What is Lingnan culture?

Lingnan culture is extensive and profound, and it is one of the most distinctive and dynamic regional cultures in China traditional culture. Generally speaking, it mainly has three sources and constitutes three components: First, the inherent local culture. Like the Yellow River Basin and the Yangtze River Basin, the Pearl River Basin is the birthplace of Chinese civilization. Located at the southern foot of the subtropical Wuling Mountains, surrounded by mountains and seas, there are Pearl River basins and criss-crossing rivers. The ancestors of the ancient Baiyue people living here, from the early fishing and hunting civilization to the later commercial civilization, are inseparable from the river and sea traffic. They like to flow and are not conservative, which is the true color of South Vietnamese culture that distinguishes it from inland civilization or river valley civilization.

Second, the Central Plains culture moved south. After Qin and Han Dynasties, Lingnan and China were unified, and Lingqu and Yuling were built. The communication between Lingnan and the Central Plains is increasingly close. First, the army was demoted and there were a large number of immigrants in several wars. The powerful and advanced Chinese civilization in the Central Plains swept across the Pearl River like the "Han Dynasty and Su Hai", and then constituted the main body of Lingnan culture.

The third is foreign culture. Since the Qin and Han Dynasties, the Maritime Silk Road was opened, and Lingnan, as the birthplace and even the only big commercial port, has always been a platform for cultural exchanges between China and foreign countries. The commercial culture, scientific and technological culture, religious culture and political culture of the East and the West have all landed here and been introduced, and their trend has been even worse since modern times. Foreign culture injects new vitality into Lingnan culture.

Since China was forced to open its doors in modern times, Lingnan culture, which has always been regarded as a marginal culture, has fully demonstrated its strong vitality. Before getting the ethos, Lingnan people competed to learn modern science and democratic ideas from the West and seek the truth of saving the country and strengthening the country. From Hong Xiuquan to Kang Youwei, Liang Qichao to Sun Yat-sen, Guangdong became the cradle of democratic revolution, and the innovative Lingnan culture spread from Guangdong to the whole country, which played a great role in the historical process of modernization and democratization in modern China.

In the new historical period of reform and opening up, Guangdong undertakes the mission of taking the lead in realizing socialist modernization, and Lingnan culture is also facing new development opportunities, which increasingly shows the vitality of keeping pace with the times. At this time, it is more necessary to put forward the goal of building a cultural province and re-understand and evaluate Lingnan culture.

Historically, Lingnan culture has always been regarded as a non-mainstream marginal culture, despised and rejected by mainstream traditional culture. Even if modern Lingnan culture went to the whole country, its mainstream status was not confirmed. This situation has affected the present, as evidenced by the argument that "Guangdong is a cultural desert". This is often out of prejudice or ignorance. For today, we should give a correct understanding and evaluation of Lingnan culture, so as to fully affirm, vigorously carry forward and face it seriously.

It is fully affirmed that "Guangdong has no culture" lies in the level of traditional Central Plains culture. Lingnan people don't need to sell themselves short. They should look for excellent factors from rich and colorful cultural phenomena and sort out their advantages and disadvantages in complex and diverse forms, such as being pragmatic and secular, emphasizing business and learning Confucianism, and embracing innovation, so as to establish their own evaluation standards.