Basic characteristics of traditional culture
China's traditional culture has a long history and is profound. It refers to the social and cultural system based on individual agricultural economy, with patriarchal clan system as the background and Confucian ethics as the core in the history of China. She is a rich legacy handed down by our ancestors and has long been in the leading position in the world. The way of thinking, values and codes of conduct she contains. On the one hand, she is strongly historical and hereditary; On the other hand, it has vivid reality and variability. She influences China people all the time, providing us with historical and realistic basis for creating a new culture.
The most important feature of China traditional culture is that its dominant position has been occupied by the value orientation of Confucian ethical culture for a long time. Confucian ethical culture has been the core of China culture for 5,000 years. From primitive humans in China to modern society, it still affects the way of thinking and behavior of the Chinese nation. In addition, we can also recognize the following characteristics:
First of all, China's traditional culture is the product of a natural economy dominated by agriculture under the condition of a closed ecological environment. It is created with the Han nationality as the main body and the wisdom of people of all ethnic groups. This social spiritual form in a specific region and a specific human circle has a strong national character.
Secondly, China's traditional culture is a complete and huge system, which lasted for 5,000 years. It permeates all aspects of social life from philosophical thinking, thinking mode, psychological tendency and so on. It is very rich and has the integrity of content.
Third, as a cultural tradition, it will be handed down from generation to generation, whether it is natural or selective, and it will never stop with the passage of time. The inheritance of education belongs to selective inheritance, that is, to pass on the excellent part. Therefore, it is permanently hereditary.
Fourth, traditional culture belongs to the old times. Due to the limitations of the times, it is always divided into two parts, the essence and dross coexist, and nutrients and toxins coexist. It has both positive and negative effects on education, and has a dual effect.
Basic characteristics of traditional culture
First, the typical ethical characteristics
The ancient society of China lasted for thousands of years, and its social structure mode was patriarchal society with blood relationship as the main body. China culture pays special attention to ethics. In philosophy, religion, literature, art and other forms of cultural expression, traditional ethics is in a central position and plays a leading role.
First, emphasize the unity of knowledge and action.
The core of China's ancient philosophy system is the theory of ethics, its universe ontology is the metaphysical entity of ethics, and its philosophical reason is the practical reason of morality. Laozi put forward: "People everywhere, the land follows the sky, the sky follows the Tao, and the Tao follows nature." In his view, interpersonal relationships imitate nature. He personified and ethicized nature, and human value was measured by ethical principles. Epistemologically, China's traditional philosophy emphasizes the unity of knowledge and action, and the unity of cognition and morality. The purpose of cognition lies in consciousness and virtue. "White Tiger Yi Tong" said: "Learning is also a sense of language, using consciousness to know what you don't know." The so-called consciousness is to open the chaos of the mind and glow the potential of virtue. Taking moral consciousness as the main goal of understanding is not only the expression of China's cultural and ethical character, but also the encouragement of his ethical trend. Therefore, China's cultural understanding of external objective things, even nature, is also mixed with ethics, and does not regard it as an independent object of understanding. If western culture is "intellectual culture", China culture can be called "virtue culture". Under the restriction of this kind of moral culture mode of "being good", China's "ruling the Tao" is not the rule of law, but the rule of the people, which pays special attention to the role of moral education. "Lead by example is teaching, and lead by example is teaching." Respectable people and elders should pay special attention to setting an example. The so-called "father is unkind, son is unfilial, brother is not friends, brother is disrespectful, husband is unjust, and woman is not smooth." The popular expression of this idea is "fish begins to stink at the head". The rule of man precedes the rule of law, and teaching by example is more important than teaching by words, which is the tradition of China culture.
Second, punish evil and promote good, emphasizing the role of education.
