At the end of “Eternal Rivers” (continued), I would like to report to the readers that a huge misunderstanding I have about China’s modern history is that when China faced the coming of the Western Tide, it faced several waves – science , Democracy and Socialism, in fact, lack of careful examination of the original meaning of those concepts, and the differences of each era. It was these waves in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries that determined the direction China felt it should take when facing the West.
It is not necessary for me to name them one by one. Those Chinese people who introduced these ideas all did their best to introduce some ideas that they thought should not be questioned, and those ideas were the main ideas that made the West transition from the Middle Ages to the modern times. They introduced this concept to China, and they all hoped that China would follow the same path as the West when choosing its own direction, choosing these main “pillars”, and also hoped that China could be like the West, rich and powerful, free and equal. .
Misunderstanding of “Science” in Modern Times
However, in fact, the real appearance of modern world history is quite different from the hopes and expectations of those former sages.
First, the word “science” refers to the scientific concept from the end of the nineteenth century to the beginning of the twentieth century. In the middle of the twentieth century, there has been a great change. The certainty of knowledge in the nineteenth century was optimistic and confident—they thought Newton’s world was so clearly balanced and so knowably precise. However, in the field of science, many new phenomena have occurred – the mechanical universe constructed by Newton, which is as accurate as a clock, has been almost completely overturned by Einstein’s theory of relativity; then, the issue of the measurer’s angle is also been proposed; and, how exactly does the universe itself change between quality and energy? The interaction between those particles and particles, wave after wave of physicists put forward new opinions, from the theory of relativity to Yang and Li’s doubts on this subject.
Until today, quantum mechanics has become the dominant science of physics and an important clue to our understanding of the order of the universe. We only know that the relationship between the particles that Newton postulates is quite wishful thinking. The interaction between quantum and quantum is very strange and complex. The universe is not one, and the dimensions of the universe are not just four dimensions. The concept of quantum mechanics has influenced the study of biology, so it is found that there are countless particles in the cell – in different forms and in different relationships, they interact with each other, the interaction seems to be regular, and it seems that we are not. Space and time in physical concepts can be explained.
On the whole, the cosmology of the 21st century is too different from Newton’s time. The gap between the knowable and the unknowable seems to be there, and it doesn’t seem to be there. The definition of life itself, from the concept of animals, to all kinds of microscopic organisms – such as viruses, all affect each other. In this world, it must be said that the more we look, the more confused we are, not because we have no ability to see, but because we find that its complexity makes us feel bottomless.
The word “science” used to stand for precision and almost undeniable measurability. Therefore, when the seniors talked about “Mr. Sai”, the kind of optimism and feeling that they can rely on has actually changed the world today. We also cannot feel that “Mr. Sai” will definitely solve our problems, and even misuse of “Mr. Sai” may lead to more disasters. For example, if we use too much heat, we overheat the planet; if we use fertilizers too often, we can damage our soils one at a time. In the mid-twentieth century, agronomists were optimistic that we could boost productivity indefinitely, and today we dare not predict so optimistically.
Problems that arise under the slogans of democracy, freedom, equality
Speaking of “Mr. De”, the seniors just came to the United States to see its democratic politics, which is so different from China’s emperor system and authority structure. The “democracy” they saw was actually quite different from what was described in the book, the democratic ideals of the founding days of the United States. Besides, the seniors who studied in the United States and the United Kingdom spend most of their time in the classroom and library, and they don’t know much about the truth of general political operations.
Going forward, the slogan “democracy” was first raised during the French Revolution – freedom and equality were the banners of the Paris Commune movement. We also all know that the Paris Commune movement was almost a farce. Dandong executed the opposition and was also guillotined by later opponents. This farce finally ended with Emperor Napoleon’s ascension to the throne. This result just confirms the warning of Plato in ancient Greece – a democratic error will lead to the emergence of tyrants, making the democracy that could have been maintained finally die.
The democratic system in the United States has also evolved step by step from the concept of freedom and equality. Those founders of the United States inherited the experience of the Puritans in establishing self-governing colonies in the United States, and hoped to make national policies depend on the consent of the majority of voters from the standpoint of citizens, and establish a regime of the people themselves. In actual operation, what we have seen is that the entire structure of the United States when the country was founded was only written by dozens of high-level industrial and commercial entrepreneurs, bankers, insurers, big landowners, transportation industry bosses, etc. based on their own ideas. constitution. After two or three generations of revision, some ill-conceived loopholes were gradually revised, and the law was used as an opportunity to correct constitutional deviations or omissions.
From the founding of the country to the American Civil War, the word “equality” and the “freedom” of citizens all have problems – are black slaves citizens? Can black slaves have the same equality and freedom? Do women have equal rights to freedom? Why did women not have the right to vote for so long? These various problems have plagued the United States, and in the process of implementation, how does he adjust between the law and the actual situation in the face of different time, space and circumstances? How to put it in writing and become law? In this process, the political operation of the United States appears to be an agreement among everyone, but in essence there are inevitably many exchanges of opinions, mainly considering each other’s private interests. Therefore, the seemingly serious process is followed by the exchange of interests.
