Preface Understanding China’s Values
The value that things have usually refers to what they mean or how they matter to people, while the values that people have lie in what people think of what things mean or matter to them. Even in the absence of these concepts, people still have their own values, which serve as the standards or norms about what’s right and what’s wrong. Those ideals“the Cultivation of Self ”(成己),“the Cultivation of Humanity”(成人) and“the Cultivation of Things”(成物) pursued by ancient Chinese philosophers and thinkers were actually preset values, without which everything would have lost their meaning of existence. In fact, the so-called“Propriety”(禮) in ancient China was a value system that functioned in regulating people’s social life.“Propriety is what stipulate closeness in interpersonal relationship, ascertain suspicion, distinguish differences and tell rights from wrongs.”(夫禮者，所以定親疏，決嫌疑，別同異，明是非也)[1]. According to this system, if one regulates his words and deeds in accordance with the required ritual standards, he is a practitioner of social values. It is propriety that regulates people’s life, including how they should deal with their relationship with others, what kind of attitude they are supposed to have toward life and death, what norms they are supposed to have for righteousness and benefit, and with what kind of yardstick they should evaluate national and international affairs. In other words, the so-called moral values of a Chinese scholar are to achieve the goals of“cultivating the moral character, regulating the family, administering the country and achieving world peace”.“To cultivate yourself to the point of living up to your own words is good deed; to behave appropriately and to practice what you preach reflects the nature of rites.”(修身踐言, 謂之善行。行修言道, 禮之質也)[2]. At that time, an individual who followed this value system would be accepted by the society, and a society that kept this value system would enjoy stability and order.
Values, as standard for the rights and the wrongs, also serve as the norms taken consciously by the members of a society to regulate their social life and behavior. All human societies share some basic characteristics. That’s why there are so many values which are universally accepted, such as good and evil, integrity, honesty and justice, etc. However, the social life of human beings is based on diversified temporal and spatial domains. Nations differ in their ways of interpreting values because they are confronted with different natural environments and have diversified modes of production. Therefore, the very same nation may have particularly different interpretations of their values in different stages of history; furthermore, different members of the same nation, or even the very same person in different stages of his or her life, may foster divergent opinions on their values. It will not be necessary to study values if their nature is as consubstantial as water’s molecules, or boiling point. One of the important characteristic of values is that people who live in different countries may have divergent or even conflicting understandings of them. For example, people all pursue justice, but in a class society, the interpretation of justice by the ruling class is completely different from that of the ruled one. The ancient Greek philosopher Plato argued that a society where the ruling class, warriors and workers perform their own duties separately and do not interfere with each other’s affairs is one blessed with justice. Plato’s view of justice, however, is far from a modern one. The same was true in ancient China, where values turned out to be diversified as well. The ruling class advocated the value that“all the lands under the sky is the property of the emperor”(溥天之下, 莫非王土)[3], while the ruled ones believed in the value that“A just cause should be pursued for the common good.”(大道之行也, 天下為公)[4]
“China’s values”introduced in this book are based not only on the values of the Chinese nation in a long line of the brilliant traditional Chinese culture, but also on the consensus formed on the basis of the common social activities among the contemporary Chinese people. These are shared values among the Chinese people and also the common value pursuit of every Chinese citizen. These are the values that emphasize the pursuit of happiness, the welfare, civilization and progress of society, which have a lot in common with the values of other nations and peoples around the world. The Chinese people are no different from any other peoples. They eat when they are hungry, sleep when they are drowsy and take a rest when they feel tired. They also long for a life of liberty, have emotions such as happiness, anger, sadness and sorrow, and have their own value ideal and value pursuit.
Through the double interpretations of history and reality, we combed out the historical pedigree of China’s values, and presented our readers the contemporary material foundation and reality of these values. In this book, readers will see how the ancient value that“they do not care about poverty as much as about the uneven distribution of wealth”(不患寡而患不均)[5] gradually condensed into the concepts of“equality”and“justice”, and that“The king must be subject to the law”(王子犯法, 與庶民同罪)[6] evolved into the value of“rule of law”after being extracted by the thought of modern social governance in China. Readers can also see, from China’s modern history after 1840, that foreign invasion and humiliation, especially its great national sacrifices in the Anti-fascist War and the victory of the Anti-Japanese War, have made them realize the importance of national independence, people’s affluence and prosperity of the nation.
