Essay on the topic of moving forward without forgetting tradition

Modernization of traditional Chinese culture grasped in the light of the trend of world cultural development

How to deal with traditional culture used not to be a problem for a long time. But after embarking on a modern society, in the midst of the great collision between Chinese and Western civilizations, we began to reflect on our own people's traditional culture and to a large extent adjusted our previous views on it. This reflection, however, has been moving forward in a very difficult process. There have been advances, obstacles, and sometimes even regressions. Thus it has been one hundred and sixty years since the end of the Opium War, but there is still no fundamental breakthrough in the reflection on traditional culture. This situation, which is unique in the world, is also a source of great wonder to many people.

There is a reason why it is so difficult to reflect on China's traditional culture, and there is a reason why the political environment is bad. Chinese politicians, whose ideological and cultural views are relatively conservative in the process of China's modernization, are prone to spiritual ****ing about authoritarian ideology and culture. Once there is some advancement and breakthrough in the reflection on traditional Chinese culture, there will always be some politicians who get the sweet spot from the politics of privilege, jumping out from behind the curtain and striking with political power. In recent times, were there not some warlords who advocated respect for Confucius in the country? Ignorance of thought and culture, and the need to intervene in thought and culture, is a major reason why it is difficult to move forward in the reflection of traditional Chinese culture.

The complex composition of traditional Chinese culture is also a reason. Chinese traditional culture has a history of thousands of years. It is long, and at every stage of its development, something has to be added, so it is very rich in content and extremely complex in composition. There are many things that are good. There are many things that are dross. And the essence and the dross are often mixed together. This makes future generations feel confused: want to say love you, but not easy. Because there are clearly too many rotten ingredients. Want to hate you, and can not hate. Because the traditional Chinese culture and there are many valuable things.

It can not be said that the composition of traditional Chinese culture complexity of this feature, so that future generations feel very embarrassed. It is also a reason why it is difficult to move forward in the reflection on traditional Chinese culture.

(1) Reflecting on the merits and demerits of traditional Chinese culture, it is necessary to grasp the direction in which mankind is moving forward.

Human society is always advancing, this advancement, in politics, manifested in the people-oriented, until later by the people as the master; in the economy, manifested in the agriculture and business, until later market economy; in thought and culture, manifested in respect for the views of other people's thinking, until later freedom of thought; in the treatment of people, care for people, love and care for people, until later respect for the value of human and dignity.

The Chinese have always had a people-oriented mindset in ancient times. In the Shang and Zhou Dynasties, there was the saying that "the people are the foundation of the state, and the state is peaceful". Mencius said, "The people are the most important thing, the gods of earth and grain come second, and the ruler is the least important thing." Xunzi said, "Water carries the boat, but water overturns the boat." These thoughts are, in themselves, progressive. In terms of human attitudes, Sima Qian's kind of adversity, but the vigorous and enterprising, Su Dongpo's bold and optimistic mind, Zhang Heng, Xu Xiake's kind of obsessive love of the truth, Mencius, "I'm good at cultivating the spirit of the vastness of nature", the great poet Du Fu, "when the top of the summit, the view of all the mountains, small" aspirations, are a healthy. The great poet Du Fu's ambition to "see the top of the world and the smallest of the mountains" is a healthy state of mind. In dealing with nature and destiny, Xunzi's "making use of heavenly destiny", Liu Zongyuan's and Liu Yuxi's "the interplay between heaven and man", and Wang Fuzi's "phase of heaven" and "creation of destiny" are all examples of a healthy spirituality. Wang Fu Zi's "Xiangtian" and "Mianmian", all contain the brilliance of the idea that human beings are determined to win over heaven. In the treatment of the rights and freedom of individual life, the attention paid to the meaning of life in the Nineteen Ancient Poems and Ruan Ji's Poem on Warmth, the affirmation of personal values in the New Sayings, and the passionate pursuit of free love by Jia Baoyu and Lin Daiyu in the Dream of Red Mansions have injected fresh blood into traditional Chinese thought and culture. In dealing with the individual and the society, "The rise and fall of the world is the responsibility of all men," "The affairs of the country, the affairs of the family, and the affairs of the world are all matters of concern," and "A man in a low position refuses to forget to worry about his country." "The world's worries first, after the world's happiness and joy", "life from ancient times who do not die, leaving the heart of the Dan Zhihanqing", are all very noble spiritual realm. And the treatment of man and nature, "Spurgeon River", "Yueyang Tower", "Spring River and Moonlit Night" and a large number of other literary works, but also reflects the special feelings that exist between our nation and the natural world.

