Chapter 25 1. Glory: Yesterday and Today
In September 2013, I gave a speech on how to understand contemporary China at the Netherlands Institute of International Relations. A French scholar then asked me: China is rapidly modernizing, but it seems unwilling to accept the modernity represented by the West. ,Why is that?I answered this way: "To explain this question, we must first understand how Western modernity was formed. There are two places worth visiting not far from this venue. One is the former residence of the great Dutch philosopher Spinoza, The other is the Delft Porcelain Museum in the Netherlands. In the 17th century, most of Europe was still a state-religious country, and the philosopher Spinoza with "heretical ideas" was also persecuted in the Netherlands and was expelled by the Christian Church. The German philosopher Leibniz came to The Hague to meet him, only in secret. The two philosophers discussed a common discovery they had made: China is a very unique country. Unlike Europe, it is not a state-religion They believe that China has adopted a secular, natural, and non-theocracy method of governance, and the result is successful.”
I said: "In the Delft Porcelain Museum, you can learn that around the 17th century, the Dutch East India Company imported a large amount of porcelain from China and sold it to the whole of Europe from the Netherlands. The porcelain at that time was probably equivalent to today's iPad, the Netherlands The merchants also made a fortune because of this, but more importantly, European humanists discovered a whole new spiritual world from Chinese porcelain: they found that Chinese porcelain not only had excellent texture and exquisite patterns, which reached a level that was difficult to match in Europe at that time, but also these The content reflected by the patterns is also different from that of European art. The themes reflected in European art at that time were mainly religion and God, while the patterns on Chinese porcelain basically reflected people’s livelihood, which was the daily life of ordinary people, such as farmers farming, Old people fishing, children playing, many children and many blessings, and a lot of natural landscapes. In today's words, the themes of Chinese art have long been non-religious, down-to-earth, and human. All these brought to Europe at that time Shocking, it can even be said that China's secular culture largely led Europe from the theological world to the human world." I told this French scholar: "To understand the so-called 'modernity' that began with the European Enlightenment , we must understand that an important starting point of this modernity is China.”
This is also a massive "Learning from the East and Graduating from the West" movement, but today's Europeans seldom mention the Chinese starting point of the European Enlightenment for various reasons. However, this fact must not be forgotten, which is especially important to the West , because according to my observation, many people in the West have fallen into a new theological world today, and cannot objectively and accurately understand a rapidly changing China.If the West wants to understand today's China, I am afraid that it still has to go back to the starting point of the European Enlightenment masters at that time, which is to look at a secular and non-theocratic China objectively.The new theology of the West is the "end of history". As long as we remain in the ignorant state of "the end of history", we will not be able to truly understand China, or even truly understand the West itself and the entire outside world outside the West.
At the heart of “Westerncentrism” and “Eurocentrism” is the narrative that Ancient Greece begat Ancient Rome, which begat Christian Europe, which begat the Renaissance, which begat the Enlightenment, which begat Democracy, the Industrial Revolution, and the modern world.There is a bigger narrative behind this narrative: European civilization is superior, and its mainstream is rationality and democracy. The opposite is Eastern civilization. The mainstream of Eastern civilization is ignorance and autocracy. to the highest level of human civilization".Many narrations in our domestic academic circles so far are also repeating this mainstream discourse fabricated by the West. As a result, China has produced a large number of scholars who "must speak of Greece" and a large number of believers in the "superiority of Western civilization theory". As long as China's approach is different from that of the West, then China must be wrong and the West must be right. What we have to do is to constantly move closer to the Western model, integrate with it, and eventually be accepted by Western society.American historian Eric Wolf (Eric Wolf) once pointed out: "History has thus been changed into a legend about the inheritance of virtue and how the virtuous (such as the West) defeated the backward people (that is, the East) .”
Fortunately, China has risen rapidly today with a model that the West does not recognize. We can examine the so-called "Eurocentrism" and "the superiority of Western civilization" more confidently and objectively than ever before, and point out their falsehoods. This is also an important part of the construction of Chinese discourse.The historical "Eurocentrism" and "the superiority of Western civilization" provided a theoretical basis for colonialism, imperialism, and racism, and also provided a theoretical basis for the later "end of history conclusion".In recent years, those views at home and abroad that have bad-mouthed China are basically derived from the "Eurocentrism" and the "end of history conclusion" derived from it.It is necessary for us to get to the bottom of the matter and reflect on "Eurocentrism" and "the superiority of Western civilization" from the source, so as to better establish our own cultural confidence, road confidence and discourse confidence.