China culture attaches great importance to "punishing evil and promoting good" and the role of education. For example, ancient literature in China has always emphasized "literature carries Tao", attached great importance to the educational function of literature, and advocated the combination of beauty and goodness. Zhou Dunyi, a Neo-Confucianist in Song Dynasty, said; "So the article carries the road, the axle is decorated, and people are useless (used), and brocade is also used. Is it a virtual car? " ("Shu Tong? Wen Ci and Zhu Yuanzhang Gong Ji fail to realize that literature has its independent value besides spreading political ethics. Du Fu, a poet in the Tang Dynasty, also said: "A little skill in writing does not respect Taoism" ("Poems of Liu Shaofu in Yang Yihua"), because the article mainly focuses on Taoism, so he dare not write well and is proud. In the art of painting, the painter focuses on flowers and trees, birds and beasts, mountains and rivers, the sun and the moon, and everything in the world, not to express his own beauty, but because his own life rhythm and form can be linked with the running rhythm and form of human society, and he can realize ethics and thoughts and feelings. As Wen Hao, an ink bamboo painter, said, "Bamboo is like me, and I am like bamboo. "The reason why he is obsessed with painting bamboo, which is more labor-saving than thousands of trees, is to praise humble personality with bamboo. Loyalty and integrity, thus encouraging their own character. Writing is about writing people and praising ethics. In China's literature and art, there is naturally a personality and feelings. "All scenes and words are sentimental", and the works with mixed scenes are excellent. China's literature and art are saturated with ethical concepts, and become a tool to persuade the good and a carrier of education. Even historiography is not aimed at preserving history, but at "appreciating and criticizing, distinguishing good from evil". Sima Qian's Historical Records? The Preface to Taishi Gong said that Confucius wrote the Spring and Autumn Annals, which is "learning from the three Wang Zhidao in Ming Dynasty, knowing the discipline of personnel, not doubting right and wrong, knowing right and wrong, hesitating, distinguishing between good and evil, being virtuous and unworthy, surviving in the country, succeeding in peerless times, making up for the waste and becoming king". Writing history is to obey and serve the needs of ethics. The ancient education in China also put moral education in the first place and learning cultural knowledge in the second place. The purpose of education is to make students become moral "gentlemen". Confucius said, "Those who have spare capacity will also study literature." ("The Analects? Mencius also clearly pointed out that the purpose of education is to "understand human relations" and "teach human relations: father and son are related, monarch and minister are righteous, couples are different, young and old are orderly, and friends are trustworthy." ("Mencius Teng Wengong")
In a word, the ancient culture of China, whether it is literature and art or history education, takes the enlightenment of "punishing evil and promoting good" as its purpose and is permeated with ethical concepts.
Third, it emphasizes "loyalty and filial piety" and is full of humanistic spirit.
The ancient culture of China paid special attention to the concepts of "loyalty" and "filial piety". The patriarchal society in ancient China regarded the world (country) as a big family. The political system of the feudal country was established according to the patriarchal model, and the monarch was the "strict father" of the whole country. As Hegel said, "China is purely based on such a moral combination, and the characteristics of the country are objective? Family filial piety. The people of China regard themselves as their own family and children of the country. " Therefore, the feudal ruling class in China advocated "ruling the world with filial piety". They think: "it is a filial ladder, but it is rare to be guilty;" It is not easy to make mistakes, but people who are good at making trouble are not there. " ("The Analects? In their view, filial piety to parents at home, loyalty to the monarch when going out, no mistakes, and peace in the world. China's ancient politics never had a perfect and independent legal system. Instead, politics is replaced by morality, and the implementation of the legal system is replaced by moral preaching. In addition, China ancient culture is full of humanistic spirit and non-religious. In China's traditional culture, personnel and interpersonal relationships come first, not religion. Confucius said, "If you can't serve people, how can you serve ghosts?" "I don't talk about strangeness, strength, chaos and spirit." Because China culture is full of humanistic spirit, attaches importance to human relations, and pays attention to "loyalty", "filial piety", "benevolence" and "righteousness", it has created many people with lofty ideals in history who sacrificed their lives for righteousness and faithfully served the country. Because of the strong humanistic spirit of China culture, it has great cohesion of the Chinese nation and splendid civilization for thousands of years. However, the feudal ethical consciousness with filial piety and loyalty as the core is also a spiritual shackle that harms others and harms themselves. "You want me to die, I have to die; The feudal dross that the father wanted his son to die and the son had to die also seriously hindered the progress of the historical wheel.
Second, strong vitality and cohesion.
In the history of human society, there are not only four ancient civilizations, but also many excellent cultural systems. According to the British historian Toynbee, in the nearly 6,000 years of human history, there are 26 forms of civilization, but only China's cultural system in the world is a long-term and uninterrupted culture. This strong vitality constitutes an important feature of China culture.
