What are the main characteristics of each of the Chinese and Western civilizations?

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Ans:

The characteristics of Chinese academic thought are highlighted in comparison with other civilizations, so we might as well explore this question in the context of Western and even Indian academic thought.

First, words, thinking, culture

The differences between Chinese and Western cultural systems have been repeatedly discussed from different perspectives by academics in recent times. The author tries to make an attempt to explore the influence of words on thinking and thinking on culture.

Modern brain science research confirms that the left and right hemispheres of the brain are divided into different tasks. The right hemisphere mainly deals with a variety of images, and the left hemisphere mainly deals with the shape *** language symbols. This shows that the left and right hemispheres have different thinking tools, the right hemisphere's main thinking tool is the image, we can call this thinking for image thinking; the left hemisphere's main thinking tool is language, we can call this thinking for language thinking. Language is the symbol of image, and image is the meaning of language. In the brain, there is no indifference between image and language, between figurative and verbal thinking. On the contrary, the corpus callosum, which connects the two hemispheres of the brain, transmits information between the left and right hemispheres at an unimaginable speed.

It is often said that Chinese and Westerners think differently. There is no doubt about that. But how are they different? And how did this difference come about?

The reasons are many and varied. But in my opinion, the difference between Chinese and Western writing is the fundamental reason for the difference in their ways of thinking. It is true that writing is a symbol of language, which is different from language and is not the same as a tool for thinking. However, as the most frequently used communication tool, writing undoubtedly has an undeniable influence on thinking. The written form of the Western language is the alphabetic script, which is neither representational nor ideographic, but only phonetic; that is to say, it completely cuts off the direct connection with the image, and it is a kind of pure record of the symbols of language. This kind of alphabetic script, which is purely a record of language, frequently and extensively *** people's brains, gradually formed the characteristic of westerners who are good at linguistic thinking, and made their linguistic thinking particularly developed. The Chinese writing symbol is the square Chinese character, which not only expresses sound, but also expresses form and meaning. This kind of sound, shape and meaning are interconnected with each other, providing a convenient tool for image thinking, so that Chinese people are long on image thinking.

Words influence the way of thinking, and the way of thinking influences the characteristics of cultural development. The difference between Chinese and Western characters and ways of thinking makes the Chinese and Western cultures show their unique features. Western scholars believe that language and thinking are interdependent. For example, Hegel claimed, "Forms of thought are first expressed and recorded in people's language." Dewey also pointed out, "I say that thinking cannot exist without language." Our linguistics textbooks repeatedly emphasize that language and thinking are the relationship between the shell and the core. In contrast, many Chinese scholars believe that the highest state of their thoughts cannot be expressed in words. For example, "Tao can be Tao, but not Tao; name can be name, but not name" (a chapter in the present version of Laozi), "Those who can speak are the roughness of things; those who can think are the essence of things" (Chuang Tzu - Autumn Waters), "Books are inexhaustible, words are inexhaustible" (The Book of the Dead), "Words are inexhaustible" (The Book of the Dead), "Words are inexhaustible, words are inexhaustible" (The Book of the Dead). Words are inexhaustible" ("Zhouyi-Syllable Rhetoric"), "do not write a word, all the wind flow" ("Poetry - subtle") and so on.

The differences between Chinese and Westerners in the relationship between thought and language have a direct impact on their interest in linguistics. In order to better develop and improve their thinking, Westerners have long emphasized the study of language. Since the ancient Greek period, linguistics has "become an independent discipline between the 'humanities' and the 'natural sciences'", and up to modern times, linguistics in the West has always been in the forefront. Until modern times, Western linguistics has always been far ahead. The Chinese people's thinking was less dependent on language, and accordingly, China did not pay so much attention to the study of language. In ancient China, linguistics has never been developed independently. Confucius had long advocated, "It is enough to say what you want to say." (Analects of Wei Linggong), phonetics was an appendage of literature and economics, and people only studied it for the sake of writing good poems and songs. Scholars even derogatorily referred to writing, phonetics, and exegesis as "elementary school". It was not until the end of the nineteenth century that Ma Jianzhong copied Western linguistic theories and wrote China's first grammatical work, Ma's Wentong. Since then, Chinese linguistics has gradually developed independently.

