What is Chinese Hehe culture?

He culture is the culture of harmony

He culture refers to the Han culture of harmony, a term coined by Zhang Liwen, a professor at Renmin University of China. "Harmony" is a very important concept in Chinese philosophy, which means "harmony" in today's language.

"Harmony" itself already includes the meaning of "unity," that is, the fusion of things that are harmonious to produce something new. To emphasize this point, Prof. Zhang added "合" after "和". He organized the national history and expounded this spirit in Chinese traditional culture, and his disciples followed him up and became the trend of the time, and there was the science of harmony. His study of harmony is a summary of Chinese philosophy, especially the Confucian spirit of "harmony".

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Formation and development

The Chinese culture of harmony has a long history, and the words "harmony" and "he" are found in the oracle bone inscriptions and gold inscriptions. The initial meaning of the word "he" is the harmony of sound; the original meaning of the word "he" is the merging of the upper and lower lips. At the time of the Yin and Zhou dynasties, the concepts of he and he were not yet used in conjunction with each other. In the I Ching, the Chinese character He is found in two cases, meaning harmony and goodness, while the character He is not found in any case. He in the Shangshu refers to the handling of many conflicts in society and interpersonal relations; and He refers to compatibility and conformity.

During the Spring and Autumn period, the two characters of He and He were used in conjunction and together to form the category of He and He. According to "The Language of the State" (《国语-郑语》), "Shang Qi was able to harmonize the five religions in order to protect the people." Wei Zhao notes, "The Five Teachings, Father's Righteousness, Mother's Mercy, Brother's Friendship, Brother's Respect, Son's Filial Piety." This means that Shang Qi was able to harmonize the five religions to protect the people.

The Guoyu - Zheng Yu (《国语-郑语》) also recounts Shi Bo's discussion on the harmony of the same: "If the harmony of the real creatures, the same will not be continued. ...... If the same to benefit the same, all is abandoned." It is believed that yin and yang and all things are born, exactly the same thing is not born. Visible and harmony contains the differences of different things, the unity of the diversity of contradictions, in order to biology, in order to develop.

Confucius, the founder of Confucianism, took harmony as the core of humanistic spirit. His disciple, Yuzi, said, "The use of rites, and harmony are precious." ("Analects - Xue而"), which represents Confucius's thought that harmony is the standard of value in the governance of the country and the system of etiquette. When dealing with relationships between people, Confucius emphasized, "A gentleman is in harmony but not in agreement; a villain is in agreement but not in harmony." (The Analects of Confucius - Zilu) recognizes differences and harmonizes different things to achieve unity and harmony through mutual help and complementarity. This is in contrast to the exclusive concept of "sameness without harmony," which abolishes the differences of different things.

Lao Zi, the founder of Taoism, put forward the idea that "all things are negative of yin and embrace yang, and they are in harmony with each other" (Lao Zi, Chapter 42), believing that the Tao contains two opposite aspects of yin and yang, and that all things contain yin and yang, which interact with each other to form a harmony. Harmony is the essence of everything in the universe and the basis for the survival of all things in heaven and earth.

The Guanzi summarizes and combines harmony, stating, "If the animal is raised on the Tao, then the people will be harmonious; if the animal is raised on virtue, then the people will be united. Harmony is the reason why we can practice." (Guanzi jiqi, eighth) that by raising morality, the people will be in harmony, and in harmony they will be able to harmonize, and in harmony they will be able to reunite, and in harmony they will be able to reunite, and they will not be harmed, and gives great importance to harmony.

Mozi believed that harmony was the fundamental principle in dealing with human and social relations, pointing out that the reason for the instability of the world was that fathers, sons, and brothers were feuding and had the heart of separation, and therefore "separation could not be harmonized with each other" (Volume 3 of the Mozi Interpretation).