Climbing up the Yangtze River and reciting the phrase "the great river flows day and night" gives rise to a feeling of grandeur. When you are facing a high mountain, you can read "A Glance at the Smallest Mountain", which gives you a fighting spirit. Read "Tengwangge Preface", chanting "the sky and the earth, feel the universe of the infinite", and give birth to a kind of generosity. This is so heavy, so indomitable, so strong, only the country has also!

But, like any other country, Chinese thought and culture have their dregs. Because of the long time, and in a number of years time and not timely cleaning, so that the dregs more and more accumulation, to our nation to bring great damage. Do women have a unique value of life? They are nothing but men's appendages. Every Chinese woman should be living in modern times as a blessing, and living in ancient times as a sorrow. Not only women, but also men have no independent value of life. A large and small bureaucrats, as well as countless living people, are under the pressure of imperial power in Portugal. They may have been small, doubtful, opposed, but later, they never had the thought, and even shouted "long live the emperor" as a lifelong honor. Marx once scornfully called this social phenomenon of Chinese character universal slavery. Instead of exalting innovation, instead of advocating that one generation is better than the other, it is promoting the old-fashioned, "the sky can change, the earth can change, the law of the ancestors can not be changed". So that during the thousands of years, the political system, ideology, science and culture, has been difficult to progress, and finally in modern society inevitably lagged behind the international community. On the one hand, the emperor is poor and extravagant, three palaces and seventy-two courtyards, life is corrupt and rotten, the bureaucrats and aristocrats oppress the people and plunder the people, but on the other hand, they advocate that "a gentleman is a metaphor for righteousness, a villain is a metaphor for profit" and "a gentleman is worried about the road and not about the poor", and they are not worried about the common people through business or other ways to seek more material benefits. The people were discouraged from seeking more material benefits through business or other means. This makes it difficult to further improve the living standard of the people and deprives the social and economic development of its intrinsic impetus. The suppression of individuality, the suppression of free thought, and the suppression of the legitimate desires of individual life. Which person is unique, i.e., "the gun strikes the head," resulting in a large number of nationals, but in fact, a thousand people are the same, and there is no one in a hundred who has the courage and knowledge. If there is a new idea, then "sound the drum and attack it". If there is an unfavorable word, then "the nine clans will be affected" and "the ten clans will be executed". At home, they listened to their parents; in the countryside, they listened to their elders; in society, they listened to the bureaucrats; and all the bureaucrats listened to the emperor. In the case of marriage, one listens to one's parents. Otherwise, it is "treason", and the group rises up to fight against it. Closed-mindedness and arrogance. There was a lack of concern for the outside world. Although they were defeated in the Opium War, they still refused to admit defeat and regarded themselves as a country of heaven, refusing to put down their stance and seriously learn the valuable things of other cultures. Failure time and again, but still did not learn a lesson from it, unable to reform their own system shortcomings, to fully stimulate the vitality of their own national vitality. The situation is too many to count!

Ignorance, backwardness, inhibition of human nature, hindering the development of the factors, how many! If a person does not have enough resistance to live in such a cultural environment, how can his thinking not be degraded, how can his personality not be distorted? At the same time, in this social environment, there will inevitably be such a situation: good at drilling, cheating, and have the background of the people, the green clouds; muddled, mediocre, smooth people, smooth sailing, mediocre life peace; and talented, upright and kind, ambitious, but often heroes are difficult to use, depressing life. Not superiority, but inferiority, the whole society is in a kind of reverse elimination phenomenon - almost any dynasty or generation, are so, few exceptions, few exceptions!

(2) Reflecting on the merits and demerits of traditional Chinese culture, we must look at the issue with a comparative viewpoint and methodology.

Don't know the true face of Mount Lu, only from this mountain. Chinese culture is superior or inferior, in isolation, it is difficult to draw the correct conclusion. Chinese traditional culture should be compared with the culture of other countries and nations. Through comparison, we can recognize the strengths and weaknesses of each, and draw the right conclusions from them.