This difference in thinking between the East and the West has also profoundly influenced the different temperaments of Chinese and Western cultures. The three major schools of Chinese philosophy, Confucianism, Taoism, and Buddhism, all emphasize inner reflection, experience, and enlightenment. The Confucian sage Zeng Sen long ago said, "I have been doing three times daily introspection of my own body" (同上书《论语-述而》), taking introspection as an indispensable means of cultivating one's body. Taoism goes one step further. According to Wang Bi, "The one who forgets the image is the one who obtains the meaning; the one who forgets the words is the one who obtains the image. The one who forgets words is the one who obtains the image." (Zhou Yi Liao Xi - Ming Xiang) Words and even images have become shackles that bind the mind, and when the mind reaches a certain level of cultivation, neither images nor words exist. This tradition reached its peak with the Buddhists. Although he could not read or write, Hui Neng became the originator of the Southern School of Zen by advocating "epiphany". Later on, Zen simply advocated "no writing", completely abandoning words and completely using pure intuition to convey what were considered inexpressible wonders, and the "rod and drink" was one of its main forms. Therefore, the soil of Chinese figurative thinking is not to be ignored as a reason for the development of Buddhism in China and the emergence of Zen Buddhism in China. Accordingly, in Chinese academic history, a series of metaphysical concepts have been formed, such as yin and yang, yuan qi, mood, charm, style, virtual reality ...... to name a few.

Western culture and Western philosophy, under the influence of linguistic thinking, have shown another style. Western philosophers have always been known for the rigor and sophistication of their language. This is true of the ancient Greek philosophers, as well as of the modern Western philosophers. Thus, in a sense, Western philosophy is a philosophy of linguistic debate. And, of course, the history of Western scholarship is quite clear on the concept.

Experts believe that figurative thinking is ambiguous, which is probably a characteristic of Chinese thinking; relatively speaking, linguistic thinking is precise, which is a characteristic of Western thinking. This is the first time in the history of the world that we have seen the world's most famous and most famous person. Of course, this has something to do with the different attitudes of Chinese and Westerners towards language study. In other words, Western languages are more precise, while Chinese, especially ancient Chinese, is more ambiguous (modern Chinese is becoming more precise due to the importation of a large number of Western translations). Chinese and Western philosophers have different styles of expressing the same meaning. For example, Lao Tzu said, "The existence of nothing is born together, the difficulty of the easy is formed together, the length of the short and the long is shaped together, the height of the low is filled together, the sound of the sound is harmonized together, and the sequence of the two follows each other." (Chapter 9 of the second book of Lao Tzu in the simplified version) A similar meaning in Heraclitus becomes "Unity consists of two opposites, and therefore when it is divided into two halves, these two opposites are revealed." Confucius' definition of wisdom is: "To know is to know, and not to know is not to know. （Aristotle, on the other hand, said, "Wisdom is the knowledge of certain principles and causes." [4] Although Heraclitus was not the only one to recognize wisdom, he was the only one to recognize it. [4] Although the quotations of Heraclitus and Aristotle have been translated into modern Chinese, their accuracy is still intact; whereas the quotations of Laozi and Confucius have to be comprehended in order to realize their true meaning.

From the above comparison, we can also find that, on the surface, the language of the ancient Greek philosophers has a distinctive abstraction and generalization, while the language of the Chinese philosophers has a prominent figurative, metaphorical. But this is not to say that Chinese thinking lacks abstraction. In fact, behind this figurative and metaphorical nature, the same abstract truths as those revealed by Western philosophers are expressed. Therefore, it is an illusion for some people to think that Western thinking is rich in abstraction and Chinese thinking lacks abstraction. Who can say that "forgetting the image of the mind" is not a kind of abstraction? Who can say that "mindfulness" and "meditative integration" are not abstractions? It is just that they are confusing and difficult to express. Even Hegel, who had always denigrated Chinese philosophy, had to admit that "the meaning of those figures in the Zhouyi" was a very abstract category, a purely rational provision.