The strong vitality of China culture is manifested in many aspects, but the most prominent ones are the following two aspects:
First of all, it shows unparalleled continuity of life. As far as the world is concerned, China's ancient culture is one of the oldest in the world, but it is not the earliest. However, among all the ancient civilizations and cultures in the world, only China's traditional culture shows the most tenacious vitality. This unparalleled vitality makes China's traditional culture the only cultural type in the world that continues to develop to this day.
In human history, there have been many tragedies of cultural extinction caused by national invasion. For example, Indian culture was Aryan due to Aryan invasion, Egypt was Hellenistic due to Alexander the Great, Romanized due to Caesar occupation, Arabs moved in and Islamized, and Greek and Roman culture was isolated and slept for thousands of years due to Germanic barbarian invasion. But in China, this has never happened. Cultural circles call the seven ancient cultures-Egyptian culture, Sumerian culture, Minoan culture, Mayan culture, Halaba culture and China culture-the "mother culture" of primitive human form. Among them, it has continued to this day and has never stopped, showing unparalleled continuity.
In the long historical development process, although China's ancient culture was not threatened by Europe, West Asia and South Asia, it was also repeatedly invaded by nomadic people in the north, such as the invasion of "Nanyi" and "Beidi" before the Spring and Autumn Period, the "Five Wild Flowers" in the Sixteen Countries Period, and the Khitan, Nuzhen and Mongols went south one after another in the Song and Yuan Dynasties until the Qing Dynasty entered the customs. Although these brave nomads gained the upper hand militarily, and even established a powerful ruling regime for many times, culturally, they were always assimilated consciously or unconsciously by the advanced Central Plains culture represented by China farming culture. Almost all nomadic or semi-agricultural and semi-pastoral ethnic groups, such as Xiongnu, Xianbei, Turkic, Qidan, Jurchen and Mongolia, have experienced a transition or leap from clan society to feudal society in the process of contact with the advanced culture of the Central Plains. The result of military conquest is not the cultural destruction and interruption of the conqueror, but the cultural transformation and progress of the conqueror. In this process, the traditional culture of China has absorbed fresh nutrients from many aspects, such as the riding and shooting technology of nomadic people and the products and skills of frontier areas, thus adding new vitality.
It is in this sense that we say that China's traditional culture is like the Yangtze River, which is made up of countless trickles on the mountain and merged into a flowing river. It has been developing continuously until it joins the sea. Therefore, China's traditional culture not only comes down in one continuous line in its development, but also integrates the wisdom of all ethnic groups in China, forming a unique cultural system with strong vitality and becoming a great spectacle in the history of human culture.
Second, show extraordinary tolerance and communication spirit. In the process of its own development, China's traditional culture has never clung to the past, but has always enriched and perfected itself with extraordinary tolerance and understanding. This spirit of China's traditional culture is first manifested in its inclusive academic views on hundred schools of thought. Although ancient thinkers in China had their own respects, they advocated that "all things should be nurtured without harming each other, and Taoism should be parallel without contradicting each other", and regarded this as the ideal realm of composition development. So during the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, although a hundred schools of thought contended, it was difficult to refute each other, but they also absorbed each other. For example, Lv Buwei advocates a hundred schools of thought contend, which is reflected in his book Lv Chunqiu. In the traditional culture of China, Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism can coexist for a long time, which is a typical embodiment of this spirit of tolerance and understanding. Therefore, in ancient China, the gods of Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism could be enshrined together, and many concrete descriptions of the integration of the three religions can be seen in classical novels such as The Journey to the West and A Dream of Red Mansions. In Preface to Nestorianism Monument in Daqin, Emperor Taizong even expressed the idea that any religion can be integrated. In fact, in ancient China, in addition to the coexistence of Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism, it even accepted _ _ _ _, Islam and other religions with a generous attitude.
It is this spirit of inclusiveness that makes China's culture have an extraordinary fusion. In the process of China's cultural development, this integration makes China culture be good at organically absorbing the cultures of various nationalities and different regions in China, such as Chu culture, Wu culture, Bashu culture, Western Region culture and so on. Based on Chinese culture, it has formed China culture with rich connotations. The cultures of various nationalities in China, such as Xiongnu, Xianbei, Jiejie, Yi, Qiang, Qidan, Liao and Jin, all flow in the blood of Chinese culture. Without this integration, there would be no profoundness of China culture. British historian Toynbee had a famous dialogue with Japanese scholar Daisaku Ikeda in the early 1970s, in which he pointed out: "As far as the people of China are concerned, for thousands of years, hundreds of millions of people have successfully United politically and culturally than any other nation in the world. They have demonstrated this ability of political and cultural unity and have unparalleled successful experience. " (Toynbee: Historical Research, Shanghai People's Publishing House, 1966 edition. )
Third, outstanding regionality and diversity.
