"Culture, as the most core internal factor of man, determines the reason why a person is a person, and the reason why this person is not another person. The consciousness and ability to possess culture, dominate culture, and create culture highlight the fundamental differences between people. ”
The culture of any country is often traced back through historical changes, humanistic changes, ideological changes, etc., and it is not possible to have today's situation overnight. As one of the four ancient civilizations, China has a long-standing, profound and profound traditional culture, which is the case.
If the time is fixed in the birth of human beings in ancient times, it is almost possible to put the cultures of all countries in the world on the same starting line, and through different environments, encounters, etc., people in different regions have roughly the same direction under the macroscopic situation, but they go to different paths under the subdivision.
In layman's terms, the birth of mankind is a blank piece of paper, and through the painting of different historical pens and inks, it is only then that the different cultures of today's countries and countries are brilliant.
First, the first step to understanding Chinese culture
The essence of mutual understanding between countries is the same as the "seeking common ground while reserving differences" between people. If you treat it in reverse thinking, you are stripping away the different parts, looking at the differences from the same place as a basis, in order to seek empathy and understanding. As the Irish say, "How to understand China?" The first step, forgetting God" Is to let go of the differences between them.
The reason for "forgetting God" is to face up to the huge differences in the religious culture between Ireland and China, and to temporarily eliminate them in the process of understanding China, only in this way can we objectively look at the understanding and understand China.
Catholicism is the dominant religion in Ireland, with about 92% of the total irish population being Catholics. Ireland as a whole is one of the few devout religious countries in Europe, with regular Mass attendance of over 90 per cent in 1973. Catholic doctrine is the foundation of Irish social formation and way of life.
In some ways, ireland's overall culture is deeply influenced by Catholicism, and the sheer base of Catholics compared to the total population is destined to subject the Irish people, if not Catholics, to religious culture.
Because of its popularity, religious doctrine has become a convention of social order to a certain extent. The impact of religious culture on Irish culture can be glimpsed in the rare case of divorce and abortion in Ireland.
Therefore, if the Irish want to understand China, they must abandon religious culture and then understand it, and it may not be difficult to understand other countries where Catholicism is prevalent, after all, although the overall culture is different, but the similarity of this large part of religion is the point that can resonate between the two sides.
However, for China, these obviously do not exist, and if we look at China in this way, it is not only difficult to understand, but even regard China as a "heretic" because of this.
Chinese religious culture is also a major part of traditional culture, and even today it is still widely present in life, such as Taoism, Buddhism and so on.
However, unlike Ireland, although the religious culture is deep and large, and the number of religious people is innumerable, it is actually a small part compared to the overall number of people in China. Therefore, Chinese as a whole is not religious.
Regardless of the existence of religions in ancient times and today, the existence of religions in China will never cover the vast majority of the whole country, the first reason is the huge number of people in China, followed by the abundance of religions within China, whether it is Taoism, Buddhism, etc. The prosperity is only for a while, the two have always suppressed each other's development, and have not shown a completely one-sided trend.
Another crucial reason is that "the people, the Lord of God, are the saints who first become the people and then devote themselves to God." In short, the so-called gods were formed by the ancient saints after they taught the human world and accumulated merit, and their essence is still from people.
For example, the connection between the Taoist ancestor "Taishang Laojun" and the Taoist pioneer Laozi. As a result, Chinese tradition of "fearing God but not believing in God" was born, so that religious ideas could not fully prevail in China.
In addition, there are many components and branches of traditional Chinese culture, and religious culture is only a part of it, which is different from the influence of Irish doctrine on public perception.
As early as the pre-Qin period, China had a variety of ideas blooming and competing for brilliance, during which the ideas of the Sons and Hundred Schools undoubtedly brought an excellent ideological foundation for the Chinese, which was not available in other countries, including Ireland. At the same time, china's internal forms of thought also exist like Catholicism for Ireland, which is the Confucian culture that has influenced the development of China for thousands of years.
If you understand Confucian culture, it is much easier to understand Chinese nature. As for the Irish to understand China as "forgetting God", the basis for Chinese to understand Western countries such as Ireland lies in "forgetting Confucian culture".
In addition, "forgetting God" also lies in the fact that Chinese itself does not anthropomorphize faith, but blames the law between heaven and earth on the "Tao", which is formless and immaterial but ubiquitous, maintaining the operation of everything in the world. Westerners are adept at identifying this as "god's doing." Therefore, "forgetting God" also means objectivity to the laws of development of things.
Second, the characteristics of Chinese culture
The irish's first step in understanding Chinese culture, "forgetting God," was to discard their differences from one another. The difference between Irish culture and Chinese culture is not just religious. In the meantime, their customs, diets, etc. are very different.
