry is recognized as the source of western scientific thought, and its logical thinking form of axiomatic deduction has always influenced the development of western academics. The greatest achievement of modern western science is the study of material structure, and the ultimate goal of scientific exploration is to trace back the material entity roots of all things and phenomena. In artistic creation, western classical painting, dance, sculpture, architecture, etc. It gives people the spiritual enjoyment of physical beauty and the beauty of spatial rules, and exudes masculinity. In religion, the gods worshipped by Christianity created everything and people other than themselves. God and his creation belong to the space opposition. Wait a minute.

China: In ancient China, learning began with observing images and giving time, and the concept of "taking time as the right thing" was formed very early. Ancient philosophers believed that the universe was mainly an evolutionary process of everything from scratch. Laozi's assertion that "Tao gives birth to one, two, three and everything" and Zhouyi's statement that "it is easy to have Tai Chi, that is, two instruments give birth to four images, four images give birth to gossip, and gossip gives birth to good or bad luck" clearly show the universe in the course of time. The source of China's knowledge (including science) is Zhouyi, and the sixty-four hexagrams and sixty-four words in Zhouyi reveal the time and historical laws of nature and social personnel. Wang Bi: "The diviner is also a time-changing person." (The Book of Changes) is right. The core idea of Zhouyi can be summarized in four words: "keep pace with the times". Confucius said, "A gentleman is harmonious but different, and a gentleman is harmonious but different." The "golden mean" pursued by Confucianism is also based on the time. Aesthetically, all kinds of traditional arts in China take "vivid charm" as their soul. "Vivid charm" shows the beauty of life rhythm, music and time flow, which belongs to female beauty. In terms of religion, Taoism pursues immortality, while Buddhism takes the understanding of everything "Cheng-Sheng-Bad-Empty" as its enlightenment. Tao (or Buddha's nature) develops everything by itself, and the relationship with everything is "Tao is in things, and things are in Tao". These are the results of looking at the world from a time perspective.

Space culture has obvious positive characteristics, while time culture has obvious negative characteristics. "One yin and one yang is the Tao." Yin He put forward the principles of symmetry, complementarity, growth and decline transformation, harmony and loyalty, which explained the relationship between Chinese and western cultures and revealed the significance and function of China traditional culture.

Second, the values of "harmony between man and nature" will dominate.

500 years after the European Renaissance in the15th century, western civilization has made unparalleled achievements and has now ruled the world.

Taking space as the standard determines that western culture must treat everything in a way of separation of opposites between subject and object. Because space can be occupied and mutually exclusive. Opposition and separation are the basic characteristics of space, and only opposition and separation can show the existence of space. The opposition between subject and object and space standard can be described as mutual cause and effect. Therefore, the west likes to understand the world through analytical anatomy, emphasizing the differences between people, things and things, and attaching importance to the existence of substances with obvious spatial characteristics. The values established by western culture advocate utility, publicize individuality and take pride in plunder. This kind of values stimulates the enthusiasm and creativity of individual existence and urges individual existence to give full play to its potential.

Humanists in the European Renaissance advocated the value and dignity of human beings, and believed that human beings had free will and the right to decide their own destiny and moral good and evil. These thoughts are undoubtedly extremely precious, and there was indeed a good momentum to fully display human nature at that time. The traditional thinking mode of binary opposition in the west decided the victory of human rights over theocracy at that time, and the liberation of divinity by human nature could only follow the direction of spatial thinking. The so-called "free will" of mankind is actually profound and one-sided. The right of free development of personality that people get from God mainly lies in expanding the space of human activities and domination and satisfying people's desire for physical objects. In the end, human nature is unilaterally understood as "material property", and personality is reduced to "material lattice", so that human nature is only the sum of its economic relations. Equality emphasizes equal competition with others, so as to survive the fittest. The greatness of human wisdom and lofty taste are mainly manifested in the conquest of nature and the possession of material wealth.

The glory of western civilization and its overwhelming position in today's world are closely related to this powerful space value. However, while western culture has brought a lot of progress to mankind, it has also brought troubles, pains and disasters. Capitalism's so-called free competition and conquest of space led to centuries of brutal and shameless colonial oppression and two world wars in the 20th century, as well as modern international hegemonism and terrorism. The predatory exploitation of space on the scale of man-made things has caused the shortage of resources, the mass extinction of species and the serious deterioration of the ecological environment. Due to all kinds of social survival competition, people, especially young people and even children, are overwhelmed, and the pressure of life and spirit makes them breathless. The relationship between many people and God is upside down. It is not the form of spiritual domination, but the material desire dominates the spirit, which leads to the disappearance of the independent value of spirit and life, the loss of spiritual and emotional homeland, and the loss of human essential self.

