Chinese traditional thinking characteristics How to abandon in the creation of science and technology

China, Babylon, Egypt and India are known as the world's four major ancient civilizations, of which Chinese culture has the longest history, which is closely related to the special background of the formation of Chinese culture. Chinese culture from the origin to today, after a long time of evolution, there are always and change, there is a conflict and reconciliation, there is absorption and dissemination, but it is always not dead ancient culture, so the continuous development of the culture itself must have its stability and suitable for the survival of the structural conditions, which can not be separated from the environment and the human factor.

The Chinese did not accept Buddhism in its Indian form. The fact that, after the introduction of Buddhism into China, the Chinese translated the Buddhist classics entirely into their own language, or that Chinese scholars often deliberately rewrote and commented on the interpretation of the original texts; the fact that, as a whole, the Chinese have never embraced any single doctrine - these facts point to the tendency of the Chinese to think in certain specific ways. This essay attempts to summarize the characteristics of Chinese culture and, further, to understand the traditional and consistent Chinese way of thinking by discussing the ways in which the Chinese have modified forms of Indian Buddhist thought.

(1) Classical Conservatism

In the Chinese way of thinking, there is a tendency of static understanding of things and phenomena, which can be seen in certain expressions of the Chinese language. This kind of static thinking, when it emphasizes the individuality of the subject and concrete perception, creates a kind of attachment to past experience and a tendency to establish a set of baseline laws from past practices and cyclical facts, resulting in a tendency to use precedent as a prerequisite model. In other words, the fruits of ancient experience evoke a sense of certainty in the Chinese psyche. As a result, the Chinese do not emphasize abstract principles, but rather a wealth of historical allusions and idioms, and most of them even consider it more valuable to imitate the writings of their forefathers than to try to invent new styles on their own. Chinese Buddhists were no exception; for example, Xuanzang wrote, "I follow the ancient, therefore I do not translate the new." This traditional tendency to think is even more pronounced in Zen Buddhism.

Chinese thought and life have always been tested in relation to the classics, because Chinese life is strongly conditioned by the classics. Since ancient times, China has identified those canonical texts that set the norms of life, which are known as the "Five Classics": the Yi, the Shu, the Poetry, the Rites, and the Spring and Autumn Period. It provided the precedent of precedents, and no matter how much folk life had changed, all the truths of life were defined in the "Five Classics". Legend has it that it was Confucius who firmly established them, and that his teachings attempted to reproduce and emulate the traditions of ancient times, when not only Confucianism revered the classics, but all other schools of thought also held them in high regard.

The ancient and conservative mindset of the Chinese modified the form of Indian Buddhism, and Chinese Buddhists even arbitrarily rewrote the words of the Sutras to make Buddhist teachings more in line with the requirements of the classical Chinese tradition, which made Chinese Buddhism different from Indian Buddhism in many ways. Among other things, Buddhism's myriad interpretations have caused the Chinese Buddhist texts to hide inherent logical errors, which represent something typical of the Chinese way of thinking.

(2) Preference for Complex Diversity Expressed in Concrete Forms

The Chinese attach great importance to individuality and follow the traditional way of thinking to concretely narrate the contents of appearances. Their position of trusting in sensation and relying on sensation has made them particularly sensitive to the complex diversity of phenomena, and has thus replaced the grasping of the laws of things and the abstract unity of things, and has caused the Chinese to The Chinese seldom consider the universal law of the rules of things, which has a certain curb on the Chinese imagination in science.

The Chinese language is a language of artfulness and rhetorical splendor, which boasts of joy and harmony, and which is based not on universal and abstract concepts, but on historical metaphors and idiomatic allusions, and which is characterized by its very nature. This characteristic of the nature of language has naturally led to a change in the way Buddhism is expressed, and Chinese Buddhism, which is derived from the Indian philosophical system, is formally very literary, creating a certain religious imagery and metaphorical style through the narration of concrete, immediate figures and scenes. Learned Chinese like to use words that are difficult to pronounce, for example, Chinese Buddhists tend to use mysterious and jumpy words, while Confucian philosophers like to use overly embellished words, showing the Chinese exegetical fetish and rhetorical preference.

(3) Formal Synchronicity

As mentioned earlier, many Chinese scholars recognized a number of specific classics as their absolute authority, and they closely followed these classics in their exegeses, commentaries, and interpretations. With the exception of Taoist scholars, Chinese scholars never viewed these classics with a critical or outdated eye, believing that there was no contradiction whatsoever in the texts. That is to say, they attached great importance to the unity of form. For example, Zheng Xuan of the Later Han Dynasty characterized the style of his commentaries by referring to some other classics and trying to remove the contradictions among them, and in order to harmonize the contents of all the classics, he sometimes changed some words because he thought that some words and characters in the classics had been misspelled, and the typical Chinese scholars believed that all the classics rested on the same basis, and that there should be no ambiguities among them.

This tendency continued during the Three Kingdoms period and the Six Dynasties. Chinese Buddhist scholars also criticized the Buddhist sutras and ritas in this way. The Chinese endeavored not only to systematize the sutras but also to systematize the precepts, and to achieve formal congruence by classifying, arranging, and annotating the various teachings and precepts in the sutras and precept books, which was an important deed of the Chinese Buddhist scholars, except that, while they were systematizing, they were also assembling a number of canonical texts that were logically contradictory to each other. When Chinese Buddhist scholars classified, organized and annotated, they did not think y about the logical flaws between the various doctrines, but merely tried to retain the appearance and form of congruence; they simply preferred to arrange everything in a certain form.

