[Author's note: In order to b_y_p_a.s.s the I.n.t.e.r.n.e.t b_l_o_c_k_i_n_g in C.h.i.n.a, I have to have some words deformed.]
If we want to judge something, we should give them definitions. The Culture, especially the C.h____e.s.e Culture, has not been well defined hitherto. Generally, C.h____e.s.e Dictionaries always give some vague explanations as "all of the material and mental wealth in sum, mental ones are more emphasized on."
But definitions like this are problematic. Because people cannot get the essence of culture. The term "sum" is a vague notion. We don't know how much element constitutes the "sum". There is always something that we don't know. So given this situation, one cannot compare cultures in a general way. "
But we also can get some useful informations from this vague definition, that is "mental ones are more emphasized on". When we talk about Culture, what we mean are always some mental entities such as thoughts, ideals, arts, literature. As to some material entities, only when they closely relate to mental entities can we regard them as something cultural.
In the case of C.h____e.s.e Culture, we have known that it is more emphasized on mental aspects, so the C.h____e.s.e Culture should refer to some modes of thinking of C.h____e.s.e people. Modes of thinking can produce modes of action, modes of life, including philosophy of life.
Given this explanation, we can analyze the C.h____e.s.e Culture. No matter how "broad and deep" C.h____e.s.e Culture are (as many C.h____e.s.e think their culture), it's just the derivative of some core ideas.
As a mental production, an i.d.e.o.l.o.g.y, the "C.h____e.s.e Culture" is anti-humanity from its naissance. It is full of mysticism, a_u_t_o_c_r_a_c_y, anti-intelligence, o_b_s_c_u_rantism, and vi_ol_e_nce. Of course, in ancient times, C.h____e.s.e Culture is not the only culture that has these bad aspects. But only "C.h____e.s.e Culture" preserves these bad aspects hitherto, which spans thousands of years. It is trapped in a vicious circle. It is the culture that should be eliminated so long ago.
As to the concept "anti-humanity", that requires the concept "humanity", which should be also well defined but are not. But we now know that humanity should not be simply regarded as good or bad. There are both virtuous and vicious aspects in human nature. But the neutral aspects of human nature, the "neither good nor bad" aspects, are fundamental to human well-being. What should be protected are just these aspects.
W-e-s-t-e-r-n people accurately recognized that the vicious aspects of human nature are prone to prevail. So it is necessary to conceive a good political system to prevent these bad aspects from prevailing. On the contrary, ancient C.h____e.s.e people roughly discuss this topic for a short time, and self-deceivingly defined human nature as "virtuous". Since then, the "virtuous" human nature became the pretext of doing e.v.i.l. Until now, "human nature is virtuous" is still the p.o.l.i.t.i.c.a.l instrument in use.
I say the C.h____e.s.e Culture is anti-humanity, not only because it hinders people from pursuing happiness and virtue, but also actively develops the vicious aspect of human nature, and let it reach the peak.
The springhead of C.h____e.s.e Culture, the "I Ching" (or yi jing, the so-called "book of change"), is full of mystic, irrational characters. It influences the C.h____e.s.e Culture and all schools of thought completely. It is also the theoretical basis of the world's number-one pseudoscience ---- "Traditional C.h____e.s.e Medicine". It has been poisoning human intellectualness and bewitching people's mind. In fact, the I Ching is just a "book of fortune-telling". It is the product of ignorance and silliness.
Although many people still debate on the "exact meanings" of the ill-minded wild words of I Ching, that would not prevent those charlatans, "experts of sinology", "folk scientists" from using it to cheat and poison people.
C.h____e.s.e Culture seems not so r.e.l.i.gious on the surface. But this is because its d.e.s.p.otic aspects overwhelm its rel.i.gi.ous aspects. In the folk, various sorceries, superstitions, c.u.l.t.s always prosper and are durable. The irrational tendencies of C.h____e.s.e Culture are never less than rel.i.g.io.us cultures.
