The Origins of Chinese and Western Culture

From the perspective of the origin of Chinese and Western culture, Western culture has three major sources, namely, the ancient Greek civilization represented by Socrates and Aristotle, which developed into the later scientific tradition; the ancient Hebrew civilization and Judaism from the fear of God, which triggered the idea of the original sin of the religion; the civilization of the rule of law in Ancient Rome, which laid the foundation of the modern concept of the rule of law. And finally, these three major civilizations are summed up in Christianity, and in the form of religious beliefs in the West to construct a huge cultural system. Chinese culture developed in the Huaxia civilization, which mainly originated from the Central Plains of the Yellow River Basin, as well as from other civilizations, such as the Yangtze River civilization, the Red Mountain civilization in the Liaohe River Basin, and so on, and these civilizations were fused together for thousands of years, eventually producing the Chinese civilization; and the Chinese civilization and the nomadic civilization of the north in the following thousands of years, friction and fusion, and the nomadic civilization will ultimately be absorbed and assimilated into the stable Chinese civilization. The nomadic civilization would eventually be absorbed and assimilated by the stable Chinese civilization. Although the origins of Chinese and Western civilizations are different, they have developed into the Chinese and Western cultures of today through continuous integration, change and improvement.

From the point of view of the development of Chinese and Western cultures, the development of Western culture is much simpler and more direct than that of Eastern culture, and the content of Western culture has changed from philosophy to theology and finally to science. Western theology is not the same as Eastern theology, Eastern theology is built on profound scriptures, while Western theology does not have a very deep thought, it is just to worship the good God to purify the mind, there is no Oriental theology of the kind of strong spiritual concepts on the guidance. So the Western theology does not affect the government's management idea, this problem in the East is completely different, especially in China, the scripture and science thought is the foundation of the government's management idea, mixed with the theological thought will also penetrate into the government's management idea, and finally became the Chinese government management of the people's a tool.

The difference between the emotional and rational tendencies of Chinese and Western cultures is interesting. The emotional tendency of Western culture has led to the development of entertainment and competition, which are the external domains of modern Western culture; and the rational tendency of Western culture has led to the innovation of natural knowledge and science and technology, which are the internal domains of modern culture. Chinese culture is not as developed as the West in terms of both sensibility and rationality, and lacks sensual impulses and rational pursuits, thus resulting in the stunted development of traditional sports and sciences. A culture that lacks sensual impulses can hardly have breakthroughs and development of cultural rationality. In terms of emotional life, Chinese culture has the concepts of being contented, being able to tolerate and be at peace with oneself, not being first and not being ashamed of being second. In terms of rational life, Chinese culture has a spirit of unity of knowledge and action, and of practical application. This tradition of thinking, which focuses only on the practical experience of the past and ignores the development and change of the future, helps to prevent our nation from falling into various spiritual misunderstandings, but at the same time restricts the free space of our intellectual imagination and our enthusiasm for exploring the unknown world.