The Development of Traditional Chinese Culture

China has a long history and is an ancient civilization in the world. In its long history of five thousand years, it has created a long history, brilliant and profound traditional Chinese culture, which has a strong vitality and still shines in China and the world. What is traditional Chinese culture? As a Chinese, we should have a more comprehensive understanding of its development, characteristics and influence. It is important to understand the richness of Chinese culture for us to have a deep understanding of our nation itself, to inherit the essence of traditional culture and to innovate Chinese culture, so that Chinese culture will always be full of vitality and vigor. In this paper, we will make a brief discussion on the development of traditional Chinese culture and its laws, and the qualities and basic spirit of traditional Chinese culture.

First, the development of traditional Chinese culture and the law

Traditional Chinese culture refers to the historical culture that was created in the past, has influenced the present, and will remain in the future, and it is the culture that has been deposited in people's general mentality, and is embedded in people's ideological concepts, ways of thinking, and values, and has become the same as that of the Chinese nation*** with a stable quality. From its conception to the strong and powerful, is a long and tortuous development process, is the course of material culture, spiritual culture is increasingly rich.

The essence of culture is "humanization" or "humanization". Therefore, since the emergence of human beings, there is the source of the beginning of culture. The earliest culture was the primitive material culture, i.e., the making of tools, which marked the origin of culture. With the development of history and material culture, primitive culture began to appear, mainly in nature worship, ancestor worship and totem worship three aspects of these primitive culture, some aspects are still puzzling. These primitive cultures, some aspects of which are still puzzling today, have developed from the god-based culture of the Yin and Shang dynasties to the patriarchal system of the Zhou Dynasty, the feudal system, and the ritual system with the main contents of "kissing" and "honoring", which has a strong ethical spirit and has made the Chinese culture take on strong ethical colors since then, and has also become a major feature of the Chinese culture, as well as a part of the orthodox Chinese culture. At the same time, it is also the true origin of Chinese orthodox culture. Whenever the country is in chaos, the culture, on the contrary, shows the prosperous development of "a hundred flowers blossoming". The Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, the "axis era" of Chinese cultural development, is a typical example. The Spring and Autumn and Warring States Period was a period of great turmoil in which "the rites and music were in ruins". With the interweaving of the conflicts of the feudal lords and wars, the rise of new classes, and the emergence of private scholars, which provided a good opportunity for the reorganization, re-creation, and development of culture, the era of the "benevolence" as the core of Confucianism, Confucianism, Confucianism, and Confucianism as the core of the "benevolence". In this era, Confucianism, with "benevolence" as its core, Taoism, with respect for "the way of heaven" and "nature", Legalism, with the strengthening of laws and regulations, and Legalism, with "love" and "non-attack", were the most important cultural principles in the world. "The representatives of these schools were all masters of their generation and each of them developed their own ideas, presenting the most spectacular situation in the history of Chinese culture. In this era, Chinese culture covers a wide range of fields, the discussion of the wonderful, profound spirit, still make us have a kind of "up to the high" feeling; this era, Chinese culture can be said to be magnificent, overriding the hundred generations, deserves to be the "axis" of Chinese culture, is to make the final formation of the Chinese nation of the driving force.

The Spring and Autumn and Warring States is a time of cultural excitement, but the stability of the country is not conducive to the Qin system to sweep away the six, and swallowed the eight wastelands, the unification of the whole world, into the ancestor of the emperor, and strive to rule, and to get rid of the old and set up a new one, "the book of the same text", "the same track", "the same book", "the same system", "the same line", "the same territory" in one fell swoop, its political majesty, so that its culture also exudes the spirit of the magnificent. But the ideology is the implementation of autocracy, "burning books and burying scholars", Chinese culture suffered the first catastrophe, Qin turn two will die, the Han dynasty empire gradually strong, political unity, prompted by ideological unity, the Spring and Autumn and Warring States period of the state of the thinking of the release of the state by the "Confucianism alone! Confucianism was replaced by "Confucianism alone" and became the mainstream culture, and the culture also realized "great unification". Since then, Confucianism has been the first culture of feudal society in China, ruling the thoughts of the Chinese people for nearly 2,000 years, with far-reaching influence. Feudal society can be said to be "divided for a long time will be united, united for a long time will be divided", the wheel of history instantly traveled to the Wei, Jin and North-South Dynasties, through the three kingdoms, Western Jin Dynasty, the short-lived, the northern sixteen countries and the southern regime of the rapid turnover, frequent wars, social unrest, can be described as another chaotic times. During this period, the cultural unity was broken, and the culture moved towards a diversified pattern. During this period, metaphysics, developed from Taoist philosophy, became an important school in the Wei and Jin eras, and had a great influence on the creation of calligraphy and painting and the spiritual world of Chinese intellectuals in later generations. At the same time, China's localized religion, Taoism, was born, developed and expanded during this period, while another exotic religion, Buddhism, also entered the Chinese cultural system at this time, resulting in the formation of two schools (Confucianism, Xuanxue), two religions (Taoism, Buddhism) collide with each other, and mutual fusion of the era of cultural pluralism, so that the Chinese culture presents diversity and richness, so that the body of the Chinese culture continues to be strong and healthy, and so that the broadness of Chinese culture is constantly broad and eclectic. It has made the body of Chinese culture constantly strong and the broad-mindedness of Chinese culture constantly broad and inclusive.

