Author: WU Bin (Distinguished Professor, Institute of International Communication of Chinese Culture, Beijing Foreign Chinese)
Chinese culture, with its brilliant connotation, deep wisdom and elegant heroic posture, has spread all over the world, and has never ended from ancient times to the present. From production to life, from elite to public, from literature and art to craft skills, from military to political, from religion to philosophy, from culture and education to science and technology, from academia to customs, comprehensive and long-term. Its influence is not a historical memory, but still lives in the production and life of human beings.
A New History of the Overseas Communication of Chinese Culture, by Wu Bin, China Social Sciences Press
Rich in connotation and open in posture
The wide spread of Chinese culture overseas lies first of all in the richness and advanced nature of Chinese culture. Chinese culture is a great creation of the Chinese nation in the historical process of its own growth and development, and the Chinese nation, with its industrious character and wise heart, and with its tenacious spirit of perseverance and unceasing vitality, has opened up its own recklessness and arduous struggle on the vast East Asian continent, continuously created and developed its own culture, and stood tall among the nations of the world with rich connotation and outstanding style. In the overall pattern of world culture, Chinese culture occupies a significant and important position, and has been at the leading level for a long time, and is a majestic peak in the history of world culture. The rich and advanced Chinese culture not only nourishes the Chinese of generations, but also continuously influences through dissemination and shows its worldwide glory.
Export painting "Blue etched glass figure painting"
In the overall pattern of world culture, Chinese culture has been in a leading position for a long time. Moreover, the advanced nature of Chinese culture is not only ahead of the world in a certain field and aspect, but also ahead of the world as a whole. When Europe was still in the "dark ages" of the Middle Ages, China had created a world cultural metropolis Chang'an, and Kaifeng and Hangzhou in the Song Dynasty were also large cities with a population of one million. Once the utensils and cultures created by Chinese, such as silk, porcelain, the four great inventions, and other science and technology, literature and art, and the canonical system, were highly valued and warmly welcomed once they were spread overseas. The reason is not only fresh, but also advanced, which provides many conveniences for the production and life of the people there, and plays a role in learning, stimulating, stimulating and developing the development of the culture there.
The wide spread of Chinese culture overseas also lies in the openness of Chinese culture. The original meaning of cultural communication is cultural exchange. In the process of its own growth, Chinese culture has formed a sound dissemination and acceptance mechanism, has a broad mind of comprehensive openness and a magnificent attitude compatible with world civilization, and has carried out extensive transportation exchanges and cultural exchanges with countries and peoples in the world. Cultural exchange is a natural historical phenomenon, and it is always necessary to find one's own channels of contact and communication. In the opening and exchange of culture, on the one hand, large-scale import, acceptance and integration of the cultures of various ethnic groups in the world will make the Chinese cultural system in a good situation of "gathering the wisdom of the ages", so that the whole organism can maintain vigorous vitality; On the other hand, Chinese culture spreads and influences the cultures of all ethnic groups in the world, so that the excellent achievements of Chinese culture are absorbed and integrated into their cultural systems, and also provide the source of living water and stimulate power for their cultural development. Honest and proactive cultural exchange is an expression of strong self-confidence in one's own nation and culture.
A legendary mural of silkworm seeds in the ruins of the ancient city of Urik in Hetian Dandan.
Openness is a distinctive feature of Chinese culture, which makes Chinese culture maintain a sound cultural exchange trend, cultural dissemination and cultural input mechanism, which is the reason why Chinese culture has strong vitality. We have seen that our ancestors devoted themselves to the efforts to go to the world at a very early stage, Xu Fu, Zhang Qian, Jian Zhen, Zheng He, Zhu Shunshui, Chen Yuanyun, etc., there is no shortage of people. They did not avoid difficulties and dangers, crossed the mountains and oceans, established political, economic and cultural ties with people of all ethnic groups in various countries, built bridges of friendship, and spread China's cultural treasures, cultural concepts and cultural information around the world. This is a kind of big heart and magnanimity. It is precisely because of the openness of Chinese culture that large-scale cultural exchanges also widely absorb, accept and integrate foreign cultures, so as to continuously enrich themselves and make Chinese culture broad and profound. It is also because of this positive exchange of Chinese culture that it has gained strong vitality, and even when modern Western culture has a large-scale and powerful impact, Chinese culture can modernize itself through its own reorganization.
