Chapter 26 2. Letting Dreams Fly: Three Kinds of Feelings

After the Wenchuan Earthquake in 2008, there is a scene that I can never forget. On May 19 of that year, the whole country mourned for the victims of the compatriots. However, a large number of people gathered in Tiananmen Square were still reluctant to leave after the ceremony. , They waved the national flag and shouted: "Wenchuan, hold on! Sichuan, hold on! China, come on!" This kind of scene may not appear in any other country, and it shows special Chinese feelings.To be precise, it is the Chinese people's "family and country feelings", "big country feelings" and "world feelings".

The "Chinese Dream" we are talking about today, in my opinion, also entrusts these three kinds of feelings: the first is "family and country feelings".The feeling of family and country may be a unique feeling of the Chinese nation, because unlike other countries, traditional Chinese ethical values ​​are family-oriented, not individual-oriented.The Chinese attach great importance to family affection and harmonious relations, and the Chinese also extend their affection and responsibility for the family to the entire family, country and the world.The word "country" in Chinese is composed of "country" and "home", which expresses the Chinese people's unique perception and understanding of "country".Different from Western society, the family-centered culture in Chinese society has derived a whole set of thinking and way of life, such as the social tradition of "sacrificing oneself for the home", "defending the home and defending the country", and " Self-cultivation, family harmony, state governance, and peace of the world” are Confucian beliefs that unify personal pursuits with social goals.In today's China, these values ​​have transformed into a strong sense of national identity and national cohesion. It can be said that "we all have a home, and the name is China."The vast majority of Chinese people are very concerned about the prosperity of the country, and believe that the stability and prosperity of the country are inseparable from the well-being and happiness of individuals and families. This feeling is also a collective historical memory formed after the Chinese people have experienced countless tragedies of "the country is ruined and the family is destroyed". .It can be said that the "Chinese Dream" is a combination of the "national dream" and the "family dream": if the country is good, the family is good;

This kind of family and country sentiment is a kind of transcendence of the Western individual-based values.It makes Chinese people's lives generally more warm than those in the West, it makes our society generally more dynamic and cohesive than Western societies, and it has helped Chinese people overcome many difficulties that Westerners seem to be unable to overcome in the past 30 years : From helping laid-off workers to life relief, to schooling, medical treatment, elderly care, house purchase, to earthquake relief, etc.It enables China to have the great ability to overcome all kinds of difficulties and obstacles in the process of its rise. If one side is in trouble, all parties will support it.This kind of patriotism based on the feelings of family and country is also a kind of transcendence to the patriotism based on narrow nationalism in the West.Looking at the history of the fortunes of the Western powers, narrow nationalism is their "foundation", not their so-called constitutional democracy.The Western powers used their own nationalism to unite the hearts of the people, forming a nation-state, and then producing the so-called constitutional democracy.Most of their countries were also born out of national wars. The countries of the Western powers were almost the embodiment of the God of War at that time, and this kind of nationalism was often amplified through liberalism and turned into hysterical national imperialism.After the West developed through nationalism, it used liberalism to attack the patriotism of late-developing countries, so as to disrupt the political stability and economic development of other countries and seek the greatest benefit for itself.Some people in China are also trying their best to stigmatize the word "patriotic" in China, but such efforts will prove to be futile in the end.Because the relationship between "family" and "country" in Chinese culture surpasses the explanatory power of Western discourse, behind the Chinese "country" are countless "small families" who regard "country" as "everyone".The Chinese concept of "country" differs from that of the West in that China is the only country in the world that has not interrupted its civilization for five thousand years. nation".

The connotation of Chinese patriotism therefore goes far beyond the narrow interpretation of Western nationalism.Chinese patriotism means loving both a country and a great civilization.Chinese patriotism is the Yangtze River, the Yellow River, and Mount Everest; it is the Book of Songs, Songs of Chu, and pre-Qin prose; Cantonese and Shanghai dialect; Great Wall, Beijing Forbidden City, Guilin Landscape, Shaanxi Terracotta Army; Sichuan, Cantonese, Shandong, Huaiyang cuisine; West Lake Longjing, Huangshan Maofeng, Wuyi Rock Tea, Dongting Biluochun; "Moon" and "Moonlight Night on the Spring River"; are courtyard houses, Guangdong arcades, Hui style courtyards, and Jiangnan folk houses; are Kunqu opera, Peking opera, Cantonese opera, and Huangmei opera; Beidou navigation, Shenzhou spacecraft, and high-speed rail are four vertical and four horizontal; it is "do not do to others what you don't want yourself to do to yourself", "all brothers in the world", "have the motherland in mind, and look at the world"; and so on.This is a kind of patriotism that is extremely inclusive, has both personal interests and human feelings.