This determines the "C.h____e.s.e Culture" to be anti-rational, irrational culture from the beginning. This is its first failing.
The main body of C.h____e.s.e Culture is the Co.n.f.uc.ianism. Although many C.h____e.s.e people always transfigure Co.n.f.uc.i.anism, yet history cannot be distorted. The contents, derivations and practical consequences of C.o.n.f.u.cianism are all well recorded: it is a whole story of evils. Nothing can change this fact.
The most deceptive aspect of Co.n.f.u.c.i.anism is its advocacy for so-called "benevolence and righteousness"(ren yi). Ren Yi is a nice promise ---- but it is no more than a promise, it's an empty promise. Ren yi is not the end, it's just a means --- the means of performing a.u.t.a.r.c.h.y. What it emphasizes is commanding people to be tame and obedient to the d-i-c-t-a-t-o-rs.
Hegel once evaluated the doctrine of Confucius. He said that it is just a kind of common-sense morality, without any extraordinary element. This kind of common-sense morality can be found everywhere in the world, in every nation; and the some morality of other nations are better, such as that of Greeks.
This evaluation gives the "thought" of Confucius the final judgement. It's not qualified to be a "philosophy". M.a.r.x said that C.h.i.n.a has no science and philosophy. Indeed, one cannot see anything abstract in C.h____e.s.e classical literature. What we see is just some dicta and patters, which are regarded as full of wisdom, but they are virtually foolish enough.
One may say, "Ends j.u.s.t.i.f.y means". As long as the ends is good, and make good consequences, the theory should be positively regarded. But regrettably, the ends of C.o.n.f.u.c.ianism have been and are being to maintain the autocracies of monarchs. Nowadays some shameless "scholars" begin to propagandize that the theories of Confucius and Mencius include some elements of democracy. Their proof is only one sentence which Mencius spoke casually, "People the first, State the second, and monarchs the last."(min wei gui, she ji ci zhi, jun wei qing )
This is absolutely perversion. They desperately hold these whimmy words as their lifesaving straw, regardless much more expressions of Confucius and Mencius which support a_u_t_o_c_r_a_c_y. This fact alone can be the proof of the hypocrisy and shamelessness of C.o.n.f.u.c.ia.n.ism and Co.n.f.u.cians.
All the materials, from the classical works of Co.n.f.u.c.i.a.nism, to introducers of Co.n.f.u.c.i.a.nism, have proved that the nature of Co.n.f.u.c.i.a.nism is a.u.t.a.r.c.h.i.st. Nothing can change this fact.
Conf.u.c.i.a.n.ism renders C.h____e.s.e Culture one of the most long-standing, most conservative, most ruthless culture. It has no desirable element.
Many people want to take C.o.n.f.u.c.i.a.nism as a tool to remedy the completely moral c.o.r.r.u.p.t.i.o.n in modern C.h.i.n.a. But what they ignore is that, Confucius was in the same situation then. He wanted to revive the ancient ceremonies in order to remedy the moral c-o-r-r-u-p-t-i-o-n at that time. But he never succeeded, nor his disciples and followers. What they succeeded was to make the country more autocratic, more corrupt, more hypocritical, more degenerate, more obscure, more b.r.u.t.a.l, and more anti-humanistic.
The ultimate object of Co.n.f.u.c.i.a.nism is to maintain the superiority of monarchs and the inferiority of ordinary people. The so-called "benevolence and righteousness" never put into practice. Once one does not recognize the superiority of monarchs and the inferiority of ordinary people, the r.u.l.e.r.s immediately tear their disguise of "benevolence and righteousness" and began to k-i-l-l people.
These people who flatter C.h.i.n.a as a "the country full of civilities"(li yi zhi bang) never understand this fact: the character "li" does not mean "civility", but means a kind of artificial order in which the superiority of monarchs and the inferiority of ordinary people are well maintained.