Many scholars at home and abroad have done a lot of textual research and research, making us seem to be getting closer to the truth of history today.The conclusions of these studies can be roughly summarized as follows: first, ancient Greek civilization largely originated from ancient Egypt in the east; second, one of the main driving forces of the European Renaissance in the 16th century came from the east, especially China; Third, the starting point of the European Enlightenment Movement in the 17th and 18th centuries was China in a sense; fourth, some core concepts and institutional arrangements of Western modern economics and political governance, such as "laissez-faire" and "civilian system" all originated from China. "Eurocentrism" and "Western civilization superiority theory" are full of fallacies and untenable.
Now there are at least two new interpretations about the origin of ancient Greek civilization in the world: one believes that ancient Greek civilization itself was fabricated after the European Renaissance, and that there has never been a unified and powerful ancient Greek state system in history, nor There is no "ancient Greek philosophy", but only Middle Eastern philosophy and Asian philosophy packaged as "ancient Greek philosophy", because these so-called ancient Greek philosophers are almost all from the Middle East, belong to Asia, not Greece, fictional ancient Greece The purpose of history is first to create a kind of "resisting the tradition of Catholic academics", and later to "find a long-standing root for the emerging capitalist market civilization in modern times".Black Athena: The Afroasiatic Roots of Classical Civilization by Martin Bernal is a representative work of this view.Another point of view is that even if there is ancient Greek civilization, it is thanks to the Islamic countries in the Middle East that preserved the ancient Greek classics, so that Europe can finally get out of the "dark age" that lasted for thousands of years, and connect it to the era that has disappeared. Ancient Greek and Roman civilizations, both of which themselves have oriental origins.This view is elaborated in John Hobson's The Eastern Origins of Western Civilization.
Martin Bernard's "Black Athena" reveals the oriental origin of ancient Greek civilization, which caused considerable shock in the academic circle.He traced the reshaping of European identity through the shaping of ancient Greece by European scholars from the late 18th century to the early 19th century. They "quickly promoted ancient Greece as the birthplace of European civilization, based on its so-called democratic system and scientific reason".The real history is that the ancient Greeks never saw themselves as "Europe". The word "Europa" itself is the daughter of Agenor, king of Tyre, located on the coast of Lebanon in Greek mythology.In other words, ancient Greece was closely related to the Orient culturally, and could even be regarded as a part of the Orient.Martin Bernal further pointed out that most of the scientific achievements of ancient Greece should be attributed to ancient Egypt, but it was later reshaped into an "Aryan model" that had nothing to do with the East, and deduced the so-called rational Europe and the irrational East, Democratic Europe and autocratic East.
Scholar Qian Mu also compared ancient China, ancient Greece, and later ancient Rome from the perspective of state construction. He believed that ancient Greece was "with people but no country", ancient Rome was "state without people", and ancient China was "state-owned". civil".Ancient Greece did not form a unified country, but was loosely composed of a group of city-states (also known as "city-states"). The population of a city-state ranged from a thousand to over 200,000, which was smaller than the population of counties in the Qin and Han Dynasties. scale.The Roman Empire that followed was "a state without a people".The empire fought all the year round. At its peak, its territory was nearly 3.5 million square kilometers, with a population of about 70 million, comparable to the size of the Western Han Dynasty in China in the 2nd century AD. The Western Han Dynasty had a territory of about 4 million square kilometers and a population of more than 60 million. However, in terms of national governance, ancient Rome never integrated the population within its territory like China did during the Qin and Han Dynasties. In the end, the Roman Empire eventually disintegrated and perished due to economic recession, political turmoil, and the invasion of Germanic nomadic barbarians (AD 476 years), the Eastern Roman Empire was hardly a European country.After the disintegration of the Roman Empire, most historians believe that Europe has entered the "Dark Ages" of the Middle Ages, which lasted for thousands of years.It is generally believed that it was not until the "Renaissance" in the 16th century that Europe began to get rid of the long "Dark Age".
The situation in China is quite different.Qin Shihuang unified China in 221 B.C., implemented "books with the same text, cars with the same track", unified weights and measures, implemented the system of prefectures and counties, and laid the cultural and institutional foundation for maintaining China's unity.After that, although China experienced many divisions, the mainstream politics of the past dynasties sought unity, and almost all the political systems of the past dynasties can be traced back to the Qin and Han Dynasties. As Mao Zedong said, "the Qin political system will be practiced for a hundred generations."The tradition of China's "great unification" has been passed down in one continuous line since the unification of Qin Dynasty. All dynasties and even the people widely agree with what Dong Zhongshu said, "the one who unified the "Spring and Autumn" is the constant scripture of heaven and earth, and the friendship between ancient and modern times."