The main purpose here is to compare traditional Chinese culture with Western culture. This is also an issue that has been of great interest to scholars in the past one or two centuries.

Compared with Western culture, traditional Chinese culture, has its strengths. "Being alone in another country is a foreign guest, and every festive season makes us miss our relatives" and "the thread in the hands of a loving mother, the clothes on the body of a wandering son", the Chinese people revere the heavenly family, which is often unmatched by Western culture, and to a large extent warms up our lives and supports us in overcoming all kinds of difficulties. "Birds and beasts can not be with the same group, I am not the disciples of the people with who with", "dance clear shadow, how like on earth", the Chinese people love the reality, care about reality, to a large extent, to overcome a variety of nihilistic ideas on the damage to the human mind, can attract people's attention to the construction of the The Chinese love reality and care about reality. "Heaven walks with health, the gentleman is self-reliant", in the face of all challenges in life, the Chinese people do not give in, but always maintain a kind of confidence, fighting spirit, a kind of indomitable spirit. "The benevolent man loves others". The Chinese people often emphasize morality, look at people with a friendly attitude, and treat other nationalities with a friendly attitude, which is positive for the establishment of social order at home and for the establishment of a good order in the international community. There is a strong idea of building up a career for the country and the people. From Ma Yuan's "Wrapping a corpse in horse leather", Huo Zaiwei's "Before the Huns are broken, what is the family for", Cao Cao's "When the wine is served, what is the geometry of life", to Wang Changling's "When the moon is bright in the time of Qin and the gates are closed in the time of Han", all of them reflect the existence of such a strong ambition. This strong ambition exists. And nature also has a natural **** Ming: "feel the flowers splash tears, hate the birds scared", "people idle osmanthus flowers fall, the moon is quiet over the spring", and so on.

All these are beyond the reach of Western culture. The arrival of the era of world culture will be difficult for any conservative force to stop. And these strengths of traditional Chinese culture will become an extremely valuable part of world culture.

But traditional Chinese culture was formed in the long history of ancient times, with feudal civilization as its background. Western culture, on the other hand, strictly speaking, was gradually formed before the Renaissance, with capitalist civilization as its background. The ancient Greek civilization before the Renaissance has been given a new connotation; while the medieval civilization before that was thoroughly criticized. The fact that one is a civilization of strong feudalism and the other is a civilization of strong capitalism determines that traditional Chinese culture is inevitably backward and weak in many aspects.

Try to summarize some aspects.

Traditional Chinese culture does not talk enough about the freedom and dignity of individual life. It is more about the rights of the emperor than the rights of the people; the rights of superiors than the rights of subordinates; the rights of units than the rights of individuals. Modern sociology believes that social vitality comes from stimulating individual enthusiasm, and social dignity comes from respecting the value and dignity of individual life. The practice of traditional Chinese culture is clearly contrary to this, both as a sign of underdeveloped civilization and as an obstacle to social development.

In the treatment of thought and culture, traditional Chinese culture, is to limit the freedom of thought by all means, to engage in the one-word hall. The people's thoughts are required to be highly consistent with the official thoughts. Otherwise, it is regarded as deviant. This makes it difficult for new ideas to develop. The West insists on freedom of thought. All kinds of academics can freely contend. Therefore, over the past few hundred years, the Western intellectual and cultural circles, new academic achievements one after another, so that the world marveled at.

Some people say that in traditional Chinese culture, there are Confucianism, Taoism, and Buddhism coexisting, so why is it still said that there is no freedom of thought, and it is a one-way street? Confucianism, Taoism and Buddhism are not opposites, and the truth is that the imperial power politics under a kind of thought of the three aspects: out of the Buddha, into the Confucianism, cultivation of the body is the Tao, the three out of the one. The orthodox status of Confucianism, the emperor's words in lieu of law, can not be challenged, but also can not be challenged. Unless in the fall of the regime, or disintegration of the situation, criticizing Confucianism, some of the ideas of authoritarian politics, only a little bit of the day to rise.

In the handling of social conflicts, traditional Chinese culture exalts the rule of man. Power was substituted for law. The phenomenon of judicial injustice is very common. In the West, the rule of law, in the whole society exalts the authority of the Constitution and the law. Both maintain the rights and freedoms of citizens, and minimize social costs.

