Why is it necessary to carry forward the excellent traditional Chinese culture?

Source: People's Tribune Magazine, People's Tribune.com Author: He Zhonghua

Promoting excellent traditional culture and establishing the subjectivity and autonomy of Chinese culture

Historically, China's modernization process itself, which began in the late Qing Dynasty, is nothing more than a product of globalization. Marx and Engels pointed out in the ****Productive Manifesto: "The bourgeoisie, by opening up the world market, has made the production and consumption of all countries cosmopolitan...? The one-sidedness and limitations of the nation became increasingly impossible." The result is that "it compels all nations - if they do not want to perish - to adopt the bourgeois mode of production; it compels them to promote in themselves what is called civilization, that is to say, to become assets ". Against this background of "world history", the Chinese nation was at first passively involved in the wave of globalization. Wei Yuan's idea of "learning from the barbarians to control the barbarians" reflects this passivity.

For a long period of history, Chinese culture was generally on the defensive, and its subjectivity was difficult to manifest. Today, we have opened up to the outside world, truly realizing a historic shift from a passive to an active role. If we are to engage in equal dialogue with other cultures, we need to revitalize the subjectivity and autonomy of Chinese culture. In the era of globalization, culture faces the danger of homogenization, which will directly hinder the maintenance of cultural diversity. As human interactions continue to expand and deepen, the narrowness of nationalities is gradually broken down. This is true of material production, and it is equally true of spiritual production. What exactly was the anxiety of modern Neo-Confucians back then? In fact, their anxiety was undoubtedly a cultural anxiety. Their anxiety was that China in the cultural sense, the Chinese nation in the cultural sense, was facing the assimilation of Western culture. If this problem is not solved, China's modernization will lose its most basic premise.

The historical experience of modernization in developing countries shows that "modernization" should not be equated with "Westernization". Exploring and taking a non-Westernized path of modernization is undoubtedly a historical task that non-Western countries cannot avoid. Our modernization is ultimately the modernization of China, and only what grows out of the roots of Chinese culture is real and alive, and is the expression of the subjectivity and autonomy of Chinese culture. The nation as a nation is ultimately shaped and constructed by a particular culture and its traditions. The establishment of the cultural subjectivity and autonomy of the Chinese nation can only be realized through the conscious recognition and promotion of the culture and traditions to which it belongs. Therefore, emphasizing the promotion of the excellent traditional culture of the Chinese nation not only does not hinder the opening up of culture, but is precisely the inevitable move to establish cultural subjectivity and autonomy.

Promoting outstanding traditional culture is an early warning and immunization against the inherent limitations of modernization

Modernization is undoubtedly an inevitable path for the development of human society, especially for the great Eastern countries embarking on the road of socialism, modernization is an inescapable link. However, modernization also inherently contains contradictions, which has led to great progress in history, promoted the unprecedented development of productive forces, and brought new ideas of freedom, democracy and equality; at the same time, it has also led to tensions and even conflicts between human beings and nature, between human beings and human beings, between human beings and the self, and the emergence of the "global problem" is a typical historical symptom. The emergence of "global problems" is a typical historical symptom. As the most profound secular foundation of modernization, the commodity economy itself is a "double-edged sword". On the one hand, it can liberate and develop the productive forces and create huge material wealth, thus providing the necessary material foundation for the development of the whole society; on the other hand, it also has the intrinsic nature of pursuing the maximization of interests, which provides a breeding ground for ideologies such as egoism, utilitarianism, pragmatism, and extreme individualism, etc. The historical manifestation of the Western Enlightenment Dialectic is a full illustration of the intrinsic paradox of modernization. From the "discovery of man" to the "loss of man", all stem from the same fact, which is Enlightenment modernity.

Marx's materialist conception of history is not a non-dialectical, purely linear, simplistic view of progress, but rather an open "circle" that spirals upward through negation. Rather, it is a reversion to the starting point on the basis of the negation of negation, which is the basic logical trajectory and inherent requirements of dialectical negation. Marx once in his "Critique of Political Economy? Introduction", pointed out in a metaphorical way that "an adult cannot become a child again, or else he becomes childish. But does not the innocence of the child delight the adult? Should he not himself endeavor to reproduce the reality of the child on a higher rung of the ladder?" It is in this sense that Marx emphasizes that "one should not be particularly afraid of the word 'ancient'." By "reproducing the reality of the child on a higher ladder" is meant the reversion to the point of departure reached by the negation of the negation.

