Some questions about Chinese civilization

The core of Chinese culture is Han culture, and the biggest core of Han culture in national strategy and national interests is-unification.

China has a history of five thousand years, and various cultures complement each other, but when it comes to the future and development of the country, they are unusually unified. This is the most important reason why China can always turn around quickly every time it is in its darkest moments. . As long as China is given 50 years of peace, it will surely create brilliance that will attract the attention of the world.

More than 2,000 years ago, China’s first generation of cultural masters, Confucius, Laozi, Mencius, Mozi, Xunzi and other sages, contended and brought Chinese culture to a level that cannot be surpassed to this day. Thinking is limited to the small circle of cultural majors, and it does not indulge in abstract and mystical fields. Instead, it creates a unique platform for a hundred schools of thought to contend in the construction of social order and national development. This is the spiritual direction and deep connotation they collectively chose for Chinese culture.

Confucius and Mencius proposed "cultivate one's moral character, regulate one's family, govern the country, and bring peace to the world" and "Although the world is big, it is not the land of the king, and the shores of the land are not the king's ministers."

Many of Mozi’s views are different from those of Confucianism. He did not agree to divide society into "smart" and "stupid", and advocated "universal love" and the selection of talented management talents regardless of social class. But in governing the country, his goal is to unify the world and eliminate fighting, which is called "non-offensive".

Lao Tzu believes that the complexity of management will stimulate social chaos. It is better to reject all wit and ingenuity, return to simplicity, return to a kind of "minimalism", and return to natural survival. The height of this concept is still astonishing to this day; his theories of "unity of nature and man" and "governing by doing nothing" are also based on the post-unification national stance.

The most eye-catching ones are Legalism and Confucianism. Legalism believes that law, technique, and power should be used to govern together, that is to say, law, power, and power should be used to establish hegemony, implement reforms, and force obedience. . Qin Shihuang became an experimenter of Legalism. However, because Legalism was too ruthless and cruel, the Qin Dynasty's experiment was brilliant but short-lived. Therefore, successive rulers of China always used Confucianism and Legalism alternately. Generally speaking, Confucianism is always used to establish spiritual order, and Legalism is used to establish power order. On the one hand, it promotes humanistic education, and on the other hand, it configures the power structure.

As a result, many literary politicians have become a natural combination of multiple personality structures, such as Cao Cao and Zhuge Liang. They have Legalist methods, the application of Confucianism, and the influence of two families. *Same point - great unity.

So, Chinese culture is mainly reflected in the strong Han culture. But Han culture does not blindly pursue the dominance of kings, but is like the vast sea. Any more powerful culture that comes to Han culture can only be Chineseized and integrated. Therefore, any foreign invasion in Chinese history, if it is not defeated, relocated and retreated, will declare the final demise of the ethnic culture, and will be the final Sinicization. The Huns, Turks, Mongols, and Manchus were all like this. Looking further back, you will see the great powers that invaded China. All they did was a pack of wolves awakening a lion, and they were eventually relegated to a second-class fate.

In the long history of mankind, the ancestors of the Chinese nation created a splendid culture with labor and wisdom. Chinese culture has a long history and continues to influence life today. Inheriting and carrying forward Chinese traditional culture is an objective requirement to unite the strength of the Chinese nation and a practical need for building a socialist material civilization and spiritual civilization with Chinese characteristics. It is the honorable task of Chinese scholars to comprehensively and systematically excavate, organize and introduce Chinese children's culture. In view of this, dozens of scholars who are well versed in traditional culture have worked together to compile this "Grand View of Traditional Chinese Culture" and offer it to all readers.

Culture is the sum of the ways of human spiritual and practical activities and its material and spiritual achievements. Due to the complexity and diversity of people's life practices, culture also has different contents, forms and levels. As one of the four ancient civilizations in the world, China was famous for its unique Yellow River culture thousands of years ago. Since then, after a long period of creation and accumulation by the descendants of the Yan and Huang Dynasties, Chinese culture has become richer, more extensive and profound, and its achievements and influence are rare in the world.