One of China's greatest spiritual forces in the past century is also patriotism.Any kind of social trend of thought and political proposition can only be accepted by the general public if it is combined with patriotism, and can it be transformed into a huge energy for transforming society. During the May Fourth Movement, a group of literati and writers claiming to represent "universal values" have tried their best to discredit Chinese patriotism, but they can only represent a small number of people, representing certain foreign forces who do not want to see China rise.Without patriotism, the Chinese nation could not have completed the great cause of nation-building in 1949; without patriotism, China's reform and opening up could not have achieved today's achievements; without patriotism, China could not have surpassed the West and the Western model.This logic of patriotism will continue to be demonstrated in the coming years of China's rise.

The second is "big country sentiment" or "big country dream".China is a big country, and the United States is also a big country. Every big country has its own feelings about a big country, but the Chinese people's feelings about a big country have their own characteristics.As a "civilized country", China once led the world for thousands of years. Later, internal and external troubles caused China to fall into a trough, but through the struggle and sacrifice of the Chinese people for more than a hundred years, China quickly caught up and the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation Our dream has never been so close to us as it is today.Lee Kuan Yew, a senior politician in Singapore, once said: China aspires to become the world's most powerful country, "Why not? Their reawakened sense of mission is an unstoppable force."He also specifically mentioned, "China is China, not a part of the West."China is rising in its own way, realizing the dream of national rejuvenation. China will not copy the Western model, nor will it become a vassal of Western countries. China will affect the future of the world in a unique way.

"Great country sentiment" also means that the proposal of the Chinese dream includes China's own "big country consciousness", which also includes self-confidence in discourse, self-confidence in values, and self-confidence in the development model.We should confidently present our institutional arrangements and values ​​to the world.We also need to understand the relationship between 5,000 years of Chinese civilization, modern Chinese history, and contemporary China, as well as the relationship between traditional Chinese culture, socialist culture, and Western culture, so as to better establish China's political, political, and political power as a new global power. Historical and cultural orientation.

The third is "world feelings" or "world dreams".As a "civilized country", the Chinese have the inheritance of "family affairs, state affairs, and world affairs, and care about everything"; there is an ancient saying "worry about the world's worries first, and enjoy the world's joys later".Chairman Mao Zedong once said that if the United States is not surpassed, "the Chinese nation will be inferior to all nations in the world, and our contribution to mankind will not be great." This also shows the "world sentiment" of the Chinese people.With the continuous realization of the "Chinese Dream", Chinese people will make greater contributions to the world and mankind.Today's world is facing many severe challenges, from poverty and hunger to climate warming, from terrorism to nuclear proliferation, from financial crisis to conflicts among different civilizations, etc. All countries in the world need to work together to solve them.As a responsible major country, the various difficulties in the current international order call for the Chinese to come up with their own ideas and solutions.The Chinese people's "Dream of Tianxia" should include such a mind and concern: We should solve various major problems in international governance, reform and innovate the world's political and economic order, and build a more peaceful, just and prosperous world, Put forward your own ideas and make your own contribution.

There has always been a debate between "kingly way" and "hegemony" in Chinese history. The core of "kingly way" is "benevolent governance", and the core of "hegemony" is power politics.The logic of Western countries, especially the United States, so far has been "hegemonic" logic.In the practice of international relations, the United States likes double standards. It only allows state officials to set fires, but does not allow people to light lamps. Everything is for its own benefit, and it often uses unscrupulous means to other countries. It can suppress politically, threaten militarily, induce economically, and culturally. Infiltration uses all means, and finally reserves the right to direct military intervention.China has always advocated the "kingly way", but it has also learned a truth from its dealings with the West: the "kingly way" must be based on strength, without strength, the "kingly way" is utopia, and even becomes a sheep at the mercy of others.When China becomes the world's largest economy, has a strong national defense force, implements a socialist system, and on this basis, harmonizes all nations, implements the "kingly way", fulfills the mission that a big country should fulfill, and makes more achievements in international affairs , more upholding justice and fairness, it will be an extremely beautiful future picture.China is indeed the country most likely to practice the "kingly way" on the international stage.Judging from the general trend of human history, the hegemony can be aggressive for a while, but it will eventually decline because of "hegemony", and those who practice the "kingly way" will eventually get more help and win the most extensive world.