Fukuyama also believed in his recent book "The Origin of Political Order": If a unified and neutral central government is the symbol of a modern country, then China is the earliest modern country in the world.He believes that China has established a state power in the modern sense in the late Warring States period.Of course, “modern” here does not mean Western democracy, but refers to what the German sociologist Weber called a “unified and rationalized bureaucratic system”, such as strict division of official ranks and functions, and promotion of officials according to ability standards.Fukuyama said: "Frankly speaking, some elements of the modern state as we understand it today existed in China in the third century BC, which is 1,800 years before they appeared in Europe." He also said that Qin Dynasty China China's bureaucratic government "is more systematic than Rome's public administration, and the proportion of China's population governed by unified rules is far greater than Rome's."Fukuyama's explanation is objective, and in a sense, it is also a deconstruction of "Eurocentrism".
Ancient Greece achieved brilliant achievements in architectural art, but I have been to Egypt and Greece. Comparing the monuments of ancient Egypt and ancient Greece, we can clearly see the Egyptian origin of ancient Greek civilization. An obvious example is Athens, Greece The marble colonnade of the Temple of Na is modeled after the ancient Egyptian temple, but on a much smaller scale.Scholar Chen Ping also read politics from the architecture of ancient Egypt and Greece. He believes that from a political point of view, this kind of architecture is more likely to be a disaster.The city-state of Athens spent 17 years building the magnificent Temple of Athena in the 5th century BC. However, the city-state of Athens at that time had only about 200,000 people. Therefore, the manpower, financial resources, and material resources consumed by the Temple of Athena are probably a hundred times that of China, and Athena is only the god of the Athenians' desire to defeat the enemy. The purpose of building the temple is to inspire themselves and deter the enemy, but later Proving the futility of all this, Athens was defeated and annexed successively by Sparta, Macedonia, and Rome.In contrast, our ancestors were much more pragmatic. Although the construction of the Great Wall and the excavation of the Grand Canal cost a lot, they did play an important role in maintaining the unity of the country and the continuation of civilization.The ancient Greek architectural art represented by the Temple of Athena is amazing so far, but unfortunately they are all built in the volcanic belt, obviously ignoring the local natural environment. From this perspective, these buildings also reflect the ancient Egyptian ancient The rigid and fragile side of Greek culture is far from the concept of advocating the unity of man and nature and adapting measures to local conditions in Chinese culture.
In addition, it is also possible to compare the differences in the level of development between China and Europe at that time.Although Europe has made great achievements in the fields of architecture and art, overall, the development level of Europe is obviously lagging behind that of China.The famous scholar Joseph Needham listed dozens of important technologies that were passed from China to the West before the 16th century in his "History of Chinese Science and Civilization". Mill (13th century earlier than Europe), cast iron (10th-12th century earlier than Europe), kite (about 12th century earlier than Europe), bow arch bridge (7th century earlier than Europe), wheelbarrow (9th-10th century earlier than Europe) , crossbow (13th century earlier than Europe), deep drilling technology (11th century earlier than Europe), piston bellows (14th century earlier than Europe), porcelain (11th-13th century earlier than Europe), canal gate (7th century earlier than Europe) —17th century), etc.
With the disintegration of the Roman Empire, Europe entered the "Dark Ages", mainly because in the Middle Ages Europe, Christian theology dominated, and its oppression and killing of human nature led to the stagnation of European society and economy.From this perspective, the Renaissance showed a new emphasis on human nature, so it was highly praised by later generations.Many Chinese scholars believe that similar darkness also appeared in Chinese history, such as the burning of books and burying Confucianism in the Qin Dynasty and the "literary inquisition" in the Ming and Qing Dynasties.But generally speaking, Confucianism, which is dominant in China, is much more tolerant than Christianity. The absolute exclusion of Christian theology is quite different from the Confucian concept of "tolerance and order".This is why religious wars have lasted for thousands of years in Western history, and they are still lingering today (from the "clash of civilizations" described by Huntington to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan to the so-called "value diplomacy" in the West today, in essence, it is still "not my race". Class, its heart must be different" mentality).In contrast, there have been various conflicts in China's long history, even a large-scale "literary inquisition", but there are few genocides, religious courts, and religious wars that lasted for thousands of years in China. It has formed a unified country where different religions coexist for a long time, Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism complement each other, and multiculturalism and ethnic groups are "harmonious but different".