Chinese traditional culture has a distinct integrity, and various cultural forms are interconnected and influence each other. Only on the basis of a relatively comprehensive understanding of the various categories and forms of Chinese culture can it be possible to gain a deeper understanding of its overall characteristics and essence. In fact, grasping culture holistically is itself one of the basic spirits of traditional Chinese culture. Many outstanding figures in Chinese history were cultural all-rounders who made important achievements in many fields. The "adult" respected and pursued by Confucius, the world-class cultural master, not only has noble moral sentiments, extensive knowledge, and profound wisdom, but also has excellent writing skills, political management experience, art, sports, military and other aspects skills. Confucius himself was such a well-rounded and versatile great man. As an outstanding educator, thinker, politician, historian, and writer, Confucius once put forward very subtle insights into artistic fields such as music, skills such as archery, and even the principles of cooking and clothing. The comprehensive pursuit of culture by outstanding figures in ancient China inspired the author of this book to integrate different categories of knowledge into one book.

The time range covered by this book varies slightly depending on the category. Generally speaking, it starts from primitive society and ends in modern times. Faced with the vast number of historical figures, the vast number of ancient classics, and the dotted cultural relics, this book does not adopt the writing method of chronicling Chinese cultural events or compiling a cultural dictionary classified by entries. The simple accumulation of a large number of characters, works, terms, and events cannot reveal the essence of traditional Chinese culture. Within the limited space, this book provides readers with systematic rather than fragmented knowledge. This book strives to give top priority to finding clues to the development of various categories of Chinese traditional culture, and strives to achieve the unity of history and logic. At the same time, this book also attempts to analyze the basic characteristics of each cultural category and explain the position of these cultural categories in the entire traditional Chinese culture. What is ultimately presented to readers, in addition to colorful historical pictures, also includes the integration and taste of all aspects of knowledge, and an overall summary and reflection on traditional Chinese culture. I believe this way of writing can help readers gain clear, concise and systematic knowledge.

Strong contemporary nature is another major feature of Chinese traditional culture. The essence of culture is not an established thing but a process of change. This book reveals the fact that traditional culture has always been in the "endless" development of inheritance and change as described in the Book of Changes. Old forms are constantly being replaced by new ones, but in the new The form also contains the lasting and constant national spirit. For example, Peking Opera, which is regarded as the "quintessence of China", is actually a very "young" art, and its true maturity is only about a hundred years ago. Since the Song Dynasty, the art form that dominates the opera stage has experienced many major booms. However, this change is not an independent creation separated from history, but a continuation of the past and innovation on the basis of absorbing the legacy of the past. This is also the significance of studying traditional Chinese culture. Although many old forms have lost their vitality with historical changes, they can continue to develop through transformation to adapt to the requirements of the new era. Therefore, while studying the historical development of various categories of Chinese traditional culture, this book also tries its best to predict the future development of this field.

Another major feature of traditional Chinese culture is its prominent regional character. China has a vast territory and rich resources. Since the Zhou and Qin Dynasties, except for a few periods of separatism and separatism, China has maintained the political structure of a unified multi-ethnic country for most of the time. Therefore, in the system of traditional Chinese culture, there is not only the Chinese civilization originating from the Yellow River Basin as the main body, but also various ethnic minority cultures as supplements, which complement each other. The traditional Chinese market began to communicate with foreign cultures thousands of years ago. During the Han and Tang Dynasties, Chinese culture was quite open. In many aspects, the ancestors of the Chinese nation have bravely and without hesitation absorbed foreign cultural factors and transformed them, constantly enriching the connotation of Chinese culture. From an ideological perspective, China accepted Buddhism from India, which was one of the largest exchanges between major civilization systems in the world. From an artistic perspective, China has absorbed a large amount of exotic music and dances that came along the Silk Road and made them Chinese. "Huqin" is an important representative of China's national musical instruments, but as its name suggests, it was originally a foreign product. From the perspective of food, clothing, folk customs, etc., the foreign cultural content that China has absorbed is also amazing. At the same time, China also exported its own culture, such as the four major inventions such as papermaking, and crafts such as silk and porcelain, which have had a positive impact on world culture and made great contributions to human civilization. Many essences of traditional Chinese culture, such as traditional Chinese medicine, qigong, martial arts, etc., are still valued around the world. The exchange and comparison of Chinese and foreign cultures is one of the basic topics of cultural studies and requires special research. Due to limitations in content and length, this book only briefly reveals that exchanges between certain cultures in traditional Chinese culture will surely be further expanded, and Chinese culture with its long tradition will surely enter the future world cultural system with a brand-new status.