Because abstract thinking (verbal thinking, to be precise) has long been confused with logical thinking, those who argue that Chinese thinking lacks abstraction also tend to assert that Chinese thinking lacks logic. Again, this is an illusion. By logic, I mean objective regularity. In fact, the thinking that reflects the objective regularity is logical thinking; image thinking also reflects the objective regularity, of course, is also a kind of logical thinking.

Of course, we do not deny that the abstraction and logic of verbal and figurative thinking have different characteristics. The abstraction and logic of linguistic thinking exists in language, which is obvious in linguistic expression and therefore external; the abstraction and logic of figurative thinking exists in image, which is not so obvious in linguistic expression and therefore potential. This is the root cause of all these illusions.

These different features of Chinese and Western ways of thinking have resulted in the unique style of Chinese and Western scholars in their theoretical systems. In other words, the theoretical system of Chinese scholars is potential and vague; the theoretical system of Western scholars is external and clear. In other words, Chinese academics are not without their own system, and the view that China lacks a theoretical system is untenable.

Imaginative thinking is to grasp things through intuition or intuition, which naturally determines that this way of thinking grasps the whole of the thing, not the part of it. People use intuition or intuition to perceive the part of a thing, and it is quite difficult to discard the other parts. When we imagine the shape of the table in our brain is always the whole table, not just the table surface, not just the table legs; similarly, we imagine the shape of the table surface or the table legs, they are always with the whole table as one, hard to separate. Thus, this way of thinking is holistic. On the contrary, the tool of linguistic thinking is language, which brings convenience to concrete analysis. When people think in terms of "table", "table surface", "table legs" and other verbal concepts, they are all completely independent of each other. Thus, this way of thinking is analytical.

The holistic nature of figurative thinking and the analytical nature of linguistic thinking have each made their own mark on Chinese and Western cultures. Chinese scholars' writings, most of which are very comprehensive, a "Analects", encompassing the political thought of Confucius, philosophical thought, educational thought, psychological thought, ethical thought and other content. Western academic writings, on the other hand, are generally divided into different categories, such as Aristotle's work on logic is Theory of Instruments, psychological writings are On the Soul, aesthetics and art theory are represented by Rhetoric and Poetics, and there are also writings on political science such as Politics and Athenian Political System. In terms of material culture, Chinese architecture, represented by the Forbidden City in Beijing and the Confucius Temple in Qufu, has a distinctive integrity, while Western architecture has a staggered, eclectic flavor.

The analytic and precise nature of language thinking are complementary. In order to be more precise, the inevitable requirement of specific analysis; only specific analysis, in order to be more precise. They are expressed in artistic creation, is to seek truth and reproduction. Western artists in order to draw the human body more realistic, often in the human anatomy on the effort, they strive to reproduce the object of artistic creation. Ancient Greek and Roman artists sculptures, so that contemporary art masters marveled; da Vinci's painting eggs of truth-seeking attitude, has become a woman and children know the beauty of the story. This kind of real, reproducible art is in line with the Western aesthetic. Aristotle has said: "The image of the Velcro looks but can cause us to ***." The characteristics of Western art, lies in this kind of like a real place, such as hearing the sound, such as seeing the appearance of the sense of reality.

