This book is a monograph written by University of Chicago professor Kai Ai in the 1980s, the original work was written in Chinese, and it has had a wide impact after its publication in the 1990s. Ai Kai is often known in Chinese academic circles as An expert on Liang Shuming's research, and this book shows Ai Kai's profound learning as a thinker. The author not only puts the anti-modernization trend of thought in the world to the bottom, but also puts forward the model of "anti-modernization thought" he has established at the end of this book: forced by a "cultural self-defense" psychology, "the discernment of body and use" exists in any kind of anti-modern thought, so the anti-modernization trend and the modernization it criticizes are bound to fall into a continuous sense of anxiety, which is the meaning of the title of the book" "Continuous Anxiety".
In August 1980, Ai Kai visited Liang Shuming for the first time (left)
Modernization is a tragedy in the classical sense, and every benefit it brings requires humanity to pay the price of something else that is still valuable to them. Much of the rise in literature and philosophy in modern times stems from seeing what they hold dear weakened or destroyed by what they want. Everyone spoke highly of equality, individualism, science, and modern industry, but at the same time spoke out for traditional life, family ethics, and conformity with nature. The conflict between these two sets of desires not only symbolizes and expresses the deep social conflict of human beings, but also symbolizes and expresses the profound contradictions of human nature itself.
The author begins with the thoughts of German anti-modernizationists such as Harman, Schelling, Hurd, Fichte and others, and then comprehensively sorts out the ideas of anti-modernization ideas around the world, such as the Slavists, Gandhi and Tagore in India, Zhang Junjie and Liang Shuming in China, Kyosan Okakura and Kitaro Nishida in Japan, and all the way to the contemporary Erul and Marcuse.
The author believes that the contribution and significance of the continuous anti-modernization critique is that in the process of criticism, the true nature of the modernization process is identified, and the price to be paid by human beings is determined. The conflict between "modernization" and "anti-modernization" will continue forever into the future in a dualistic model.
Foreword to Persistent Anxiety
Text | Ai Kai
Modernization, as a universal phenomenon in the world, is attracting widespread attention and discussion, but in Britain and France, which are known as the birthplaces of modernization, they are less and less mentioned. In any case, the focus of attention in the past has been on the United States, Japan, and other "economic growth countries" in Asia, but the changes taking place in the current socialist camp cannot but attract attention.
This book is intended to provide an analysis of the reactions of countries, regions, and peoples to this great worldwide change since the 18th century— the so-called "modernization." This analysis is very necessary because: (1) from the superficial point of view, the process of realizing modernization is also the process of the impact and testing of the traditional cultures of various countries, regions and nationalities, so that each different culture will make its own reaction; (2) from the essence of the analysis, all countries, regions and nations, although they have different ideological reactions to modernization, their essence is similar.
The book's determination to analyse this ideological response is based on the understanding that, for many years, there have been many different discussions on the issue of modernization in the world, and it is difficult to count the authors of the book, but most of them ignore an important problem facing the modernization process - the common ideological reaction in the world. Moreover, more people are stepping up the positive changes brought about by modernization in science and technology and people's material lives, but ignoring the negative reactions caused by them in thinking, while the research of the latter often needs more attention and in-depth discussion than the former.
All that this book is about is to prove the argument that the process of modernization can be divided into two levels — scientific, technical, and cultural. On the cultural level, since the emergence of modernization in early Western Europe, the process of modernization has been criticized and attacked no matter what era and place, and those various criticisms, although different in form, are essentially the same.
Before discussing the question of the worldwide negative ideological reaction to the "process of modernization," the following points should be explained:
First, the process of modernization has taken different forms in different eras, societies and cultural contexts, but its essence is very different. The result is similar to that of the positive aspect, such as rationalization and efficiency; and from the negative aspect, such as the destruction caused by the inheritance of traditional social customs and national culture, it is also similar. What should be emphasized here is that under the superficial differences, there are similarities in the "modernization process" that has taken place in various countries, regions, and nationalities.
Second, the "modernization" referred to here is inextricably linked to the so-called "new nationalism" that has arisen in the nation-state in modern society.
Third, from a phenomenal point of view, the various regions and intellectuals, because of their different political positions, social backgrounds, cultural origins, and their different philosophical bases, have produced different views and methods of criticism; but just as they are dealing with the same object, modernization, these criticisms and views have many similarities. For example, the analytical methods of the dichotomy adopted in the West in their criticism of modernization are also commonly used in the East, which proves that it is not unique to a society, nor is it limited to a country or region.
Fourth, the commonality of ideological reflections of the modernization process does not offset the cultural, political, and economic differences in the "modernization process." When some non-modern societies are opposed to modern societies, the friction between them is also considerable.