First of all, due to the diversity of geographical environment, China culture is rich in diversity.
As a vast country, the territory of China gradually expanded to the sea in the east and quicksand in the west as early as two years ago. Weinan and Shengjiao are all over the world. "There are great differences in natural conditions and uneven economic and political levels in different parts of China. Therefore, China culture has shown a rich and diverse state since it came into being, which is due to the diversity of the environment. By the end of the week, distinctive regional cultures have generally formed: from the perspective of large cultural types, there are farming cultures developed in the humid east and nomadic cultures developed in the arid west; Divided from different regions: Qilu culture is in Haidong; The "land of four blockades" has Qin culture; The primitive gold culture is in the middle; Jingchu land has Chu culture; There are Bashu culture, Chu culture and Wu Yue culture in the upper, middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River basin. These cultures have their own characteristics due to different regions.
In the cultural history of China, due to the differences in human geography, cultural thoughts are also diverse. In a certain historical period, not only did academic research in various regions have their own traditional research fields, which reflected the continuity of cultural thoughts and the relative independence between regions, but also different factions were formed in the same field due to the differences between regions. For example, in the Qing Dynasty, scholars in Jiangsu and Anhui mainly studied classics, while scholars in Zhejiang were good at studying history. In the Song Dynasty, Jiangxi Poetry School headed by Huang Tingjian and Yongjia Poetry School represented by Zhao Xu, Xugong, Zhao Shixiu and Weng Juan formed. At the end of Ming Dynasty, Chaling School headed by Li Dongyang, Gongan School represented by Yuan Hongdao, Yuan Zongdu and Yuan Zhongdao, Jingling School headed by Zhong Xing and Tan were formed. In the Qing Dynasty, Zhu Yizun was the head of Zhexi Ci School, Fang Bao, Liu Dazha and Yao He were the head of Tongcheng School, Hunjing was the head of Yanghu School, and Wu Pai was the head. These factions are named after regions, which reflects the division of regional culture.
Secondly, China culture was bred and developed in a semi-closed environment in a special geographical location, so it has an independent and self-sufficient humanistic connotation.
The Chinese nation lives on the East Asian continent, with vast seas in the east, endless deserts in the northwest, and towering Qinghai-Tibet Plateau and Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau in the southwest. Its topographical feature is that it is high in the west and low in the east, which looks like a huge reclining chair, backed by the hinterland of Eurasia and facing the vast Pacific Ocean. This geographical environment determines that China culture is a kind of mainland culture, which is produced in a semi-closed mainland environment. Therefore, China culture is an independent and self-sufficient development path, which is quite different from other ancient civilizations. The uniqueness and longevity of China's ancient culture have achieved amazing unity, which is a unique and precious phenomenon in the history of world culture. Due to the geographical location of China in a semi-closed continental environment, the period of China culture was largely completed by itself in isolation from other cultures outside the East Asian civilization circle. It has distinct uniqueness and autonomy, which is quite different from the eastern Mediterranean culture and the southern subculture. Taking characters as an example, China's ideographic square characters, which have been widely used since the Shang Dynasty, are completely different from phonography, which originated in Mesopotamia and later became popular in most parts of the world, and become a unique unified special case in the history of world culture. In terms of literature and art, China's literature and art is self-contained. China's earliest collection of poems, The Book of Songs, is in the same era as Rigveda in ancient India, Hebrew poetry in Israel, Heriat in ancient Greece and Odyssey, but the national style and elegance in the Book of Songs are different from those of Rigveda and Heriat, which are close to novels and dramas. Philosophically, China's philosophy also has a unique category system. For example, yin and yang, heaven and man, name and reality, constancy and change, one and two in the theory of contradiction, and good and evil in the theory of human nature were all put forward by the pre-Qin and Han Dynasties. The metaphysical school in Wei and Jin Dynasties integrated Confucianism and Taoism, and put forward the concepts of being and not being, body and use, essence and end, oneness and diversity, speech and meaning, movement and quietness, nature and name. It is very different from the category system (such as entity, quantity, nature, relationship, place, time, posture, situation, activity, etc.) established by European philosophy from Aristotle to Kant and Hegel. ) as far as arguments and key points are concerned.
