What does China's traditional culture influence?

If we want to stand on our own feet and strengthen ourselves among the nations of the world, we must carry forward our own national culture.

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Cultural development is closely related to economic and political development. A life is not only a body, but also a spirit, which dominates the body. The same is true of a country, where economy is the foundation, but how can the economy develop healthily? This requires its culture to play a role. During the period of 100 years since modern times, western countries invaded the eastern countries with their strong material civilization, and the whole Asian region, except Japan, became a western colony and semi-colony. However, in the last century, especially after World War II, a national liberation movement was launched in the East, and these countries got rid of the colonial rule of the West one after another and achieved national independence. After political liberation, these countries sought economic autonomy and development. After the 1960s, some Asian countries also developed their economies and gained autonomy. After the 1980s, they began to revive. With the economic revitalization, these countries began to reflect on their cultural traditions. Prior to this, these Asian countries have been in a colonial and semi-colonial state, lacking confidence in their own cultural traditions, and all tend to deny their own cultural traditions. However, after the political and economic recovery, these countries began to have cultural awareness. This is normal, because the modern economy and politics developed under the background of western culture are very different from the original cultural traditions of these eastern countries. How to adjust and deal with these differences has become a big problem. It turns out that all these countries want to learn from the West and even get rid of their own traditions, but this is impossible, because tradition is always associated with modernity, which is a dialectical way of thinking.

Today, the western culture has a strong influence, but many of our traditional things are still deeply rooted. For example, the concept of "father and son paying debts" is unique and deeply rooted in China's traditional culture. If you don't agree, you will be pressured by public opinion, because this is the cultural atmosphere in China. Why does everyone agree with this in the whole social atmosphere after we have accepted so many western cultures? This stems from a basic cognition, that is, how life comes from.

On this issue, different cultures have different understandings. In western Christian cultural thought, life is an individual, and his body and soul are given by God, so every individual has a relationship with God. Although he was born to his parents, it is God's responsibility to his parents. He and his parents are also people of God, so his son and parents are brothers and sisters. God has given you the responsibility to raise the next generation, and you have the obligation to raise children. There is no absolute responsibility for everyone's life, but everyone is responsible for God. God is for everyone and everyone is God. A person's life is meaningful only if he contributes to God. Therefore, increase the honor of God when you are alive, and the soul can go to heaven after death; If you spend your life doing things that are detrimental to God's honor, your soul will go to hell after death. Therefore, the value of individuals in western culture is prominent, and there is no direct relationship between individuals. This is life under the background of western Christian culture.

Another outlook on life is represented by Indian culture. Indian culture also emphasizes that human life is individual, but it can be repeated many times, that is, there is reincarnation. This reincarnation is decided by God, just like Brahma. Later, after the rise of Buddhism, he criticized Brahma's view that human destiny was decided by Brahma, emphasizing that the decisive factor of individual life cycle was individual behavior, that is, the "karma" in Buddhist terminology, including body, mouth and heart. The body is the body, which can also be said to be action; The mouth is the mouth, representing words; Meaning is thought. Therefore, the birth of a life and the cycle of this life are determined by the three industries of body, mouth and heart. If your karma does not disappear, your life will go on forever. This outlook on life is also personal and has nothing to do with others, but your own "karma" has not disappeared, so it was born with the help of your parents and has no direct relationship with them.

In these two outlooks on life, life is an individual and has no direct relationship with other individuals, so the problems of other individuals should be solved by other individuals themselves and have nothing to do with the individual "I". However, China's cultural outlook on life is a racial outlook on life, and each individual is only a link in the chain of racial life. China people talk about the continuation of life, but it is not the continuation of individual life, but the continuation of racial life. When you die, your life is continued by your children. Therefore, there is a saying in China that "there are three unfilial acts, and no empress is the greatest", because "no empress" cannot prolong life. China people swear the most powerful sentence is "childlessness", after childlessness, your life is completely over. Therefore, in China, the relationship between children and their parents is that blood is thicker than water, and everything on you is left to you by your parents, so your life is your parents' legacy. In this concept of life, "father's debt and son's compensation" is logical.

