On Ancient Civilization and Modern Culture

The topic of my speech today is:>

The modernization and modernization guided by the west have brought high-tech enjoyment to mankind, such as rapid transportation and communication, cultural life that gives full play to all sensory functions, and so on.

However, with the accelerated depletion of the earth's resources and the increasingly serious destruction of the biosphere environment, human beings are pushed to the brink of hopeless death more and more quickly.

The essence of China's traditional culture is to emphasize the harmony between man and nature, that is, to emphasize the "harmony between man and nature", which was unexpected when the modern west led the world trend.

Modernization makes human beings full of passion and enthusiasm for nature; Modernization makes human beings crazy about nature; China's traditional culture will enable human beings to regain their senses, blend in with nature and return to nature.

Modernization, only by combining with China's traditional cultural ideas, can become a panacea to cure the crisis of the earth's resources and environment.

I believe that the "post-modernization" of human beings must be an era in which China's traditional culture plays a leading role.

On the Basic Spirit of China Traditional Culture

The basic spirit of China's traditional culture is essentially the national spirit of the Chinese nation. There are many opinions about the basic spirit of China traditional culture.

Some scholars believe that the ideological basis for the long-term development of China traditional culture can be called the basic spirit of China traditional culture, and it is the subtle internal driving force in the process of cultural development, that is, the basic idea guiding the continuous progress of national culture. The basic spirit of China's traditional culture is the basic feature of the Chinese nation's spiritual form. Therefore, (1) steel is healthy and promising; (2) Harmony and neutrality; (3) the use of respecting morality; (4) Harmony between man and nature. "These are the basic spirits of China's traditional culture." (Zhang Dainian: On the Basic Spirits of China Culture, China Cultural Studies Series 1, published by Fudan University Press. China's national spirit is basically condensed in two famous sayings of the Book of Changes, namely: "A gentleman strives for self-improvement." . "the terrain is vast, and a gentleman carries things with morality." "Self-improvement" and "respecting morality and carrying things" are the basic spirits of China traditional culture. Although the concept of "golden mean" was widely circulated in the past, it actually failed to promote cultural development. Therefore, "The Doctrine of the Mean cannot be regarded as the basic spirit of China traditional culture". (Zhang Dainian: Cultural Tradition and National Spirit, Academic Monthly 1986No. 12. The basic spirit of China's traditional culture is also reflected in the fine tradition of replacing religion with moral education. (Zhang Dainian: China Culture and China Philosophy, included in China Culture and China Philosophy, published by Oriental Publishing House)

Some scholars believe that "the fundamental spirit of China's traditional culture is harmony and freedom". (Xu Siyuan: On China Culture, two issues, China Cultural Studies Series 1, published by Fudan University Press. )

Some scholars believe that the patriarchal hierarchy ethics, which is based on self-sufficient natural economy, family-oriented, and blood relationship as the link, is the main clue, essence and core that runs through the five levels of social production activities and productivity, social production relations, social system, social psychology and social consciousness in ancient China. "This is the basic spirit of China's ancient traditional culture." (Yang Xianbang, Re-evaluation of China's traditional culture, edited by Zhang Liwen, etc., Traditional culture and modernization, published by Renmin University of China Press. )

Some scholars believe that China's national spirit can be roughly summarized into four interrelated aspects: (1) rational spirit. It has a long tradition of atheism, fully affirms the unity of man and nature and the unity of individual and society, and advocates that the satisfaction of personal feelings and desires is consistent with the rational requirements of society. On the whole, denying the religious worship of supernatural God and savior and the existence of the other side of the world, vigorously advocating the harmonious unity between man and nature, individual and society, and opposing the division and confrontation between them are the roots of the rational spirit of the Chinese nation. (2) the spirit of freedom. This is first manifested in the people's spirit of resisting the rule of the exploiting classes. At the same time, in the struggle against foreign oppression, some classes, groups and figures in the ruling class also actively participated in this struggle. It shows that in the ideological and cultural tradition of the ruling class in China, there is also a positive side of "loving freedom". (3) Realistic spirit. Confucianism in the pre-Qin dynasty advocated that "the known is known, and the unknown is unknown", knowing people and discussing the world opposed being born with knowledge; Legalists oppose "foresight", pay attention to "experience", emphasize implementation and praise merit; Taoism advocates "knowing people", "knowing friends" and "analyzing the principles of everything". These are the tables of seeking truth from facts. (4) the spirit of strain. (See Liu Gangji: On the Chinese National Spirit, Journal of Wuhan University 1985,No. 1. Some scholars believe that the basic spirit of China traditional culture can be summarized as "respecting ancestors, respecting human relations, respecting morality and saluting". (See Sima Yunjie: Sociology of Culture, published by Shandong People's Publishing House. In addition, China's traditional culture also has the viewpoint of development, self-improvement and tireless learning spirit. (See Ding Shouhe: "Trial of China Traditional Culture", "Seeking Roots" No.4, 1987. )

