Chen Ji: How many cultural genes and emotional visions does Fu culture carry Chinese?
China News Service Fuzhou, February 14 Title: Chen Ji: How many cultural genes and emotional visions does Fu culture carry Chinese?
China News Service reporter Long Min
In China, the traditional custom of posting "Fu" during the Spring Festival has been followed so far.
At the Beijing Winter Olympics, IOC President Bach held the word "Fu" in his hand to send Chinese people the blessings of the New Year of the Tiger.
How many cultural genes and emotional visions does the word "Fu" carry Chinese? Chen Ji, vice president of the China Intangible Cultural Heritage Protection Association and an expert on Fu culture, was recently interviewed by China News Agency's "East and West Question" to explain this.
The interview transcript is summarized below:
China News Service: As an important part of Chinese culture, Fu culture has a long history, what is the historical accumulation and cultural connotation? At present, what is the practical significance and world significance of promoting Fu culture?
Chen Ji: The Chinese Fu culture has a long history and is timeless. The character "Fu" appears in the oldest hieroglyphs in China, which has a history of about 3,000 years, is broad and profound, and is appreciated by both elegant and popular, showing great inclusiveness, richness and massness. Experts have verified that the custom of posting the word "blessing" has begun at least from the Southern Song Dynasty, and at the same time, various rituals and activities such as blessing, prayer, blessing, blessing, blessing, blessing, and blessing have also been passed down to the present day, becoming a unique living custom and cultural symbol of the Chinese nation.
On January 1, 2022, the public held a blessing and New Year celebration under the Liuhe Pagoda, a thousand-year-old pagoda in Hangzhou, Zhejiang. Photo by China News Service reporter Wang Gang
Xu Shen's "Explanation of Words and Characters" says: "Fu, you also." From the show, the hiccup. The word "Fu" in the oracle bone shows that people hold an instrument filled with wine with both hands and dedicate it to the gods or ancestors, indicating that "Fu" has contained two parts since its birth: a beautiful cultural connotation and a blessing ceremony based on "sacrifice". The family has surplus grain and wine sacrifices, indicating that life is rich, so in the Chinese cultural tradition of fu culture, "rich" is the meaning of the "fu" title. The Eastern Han Dynasty classicist Liu Xi's "Interpretation of names" said: "Fu, Fu Ye." ”
In the process of dissemination, Chinese has made many generalizations about the connotation of "fu", the most representative of which is the "five blessings". The "Five Blessings" first appeared in the "Shang Shu Hong Fan", the so-called "Five Blessings", "one is shou, two is rich, three is Kangning, four is good morality, and the fifth is the end of life", in fact, it is to emphasize longevity, prosperity, well-being, virtue, and old age without disease, and think that such a life is the most perfect. In the Later Han Dynasty, Huan Tan adjusted the "Five Blessings" to "Shou, Rich, Noble, Happy, and Numerous Descendants" in the New Treatise on Discernment and Confusion. Today, after thousands of years of evolution, the "five blessings" have been summarized as five words: "fu, lu, shou, xi, and cai".
On February 1, 2022, the first day of the Lunar New Year, Beijing citizens posted the word "Fu" in temple of heaven park. Photo by China News Service reporter Jiang Qiming
From the evolution of the connotation of the "five blessings", it can be seen that the "blessing" of the Chinese is a collection of "three thousand pets in one", and Chinese give the good wishes and goals of longing for blessing to the "blessing", which not only pins on the yearning for a happy life, but also expresses the wish for a better future, and the "blessing" becomes a collection of auspicious and beautiful things.
At present, we promote the culture of happiness, which not only has the inherent need to carry forward and inherit the excellent traditional Chinese culture, but also the practical need to strengthen the construction of spiritual civilization in the new era. Chinese the process of growth, "asking for blessings, blessings, cherishing blessings, and blessings" are all familiar teachings and expectations. After thousands of years, "Fu" has been passed down in the long history of Chinese civilization, and has become the most core identity and the most persistent watchman of the Chinese collective consciousness and national feelings, and has become one of the well-deserved cultural genes.
Throughout the ages, whether it is the princely secretary or the common people, people have believed in blessings, prayed for blessings and accepted blessings in various ways; whether it is the Golden Ruan Hall of the Forbidden City or the thatched huts in the dark alleys of the village, they are all pasting the same "Fu" word and spreading the same "Fu" culture. It can be said that Fu culture is the most sought after theme and positive energy of eternal popularity in ancient times, and this is especially true today when "the people's yearning for a better life is our goal".
Handwritten Chunlian stores display the word "Fu" and Chunlian. Courtesy of respondents
China News Service: Why does Fujian vigorously promote Fu culture, build a Fu culture brand, and promote Fu culture to go out?
Chen Ji: Fujian can be called a place where China's Fu culture is gathered and integrated. Fujian and Fuzhou are the only provincial-level administrative regions and provincial capital cities in China to be named after the word "Fu", respectively, which contain a rich and colorful Fu culture and give birth to a remarkable "benefit" cultural heritage.
In terms of "benefiting" the humanistic heritage, Fuzhou has emerged in modern times such as Lin Zexu, the first person to open his eyes to the world, Shen Baozhen, the father of Fujian Shipping Administration, Yan Fu, a modern Enlightenment thinker, Lin Shu, who was the first to translate Western literary works, Lin Xu, who dedicated himself to the restoration and reform of the law, and Lin Juemin, who sacrificed his life to the Guangzhou Uprising. These people have not only made outstanding achievements for Fuzhou and Fujian, but also become the enlighteners and promoters of China's near-modernization. Among them, Lin Zexu's political responsibility of "profiting from the life and death of the country, and avoiding it because of misfortune and happiness", and Lin Juemin's generous vow of "Willing to sacrifice the welfare of my body and the welfare of my body, and seek eternal happiness for the people of the world" can be called the common aspiration and voice of China's generations of people to benefit people.
