China has a long history of culture. What is the logic behind it?

Up to now, Oracle Bone Inscriptions, the Shang Dynasty we dug out of the soil, is still in use. Assyrian cuneiform has long since disappeared and become an imaginary historical heritage.

Compared with the rise and fall of western civilization, why did China civilization show dynasty change, rise and fall change, decline and prosperity, and even last for thousands of years? Of course, there are various reasons. To talk about the logic behind it, I just want to anchor one point:

In our China culture, there are always genes that seek innovation and change in the conflict between the old and the new.

0 1 There must be a reason why a nation can last for thousands of years without interruption. In some periods or events in China, the seemingly stagnant and rigid old culture can actually reorganize and establish ideals, adapt to the situation, make amazing changes and get out of the predicament.

The so-called "Zhou is an old country, but his life is new" in The Book of Songs, Daya Wang Wen, means that there are always genes of innovation and change in our culture.

Patricia Buckley Ebrey, a famous American historian, once pointed out: For China intellectuals, China's historical civilization has always been a resource, not a shackle. In each generation, the people of China have used their inherited heritage-material, spiritual and institutional-to set goals, meet the challenges of the times, defend themselves and enhance their strength. Because the behavior of one generation will have an impact on the heritage inherited by the next generation, and it will change, which is linked with the past history.

From a macro perspective, every conflict between the old and the new in the history of China has made progress in terms of material, culture and system.

For example, the replacement and establishment of each dynasty will have an extremely prosperous occasion in the early days: the rule of Wenjing in the Han Dynasty, the rule of Kaihuang in the Sui Dynasty, the rule of Zhenguan in the Tang Dynasty and the rule of Kaiyuan afterwards, the rule of Xianping in the Song Dynasty, the rule of Yongxuan in the Ming Dynasty and the rule of Kanggan in the Qing Dynasty, and so on.

This is the most powerful response to China's theory of "taking history as a mirror". As for the abandonment of the old, new excavation and progress of each dynasty, they are not the focus of this article, so I will not repeat them here.

For the new and the old, we have always been separated, every dynasty change, cultural innovation, and so on.

It's just that the historical process of China is sometimes as quiet as the growth of plants, and it only attracts attention when the flowers are colorful. However, the internal process is actually non-stop.

For example, the "ancient prose movement" and the "May 4th" new literature movement in the Tang and Song Dynasties were the two largest literary reform movements in the history of China literature, both of which aimed at cutting off the traditional cultural forms in the past.

However, these two literary movements were not purely literary phenomena, but were closely related to the great social transformation and cultural changes at that time.

Murals of An Shi Rebellion

The political and ideological background of the ancient prose movement in the Tang Dynasty is the social, political, ideological and cultural crisis in the Tang Dynasty caused by the "An Shi Rebellion", and the strong sense of hardship and reform aroused by it, aiming at rectifying Wang Gang and guiding the rise of enlightenment Confucianism.

Comparatively speaking, the ruling crisis faced by the Northern Song Dynasty was more serious, and the reform consciousness of the ideological circle was stronger than that of the Tang Dynasty. Thus, Confucianism really revived in the Song Dynasty. Of course, Confucianism in the Song Dynasty was born on the basis of Han Yu's theory of "orthodoxy" and Li Ao's theory of "renaturation", and the ancient prose movement in the Northern Song Dynasty was born under this background.

From this point of view, the ancient prose movement in Tang and Song Dynasties is a self-adjustment and renewal phenomenon in the fields of thought, scholarship and literature when the dynasty is in crisis and the ruling class wants to establish a new social order-this is the great historical and cultural background of the ancient prose movement in Tang and Song Dynasties.

It can be seen that the ancient prose movement is an internal adjustment of China's civilization and literature. But who can say that the May 4th New Literature Movement is not another adjustment and renewal within Chinese civilization?

We should see that the intellectuals who have been baptized by the May 4th Movement have been trying to break away from the traditional ideas, which can promote this movement, but they are all intellectuals who have been deeply influenced by and grown up from the traditional culture of China.