Some scholars believe that the spirit of China traditional culture is humanism. This humanism is manifested as follows: people are not isolated from interpersonal relationships, nor are they opposed to nature; Do not pursue a purely natural knowledge system; It is anti-utilitarian in axiology; Pay tribute to being a man. The humanistic spirit of China's traditional culture has added luster to our nation and country, but it has also set obstacles; It spread the light of wisdom to the world, but also caused various obstacles to Chinese and foreign exchanges; This is a huge spiritual wealth and a huge cultural burden. (See Pang Pu: Humanistic Spirit of China Culture, Guangming Daily 1986 1.6. )

Human society has entered a modern civilization characterized by industrialization, popularization of education and scientificity. The fact that modern civilization dominates the world determines that it is an inevitable trend for a country to move towards modernization no matter what state it is in now.

In the process of modernization, due to different national conditions, countries encounter different problems and obstacles on the road to modernization. China is an ancient civilization with 5,000 years of traditional culture. In the process of China's modernization, there is a constant debate about whether China's traditional culture can be modernized. This historical phenomenon clearly enlightens us: Can China's traditional culture be modernized? How to modernize? This is a problem of great practical significance and must be understood.

First, denying traditional culture is also denying history.

Culture, in a broad sense, refers to the sum of material and spiritual productivity and wealth created by human beings in the social practice of transforming the world, including material civilization, spiritual civilization and institutional civilization. Culture in a narrow sense mainly refers to spiritual production capacity and spiritual products. Traditional culture is the cultural heritage of material civilization and spiritual civilization accumulated by a nation in long-term social practice, and it is also the spiritual embodiment of a nation's unique way of thinking. Traditional culture has both essence and dross. Therefore, traditional culture can neither be completely denied nor absorbed. Only by standing at the height of the times and passing the test of practice. Only by taking its essence and discarding its dross can it play a correct role.

When a country moves towards modernization, it must always have a culture based on a certain economic and political foundation. To deny traditional culture is also to deny history and national spirit. Cut off one's "roots" artificially. White, an American cultural philosopher, said: "Culture is a continuous unity, and every stage of cultural development comes from an earlier cultural environment." "The present culture depends on the past culture, and the future culture is only the current cultural trend." It can be said that the development history of a nation is also the history of developing and enriching traditions. Similarly, national spirit, as an important force to unite and inspire people, is also the result of long-term edification and cultivation of traditional culture and the crystallization of traditional culture. It is not terrible for a nation to get into any trouble. What is terrible is that it has lost its national spiritual pillar and spiritual support. Therefore, how to treat traditional culture is not a simple cultural problem, but a problem related to the development of national destiny. Many historical facts have proved that a country embarks on the road of national rejuvenation and modernization, starting with carrying forward the national spirit. National spirit is the soul of a nation. Denying traditional culture will inevitably obliterate the national spirit. It is wrong to think that China's modernization can only draw strength from foreign culture and try to replace China's traditional cultural model with western cultural model. From the perspective of epistemology, it is mainly caused by the following three reasons:

First of all, there is a lack of in-depth understanding of the rich connotation of China's traditional culture. China's traditional culture is not a pile of worthless rubbish as some people say, but has rich connotations in many aspects. Its outstanding part is the precious spiritual wealth of mankind and one of the renewable resources of all new and higher civilizations. The rich connotation of China traditional culture is mainly reflected in the following aspects:

A spirit of self-improvement. China culture has always been concerned about real life. Confucius said that "I don't know life, I don't know death", and that "a gentleman strives for self-improvement". It is this philosophy of life after China's entry into WTO that has cultivated the Chinese nation to dare to fight tenaciously against all the harm and injustice of nature and society. China people have the spirit of not believing in evil and not afraid of ghosts since ancient times, emphasizing that happiness in life is created by themselves. To realize modernization, this spirit of self-confidence and self-esteem is absolutely indispensable.