What is the first power to break the stagnation and darkness in Europe?After detailed research, many scholars have put forward some viewpoints that subvert the mainstream Western narrative.John Hobson pointed out: "After the 7th century, the influence of Islam expanded rapidly, so that the Mediterranean Sea actually became an inner lake in the Muslim world, and Western Europe became a corner of the Asian and African global economy. The Islamic world has a great impact on Europe. The development of the Roman Empire had a particularly strong influence." Canadian scholar Gwynne Dyer emphasized in the book "War" that Roman civilization never collapsed in the eastern Mediterranean.Under Arab and Turkish rule, an Islamicized classical civilization has been replaced.That is to say, the Islamic region of Asia preserved ancient Greek books that had long since disappeared in Europe.During the European Crusades, Europeans were able to retranslate the works of Euclid, Tomeler, Archimedes, Plato, Aristotle, etc. from Arabic into European languages.At the same time, because of its geographical location, the Islamic world was able to benefit greatly from the inventions of China and India, as Jared Diamond points out in Guns, Germs and Steel: "Medieval Because of its location in the center of the Eurasian continent, the Islamic society has not only acquired the inventions of India and China, including the adoption of Chinese paper and gunpowder, but also inherited Greek learning.”
Comparing Europe and China in the 15th and 16th centuries, the gap between the two is still very large.China is not perfect, there are all kinds of problems in China, but the problems in Europe are much more serious.In terms of economic scale, China's total economic output at that time accounted for about 35% of the world's.Eurocentrists call the 15th and 16th centuries the "great age of navigation", but compare the fleet of Zheng He's voyages and the fleet of Columbus's discovery of America. Zheng He's treasure ship (1421) was more than 100 meters long and displaced more than 10,000 tons, a hundred times larger than the Santa Maria that Columbus discovered the New World 80 years later.The difference in cultural level between Europe and China is even greater.The French Enlightenment thinker Voltaire lamented many times: "When we didn't know how to read and write, China was already full of books." Gavin Menzies wrote in "1421: China Discovers the World" Such a narrative: "When Zhu Di instructed Yao Guangxiao to lead 2,180 scholars to carry out the compilation project of the all-encompassing 4,000-volume encyclopedia-"Yongle Dadian", Europe, on the eve of the Renaissance, had nothing to do with printing. You know, in fact, there were only six manuscripts in Henry V’s library at that time, three of which were borrowed from the monastery. Florentine Francesco Datini, the richest businessman in Europe at that time, owned 12 books, eight of which were still Religious works." He deduced that the rise of modern scientific knowledge in Europe could only be the result of large-scale reference and introduction of scientific knowledge from China and the Arab world, and it could never be the product of the "Protestant worldview" as Weber said. Relying on less than 100 parchment books in monasteries all over Europe led to the emergence of modern science, which is enough to be reduced to a fantasy, which even God would not believe.
It is no accident that the Renaissance started in Italy in the 16th century, because Italy was the European country that had the most contact with China at that time.Scholar Zhu Qianzhi pointed out that "from the 13th to the 16th centuries, China's important inventions used the Arabs as the medium, creating the conditions for the material basis of the European Renaissance."China had a huge influence on the Italian Renaissance.Silk, bronze, and porcelain were the earliest Chinese culture was introduced to Italy. Chinese textile technology and papermaking technology may also have spread to Europe through Italy. After the Crusades in the 13th century, the once interrupted road from Italy to China was opened again, and Venice became the most important city for Sino-European exchanges. The arrival of Venetian merchant Marco Polo in China in the late Song Dynasty and early Yuan Dynasty is an example.After he returned to Europe, he published "Marco Polo's Travels" covering all aspects of Chinese society, economy, culture, and political life. It caused a sensation in Italy and later in most European countries. It is hard for the West to imagine that there are such prosperous and developed country.
"Marco Polo's Travels" had no less impact on Europe than Wei Yuan's "Pictures of Sea Countries" had on China and Japan in the late Qing Dynasty.Scholar Maurice Colis believes that "Marco Polo's Travels" is "not just a simple travel note, but an enlightenment work. For the closed Europeans, it is undoubtedly enlightening. Revealing entirely new fields of knowledge and perspectives, the significance of the book is that it led to a broad revival of the humanities in Europe".Marx also said: "Gunpowder, the compass, and printing—these are the three great inventions that heralded the advent of bourgeois society. Gunpowder blew up the knightly class, the compass opened up the world market and established colonies, and printing became The tools of Protestantism, in general, have become the means of scientific revival, the most powerful lever for creating the necessary prerequisites for spiritual development." Actually, quite a few "Eurocentrists" probably know these facts too, but they seem to Reluctance to mention, let alone delve into these facts.
