Qiu Jun's scholarly contributions highlighted in seminar on Chinese modernization

On Sunday, more than 60 experts and scholars from 29 universities and research institutions participated in a seminar on the study of Qiu Jun within the context of Chinese Modernization, focusing on how culture plays a role in this process. The seminar was held in Haikou, Hainan province.

Qiu Jun was born in Hainan, and was a thinker, politician, author, and educator during the 15th century, whose breakthroughs in various fields of scholarship left a lasting impact and are seen as a prelude to modernization. His most revered work, titled Supplements to the Explications to the Daxue, was a detailed analysis of Daxue, one of China's most influential philosophical works. It was here that Qiu posited that "labor determines value", 170 years ahead of British economist William Petty's Labor Theory of Value, according to Haikou Daily.

His thoughts on dialectics, clean governance, economy, rule of law, and national security are all considered part of China's cultural heritage and spiritual wealth. Systematically studying Qiu's legacy is of great practical significance to Chinese history and culture, the results of which can provide spiritual motivation and intellectual support for the construction of the Hainan Free Trade Port, said experts.

The seminar issued the Proposal of Qiu Jun Research, which aims to strengthen academic research on Qiu's work and its transformation and application. The proposal additionaly aims to enhance the protection and utilization of Qiu's cultural relics, and improve how local Hainan documents are collected and compared. These documents include Qiu's mementos, manuscripts and works. Finally, the proposal calls to beef up the publicity and promotion of the cultural heritage of Hainan's historical heroes, such as Qiu Jun and Hai Rui, who was an upright official during the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644).