Broad and magnificent, brilliant
Chinese culture is widely spread overseas. The so-called extensive has two meanings: first, it refers to the wide content of dissemination, citing the great cultural creations of the Chinese nation, such as material products, science and technology, canonical systems, literature and art, religious customs, academic ideas, etc., which have been disseminated, circulated and influenced overseas; The second refers to the wide range of transmission, near Zeze by neighbors, such as North Korea, Japan and Vietnam, as far as Central Asia and West Asia to Europe, or across the ocean to Africa and the Americas, causing a burst of cultural excitement in those distant places. The Chinese culture radiates in all directions with its brilliance and spreads widely throughout the world through various direct and indirect channels, turning the cultural creation of the Chinese nation into the common wealth of all mankind and promoting the progress and prosperity of the cultures of all ethnic groups in the world.
Chinese porcelain sold to Europe in the 18th century, with paintings depicting European merchants ordering tea in China at that time.
In the Paleolithic Age, under extremely difficult conditions, the Chinese ancestors played the prelude to the Chinese cultural epic with the grinding and beating of stone tools, ushering in the dawn of Chinese culture; In the Neolithic period, agriculture and animal husbandry gradually developed and replaced the status of gathering and hunting economy, becoming the primary production category, and the primitive material culture and spiritual culture have made significant progress, and then began to enter the threshold of civilization 5,000 years ago. During the Western Zhou Dynasty, through the creation of writing, the establishment of the patriarchal system, and the corresponding etiquette system and conceptual culture, he independently completed the creation of Chinese culture during the period of cultural occurrence. Later, through the cultural changes of the Spring and Autumn and Warring States periods, to the establishment of the Qin and Han Empires, the basic pattern of Chinese traditional culture was laid. In the process of thousands of years of historical development and evolution, the Chinese nation, with its diligence and wisdom, has constantly created and developed, so that the historical peak of Chinese culture has risen one after another, brilliant and splendid, and has long occupied a leading position in the world. With its long history and, more importantly, its richness and grandeur, Chinese culture has gained lasting charm and charm in the history of world culture.
The broad wisdom of the Chinese nation is prominently manifested in advanced agricultural production technology and a series of major scientific and technological inventions. China's science and technology culture has long been at the world's advanced level and has had a major impact on the development of world culture. China is one of the earliest countries in the world to develop an agrarian culture, which was dominated by farming during the Shang and Zhou dynasties, and even during the primitive clan and tribal period, hoeing agriculture became the main and basic economic category. By the Qin and Han dynasties, China's agricultural production had reached the advanced level of the world at that time, and the agricultural science and technology system had begun to take shape, and later continued to improve and perfect on this basis. While Europeans were still using wooden ploughs, Chinese had already popularized the use of iron plows in the Han Dynasty. Europeans only invented strip planters in the 18th century, but China had this agricultural tool as early as the Han Dynasty.
The four great inventions are the great technological achievements that the Chinese nation has dedicated to the world and changed the entire course of human history, reflecting and representing the splendid ancient Chinese civilization.
In addition, ancient Chinese science and technology are at the forefront of the world in many fields. For example, astronomy, geoscience, mathematics, biology, chemistry, medicine, metallurgical technology, construction technology, etc., have achieved a series of major achievements that have attracted worldwide attention and made outstanding contributions to human civilization. In terms of astronomy, ancient Chinese astronomy is famous for its earliest observation records of a variety of celestial phenomena, and its continuity, completeness and accuracy are also rare in the world. China has the world's first-class calendar; There are astronomical instruments that are far ahead in the level of design and manufacturing; There were also many state-of-the-art achievements in astrometry of the time. In mathematics, China first invented the decimal notation, on the basis of which a complete set of simple arithmetic methods was formed, and thus achieved far leading results in many aspects such as pi and "tianyuan art"; China was also the first to propose the concept of negative numbers and the algorithm of addition and subtraction of positive and negative numbers. In terms of geoscience, Chinese cartography developed earlier than ancient Greece, and the accuracy of drawing greatly exceeded that of ancient Greece; The ancient Chinese study of geomorphology, such as Xu Xiake's investigation of limestone landforms in the Ming Dynasty, is unprecedented in the history of world geoscience; China was one of the first countries in the world to discover oil; China has a long history of seismic observation and rich records, and Zhang Heng's geometer was 1700 years ahead of the West. China has a unique traditional Chinese medicine in the world, and has achieved a series of major achievements in biology of world significance on the basis of agriculture and traditional Chinese medicine. And so on.
The pineapple pattern produced in Lyon, France, imitates Chinese brocade.