The facts is that, there were and are no real civility in C.h.i.n.a. The history of C.h.i.n.a is full of b-l-o-o-d-y palace conflicts, brutal m-a-s-s-a-c-r-e-s, and terrorful t.o.r.t.u.r.e.s.
C.o.n.f.u.c.i.a.n.i.s.m is the primary cause that makes C.h____e.s.e Culture the anti-humanistic one. Its essential feature is a.u.t.a.r.c.h.y.
How about other genres of "the hundred families of thoughts" (a preferable term used to describe all thinkers in the Eastern Zhou dynasty, circa 476 BC -- 221 BC)? There is a misapprehension. Although Eastern Zhou is relatively freer for people to think, the genres of thought are just only several ones. This "hundred families of thoughts" can be even counted on one's fingers. The contents of these thoughts are very poor indeed.
There are some shameless, foolish C.h____e.s.e "scholars", who are fond of fabricating so-called "scientific miracles" and "advanced thoughts" of ancient C.h.i.n.a. Such as "Leibnitz stealthily studied I Ching and invented binary number system," or "optical principles and Newtonian mechanics are discovered by Mo-tse". (This is the "discovery" of notorious Joseph Needham.) Although this lies are refuted far more than once, many C.h____e.s.e is still selling these fairytales. The reason of this is very simple. C.h____e.s.e people are narrow-minded, and they only want to hear people flattering them. Fabricating "glorious history" makes these scholars popular, and they can earn more from this. So they are glad to do this repeatedly.
When comparing contemporaneous Greek Culture, Hindu Culture, Persian Culture and C.h____e.s.e Culture, we can find that C.h____e.s.e thoughts are inferior in many aspects, including numbers of genres, profundity of thoughts, and rigorousness in logic.
There is a fact that proves which are superior and which are inferior. Greek Culture profoundly influenced Hindu Culture, and Hindu Culture profoundly influenced C.h____e.s.e Culture in turn. This influence is unilateral, that is from Greece to India to C.h.i.n.a. So we can immediately know which is superior and which is inferior.
The fact is that, due to the poorness of ancient C.h____e.s.e thought, there is little room for it to develop. As we expected, the history has shown that, for 2000 years, no one could get rid of the stale ones and bring forth the fresh ones in C.h____e.s.e Culture. What people did was just reshaping its appearance. But that made it even worse instead of better.
One may ask, "How about Taoist school and Mohist School? Do they have desirable elements?" Apparently, Taoist school contends living naturally and f-r-e-e-d-o-m of mind and body. It seems conform humanity. Mohist School contends kindheartedness, which seems also humanistic. In the beginning of their naissances, they both showed a few good elements. But they both uphold a-u-t-o-c-r-a-c-y from the beginning, and both contend o-b-s-c-u-r-a-n-t-i-s-m. There is no difference between Co.n.f.u.c.i.a.nism and these two ones. The only difference is the means to practice the bad policies. This is entirely different from Ancient Greek, where people can abolish the kings if they didn't like them. Needless to say the general e.l.e.c.t.i.o.n at that time.
Later, Mohist School was abandoned, because r-u-l-e-r-s cannot utilize its populace viewpoint. The Taoist school advocates a philosophy of evading the secular world, oppressing human instinct to pursuing happiness. This make the anti-humanity tendency an instinct, so Taoist school became the accomplice of the anti-humanity culture in general. Besides, the mystic elements in Taoist school make it the root of the superstitions with C.h____e.s.e characteristic.
As to the Legalism (fa jia), it is famous for its contending brutal penalties. In fact, Legalism is the real core of C.h____e.s.e Culture. It is said that the appearance of C.h____e.s.e Culture is Confucian and internal side of it is Legalist. This is the content of C.h____e.s.e history. Hypocritical Co.n.f.u.c.i.a.nism and ruthless Legalism combine flawlessly. Legalism determines the violent aspect, the main feature, of C.h____e.s.e Culture,
Ancient India and some other ancient cultures brought some thoughts about non-violence. In C.h.i.n.a, only Mohism has similar thoughts, which cannot be even counted as genuine thought of non-violence. But it declined soon after its first appearance. This is the proof of pro-violence of C.h____e.s.e Culture.
