Humanistic Tradition of China Culture

It seems less controversial that China's cultural tradition has outstanding humanistic characteristics and embodies a unique humanistic spirit. Some scholars even think that China culture can be defined as a humanistic culture, or a kind of "inner transcendence" culture, which is different from those cultures with strong religious color or "outer transcendence" in the West, India and the Arab world. Perhaps we can understand the above-mentioned attempt to determine the traditional characteristics and nature of China culture from the following two meanings: on the one hand, it means that China culture got rid of primitive myths and witchcraft a long time ago, or it is quite rational and mature as Liang Shuming said; On the other hand, it also means that China has not entered a transcendental religion and a society dominated by the supreme personality god, like the West and the Arab world. China's traditional culture has no obvious characteristics of religious transcendence, but always limits its thinking to the human world, paying special attention to the relationship between people and the exquisite cultural achievements that people can achieve in this world, while paying little attention to the vertical relationship between man and God and the relationship between man and the natural world that has been expanded and conquered. Therefore, not only the systematic theological doctrine is relatively lacking, but also the systematic natural science is underdeveloped.

In ancient times, the word "humanity" was not used much, but the words "people" and "literature" were used a lot. We should pay special attention to the word "Wen". Compared with businessmen, Zhou people paid more attention to "literature", while Confucius paid more attention to cultivating "scholars", which changed the "culture" of the "scholars" class again. The study of Confucianism is also the study of humanities, and the teaching of Confucianism is also the teaching of humanities. It has long been divorced from religion, rational, people-oriented, attaches importance to history and literature, and has a strong sense of humanism and humanitarianism. In the shadow of humanities, as mentioned above, not only theology and natural sciences are underdeveloped, but even social sciences are wrapped in humanities, and there is no independent and rapid development.

We can grasp the concept of "humanity" from China's traditional knowledge. Traditional knowledge in China is often called "Classics, History, Zi and Ji": "Classics" includes the Five Classics (Poetry, Calligraphy, Rites, the Book of Changes, Spring and Autumn), the Six Classics (adding music, but the Music Classics does not exist), the Seven Classics (adding the Analects of Confucius and the Filial Piety Classics) and the Nine Classics (saying that there are three rites in the Five Classics and three biographies in the Spring and Autumn). History is history, and its trunk is official history; Zi is mainly the pre-Qin philosophers; Collection is the collection of various schools, mainly literature. These four aspects are open, and the main point can be said to be literature, history and philosophy. An ancient scholar should dabble in these four aspects. The study in ancient China was mainly a kind of humanistic study.

The traditional content of China culture is really centered on the basic disciplines of humanities-literature, history, philosophy and art: the richest and longest written history books in the world are preserved, from the official history more than 3,000 years ago to various local chronicles and even genealogy; It has a very elegant and exquisite literary treasure, especially in poetry; There are also profound and insightful philosophical thinking, as well as artistic masterpieces such as calligraphy and painting. Even the temperament and character of the Chinese nation have been "humanistic" to a considerable extent. Before the world entered the modern society, it was a country with the highest proportion of Chinese people, and the main political positions were occupied by scholars. The books read by these literati are mainly humanistic classics, and there is also widespread envy and respect for literati and the culture they represent in society.

However, this does not mean that China culture has been like this since the beginning of civilization. The most important historical change in shaping this character of the Chinese nation took place in the Zhou Dynasty and lasted until the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period. It seems that the Shang Dynasty before the Zhou Dynasty was still a period of worshipping heaven, ghosts and gods, witchcraft, vitality and culture. The words "teaching" and "learning" have been used in the existing Oracle Bone Inscriptions of Yin Shang, but the nobles of Yin Shang generally only practiced martial arts and music, paid attention to the enjoyment of life, and even rarely went to extremes in moderation. For example, they often seem to get drunk in the dark. In Shang Zhouwang, it is not only the "wine pool meat forest" of the royal family, but also the alcoholism everywhere below, so that in the Western Zhou Dynasty.

In the Western Zhou Dynasty, the rulers began to establish a patriarchal hierarchy with a strong color of "kissing" and a civilized ceremony and music, and it became more and more "gentle". For example, the habit of writing poems, watching music, having words and saying words, which is quite popular in aristocratic communication, is increasingly bound by "etiquette". The gains and losses of this change are self-evident. At this time, the culture of the upper nobility is mainly manifested as "poetry, calligraphy, ceremony and music", and "ceremony" can be said to be a general term and a generalization. "Li" is actually a hierarchical way of life and behavior. From the practitioner's point of view, it is exclusive to the nobility, that is, the so-called "courtesy should not exceed Shu Ren". Hierarchy is everywhere. Before the world entered the modern society, hierarchy was a common institutional form. The unique feature of China ancient hierarchical etiquette system is that its ideal form contains a kind of exquisite, elegant and delicate meaning, that is, the "ceremony" under what Confucius called "gentleness". The aristocratic families in the early Spring and Autumn Period showed this implication to some extent. Although the aristocratic culture in the Spring and Autumn Period, at least before Confucius, was mainly manifested not in the creation of classics and works of art, but in their words and deeds, especially in poetry, music appreciation and various ceremonial activities. Everything they say, everything they do, gestures, advances and retreats, and sings satire, just like a work of art, which is the art of a noble who has not yet weakened and fallen. [I] Of course, what impressed me the most was some excellent personalities and virtues that eventually condensed out of that life. Generally speaking, traditional society is a society that attaches great importance to quality rather than weight. It is a society that mainly pursues the Excellence and Excellence of people rather than the broad equality of people. Morally, it is a society that respects personality and virtue more than principles and norms. [