The Yi Chuan (Book of Changes) puts forward the very important concept of taihe, which says, "To keep harmony and taihe is to be favorable to chastity" (Zhou Yi Jie Jie Jie, Volume 1). It emphasizes the value of harmony, and believes that by maintaining perfect harmony, all things can develop smoothly.

Thus, in the pre-Qin period, the culture of harmony was created and developed. In a nutshell, the so-called "harmony" refers to harmony, peace, and tranquility; and "harmony" refers to union, integration, and cooperation. Harmony and cooperation together means that under the premise of recognizing the contradictions and differences of "different" things, we can unify different things into an interdependent harmony, and in the process of harmonizing different things, we can draw on the strengths and weaknesses of each of them to achieve the best combination, which will promote the emergence of new things and push forward the development of things.

Under the guidance of this spirit of harmony, Chinese culture continues to innovate, and at the same time promotes the continuous development of Chinese society. From this, we can see that the culture of harmony does not deny the contradictions, differences and necessary struggles, it is itself a unity of contradictions, but only limits the contradictions, differences and struggles to the interdependent harmony, to prevent the excessive contradictions and struggles from destroying the basis of the existence of the different things **** the same, and to make the development of things stagnate.

This shows that the culture of harmony has two basic elements, one is to objectively recognize the differences, such as yin and yang, heaven and man, male and female, father and son, up and down, etc., different from each other; the second is to organically merge different things into one, such as yin and yang and unity, unity of heaven and man, the five religions and unity, the five elements and unity, and so on. Ancient Chinese philosophers made a lot of observations and explorations on the phenomenon of harmony that exists in heaven and earth, the natural world and human society, and thus put forward the concept of harmony, which summarizes the essence of the phenomenon of harmony and thus promotes the development of things and the emergence of new things.

In this process, the Chinese culture of harmony was created, spread and developed, and became a commonly recognized concept. Confucius' idea of "harmony and difference" reflects the essence of the culture of harmony, which is not limited to the relationship between people, including between countries, between people and society, between people and nature (heaven and man), can be summarized by the idea of "harmony and difference", or different and harmony. The relationship between the state and society, and between man and nature (heaven and man) can all be summarized by the phrase "and yet different", or "different yet harmonious.

Since the Qin and Han dynasties, the concept of harmony has been universally applied, and the development of Chinese culture has shown a tendency to merge, while retaining the distinctive characteristics and individuality of each school. Not only do the various schools of secular culture speak of harmony, but religious culture also speaks of harmony. Religious culture and secular Confucian culture also speak of harmony, integrating and absorbing each other while maintaining their own cultural characteristics, thus promoting the continuous development of Chinese culture. Since its inception, the idea of harmony, as a generalization of the nature of the universal cultural phenomenon, has always been present in the history of the development of Chinese culture in all ages and schools, and has become the quintessence of Chinese culture and the universally recognized humanistic spirit.

The significance of the times

Harmony culture is a unique idea of the Chinese nation, scientific understanding and correctly carry forward the Chinese culture of harmony, and strengthen the research and promotion of the idea of harmony is the need of social development, and has important practical significance.

1. In the way of thinking, it helps to correct the deviation of the previous "struggle philosophy". Harmony culture is not about contradiction, struggle and conflict, but recognizes contradiction, conflict and difference, and solves contradiction and conflict, so that many heterogeneous elements, different things in the unity of opposites, interdependence and harmony,

Seek common ground while reserving differences, the formation of the overall balance, harmony, cooperation, the struggle is limited to a certain range, and to draw on the high quality of the elements of the elements, to choose the best and eliminate the worst, and promote the emergence of new things, that is, from the old to the new, and the new to the old. The new thing is created, that is, the old harmony is developed into a new harmony, thus promoting the continuous development of things. This way of thinking, which replaces the mere "philosophy of struggle", is compatible with the trend and practice of the new era and has universal practical significance and value.

