Present situation of traditional culture

China has a long history and is an ancient civilization in the world. In its long history of 5,000 years, it has created a long-standing, splendid and broad traditional culture of China, which has a strong vitality and still shines in China and is proud of the world. What is the traditional culture of China? As China people, we should have a comprehensive understanding of the development, characteristics and influence of China. Because understanding China's rich culture is of great significance for us to deeply understand our own nation, inherit the essence of traditional culture, innovate China culture, and make China culture full of vitality forever. This paper will briefly discuss the general situation and laws of the development of China traditional culture and the characteristics and basic spirit of China traditional culture.

First, the general situation and laws of the development of traditional culture in China

China's traditional culture refers to the historical culture that originated in the past, influenced the present and will remain in the future. It has accumulated in people's general psychology, embedded in people's ideas, ways of thinking and values, and has become a culture with the same characteristics as the Chinese nation. It is a long and tortuous development process from gestation to greatness, and it is a process of enriching material culture and spiritual culture.

The essence of culture is humanization or humanization. Therefore, with the emergence of people, there is the source of the beginning of culture. The earliest culture is the primitive material culture, that is, making tools, which marks the origin of culture. With the development of history and material culture, primitive culture began to appear, mainly in three aspects: nature worship, ancestor worship and totem worship. Some aspects of these primitive cultures are still puzzling. From Shang Dynasty to Yin Dynasty, the culture based on God developed into patriarchal clan system, enfeoffment system and ritual system with "pro" and "respect" as the main contents, which had a strong ethical spirit, thus giving China culture a strong ethical color and becoming a major feature of China culture. At the same time, it is also the real source of China's orthodox culture. Whenever the country is in an eventful autumn, culture is a scene of prosperity and development. The "Axis Age" of China's cultural development is a typical example. The Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period were a period of great turmoil. With the hegemony of princes, the interweaving of wars, the rise of new classes and the appearance of private people, it provides a good opportunity for the reorganization, re-creation and development of culture. In this era, Confucianism with "benevolence" as the core, Taoism with respect for "heaven" and "nature", Legalist with emphasis on law and criminal law, Mohist with "universal love" and "non-aggression" as the thinking, and Yin-Yang and Five Elements as the news writers. All the representatives are grandmasters, expressing their opinions, presenting the most spectacular situation in the cultural history of China. In this era, China's culture can be said to be magnificent, the "axis" of China's culture and the driving force for the final formation of the Chinese nation.

Although the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period are an era of cultural excitement, it is not conducive to the stability of the country. The Qin Dynasty destroyed Liuhe, annexed the Eight Wastes, unified the world, became the ancestor of the emperor, made great efforts to reform the old and innovate, and achieved the same goal in one go. However, its great political achievements were autocratic ideologically, and China culture suffered the first catastrophe. The empire of the Han Dynasty became stronger and stronger, and the political unity promoted the ideological unity. During the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, the state of great ideological unity was replaced by "exclusive respect for Confucianism" and became the mainstream culture, and the culture also achieved "great unity". Since then, Confucian culture has become the first culture in China's feudal society, ruling China people's thoughts for nearly two thousand years. Feudal society can be said to be "divided for a long time, divided for a long time." The wheel of history has reached the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties in a blink of an eye, which is another eventful autumn after the hegemony of the Three Kingdoms, the short life of the Western Jin Dynasty, the rapid change of the northern sixteen countries and the southern regime, frequent wars and social unrest. During this period, the situation of cultural unification was broken, and culture moved towards a diversified pattern. During this period, metaphysics, developed from Taoist philosophy, became an important school in Wei and Jin Dynasties, which had a great influence on the later calligraphy and painting creation and the spiritual world of China intellectuals. At the same time, China's localized religious Taoism was born, developed and expanded during this period. At the same time, Buddhism, another foreign religion, also entered the cultural system of China at this time, thus forming a multicultural era in which two schools (Confucianism and metaphysics) and two religions (Taoism and Buddhism) collided and merged with each other, making China's culture diverse and rich, China's culture stronger and China's culture more tolerant and inclusive.

This kind of tolerance was vividly demonstrated in the powerful Tang Dynasty. The Tang Dynasty was the prosperous time of feudal society in China, and it was a big country in politics, economy and culture. Only its culture has a distinctive, high-pitched, vigorous and inclusive temperament of the times, dares to innovate and boldly attracts and accommodates foreign cultures. Great progress has been made in literature, calligraphy, music, fine arts, calendars and other aspects, and it is an era of various cultures. It is particularly worth mentioning that the poetry creation in the Tang Dynasty was unprecedentedly active, and poets came forth in large numbers, and a large number of talented poets appeared, which made many excellent works of Tang poetry, and also made brilliant achievements in the art of poetry, reaching the realm of "no one before, no one after", which can be described as unique in ancient and modern times, so the poetry songs in the Tang Dynasty are the Tang Dynasty of poetry. In addition, the Tang Dynasty was the golden age of calligraphy and the heyday of painting. It can be said that the Tang Dynasty was the heyday of China's cultural development and made brilliant achievements in all aspects. As far as its cultural tolerance is concerned, it is also respected by future generations.