Chapter Table of Contents

·Confucianism

Classical Confucianism

Confucian Classics of the Two Han Dynasties

The intersection of Confucianism, Taoism and Buddhism Rongtong

The study of moral principles

The study of textual criticism

·Taoism

Laozi's philosophy

Zhuangzi's philosophy< /p>

Early Taoism

Taoism in the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties

The Heyday of Taoism

New Taoism in the Jin and Yuan Dynasties

The Decline of Taoism

·Chinese Buddhism

Doctrines and Rules

Historical Origins

Teaching Various Sects

Religions Waibiezhuan

Ritual System

Tibetan Buddhism

·Poetry and Music

Pre-Qin Poetry

Han, Wei and Jin Dynasties

Poetry of the Southern and Northern Dynasties

Tang Poetry

Song Poetry

Poetry of the Yuan, Ming and Qing Dynasties

Cigraphy

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·Articles and Parallel Fu

Prose

Parallel Prose

Ci Fu

·Zhang Hui Novel< /p>

Formation and evolution

Schools and masterpieces

National style

·Calligraphy and seal cutting

Pre-Qin calligraphy

Qin and Han calligraphy

Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties calligraphy

Sui and Tang calligraphy

Five Dynasties and two Song calligraphy

Yuan and Ming calligraphy

Qing Dynasty calligraphy

Calligraphy theory and appreciation

Seal cutting

·Chinese painting

Educating human ethics - figure painting< /p>

Mountains and Waters—Landscape Painting

The Spirit of Flowers and Birds—Flower and Bird Painting

The Mysterious Door—Painting Theory

·Sculpture

Ming ware sculptures

Mausoleum surface sculptures

Ancestral temple statues

Grotto statues

Temple statues

Temple statues

p>

Architectural Sculpture

Craft Sculpture

·Traditional Music

Folk Songs

Musical Instruments and Instrumental Music

Dance music

Folk art music

Drama music

Music theory, music history and music theory

·Ancient dance

< p>Primitive dance

Zhou Dynasty music and dance

Qin Dynasty opera

Sui and Tang Dynasty music and dance

Song Dynasty team dance

Dances of the Yuan, Ming and Qing Dynasties

·Classical Opera

The Origin and Formation of Opera

Southern Opera of the Song and Yuan Dynasties

Zaju of the Yuan Dynasty

p>

Legends of the Ming and Qing Dynasties

Local Operas of the Qing Dynasty

Peking Opera

Traditional Opera Theory

·Historian Historiography

Historians

Historical genres

Historical thoughts

Historical theories

·The form and quality of Chinese characters

Basic types of Chinese characters

The origin and development of Chinese characters

Chinese dialects

Chinese phonetics

Chinese vocabulary

Chinese Grammar

·Books and Classics

Forms of Ancient Books

Organization of Ancient Books

Classical Bibliography

·Education and Imperial Examinations

Education System

Educational Thought

Imperial Examination System

·Chinese Martial Arts

Boxing

< p>Martial Arts Equipment

Sparring

Group Projects

Offensive and Defensive Techniques

·Chinese Qigong

Origin Exploration Trace

Historical development

Category division

Research methods

Theoretical basis

Brief description of essentials

Application Value

External Qi Research

·Chess Game

Go

Xiangqi

·Strategy for military strategy

The formation and development of strategy

Theoretical principles of strategy

Strategy for national defense

Strategy for military management

< p>Using military strategies

·Political strategy

The historical conditions and functions of the emergence and development of political strategies

Types of political strategies

·Criminal Laws

Origin and Development

Theoretical Basis

Formal Characteristics

Main Crimes and Punishments

Penalty System

Main applicable principles

·TCM

Basic theory

Basic clinical principles

Acupuncture< /p>

Traditional Chinese Medicine

Health Science

Famous Doctors

·Architecture and Garden

Structure and Materials

Color and layout

Traditional residential buildings

City and urban public buildings

Palace buildings

Rituals and temple buildings

Mausoleum buildings

Buddhist architecture traditional garden buildings

·Antique utensils

Pottery

Jadeware

Bronzeware

Porcelain

Lacquerware

Gold and Silverware

The Four Treasures of the Study

·Clothing

Origin and initial development

Zhou etiquette, Jin gentry and Han official majesty

From the sun and moon changes in the Wei and Jin Dynasties to the Tang Dynasty's eclecticism

p>

The preservation of simplicity in the Song Dynasty and the restoration of Han customs in the Ming Dynasty

The coexistence of Manchu and Han services in the Qing Dynasty

·Fine food and drinks

Dou Tea tasting

Fine wine

Jade plate delicacies

·Chinese folk custom

Ghosts and gods

Funeral< /p>

Marriage

Patriarchal law

Etiquette

Festivals

Taboos

Physiognomy

Feng Shui

Fortune Telling