China with Cultural Conservatism

Cultural conservatism advocates taking Confucianism as the basis, absorbing some foreign cultures and creating a new culture in China. This proposition generally continues the model of "middle school as the body and western learning as the use" The outbreak of the First World War and the October Revolution in Russia prompted a wave of criticism and re-examination of capitalist civilization in European ideological circles. This trend of thought spread to China and combined with the original cultural conservatism to form the Oriental Cultural School. Its main representative, Du Yaquan, editor-in-chief of Oriental Magazine, first put forward the question that "the combination of eastern and western cultures will produce a new culture in the future". When Liang Qichao returned from his visit to Europe, he publicized that "Western culture has gone bankrupt" and called on "everyone should have the sincerity to respect and care for their own culture". Liang Shuming gave a speech on "Eastern and Western Cultures and Their Philosophy" in 192 1, pointing out that there are no problems of being advanced or backward in eastern and western cultures, but there are three different cultural types: European culture "deliberately moves forward", which sets people against nature and society and emphasizes the transformation of nature and society; China culture "wants to reconcile the spirit", but the problem is not to transform the situation, but to "reconcile self-desire" and "coexist with it"; Indian culture "wants to go backwards". When encountering problems, it is neither to transform the situation nor to change the subjective idea, but to cancel the "desire" and treat the life of the universe with a detached attitude. He believes that the future of the world should follow the path of China and Confucius, and "the future culture is the revival of Chinese culture". In 1930s, the "school of standard culture" appeared. Ten professors, including Tao Xisheng and He Bingsong, published the Declaration on the Construction of Standard Culture in China, whose purpose, as a cultural conservative said, is to "take the fundamental spirit of Confucianism as the key to solve the problems of secular life". The rise of Neo-Confucianism in War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression period was mainly led by famous philosophers Xiong Shili, Feng Youlan and He Lin. For example, Feng Youlan put forward: "The social system is changeable, but the basic morality is unchanged", He Lin advocated: "Give full play to Confucianism with western philosophy", and so on.

For a long time, he held a critical and negative attitude towards cultural conservatism, thinking: "He softened farmers and proletarians from the standpoint of landlords"; He stood in a feudal position and opposed capitalism and socialism. In recent years, the research on cultural conservatism has been deepened and achieved gratifying results. For example, Young scholar He Xiaoming's A Hundred Years' Worry-the Fate of Intellectuals and the Modernization Process of China affirmed its value from a theoretical perspective. The book holds that "conservatism has constructive cognitive value for the essential analysis of the modernization process" and that "the primary modernization originated in Europe is dominated by science and technology. Under this historical-realistic background, western thinkers often focus on the innovation of the relationship between man and nature (science and technology) and ignore the evolution of the relationship between man and nature (spiritual ethics). The realistic retribution of this biased understanding is that while science and technology in Europe and America are advancing by leaps and bounds, society has paid a high price for it: materialistic desires, moral decay, and even a global war tragedy. On the premise of admitting that scientific and technological progress is the basic content of modernization, China's conservatism in modern times emphasized the other side of the essence of modernization: the relationship between man and mind is by no means a victim of scientific and technological progress, but should also be constantly developed and improved in the process of modernization, so as to promote scientific and technological progress and social harmony with its own functions. In other words, the co-evolution of science and technology and human relations is the whole essence of the modernization process of human society. Zhang Junli, a scholar of cultural conservatism, pointed out more than half a century ago that "the process of modernization should start from the inner thoughts, not from the outside". Although this statement is overdone, it is still meaningful to emphasize the importance of "modernization consciousness".

Different from liberal intellectuals, cultural conservatives represented by Liang Shuming are not just armchair strategists, but have been engaged in the "rural construction movement" in rural areas of China for more than ten years, which is called "the practice of the modernization movement of Confucianism". Linking Liang's theory with the "rural construction movement" can better understand the historical position and cognitive value of cultural conservatism.