The main types of traditional culture
China's traditional culture includes thought, writing and language, followed by six arts, namely, ceremony, music, shooting, imperial style, calligraphy, music, martial arts, quyi, chess, festivals and folk customs derived from enriching life. Traditional culture is closely related and integrated with our lives, and we enjoy it unconsciously.
China's traditional culture should include: ancient prose, ancient poetry, ci, music, fu, national music, national drama, folk art, Chinese painting, calligraphy, couplets, riddles, shots, wine orders, two-part allegorical sayings and so on. Traditional festivals (all according to the lunar calendar) include: Spring Festival on the first day of the first month (Lunar New Year), Lantern Festival on the 15th day of the first month, Cold Food Festival around Tomb-Sweeping Day and Tomb-Sweeping Day on April 5th, Dragon Boat Festival on May 5th, Qixi Festival on July 7th, Mid-Autumn Festival on August 15th, New Year's Eve of the twelfth month and various folk activities. China's ancient natural sciences, including traditional calendars, and the traditional cultures of various regions and ethnic minorities living in China are also part of China's traditional culture.
Up to now, scholars at all times and all over the world can't come to a conclusion, except for the reasons of multi-dimensional vision, there are also objective ambiguities from a linguistic perspective. Broadly speaking, culture is the sum of human spiritual life and material life.
First of all, in terms of time, there are primitive culture, ancient culture, modern culture and modern culture.
Secondly, in terms of space, there are oriental culture, western culture, marine culture and mainland culture.
Thirdly, from the social perspective, there are aristocratic culture, civilian culture, official culture, folk culture, mainstream culture and marginal culture (Mr. Jiang Yihua divided them into normative culture, non-normative culture and semi-normative culture. This division is relatively novel, so I will focus on it. The so-called normative culture, according to Mr. Jiang, is the highest authoritative normative culture in China's small-scale peasant society, taking Confucian classics as the classics and the official history of past dynasties as the latitude, and widely absorbing the theories of Taoism, Buddhism, Yin and Yang, metaphysics and foreign cultures in the long-term migration and evolution. Correspondingly, it is the mode of production, lifestyle, various relationships between people, customs, beliefs, pursuits, daily psychology, potential consciousness and non-standard culture in various written or unwritten systems. In addition to these two cultures, there is a semi-standard culture between them, which refers to a large number of literary and artistic works with different elegance and popularity, and various cultural education and religious entertainment activities that are semi-divorced from classics, history and culture, such as Water Margin, Romance of the Three Kingdoms, Romance of Sui and Tang Dynasties, The Journey to the West and other popular cultural masterpieces. Of course, I think the division of Teacher Jiang seems to be only effective for the traditional culture of China.
Fourthly, from the social function, it can be divided into name culture, etiquette culture, system culture, clothing culture, campus culture and enterprise culture.
Fifth, from the internal logic level of culture, it can be divided into four levels: material state culture, mentality culture, behavior culture and system culture.
Sixth, in terms of economic form, there are different cultures, such as animal husbandry and hunting, fishing and salt, agriculture, industry and commerce. Some people engage in coloring, yellow culture, blue culture and so on.
Besides, there are more interesting points. For example, Mr. Zhang Yuanshan divided culture into brain culture, chest culture, abdomen culture and lower body culture in his cultural essay "Up and Down Five Thousand Years". He divided the lower body into two sections, hip culture and hip culture. He said that the middle Tang Dynasty (An Shi Rebellion) was the first half of China culture, and then the second half of China culture. If subdivided, from Yao to Zhou, that is, from 3000 BC to the birth of Confucius in 552 BC, about 2500 years, it is a prehistoric period of China culture, and there is no mind yet. Around the birth of Confucius, during the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, China entered the age of brain culture. Qin Shihuang was unified, centralized and autocratic, and his chest collapsed, so China entered the era of chest collapse. The Han dynasty played louder, which made the Xiongnu soldiers tremble with fear. Huo Qubing stone pig stone horse, a look is the most brainless people carved. The cleverest Sima Qian was castrated by the most brainless Emperor Wu. It was also the brainless Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty who declared that Confucianism was the only one, which led to the fact that most of the intellectuals in China for two thousand years became brainless. In a word, Mr. Zhang's score is very witty. The reason why he gave you so many verbiages was just to give you some inspiration. If students are interested, they may want to create a score.
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