China's traditional culture is time-oriented, which determines that this culture must treat all things in the world in a way of harmony between man and nature and integration of subject and object. Because in the same space-time continuum, time is inseparable, truncation, possession and plunder. From the perspective of time, people and everything in the world will always be a seamless organic whole. Therefore, China's traditional culture adheres to the principle of "Taoism is natural" and respects the natural overall state of things. In the face of the natural state of time, all beings are equal and equal. People, people and everything in the world should be * * * existence, * * * glory * * enjoy friendly relations. This is also the mainstream spirit of China traditional culture. Therefore, Zhuangzi has a "theory of homogeneous objects" and sings "Heaven and earth coexist with me, and everything is one with me." ("Zhuangzi's Theory of Everything") The Book of Changes advocates that "the Tao is great and everything is not abolished." ("cohesion")

The values of China's traditional culture emphasize the unity of heaven and man, the equality of all living beings and the harmony of all ethnic groups. Human behavior is not based on matter, but on life. The essence of life is time and its existence is a process. Cherishing life means respecting time, arranging everything according to the laws and characteristics of time, making the survival process full, beautiful and comfortable, and making all social activities conducive to the development of life, rather than hurting life. Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism say that the first thing to do is to love life and protect it. People should consciously regard raising themselves, others and everything as an interdependent whole. Only by practicing the trinity of oneself, people and things can we truly understand health preservation.

Man's life can't be separated from his body, but the traditional culture in China believes that man is human because he can govern everything (including himself), so he is "three" with heaven and earth. The goal of governance is to praise everything, cooperate with each other and do their best. In this way, human beings and individuals can survive and develop. Therefore, the essence of human beings lies in spirit, not in form. People's value lies not in the possession of material wealth, but in showing their true heart of loving themselves, others and things. Mencius: "Kiss, kiss, kiss, kiss and love." ("Mencius") Therefore, we must first improve our spirit, including morality and wisdom; The satisfaction of material needs lies in the correct governance of everything. "Those who benefit, the sum of righteousness is also." According to the values of China's traditional culture, man is an ethical man first, and utilitarianism must be realized under the ethical principle of harmony between man and nature.

It can be seen that the characteristics of China's time culture are precisely the adjustment and correction of the deviation caused by western space culture. It can be expected that by the end of 2 1 century, the diplomatic principle of international peace will be recognized and observed more deeply and widely, and the arms race may be curbed to a great extent. Business negotiation, trade exchange and economic and technological exchange will more embody win-win and mutual benefit. Cultural conflict has become mutual tolerance, and accepting and protecting the pluralistic existence and development of culture will become the knowledge of the world. It is possible to form more economic and political isomorphism in various regions of the world. Replacing confrontation and conquest with "realistic creatures" (Mandarin JUNG WOO) will surely become the spirit of the times in this century.

In the value orientation of life, due to the influence of China's time and culture, people will pay more attention to the process of life and put the result in a secondary position. As a noble and comfortable standard of living, there will be more and more people. People are not only happy with their achievements through hard work, but also feel happy in the process of cultivation. The cosmology and outlook on life of Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism will spread widely not only in the eastern world, but also in the western world. Because looking at the world and life from the perspective of time can make people actively participate in social life without being tired of things, and have a peaceful mind and enjoy themselves. The cultivation of Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism can also improve people's wisdom and creativity, and help people succeed safely and carefree (in Zhuangzi), and they can still maintain peace after success.

This change in life value and social value will sublimate people and society, make spirit higher than matter, and spirituality will dominate the body. In short, people will really become people.

Third, "elephant science" came into being.

Western philosophy of science emphasizes the objectivity of cognition and determines the neutrality of scientific value. Actually, it is not. It should be noted that all scientific research must adopt certain cognitive methods, and all cognitive methods are inseparable from a certain relationship between subject and object. In the process of cognition, how to treat and deal with the object of cognition has values. The values embodied in western science are consistent with the mainstream humanistic thought in the west.

The starting point of western science is the separation and opposition between subject and object, and it mainly relies on abstract thinking, analytical methods and experimental methods to control boundary conditions. This cognitive way contains the inequality of subject and object, that is, people have the right to dominate and conquer the object. The cognitive result obtained in this way is the causal inevitability of things being cut and dominated. Therefore, the premise and result of acting according to this scientific law are to destroy the object on a larger scale. Such understanding and practice will inevitably lead to the destruction of the ecological environment in a broad sense, and make the relationship between man and nature, man and man, and man and himself tense. Even if it is intended to make up for it, it is often robbing Peter to pay Paul, and it will continue to strengthen anthropocentrism and invisibly nourish the concept of harming others and benefiting others.

From the perspective of space, the whole is composed of its parts, and the parts determine the whole. To understand the whole, we must decompose it to understand its components, and then integrate the understanding of the parts into a whole. So we should take the road of reductionism. In this way, the components of things are understood, but the whole composed of parts is far from the original whole. Because the whole relationship has been destroyed in the process of restoration. This epistemology overemphasizes the decisive role of parts in the whole, ignores and is difficult to understand the significance and value of the whole to parts.