Why did Liang Shuming engage in the "rural construction movement"? He wrote in 1934 February's purport of rural construction: "The arrival of modern western civilization forced China to take the capitalist industrial and commercial road. ...... In the past 80 years, apart from the destruction of rural areas, there has been no rise of cities and no development of new industries and businesses. Therefore, he advocated that China should take a different road to modernization. " This different road is that agriculture leads to industry, agricultural industry is an appropriate combination, rural cities prosper and rural cities develop naturally. ""Only by working hard to create a new civilization can we save China. " Therefore, Liang Shuming said: "Although the connotation of the China issue includes political and economic issues, it is actually a cultural issue. The so-called "cultural problem" does not only refer to culture in a narrow sense, but also covers "consciousness" in a broad sense. "Although Liang Shuming's Road to National Salvation evaded the most urgent task of China in the 1920s and 1930s-social revolution (he disapproved of and opposed armed revolution), he had many insightful views on the road of China's modernization: first, China should take a road of modernization different from the West and with China characteristics; Second, the modernization of China should consider the important role of agriculture; Third, promote the development of industry with the development of agriculture, and industry and agriculture are closely combined; Fourth, the balanced development of urban and rural areas cannot be separated; Fifth, "modernization consciousness" plays an important role in realizing modernization.

Needless to say, Liang Shuming is a reformist in politics, who disapproves of class struggle and opposes violent revolution. He once said: "In order to eliminate the peasant movement of the production party, there must be another peasant movement to replace it. On the one hand, our rural organizations resist the outside of the * * * production party from the local defense, on the other hand, our movement has actually embarked on the right track of the peasant movement in China, which can replace the * * * production party ". It is one-sided for us to replace the overall guiding ideology of the "rural construction movement" with his political stance, and then completely deny Liang Shuming's theoretical thought of "rural construction". On this issue, Mao Zedong War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression, the leader of China's * * * production party, made a fair statement in the early days. 10, Liang Shuming visited Yan 'an to publicize his rural construction theory to Mao Zedong. Mao Zedong read Liang Shuming's book in detail during his busy schedule, and said, "Your works have original opinions on the analysis of this social history, and many of them are right, but your thoughts are generally improved, not revolutionary. Reformism cannot solve the problem of China, and China society needs a thorough revolution. " .

1927 after the failure of the great revolution, ordinary intellectuals were dissatisfied with the autocratic rule of the Kuomintang reactionaries and disapproved of the agrarian revolutionary movement led by the * * * production party. They want to find a third way. It is in this historical background that the rural reform movement flourished, and Liang Shuming was the initiator of this movement. From 65438 to 0930, Han Fuju, then chairman of Shandong Province, called Liang Shuming to discuss the rural construction movement in Shandong. 1931June, Shandong rural construction research institute was formally established in zouping county. Director of Ren Liang Research Department, and later became Dean. 1In August, 933, the Shandong Provincial Government designated Heze County as an experimental area for rural construction. At that time, it attracted many young intellectuals to come here. "Subjectively, they tried to transform the countryside and China. They are not working hard here to cover the landlord bourgeoisie, not even for their personal money or status, but for the pursuit of light and their own empty ideals. " Liang Shuming himself not only practiced, but also promoted intellectuals to work in rural areas everywhere. /kloc-in the summer of 0/930, he gave lectures in yenching university, Peking University and other schools, focusing on "solving the China problem". He said that the initiative to solve the China problem lies entirely in the great strength formed by the integration of intellectuals in China society and rural civilians.

The rural construction movement pursues "rural autonomy", combining "politics" (political power), "teaching" (education), "finance" (economy) and "health" (security), and replacing grass-roots political power with village studies. To 1935, with Heze as the center, Jining and other 13 counties were designated as experimental areas. 1937, more than 70 counties in Shandong province 107 were designated as experimental areas for rural construction, and this movement did not end until the Japanese invasion.

The theory and practice of cultural conservatism show that it is no accident that it can form a tripartite confrontation with Marxism and liberalism in China's modern history. While liberals advocate "total westernization" and some Marxists treat tradition metaphysically and practice "two complete breaks", cultural conservatism emphasizes the importance of "tradition" and systematically studies and expounds China's traditional culture as a master of Chinese studies. When liberals oppose man and nature and talk about the great achievements in transforming nature, when some Marxists make struggle absolute and enthusiastically publicize the philosophy of struggle, cultural conservatism emphasizes the harmony between man and nature, reminding people of the significance of harmony in development; When liberals advocate "science is omnipotent" and some Marxists improperly advocate "ideal is above everything else", cultural conservatives attach importance to the historical position of "man". They returned to Confucianism, not staying at the level of "respecting Confucius and reading classics", but advocating "Confucius' life" as a model to solve cultural and life problems; When liberals and Marxists attach great importance to the role of "rationality", cultural conservatives enrich people's understanding of "emotion"