The wholeness and ambiguity of figurative thinking is manifested in the Chinese view of aesthetics as a search for likeness and transcendence. Chinese artists do not work on the real, but the pursuit of a "super-real" artistic effect; the characteristics of Chinese painting is here, a few lines, a few points of ink can give people the enjoyment of beauty. This is what the master of Chinese painting, Qi Baishi, said, "The beauty is between resemblance and non-resemblance"; coincidentally, Sikongtu said as early as in the "Poetry": "Seek resemblance away from the form", which can be seen that this is a tradition. Whether it is Chinese paintings or poems, they can always give people an infinite world of imagination and make them savor the experience. "To savor Mochizuki's poem, there is a painting in the poem; to view Mochizuki's painting, there is a poem in the painting." （Su Dongpo's assessment of Wang Wei (王维) is a clear statement of the characteristics of Chinese art. In fact, in the history of Chinese art, why are Wang Wei's poems alone like this? "Isn't this a picture depicted with sorrowful brushwork and ink? How can Wang Wei's paintings be the only ones like this? The Buddha statues in the murals at Dunhuang, that kind of wisdom and enlightenment, but also naive and pure; smiling, but also solemn meditation, is not exactly a wonderful poem? This is the fruit of the traditional Chinese way of thinking.

In the field of science and technology, why did China dominate in ancient times and the West in modern times? This question has puzzled many people, including Einstein, such a brilliant scientist was also surprised. I think this is due to the different ways of thinking between China and the West, which have shown different advantages in different historical periods. Before analyzing this problem, we must first make two points clear: firstly, to be precise, science is not equal to technology; the former refers to a theory-based academic system, while the latter mainly refers to inventions based on practical experience; secondly, science and technology are also developed from technological creations to scientific theories, with technological creations characterizing the form of science and technology in the ancient times, and scientific theories being the main feature of the modern times. Since the distinctive feature of the ancient form of science and technology, i.e., technological creation based on practical experience, it is obvious that the image thinking of the Chinese people will be very effective, while the linguistic thinking of the Westerners is relatively inferior. So, China can be the home of the four great inventions? The Four Great Inventions were basically technological creations. Ancient Chinese scientific and technological works are mainly technical in nature, such as Tian Gong Kai Wu (天工开物), which is a summary of Song Ying Xing's experience in the production of handicrafts during the Ming Dynasty, and Ben Cao Gang Mu (本草纲目), which is a record of Li Shizhen's research on the functions and uses of Chinese herbal medicines. In addition, the potentiality, vagueness, and esotericism of Chinese scholars' theoretical systems and academic concepts are unique in philosophy and aesthetics, but run counter to the raw precision of modern scientific theories. This may be a profound reason why China's scientific and technological development has been in the doldrums since modern times. And to language thinking as the main way of thinking of Western scientists, but it is in this area is unique, so in many areas of modern scientific theory can dominate. Newton's mechanics, Darwin's theory of evolution and other scientific theories in the modern history of science and technology shows the advantages of linguistic thinking in this regard.

From time to time, I have had the idea that the Chinese form of science and technology is based on the primitive experience of human beings, while the Western form of science and technology is a twist on the primitive experience of human beings. The study of primitive thinking proves that primitive people have extraordinary intuitive ability and experience accumulation. In my opinion, Chinese characters and figurative thinking to a certain extent continue this primitive experience, thus forming the Chinese technological form, while Western alphabetic characters and linguistic thinking to a certain extent sever the connection with the primitive experience, making it open up a separate world, thus forming the Western technological form. The superiority of Western science and technology in the modern society has been witnessed by people***. In fact, China's traditional science and technology, especially Chinese medicine, has a huge potential value, to be discovered, to dig.

To sum up, Chinese culture and Western culture are the two strange flowers on the tree of human thinking, each with its own advantages and disadvantages, each with its own unique style, competing in history, each leading ***. Therefore, it is not possible to generalize who is good and who is bad, and to disparage one side and elevate the other. The argument that the square Chinese characters and image thinking, elevate the alphabetical characters and language thinking, has proved to be untenable.