China's enlightenment to the European Enlightenment in the 17th and 18th centuries is also obvious.The dialogue between the Dutch philosopher Spinoza and the German philosopher Leibniz I mentioned above and the collection of the Delft Porcelain Museum are good footnotes of this history.It is very important to understand the Netherlands in the 17th century, because the Netherlands in the 17th century was the most advanced country in Europe at that time. The Dutch Renaissance was largely the result of the introduction of oriental products and knowledge.Harold J. Cook clearly stated in his book Matters of Exchange: Commerce, Medicine, and Science in the Dutch Golden Age: The Dutch Renaissance may first be the revival of oriental civilization in the Netherlands, rather than the revival of ancient Greek civilization.For the Netherlands, the so-called "natural knowledge" roughly refers to knowledge from foreign countries acquired through navigation: Chinese printing, porcelain and other industrial products, shipbuilding technology, navigation technology, navigation drawings, Mongolian war technology (especially firearms) ), Arabian gardening, minerals, spices and species knowledge in Southeast Asia, medicinal plants in India, etc. These "natural knowledge" that are different from European "religious knowledge" have greatly increased European aesthetics and knowledge. The quality of life expanded the spatial vision of Europe, resulting in the Dutch Renaissance in the 17th century, and finally promoted the development of modern science in Europe.
The German philosopher Leibniz was so eager to obtain knowledge about China that he said in a letter to his friend that he was going to put a sign on his door that read: China Knowledge Center.Leibniz worshiped the "deism" of Chinese Confucianism.He believes that China "has amazing morality, as well as the philosophical doctrine of deism... This extremely authoritative philosophical system was founded 3,000 years ago, long before the philosophy of the Greeks."Inspired by the hexagrams in "Book of Changes", Leibniz proposed a binary algorithm, which became the basis of modern information technology.In "Monadism" published by Leibniz in 1714, he absorbed the essence of Chinese philosophy, especially the Confucianism of the Song Dynasty.Leibniz believes that China has an advantage in practical philosophy, while Europe is ahead in speculative philosophy, and China and Europe can complement each other to form a world culture.
I myself have lived in a picturesque town in eastern France for more than ten years. The place I live is about 10 minutes away from the former residence of the European Enlightenment thinker Voltaire. It belongs to the same county, which gave me the opportunity to visit many times. Visited the former residence of Voltaire, and thus felt a little aura of the European Enlightenment master.Voltaire admired Chinese traditional philosophy very much.He once said that the history of the world begins with China.China is "the most beautiful, oldest, largest, most populous and best governed country in the world".He also pointed out that when China's civilization was quite developed and prosperous, the Europeans "were still a group of savages wandering in the Ardennes forest".
Politically, the Enlightenment advocated rationalism, and the idol of the Enlightenment thinkers’ rationalism was Confucius, and the rational spirit they yearned for was the Eastern world.Voltaire recognized Confucius' theory very much, and he put forward "Common sense is not so common" (Common sense is not so common) in "Dictionary of Philosophy". "Since the beginning of the world, what moral code is more beautiful than it? We must admit that for human beings, there is no more valuable legislator than Confucius." "I have read his works carefully and made a Note, I think he appeals to morality, without any sermons on miracles or metaphors on religion.” Voltaire also questioned the European kings: After you hear the example of China’s rule of virtue and the respect of philosophers, what should you do? What's the reaction?You should "be in awe and blush, but more importantly learn to imitate".
Voltaire believed that the Chinese people's emphasis on "heaven" and "reason" is not only the "origin of all things", but also the reason for China's ancient state and civilization. "China's history has been written rationally from the very beginning." Nothing in Chinese philosophy has any "magic meaning" and is in line with nature.Indeed, "in the Taoist theory represented by China's Laozi and Zhuangzi, there is a spirit of pursuing the freedom of individual life. It is a kind of chic to use it in life; it is a kind of experience to summarize it as experience." aesthetic".
In Voltaire's eyes, rationality saved China from war.Compared with the frequent wars in Europe, China's social stability at that time was enviable and admirable. He believed that China was ruled by philosophers.Voltaire also adapted the drama "Orphelin de la Chine" (Orphelin de la Chine) based on the Chinese opera "The Orphan of Zhao" in the Yuan Dynasty. He used the characters in the play to promote Chinese customs and moral standards.He believes that China respects intellectuals as nobles.Voltaire said in the entry "Ancients and Moderns" (Ancients and Moderns) in the "Dictionary of Philosophy" published in 1764: "The Chinese built the Great Wall as early as 2,000 years ago, but they were unable to resist can withstand the invasion of the Tartars." And in the entry for "superstition," Voltaire asks: "Is there a people who are completely free from superstition? This is tantamount to asking the question: Is there a people who are all philosophers?" Some people say that there is no superstition in China. Maybe one day, there will be a few towns in Europe that can get rid of superstition.”
