Cultivate a profound foundation of peace and see through the outstanding characteristics of Chinese civilization | Unified historical environment and prosperous era of Chinese civilization | Peace | History
The Chinese nation is a nation that pursues harmony, yearns for harmony, and loves peace. The ideals of "harmony among nations", "world civilization", and "world harmony" are the ideals of Chinese civilization that have lasted for thousands of years. This prominent characteristic fundamentally determines China's continuous pursuit of cultural exchange and mutual learning, rather than engaging in cultural hegemony or a small circle of "party unity and diversity".
On the one hand, the highest ideal of Chinese civilization has outstanding peacefulness.
The highest ideal of Chinese civilization is "harmony among nations" and "world harmony". The sacred mission of Chinese intellectuals is to "establish a heart for heaven and earth, establish a destiny for the people, inherit unique knowledge from the past, and create peace for all generations.". "Harmony but diversity" and "peace under heaven" are the ideal pursuits passed down from generation to generation by the Chinese nation. "Moral education" and "world civilization" are the core values of Chinese civilization and world ethics.
The Hundred Schools of Thought, the Four Books and Five Classics, and the Twenty Four Histories all have profound demands for peace, elucidating the principle that "although a country is great, it will perish if it is belligerent". They advocate for "valuing peace", "harmony is the way to achieve peace", "harmony with real creatures", and "harmony with all nations", oppose unjust acts of war, and advocate for "righteous warfare", "cautious warfare", "non aggression", and "non aggression".
The Book of Documents records that during the Tang and Yao dynasties, China had the value concept of "harmony among nations"; The Zuo Zhuan contains Yan Ying's theory of "harmony" and "similarity", emphasizing "peace of mind and virtue"; In "Guoyu", Shi Bo discusses the differences between "harmony" and "similarity", emphasizing that "harmony is a living thing, and similarity leads to non continuation".
Laozi further advocates "loving the people and governing the country", calls for cherishing everyone's life, warns that "soldiers are ominous tools", calls for "those who use the Tao to assist others, not to strengthen the world with military", and emphasizes that "those who enjoy killing people cannot aspire to the world".
The Analects emphasizes "the use of propriety, harmony is precious", "a gentleman has no conflict", "a son is cautious, fasting, fighting, and illness", and opposes deliberate pursuit of wealth and benefits regardless of morality. It calls for "not doing to others what you do not want", "a gentleman is harmonious but different", and "all brothers are brothers in the world".
The Mohist school is a school of thought with a strong sense of peace, advocating that "the world loves each other, countries do not attack each other, families do not disrupt each other, thieves do not exist, rulers, ministers, fathers and sons can all be filial, and if so, the world will be governed.". Its highest ideal is: the ruler is a "dual ruler", the scholar is a "dual scholar", "all people in the world love each other, strong and not stubborn, the masses do not plunder the few, the rich do not bully the poor, the noble do not arrogant and lowly, deceit does not deceive the foolish.".
The Mohist school not only advocates peace, but also firmly defends it, expecting to "regard father and brother as their own bodies", "regard disciples and subjects as their own bodies", "view people's rooms as their own rooms", "view people's bodies as their own bodies", "view others as their homes", and "view people's countries as their own countries". To this end, a strong organizational system led by "giants" was established, becoming the world's earliest anti war peace group.
The Doctrine of the Mean regards "Zhong" and "He" as the roots and driving forces for the operation of heaven and earth and the transformation of all things, and calls them the highest and best moral standards. It believes that "achieving harmony, the position of heaven and earth, and the nurturing of all things".
Mencius advocates for "protecting the people while being king" and "those who do not love killing can dominate the country". He opposes "fighting for cities and territories" and believes that "those who subdue others with strength are not satisfied with their hearts, nor are they supported by their strength; those who subdue others with virtue are satisfied with their hearts and sincere in their obedience". He emphasizes that "those who are benevolent are invincible" and do not engage in unjust wars.
The L ü Family's Spring and Autumn Annals believe that national governance is fundamentally based on valuing human life, achieving "respecting life", "valuing life", and "all life", opposing "losing life" and "forcing life", and particularly emphasizing the justice of launching wars. "Soldiers who uphold righteousness can attack and defend, but can also save and defend; soldiers who are unjust cannot attack and defend, but cannot save and defend.".
On the other hand, China's long-standing foreign relations policies and practices have outstanding peacefulness.
The foreign policy of ancient China was generally to "appease the distant people". The Doctrine of the Mean states that "if one is gentle and distant, they will return from all directions." The specific method is to "send them away and welcome them, be kind but not reserved.".
The foreign relations of ancient China, including the institutional system centered on the Ministry of Rites and Honglu Temple, and the system of enfeoffment and tribute centered on the education of rites and music, were all based on friendly exchanges.
Emperor Taizong of Tang clearly stated, "To be the way of the country, one must pacify it with benevolence and righteousness, demonstrate it with prestige, and eliminate its harshness according to people's hearts, not engage in heresy, and naturally remain quiet.". He drew on the profound lesson of Emperor Yang of Sui's frequent wars leading to his downfall despite his disregard for benevolence and righteousness, and emphasized that "the peace and well-being of the people is the first battle for us.".
In the practice of foreign exchanges in ancient China, from Zhang Qian's envoy to the Western Regions to Zheng He's voyages to the West, from the Silk Road to the Great Wall, all had outstanding peacefulness. Zhang Qian's "journey through the air" wrote a great chapter of mutually beneficial cooperation between the East and the West with "camel caravans and goodwill"; Zheng He led his fleet on seven voyages to the West, leaving behind beautiful stories of peace and friendship through "treasure ships and friendship"... The Chinese nation confidently and magnanimously carried out exchanges and exchanges with ethnic groups outside the region, composing the long song of "thousands of miles of camel bells and thousands of miles of waves", and creating the atmosphere of Chang'an where the clothes and hats of all nations meet.
