Chinese Culture with Comprehensive and Diversified Development (Culture Only Eyes)

Yan Chongnian Guo Hongsong painted

The characteristics of Chinese culture are the differences between Chinese culture and the cultures of other countries in the world, and also the historical basis for the self-confidence of Chinese culture.

In terms of archaeology, the early, middle and late Paleolithic, the early, middle and late Neolithic, and the archaeological and cultural relics of various periods have appeared in the land of China. Since mankind entered the era of civilization, Chinese civilization has a history of 5,000 years. With such a long history of civilization, China is the only one among the five permanent members of the United Nations.

In China, as late as the Shang Dynasty, hieroglyphic oracle bones inscribed on tortoise shells and animal bones appeared. Since then, China has begun a written history, dating back at least 3,500 years. Then, in the two weeks, the Chinese characters written in the Jin wen, the Qin and Han simplified books, and the Sui and Tang Dynasties were continuous, until now. Therefore, classical documents such as "Poems", "Books", "Rituals", "Yi", and "Spring and Autumn" can be read today. Chu Ci, Han Fu, Tang poetry, Song Ci, etc., we can also understand it today. In the "four great civilizations and ancient countries" of ancient Egypt, ancient Babylon, ancient India and ancient China, the use and development of writing is continuous and uninterrupted, and China is the only one.

Chinese culture not only has the multiculturalism of 56 ethnic groups, but also has the multiculturalism of different cultural types, namely the farming culture of the Central Plains, the grassland culture of the Northwest, the forest culture of the Northeast, the culture of the western plateau and the culture of the coastal and island marine culture. In the long course of five thousand years of history, although there have been many wars of ethnic groups, regions, groups, warlords, and classes, there have been some divisions and some combinations, but in the end most of them have been unified. There are many reasons for this, but the fundamental reason is the centripetality of Chinese culture, and the centripetality of culture maintains the pluralism and unity of Chinese culture.

Chinese civilization is both eclectic and mutually exchanged. Just as the Yangtze River absorbs many tributaries and merges into a mighty river. Its outward-looking exchanges, such as the Qin and Han Dynasties, the Sui and Tang Dynasties, the Two Song Dynasties, the Yuan, Ming, and Qing Dynasties, all carried out cultural exchanges with foreign countries. Korea, Japan, Vietnam, Thailand, etc. needless to say, just take the early Ming Dynasty as an example: Zheng He's seven voyages to the West, Hou Xian's five envoys to the western region, and Chen Cheng's five envoys to the western regions. Chen Chengzhi traveled 35,000 miles to the west, as far as Khali (present-day Herat, Afghanistan) and Samarkand (present-day Uzbekistan). Chen Cheng wrote the "Records of the Western Regions", which recorded the mountains, rivers, customs, and products of the seventeen countries he visited. The vastness of China, the mind of the country, the spirit of the people, the hardships of the predecessors, the people of today read it, deeply shocked!

Look back at history and learn from the past. China's five-thousand-year humanistic history has accumulated rich and wonderful ideas and wisdom. Such as self-improvement, virtue and material, the unity of heaven and man, self-denial and benevolence, etc., all have universal value. In the next hundred years, with the prosperity and strength of China, Westerners will learn Chinese and Chinese, and Chinese culture will surely "learn from the east and the west", and the longer the time, the greater the impact. In the history of mankind, science and technology and talents have always gathered in places with good development momentum, high degree of civilization and the most active innovation. In the future, Chinese culture will develop in an all-round and diversified manner, and China is expected to become a gathering place with "good development momentum, high degree of civilization and the most active innovation", and become an important center of humanities, science and technology culture in the world. This is the appeal of history and the aspiration of the people.

(The author is a historian)