Generally speaking, the so-called C.h____e.s.e Culture is as follow: as a kind of mode of thinking, it is the irrational, anti-rational, obscurant manner of thinking. As a kind of mode of action, a life style, it is the most degenerate, most depraved culture of lackeys, culture of eunuchs, culture of hypocrites; it is the life style of lackeys, the life style of eunuchs, the life style of hypocrites.
Trapped in this anti-humanity culture, people who pursue f-r-e-e-d-o-m, who think independently are all eliminated. Only the meanest, the most impudent ones survive, who are the survivals after undergoing a kind of reversed elimination, who survive by believing and practicing the philosophy of lackeys, the philosophy of eunuchs, the philosophy of hypocrites.
Some people may ask, "Do W-e-s-t-e-r-n Culture and other cultures really have no merit?" Of course they have faults. But the key point is that, in W-e-s-t-e-r-n Culture the question of the quantities of merits and faults is the "more or less" one, but in C.h____e.s.e Culture it is the question of "exist or not exist". So W-e-s-t-e-r-n Culture can evolve and becomes more and more humanistic, while C.h____e.s.e Culture never do.
When confronting W-e-s-t-e-r-n Culture, many C.h____e.s.e people have the wrong idea: why you succeed while I do not? --- You must be lucky while I'm not.
There is a more stupid idea: You W-e-s-t-e-r-n people stole our achievements. That's the reason why you succeed. (Such as the fairytale of "Four Great Inventions of Ancient C.h.i.n.a," or "Football was invented by C.h____e.s.e.")
But these foolish ideas are absurd. The success of W-e-s-t-e-r-n Culture is not entirely the result of good luck. Yes, it is lucky, because it contains good ideas from the beginning, and it becomes more and more refined. This is a kind of good luck.
As the evolutionism point out, human being qua supreme being is not the inevitable result of evolution. We exist by chance. When many necessary conditions coexist by chance, then humans occur. So is the fact that W-e-s-t-e-r-n Culture becomes the modern culture while others do not.
We, C.h____e.s.e, should understand this point. Do not fabricate some "scientific achievement of ancient C.h.i.n.a" to cheat ourselves.
In fact, the so-called C.h____e.s.e Culture is the harmful culture that should be eliminated so long ago. But there is an obstacle which prevent us from pursuing f-r-e-e-d-o-m and happiness and abandoning bad cultures. Many people think that the tradition should be naturally inherited. The more enlightened idea is no more than asking people to inherit good elements of a culture. But there are many traditions. W-e-s-t-e-r-n tradition is a kind of tradition too. I think that's the tradition that we should inherit. According to Mitochondrial Eve Theory, we are all the offsprings of a group of prehistoric African people, and we are all relatives. C.h____e.s.e people came to C.h.i.n.a about 10000 years ago. Their civilization appeared in 1500 BC. It's just a short moment when comparing to the lengthy human history. And C.h____e.s.e Culture was directly introduced from Central Asia, whose cultures were in turn introduced from the Mediterraneans
So if we must inherit some traditions, we should inherit more age-old traditions. 5000 years ago, we C.h____e.s.e were not different from W-e-s-t-e-r-n people. We have no tumors such as I Ching, Co.n.f.u.c.i.a.nism, Taoism, and Legalism then. We just have walked in a roundabout way since 3500 years ago. It is the time for us to come back to the right way. In ancient times, C.h.i.n.a was geographically occlusive; no advanced i.d.e.o.l.o.g.y influenced C.h.i.n.a. Mechanically dynastic changes were the only evolution of the society. Now confronting with the excellent W-e-s-t-e-r-n Culture, that culture is entirely defeated. Abandoning it is the advisable choice.
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