Characteristics of Western Classical Culture

Western classical culture was first created by the Greeks. Based on their own national characteristics and their own creation, the Romans selectively absorbed and integrated the ancient Greek culture and constantly injected new content, so as to carry it forward and finally form a unique cultural tradition or system. Of course, ancient Greek culture and ancient Roman culture also have their own different characteristics. As early as Augustus' time, Virgil, a famous Roman poet, had already expressed their respective themes. In his view, the genius of the Greeks lies in the creation in the field of culture and art, while the Romans lie in ruling the world and "promoting peace" in the world with power. Just as "Greece can be called glory, it is the glory of human spirit's free creation, free thought and free belief;" Rome can be called great, great strength, discipline and consistency. "This is caused by their national character, historical tradition, social and natural environment and other factors. However, the ancient Greek and Roman culture, as a homogeneous culture in the same strain, has condensed into a cultural tradition with its unique connotation and system in the long history. Here, the following will roughly summarize the characteristics of western classical culture. The democratic political system created by the ancient Greeks is one of the most attractive cultural achievements in classical culture. The democratic political system in Athens is a model. In Athens, civil democracy reached its peak. All official positions are elected and drawn by lots, and the hereditary, monopoly and privileged system of power is abolished. This democratic political system embodies the principle of separation of powers and equality between people and political sovereignty. This is the most fully developed, complete and typical form of democracy in the ancient world. Democracy and the rule of law are inseparable. Democratic politics inevitably needs a sound legal system, which will ensure the smooth implementation of democratic politics. Herodotus has realized its true meaning. The first advantage of his propaganda of democratic politics through other people's mouths lies in its good reputation that everyone is equal before the law. Pericles elaborated on the characteristics of democratic politics in the speeches of the fallen soldiers. He said, "Our system is an example for others. Our system is called democratic politics because political power is in the hands of all citizens, not a few. When solving public-private disputes, everyone is equal in law; When a person takes precedence over others in holding public office, it is not the members of a particular class who are considered, but their real talents. "

Rome * * * and the times also practiced democratic politics. Although Rome embarked on the road of monarchy, the influence of democratic system and democratic thought has been running through it. In the imperial era, the expansion and unification of Roman civil rights within the empire and the prosperity of autonomous cities throughout the empire not only enabled democratic politics to continue, but also had great significance for the development of classical traditions. Because, as the commentator said, "Classical culture is the culture of cities and civil society first. Only on the basis of this broader civil rights and the development of autonomous cities, the extension of classical culture will not weaken its tradition, but will strengthen it. " More importantly, the classical legal spirit founded by the ancient Greeks gained great popularity among the Romans. Although the Romans were not as good as the Greeks in the discussion of jurisprudence, they kept making progress in concrete judicial practice, and finally made Roman law a profound and systematic system. It can be said that the creed of equality before the law has been realized by the Romans in a broader sense.

The spirit of democracy and rule of law in classical culture has exerted a wide and lasting influence on later generations. It can be said that the civil democracy and legal system in the Middle Ages, as well as the democracy and legal system in modern society, were established through development and evolution under its direct or indirect influence. Starting from Thales, the ancient Greeks finally got rid of the mythical way of thinking and embarked on the road of rational thinking development, so they began their exploration journey from the mythical kingdom to the natural kingdom. It is in the endless exploration of the universe, nature and human society itself that the ancient Greeks and Romans initially established their scientific system. The modern scientific system is developed on this basis.

Science is the antithesis of ignorance and superstition. It is on the journey of overcoming ignorance and superstition that human beings make continuous progress. Therefore, the liberation of human thoughts and the progress of society are often guided by the development of science. In fact, in Thales' time, most Greeks were still ignorant and despised science. Thales is also clearly aware that his responsibility is to let the light of science and wisdom illuminate the whole city and drive away ignorance completely. It is also through the efforts of ancient Greek scientists that the traditional Greek religious beliefs were questioned and the rational way of thinking was established. It is this new way of thinking that has changed the way people look at problems, stimulated their endless creativity, and enabled them to develop and create in the field of hematology.

This kind of rationality discovered by the ancient Greeks is usually called autonomous rationality. It does not depend on any supernatural god or external authority, but on people's wisdom and thinking ability to grasp and understand things. It can be said that in ancient Greece, the spirit of independence and rationality was fully developed. When they explore everything, they look at it on the platform of rational judgment. In this regard, Plato, an ancient Greek, once preached in the Pleadings, and Socrates argued that anything that was judged wrong by human reason should not be thought about or done. The ancient Romans not only inherited the scientific spirit in ancient Greek culture, but also made brilliant achievements in practical science and technology. They also inherited this rationalistic spirit. The so-called simple and pragmatic spirit of Roman culture in academic circles is actually a rationalist spirit. In Cicero's remarks, we still appreciate its true meaning. He said: "The human beings we are talking about are animals with foresight, sensitivity, comprehensive strength and machine intelligence, rich memory, rationality and foresight. ..... Because man is the only one among so many living lives who has a rational and thoughtful life, all other lives are ruled by man. However, I still think, I don't know whether it is on earth or in God's whole world, the whole universe. Is there anything more sacred than reason? Only when rationality is fully developed and perfected can it be called wisdom. " Even some emperors of the Roman Empire pinned their ideals on the principles of humanity and rationality, such as the emperor of Antoine. It can be said that in the western classical era, rational thinking mode has become the dominant thinking mode of that era. In particular, this rational way of thinking has developed into a rigorous logical reasoning form and a preliminary empirical scientific method for ancient Greek philosophers and scientists, and has become an indispensable tool for later thinkers and scientists to explore science and philosophy. The scientific rational spirit of modern western countries is developed on this basis. Classical culture is full of strong humanistic spirit. So what are the characteristics of this humanism? Ann pugna, a famous western classical cultural scholar, once made a wonderful exposition on this: "The starting point and object of all Greek civilizations are people. It starts from people's needs and pays attention to people's interests and progress. In order to seek people's interest and progress, it explores the world like Bonnachos, and explores the other side through one side. This generalization of Ampangna also applies to ancient Rome. In other words, it is also a summary of the humanistic characteristics of the whole classical era.

