What on earth can the history of Chinese civilization reveal to human beings in the 21st century?

The first revelation of the history of Chinese civilization lies in the choice of peace and harmony.

Chinese civilization is a civilization of peace. The idea of "peacefulness" or "harmoniousness" has emerged many times in the Chinese classics.

Chinese people know very well how peace safeguards civilization, but they also know how war can damage it.

When China was united in the Western Jin Dynasty (265-316) and Northern Song Dynasty (960-1127), for instance, prosperity began to mushroom in the fields of literature, academic accumulation, literary creation and so on.

It was war that disrupted the development of civilization. The history of Chinese civilization has revealed that, without peace or harmony, civilization cannot develop; only in peace, can the achievements of civilization be preserved, and only in harmony, can civilization steadily develop.

The second revelation of the history of the Chinese civilization lies in the choice of tolerance.

The idea of tolerance was innate in Chinese civilization, which is something like "a sea accepting hundreds of rivers," as an old Chinese saying says.

Chinese civilization is composed by the civilization of the Hans and 55 other minority ethnic groups.

During the Warring States Period (475-221BC), different schools of thoughts, such as Confucianism, Mohism, Taoism, Legalism, Logicism, and the Yin-yang School, co-existed with free academic arguments. And in the Tang Dynasty (618-907), the imperial examination system made it possible not only for scholars with low social status to step up to political power, but also for able persons of various nationalities to have opportunities to serve governmental organizations at various ranks with their abilities.

The third revelation of the history of the Chinese civilization lies in the choice of enlightenment.

There are four essential significations in enlightenment: Firstly, the people are of nobility. Secondly, the monarch should be ready to accept the advice or even criticism given by the subject. Thirdly, the noble and virtuous people should be appointed to the government. And fourthly and lastly, the law should be kept as the criterion.

The forth revelation of the history of Chinese civilization lies in the choice of reform and opening up.

The Han Dynasty (206BC-220AD) and the Tang Dynasty, the two periods of prosperity in Chinese history, are two opening-up dynasties with very active cultural exchanges between China and the foreign countries.

The connection to the Western Region during the Han Dynasty brought to China the civilizations of Central Asia and West Asia.

With the Silk Road opening, a two-way cultural exchange pattern came into being, in that the culture of the Tang Dynasty was widely spread to foreign countries, and at the same time, was greatly complemented by foreign cultures.

The cultural exchange between China and these foreign countries benefited the mutual development of the civilizations on both sides.

It is generally acknowledged that the papermaking and printing technologies in China contributed greatly to Western civilization after they were introduced to Europe. And it still is an incessant historic mission for China to open up to the world.

What has been mentioned above, peace, harmony, tolerance, enlightenment, innovation (or reform), and opening up, are the main revelations obtained in a retrospective look at the history of Chinese civilization.

And in the 21st century, it seems to be a general trend that economic globalization is creating turmoil. What about cultural globalization? A sober judgment must be made for this, as it is concerned with the choice of living patterns of human beings.

Economically, globalization is the general trend; scientifically and technologically, it is easier to popularize throughout the world advanced science and technology, which can make human life more convenient; while mentally or ideologically, it is impossible and unreasonable for someone, by means of strong economic or military force, to impose a certain cultural pattern on other nations, as it refers to many cultural aspects such as religious beliefs, national psychology, life customs, thinking modes, and language habits.

We clearly see that there exists universal and profound misunderstanding between different civilizations.

Various prejudices, formed self-centredly, will shade human wisdom and actual interests or harm will confuse the human conscience.

All this, together with the lingual barriers, makes it hard for nations with different civilizations to understand and respect each other, and even more difficult for them to tolerate and absorb one another.

Why do the human beings fail to give up the narrow, stubborn, and extreme ideas instead of embracing different civilizations broad-mindedly? Why do human beings fail to have dialogue and exchanges of civilizations with each other on an equal basis? And why on earth do human beings fail to pay full respect to the choices made by each nation or country of its own?

Human beings in the 21st century should bridge the different civilizations with great wisdom and aspiration, so that nations with different civilizations can co-exist harmoniously, and that perpetual peace will be brought about in the world.

In the world nowadays, human beings with different cultures should be tolerant with an attitude of enlightenment and open-mindedness, and should co-exist in peace and harmony.

(China Daily 10/28/2006 page11)