Discussion: the main reasons for the mutation of traditional culture in modern China

1. The right to judgment. In terms of time, it involves the right to judgment of previous generations, the right to judgment of current generations, and the right to judgment of future generations. Spatially, it involves the right to judgment of the government (official), the right to judgment of the people (civil), the right to judgment of scholars, and the right to judgment of the parties. Here, the absence of the final right to judge is acceptable.

2. The basis of judgment. Different people may have different bases for judging whether a certain culture or cultural phenomenon is the essence or dregs or gray-neutral. The author suggests the use of the basis include, first, this culture is favorable to the survival and development of the parties concerned? Second, does this culture bring pleasure to the person's survival? Third, does this culture lead to degradation or sublimation of the person's mind? Fourth, does this culture harm the survival and pleasure of other people?

3. Diversity of cultural effects. Culture not only exists as a function sought by the user, but also has a wide range of effects on the user and others. These effects can be both good and bad; or they can become good or bad. The problem here is that the ability to recognize and appreciate a certain culture, as well as the mindset to cope with it, can lead to different effects. At the same time, changes in the person's state of being can lead to different judgments of the same culture. If people are generally better educated and better cultured, then they can be more tolerant of different cultural forms, and they may also absorb more of the beneficial aspects of a certain culture.

4. Cultural patterns are in fact closely related to the conditions and ways of life. People in the water-scarce areas of northern China, and people in the watery areas of southern China, their cultural manifestations of hygiene practices can be said to be mainly a matter of objective conditions rather than differences in human nature. It is necessary to emphasize here that information carriers have a powerful effect on cultural forms, and that the Chinese square Chinese characters contributed both to the over-arching formation of the Chinese monolithic state (in contrast to Europe) and to the cultural forms of poetry, couplets, word puzzles, and so on, which are unique to Chinese culture.

5. Any traditional culture is the survival mark or imprint of the people and the nation. From this point of view, any traditional culture has its historical value, and we today can judge it, but we should not easily reject it wholesale or ridicule it superficially, but we should seal up its memory or choose the components that are useful for today to inherit and develop. For example, the author once said that Peking Opera was "the sound of the dead country", the reason was that the officials and nobles of the Qing Dynasty at that time were intoxicated with it, consumed a lot of time, and lost their interest and opportunity to study, learn and learn from the emerging science and technology and innovative social management in the West, thus failing miserably in the invasion of the Western powers; obviously, this is from the perspective of the social function of culture and art. Obviously, this is a judgment from the perspective of the social function of culture and art, not from the comprehensive perspective of history. From today's point of view, Peking Opera has actually become a rich heritage of traditional Chinese culture.

6. The culture of disadvantaged or special groups, as well as the culture of minorities and individuals. The cultural behaviors of these people should be judged by standards different from those of popular and mainstream culture. For example, the strange, eccentric and idiosyncratic behavior of certain groups of people or certain people, among which may be induced by special physiological, pathological and psychological factors, may also be a kind of over-the-top social behavior.

7, careful use of "feudal superstition" label. "Superstition" refers to the person's belief in a non-existent things, this behavior is widespread in ancient and modern times, not unique to feudal society. Moreover, what many people call "feudal superstitions" today do not always have negative social functions and effects. For example, the custom of worshipping Zaowang in Chinese folklore contains the benign social function of "punishing evil and promoting good". Another example is the Taoist practice of "eliminating the five poisons", which also contains the connotation of popularization of science, and assumes the function of popularizing the knowledge of common poisonous animals (toads, snakes, scorpions, spiders and centipedes) among the public.

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

Based on the above thoughts, the author believes that there are a lot of essence in traditional Chinese culture, including the desire for endless life, the interpretation of the joy of existence, the responsibility for the society, the affinity for nature, the pursuit of friendship, the attachment to the family, the upholding of morality, the integration of the nation, the sublimation of the soul, the search for the understanding of the unknown world, the use of information and cultural means, and respect for wisdom and knowledge, etc. The author also believes that there are a lot of cultural values in traditional Chinese culture. respect for wisdom and knowledge, and so on.

At the same time, from today's point of view, there are many dregs or anachronistic elements in traditional Chinese culture. In the author's opinion, the more prominent dross is the culture of slavery. The essence of slavery culture is personal attachment, which is the sacrifice of the development and promotion of individuality in exchange for survival. The culture of slavery exists in the State management system as well as in social organizations, schools and families. In front of superiors, subordinates are often left without dignity; in front of teachers, students are often left without their own opinions; in front of parents, children are often left without a voice.

The social cost of the culture of servility is mainly the authoritarian way of social management and the shrinking or even wearing out of the spirit of national innovation. This is because another way of saying the culture of slavery is actually the culture of power, which is a culture that pays no attention to the rule of law, does not respect human rights, and is also a culture of injustice. In this case, the intelligence of most members of society is suppressed, and at the same time the lasting vitality of the nation as a whole is suppressed.

In fact, discussing the essence and dregs of traditional Chinese culture in the abstract or in a purely academic way does not have much meaning or value. For today's Chinese, what we really need is not to judge which traditional cultures are the essence or which are the dregs, but to explore which traditional cultures have become obsolete or anachronistic. For the anachronistic traditional cultures, the important thing is not to criticize them, but to preserve them or transform them. The transformation of traditional culture includes the transformation of mentality and the transformation of practice; the so-called transformation of mentality means lowering the degree of faith in the culture and its value identity; the so-called transformation of practice means transforming its anachronistic components and adding new cultural components. For example, the Dragon Dance, which was a ritual for seeking rain in the past, has evolved into a recreational activity today. Another example is that the cultural concept of having more children and more happiness has been replaced by the cultural concept of eugenics. If we want to rule the country by virtue, then we should first reform and abandon the anachronistic traditional culture.

At the same time, for a country and a nation, it is not only necessary to inherit the good traditional culture, but also to continuously create a new culture. The new culture created by the Chinese people is the continuation of the traditional Chinese culture, for the Chinese people have the nutrients and ingredients of the traditional Chinese culture in their blood and in their hearts and souls.