II. Philosophy and Religion

Philosophy and religion are the deeper dimensions of culture, and the relationship between the two reflects the different styles of civilizations. In my opinion, the meaning of philosophy and religion is a prerequisite issue that needs to be redefined. Both concepts come from the West, so the general conception of philosophy and religion is the Western sense of philosophy and religion, which can be called philosophy and religion in a narrow sense. To consider Chinese academic thought in this narrow sense of philosophy and religion, strictly speaking, China has neither philosophy nor religion. If we must analyze Chinese academic thought in this sense of philosophy and religion, we can certainly find philosophies and religions similar to those in the West. Accordingly, it may be said that the character of Western thought lies in the separation of philosophy and religion, the character of Indian thought lies in the unity of philosophy and religion, and the character of Chinese thought lies in the substitution of philosophy for religion. Religion in all countries is meant to solve the problems of life, but in China, philosophy is meant to solve the problems of life without the need for religion to play that role. Chinese philosophy settles life through two avenues, nature and man himself, and they are often intertwined. Since they are both for life, they are both characterized by humanism. In this respect, we can say that the quality of Chinese philosophy is humanism.

In particular, however, we should note that traditional Chinese thought has its own unique flavor. It is not objective or fair to discuss Chinese academic thought according to Western standards. Therefore, we should break the fetters of Western-centeredness, understand philosophy and religion at a more transcendent level, and reinterpret these two concepts in a broader sense. I think that if we regard "philosophy" as a doctrine about the fundamental view of the world and a reflection on the problem of existence, and if we regard "religion" as a doctrine about life and a system of beliefs, then it can be said that Chinese thought has the dual nature of philosophy and religion; it is both philosophy and religion. It is both philosophy and religion. It is both philosophy and religion. Chinese thought is based on human beings themselves, so this philosophy is a humanistic philosophy, and this religion is also a humanistic religion.

This quality of traditional Chinese thought was formed at the time of Yin and Zhou through a profound religious reflection and critical movement centered on human beings; this thought storm marked the establishment of Chinese philosophy. In other words, Chinese philosophy began with an inquiry into the nature of man, i.e., human nature (virtue). Through this movement of religious criticism, we can find that Chinese philosophy was transformed from the primitive religion.

The situation in the West is quite different. Western philosophy, although it also sprang from religion, started from the inquiry of the objective world. So its initial form was natural philosophy before it turned to man, thus taking on a humanistic character. It is undeniable that there are many points of agreement between this early Western humanism and the early Chinese humanism. For example, ethics was once the main subject of ancient Greek philosophy, and the study of metaphysics was meant to solve moral problems. This coincides with the thinking of the pre-Qin philosophers.

Western and Eastern philosophies not only have different starting points, but also have very different development paths. Greek philosophy did not go through the same religious reflection and critical movement as Yin and Zhou, which left some space for religion. Therefore, at the later stage of the development of Greek philosophy, it finally merged with the religion from the East, and thus was introduced into the Middle Ages. However, precisely because the West did not experience the kind of religious reflection and critical movement that took place at the time of Yin and Zhou, Western philosophy and religion have always been different. Its philosophy was rational and humanistic, while its religion was irrational and theistic. Finally, through the Renaissance movement, philosophy and religion parted ways once again. In this way, the West reasserted its long-lost humanist tradition and crossed over into modern society. It can be said that the modern civilization of the West is the result of the Western mind breaking free from the shackles of the Middle Ages, so it shows a sense of fierce criticism of the Middle Ages.

However, because of the religious reflection and critical movement experienced at the time of Yin and Zhou, Chinese thought has been humanistic since then. Because of this, there is no Middle Ages in China, and there is no such thing as a feudal society, just as there was no slave society. It is also for this reason that there was no need for the Chinese to break free from the yoke of the Middle Ages, to re-identify with the humanist tradition, and thus to experience the Renaissance movement as the West did.

For many years, in the triumph of Western learning, scholars have tried to use Marx's five social forms to stage Chinese history, and have taken great pains to find the Renaissance movement in Chinese history, and have fiercely criticized China's feudalism and absolutism. ...... All of this is a sign of a near-unreliability. It is true that the ancient Chinese society had its own It is true that ancient Chinese society had its drawbacks and flaws, even serious ones. However, is this feudalism? Is this authoritarianism? This needs to be reconsidered. I think that in ancient China, at least, there was no feudalism and authoritarianism in the Western sense. If China had authoritarianism in the Western sense, it would have been after the introduction of Stalinism, of which the Cultural Revolution was the culmination. Therefore, for the many problems in China, we should reflect on ourselves and face the reality squarely, instead of always putting the blame on the ancients, scapegoating our ancestors, or talking about other things from the right side of the fence. Only in this way can we truly and practically improve ourselves and develop society.