(4) Tendency to Realism

In Chinese sentences, the Chinese often use 'man' with certain concepts as the subject, even when 'man' does not appear in the sentence, while the Indians often use some abstract concepts as the subject. For example, an Indian says, "Therefore, suffering accompanies him." Whereas a Chinese person would translate the same sentence as, "Therefore, he went through heavy sufferings." The Chinese do not pay much attention to the passive voice. Although they think of everything in terms of "human beings", they do not understand "human beings" objectively, which makes most Chinese people inclined to utilitarianism and pragmatism, and to an attitude of taking earthly reality as the basis for consideration. In the characteristic Chinese way of reasoning, the study of logic was not developed, because logic has nothing to do with practicality.

The philosophical tradition and philosophical studies followed by the Chinese intellectual society were centered on practical ends, which were directly related to real life. Most Chinese scholars were interested in the moral, political, and worldly means that could lead to success, and Taoist thought was concerned with the way of preserving one's body, the method of success, and the art of governing the people, while Confucianism, which occupied the highest place in Chinese thought, was mainly a system of identity ethics for the ruling class and a system of ethics for the people. Confucianism, which occupies the highest place in Chinese thought, is mainly an ethical system of identity for the ruling class and a set of policies for ruling.

The Chinese tendency to focus on everyday life has led to a concept of the present. Chinese Buddhism was also influenced by this realism. While Indian Buddhism was generally a metaphysical teaching about the earthly past and the afterlife, the Buddhism that spread among the Chinese people was often a prayerful and worshipful Buddhism. In short, Buddhism "went from an Indian system of abstract and philosophical metaphysical tendencies to become the religion of Chinese humanism," following the Chinese tradition of humanism, which is centered on the human being.

(5) Respect for the Order of Identity

Since ancient times, Chinese disciplines have attached special importance to human relations and human order, and the distinguishing feature of Chinese thought is its ethical nature. Ethics as a branch of learning, the Chinese believe that the study of ethics is more important than the study of natural sciences, the Chinese and believe that when things depend on human behavior, people can play certain roles in nature, that the natural force and the spiritual force are two aspects of the same reality, is the same whole.

The high emphasis on the hierarchical order of the world resulted in the establishment of a clear distinction between human beings and other creatures, and even between human beings and "saints", who became human beings only when they followed the correct human path. Buddhism, which originated in India, relatively changed its way of thinking when it came to China and became consistent with the Chinese view of humanism. The inconsistency between Chinese and Indian views on the relationship between human beings and other living things necessitated the modification of Buddhism after it traveled from India to China. For the Chinese, the human being, attached to the structure of social reality, is regarded as the most meaningful and supreme being, and roles beyond this "being" have little significance in actual life; on the other hand, for the Indians, this life is regarded as transient and dying, and the difference between human beings and all other living things is almost nil.

(6) Tendency to Eclectic Integration

The Chinese believe that not only can perfect things exist in the world, but that other things that belong to the human sphere of existence are not to be despised, even though they are not perfect. Nothing is denied, and the existence of perfect things must be absolutely affirmed. Therefore, the Chinese have no absolute concept of evil, and they recognize that every way of life exists for some reason. Therefore, the religious wars that often occur in Europe due to ideological reasons do not occur in China.

The Chinese recognize not only the significance of every human being's existence, but also the significance of every philosophical idea as containing other truthful ideas. Thus, when Buddhism was introduced to China as a great system of thought, it was enthusiastically discussed and admired by the Chinese, and began gradually to permeate Chinese thought

There is nothing incredible in this process. The medieval Chinese, who on the one hand revered the Confucian classics as the seat of truth and at the same time believed in Buddhism, did not feel any contradiction.

From the beginning the Chinese understood Buddhist thought in an eclectic and integrated way, even recognizing all heretical doctrines. From the Confucian-Buddhist consensus and the Taoist-Buddhist consensus came the idea of the Confucian-Taoist-Buddhist consensus, which was widely believed and supported by the general public, especially during the Five Dynasties and the Northern Song Dynasty. This tendency toward eclecticism and integration also led to the Chinese enjoying a great deal of freedom of religion, even as China disliked the acceptance of beliefs based on only one doctrine.

The Chinese tried to reconcile the philosophical oppositions as much as possible (formally) within the framework of the dominant traditional thought of the society, unlike the Indians who, ignoring their actual social and political power, tried to find contradictions and ambiguities between the various discourses, and to present arguments for examining the philosophical frameworks of intellectual relevance. In China, the study of worldviews has not been established, except for theoretical interpretations that are more or less eclectic in nature. We can regard this eclecticism as a kind of hybridism, and this almost capricious hybridism has had a tremendous impact on the thinking patterns of the general public, and hybridism is one of the distinctive features of modern Chinese thinking.

Conclusion

The Chinese way of thinking can be glimpsed from many features, such as how the Chinese nation faces foreign cultures, the Chinese language and writing, and the habits of life. Based on these ways of thinking of the Chinese people, we can further understand the cultural connotation of the Chinese people and the characteristics of Chinese history.

A nation's way of thinking is often constrained by its own geography, as well as its history and cultural origins, and Chinese culture is one of the most unique of all cultures, because the development of Chinese culture has seldom seen any major revolutions that shifted the paradigm, which represents the stability of the Chinese culture, but also means that the Chinese culture is closed. In today's world, where different ideas are opposed to each other and exchanged, we are bound to compare our own way of thinking with other different ways of thinking, which will help to correct the possible deviations and limitations caused by the way of thinking.