The British scholar Temple once pointed out that we should bear in mind the surprising and disturbing fact that the European agricultural revolution, which laid the foundation for the industrial revolution, actually began only after accepting Chinese ideas and inventions. Crops were sown, weeds were carefully hoeed, "modern" seeders, iron ploughs, earth-turning ploughshares and efficient harness were all imported from China ... Indeed, until two centuries ago, the West was so backward in agriculture compared to China that it could be said that compared with China's "developing world", the West was an "undeveloped world".
Climax has a long origin
The spread of Chinese culture overseas has a long history. From the available archaeological data, China's Neolithic culture has been connected with the surrounding areas; From the Shang Zhou to the Spring and Autumn Warring States periods, such cultural ties tended to expand further. In addition to the clues provided by archaeological data, there are many related legends, such as Shennong, Yao, Shunnan Fujiaotoe, Jizi Walking to Korea, King Mu of Zhou's Western Tour, and later Xu Fu's eastern crossing to Japan, and so on. However, the relatively extensive and substantial spread of Chinese culture began in the Western Han Dynasty. Since then, four major climax of the spread of Chinese culture overseas has been formed in history.
The first climax of the spread of Chinese culture overseas appeared in the Han Dynasty. On the basis of Qin's unification of China, the Han Dynasty established a huge empire with a vast territory, and the basic form and pattern of Chinese culture have gradually matured, and the first heyday of Chinese cultural development has appeared, reflecting a broad and inclusive attitude and pioneering spirit. In this dynasty, Chinese culture carried out extensive exchanges with the outside world from the eastern, southern and western aspects, spread its glory to a vast area, and initially established a pivotal position in the overall pattern of world culture. In the history of the spread of Chinese culture overseas, Zhang Qian of the Han Dynasty was an important figure. Historian Fang Hao said: Zhang Qian's envoy to the Western Regions, known as "chiseling the void," was an unprecedented event in the history of Sino-foreign relations. Zhang Qianzhi's "hollowing out" means the official opening of the "Silk Road", the east-west transportation trunk line. Since then, the rich Chinese products represented by silk, China's advanced scientific and technological inventions, developed production technologies and art and folklore have been continuously transmitted to Central Asia, West Asia and even farther Europe along the Silk Road.
By the Tang Dynasty, the spread of Chinese culture overseas reached its second climax. The Tang Dynasty was one of the strongest and most developed dynasties in ancient feudal society on the mainland, and Chinese culture also reached a peak of prosperity and prosperity. It was during this period that China carried out extremely extensive and multifaceted cultural exchanges with other countries in the world, and Chang'an became a world metropolis and a center for the convergence and integration of Chinese and foreign cultures. Huge diplomatic missions from various countries entered and left Chang'an, and there was a grand scene of "all nations dressed in crowns"; Trade with other countries is very prosperous, so that Chang'an, Luoyang and other big cities gather "Hu merchants"; Thousands of foreign students studying Chinese classics and academic culture in Chang'an Guozijian, deeply influenced and contaminated by Chinese culture. The profound Sheng Tang culture has profoundly influenced and changed the cultural landscape of East Asia. At the same time, Shengtang culture has been widely spread in various places, showing its worldwide splendor and leaving a huge influence in the history of world culture.
The third climax of the overseas spread of Chinese culture occurred during the Song and Yuan dynasties. The Song Dynasty was far less powerful and vibrant than the Tang Dynasty, but it reached a new level culturally, showing its proficiency and depth everywhere. The Song Dynasty attached great importance to maritime trade, and maritime trade with Japan, Korea, Southeast Asia, and South Asia was very active, and Chinese merchant ships even reached as far as the Persian Gulf and the east coast of Africa. By the time of the Yuan Empire, the empire across Asia and Europe and the improvement of the post station system made the communication between the East and the West unimpeded. From west to east, the land route passes through Eastern Europe in the north and Iran in the west, directly connecting with Yuandadu (Beijing), and the sea route reaches Quanzhou and other ports from the Persian Gulf. In such an open international environment, exchanges between the East and the West were unprecedentedly frequent, with envoys, orders, caravan trade, and large-scale migration, and a large number of soldiers, merchants, and craftsmen from Central Asia and West Asia coming to various parts of the Central Plains, and thousands of Mongolian, Han and other ethnic groups migrating westward in large numbers, thus forming a vast and spectacular scene of great cultural exchanges and integration. Many of China's major inventions, such as gunpowder and firearms technology, woodblock printing, and the compass, were transmitted to the west on a large scale during this period.
