What are the basic contents of the "essence" and "dross" of China traditional culture?

The essence and dross of China traditional culture is a big topic. Before the discussion, it is necessary to make some agreements on the connotation of the words used. The definition of "culture" in this paper refers to the way of life and the pleasure of life that human beings surpass animals. "Traditional culture" refers to the human way of life and pleasure that exists in the history of civilization, occurs today and is remembered by people, as well as the above-mentioned way of life and pleasure that is still used or developed in a certain variant today. "China" and "culture" in "China traditional culture" refer not only to China in today's national geographical map, but also to China in history (the map has changed) and other regions and ethnic groups influenced by China culture; It is also related to the relevant regional and national cultures before the emergence of China and the formation of the Chinese nation.

Essence and dross are a pair of conceptual phrases that exist in contrast with each other, and there is a gray zone or neutral zone between them. There are subjective intentions and objective standards to judge the essence and dross, and there are often overlapping areas in space and time. These factors will inevitably lead to the fuzzy judgment of essence and dross.

In view of this, when discussing the essence and dross of China traditional culture, the author suggests cutting into the theme from the following aspects:

1, the right of judgment. In terms of time, it involves the judgment right of the previous generation, the judgment right of the present generation and the judgment right of future generations. In space, it involves government (official) jurisdiction, people (folk) jurisdiction, scholars jurisdiction and parties jurisdiction. Here, the absence of the right of final adjudication is acceptable.

2. The basis of judgment. Different people may have different criteria for judging whether a certain culture or cultural phenomenon is essence, dross or gray neutrality. The basis of the author's suggestion includes: 1. Is this culture conducive to the survival and development of the parties? Second, does this culture bring survival pleasure to the parties? Third, does this culture lead to the degeneration or sublimation of the client's mind? Fourth, does this culture hurt the survival and fun of others?

3. Diversity of cultural effects. Culture not only has the function that users pursue, but also has a wide influence on users and others. These effects are good and bad; In other words, it can be good or bad. The problem here is that the recognition ability, appreciation ability and coping mentality of a certain culture may lead to different effects. At the same time, the change of the living conditions of the parties may also lead to different judgments on the same culture. If people generally have a higher cultural level and good self-cultivation, they will be more tolerant of different cultural forms and may absorb more beneficial aspects of a certain culture.

4. Cultural form is actually closely related to living conditions and ways. People in water-deficient areas in the north of China and people in water-rich areas in the south of China, their cultural expressions on hygiene customs can be said to be mainly due to objective conditions, rather than human differences. What needs to be emphasized here is that information carriers play a powerful role in cultural forms. China's square Chinese characters not only contributed to the advanced formation of China's unified country (compared with Europe), but also contributed to the unique cultural forms such as poetry, couplets and crossword puzzles in China culture.

5. Any traditional culture is the survival mark or imprint of a nation and a country. From this point of view, any traditional culture has its historical value, and we can judge it today, but we should not completely deny it, nor should we just dabble in it. Instead, we should seal up its memory, or choose ingredients that are beneficial to today to inherit and develop. For example, the author once said that Peking Opera is the "voice of national subjugation". The reason is that the dignitaries of the Qing Dynasty indulged in it, spent a lot of time, lost the interest and opportunity to study, learn and learn from the emerging western science and technology and innovate social management, and thus suffered a fiasco in the invasion of western powers. Obviously, this is judged from the social function of culture and art, not from a comprehensive historical perspective. From today's perspective, Peking Opera has actually become a rich heritage in China's traditional culture.

6, the culture of vulnerable groups or special groups, as well as the culture of a few people and individuals. For these people's cultural behavior, the criteria for judging should be different from popular culture and mainstream culture. For example, some people or some people's weird, eccentric and maverick behavior may be induced by special physiological, pathological and psychological factors, or it may be an advanced social behavior.

7. Use the label of "feudal superstition" with caution. "Superstition" refers to something that the parties believe does not exist, which is universal in ancient and modern China and foreign countries and is not unique to feudal society. In addition, what many people call "feudal superstition" today is not all negative social functions and influences. For example, the folk custom of offering sacrifices to the kitchen god in China contains a benign social function of "punishing evil and promoting good". For another example, Taoism's "Eliminating Five Poisons" also contains the connotation of popular science and undertakes the function of popularizing the knowledge of common poisonous animals (toads, snakes, scorpions, spiders and centipedes) to the public.

8. The judgment of essence and dross is contemporary and realistic. The cultural essence that the ancients talked about may not be so essence today, or even become dross. For the cultures of different countries and nationalities, there are often realistic political factors, national feelings factors and economic interests factors. In this case, "purely academic" cultural judgment may be stupid or nerdy.

Based on the above considerations, the author believes that there are many essences in China traditional culture, including endless yearning, interpretation of the pleasure of survival, responsibility to society, affinity to nature, pursuit of friendship, attachment to family, persistence in morality, integration with the nation, sublimation of the soul, solution to the unknown world, application of information and cultural means, respect for wisdom and knowledge, and so on. In fact, China's traditional culture is all-encompassing, and its characteristics need to be discussed clearly in the comparative study with foreign traditional cultures.

At the same time, from today's point of view, China's traditional culture also has many dross or outdated elements. In my opinion, the more prominent dross is slave culture. The essence of slave culture, that is, personal attachment, is to drag out an ignoble existence at the expense of personality development and publicity. Slavery culture exists not only in the national management system, but also in social groups, schools and families. In front of superiors, subordinates often lose their dignity; In front of teachers, students often lose their opinions; In front of parents, children often have no right to speak.

The social cost of slave culture is mainly the atrophy or even extinction of autocratic social management mode and national innovation spirit. This is because another term of slave culture is actually power culture, which is a culture that ignores the legal system and human rights, and is also an unfair culture. In this case, the intelligence of most members of society is suppressed, and the lasting vitality of the whole nation is also suppressed.

In fact, it is of little significance and value to discuss the essence and dross of China traditional culture abstractly or purely academically. For today's China people, what we really need is not to judge which traditional cultures are the essence and which are the dross, but to explore which traditional cultures are outdated or out of date. For outdated traditional culture, criticism is not important, what is important is to seal up (leave) or transform. Transform traditional culture, including psychological transformation and practical transformation; The so-called psychological transformation is to reduce the degree of belief in culture and its value recognition; The so-called actual transformation is to transform its outdated elements and add new cultural elements. For example, dragon dance, originally a faithful rain-seeking ceremony, has evolved into a kind of entertainment today. For another example, the cultural concept of having more children and more happiness has now been replaced by the cultural concept of prenatal and postnatal care. If we want to rejuvenate the country by virtue, we must first transform and abandon outdated traditional culture.

At the same time, for a country and a nation, it is necessary not only to inherit excellent traditional culture, but also to constantly create new culture. The new culture created by China people is a continuation of the traditional culture of China, because the blood and soul of China people contain the nutrition and ingredients of the traditional culture of China.