This kind of magnanimity was manifested in the mighty Tang Dynasty. The Tang Dynasty was the heyday of China's feudal society, and it was a great power in all aspects of politics, economy and culture. Only its culture had a bright, high-spirited, energetic and tolerant temperament, and it dared to be innovative and bold in attracting and accommodating foreign cultures. There were great developments in literature, calligraphy, music, art, calendars and other aspects, and it was the era of the synthesis of various cultures. It is worth mentioning in particular that the Tang Dynasty was unprecedentedly active in the creation of poetry, poets, a large group of talented poets, so that the Tang poems are as many as the stars, the art of poetry has made brilliant achievements, "no one before, no one after" realm, can be said to be unique in the ancient and modern times, so the poetry of the Tang Dynasty is the poetry of the Tang Dynasty. In addition, the Tang Dynasty was also the golden age of calligraphy and the heyday of painting. It can be said that the Tang Dynasty was a heyday of China's cultural development, in all aspects of the brilliant achievements, in terms of its cultural temperament, but also to the future generations to admire.

In contrast to the Tang Dynasty's bold, wide-open culture, Song culture was known for its inward leaning, refinement and elegance. This is because the Song Dynasty was in a long period of internal and external problems, the national power of the weak political and economic structure changes. The culture of this era, whether in philosophy, literature, art or social customs are infused with the characteristic style of Song culture. Philosophy, especially with Zhu Xi as the representative of the rationalists will be the development of science into China's late feudal society, the most sophisticated, complete theoretical system. This had a great influence on the later generations of society and people's thinking. On the one hand, Rixi emphasized the ideal personality through moral consciousness, advocated the sense of merit of "cultivating one's own body, ruling the country, and leveling the world", and focused on the cultural character of temperance and virtue, social responsibility and historical mission. On the one hand, it also emphasized the constraints on the development of human thought and personality, which later became the theoretical basis of feudal authoritarian culture. The refined cultural style of the Song Dynasty was also reflected in the literature of Song lyrics, Song paintings and the literati's lifestyle. For example, most of the Song lyrics were euphemistic and feminine; Song paintings integrated poetry and calligraphy into paintings, showing a gentle and quiet painting style. Because of the Song dynasty city economy is more lively, and the Song upper class quiet culture contrary to another culture also quietly born at this time, which is born in the city of tile house hooks and bars of the public culture, this culture wild, vivid, is the Song cultural system of a fresh and chic force, for the birth of the Yuan dynasty song laid a solid foundation. As Chinese culture had become mature and sophisticated in the Song Dynasty, ancient Chinese science and technology also reached an unprecedented peak during this period.

At the same time, in the neighboring area of Song Dynasty, Liao, Xia, Jin, and Yuan had been eyeing the Central Plains for a long time, often harassing Song, and culturally, it was manifested in the conflict and collision between nomadic culture and Central Plains' agrarian culture, which resulted in a double cultural effect. First, the Song culture of anxiety permeate all aspects of its culture, the second is the nomadic people from the Song culture has drawn a rich nutrition, at the same time, the nomadic culture into the Song culture, the two carry on the deep mingling. To be the Mongols into the Han, the achievement of the empire, the strong assimilation of the culture of the Central Plains so that the Yuan had to use science to rule, so science has become the dominant culture. In this era, due to the long-term cessation of the imperial examination system, most of the literati were forced to fall into the lower class, so they drew on the strengths of the civic culture developed in the Song Dynasty, and produced a new literary genre, which is the Yuan miscellaneous operas. At the same time, because the Yuan Empire is the largest territory in the history of China's dynasty, so the contact with neighboring countries and ethnic groups increased, so its cultural exchanges are becoming more and more frequent, foreign cultures continue to enter the Chinese culture, the Chinese culture has also been introduced to foreign countries, which can be said to be the world and the first big blend of Chinese culture.

The Ming and Qing Dynasties were a transitional period in which Chinese culture flourished and declined, and a period of transition from traditional Chinese culture to modern culture. During this period, China was at the peak of feudal despotism, which was reflected in the unprecedented cultural despotism and the dominance of science. Ming and Qing dynasties "word prison" prevailed, Chinese culture suffered another catastrophe, the literati do not dare to have a new creation, only the study of ancient things, compilation of classical culture, proof and proofreading, so this period, many cultural books and documents to bring together the results of many which has a positive role in preserving China's classical culture. At the same time, due to the budding of capitalism in the Ming Dynasty, the early enlightenment ideological trends have also risen, a few scholars with ideas and rebellious spirit of the feudal authentic culture and ideology of the brave war, in literature, also formed a breath of fresh air.

The above is an overview of the development of Chinese culture. From the course of its development, we can summarize several laws of Chinese cultural development: First, the development of culture is always constrained by the political and economic development of society, while the development of culture also has a counterproductive effect on the development of productive forces, with a strong guiding force, and the development of Chinese culture is no exception. Secondly, the development of a cultural life is generally characterized by a process of emergence, development, growth and decline. If it does not adapt to the new historical conditions, it will disappear if it does not think of change, advancement and innovation. Chinese culture has been able to adapt to the needs of social development and make innovations. Although traditional Chinese culture has been transformed into modern culture, its influence on modern culture still exists and still plays an important role in the development of the Chinese nation and country. Thirdly, Chinese culture has taken different forms at different times, as reflected in literature, art, philosophy, etc. There are different forms of expression in each period, but there is always the spirit of continuity running through it, which has enabled Chinese culture to continue for thousands of years. Fourth, Chinese culture has a strong assimilative force, inclusiveness and stability, whether it is a foreign culture, or the culture of foreign peoples, no matter how strong their military and political performance, but ultimately will be assimilated by the mainstream culture of the Central Plains. Fifth, the long and vast Chinese traditional culture is "created alone, slowly formed, not from others", is "self-characterized, self-contained system" (Liang Shuming, "Essentials of Chinese Culture"). Sixth, Chinese culture has a long and great influence on foreign countries, and has made a great contribution to world culture.