Similarities and differences between western culture and China traditional culture

Differences between China's Traditional Culture and Western Culture

China traditional culture is farming culture, which is based on settled agriculture and consanguineous clan system. Its source can be traced back to the long Neolithic Age, and it is mainly composed of the indomitable dragon god derived from the vigorous, simple and vigorous agricultural magnolia in the north and the graceful, fantastic and gorgeous phoenix style derived from the south. The representatives of the two are the traditional Lu culture and Chu culture, as well as the later Confucianism and Taoism. China's traditional culture matured very early, probably in the early Zhou Dynasty. At that time, China culture was out of ignorance, no longer succumbed to the control of personality gods, and made a mature judgment on its environment, which is what we call the symbol of Zhouyi. The Shang dynasty before the Zhou dynasty was an extremely developed civilized society, and a large number of bronzes found today came from the Shang dynasty. Today, we can't explain its technological level. To be sure, people in Shang Dynasty probably still believed in ghosts and gods, while people in Zhou Dynasty knew that "saints taught with ghosts and gods". Clearly define "God" as "smart and upright, and die like a god." But it doesn't mean that the ancients in China didn't believe it. Although China people don't believe in ghosts and gods, they believe in anything like law, etiquette, patriarchal clan system and destiny. As long as the call, China people believe. The resulting nationalism is that no nation in the world hates its own traditions as much as we do. We always break our past and create the so-called new tradition without hesitation. Look around us, there are no buildings over 300 years old. Paradoxically, our culture firmly believes that our past is good, and we always try to go back to it.

The traditional sources of western culture are said to be: first, the spirit of seeking truth in ancient Greece; The second is the courtship spirit of ancient Hebrew. Ancient Hebrew and ancient Greece were nomadic, maritime and commercial societies. Facing the unstable social environment and trading objects, strict contractual spirit and rational autonomy are needed. This is quite different from the social rationality of our traditional culture in China, which is based on fixed clan members and acquaintances, that is, slaves are only tools of speech based on contracts.

I define culture as a way of life for people to adapt to the environment. There is no difference between advanced and backward culture, only the problem of adaptation and inadaptability. Today is an industrial society, and the main mode of production in society is socialized mass production, which requires standardization and specialization. Obviously, the traditional culture of China based on farming can't meet this requirement, which requires cultural transformation and even revolution.