It is Chinese people’s greatest dreams of all to rejuvenate the Chinese nation, that being to build a prosperous, democratic, civilized and harmonious modern socialist country. This target is taken as Chinese people’s grandest glory and dream since the Opium War, being in line with the highest interests of all Chinese people and the fundamental interests of the Chinese nation. The Chinese people, who account for more than 1/5 (1.4 billion) of the world population, have been struggling to achieve this great goal. In ancient times, China was once the world’s leading economic power in the world. During the industrial revolution which was an era of profound change, China, because of its conformism and ignorance, missed this historical opportunity to develop through self-innovation amongst the worldwide tide of civilization, thus eventually fell into the pit of a passive situation. The Chinese nation was once, especially after the Opium War, the most miserable and poorest one as Chinese people suffered tremendous humiliations. This painful and tragic history must not repeat itself. That’s why to build a prosperous, democratic, civilized and harmonious socialist modern country has become the fundamental goal of our value pursuit, our national ideal, and more importantly, our responsibilities.
First of all, a better understanding of China’s values is rooted in the social practice and social life of the Chinese people in contemporary times. The exploration and practice of socialism with Chinese characteristics have rejuvenated an ancient civilization that used to be ridden with poverty and vulnerability. China’s economic success has drawn worldwide attention, which with no doubt has brought new perspectives to its values. As a matter of fact, socialism is based on a new value that a society, which gives everyone the rights of free and comprehensive development and where fairness and justice is realized by the public ownership of the means of production, should be established. People who take their values to measure us are often criticized, while socialism never rejects values like democracy, freedom and human rights. Rather, it considers the rationality and the basic preconditions to realize these values from the perspective of social development. Therefore, Chinese socialism differs itself from the so-called democracy which boasts of everyone’s voting right and ensures people their rights in economic, political, cultural and social aspects. Socialism with Chinese characteristics has converted the democracy which only has periodic voting rights to a new democracy which endows people with extensive rights. Great importance has been attached to the free and comprehensive development of individuals in contemporary China, and it is therefore hoped that freedom should be put under the framework of social equity, without which there would only be the freedom of the powerful oppressing the weak, or the capitalists oppressing the labors. China’s values never reject human rights but put them on the attainable base of reality. Human rights are both examined from personal perspective but also from social perspective. Social justice and harmony will be realized within the equal framework of rule of law if rights are mutually respected by everyone. Harmony is a socialist value that covers human rights while rise over them.
Secondly, a better understanding of China’s values necessitates the acquaintance of its historical exploration and civilization evolution. China has had a 5000 year history of civilization, the Chinese people, a 170 year history of struggle since the modern times, the Communist Party, a 90 year history of striving, and People’s Republic of China, an over 60 year history of development and a 30 year history of reform and opening up, which has all come down in one continuous line and cannot be possibly separated from one another. Once divorced from China’s history, culture, the cultural-ethical world of the Chinese people or the profound changes in contemporary China, it is difficult to thoroughly understand China. If there are no shared core values in a country where individuals are all singing in their own tunes and no common ground can be found, it will not be able to move forward as a civilization as a whole. Why have the Chinese civilization survived for thousands years and can still be moving forward? One of the most important reasons is that the Chinese nation has a consistent bloodline of cultural and ideological pursuits, intrinsic traits and different schools of civilizations. Chinese civilization has existed for thousands of years, thus forging a unique system of values, thinking modes and cultural-ethical temperaments. China’s outstanding traditional culture has developed into a gene of the nation, which has taken root in the minds of its people, imperceptibly affecting their ways of thinking and behavior. The core values we are advocating and carrying forward are the result of the transformation and interpretation of the values in our history.
A number of mottoes which represent Chinese traditional values have been preserved and promoted for thousands of years. Chinese culture appreciates and proposes the traditional values of:
“The people are the foundation of a state,”(民惟邦本)[7]
“The oneness of nature and man,”(天人合一)[8]
“Harmony in diversity,”(和而不同)[9]
“As Heaven maintains vigor through movements, a gentleman should strive for self-perfection,”(天行健，君子以自強不息)[10]
“A just cause should be pursued for the common good,”(大道之行也，天下為公)[11]
“Everyone has a share of responsibility for the rise and fall of his country,”(天下興亡，匹夫有責)[12]
“Govern the country with virtue and educate the people with culture,”(以德治國，以文化人)[13]
“The man of honor seeks righteousness,”(君子喻于義)[14]
“A gentleman is broad-minded,”(君子坦蕩蕩)[15]
“A gentleman takes righteousness as his character,”(君子義以為質)[16]
“Be true in word and resolute in deed,”(言必信，行必果)[17]
“If a man does not keep his word, what is he good for?”(人而無信，不知其可也)[18]
“A man of virtue is sure to have like-minded companions,”(德不孤，必有鄰)[19]
“A man who is benevolent loves all,”(仁者愛人)[20]
“Do things for the good of others,”(與人為善)[21]
“Do not impose upon others what you do not want to be done to yourself,”(己所不欲，勿施於人)[22]
“Look out for your neighbors whether at home or travel afar and help one another in defense work,”(出入相友，守望相助)[23]
“Respect other’s elders as one respects one’s own, and care for other’s children as one cares for one’s own,”(老吾老以及人之老，幼吾幼以及人之幼)[24]
“Help the poor and assist those in need,”(扶貧濟困)[25]
“People did not worry about poverty, but rather about the uneven distribution of wealth”(不患寡而患不均)[26], etc.