2. Internally, it is conducive to the promotion of long-term social stability and the stability and unity of the country. Socialist market economy is inevitably full of competition, there is competition, there are conflicts, there are successful and laggards, will bring differences, contradictions and a variety of social problems. If they are not properly resolved, stability and unity will be jeopardized. We see that with the development of the economy in competition, the whole society is gradually moving towards the integration of the economy and the market; competition is for development, is for prosperity,

But also need to harmonize the interests of the individual and the community, different interest groups, between different social strata, to *** seek development, the interests of all parties are integrated, but not to be biased. The whole society goes through the process from mutual conflict, to conflict resolution, resolve conflicts, and reasonably satisfy the interests and requirements of all parties, so that the market economy can be a healthy development.

3. It is conducive to the promotion of the two major currents of world peace and development, and provides a standard of value judgment against hegemony. Today, the international community has entered the post-cold war era, the military competition has become economic competition; nationalism, national disputes increase, in the face of these differences and contradictions, Huntington put forward the so-called "clash of civilizations theory", that the main line of the future international political struggle, the clash of civilizations will be replaced by ideological and economic conflicts, emphasizing that Western civilization should guard against the union of two major civilizations, Confucianism and Islam.

This theory is actually a replica of the "Western cultural centrism" and "Western cultural superiority theory" in the new situation, aiming to exclude other civilizations by Western civilization, to erase the exchanges, absorptions and integration of various cultures, and to polarize the differences between civilizations. The aim is to use Western civilization to exclude other civilizations, to erase the exchange, absorption and integration of various cultures, to polarize civilizational differences, and to try to regulate today's society and the direction of its future development by taking Western culture and values as the standard. This is extremely incongruous with the development of cultural pluralism in the world, and is therefore opposed by many countries and peoples. As a matter of fact, there are more than 200 countries in the world with thousands of nationalities and different civilizations and cultures.

There cannot be only one model or one demand. The international community should be pluralistic yet complementary, i.e., conflicting yet communicating. Conflicts and contradictions between countries are unavoidable, but instead of resorting to force, conflicts should be resolved in a peaceful manner and the cold war mentality should be abandoned. In this regard, the Chinese culture of peace and harmony can provide guidance on the ideology and theory of conflict resolution, peaceful ****treatment, non-interference and ****same development, and the value standard of opposing hegemony, so that human civilizations and cultures can draw on each other's strengths in meeting the challenges of the new era, integrate and synthesize the best of each other's strengths and make comprehensive innovations, and ****together we can create the future of humanity's culture in the twenty-first century.

4. It is conducive to the promotion of the strategic concept of "peaceful reunification, one country, two systems" and the realization of the unity of the Chinese nation and overseas Chinese. The great strategic concept of "peaceful reunification and one country, two systems" put forward by Comrade Deng Xiaoping has guided us to the successful resolution of the Hong Kong issue and the completion of the return of Hong Kong. The complete reunification of China is not far away.

"One country, two systems" is a great idea that Comrade Deng Xiaoping creatively put forward on the basis of the theories of Marxism and Mao Zedong Thought and in the light of the development of the situation in the new era, which is also in line with the idea of "harmony and differences" of the Chinese culture of harmony. There is also a certain element of compatibility with the idea of "harmony and difference" of the Chinese culture of harmony. "One country" can be interpreted as "harmony" and "two systems" as "differences".

Not only do we recognize the differences in social systems and lifestyles, but we also use "harmony" to unify them, to reconcile differences without erasing individuality. In a certain sense, "one country, two systems" and "harmony and difference" are in communication with each other. Therefore, it can be said that the concept of "one country, two systems", which is in line with the Chinese culture of harmony, has both distinctive characteristics of the times and a profound historical and cultural foundation.

Publicizing and demonstrating the relationship between the Chinese culture of harmony, the idea of "harmony and difference" and the concept of "one country, two systems" will easily win the recognition of compatriots in Hong Kong, Macao, Taiwan and overseas Chinese, and realize the unity of the Chinese nation and overseas Chinese.

References:

Harmony Culture (Han Harmony Culture)