In the talent selection model, Western culture focuses on fair competition. This can make outstanding talents stand out; can give other people who want to develop a fair chance; can ensure that the metabolism of the talent team work smoothly. China's talent selection model is unscientific and unreasonable. The cadres are "officials selecting officials", and the higher level selects the lower level. Objectively, this encourages cadres at all levels not to focus on doing things for the people, but to focus on catering to the will of their superiors. The selection of civil servants is also not transparent and open. This has led to the overall poor quality of China's talent pool; inefficiency; widespread corruption; and demotivation of a large number of enterprising people.

On the road to development, Western culture speaks of science and democracy. Science, not only emphasizes science and technology, but also includes respect for objective laws and truth. Democracy, that is, the people elect state organs and supervise them accordingly. This has enabled Western societies to move forward vigorously over the centuries. Traditional Chinese culture talks about human feelings and centralized power. The Minister of Health and the Mayor of Beijing were guilty of serious dereliction of duty in handling the SARS outbreak. In countries with a more robust legal system, it would have been fine to handle the matter according to the legal system. But China's handling of this case was very laborious. This type of situation is very common in China. After every corruption case, there are many people operating behind the scene, looking for people to do favors. Without favors, nothing can be done. The solution of various things, such as titles, major projects, awards, are inseparable from the favor. Favoritism is the oil of gold that enables this society to function. Centralization of power, that is, the sole power, everything by the relevant leaders. The result can only be detached from public opinion, act on their own, and even use public power for personal gain. This is bound to frustrate the people's heart, the normal order of society has been destroyed; in the maintenance of a very few people's privileged interests at the same time, maximize the damage to the fundamental interests of the general public, maximize the impediment to the continuous development of the whole nation.

Thus, the traditional Chinese culture, there are major flaws. On the whole, our traditional culture, compared with Western culture, lags behind by one stage. In other words, Western culture has gone through a fuller stage of modernization. Our nation, on the other hand, has not yet experienced this stage of modernization. To say the least, our modernization stage is very immature and inadequate.

(3) A New Era Calls for a New Culture Adapted to the Requirements of Social Development

A new era necessitates the construction of a new culture. It will make people's lives more realm, more noble, and also in turn promote the economic and social development of our nation.

What should a new culture be like? People are concerned about this question. One thing is certain, it should be much better than the present culture.

-That goes without saying! People would say.

When I say wonderful, I mean it on several levels.

One, there will be a deeper understanding of nature and society. The new culture is not based on ignorance and little knowledge of the outside world, but on a deeper understanding of oneself, society, and nature. A culture built on ignorance and stupidity cannot bring true happiness to individuals and society.

This requires individuals to seriously study scientific and cultural knowledge, and to break down all kinds of superstitious thinking and dogmatism, and to explore correct understanding. It also requires society to advocate freedom of thought and respect for truth, and to emphasize the development of scientific and cultural undertakings.

Two, the new culture is bound to promote economic and social development as an important mission.

The progress of individual life is inseparable from the progress and development of society. It is always the responsibility of every generation to continuously promote economic and social development. The new culture, too, must take the promotion of economic and social development as an important mission.

Therefore, in the construction of the new culture, it is necessary to advocate people's social responsibility and encourage people to make more contributions to society on the basis of realizing their personal interests; it is necessary to guide people to correctly deal with the conflicts between people and maintain the normal order of the society; it is necessary to enable people to master more scientific and cultural knowledge, to cultivate and stimulate people's spirit of innovation and creativity, and to create more excellent fruits of labor.

Third, the new culture is bound to vigorously promote the value and dignity of human beings and respect their reasonable needs.

People are the most honorable beings in the world, the spirit of all things. They deserve to live with honor and dignity and to be fully respected. Any blow to the dignity of human beings, while elevating the dignity of other things, forces other than human beings, are not allowed. People are equal in rights and freedoms. It is not permissible for any person to arbitrarily violate the dignity of another person, or the rights and freedoms of another person. A new culture must awaken in man a sense of the dignity of his own life! Awaken in him a passion for creating life! Awaken in him a love of respect for the value of other people's lives. Strive to make yourself a capital person and create a capital life.

At the same time, we should also consider the needs of people to create appropriate spiritual and cultural products. Both elegant and popular to enrich people's spiritual and cultural life. Separated from the needs of people, such spiritual and cultural products, is bound to be lifeless.

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