During the Ming and Qing dynasties, there was the fourth great climax of the overseas dissemination of Chinese culture. The striking feature of this upsurge of cultural dissemination is that Christian missionaries who came to China played the main role in cultural dissemination. They introduced many Chinese academic classics to Europe, and introduced China's history, geography, political system, social life, folk customs, literature and art through writing monographs and a large number of letters, which aroused strong repercussions in European intellectual circles and had a major impact on the emerging Enlightenment. For example, Voltaire, Diderot, Leibniz and other great European thinkers have expressed warm praise and admiration for Chinese culture. In their minds, "China" became a "utopia" that they yearned for, used to criticize the feudal autocracy in European countries at that time. At the same time, Chinese porcelain, lacquerware and other daily necessities are sold to Europe in large quantities, and the "Chinese style" has been blowing for more than a century in European countries, which has influenced and even changed people's daily life and artistic style to a certain extent. In many parts of Europe, there are Chinese-style gardens designed according to the concept of Chinese gardening. This was a period when Chinese culture spread widely to the west and exerted a wide influence in the development of modern European society.
The sea is inclusive, and there is room for greatness
Historically, Chinese culture has been a very important part of the world cultural pattern and a very important pole in the overall dialogue of world culture. On the one hand, thanks to the participation of Chinese culture, the world cultural pattern is so colorful, brilliant and spectacular, and the overall dialogue between world cultures is so lively, business-rich and interesting. On the other hand, in the process of going to the world and participating in the overall dialogue of world culture, Chinese culture has also acquired global cultural values and cultural significance.
We go out into the world, and the world goes to us. In the process of Sino-foreign cultural exchanges in history, while Chinese culture has been widely spread overseas, it has also successively accepted and integrated many excellent achievements and positive factors in Central Asian nomadic culture, Indian culture, Persian culture, Arab culture and European culture, absorbed them into the organism of Chinese culture, and became an integral part of Chinese culture. The sea is inclusive, and there is room for greatness. The large-scale import of foreign cultures and the excellent achievements of compatible with all advanced cultures in the world were once one of the reasons why ancient Chinese culture was vibrant and brilliant. Since modern times, the industrial civilization, advanced science and technology, and various social and cultural trends developed in the West have successively spread to China, which has played a great role in promoting the disintegration of China's feudal society and the changes to modernization. What is particularly significant is the wide spread of Marxism in China, which has given Chinese a new world outlook and cultural equipment, promoted the spirit of Chinese from passive to active, thus opening up a broad road toward socialist modernization and bringing out the power of youth in ancient China and Chinese culture. Chinese culture has absorbed new nourishment in modern cultural exchanges and gained unlimited possibilities for vigorous development under new historical conditions. To inherit and carry forward the excellent traditions of our national culture, we must first inherit the spirit of openness of the Chinese culture in history and be compatible with the excellent achievements of all advanced cultures in the world.
The modern world is an open world. Developed means of transportation, advanced means of communication, close international relations and frequent personnel exchanges have greatly reduced the spatial distance of the entire world and made the ties between various national cultures closer. Cultural exchanges and dissemination have also emerged an unprecedented dynamic and broad trend. In the overall cultural pattern of the modern world, in the modern cultural exchanges between China and foreign countries with sound mechanisms and healthy trends, Chinese culture has regained its style while absorbing advanced foreign culture, and continues to spread around the world with broader channels, richer content and wider scope, contributing to the overall dialogue of modern world culture and the prosperity and development of modern world culture.
It is the cultural responsibility of modern Chinese to contribute to the prosperity and development of modern world culture. To achieve our cultural responsibility, we must first establish our sense of world culture. Lu Xun said: "The development of the national spirit belongs to the breadth of world knowledge. The so-called "world insight" is a kind of world vision, world consciousness, and world mind. The cultivation of this "world insight" is related to the life era, the mode of production, living space, and communication conditions, and also related to one's own cultural self-confidence, cultural consciousness and cultural spirit. It is safe to say that we today have far more "world insight" than our predecessors. In the long historical period of ancient times, the ancestors of the Chinese nation created an extremely colorful and splendid Chinese culture, and stood majestic peaks in the development of ancient world culture. Then, today, we will certainly make a contribution that is not inferior to that of our predecessors.
Therefore, our pursuit of historical traces is by no means simply a contemplation of the past, although this "thinking of the ancient" can also be a kind of contemplation of today; Our pursuit of glorious history is not only to increase national pride and patriotic enthusiasm, although this is also the meaning of the title of "New History of the Overseas Communication of Chinese Culture"; Our pursuit with a strong sense of history is bound to have a profound theoretical and ideological significance.
Guang Ming Daily (November 19, 2022, version 12)
Source: Guangming Network - Guangming Daily