Questionnaire on How to Inherit Excellent Traditional Culture

First of all, in order to pass on the excellent traditional Chinese culture, we must first clarify what kind of culture we want to pass on the excellent traditional culture refers to and what aspects it contains. We know that, on the one hand, our traditional culture has a long history and contains rich contents, both the essence and the dregs, which requires us to have a comprehensive and in-depth understanding of the traditional culture, to be able to take the essence and remove the dregs, and to screen out the truly excellent parts of Chinese traditional culture for inheritance. On the other hand, traditional culture, like any other form of culture, exists in two different dimensions, one is the forms and carriers of traditional culture, such as cultural texts, cultural relics, intangible cultural heritage, etc.; and the other is the spirit and concepts of traditional culture, such as the concept of the law of nature, the unity of man and heaven, and the chaotic neutralization of the world, etc. The former belongs to the excellent traditional culture, which is the essence of traditional culture. The former belongs to the "body" of excellent traditional culture, and the latter belongs to the "soul" of excellent traditional culture. This requires us to make a distinction between these two levels of traditional culture when we pass on traditional culture, to figure out what is the spiritual concept of excellent traditional culture and what is the formal carrier of excellent traditional culture, so that we do not just think of the protection of intangible cultural heritage, the protection of traditional opera, the restoration of traditional festivals and so on as soon as we talk about the inheritance of traditional culture, and neglect our traditional view of nature, the view of man and heaven, the view of ethical values and other spiritual concepts of traditional culture. values and other spiritual concepts of traditional culture, and vice versa. Inheriting the excellent traditional culture, we should not only protect the "body" of the excellent traditional culture, but also inherit the "soul" of the excellent traditional culture. But in any case, we should first make clear what the excellent traditional culture means, which requires us to have a comprehensive and in-depth grasp of Chinese traditional culture on the basis of those who are really excellent traditional cultural spirit to explore, interpretation, so that they enter our current life, into our spiritual veins, guiding our practical life; those who are really excellent traditional cultural form of organization, protect those truly outstanding forms of traditional culture, so that they can be continued and passed on, and so that people nowadays have realistic channels and ways to enter the tradition.

Secondly, in order to pass on the excellent traditional Chinese culture, we should also consider why we should pass on the excellent traditional Chinese culture, or what is the fundamental purpose of passing on the traditional Chinese culture? Are we passing on traditional culture only for the sake of tradition continuation, or are we passing on traditional culture for the sake of solving the problems that exist in today's China or even in the world of mankind? While it is necessary to pass on traditional culture for the sake of tradition continuation, the fundamental purpose of passing on excellent culture is to allow it to participate in our present life and provide inspiration for solving real problems in China and even in the world of mankind, rather than letting it go into the history museum for admiration and telling future generations that we used to have these things. For a tradition to be a living tradition, it must relate to the problems of current life. This requires us to seriously study China's reality and analyze the problems that exist in current reality. Based on the problems in reality, we can establish the direction of cultural construction, and based on the direction of cultural construction, we can reflect on China's traditional culture, and see what spiritual concepts in our traditional culture can provide inspiration and ideas for solving the current problems. We know that there are many serious problems in the world today, such as ecological and environmental crises, mental and psychological disorders, moral slippage, and the increase of wealth and poverty, etc. In the face of these problems in the real world, it is important for the Chinese people to realize the importance of culture. In the face of these problems in the real world, our party has put forward the great goals of building a harmonious society, ecological civilization, and a beautiful China, and the inheritance of the excellent traditional culture should also consider whether it can provide inspiration and ideas for solving or improving these problems in reality, and whether it can contribute to the construction of the contemporary ecological civilization, the construction of a beautiful China, and the construction of a harmonious society. Of course, the study of China's current "reality" refers not only to the study of the reality of the current living world, but also to the study of the reality of China's cultural status quo. If we can clearly understand the problems existing in the current cultural status quo, we can also better judge which are the truly valuable things in our traditional culture. In addition, paying attention to the reality of the cultural status quo also includes paying attention to some of the problems that have arisen in the current cultural construction, such as some of the blunders that have occurred in cultural development, cultural preservation, the construction of cultural parks, and the adaptation of literary classics. Attention to these cultural realities can avoid continuing to take some detours in the construction of the cultural heritage system.