Fifth, the inevitability of the arrival of modernization can be observed from two aspects:
Once modernization occurs in a certain country or region, other countries or regions will inevitably adopt the way of modernization in order to survive and protect themselves. Modernization is a process of rationalization and efficiency, the effect of which can be seen in the effective mobilization of the human and material resources of a country and region, and the strengthening of this country and region under the effective management of the state system and the catalysis of the idea of the nation-state. In other words,4 modernization itself has an aggressive capability, and the effective self-defense that can be done against this aggressive force is to attack its shield with its spear, that is, to realize modernization as soon as possible.
The effects of modernization in material life are obvious and immediate, while the hidden dangers caused by the impact on society as a whole are difficult to detect. The real impact of modernization is profound and long-term, taking the social life of individuals as an example, which has caused the transformation of social groups into individuals, the strengthening of utilitarian concepts and the calculation of personal self-interest, a tendency that continues unabated in modern society, and the development trend is difficult to predict.
Moreover, the improvement of personal material living standards is an irreversible process, once the improvement of water standards is like addiction, and it is difficult to relieve desire, to paraphrase the Chinese proverb: "From frugality to luxury, from luxury to frugality." ”
Sixth, any predictions about the development prospects of modernization will be futile. Because there are too many uncertain factors; and even more because, no matter what rational derivation, there is no room for survival in irrational nuclear war. So we can only assume that the premise of the discussion is that human civilization will not be completely destroyed by things like nuclear weapons. If human civilization can survive forever, the process of modernization and anti-modernization ideas will coexist and develop, and as for the extent of development, I can only make the following guesses:
Let me borrow from the images depicted in the British 20th-century novelist Aldous Huxley's neon utopian novel Brave New World and the images painted by others—images that have one thing in common—that in a future society, the range of technologically satisfying people's desires is expanding, and thus to satisfy people's immaterial requirements, such as religious and emotional. Before bioengineering altered human genes and physiology, other technologies were able to alter human "human" existence.
If this is the case, I hope that all this will not come in my lifetime, because that so-called new "humanity" is incompatible with my flesh and blood, just as when the needs of family life becomes handled by "family karma", I feel that it is better for people to live in the world than not to live.
Tradition and modernization are incompatible, with the former representing human nature and the latter representing inhumanity. The conflict between modernization and anti-modernization ideas represents the conflict between humanity and inhumanity, which is not easy to dissolve. The various trends of thought in literature, art and philosophy in the past two hundred years have more or less carried the appearance of such conflicts.
Because this book wants to use a different framework to examine the continuous modernization and anti-modernization trends around the world, it is inevitable that the semantic categories used in this book are very different from the customary usages, which also causes certain difficulties in communication. However, I believe that everything that is not clear enough is my responsibility, if I either think clearly, or I don't say it clearly, I hope that everyone will correct it, and I hope that everyone will criticize it.
Later, I should explain what I call the concept of Chinese culture. This word is called Cultural Conservative in English; Conservative is customarily translated as "conservatism", which usually has a very heavy political meaning and value orientation, and there is a discrepancy between the cultural phenomena I hope to point out; especially the anti-modernization ideas of the Early People's Republic, which are not only not conservative, but the enterprising spirit is obvious. That's why I think of Dr. Sun Yat-sen's famous motto "It is not easy to keep success, it is difficult to start a business", in the feelings of these thinkers, in the face of difficult entrepreneurship, it is also very natural to repeatedly remind the Chinese people of the meaning and difficulty of keeping success!
An important event in the intellectual history of the early Ming Dynasty can be said to be: the overall criticism and attack of traditional Chinese culture, while advocating a deeper and broader introduction of Western culture. This position is consistent with the May Fourth Movement of a group of intellectuals in New Youth magazine, represented by Chen Duxiu (1879-1942) and Hu Shi (1891-1962). At the same time, such a position is also closely related to the new mass patriotic movement and the anti-imperialist trend of thought.
Around the same time, anti-traditionalism emerged—a cultural conformity response to the growing westernization. Advocate the revival of some aspects of traditional culture, while firmly believing that Chinese culture is not only comparable to Western culture, but even superior. This position is represented by contributors to Xueheng magazine such as Mei Guangdi and Liang Qichao (in his later years), Liang Shuming, Gu Hongming, Lin Shu and others. Their views can be called China's "diathesis", which defines Chinese culture while criticizing Western culture. As I have repeatedly mentioned elsewhere [1], I call this reaction "anti-modernization". All these figures criticize the process of modernization and its end as a mutilation of human values, advocating the fusion of Chinese and Western cultures, pointing out that the future world culture, or at least the future Chinese culture, will be a combination of Chinese and Western cultures. I call this theory "cultural preservation theory." Other intellectuals of the early Ming Dynasty, such as Cai Yuanpei, although they did not belong to this faction, he also took a similar position.
The purpose of this book is not to explore the peculiarities of the cultural debate between East and West, nor is it simply to study the reactions to cultural conformism itself. This book attempts to extend this phenomenon to a worldwide context to understand the true nature of this argument. The only way to grasp its true historical implications is to compare it with other similar "anti-modernization" reactions in the world. Only by comparing it with other reactions of other countries can we recognize what makes China unique.