Source: Guangming Daily

In the Preface to a Collection of Chinese Studies, Wang Guowei, the prominent Chinese scholar in modern times, said, “The significance of learning has long been unclear to the world. At present, there are disputes about whether we should learn old knowledge or new knowledge, Chinese knowledge or Western knowledge and practical knowledge or unpractical knowledge. Yu Zheng stated that all knowledge is equal, no matter it is old or new, Chinese or Western, and practical or unpractical. Those who join the disputes are ignorant.” So, knowledge is not judged by whether it’s old or new, whether it’s Chinese or Western or whether it’s practical or unpractical. That means we must replace the narrow view mentioned above with the recognition of commonality, when addressing academic and cultural issues.

Traditional Chinese culture is a personalized form of human culture seen in the territory of China. Although it has certain historical and geographical features, it also includes the common elements of human civilization that go beyond time and space. The commonality both links ancient times and contemporary times and connects the east with the west, and breaks the thresholds among different schools. Specifically, carrying forward the traditional Chinese culture based on the recognition of commonality requires us to properly address three pairs of relationships.

First, we must properly address the relationship between traditional Chinese culture and modern culture. Since the late Qing Dynasty, Chinese society has faced changes never seen over the past three millenniums, and so has the Chinese culture. In the late Qing Dynasty, the men of insight reflected on the Chinese traditions from perspectives of physical objects, institutions, and culture comprehensively, and launched the New Culture Movement, forming comprehensive and radical judgment of the traditional culture in the ideological field. The radical judgment once led to the tide of comprehensively negating traditional Chinese culture across the society, and such cognition hasn’t been completely dissipated till now. Honestly speaking, China needs to rethink the traditional Chinese culture in order to be modernized. However, modernization and modern culture can’t be realized overnight by comprehensively transplanting a certain modern or different culture, but should be based on the established traditions. In the Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte, Marx said, “Humans create their own history. However, they don’t create the history as they wish or under selected conditions, but under the established conditions they encounter and inherit from the past.” To achieve the modernization of Chinese culture, we can neither evade the traditional culture with thousands of years of history, nor cut off the profound influence of the traditions on modern and future life. The traditional culture constitutes the ideological source of modern culture, which has both positive and passive significance to modern culture. In our view, the proofs about the positive significance of traditional culture are as many as the proofs about its passive significance; Too much debate about whether it’s positive or passive will lead to the dilemma described by Zhuangzi, in which there is neither right nor wrong. In spite of that, there is one thing for sure. That is, both traditional culture and modern culture are about human life, and either in the past or at present, culture is the result of human life. In this sense, culture is common in both ancient times and modern times. Since human life is continuous, human culture is continuous, too. So, traditional culture and modern culture share one thing in common, that is, both are about the continuous human life. All the factors related to politics, economy, society or families were considered by ancient people and need to be considered by modern people. Human abilities of the ancient people were roughly the same as those of modern people. So, when addressing the same issue, ancient culture and modern culture are on a par with each other in both depth and width. For example, Mengzi thought about the sympathy for a child who fell into a well; Similarly, modern people need to reflect on the accident in which Xiao Yueyue was rolled over by cars but saved by nobody. The modern thinking about ethics is not necessarily deeper than that in the time when Mengzi lived. So, the recognition of commonality is required in the reflection on traditional culture from the perspective of modern culture. We need to identify both the difference and similarity of traditional culture.

Second, we shall properly address the relationship between traditional Chinese culture and world civilization. We typically call their relationship as the issue about the east and west. Similarly, we shall identify the difference and similarity of both. The problems humans have encountered, during the course of understanding and changing the world and understanding and changing themselves, are universal rather than exclusive to a certain nation. In a relatively closed environment, different nations show distinctive characteristics that differ in their way of expression instead of their nature. For example, Chinese people may differ from Westerners in the attitude towards families and parents. But that’s confined to the way of expression. Both of them need to consider the fundamental issue about the ethics related to relations by blood. In this sense, humans are the same. Although traditional Chinese culture differs from other civilizations in the way of expression in history, fundamentally speaking, the issues they face are common and universal. We’d like to use the Buddhist words Zhu Xi once used to describe the common issues that humans have encountered during the course of survival and development: The same moon is reflected in rivers, lakes and oceans, which have varying shapes but show the same moon. When stressing the importance of traditional Chinese culture, we typically focus on the difference between Chinese culture and Western culture and highlight the uniqueness of Chinese culture. In fact, behind the uniqueness of Chinese culture, there is something that humans share in common. From the perspective of creating a community of shared future for mankind, we shall address the relationship between traditional Chinese culture and other civilizations in the world, based on the recognition of commonality, and have the common awareness that both eastern and western cultures are psychologically the same.

Third, we shall properly address the relationship between Confucian culture and the cultures of other schools. Confucian culture is a major part of traditional Chinese culture, but it is not all. In recent years, much publicity of the Confucian culture has been seen in the social and ideological field, which is good for the continuity and revitalization of traditional culture. But Confucian culture can’t represent the traditional Chinese culture as a whole. We need to pay special attention to the richness and diversity of ancient Chinese ideologies. After a breakthrough was made in Chinese philosophy and ideology, different schools of thoughts contended for attention, giving different explanations about social life, providing different ideas for development and depicting different ideal pictures. Fundamentally speaking, although different schools had similar considerations, they varied in the insight into human nature and the society, and couldn’t be represented by the Confucian school alone. After the pre-Qin period, the Confucian school gained a certain respected position but didn’t monopolize the ideological field; Instead, a situation with Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism as the three pillars took shape. Despite the appearance of the state strategy that “any school outside the scope of Confucianism would be ended” in history, it was not fully fulfilled. Confucianism was politically dominant, but Buddhism enjoyed huge room for development in the folk society and even won big support at the State level. So, when looking back, we shall see the diversity of traditional Chinese culture besides the Confucian culture. It’s the cultural diversity that ensures the self-upgrading and self-changing of traditional Chinese culture amid the contention among different schools of thoughts, and hence its great vitality. To carry forward the traditional culture, we shall recognize the cultural diversity, and view the traditional culture based on the recognition of commonality, rather than excessively highlight classification from the perspective of a certain school of thought and even impress the world with the idea that China’s intellectual and cultural histories are dominated by Confucianism.

The recognition of cultural commonality underlines the continuity of ancient culture and modern culture and the similarity between Chinese culture and Western culture, and highlights an inclusive attitude towards diversified and different cultures as well as cultural diversity. To do that, we need to take an attitude towards commonality that bridges the gap between the past and present, between the east and west, and between Confucianism and other schools of thoughts. When studying and spreading ideas and culture, we shall not only identify the differences, but also seek the things that we share in common.

(This paper is the result of “International Experience about Carrying forward the Spirit of Patriotism and Research on World Feelings”, a sub-project of the major program for the development of philosophy and social science under the Ministry of Education [16JZD007]; Zhu Cheng: Researcher at Shanghai Academy and Professor with the Department of Philosophy of Shanghai University)