There is a pair of couplets known as the best in Fujian, the upper link "Fujian Fuqing Fuqing Fuding Fu'an Five Blessings Linmen", the lower link "Yong'an Hui'an Nan'an Zhao An Hua'an Four Seasons of Peace", and the horizontal batch "Changle Yong'an". This pair of couplets is all Fujian place names. Therefore, to vigorously promote Fu culture, build a Fu culture brand, and promote Fu culture to go out, Fujian not only has unique conditions, but also accelerates the development of historical logic and practical logic for the benefit of the people.
Fuzhou Minjiang Riverside light show shows Fu culture. Courtesy of respondents
China News Service: Does the West also have a blessed culture? What are the similarities and differences between Chinese and Western Fu cultures?
Chen Ji: For the cultural construction of happiness, many western philosophers, experts and scholars have studied and elaborated. For example, in the Bible, there is the saying of the "Eight Blessings", saying that those who are humble, mourning, gentle, hungry and thirsty for righteousness, compassionate people, pure hearts, harmonious people, and those who are persecuted for righteousness are "blessed", but this "blessing" is not a concept with China's "blessing", it is a Christian culture of guilt that has blessed God.
"Happiness" is undoubtedly pursued by Chinese and foreign people in ancient and modern times. Although influenced by the historical development and cultural differences between the East and the West, the specific definitions and thinking about happiness will be different. In general, Westerners' search for happiness has different paths such as sensibility, rationality and virtue, forming different schools of sensibility, asceticism and rationalism, and rational speculation and religious color will be more prominent.
However, no matter when and where, the yearning for a better life is the common wish of the people of all countries and the common value respected by the international community.
In February 2018, in New York, USA, elementary school students from Beijing and New York showed the word "Fu" they wrote. Photo by Liao Pan, a reporter from China News Service
China News Service: How to promote the culture of Fu to the world and promote exchanges and mutual learning between Chinese and Western civilizations?
Chen Ji: In his 2022 New Year message, President Xi Jinping stressed: "Only when all countries in the world are in the same boat and unite and cooperate can we write a new chapter in building a community with a shared future for mankind." "As long as the international community forms a consensus and regards happiness as the common value pursuit of a community with a shared future for mankind, and all countries work together to benefit the people of the world, the world will be blessed."
Fu culture is accelerating to the world. Last year, I wrote five "Fu" characters in the five bodies of Chinese calligraphy, seal, li, grass, kai and xing, and then combined with Fuzhou's characteristic lacquer art, the "Five Blessings" lacquer calligraphy work "Blessed State Has Blessings and Sharing", which was selected by the 44th World Heritage Conference as an official cultural propaganda material and was loved by guests from all over the world. During the Spring Festival of the Year of the Tiger, the "Blessing Star Shines High, Bless China" symbol of Fu Culture appeared on the big screen of Times Square in New York for three consecutive days; on February 8, Fu Culture walked into the official residence of the Mayor of New York and appeared in the new Mayor of New York Adams' celebration of the Lunar New Year of the Tiger.
The "Five Blessings" lacquer calligraphy work "Blessed State Blessed Share". Courtesy of respondents
In building a community with a shared future for mankind, "Fu Culture" can become a good propellant and lubricant. In order to promote the Chinese "Fu culture" to the world and be well known, recognized and accepted by the people of the world and the international community, the key is to use a variety of carriers to tell the story of Chinese Fu culture, and advocate and call on all countries in the world to work together to benefit the people of the world. Among them, three basic consensuses should be established:
The first is to adhere to common prosperity. "Rich" is the basic meaning of "blessing". Economic strength is the basic disk of comprehensive national strength, and it is also an important prerequisite for the people of all countries to live a happy life. The world wants to prosper, a single branch is not spring, a hundred flowers bloom in the spring garden, win-win and win-win, common prosperity is the only option.
The second is to persist in valuing peace. Although "he" does not appear in the "five blessings", no matter which kind of "blessing", "he" is the background color. No happy life can be built on conflict and war. Although peace and development are still the mainstream in today's world, local conflicts and wars have never stopped. Every time I see people displaced or even lost their lives in conflict and war, especially innocent women and children, it is heartbreaking and cherishes peace and tranquility.
In February 2021, the "Fu" character shape was posted on the Ming City Wall in Nanjing, Jiangsu Province. China News Service reporter Yang Bo photographed
The third is to persist in seeking common ground while reserving differences. Samuel Huntington, a famous American scholar, proposed that in the post-Cold War world, the basic root cause of conflict is no longer ideology, but cultural differences, and the world will dominate the world as a "clash of civilizations." The prevalence of the "clash of civilizations theory" has blessed the "political correctness" of the Western logic of superiority and hegemony. The Chinese "Fu culture" is precisely the corrector of the "clash of civilizations theory." The experience of human history shows that the diversity of civilizations is the inevitable result of the development of human history, the greatness of civilization lies in its diversity, and the right way of civilization should be mutual respect and tolerance and a kind of integrated development that comes from place to place, rather than creating conflicts by man. Mankind has only one earth, and the world should be as close as one family with "blessings". (End)
Respondent Profiles:
Chen Ji, Vice President of the China Intangible Cultural Heritage Protection Association, Researcher of the China Book Court of the China Academy of Arts, Expert of Fu Culture, Judge of the Senior Title of Fine Arts (Calligraphy) of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, Review Expert of the National Arts Fund Fund-funded Project, Director of the Steering Committee of the "Fujian Calligraphy and Painting Famous Artists Rescue Project", Chief Expert of Intangible Cultural Heritage Research of Fuzhou University, Vice Chairman of the Fourth Fujian Calligraphers Association.