“...... What I want to say below may surprise you, but in fact, even the Japanese themselves are not really Japanese, and it should be said that the current Japanese are the real Chinese. ——"The Revival of Chinese Civilization and Japan"
As we all know, ancient Japan once took China as the object of study in all aspects, and in 600 AD, the Japanese Emperor Tuigu sent the "Sui Envoy" for the first time; in 630 AD, the Japanese Emperor Shuming first sent a "Tang Envoy". Both the Sui and Tang envoys brought back advanced Chinese culture and technology, and to this day, The Chinese style can be seen in Japanese tea ceremonies, flower ceremonies, calligraphy, writing, clothing and even food.
"Yanzi Spring and Autumn" said it well: "Oranges born in Huainan are oranges, and those born in Huaibei are oranges." "Although the culture of ancient China has evolved into different forms after it was introduced to Japan, these cultures have also been preserved a lot in China. As Chinese, we have been reading Tang poems and Song ci, listening to historical stories, learning etiquette and morality, and calling ourselves the descendants of Yanhuang, and the five thousand years of civilization have been passed on endlessly.
For the ancient Chinese civilization, we are proud, so after seeing the opening paragraph, I believe that everyone will have psychological discomfort. What is "the Japanese are the real Chinese"? What is even more surprising is that this was not said by the Japanese, but by a well-known Chinese scholar who gave a speech in Japan.
Gu Hongming, born in 1857, is proficient in Western science and Oriental Chinese, knows 9 foreign languages, and has obtained 13 doctorates. He translated the Analects, The Mean and the University into English, and wrote works such as "China's Oxford Movement" and "The Spirit of the Chinese" in English, which made Westerners understand many Chinese cultures, so he was praised as the "first person in China" in the late Qing Dynasty.
In the eyes of Europeans, Americans and Japanese people at that time, Gu Hongming was an oriental sage, and there was even a popular saying in the world: "When you go to China, you can not look at the three great halls, you must not look at Gu Hongming!" At that time, Gu Hongming gave a speech at the Six Nations Hotel, Mei Lanfang's opera ticket price was only 1 yuan and 2 corners, and his speech ticket price was 2 yuan, but the ticket was still very sought-after, the scene was full, and many foreigners squeezed their heads to listen to Gu Hongming, which showed his status.
Gu Hongming's temper is very strange, in the late Qing Dynasty and early Min dynasty, there were many people who advocated new culture and publicized Western studies, but Gu Hongming did the opposite, he wore braids, took concubines, despised Western studies, promoted Chinese studies, and competed with Hu Shi, the leader of new culture, and often clashed.
It should be known that Gu Hongming stayed in the West and studied in both China and the West, Sun Yat-sen, Lin Yutang, Cai Yuanpei, these people are very sure of him, he is not ignorant, on the contrary, Cai Yuanpei and others are his descendants. Gu Hongming did this because he opposed "Westernization" and believed that traditional Chinese Confucianism and benevolent morality were the cure for saving the cold and the weak from the predatory world, so he wanted to promote Confucianism to the world.
With this in mind, Gu Hongming went to the University of Tokyo in Japan in 1924 to give a lecture on the theme of "The Revival of Chinese Civilization and Japan". In this speech, Gu Hongming mentioned the view that "the Japanese are the real Chinese", which was shocking, not only many Chinese students could not accept it, but even the Japanese did not know what Gu Hongming meant.
Gu Hongming then explained:
"[The Japanese] are equivalent to the Chinese of the Tang Dynasty, and the Chinese spirit of that era is maintained in today's Japan, but most of it has been lost in China... Because of the Mongol invasion, about half of the Chinese assimilated by the Mongols, and they accepted the rough and dirty things of the Mongols. ”
"In today's China, the only two provinces and regions that have really inherited the essence of Chinese civilization are Zhejiang and Jiangsu, and the main reason for this is that when the Mongol army invaded, the Song Emperor and a group of nobles fled to Hangzhou in Zhejiang, which allowed pure Chinese civilization to be preserved in these two provinces... Unfortunately, later, I encountered Qing soldiers entering the customs. ”
"In short, only the real Chinese civilization is now Japan, and in today's China, the real Chinese civilization of the Han and Tang dynasties has been ravaged and destroyed by the Yuan Dynasty and later nomads."
Gu Hongming believes that China's traditional civilization has been destroyed by nomadic peoples, while Japan has preserved the culture of China's Han and Tang dynasties for some historical reasons, so "the Japanese are the real Chinese." Is his statement right or wrong? At that time, Gu Hongming was criticized by many celebrities, but in modern times, many netizens expressed understanding of his views.
In fact, from the perspective of the situation at that time, Gu Hongming's statement was not entirely unreasonable, but after all, he lived in the late Qing Dynasty, and some ideas were limited by the times. From our current point of view, the Chinese civilization has not declined for five thousand years precisely because the exchange and integration of nationalities have not stopped, if our civilization does not absorb the strengths of all and eclecticism, but fiercely excludes any foreign, it will have declined like other ancient civilizations.
Chinese civilization has a long history, from the mythical Pangu to the ancient Yanhuang tribal alliance, from the establishment of the first hereditary dynasty Xia Dynasty, to the Qin Emperor Han Wu, Tang Zong Song Zu successively appeared, can not see the historical legends, countless popular figures. As descendants of Yanhuang, when our culture is appropriated by others and even appropriated for ourselves (see the recent accusation of Hanfu plagiarism of Hanfu, and the Koreans claim that "Hanfu originated from Hanbok"), we should not forget history.