Many traditional ideas are deeply rooted in our blood and can never be removed. So we can't completely abandon traditional culture, and we can't leave it intact. In fact, neither is possible. In this case, we should properly handle the relationship between culture and tradition. In the final analysis, the competition between countries and nations will be implemented in culture, not just in economy. Therefore, the inheritance and development of culture is a very important issue, because without culture, the characteristics of a nation will be gone and this nation will not exist. We often talk about patriotism. To be patriotic, we must identify with the history of this country, which is implemented in culture, because culture is the carrier of history, and identifying with history means identifying with this cultural tradition. Gong Zizhen studied the history of the Spring and Autumn Period and came to such a conclusion: "If you want to destroy a country, you must first destroy its history." To destroy a country, we must first destroy its history. People don't know their own history and culture. What feelings do they have for this country? In this regard, the recognition of historical and cultural traditions is not a general problem, but a fundamental issue related to the life and death of our country and nation, and it is also the spirit of a country and nation in culture.

In recent years, I have been talking about such a problem: to establish the subjective consciousness of culture. In today's world, cultural exchange is a very important driving force for cultural development. The same is true from the cultural development history of our own country. China culture is a cultural isomorphism formed by the exchange and absorption of various cultures. We know that there was a hundred schools of thought contending in the pre-Qin period, and this situation began to communicate and influence each other during the Warring States period. Through such exchanges, some schools of thought began to grow and some schools began to decline in the early Han Dynasty. Sima Tan, Sima Qian's father, introduced the thoughts of Confucianism, Taoism, Mohism, Ming, Fa and Yin and Yang in The Six Classics, and a hundred schools of thought became the Six Classics. After the cultural exchange and mutual absorption in the Han Dynasty, some of these six schools were eliminated, and finally Confucianism and Taoism were formed. What are the reasons why these two families can continue? By maintaining one's subjectivity. An idea cannot maintain its subjectivity, and it cannot develop itself. Later, in the Han Dynasty, Buddhism was introduced into China and began to join as a foreign culture, which had a great influence on Confucianism and Taoism at that time. Confucianism and Taoism also absorbed Buddhist ideas. By the Southern and Northern Dynasties, Buddhism had penetrated into all aspects of China culture, especially into some folk customs in China. Only when an idea is put into practice will its vitality be strong, otherwise it will only be some empty theories and understandings.

What we are talking about now is the great impact on the traditional culture of China, which can be divided into several stages according to the historical process of modern China. In the first stage, we think that China's original spiritual culture is still very meaningful and powerful, and China's weakness lies in material culture. Only by actively studying and developing material civilization can we catch up with the West. This is the idea of "middle school as the body and western learning as the use" during the Westernization Movement. However, the Westernization Movement ended in failure. After 30 years of Westernization Movement, a very powerful Beiyang Navy was established, but it was defeated in the Sino-Japanese War. So we began to consider the issue of institutional mechanisms and institutional civilization. If Confucian civilization fails, it must be criticized and changed, so it is necessary to carry out institutional reform. The west provides us with two examples. One is to take the constitutional monarchy road like Britain and the Netherlands, and put the king overhead, with real power in parliament. This is the Reform Movement of 1898 led by Kang Youwei. However, the reform movement of 1898 was unsuccessful. In the second stage, like the French Revolution, Sun Yat-sen completely overthrew the feudal dynasty and established the * * * * system. But the Revolution of 1911 was both successful and unsuccessful, because although the emperor dismounted, the old warlords were very powerful. So people began to think about the factors of spiritual civilization. The new culture movement is to transform spiritual civilization. At that time, Confucian culture was the first to bear the brunt, so it was fiercely criticized. But these actually remain at the social and political level, and have little influence on the traditional things in general secular life. Finally, the "Cultural Revolution" fundamentally eradicated cultural things in daily life, and many living customs disappeared. After the "Cultural Revolution", we also cut off our traditions in our basic family life, so many of us are not very clear about the basic concepts of family ethics, and some don't agree at all.