Humanism in the classical era is embodied in the relationship between God and man, that is, the so-called "the theory of the oneness of God and man". In the eyes of the ancient Greeks, God is only the most perfect embodiment of human beings. God, like man, has secular desires, emotions, courage and cowardice, kindness and cruelty, tolerance and jealousy. Therefore, it is very different from the ancient eastern religions, which believe that God is divorced from reality, majestic and unattainable. This religious concept of the ancient Greeks is intended to "embody the highest state of human wisdom and beauty in the image of God". God is only the object that people express their ideals. Therefore, ancient Greek religion has humanistic color. And ancient Rome not only accepted the gods of the ancient Greeks, but also fully accepted its religious spirit and its humanistic thought. At the same time, no matter in Greece or Rome, monks did not form a privileged class, so they could not play an authoritative role in the public and private fields. Of course, in ancient Greece and Rome, people's religious ideas were also quite strong, but compared with other places in the ancient world, the humanistic spirit embodied in their religious thoughts is one of the outstanding characteristics.

This humanistic spirit in the western classical era can be said to have penetrated into all aspects of culture, such as humanism in political life, bold description and praise of human emotion, humanity, human value and dignity in literary works, vigorous description and praise of human body in artistic works, and the promotion of humanism in "Vitruvetu" in classical architecture. Among them, protagoras's famous saying: "Man is the measure of all things", Pericles's remark at the funeral of the fallen soldiers: "Man is the first important thing, and everything else is the fruit of man's labor", and Sophocles' line in antigone: "Although there are many miracles in the world, nothing is more strange than man" has become a famous humanistic motto in classical culture. The ancient Roman poet Terrence, a famous politician and scholar Cicero's in-depth exposition and attention to human nature are also convinced by future generations. It can be said that humanism is a theme of classical culture. Winkelmann, a famous art historian in the 20th century, made a wonderful and apt summary of the style of western classical literature, namely "noble simplicity and quiet greatness". Zhu Longhua further added: "Classical style is characterized by solemnity, elegance, beauty and harmony, or as winkelmann said, it is a noble, simple and quiet grandeur, emphasizing the dialectical unity, balance and even the highest harmony between form and content, reality and ideal, norms and freedom, purity and richness, and it is non-classical to excessively tilt and destroy these relationships." The ancient Greeks were the founders of western classical styles. Of course, this style gradually matured on the basis of their continuous practice, and its formation time was in the heyday of classical in the 5th century BC. This style is the embodiment of ancient Greek humanism, realism, rationalism and the spirit of pursuing harmony between man and nature in the art field. It has been perfectly embodied in the temple architecture and sculpture art in Athens, and the Parthenon is one of them. The level of understanding reached by the ancient Romans in imitating ancient Greek literature and art. In the Augustus era, the solemn Augustus style formed by Roman artists on the basis of fully absorbing Greek artistic achievements (especially neoclassical school) was the inheritance of Greek classical style under the condition of monarchy. This is reflected in the peace altar in Augustus Square. In the early imperial period, Roman art continued the Augustus style on the one hand, and fused the Hellenistic factors on the other, thus forming the so-called new imperial art, which was reflected in the architecture and art of the early imperial period. Among them, the most representative is the well-known "laocoon Group Image". From the Renaissance to the rationalist era in the 20th century, it has been regarded as a model of classical artistic ideals by countless scholars and artists who worship classical traditions. Winkelmann's comments on the classical artistic style are based on this. However, before the s, most scholars mistakenly classified this statue as Greek art, but later archaeological facts showed that it was precisely the work of the early Roman Empire, which reflected the characteristics of the art of the new empire, which also fully showed that the Romans' understanding of the spirit of classical art had reached a perfect level, and ancient Greece and Rome had the same artistic style and spiritual inheritance. Especially in architectural art, the ancient Romans also carried forward the classical traditional style, thus creating "world architecture as the ruler of the world". The style and spirit of classical literature and art depend on reasonable forms to embody and express. Therefore, literature and art in the classical era have also formed a set of effective and distinctive expressions that people generally follow, such as the combination of columns (Dorian, Ionian and Corinthian) and arches in architecture, anthropocentrism ("Vitruvian figures") and human proportions in art, and the norms of epics and tragedies in literature and various poems (three unifications). It can be said that these forms or formats are inseparable from their contents, thus making the classical literary style unique in ancient world literature and art.

Classical artistic style and its forms of expression not only became the objects pursued and imitated by scholars and artists in the Renaissance, but also had a great influence on the European classicism movement in 18 and 19 centuries.