"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." (John 1:1)
Which country does Genghis Khan belong to? In fact, culture often knows no boundaries.
Corruption and decline are the inevitable fate of all traditional cultures, unless they encounter new heterogeneous cultures. This is in line with the law of entropy in physics: a closed system tends to become singular and disordered, and eventually dies. The reason why Earth's civilization continues to evolve is because it is an open system with the sun providing energy. Therefore, Earth's life exhibits diversity and order.
Strictly speaking, all traditional cultures have declined. However, the West seems to be a slight exception. The universality of Western civilization is because it contains a self-denying core. Other civilizations, on the other hand, try their best to preserve themselves, so their fate is naturally weakened due to entropy. Human history thus manifests as the conquest of the non-Western world by the West.
In fact, traditional culture itself is a rather ambiguous concept. For example, Chinese traditional culture has undergone countless hybridizations and is not a continuous entity. Ancient China experienced the changes of the Shang and Zhou dynasties, the unification of the Qin Dynasty, the dominance of Confucianism in the Han Dynasty, the integration of various barbarian cultures into Central Plains culture during the Five Hu and Sixteen Kingdoms period of the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties, the openness of the Tang and Song dynasties, the establishment of the "provincial" system by the Mongols, the Ming emperors' belief in Catholicism and Buddhism, colonization during the Qing Dynasty, the introduction of Marxism and the continental legal system in modern China, and the information civilization of the present era, and so on. However, many intellectuals still superstitiously and idealize "traditional culture," without knowing which part of the above "tradition" they are referring to.
Similarly, in East Asian societies, the cultural forms of economically developed regions that have inherited some Chinese traditional culture have already undergone earth-shaking changes. Even those that still appear to preserve "Chinese traditional culture" are actually nourished by modern civilization. The idyllic "beauty" of small bridges and flowing water is nothing more than the imagination of intellectuals. In economically underdeveloped areas, it is only possible to have "poor mountains and evil waters breed bandits," and sayings such as moral simplicity are nothing more than shallow impressions from a distance. Some people even believe that the "human society" is an expression of the beauty of traditional culture. Are the harms of "face culture" really less?
I believe that the continuity of "Chinese traditional culture" is just an illusion. The real fact is that since the "Age of Discovery," we have always followed behind Western civilization, imitating and emulating, but unwilling to admit the superiority of others. There are still generations of "scholars" and "intellectuals" who are eating the meal of proving the superiority of traditional culture. They are like the officials of the late Qing Dynasty, always crying that the ancestral laws cannot be changed, and the West is just a barbaric land. Unlike the Japanese, who thoroughly "left Asia and entered Europe" to save themselves from the night's long dreams. Lee Kuan Yew, for example, stated that Singapore's prosperity is not due to Confucian ethics, but to the success of Western-style governance.
The reason why the "West" is the West is precisely because they dare to self-denial and maintain the openness of civilization. In fact, the formation of the West is an example of cultural integration. One of the sources of Western culture is ancient Greece, and the ancient Greeks used the Phoenician alphabet to record their language, which in turn came from the ancient Semitic language of the Middle East, which learned from the ancient Egyptian script. Another source of Western culture is Christianity, which is a transformation of Judaism, and its propagators are not Greeks or Romans, but Germanic people from the forests of Central and Northern Europe.
Postmodern theologian Cupitt believes that the meaning of the West lies in critical thinking and humanism. In the Judeo-Christian tradition, there are two core spirits: critical thinking and humanism. It is precisely critical thinking that drives the West to constantly self-denial and self-renewal, and it is the spirit of humanism that makes the West constantly move towards the center of life.
In fact, the convergence point of these "two Greeks" is reason. The reason why Western civilization always tends to be victorious is because of the victory of reason. It is worth noting that this reason is not just about logic and theorems. Hegel elevated reason to a kind of spirit. And this is something that only the West has achieved. When human reason has the ability to fully understand the spirit, this reason is not only free reason but also self-reason. It is self-consciousness, the reason for being self-reason as a spiritual thing. However, Hegel said that the East only has natural religion and no spirit. How should we understand this? We can only understand Hegel's intention through religious theology.
Rodney Stark's book "The Victory of Reason: How Christianity Led to Freedom, Capitalism, and Western Success" states:
Theology is sometimes called the "science of faith." It is a formal reasoning about God, focusing on exploring the nature, intentions, and demands of God, and understanding how they define the relationship between humans and God. Polytheism is too illogical, so there is no theology. Theology necessarily requires a conscious, rational, omnipotent, and infinite supernatural existence as God.
People constantly explore what God is doing! This is something that cultures outside the West do not have. But it is precisely from this point that the West constantly denies itself because God also needs to prove that he is God, and God can also deny himself. It proves and denies itself through creative activities. Therefore, God also has personality. Therefore, Christianity has become the core cipher of Western culture and has achieved the self-consciousness of Westerners. A progressive faith is born from this.
Christianity is future-oriented, while other religions always preach the past. In principle, Christian doctrines can be corrected (although not always in practice), and rational proof can make doctrines constantly progress. The universities established by the church in the Middle Ages represent faith in the power of reason. Under the promotion of scholastic philosophy, this faith has permeated Western culture and promoted the development of scientific research, democratic theory, and democratic practice.
- "The Victory of Reason: How Christianity Led to Freedom, Capitalism, and Western Success"
People in Eastern cultures are constantly meditating on something that does not exist, something without personality, something elusive, and something without consciousness. Therefore, this culture has no place for reason. "The East has no theologians, and the people who should explore this path have rejected the fundamental premise of theology: the existence of a conscious, omnipotent God."
However, in the present world, no matter how conservative the countries with traditional cultures are, their people have accepted science, and science is still constantly transforming human ways of life. And the characteristic of science is falsifiability, that is, the ability to self-denial. Why can't non-Western cultures produce science? The famous philosopher Whitehead believes that outside the West, the images of the gods in other religions are non-personal and irrational, so they cannot give birth to science, especially in Asia. Joseph Needham also spent decades seeking a materialistic explanation for "why China has no science," and finally concluded that the root cause of China's lack of science lies in religion, "the idea of divine legislation for non-human natural legislation has never appeared."
In addition, the separation of church and state and the concept of property rights are described in Christianity. For us, perhaps the most important thing is the ethical concept of moral equality in Christianity. Eastern traditional ethics are hierarchical, so people will not pursue universal rules and orders, and there will always be people higher than others who become the highest rulers. But in Christianity, everyone is equal, for example, Paul admonishes slave owners to treat slaves well: "And masters, do the same things unto them, forbearing threatening: knowing that your Master also is in heaven; neither is there respect of persons with him."
And the first modern nation, its "Declaration of Independence" says: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness." The ethical concept of moral equality is revolutionary. And this is precisely why it is difficult for Eastern traditions to produce modernity.
The misconception of traditional culture is a kind of nostalgia. However, like everything else, any traditional culture has a life cycle. If it is not renewed, it cannot last, and the condition for renewal can only be the acceptance of new things. This is the secret of why Western civilization always tends to be victorious.
Edward Hirsch's "On Tradition" states: "Tradition cannot regenerate or perfect itself on its own. Only living, inquiring, and desiring humans can formulate, reformulate, and change tradition." Respect for life, love for life, ethical care for everyone, and not clinging to various dogmas are the correct attitude towards traditional culture. By carefully understanding Hegel's spirit, we will develop a sense of the sublime of life and an open-mindedness towards cultural others, rather than confining ourselves and wasting our lives.