Thirdly, after figuring out what kind of excellent traditional culture should be inherited and why we should inherit it, one of the most realistic and arduous tasks is how to inherit it. This requires us to actively explore effective ways to inherit the excellent traditional culture. There are many ways to pass on traditional culture, and which way to take should be based on which level of traditional culture is to be passed on. As we mentioned earlier, there are two levels of traditional culture: the level of spiritual concepts and the level of formal carriers. For the transmission of the spiritual concepts of traditional culture, systematic education should be the most basic way. Education in this context refers to both state and government-sponsored national education at all levels, and non-state and government-sponsored education under the supervision of the state education department, which serves the functions of basic education and general higher education. Whether such education is organized by the state and the government, or by private groups or individuals, it is their responsibility to pass on China's outstanding traditional culture. In order to enable schools to better fulfill this educational responsibility, the national education authorities should make comprehensive plans, and may formulate regulations to guarantee that education from kindergarten to university, whether government- or non-government-sponsored, teaches about the spiritual aspects of traditional Chinese culture. Through systematic education, the spiritual concepts of Chinese traditional culture, such as the concept of the law of nature, the idea of unity between heaven and man, the realm of chaos and harmony, as well as benevolence, honesty, love for others, dedication, harmony and other ethical values, penetrate into the hearts of the people, into their bloodstreams, and become the people's conscious behavioral norms and the pursuit of spiritual values.

But the spiritual concepts of these traditional cultures do not exist nakedly, they exist in the traditional Chinese cultural texts, cultural relics, traditional arts, traditional skills, traditional festivals, and the customs of various ethnic groups, and so on, in the form of culture or cultural carriers. If we want to pass on the spiritual concepts of the excellent traditional Chinese culture, we naturally cannot do so out of thin air, but with the help of various cultural forms. Although all traditional cultural forms can embody the spiritual concepts of traditional culture, the extent to which the spiritual concepts of traditional culture are manifested in different cultural forms varies greatly. Such as in the cultural texts embodied in the spiritual concept of traditional culture is undoubtedly more direct, more obvious, so in the primary and secondary schools in the traditional culture course of study, according to the psychological cognitive characteristics of primary and secondary school students, the use of appropriate ways to introduce more of some philosophical, literary, and cultural classics of the content of the study, rather than as some of the elementary school of the "traditional culture" textbooks are mainly to introduce the traditional festivals, customs and habits and other forms of traditional culture. Students' learning of traditional culture on the level of formal carriers, such as understanding of various cultural relics, various intangible cultural heritages and various traditional festivals, can be carried out through education and life practice outside the classroom. However, no matter how we approach traditional cultural forms, the premise is that there must be something "real" that can be approached. This requires us to organize excellent cultural texts, discover and protect cultural heritage, traditional folk activities, performing arts, knowledge and skills, festivals and other intangible cultural heritage. This means that for the inheritance of traditional Chinese cultural forms, we also need to carry out a series of planning and take a series of measures so that it can be carried out in a secure manner.

Finally, in order to pass on China's outstanding traditional culture, it should also be noted that we should not be conservative, but should push forward, combine cultural inheritance with cultural innovation, and create an ecological aesthetic culture of the new era that is oriented to ecological harmony and aesthetic survival. Cultural innovation, on the other hand, cannot rely solely on traditional Chinese culture. It requires us to stand on the base of China's current reality, to start from Chinese problems, to critically inherit our own excellent cultural traditions, and to critically learn from the world's excellent cultural heritage. We believe that in traditional Chinese culture, which takes "nature" as its foundation and chaos as its realm of "neutrality", there are cultural genes that represent the development trend of the world's culture and can have a positive effect on the future development of mankind, but we should not slip into self-aggrandizement of our national culture. However, we should not slip into the self-exaltation of national culture, and fall into the danger of abandoning the perspective of others and ignoring the excellent cultural achievements of other nations.