China's traditional foreign relations have never been a simple and crude process of conquest and subjugation, as well as the relationship between the suzerain and colony. Instead, like the Great Wall, it continues and spreads a culture of peace and integration.
From a historical perspective, since the Xia, Shang, and Zhou dynasties, the political territory of China has strictly speaking been smaller than the scope of "cultural China". During the thousands of years of development of Chinese civilization, the main scope of its territory has also remained basically stable. This is precisely the outstanding symbol and wisdom of Chinese civilization's peaceful nature.
Why does Chinese civilization have outstanding peacefulness compared to major civilizations around the world?
Long term agricultural production and life are the prominent peaceful economic foundation of Chinese civilization——
It is generally believed that Chinese civilization is a composite civilization that combines the agricultural civilization of the Central Plains, the nomadic civilization of the north, and the mountain and forest civilization of the southwest. Among them, agricultural civilization is a dominant civilization. The Yangtze River basin, the Yellow River basin, the Huaihe River basin, the the Pearl River basin, and the Haihe River basin are the main areas of activity and influence of China's agricultural civilization.
The agricultural civilization takes the family as the basic unit of production and life, the land as the lifeline of the family, and the population as the wealth of the family. Agriculture and handicrafts are closely integrated, with men farming and women weaving, and farming and reading passing down the family. Production and life follow the rhythm of nature and move back and forth, with an inherent demand for peace. War can disrupt and disrupt the pace of agricultural civilization, leading to hunger, cold, displacement, social disorder, and national unrest.
War is an unbearable burden for agricultural civilization. In spring, the people are abandoned for farming and tree art, and in autumn, the people are abandoned for wealth. Therefore, after every major war, rulers will implement a long-term policy of rest and recuperation, namely the policy of peaceful development with light corv é e and light taxes, in order to readjust the rhythm of agricultural production and restore the vitality of agricultural civilization.
Agricultural production requires a long cycle and stable social order, and over time, it will naturally accumulate a cultural personality that pursues order, stability, introspection, and a love for peace. So we say that peace is integrated into the bloodline of the Chinese nation and engraved into the genes of the Chinese people. Peace is the fundamental element and necessary condition for the continuous development of Chinese civilization.
The long-term unified historical environment is the prominent political foundation of Chinese civilization with a peaceful nature——
There are two important periods of great unity in Chinese civilization: one is the feudal period of great unity, namely the Xia, Shang, and Zhou dynasties. There was a unified central government in politics and culture, but local politics had serious feudalism, and feudal lords and rulers had considerable economic and political autonomy; The other period was the centralized unification period, which included the Qin and Han dynasties, Sui and Tang dynasties, Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties. Localities were governed by the county system and provincial system, with the central government directly leading the localities and the localities obeying the central government.
In the context of a unified national system and political environment, ancient China experienced stages of relative prosperity, strength, and peace, such as the "rule of literature and scenery," "the flourishing era of Han and Wu," "the revival of Zhaoxuan," "the revival of Guangwu," "the rule of Mingzhang," "the rule of Zhenguan," "the flourishing era of Kaiyuan," "the revival of Yuanhe," "the revival of Huichang," the rule of Dazhong, "the rule of Hongwu," the flourishing era of Yongle, "the rule of Renxuan," the revival of Hongzhi, "and" the prosperous era of Kangqian. ". The long-term unified historical environment and prosperous era expectations have nurtured the profound peaceful heritage of Chinese civilization.
The ideology of Confucianism as the mainstream and the convergence of Confucianism, Buddhism, and Taoism is the cultural foundation of Chinese civilization with outstanding peace characteristics——
The convergence of Confucianism, Buddhism, and Taoism is the result of the long-term historical development of Chinese civilization. Confucianism regards "universal harmony" as its ideal and "cultivating harmony and governing peace" as its method; Taoism aims to achieve the goals of "Xuantong" and "Qi Wu", and takes "Wuwei" and "non contention" as its paths; Buddhism has a profound sense of peace, with the aim of transcending the Dharma and the path of abandoning the secular world.
Specifically, when viewing the relationships between all things in nature, between humans and all things in nature, and between humans, we adhere to the value concept of "the unevenness of things, the emotions of things" and "all things are nurtured together without harming each other"; In handling foreign relations, we adhere to the values of "benevolence is invincible", "harmony is precious", and "kindness and good neighbors"; In terms of attitude towards war and peace, we adhere to the values of "valuing and valuing people, not valuing war", "putting an end to war as a military force", "subduing people's soldiers without war, and doing good deeds"; In dealing with the relationship between Chinese civilization and extraterritorial civilizations, we adhere to the values of "embracing all rivers", "embracing diversity", and "drawing on the strengths of others".
In short, there is no distinction between superiority and inferiority in civilization, only regional and distinctive differences. The beauty of harmony lies in harmony and diversity. Chinese civilization has never recognized the "conflict of civilizations" and advocates for the "harmony but diversity" of civilizations. Civilization has never been unified, and the future is also not unified; Traditional civilization is diverse, and modern civilization is also colorful. A single flower blooming alone is not spring, and a hundred flowers blooming in spring fills the garden. The peaceful coexistence, exchange and mutual learning of civilizations are the right path and avenue for the development of world civilization.