Second, the concept of unity of knowledge and action. China's Confucian culture says that "doing is close to benevolence", which, to some extent, embodies the epistemological thought of "paying more attention to doing than knowing", which is consistent with the practical character. Practice is the source of knowledge. To realize modernization, of course, we must study foreign advanced things hard, but what is more important is our own socialist practice.

Third, pay attention to people's spiritual life. China traditional culture attaches great importance to people's inner cultivation and spiritual world, and despises greedy and vulgar material desires. Mencius put forward that "wealth is beauty", "you can't be lewd, poverty can't be moved, and power can't be compromised", which is the fundamental requirement for personality. This traditional virtue is also very valuable for shaping modern personality.

Fourth, there is patriotism. Patriotism is one of the deepest feelings we have consolidated for our motherland for thousands of years. Patriotism is a fine tradition of our Chinese nation. The ancients said that every man is responsible for the rise and fall of the world. Today, only when a country embarks on the road of modernization can it be prosperous and strong. To achieve modernization, we must rely on the unity and common struggle of the people of the whole country.

Five, the pursuit of truth, dedication. China's traditional culture despises those villains who are afraid of death, ungrateful and pursue fame and fortune. When it comes to the pursuit of truth, the ancients thought that "I heard the Tao and died in the evening." Promote the spirit of "the road is long, I will go up and down". This persistence and persistence in truth is a powerful driving force for modernization.

Sixth, the ethical norms of unity and mutual assistance, respect for the elderly and love for the young. The ancients said, "Old people are old, young people are young, and young people are young." Only when a society is strict with self-discipline, tolerant to others and forms a social atmosphere of unity and mutual assistance, respecting the elderly and loving the young, can a society be full of warmth and harmony and bring hope and strength to people. The above is only a part of the essence of China traditional culture, which is enough to reflect the profoundness of China traditional culture. Russell once said: "The strength of China culture lies in a reasonable outlook on life", which is a profound understanding and generalization of China culture.

Secondly, it is against traditional culture and modernization. Traditional culture is not a stagnant pool, but a dynamic system. Human beings create traditional culture in their own social practice and innovate and enrich traditions in practice. Otherwise, it will not become a realistic cultural tradition. Therefore, traditional culture can not be simply attributed to "past history", but should be recognized that it is related to the present and the future at the same time. Considering development as "anti-tradition", its way of thinking is to oppose traditional culture and modern culture. In fact, any modernization can only proceed from the realistic traditional culture, otherwise it will become passive water and a tree without roots. Mr. Chen Yinque said: "People who can really achieve something in their own ideological system must absorb and import foreign theories on the one hand, and on the other hand, they must not forget their national status." Popper once pointed out that "nothing is more dangerous than destroying the traditional framework, which will lead to cynicism and nihilism, make all human values indifferent and make them collapse". Moreover, once the tradition is destroyed, civilization will disappear. "Therefore, we must not take a completely negative attitude towards traditional culture, but seek truth from facts, analyze specific problems, test them in practice, and eliminate those outdated things.

Third, from the dialectical relationship between national culture and world civilization. World civilization is not the result of the function of a nation, but the creation of people all over the world. Of course, due to different specific conditions, the role played in the world is also different, but this is only a question of the size of the role, not whether there is one. Therefore, the cultures of all ethnic groups should be equal, need to respect each other, learn from each other, learn from each other's strengths, and should not have a sense of superiority. As a part of the human world, no country is isolated, and its existence and development cannot but have an impact on other countries: it cannot but be influenced by other countries in one way or another. China's four great inventions in ancient times made great contributions to world civilization. Many China ancient cultural craze in the contemporary west also shows that China traditional culture is still playing a role. Therefore, only by giving full play to the characteristics of its own national culture and making due contributions to human society can the development of world civilization be reliably guaranteed. On the contrary, a country blindly imitates or copies other cultures regardless of its own national characteristics, which will not only fail to develop well, but even lead to extinction. There is such a lesson in world history. In fact, western culture is also divided into two parts, good things and dross. It is not allowed to "pick all the dishes in the basket", such as "money worship", which is criticized even in the west. Western culture is not equal to the world advanced culture, which are two different concepts. The world advanced culture is advanced, scientific and of great significance to human society. Therefore, learning and introducing foreign cultures must be analyzed in detail and based on our own reality. A successful modern country is by no means introducing western culture in an all-round way, but on the basis of its own traditional culture, while learning foreign advanced culture, it innovates its own culture and constantly improves its modernization level. As for whether traditional culture can be modernized or carried forward under the new historical conditions, the key lies in the way people treat traditional culture.