Athletes of the "New Culture Movement" such as Hu Shi, Chen Duxiu, Fu Sinian, Liu Bannong and Lu Xun are all the same. These cultural celebrities are all scholarly families, or from gentry families, or from the descendants of Qing bureaucrats. They have been reading "Four Books and Five Classics" since childhood.

Moreover, one of the driving forces of social change in the "New Culture Movement" is still the traditional culture represented by Confucianism. The power of this traditional culture once influenced almost the whole history and lifestyle of China, but it also gave birth to a generation of literati to overthrow it.

The extraordinary struggle of intellectuals in China during the May 4th Movement was also a new effort of a new generation to meet the challenges of the times. No matter how determined and fierce their denial of traditional culture is, they even put forward the idea of "total westernization", but this criticism is always based on tradition and is systematically carried out within Chinese civilization.

Its real function is mainly to absorb new culture by combing new ideals, so that the nation can adapt to new changes as soon as possible, or it is a new attempt of the ancient self-improvement spirit of the Chinese nation.

Compared with western intellectuals, they pay more attention to individual rights. For thousands of years, China intellectuals have always regarded themselves as moral models and even guides. They often take the lead in doing what they insist on, so they don't care about personal gains and losses, even if they go to jail and behead them.

The intervention of modern intellectuals in China on national, ethnic and social issues continues this tradition as always.

For example, Wen Yiduo was assassinated this afternoon after making a powerful "final speech" in the face of the spy's pistol and unyielding shouting the oath of "stepping out of the door with your front foot and never stepping in the door with your back foot".

They sing for the progress and prosperity of the country and the nation, and stand up and laugh for death. Such dedication can certainly become a new resource in our national cultural tradition.

In fact, after colliding with western civilization for more than a hundred years, the ideal of seeking change and innovation has begun to blend into the blood of our ancient nation through the efforts of a generation of advanced intellectuals, leading today's social life.

On the macro time axis, new and old, tradition and modernity are actually a whole. The separation of new and old, and the development of modernity and tradition will form new traditional cultural resources and become a legacy for the next generation.

In modern times, a group of intellectuals struggled against the old culture and established a new one. In our generation, they seem to wave to tradition with an open and accepting attitude towards traditional culture. And our inheritance of the results of the conflict between old and new cultures that can reflect real life will not become a new traditional cultural nutrient to nourish the next generation?

On the whole, the history of China is still straight forward. Although there are obstacles and difficulties, it can destroy everything. Why?

Yuan Shikai

For example, in the early years of the Republic of China, Yuan Shikai was wily and in power, and no one dared to do anything about him, but once he wanted to be emperor again, he was like a paper tiger. National progress and social change are the general trend, and no one can stop them.

Therefore, Tang Degang, the author and famous historian of Yuan Dangguo, said emotionally:

"Our generation of writers, everyone thinks that my national culture is just a big sauce jar, dirty and polluted, and nothing is desirable. Goer, then we are the martyrs of Qian Qian listed above. How can we explain it? It is precisely because our nation also has many sages and martyrs like Huang Xing that we can resist those scum, cultural scum, stupid husbands, party officials, local tyrants and evil gentry, and make our national culture last for 5,000 years without extinction. Speaking of which, every morning when I dream back at midnight, I try to trace back to that old history. I feel so moved that sometimes I can't stop crying and control myself. "

For China, an ancient nation, any conflict between old and new, tradition and modernity is just a new challenge.

The experience of dealing with similar incidents for thousands of years, even in the face of unprecedented new situations, is only a little complicated for Chinese civilization.

The conflict between the old and the new is not only the national character of China, but also the way of thinking and behavior of each of us. This is why generations of China intellectuals who love their long-standing culture so much and have traditional ideal personality are struggling, but they have been marching firmly in the ranks of promoting the national wheel. The civilization of this ancient nation will never lose its vitality.

Written at the end: Why China's civilization can last for thousands of years is a very old-fashioned topic. I have also read many related books and articles, but the overall feeling is mostly macro, not specific, and it is inevitable that there is a feeling of being unreasonable. This article is a brick. Although the angle of the article is small, I hope I can anchor it and talk about it.