Thoughts and ideas like these have never ceased to demonstrate our distinctive national characteristics, and have been endowed with the indelible values of the contemporary times. We have updated them in keeping abreast of the times, whilst having their continuity and stability sustained. As a people born and bred in China, we Chinese share many common values which have become collective unconsciousness due to thousands years of daily reference, among which“benevolence, people-orientation, integrity, righteousness, concordance and common ground”are their essential features. The core values of contemporary China are the inheritance and sublimation of the fine traditional Chinese culture.
Thirdly, a better understanding of China’s values requires a closer look into the direction towards which our society develops in the future. Essentially, values are not recognition of the present, but a dimension of possibilities with an idealistic nature. On the one hand, we cannot abandon our tradition and cut off our cultural-ethical lifeblood. On the other hand, we cannot just stop moving forward and forget the call of our ideals. Only by keeping traditions can we make history, and only by being adept in inheriting traditions can we innovate better. However, only the culture that is good at innovating has a future. In this sense, innovation is the best inheritance. Therefore, we should explore in-depth and carry forward the contemporary values in the worthy cultural traditions of China“benevolence, people-orientation, integrity, righteousness, concordance and common ground”while we are striving to generate new ones. A value system with a whole set of values was fully developed in the feudal societies of China, which included moral values, such as the Five Constant Virtues (Wu Chang, 五常)“Benevolence, Righteousness, Propriety, Wisdom, Trustworthiness (Ren, Yi, Li, Zhi, Xin, 仁义礼智信)”, and the social norms reflecting the nature of feudal society, such as the Three Cardinal Guides (San Gang, 三綱)“the monarch guides the subject; the father guides the son; the husband guides the wife”. The traditional Five Constant Virtues can be reinterpreted as the sources for our contemporary values while the Three Cardinal Guides, like the Western thought of“Divine Right of Kings”, are against the pace of history. Obviously, it is the Three Cardinal Guides that represent the historical value of the hierarchical system of feudalism, which stipulates that in the three cardinal relationships among“the monarch and the subject”,“the father and the son”and“the husband and the wife”they should each perform their own duties accordingly, and it is the Five Constant Virtues that reflect the moral values regulating the life of the common people, which are the standard requirements of moral life for the purpose of“maintaining interpersonal relations with benevolence and righteousness”. In medieval Europe, the feudal rulers also preached the thought of“Divine Right of Kings”that people should be divided into different classes and since the nobility were chosen by God they should enjoy higher social status than the common people by birth. In their fight against the feudalist hierarchy of values, the third class in the French Revolution proposed the values of“freedom, equality and fraternity”, a new ideological weapon of the rising bourgeoisies against the feudal hierarchical values. Our core values are oriented towards the ideal society of the future. Therefore, while we are striving to inherit the excellent traditional cultures of China, we have to, at the same time, eradicate the values that represent feudal hierarchical thoughts, cultivate and promote the socialist values consistent with the development of history. The core values must focus on the direction towards which human history is headed, and reflect the requirements of social development. Only in this way can we be in tune with the rhythm of history.
Fourthly, to better understand China’s values, it is necessary to examine the increasingly frequent exchanges and mutual learning between China and the rest of the world. Chinese culture has always been developing in its interaction with other cultures. The Chinese nation has always been open-minded, having a bearing of living in perfect harmony with all the other countries. Ever since ancient times, China made mutual exchanges in many aspects and learnt a lot from them after digestion and absorption. Brilliant cultural achievements were produced in this way, such as the introduction of Buddhism and Western music. In modern times, thoughts and values conveyed in the Western Renaissance, the Enlightenment Movement, the Bourgeois Revolution, the Industrial Revolution and especially Marxism and the theory of socialism, have profoundly affected and changed the development of China. It is the influence of the Western countries that substantially motivated Chinese people’s pursuit of national prosperity. Although the values of freedom, equality, democracy and rule of law have obviously been influenced by both European countries and the United States, it was in the movements of the Chinese people’s enlightenment and liberation where these values were gradually clarified and took root. Of course, China can also make its own contributions to the development of universal values. For example, the values of“harmony in diversity”from Chinese people can serve as the best norm for regulating international relations. We advocate“all things can coexist together without jeopardizing each other, and great ways work in parallel without contradicting each other”(萬物並育而不相害, 道並行而不相悖)[27], a universal value much more reasonable and just than the thought of hegemony. The Chinese Dream is not a dream of world hegemony, but a dream of peaceful coexistence and win-win cooperation.“The Chinese Dream is a dream of making contributions to the whole world, the same as an old Chinese saying ‘perfect yourself when in poverty; relieve the world of poverty when successful’ (窮則獨善其身, 達則兼濟天下)[28]. This is the virtue and vision the Chinese nation has always been advocating”, said President Xi Jinping on March 27, 2014 in a speech at the 50th anniversary meeting commemorating the establishment of diplomatic ties between China and France. Harmonious values are the great contributions of the Chinese nation to human society. Domestically, we have been trying to build a harmonious society and a prosperous country, and peacefully reunify our motherland. Internationally, we have been advocating peaceful development, equal exchanges and mutual benefits. Different ethnic groups and different countries, because of their different stages of development and geographical locations, have nurtured diversified cultures and varied worldviews. We should adopt the idea of“harmony in diversity”so that the world can be kept in peace. China’s harmonious values have both realistic and universal meaning for the whole world.