Second, traditional culture is a great spiritual force.

As a social spiritual form, traditional culture is a reflection of certain social existence. This traditional culture is a great spiritual force and has a long-term effect on society.

In addition, there are negative factors in China's traditional culture, which is not conducive to the development of modernization. The negative factors of its traditional culture are as follows:

1. Lack of democratic spirit. China has been in a feudal society for a long time, and the feudal consciousness has a deep influence on people. On the one hand, feudal autocratic thought severely suppressed and bound the development of personality, on the other hand, it caused privileged thought. To this day, the people of China still lack democratic consciousness.

Second, the concept of legal system is weak. China's traditional culture does not attach importance to the legal system, and implements the rule of man, such as the supremacy of imperial power, so the monarch's words are the law. In today's socialist society in China, the people have become the masters of the country, and all the laws of the country reflect the fundamental interests of the people. However, the feudal privilege thought is serious, and the situation that power is greater than law and emotion is greater than law still occurs from time to time.

Third, poor commodity awareness. China is an agricultural country, which values agriculture over commerce. In the past, doing business was looked down upon. I didn't know that commerce is an important link in product circulation, which plays an important role in promoting the development of social productive forces, prospering the economy and facilitating the people. Especially in modern times, without the high development of market economy, it is impossible to move towards modernization.

Fourth, there is a serious sense of conservatism. China's small-scale peasant economy is vast, self-employed, dependent on the weather for food, "work at sunrise and rest at sunset", which is easy to be satisfied with the status quo. Unless absolutely necessary, we will not rise up and accept new things by self-study.

Three, from traditional culture to modernization, is the spiritual power to promote the continuous development of socialism.

Distinguish the essence and dross of traditional culture, get rid of its dross, and absorb its essence to serve socialism, that is, modernize traditional culture, so as to better serve the society. Under certain conditions, traditional culture can be transformed into a new culture that meets the needs of the times, but this transformation requires social practice and the combination of traditional culture and modern life to meet the requirements of the times. The socialist market economy is a fundamental combination point.

First, the need to develop a market economy. In the past, it was a planned economy. This economy is run by people, and everything is under the unified management of the government, regardless of government and enterprise. It acted according to the will of the Chief Executive, shooting indiscriminately and holding thick lines.

Reasonable distribution leads to long-term economic backwardness in China. At present, market economy is the basic means to allocate social resources with market mechanism, and it is an economic management system established in accordance with the laws of market economy movement. Therefore, it can effectively encourage enterprises to play their initiative and competitiveness, mobilize the creativity of the broad masses of the people, and become a powerful driving force for modern economic development. A certain economy is always associated with a certain culture. Economy and culture permeate and influence each other. Today's economy is tomorrow's culture. And tomorrow's culture will also be the economy of the day after tomorrow. People are the main body of social activities, and any economic activities are carried out by people with certain concepts and cultures. Without certain scientific and cultural knowledge and ideological accomplishment, people are incompetent. Therefore, the development of modern economy will test people's existing cultural concepts and make new choices. On the other hand, it will urge people to study all advanced things hard and constantly improve their spiritual quality to meet the needs of the development of the situation. This is the trend of market economy to traditional culture.

Second, it is the need to build a complete socialist rule of law. The socialist market economy is an economy ruled by law, which means legitimacy, authority and fairness. The role of the rule of law in the market economy: first, the guiding role-guiding the market economy to develop in a healthy direction; The second is the role of supervision-regulating the behavior and order of the government and market subjects through laws; The third is the guarantee function-to guarantee the equal competition and legal rights of market participants. These are the embodiment of modern civilization and modern culture, and China's traditional culture has great defects in this respect. China traditional culture emphasizes the rule of man in legal thought. Law is only used as an auxiliary means to govern the country, and this traditional culture lacking rights consciousness is difficult to exist and develop in the market economy.

Third, the market economy is an interest economy, which requires the denial of the old values of "a gentleman seeks the Tao without seeking food" in China traditional culture, thus strengthening people's pragmatic spirit and enterprising spirit. In fact, people's practical activities are inseparable from the principle of interest. To ensure the realization of the value pursued by the market economy, not only individual practice should conform to the laws of the market economy, but also the government and administrative departments should improve their work efficiency to meet the needs of the development of the situation.