(The culture of the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period profoundly influenced the development of Chinese civilization)
[Why is unification the desire of the people]
"Recognizing, valuing, and pursuing reunification" is an important content and component of the spirit of the Chinese nation. Why do we have this national spirit? There are many reasons for it.
As we said before, there are economic reasons – water control, security considerations – protection against foreign enemies, and finally values reasons. I summarize this value as the importance of "one" and the questioning of "many".
Different countries, different nationalities, their cultures are distinctive, and their value preferences are also different.
(Restoration of the ancient Greek city of Athens)
For example, Western culture or Western civilization, in the relationship between "one" and "many", they attach more importance to "many" and reject "one". Such a preference has a long history, and it was born in the so-called ancient Greek period, which set the tone of Western civilization.
There was a philosopher named Heraclitus in ancient Greece, and he said that "difference produces harmony", difference is "many", "many" is harmony, and in turn "one" is monotony, that is, disharmony.
Russell, a contemporary philosopher in the West, also had a similar expression, saying that "uneven polymorphism is the source of happiness". What is heterogeneous polymorphism? After abundance, our various needs can be satisfied, and we will be happy.
Therefore, starting from this value preference for "many", the entire Western society has developed into the current pluralistic society.
(Neither the Mediterranean nor the whole of Europe, but there is no real unity)
In contrast, we in China attach more importance to and respect the "one". Such a value preference has appeared in the Spring and Autumn Period, which set the tone of our Chinese culture.
In our Spring and Autumn Period, it is called a hundred flowers blooming and a hundred schools of thought contending, although each school has different opinions, but there are also similarities, one of the similarities is the admiration of "one" and the questioning of "many".
For example, in the Mohist family, Mozi said that this sentence is called "Shang Tong", which means advocating the same and advocating the same.
When it comes to Confucianism, Confucius also made many similar views in this regard. For example, Confucius said that the great harmony is fixed in oneness, the unity of heaven and man, the peace of the world, the great unification, and so on, which shows that he also values this "one".
And the most and complete exposition in this regard is Taoism. In the Tao Te Ching, Lao Tzu wrote this sentence called: The sky has to be clear, the earth has to be peaceful, the gods have to be spiritual, the valley has to be profitable, all things have to live, and the prince has to think that the world is right.
(Hundreds of schools of thought contended during the Spring and Autumn Period)
Zhuangzi also said a similar view: the Tao does not want to be mixed, miscellaneous is more, more is disturbed, disturbed is worried, and worry is not saved. He also said, "All things are one, all things are one, and all things are one with me."
Throughout the Spring and Autumn Period in China, even if a hundred flowers bloomed and a hundred schools of thought contended, they all recognized the "one".
Starting from the cultural preference "one" and landing into political life, the Legalists associate it with unification, such a political structure.
Li Si said something similar, called "There are no four directions in the earth, there are no foreign countries in the people, the four seasons are full of beauty, and the ghosts and gods are blessed, and the reason why the five emperors and three kings are invincible is also."
(The Qin Dynasty completed the first unification of China)
In front, "there are no four directions, and the people are not foreign", which is a state of unity. The next few sentences, "The four seasons are full of beauty, the ghosts and gods are blessed, and the reason why the five emperors and three kings are invincible" is to talk about the value of unification, that is, it is good to be unified, and it is not good to be unified.
This concept is very impressive to every Chinese today. For example, when we talk about "reunification," what is the opposite of it? If we take a word called "division," there is a mystery here.
From a literal point of view, the antonym of unity should not be split, but "separate", which is a more corresponding word. Then why don't we call it separation, but division? Because division is a neutral word, and the combination of various things into a whole is called unity, and they do not become a whole, and they stay there separately and they are called separate. It is only an empirical objective description, and there is no attribute of value judgment in it.
(Split and divided, words with different meanings)
But take away the division and replace it with a division, and the value judgment comes out. For example, if I have a cup in my hand, I don't hold it steadily, it falls to the ground, it breaks, it cracks, it breaks, and the parts are in a position that they shouldn't be in normal terms, and that's called splitting. Therefore, in our Chinese consciousness, our deep-rooted things are related to our long-standing culture. We generally believe that "one" is good, so "unity" is good, and "many" is problematic.
We start from "many" and implement it into the national ideology. If a country does not achieve reunification, we think it is not good, and this is called splitting, which has the meaning of corruption.
In the end, when taken together, we can see that the reasons for China's recognition of reunification are many, have a long history, and have also profoundly affected the ideological concepts of the entire Chinese people.