French Enlightenment thinker Descartes was also deeply influenced by Chinese culture.In his book "Methodology", he enthusiastically praised the wisdom and rationality of the Chinese people.Diderot, a famous scholar of the "Encyclopedia School" in the French Enlightenment era, spoke highly of Chinese Confucian classics such as the Four Books and the Five Classics.He believes that the philosophy established by Confucius is a rational religion, not talking about miracles and revelations, but purely ethics and politics, and it is the mainstream philosophy that Chinese people have long believed in—practical philosophy.After research, scholar Zhu Qianzhi believes that from the 16th and 17th centuries, the Jesuits introduced China’s Song Confucianism to Europe, which influenced a group of European Enlightenment thinkers including Descartes, for whom they “anti-religion”, Arguing that reason provides the weapon.
Tocqueville once said: In the long 16th to 18th centuries, Germany alone was disintegrated into 314 small countries by the "Westphalia Treaty" in 1648 (while the situation in China at that time was: the establishment of the Qing Dynasty, the prosperity of Kangxi and Qianlong start). For a century beginning in 1681, until the end of the Napoleonic Wars in 1815, Germany was consolidated into 39 sovereign city-states, and this was only part of the fragmented state of Europe as a whole.From the perspective of European Enlightenment thinkers, China's great unification is in stark contrast to the war-torn Europe. They regard China's great unification as the fundamental reason for China's strength.
European Enlightenment thinkers also discovered that China did not implement the European aristocratic enfeoffment system (feudal system), so the country did not need to compromise with the privileged forces of the aristocracy, so that it could rule "without prejudice".They value secular and non-religious knowledge, and they respect the imperial examination system that relies on ability rather than heredity.In their eyes, China has no religious ideology, and people can handle affairs according to the law of "reason" rather than "religious authority".Economically, too, the idol of liberals is China.Now people generally regard Adam Smith as the father of economics, and economic historians generally believe that behind Adam Smith is "Francois Guesnay (1694-1774), a French economist who attaches great importance to agriculture. European scholars respected him as "Confucius of Europe". Quesnay believed that land is the source of all wealth and the basis of taxation. Confucius' Confucianism and his emphasis on agriculture as the foundation of the country, In the 18th century, French thought and economic theory left a deep imprint. The core concept of Western economic liberalism is "laissez-faire", and this concept originated from the French laissez-faire, which is generally believed to be Quesnay from Laozi" Inaction" concept is translated.
Quesnay and Mirabeau collaborated in the book "Elemens de la Philosophie Rurale" (Elemens de la Philosophie Rurale) published in 1763, which specifically talked about how the Chinese emperor went to the altar of society when spring came every year. An example of hosting a plowing ceremony to show support for farmers and hope for the next year's harvest.Men farming and women weaving is a common labor scene in the small-scale peasant economy of ancient Chinese agricultural society.Kangxi highly appreciated the "Poetry of Farming and Weaving Pictures" handed down in ancient times. He once ordered court painters to draw 23 "Plowing Pictures" and "Weaving Pictures" each, and wrote a chapter of poems for each picture.Among them, there are sentences such as "I have always done a lot of work on silkworm weaving girls, so I should remember her hard work and cherish Qiluo", which shows Kangxi's understanding of the weaving girls' work.Later, the Yongzheng and Qianlong dynasties also copied this set of paintings several times, showing their emphasis on farming and weaving.This kind of plowing ceremony of the Chinese emperor gave great inspiration to the European courts.Louis XV followed suit in 1756, and King Joseph of Austria followed suit in 1764, personally participating in the farming ceremony to express his closeness to the farmers.
In the past two years, the French thinker Tocqueville's book "The Old Regime and the Great Revolution" written a century and a half ago has become popular in China, but many people have not read this book seriously, and talk about the so-called revolutions that tend to happen when the society is prosperous.Those who have read this book carefully should have noticed the author's description of the general yearning for China among European Enlightenment thinkers in the 18th century.Tocqueville said: Throughout the long 18th century, for the French Enlightenment thinkers, "no one in a certain part of their works did not praise China. As long as you read their books, you will definitely see the Praise from China...the Chinese government in their minds is like Britain and the United States in the minds of all the French people. In China, the autocratic monarch does not hold prejudices, and holds a pro-cultivation ceremony once a year to reward useful skills; Obtained through the imperial examination; only philosophy is regarded as religion, and literati are regarded as nobles. Seeing such a country, they are amazed and yearn for it.”