In addition to these, the breadth, depth, and length of Chinese culture are not available in other countries, and this part of the Irish understanding of China is also to be abandoned for the time being.
In addition to the above-mentioned period of brilliant development of Chinese culture, the pre-Qin Dynasty and the "Confucianism of Exclusivity" that has lasted for thousands of years since the Han Dynasty, Chinese culture also differs in all aspects from the overall culture of the West. Even within China, there are many differences due to geographical differences.
As one of the traditional Chinese cultures, totem culture is also incomprehensible to the people of other countries such as Ireland. Chinese often called themselves "descendants of the dragon". Ancient Chinese emperors even called themselves "True Dragon Heavenly Sons", which had a very important symbol of authority.
The dragon is a fictional animal through Chinese legends, with the image of a snake body, a lizard leg, an eagle claw, a snake tail, antlers, fish scales, whiskers on the horns of the mouth, and beads under the forehead, which is to some extent the image of the lord of the hundred beasts artificially created by the ancient ancestors who accumulated the characteristics of the hundred beasts.
The dragon ranks fifth in the zodiac. The dragon is called the "Four Rui Beast" together with the phoenix, the unicorn and the turtle, and the green dragon and the white tiger, the suzaku and the xuanwu are the four elephants of Chinese astronomy. The existence of a "Classic of Mountains and Seas" is also a model of Chinese totem culture, during which the divine beasts and beasts came from the existing point of view, which were imagined by the ancestors. But what stands out from it is the wisdom and creative ability of the ancestors.
Totemic cultures such as the above are presented in reality as the worship of foreign beasts, just as the merchants are keen to wear the cat, and its meaning is to attract wealth and treasure, ward off evil spirits and transport. Therefore Chinese it is not that there is no faith, but that everything in the world can exist as faith.
And these are essentially just the tip of the iceberg of traditional Chinese culture. It is no exaggeration to say that the entire Eastern and Western cultures can coexist side by side, and the core of the Oriental culture lies in the traditional Chinese culture.
Japan, South Korea and other countries located in the east have been greatly influenced by Chinese culture in the process of historical operation to form their own "regional" culture, which can be regarded as a branch of Chinese culture. Why can the countries of the East understand each other to a greater extent? It lies in the influence of traditional Chinese culture.
Third, the irish understand China's second step of "seeking common ground"
In essence, the above differences between religious culture, traditional Chinese culture, Irish national culture, etc., are within the category of "forgetting God". This was the first step in the Irish understanding of China, after which they could be regarded as "substantially identical" existences.
In the process of implementing the so-called "seeking common ground while reserving differences", it is often based on the temporary abandonment of differences, after which the similarities are found, and then the differences are looked at in this way, and we can truly seek common ground while reserving differences to achieve mutual understanding.
Although the Irish are very different from the Chinese, they are also different in substance, and these commonalities can be used as the contact of the Irish to understand China as a starting point for extending outward.
Under the influence of Chinese culture, Chinese are generally more subtle, and often in the frequent debates will be greatly affected, so most foreigners Chinese not good at debate in the eyes, after all, Chinese euphemistic but not direct, there will be no real "endless" in the debate.
In essence, the absence of debate in China is obviously a lie, and since ancient times, "quarrels" and "debates" within the Chinese have been common, and if you say that there are small places Chinese quarrels are also very common. But often Chinese no matter the euphemism of various occasions, it is only the result of the influence of traditional ideas such as "indisputable" and "compromise".
For the Irish, this is also their characteristic, even under the overall cultural environment of Western countries, the Irish are still like Chinese, more "soft" in the world. Therefore, it is also called "not thinking" and so on by some Western countries.
In essence, this trait of Chinese with the Irish is to get along better with the people and things around them, in order to maintain a relative "peace". Chinese has the concepts of "home and everything is prosperous" and "harmony is precious". The two sides are obviously not the same on this point.
Not only that, but there are many similarities between Chinese and the Irish, and these similarities or similarities can obviously make the two sides reach a resonance, which is called "seeking common ground". After seeking common ground, it is the process of "reserving differences".
Standing on the same basis, we will pick up the differences that have been discarded before, explore the differences and differences, and correctly look at the understanding. The whole process of "seeking common ground while reserving differences" ended, after which the Irish wanted to understand China naturally much simpler.
Not only for the difference between countries and countries, but also between people, put aside the differences for the time being, seek resonance between each other, and then find the entry point, and then turn back to correctly understand the differences and differences, in order to "seek common ground while reserving differences" to achieve the result of mutual understanding.