In 2001, a film sparked a lively discussion about the cultural differences between China and the West. This movie is "Gua Sha" starring Leung Ka Fai. The film tells the story of three generations of a family living in the United States because of the storm of gua sha. In the film, in order to deal with the physical discomfort of the child, the old man used the traditional Chinese medicine method gua sha, but it was considered to be violent abuse by the Americans at the time, and finally deprived the parents of custody of the child.
This may seem incomprehensible, but this cultural difference in TCM is everywhere. The essence is that we don't know each other's cultures.
If you want to understand Western culture, it is not difficult, maybe one book is enough, that is, the tradition and evolution of Western culture. In the past, when understanding Western culture, there were always people who mentioned Greek mythology, Homeric epics, Socrates and Plato, Caesar and Christ, etc., so what kind of relationship these works, stories and characters have with Western culture, in fact, can be found in the book "The Tradition and Evolution of Western Culture".
"The Tradition and Evolution of Western Culture" is a programmatic work, which talks from the Greek mythology of classical culture to the Reformation and Renaissance of modern culture, comprehensively sorts out the historical context of the development of the entire Western culture, and at the same time intersperses the interpretation of the cultural core such as religion, theology and personal heroism, so that the history of the entire Western culture stands clearly and vividly in front of the reader.
"The Tradition and Evolution of Western Culture" is not simply an exposition of Western culture, it is not a single narrative work, but a rich expository work, in order to allow readers to better understand Western culture, understand its origin, evolution and distinctiveness, the author also added a lot of contrasting discussion. For example, its internal struggle between rationalism and romanticism, the contradiction between religious martyrdom and secular heroism, and the contrast between the romanticism of Western culture and the coordinated realistic spirit of Chinese culture, etc., the addition of these contents, on top of its original theoretical framework, enriches a richer spiritual core, making the whole work more fulfilling and wonderful.
In the book "The Tradition and Evolution of Western Culture", the most critical point of view is zhao Lin's proposal that the core of Western cultural history is: the romantic spirit of transcendence. They are more willing to transcend reality and pursue the other shore, as Socrates called for: they must pursue a good life far more than life. This is also the fundamental difference between it and Chinese culture.
The transcendent romantic spirit of Western culture is reflected in the original Greek mythology. Greek mythology has always been known for its beauty and romance.
Greek mythology has always been a source of creation for artists. For example, Titian's famous painting "Love in Heaven and Love on Earth" is based on Medea, the granddaughter of the sun; Nicholas Poussin also painted a famous painting of Theseus discovering his father's sword based on Theseus. In these famous paintings, we can not only see the dramatic tension and story core of Greek mythology, but also the beauty and strength of Greek mythological figures. And these characters and stories are based on "romance". They are chaotic, with violent and lustful overtones, and the seven passions and six desires of human nature are fully exerted.
But Greek mythology did not come to an end, and it eventually declined and was replaced by philosophy. It can be said that the cultural history of the West, from myth to philosophy, has its inevitability and its contingency.
In ancient obscurantism, humans relied on myths to explain everything naturally and to give spiritual guidance to self-growth and development, but the development of Greek mythology ultimately relied on constant self-denial. Kronos denied Uranos, and Zeus denied Kronos, just as one generation is stronger than the next, injecting fresh blood into itself in the change of times. But this denial did not persist, because the ideal and reality will eventually merge. Constrained by the city-state democracy, Greek mythology had to evolve towards orthodoxy and systematization, eventually forcing itself into a dead end.
As Zhao Lin said: "The human nature of the gods prevents them from becoming a kind of transcendent existence of the other shore, and the negation within the divine system makes the continuation of the god clan lose the opportunity to transcend itself and move towards a higher form." These weaknesses were insurmountable, and Greek mythology as a low religion died. ”
This romantic mantle was taken over by later generations such as Socrates and Plato.
Socrates was sentenced to death by the Athenian city-state for advocating a new god, but in fact he could not have died, and according to the law of the time, he could have chosen a lighter punishment instead of the death penalty, but he did not. Because he believes that death is to help the soul get rid of the bondage of the body, is the release and liberation of the soul, can help him to reach the "other shore", more free to explore philosophy and pursue the truth, so that he is willing to die. This feeling of his is also a romantic feeling in itself, and as he himself said, he gave up life in order to pursue a better life, and this romantic feeling had a profound impact on Plato. Unfortunately, this romanticism was influenced by the materialism of the Roman Empire and gradually replaced by Christianity.
But Christianity did not last to the end.
The first realist tome in Europe, and the first collection of short stories in the history of literature, was Boccaccio's Decameron, in which the corruption of the Church was exposed. The corruption of the church is an important reason for the decline of Christianity.
In the Middle Ages, the transcendent romantic spirit became more and more distorted under the influence of the activities of the church, its essence was to make people abandon the real world and pursue a spiritual life, and the original purpose of the church was to serve as a ladder to help the soul out of the world, and as a result, in the Middle Ages, the Roman Catholic Church began to get involved in the struggle for rights, intoxicated with the rule of the secular world, thus putting its identity and function into a very embarrassing situation. In this dilemma, the transformation of Western culture into modern culture was realized.
It can be seen that, as Zhao Lin said, what promotes the development of Western culture has always been a transcendent romance, and at every stage of its development, there is also a struggle and distortion between romance and reality, and it is in this struggle and struggle that the evolution and development of Western culture has been realized.
So what can we get by reading this book? I think it's also this romantic feeling. As Zhao Lin said, "Due to the rapid development of scientific rationality, our era is becoming more and more pragmatic and neglectful of romance." "We begin to alienate philosophy, tend to the economy, alienate from ideals, tend to reality, and in reality it is tedious, confused, confused. So "The Tradition and Evolution of Western Culture" may be an inspiration for this kind of romance, and it is also the beginning of our return to life.