Of course, there were also a few European thinkers in the 18th century who held a relatively negative attitude towards China, mainly the French philosopher Montesquieu and the German philosopher Hegel. With the rise of Europe's status and the decline of China and Asia's status, it has gradually become the mainstream view in the West, and it has affected it to this day.When we look back at Montesquieu and Hegel’s criticisms of China today, we will find that the process of their discourse gradually becoming mainstream coincides with the rise of European racist theories: that is, Europeans are civilized people, and other races are inferior to Europeans Race superior, even inferior.Montesquieu's natural environmental determinism was one of the starting points of racist theory, and Hegel himself was a Eurocentric and totalitarian loyal to the Prussian emperor.Starting from the standpoint of binary opposition and racism, they deliberately portrayed China as the opposite of the West. China is stagnant, "Oriental despotism" and a country where history has ended. progress.This fictional discourse system later also influenced many Chinese people.
Many scholars have questioned the views of Montesquieu and Hegel.Joseph Needham pointed out: If ancient China "was really an absolute autocratic society without freedom as some people propagated, we would not be able to explain how so many creations and inventions occurred in the past few thousand years, nor could we explain why it was so For a long time, China has always been in a leading position than Europe."The real situation is that for most of the past two thousand years of history, China has been ahead of Europe in a wide range of fields such as economy, politics, society, and technology.
There are profound reasons for this lead:
First of all, most emperors in China are in awe of the "mandate of heaven", and the "mandate of heaven" theory is in a sense the Chinese "contract theory".Xunzi said, "Water can carry a boat, and it can also overturn it"; Mencius said, "The people are the most important, the community is second, and the king is the least."In this sense, "Mandate of Heaven" means "people's hearts stand against each other", and it is a warning to the emperor.Scholar Zhao Dingxin believes that the "view of destiny" is in a sense "the legitimacy of political achievements": "A key element of the view of destiny is that although the ruler cannot completely determine his own destiny, he can influence the will of heaven through virtue. When a ruler is disaffected, it warns him in the form of natural disasters."At a time when the emperor's "Mandate of Heaven" was widely regarded as no more, the common people of China had the right to rise up, which was inconceivable in Europe at the time.China's "contract theory" was more than 2,000 years earlier than Europe's from its introduction to practice.In contrast, the European monarchs, big and small, represented the real absolute power and absolute tyranny.