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Confucius said in the Analects of Confucius: "The father is the son, and the son is the father, which is straight in it." We should build a society ruled by law, where fathers protect their sons and sons protect their fathers. Is this still "straight into it"? This is illegal. Therefore, everything China people do should be reasonable and legal, which is acceptable in the minds of many of us, but unacceptable. They think that the law is ruthless. Is the law intolerant? In the early 1990s, I went to South Korea to learn about the influence of Confucian culture on Korean society. I found that in their laws, there are provisions on how to deal with the crime of harboring: if the harborer is not related to you, he will be sentenced to ten years according to his crime; But if the same thing happens between your immediate family members, you can reduce your sentence. This seems a bit absurd to us. But I looked at it carefully, and there is another one in the crime of injury. If people hurt each other and have no kinship, they will be sentenced to five years according to the severity of your injuries, but in lineal relatives, they will be sentenced to ten years. Looking at these two articles together, we can see the original intention of the law: attaching importance to family ties. We all know that Korean is deeply influenced by China's Confucianism, so I immediately thought of this sentence of Confucius after reading these two articles.

Our human feelings can be roughly classified into three categories: first, affection, second, friendship and third, love. The most unstable of these three "feelings" is love. Affection and friendship should be eternal, but love is changeable. Two people have love. When they are combined to a certain extent, this love is transformed into family affection. Family affection can't be as casual as love: good together, bad break up. You should consider each other's responsibilities, which is the requirement of the family, so you can't continue to fall in love. One of the most important ceremonies in China is the wedding. The ceremony began with the crown and marriage, and now the wedding can be said to have no rules. Everyone ate, drank and quarreled, and it ended by the way, leaving no profound meaning. Therefore, we must standardize the wedding, let two people receive an education through the wedding, and realize that the responsibility has changed, and both sides should be responsible for each other; Filial piety before marriage means filial piety to parents and filial piety to each other's parents after marriage. If you have children, you will be responsible for them in the future. Why should China worship the heavens and the earth and the temple in ancient weddings? Is to be grateful, so that you have this kind of grateful heart.

Our present people are relatively lacking in this respect, self-centered, and never thought that my survival, my growth and my achievements could not be separated from others. Can we live without heaven and earth? In China's idea, heaven and earth are the source of all things, so heaven and earth are the mother of all things. Xunzi has three handouts. The first is that "heaven and earth are the foundation of life". Heaven and earth are the foundation of all life, so thank them. Xunzi said that "ancestors are the foundation of establishing people". China people's concept of life is racial, and life is given by their parents and grandparents. So, why should we worship heaven and earth and our parents? In return, don't forget Ben. There should be the concept of gratitude in the most basic quality of people. Xunzi also said, "Jun and Shi are the foundation of governance." Monarchs used to refer to saints, meaning that saints and teachers are the basis for you to understand the truth of being a man. "Governance" means governing people and themselves. To govern others, you must first govern yourself, and to be upright, you must first correct yourself. Therefore, the traditional culture of China requires us not to forget our roots.