In short, since ancient times, China’s excellence culture has been rooted in the great national spirits such as national unity and unification, peace loving, diligence and bravery and unremitting self-improvement, with patriotism as the core, and has bred the value system of unique national mentality, character and temperament. However, the mentality or the value pursuit of a nation is the refection or the guidance of its creative activities in reality. Therefore, it must address the particular problems of a certain contemporary era and thus be branded with certain characteristics of this era. Only the culture that reflects the characteristics and requirements of a certain era has the power to influence this era and produce a realistic and positive culture of vitality. Only in this historical and realistic reflection can we understand the true nature of China’s values.
[1] C. F. Trivial Rites (vol.1) in The Book of Rites (Li Ji, 禮記).
[2] C. F. Trivial Rites (vol.1) in The Book of Rites (Li Ji, 禮記)
[3] C. F. Xiaoya in The Book of Songs (Shi Jing 詩經).
[4] C. F. Liyun in The Book of Rites (Li Ji, 禮記).
[5] C. F. The Analects of Confucius (Lun Yu, 論語).
[6] C. F. The Historical Records (Shi Ji, 史記).
[7] C.F. The Book of History (Shang Shu, 尚書).
[8] An ancient Chinese philosophical viewpoint, from the Idea of God’s Will of the Western Zhou Dynasty (1046-771 BC), which believed that Heaven and Man were in a relationship of oneness.
[9] C.F. The Analects of Confucius (Lun Yu, 論語).
[10] C.F. The Book of Changes (Zhou Yi, 周易), also known as the I Ching, one of the Confucian classics.
[11] C.F. The Book of Rites (Li Ji, 禮記).
[12] C.F. Records of Daily Knowledge (Ri Zhi Lu, 日知錄) written by Gu Yanwu (1613-1682), who was a thinker and historian in the late Ming (1368-1644) and early Qing (1644-1911) dynasties.
[13] C.F. The Analects of Confucius(Lun Yu, 論語).
[14] The Analects of Confucius (Lun Yu, 論語).
[15] The Analects of Confucius (Lun Yu, 論語).
[16] The Analects of Confucius (Lun Yu, 論語).
[17] The Analects of Confucius (Lun Yu, 論語).
[18] The Analects of Confucius (Lun Yu, 論語).
[19] C.F. The Mencius (Meng Zi, 孟子), one of the Confucian classics compiled by Mencius (372?-289? BC) and his disciples. The book is a collection of anecdotes and conversations of the Confucian thinker and philosopher Mencius during the Warring States Period (475-221 BC). It is one of the “Four Classics of Confucianism,” the other three being The Great Learning (Da Xue, 大學), The Doctrine of the Mean (Zhong Yong,中庸)and The Analects of Confucius (Lun Yu, 論語).
[20] C.F. The Mencius (Meng Zi, 孟子), one of the Confucian classics compiled by Mencius (372?-289? BC) and his disciples. The book is a collection of anecdotes and conversations of the Confucian thinker and philosopher Mencius during the Warring States Period (475-221 BC). It is one of the “Four Classics of Confucianism,” the other three being The Great Learning (Da Xue, 大學), The Doctrine of the Mean (Zhong Yong,中庸)and The Analects of Confucius (Lun Yu, 論語).
[21] C.F. The Analects of Confucius (Lun Yu,論語).
[22] C.F. The Mencius (Meng Zi, 孟子).
[23] C.F. The Mencius (Meng Zi, 孟子).
[24] C.F. The Analects of Confucius (Lun Yu, 論語).
[25] C.F. Bamboos amid Rocks written by ZhengXie鄭燮 (1693-1765), also known as Zheng Banqiao鄭板橋, who was a calligrapher and writer in the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911).
[26] C.F. Liu Zi (劉子) written by Liu Zhou劉晝(514-565), who was a man of letters of the State of Northern Qi during the Northern and Southern Dynasties (386-589).
[27] C.F. The Doctrine of the Mean in The Book of Rites (Li Ji, 禮記·中庸).
[28] C.F. The Mencius (Meng Zi, 孟子).