Therefore, “Mr. De” is also constantly changing his “character”. It is not a piece of clothing that can be borrowed as our predecessors understand it – wearing it on the body, transforming into a new “person”. The beautiful cloak of “Mr. De” is not a “panacea”. Sure enough, after the founding of the Republic of China, there was only a very short period of peace, and foreign aggression and internal divisions gave China no chance to really try—how much modification does this cloak need?
To this day, scholars in the United States and the United Kingdom are constantly asking themselves—what is wrong with our system? Why can’t we fix it and keep making mistakes? Therefore, the dream of “Mr. De” as a savior makes it difficult to implement the words “universal truth”.
“Evolution”, not “Evolution”
As for socialism, we also have to go back to the time of its ancestors, Marx and Engels. This ideal is based on the belief that human society, like biological evolution, has a definite and measurable direction—phase by phase, historically predetermined, and must be progressive. When I was a teenager, I saw my predecessors advocating the ideal system in their minds, and even the Three People’s Principles proposed by Dr. Sun Yat-sen, they all held such ideals and promised us.
Today we see that the “evolution theory” or “evolution theory” proposed in the nineteenth century cannot stand the test of current academic work. Today’s ethnological and sociological survey results show that any society and group is constantly changing, but these changes do not have a certain pattern, which can be used as a guide for our predictions. When Yan Fu translated “Evolution Theory” in English, he used the word “Evolution Theory” – the word “jin”, which actually caused more misunderstandings. Now that the foundation of a theory has been shaken, isn’t it difficult for the theory to stand still?
Of course, we hope that any society will become more and more rational, with more equitable distribution, less constraints on people, and exclusion of the dictatorship of emperors and aristocrats. During the twentieth century, many countries in Western and Northern Europe stopped reorganizing their societies from a socialist dogmatic standpoint. The approach they take is a welfare society, where step by step, bit by bit, the system that is being implemented is modified from time to time to suit the possibility of citizens sharing the well-being. These social welfare states, taking Britain and Germany as examples, all use the “state” as the occasion for their ideals.
In northern Europe, each community is a community of social welfare. Within the community, everyone shares resources and responsibilities. Since smaller communities are small, they can modify this allocation of rights and responsibilities at any time as needed. This kind of social welfare state is not based on dogma, nor on the mission of historical development, but on the basis of actual conditions, and strives to organize a fair society in which everyone participates and where rights and obligations are relative.
From the changes in the three concepts mentioned above and the actual situation we have seen today, we know that social welfare is indeed a road that should be taken, but not any “ism” can use this as its own exclusive power and right.
My expectations for China in the future
Therefore, I have a dream about the future direction of China: China will move towards peace, and most of its citizens live in small communities—for example, a community of 5,000 to 10,000 people. The residents in the community can almost know each other. . In this way, the community, who really votes and elects the people who manage the community, how the community residents share the responsibility, etc., can all decide by themselves. As long as they do not exceed their resources and capabilities, nor do they exceed the common system of the country. Such a China will be in line with China’s ideal of a “Great Harmony World” – there are many neighboring township parties in the world, but together, everyone will live together peacefully in a national community.
I also hope that China will not seek hegemony or kingship in the world. In today’s world, since the French Revolution, France, the United Kingdom, and the United States have become world hegemons. Germany, Russia, and Japan, who challenged them, were all defeated. In the process of this hegemony, there were at least two wars – World War I and World War II, in which people from more than half the world were dragged into the disaster of war. They were displaced and suffered casualties everywhere.
The victorious nation continued to maintain its hegemony, and thus suppressed new challengers by various means. Between the challenger and the original hegemon, there are all kinds of beautiful slogans, and they think they are on the right side. But those children who fell on the battlefield, the common people who died in dilapidated cities and villages, were the real victims in the struggle for hegemony. Who has no parents? Who has no children? Who would like to see that all the precious lives turned into ashes in the fire of war for the sake of some “big men” in the overlord?
I would like to see that China regards itself as one of the great powers in the world. Internally, it enables its compatriots to live and work in peace and contentment; externally, China is a force that does not seek hegemony itself, but also calls out loudly—no one is allowed to seek hegemony. Of.
I am old. When I was old, I looked up to the sky and made a wish that there should be such a China between heaven and earth, and China should have such a community. It is hoped that the dream of the “Great Harmony World” in “The Great Harmony of Rites and Fortunes” will be realized in China as soon as possible:
The journey of the avenue is also the world for the public. Choose the virtuous and capable, keep faith and cultivate harmony. The deceased does not only kiss his relatives, nor does he only have sons and sons. Let the old have something to end, the strong will have use, the young will grow, the widow, the lonely, the disabled and the sick will all have something to support, men have a share, and women have a return. Goods hate that they are abandoned on the ground, so they don’t have to be hidden in oneself; power hates that they don’t come from the body, so they don’t have to be for oneself. This is why we seek to be closed but not happy, steal and robbery and do not commit, so we do not close the outside world. This is called Great Harmony.
——-
This article comes from: https://ift.tt/Ue5jZFN
This site is only for inclusion, the copyright belongs to the original author