Young people say they want to realize their self-worth, and I agree with them with both hands. Each of us should realize our self-worth, but how? Being recognized by others is valuable. To gain recognition from others, you must make contributions to others. I sometimes joke that Confucianism tells us a secret to realize self-worth, but we say it is the chief culprit in denying self-worth. Because Confucianism tells us to join the group and do everything for the group, isn't this the best way, way and secret to realize self-worth? However, some people say that China people have no ego at all. How can they have no self? Serving parents in the first half and children in the second half means not serving yourself. We say it may be so now, but we serve our children and parents. This is the value concept of China people, and this is how life goes on. Your respect for your parents now is actually for your children to respect you and respect you in the future. So life continues from generation to generation, and so does karma. In fact, I think this is a very simple truth. Nowadays many people talk about filial piety. It seems that supporting warm parents is filial piety, but it is not such a simple thing. There are three books about filial piety in the Book of Rites. "Honor your loved ones" means that your parents are respected by society; Secondly, "don't insult", don't let parents be insulted by society; "Can be raised below", can be raised below.

Someone asked: China culture is so good, so is there much dross in China culture? Of course there is. For example, in China culture, it is said that if you want a minister to die, I have to die, and if the father wants a son to die, the son has to die. This is foolish, loyal and filial piety. In fact, Confucianism does not advocate this. There is a story in Mencius. Someone asked Mencius, if Cheng Tang killed Xia Jie and King Wu killed Zhou Wang, did he commit the following crimes and make a mess? Mencius said, "Killing a husband is unheard of, and killing a king is unheard of." Everyone hated him, everyone abandoned him, and he became a lonely man. How can this be said to be the following offense? Therefore, there is only one sentence in the Book of Changes called "Tang Wu Revolution". In Xunzi, it is more clear that "filial piety, filial piety and filial piety" refers to filial piety at home and respect for elders outside. This is just a "small line". So what is the "big line" of people? "People are also great if they follow the Tao instead of the monarch, righteousness instead of the father." In other words, filial piety and loyalty are principled, not advocating foolish loyalty and filial piety. If you are interested, you can read Xunzi Zidao.

It can be seen that many of our explanations of traditional culture are to make the past serve the present, so the initiative to choose traditional culture is still in our own hands, and it is also our responsibility to carry forward the excellent aspects of traditional culture. Sometimes there are some problems or some bad phenomena. Some people say that it is caused by our traditional culture, which is shirking responsibility. Today's affairs should be borne by ourselves, and the use of traditional culture is also our problem today, not the problem of culture itself.

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The content of China culture is interlinked, so we must master it now. In ancient times, people attached great importance to learning various skills. According to the Book of Rites, China entered primary school at the age of eight and university at the age of fifteen. One of the contents of learning after entering primary school is sweeping the floor, that is, cleaning and receiving guests. The second content is how to advance and retreat, and how to advance and retreat are all ceremonial things. There is a saying that "walk slowly and grow behind", which means that when an elder walks with you, you must let the elder walk in front, and you must follow slowly. The third content is to learn six arts, etiquette, music, shooting, royalty, calligraphy and numbers. This is mainly a ritual thing. Besides rites and music, archery and archery are archery and driving. Books are what we call calligraphy now, and numbers refer to skills, such as astronomy and geography. As can be seen from the Six Arts, literature and art can be said to be the expression of rites and music, and these things are self-cultivation. At last year's Beijing Olympic Games, South Korea lost the archery competition and didn't win the championship. They are very upset and think they deserve it. Because they have been learning archery since the fourth grade of primary school. Why is archery so valued? According to the Book of Rites, shooting is also a very important etiquette, and there is a hometown shooting ceremony. Township ceremony is a ceremony of community activities, and its most important spirit is to respect the old and love the young. If there is a 90-year-old man at the village ceremony, then the 80-year-old man can't sit until the 90-year-old man sits down. What spirit does the shooting ceremony embody? You must be upright. You must be upright first. Only when you stand up straight can you shoot. If you don't achieve your goal, you can't complain that the goal is set incorrectly. At this time, you must reflect on whether my heart is right or not. Shooting ceremony is to let us cultivate our body and mind and reflect on our own morality through shooting. These gifts are definitely not simple entertainment items, but through these gifts to cultivate their own behavior.