其次，与中国“天命论”相联系的是中国政治传统中强烈的民本思想。美国学者卡尔·宾格尔（Karl Buneger）认为，“中国的皇帝没有统治的'权力'，仅有'天命'，即，一种必须履行的职责。皇帝有职责治理好国家”，所以“一个好皇帝就要按照儒家的道德标准来约束自己的行为，治国安邦、抵御外敌、关注民生，例如，治理洪水、发展灌溉、修筑道路、赈济灾民。古代中国政府所承担的民生职责是大多数其他古代社会所不具备的”。
第三，与中国这种“天命观”相联系的是选贤任能等一整套制度安排，如科举制度。从隋朝开始，中国实行了科举制，多数官员是通过科举考试选拔的，相比之下，当时的欧洲大多数国家还是绝对君主制，官员也都是贵族世袭的，直到19世纪欧洲才从中国借鉴了科举制度，形成了自己的文官考试制度。
第四，中国古代社会人民的自由度也普遍高于欧洲古代社会，在农业社会，最主要的生产资料是土地，而中国的土地在多数情况下是可以买卖的，在欧洲土地则大都属于封建领主；中国当时是小农社会，而欧洲是农奴社会，小农的生活质量和自由度远超农奴。
那么欧洲后来为什么能超越中国呢？现在看来主要是四个原因：
首先是战争。欧洲从16世纪开始一直在打仗，从三四百个国家开始，打到最后成了二三十个国家，但坏事变好事，当然这个“好”是要打上引号的，欧洲国家本身付出了惨重的代价，死亡和破坏无以计数，但一些主要欧洲国家的军事发展起来了，然后它们就到处打别人，包括建立海外殖民地，大量掠夺别人的资源和财富，后来也打败了中国，并强迫中国支付天价的赔偿，为欧洲的发展注入了大量的资金，中国自己则陷入了一贫如洗的境地。西方的军事崛起还带来了民族国家的崛起以及社会组织能力和科技实力的提高。
二是金融。从与东方贸易中发了财的威尼斯等地的商人开始投资战争，发战争财，资助了欧洲内部的许多战争，这个传统后来又在荷兰、英国等国得到延续。美国学者彭慕兰在《大分流》一书中说，英国工业革命的资源动力是棉花，而棉花来源于美洲（奴隶主控制的农场），工业革命产品的主要市场是美洲和亚洲，而非英国本身。他说“英国1689—1815年间超过其国力数倍的额外资金是从伦敦资本市场筹借的，而1840年之后，资金的赤字则由中国的赔款所填充”。中国被打败后，中国的战争赔款系统也是英国人控制的。
三，与第二点相关，尽管古代中国是世界最大的经济体，但货币短缺与经济发展的矛盾一直没有解决好，造成了整个国家对进口白银的依赖。自16世纪西班牙在美洲大规模开采白银，并向中国出口白银，中国就患上了白银依赖症。中国没有充分意识到货币主权的重要性。某种意义上，这也说明当时的中国缺少全球视野，缺少处理国内外两个市场的眼光和经验。明清两朝，中国都没有解决好货币短缺和货币信用的问题，最后只能通过进口白银来平衡。明朝几位皇帝也尝试过建立国家统一的财政制度和货币信用，但均未成功（民国时期的法币也没有真正成功，中国的货币自主是到新中国成立后才真正得到确立的）。鸦片战争前后，英国主导的货币体系由银本转向金本位，中国损失惨重，加上巨额的战争赔款等等，都是清王朝走向覆灭的重要原因。
当然，第四点是中国自己的原因。中国朝廷后来妄自尊大的心理、不思进取的心态、闭关锁国的政策等等，使中国对外界发生的巨变几近麻木无知，整个国家自然也无法与时俱进，无法应对西方列强崛起所带来的血与火的挑战。
回望这段历史，英国和其他欧洲主要国家不是以平等的市场交换，而是以军事和金融的手段掠夺非洲、美洲和亚洲，并以军事侵略和金融扩张打败了当时的中国。时至今日，西方对世界的控制主要还是依赖这两个手段：军事和金融。美国在海外有大量的军事基地，并不时为了自己利益最大化而挑起战争。同时，美国等西方国家还控制着对自己十分有利的世界金融体系。
当然，中国的情况也发生了翻天覆地的变化，中国已经较好地解决了这两个关键问题。在军事方面，1950年代的朝鲜战争扭转了乾坤。1840年以来，西方第一次对侵略中国的选择感到了畏惧，1949年4月还在中国内河里上下游弋的西方军舰再也不敢回来了，从此我们获得了60多年的和平。某种意义上，中国执政党对中华民族的最大贡献之一就是缔造和培育了一支强大的人民军队，彻底终结了西方大国可以随意入侵中国的屈辱史，这使我们得以捍卫自己的主权、独立和领土完整，可以自己决定自己的命运和未来。在金融方面，新中国成立伊始，我们一举确立了人民币的国家货币地位，并很快形成了统一的、独立的财政体系。这无疑是五百年来中国取得的最大成就之一。环顾今天的世界，中国是世界上财政状况最好的大国，中国拥有世界上最大的外汇储备，中国已经成为世界最大的贸易国，我们的人民币正在稳健地走出国门，成为一种比较强势的、具有高度信誉的货币。中国也汲取了历史上闭关锁国的教训，以前所未有的规模向全世界开放，融入国际市场，参加国际竞争，在竞争中改进自己，发展自己，有选择地借鉴别人的经验而绝不盲从，整个国家也因此而迅速崛起，给世界带来了震撼。
我们为有中华文明这么一种源远流长的伟大传承而感到光荣与自豪，我们也为人民共和国在世界范围内的迅速崛起而感到光荣与自豪，我们从历史和现实两个维度找到了自信的源泉。真正了解中国的西方有识之士也高度认可中国这种“文明型国家”崛起的定力。2013年底，德国前总理施密特在谈到中国时表示：“我依然保持乐观。一个高度文明的国家，存在了四千年以上，而且现在依然生机勃勃，这样的国家世界上只有一个。古罗马、古希腊、古埃及都已成过眼云烟，拉丁美洲文明也已经逝去——早已不再有印加人或者阿兹特克人——可是中国还在。中国从来没有过一种全国同一的宗教，但是他们有一位道德导师孔子，这或许就是他们的福气所在。”历史学家汤因比也曾如是说：“将来统一世界的大概不是西欧国家，也不是西欧化的国家，而是中国……中国的统一政府在以前的2200年间，除了极短的空白时期外，一直是在政治上把几亿民众统一为一个整体的。……正是中国肩负着不止给半个世界而且给整个世界带来政治统一与和平的命运。”中国是一个“天降大任”的国家，它应该承担起自己对于人类和世界的责任，特别是与各国人民一起去构建一个更加和平、公正、繁荣的世界新秩序。
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