Third, the metaphysics

The metaphysics is not only the core of a certain philosophy, but also the core of a certain cultural system, so it is the most reflective of the characteristics of an academic thinking.

The most universal existence explored in metaphysics is transcendent, and it is not opposite to the real world. That is to say, it is entirely set up by the human heart. In this way, we cannot avoid the concept of the mind.

It was said above that the mind contains two dimensions: the mind of life and the mind of cognition. In my view, there are also two types of corresponding topology, namely, vital topology and cognitive topology, which are constructed by the vital mind and cognitive mind respectively. The former is a projection of the fundamental qualities of life. Philosophers project their realization and grasp of the fundamental qualities of the mind (or life) onto the highest metaphysical concepts, which are then used to specify and settle the mind. The latter is a projection of the fundamental qualities of the objective world. The fundamental qualities of the objective world are first projected to the cognitive mind, and then the cognitive mind is projected to the highest concept of form.

Since philosophers have different understandings of the fundamental qualities of life and the fundamental qualities of the objective world, they have formed various kinds of life metaphysics and cognitive metaphysics. The first of these is the idea that the mind has no essence, and that it is the essence to which the work is directed." [6] Here I would like to move on to the next point, which is to say that the mind has no essence. [6] Here I would like to follow up on his words by saying that existence (the most universal existence) has no ontology; it is the ontology to which one's work leads. Since the highest concept of form is the projection of mind, the essence of existence is also the essence of mind; the difference in "work" determines the difference between the essence of mind and the essence of existence. The difference in "work" determines the difference between the ontology of mind and the ontology of existence.

Metaphysics in the Western and Eastern traditions is of a different type. Western philosophy is a kind of "love of wisdom" from the very beginning, and the mainstream of Western traditional metaphysics after Aristotle is to grasp the theoretical knowledge system of scientific concepts, judgments, and reasoning, which is of course a kind of cognitive metaphysics (pre-Socratic philosophy or different).

Chinese philosophy has been based on the value of life from the very beginning, and thus the mainstream of its traditional metaphysics is the metaphysics of life. The highest categories of the Confucian, Taoist, and Buddhist schools of metaphysics are Heaven, Tao, and Truth, and the substance of these categories is goodness, nature, and emptiness, respectively. That is to say, the three schools' realization of the fundamental qualities of life are goodness, nature and emptiness. However, the formal education of the Cheng-Zhu school of Song-Ming Neo-Confucianism is a kind of cognitive formal education. Although it claimed that its highest category, "reason," was universal, it focused more on the social and human aspects in its actual argumentation, so it was different from the cognitive metaphysics of the West.

Since the function of the vital mind is to realize itself, it is both subject and object, and in the final analysis it is the actual bearer of subjectivity. This is the root of the unity of subject and object that characterizes Chinese philosophy. In contrast, objectification is the distinctive feature of the cognitive mind. It always knows the objective world as an object; even with regard to itself, it first objectifies it and then cognizes it. In other words, the cognitive mind and the objective world are originally dichotomized. On the other hand, the cognitive mind is dichotomized from the vital mind as the actual bearer of subjectivity. This leads to the dichotomy of subject and object that characterizes traditional Western philosophy.

Since Chinese philosophy was born out of early religion, it is inevitably characterized by early Chinese religion. Just as in primitive religions man's destiny is given by heaven, so in Chinese philosophy human nature is given by the highest formal entities such as heaven and the Tao, and thus internalized in man himself. This, too, is very different from Western metaphysics.

It should be pointed out that the essence of the Western skepticism and denial of the traditional metaphysical *** flow since modern times, especially since modern times, lies in the departure from the cognitive metaphysics and the proximity to the life metaphysics. In this way, it is not surprising that some Western philosophers have consciously absorbed the nutrients from Chinese philosophy.