Confucianism As Foundation Renewing While Inheriting——Research On Qian Mu’s View On Culture

Qian Mu’s view on culture takes a vital position in the development of his learning and thinking. It integrates the study of hundreds schools of thinking, the study of Confucian classics, the study of Neo-Confucianism, the study of Qing as well as the study of history. From the perspective of culture, Qian Mu defined that culture, which has been formed in history, as a framework of people living together. It enables to define the relationship between culture and civilization, and has proposed the theory of trinity of nation, history and culture. By analyzing the seven elements and three types of culture and the three purposes and mechanism, Qian Mu established a set of cultural concepts, thus providing a theoretical support to his understanding of Chinese culture as well as the foundation of his view of culture.Qian Mu examined the unique geographic environment of Chinese culture, reflected the special development process of Chinese culture and elaborated on the core of Chinese culture. Qian Mu stressed that the history of Chinese culture is one of social life centered around morality and politics and he proposed the theory of three levels and four stages. He also pointed out that the core spirit of Chinese culture is humanistic spirit that covers three aspects, namely humanitarian spirit reflected by morality, national spirit reflected by integration and historic spirit driven by self-improvement. The essence Chinese culture spirit is humanitarian spirit which comprises the optimistic and pragmatic outlook on cosmology, outlook on life of benevolence and harmonious and inclusive outlook on universe. Qian Mu’s view underscores that with Confucianism as the cornerstone, the Chinese culture has scored remarkable achievements. Qian Mu harshly criticized the dogmatism that "the Chinese culture has remained a feudal aristocracy for over2000years since Qin Dynasty". He believed that such claim undermined the value of Chinese culture and impeded the normal renewal of the Chinese culture.Further efforts have been made by Qian Mu to better understand the Chinese culture by adopting the perspective of comparing the Chinese culture and Western culture to explain the uniqueness and strength of the two cultures respectively and project the future trend of development of the Chinese culture. As for the subject of the Chinese culture, Qian Mu held that it is deeply rooted in China while the western culture is a result of integration of various cultures. Besides, in the history of development, the Chinese culture has development with continuity while the western culture has been subject to many conflicts and transformations. The cultural symptoms of China is peace without dominance and that of western culture is richness without stopping exploration. Comparison was made by Qian Mu on the seven elements in Chinese culture and Western culture. In the final analysis, Qian Mu concluded that the Chinese culture and Western culture belonged to different types of culture with Chinese culture being agricultural and western culture being commercial, which in turn entailed different psychological features. The Chinese culture is introvert and the western culture is extrovert. In addition, the thinking modes of the two cultures are also different. The Chinese culture focuses on co-existence while the western culture tends for differentiation. In a word, in Qian Mu’s opinion, both the Chinese culture and the western culture have their advantages and disadvantages. Neither is perfect. One can never claim that the western culture is superior to the Chinese culture because the two fall into different types.Qian Mu also worked out some principles, orientations and specific methods of how to innovate Chinese new culture and predict the future trend of the world culture. By analyzing the symptoms of the Chinese culture, Qian Mu pointed out that to salvage China from subjugation lied in cultural renewal. He strongly criticized the theory and methodology of indiscriminate westernization and condemned the practice of desinicization. The cultural renewal hinges on cultural self-salvation, which should follow the principle of renewing while inheriting, being guided by Confucianism as the foundation so as to realize the interaction between the Chinese culture and the western culture. Only when the national culture of China is promoted and the cultural spirit is spread, can China maintain the balance between form and application, change and constancy and remove estrangement between China and the west, thus translating western ideas into the Chinese new culture. Qian Mu also expounded his views on how to nurture the new generation of Chinese people and the conditions for cultural rejuvenation. Meanwhile, Qian Mu firmly believed that the traditional Chinese culture would surely make huge contribution to the world culture, identify a path of co-existence out of diversity and seeking uniformity out of differences for the world culture and predict the fundamental characteristics of the new culture of humanity.The thesis has made some comments on Qian Mu’s view on culture, comparative studies between Chinese culture and western culture and cultural renewal and summarize the fundamental spirit of socialist culture with Chinese characteristics from the perspective of Marxist philosophy of practice humanism. Qian Mu’s view on culture put too much emphasis on spiritual life and belittled the importance of social practice and the role of people. On the one hand, his comparison between Chinese culture and western culture was not well-grounded because the assumed cultural renewal is ideal. On the other hand, he provided rich resources and valuable suggestions covering summarizing traditional Chinese culture, building new culture in contemporary China and averting western modernity. Socialist culture with Chinese characteristics should be guided by Chinese Marxism with humanism focusing on practice as its core. It should be an integration of traditional Chinese culture centered around humanism and western commercial culture focusing on affluence and achieve the combination of sound humanism and scientific practice.