What did you study when you entered the university at the age of fifteen? Learn to be poor, learn to be honest, learn to cultivate one's morality, and learn these principles of being a man. So as far as the traditional education in China is concerned, we can see that it is all about how to be a man, that is, the purpose and purpose of traditional education in China is to teach people how to be a man, that is, how to be a man. We say that education is the foundation of a country and a strong country. What is the basis of education? Being a man is the foundation of education. Our present education stays in imparting knowledge and skills, losing the meaning of education, or the meaning of traditional education in China. We all know the saying that it is better to teach people to fish than to teach them to fish, so I say that learning is the key to education. The so-called learning method is to teach him how to discover, master and use knowledge, which is much more important and fundamental than teaching some ready-made knowledge.

Now the disciplines are so finely divided that they are completely isolated from each other, which makes our thoughts unable to connect with each other and integrate. As far as China tradition is concerned, if I teach you this, I will only do this and not that, then I will never teach you again. There is a saying in The Analects that "don't be angry, don't be angry, don't be unhappy", which means that students must have a strong demand for knowledge. If he doesn't have such a need, I won't inspire him; If he wants this, I can persuade him. Therefore, I didn't instill inspiration education in him, but he asked for it himself. Then there is a sentence below, "If you don't take a corner, turn it with three corners and it will be gone.". If you turn a corner, your knowledge is dead knowledge. Inference is living knowledge, so as to achieve mastery through a comprehensive study and learn from one to another. Knowledge is comprehensive. There is an ancient saying in China: Either a good doctor or a good doctor. Being a good person is the same as being a good doctor. Being a good person is to reconcile various contradictions and achieve social harmony. Therefore, China people compare the Prime Minister to a great chef, who can reconcile Ding Fu and make a pot of delicious soup with various flavors. This is harmony. That's what the prime minister does, that is, a senior chef. And a good doctor is also to reconcile your spleen and stomach, reconcile your internal organs to achieve balance, dredge arthralgia and relieve congestion. The reason is the same. There is a saying in Huangdi Neijing: "The diseases of the sages have not been cured, and the chaos has not been cured." This sentence is also the principle of treating diseases from the perspective of traditional Chinese medicine. Xunzi once said: "A gentleman can cure chaos." Don't care about the mess? No, the gentleman's rule of chaos is "to rule chaos by eliminating chaos", that is, to restore etiquette and establish a good etiquette order. Therefore, it is not chaos, chaos is only a temporary solution, and to grasp the root is to build a good social etiquette system.

China's knowledge is the same. If you can't draw inferences from others, you are an obedient child who can't be taught. Why can't we be hosts now? Because you can't extrapolate, say one is one, say two is two, and you can't achieve mastery. Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism in China culture are huge and complicated knowledge systems, but the road is always simple. If we can achieve mastery through a comprehensive study and grasp the fundamental spirit of the three religions, everything will be fine. It is the simplest concept of China people, because the way of heaven and earth is simple, and we can read this truth from the Book of Changes. "Yi" in the Book of Changes has three meanings: first, it is not easy, second, it is easy, and third, it is simple. Difficulty is a foundation, and the so-called difficulty means positioning, positioning of heaven and earth, positioning of rigidity and flexibility, that is, there are relative things. With relative things, there will be changes, and change is the core thing, because the development of things often leads to their own tired places. If they are exhausted and can't be flexible by themselves, that's it; If we can adjust and adapt, we can continue to develop. Therefore, there is a saying in Zhouyi that "poverty leads to change, change leads to communication, and general rules last for a long time". Change can also be said to be the fundamental law of everything, and if it remains unchanged, it will die. You can connect after the change, find a new road, and you can connect for a long time. Simplicity is the virtue of heaven and earth, and it is easiest to respect the true colors of things.

Therefore, the most fundamental thing for us to learn traditional culture is to grasp the fundamental spirit of traditional culture and not to be "frightened" by its complexity and profoundness. It won't be complicated if you go deeper. If you can grasp its essence, you can make ends meet.