Western mainstream science advocates grasping the essence of things behind phenomena. The so-called essence refers to the relatively stable connection inside things, and the phenomenon refers to the relatively changeable connection outside things. Undoubtedly, the internal stable connection has a long-term decisive significance to the essence of things, but it must be noted that the external changeable connection will also have a decisive impact on the development and change of things. As a connection, phenomenon and essence are equal, and phenomenon is much richer, more vivid and more comprehensive than the so-called essence. Judging from the complexity, extensiveness and integrity of the connection, the phenomenon is greater than the essence. Abstract methods, anatomical analysis methods and experimental methods that control boundary conditions mercilessly abandon the phenomenon level. Therefore, western science is good at grasping simple, substantial and stable objects, but not good at understanding complex, relational and changeable things. That is to say, although western science has made great achievements in many fields such as material structure, it is not omnipotent as a cognitive system.

The starting point of China's traditional science is the unity of man and nature, and the integration of subject and object. This starting point does not cancel the distinction between subject and object, but excludes opposition, so it does not hinder the normal conduct of cognitive activities. However, such a relationship between subject and object opens a completely different cognitive route from western science.

Looking at things on the basis of time, the whole is original and inseparable, and it is produced and decided by the whole. This original whole includes all relations within the whole, all relations between the whole and the external environment, and the interactive relationship between the whole and the cognitive subject. The natural integration of these three parts constitutes the natural whole level of things, and its performance is the phenomenon of things in the natural state. The cognitive route of the unity of man and nature is precisely to guide people to find the law of the phenomenon itself.

Under the condition of maintaining the overall state of nature, we can only understand things in a "smooth" way, that is, we can follow the changes of things without intervention, control and presupposition, and reveal the laws of the phenomenon itself through the observation and image generalization of the natural state of the phenomenon. This method is called "wait and see". Experiments can also be done under necessary and permissible conditions, but they are all completely open experiments without destroying the natural overall state of the object. What we get from this is the knowledge and laws of the whole natural level, that is, the phenomenon level. Let's call this cognitive activity and the knowledge they have gained "elephant science", which is the traditional science in China. Because science maintains the original whole, it is impossible to clearly understand the components of things, so we can only look at the parts from the perspective of the whole.

In traditional Chinese studies, Chinese medicine, psychology, military science, agronomy, water conservancy, technology and geomantic omen are the representatives of traditional iconology. A large number of successful facts in these academic fields prove that elephant science has entered different things and fields from western science, and can also help human beings create material wealth and spiritual wealth and achieve the expected goals in practice.

Image science embodies the subject's respect for the object, and reveals the law of the natural whole level of things. Acting according to this law can better maintain the ecological balance, maintain the harmony between man and nature and society, help to establish ecological ethics, overcome the tendency of materialism, and thus open up a bright future for the sustainable development of mankind.

It can be expected that the revitalization and development of science will help to solve many problems of complexity, nonlinearity and small probability events faced by human beings today. In life science, environmental science, disaster science, information science, education science, management science, psychology, parapsychology, prediction and other high-tech fields. It will make irreplaceable achievements in western science. Time and space are unified. Where there is space, there is time. Similarly, where there are things, there are constantly changing phenomena, and these phenomena have their natural overall level. Therefore, science has an infinitely broad prospect.

Xiangxue advocates meeting people's needs and praising the development of all things in the process of obeying the biochemistry of all things. Revitalizing and developing science may change the situation that human beings conquer and plunder nature and suffer natural revenge at the same time, and make society enter a new era in which people and everything join hands.

Any kind of culture and scientific form, no matter how powerful it was or is now, is just one-sided like everything in the world. If it is biased, it has its length and limitations. Nowadays, western civilization has been in the world for 200 years, and it has reached its peak, which has led to the decline of human life span and is in urgent need of adjustment. Now, whether it is the prospect of scientific development or the crisis and disease of human existence, people clearly realize that in order to truly save mankind, we must adjust the choice of time and space, shift the focus from space to time, and rationally arrange the position of time and space in science, culture and human life. This is an overall cultural and scientific turning point, which can be described as the second renaissance of mankind. Its profundity and the scale of its movement are much larger than those of the previous Renaissance. /kloc-The Renaissance in the 0/5th century was a revolution in the western cultural system, and its great achievements dominated the world, but in terms of its cultural genes and way of thinking, it was still a continuation of the western cultural tradition. The changes that mankind is facing today are obviously to fundamentally break through the western tradition, so it is impossible to find many ideological sources that can be used for reference and carried forward in ancient Greece or other western classical civilizations.

However, the world is really wonderful. China's traditional culture and western culture just correspond, so the historical mission of correcting and adjusting the deviation brought by western civilization inevitably falls on the shoulders of China's traditional culture. We should strive to achieve harmony between Yin and Yang through the coordination and complementarity of Chinese and Western cultures, so that human civilization can leap to a new level.