Contrary to the uninhibited and open-minded culture of the Tang Dynasty, the culture of the Song Dynasty is famous for its introversion, delicacy and elegance. This is due to the long-term changes in the political and economic structure of the Song Dynasty, internal troubles and foreign invasion, and weak national strength. The culture of this era, whether it is philosophy, literature, art or social atmosphere, is saturated with Song Wenhua's distinctive features. Philosophy, especially Neo-Confucianism represented by Zhu, developed Neo-Confucianism into the most exquisite and complete theoretical system in the late feudal society of China. This has a great influence on the society and people's thoughts in later generations. On the one hand, Neo-Confucianism emphasizes the ideal personality through moral consciousness, advocates the sense of accomplishment of "self-cultivation, governing the country and leveling the world", and pays attention to the integrity of cultural character and moral conduct, social responsibility and historical mission. On the one hand, it also emphasized the constraints on people's thought and personality development, which later became the theoretical basis of feudal autocratic culture. The cultural features of the Song Dynasty, which appeal to both refined and popular tastes, are also reflected in the literary aspects such as Song Ci, Song Painting and literati's taste. For example, most Song Ci poems are graceful and soft; Song paintings incorporate poetry and calligraphy into paintings, showing a gentle and quiet painting style. Because of the excitement of urban economy in Song Dynasty, another culture, which is opposite to the quiet culture of upper-class society in Song Dynasty, came into being quietly at this time. This is the civic culture of the birth of Washe Goulan City. This vulgar and vivid culture is a fresh and unique force in Song Wenhua system, which laid a solid foundation for the birth of Yuanqu. Because China culture has become mature and sophisticated in the Song Dynasty, during this period, ancient science and technology in China reached an unprecedented peak.

At the same time, in the surrounding areas of the Song Dynasty, Liao, Xia, Jin and Yuan dynasties coveted the Central Plains for a long time and often harassed the Song Dynasty, which was culturally manifested in the conflict and collision between nomadic culture and farming culture in the Central Plains, resulting in a dual cultural effect. On the one hand, Song Wenhua's sense of hardship permeates all aspects; On the other hand, nomadic people have absorbed rich nutrition from Song culture. At the same time, nomadic culture was introduced into Song Wenhua, and the two were deeply blended. The Mongols entered the Han Dynasty and achieved imperial career. The strong assimilation of Central Plains culture forced Yuan to rule with Neo-Confucianism, so Neo-Confucianism became the dominant culture. In this era, due to the long-term cessation of the imperial examination system, most literati were forced to become the lower class, so they absorbed the advantages of the civic culture developed in the Song Dynasty and produced a new literary genre, which was Yuan Zaju. At the same time, as the Yuan Empire is the dynasty with the largest territory in China's history, it has more contact opportunities with neighboring countries and nationalities, more frequent cultural exchanges, and foreign cultures have continuously entered China, and China culture has also been introduced to foreign countries. This is the first time that world culture and China culture have blended.

The Ming and Qing Dynasties are the transitional period of China culture from prosperity to decline, and also the transitional period of China traditional culture to modern culture. During this period, China was at the peak of feudal autocracy, so it showed unprecedented cultural autocracy, and Neo-Confucianism occupied a dominant position. During the Ming and Qing Dynasties, the "literary inquisition" prevailed, and China culture suffered another catastrophe. Scholars dare not make new ones, so they have to study ancient things, compile classical culture, and make textual research and proofreading. Therefore, many cultural classics and documents were collected during this period, which played a positive role in preserving China's classical culture. At the same time, due to the germination of capitalism in the Ming Dynasty, the ideological trend of early enlightenment appeared, and a few scholars with ideas and rebellious spirit bravely fought against feudal authentic cultural thoughts, forming a fresh wind in literature.

This is an overview of China's cultural development. From its development process, we can sum up several laws of China's cultural development: First, the development of culture is always restricted by the political and economic development of society, and at the same time, the development of culture has a negative effect on the development of productive forces, which has a strong guiding force, and the development of China's culture is no exception. Second, the development of a cultural life generally goes through the process of emergence, development, growth and decline. If you don't adapt to the new historical conditions, thinking about change, progress and innovation will disappear. China culture can adapt to the needs of social development and innovate. Although China's traditional culture has been transformed into modern culture, its influence on modern culture still exists and it still plays an important role in the development of the Chinese nation and country. Thirdly, China culture has different forms in different periods, which are reflected in literature, art, philosophy and other aspects, that is, each period has different forms of expression, but there is always the spirit of the same strain running through it, which has enabled China culture to last for thousands of years. Fourthly, China culture has strong assimilation, inclusiveness and stability. No matter how powerful it is in military politics, it will eventually be assimilated by the mainstream culture of the Central Plains. Fifth, China's traditional culture, with a long history and vast volume, is "independently created, slowly formed, not subject to people" and "has its own characteristics and system" (Liang Shuming's "China Culture Essence"). Sixth, China's culture has a long and great influence on foreign countries, and has made great contributions to world culture.