This shows us that in the process of modernization, we must not forget the requirements of the starting point. Only in this way can we first gain sufficient immunity to the ills of modernity. From this point of view, China's outstanding traditional culture can precisely provide us with some kind of early warning and profound enlightenment for the realization of modernization, and thus play an important function in modernity to make up for the shortcomings of modernity.

Promoting excellent traditional culture and maintaining the necessary tension between cultural ethnicity and modernity

Since the modern era, the Western concept of evolution has been imported into China and has flourished, becoming the source of legitimacy for all change programs. Darwin's "biological evolution" was transplanted and applied to the social field, and Yan Fu translated Huxley's "Evolution and Ethics" as "Divine Evolution", deliberately emphasizing the logic of evolution, while consciously or unconsciously downplaying or even forgetting the ethical principles, leaving only the bare model of evolution. All that remains is the bare model of evolution. In the framework of evolutionary theory, the epochal nature of culture has been over-exaggerated, while the national nature of culture has gone into hiding.

In fact, since the late Qing Dynasty, especially since the New Culture Movement, the actual historical trajectory of the evolution of Chinese culture has not been one of "wholesale westernization" or "preservation of national essence", but rather one of integration of the East and the West. If one is totally confined to the times and rejects ethnicity, one will inevitably fall into the misunderstanding of cultural self-loss; on the other hand, if one is totally attached to ethnicity and opposes the times, one will inevitably go astray towards retrofitting and conserving the past. For the healthy development of Chinese culture, these two models are not only one-sided in theory, but also harmful in practice. Mao Zedong once proposed the Chineseization of Marxism and the Marxization of the Chinese revolutionary experience, and this "mutualization" is a successful example of maintaining a balance between the national character of culture and the character of the times. Marxism undoubtedly represents the epochal demand of culture, while Chineseization means the localization demand, which is determined and constructed for the national nature of culture. In the cultural sense, the Chineseization of Marxism itself embodies the organic unity of cultural epochalism and nationalism. On the cultural level, universality corresponds to epochality, which implies the commensurability among different cultures; particularity corresponds to ethnicity, which implies the incommensurability among different cultures.

In order to maintain the necessary tension between the epochal and national aspects of culture, we need to mark the national dimension extraordinarily today. Since the New Culture Movement, radical anti-traditionalism has put forward the idea of "knocking down the Confucian store," blaming China's backwardness entirely on the failure of traditional culture. With the tilt and imbalance between the contemporary and national aspects of culture, it is necessary for us to highlight the obscured and neglected aspects and bring them back into balance.

Promoting outstanding traditional culture is an intrinsic need for cultural self-confidence in contemporary China

Where does a nation's cultural self-confidence come from? In addition to being subject to the increasing cultural "hard power", cultural self-confidence also depends on the growing awareness of the value of the local cultural traditions in contemporary times and the continuous manifestation. Without the inherent cultural traditions, even if there are more material wealth accumulation, can not talk about the real cultural confidence. In the end, cultural confidence depends on the cultural heritage of a nation.

China has a civilization history of 5,000 years, and is the only one of the four ancient civilizations that has been able to perpetuate its culture to this day. This long history in itself demonstrates the adaptability, tolerance and assimilation of traditional Chinese culture. It is a miracle in the history of world civilization that Chinese culture has endured for 5,000 years, and that it has been able to maintain its qualities, roots, and ethos in the midst of constant improvement and loss. The establishment of a nation's cultural self-confidence undoubtedly requires the cooperation of many conditions and the support of cultural "hard power" and "soft power"; however, the promotion of the national culture and its outstanding traditions, in order to highlight its contemporary value and positive significance, is undoubtedly one of the indispensable aspects. But the promotion of our own culture and its fine traditions to highlight its contemporary value and positive significance is undoubtedly one of the indispensable aspects. Only when a nation has cultural self-confidence can it truly have an open mind, a tolerant mind and the courage to learn, to accept the valuable elements of all foreign cultures, and be able to have equal dialogues and constructive interactions with all foreign cultures.

(The author is a professor of the School of Philosophy and Social Development of Shandong University)

Note: This article is a stage research result of the major project of the National Social Science Foundation, "Research on the Promotion of Chinese Traditional Culture and Modernization" (Project No. 2015YZD17).

References

This article is based on the research results of the National Social Science Foundation.

1) Selected Works of Marx and Engels, Beijing: People's Publishing House, 1995.

②[German] Marx: 1844 Economic and Philosophical Manuscripts, Beijing: People's Publishing House, 2000.

Chief Editor/Wang Yanzhuo American Editor/Li Xiangfeng

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