The Theory Of Harmony In Chinese And Western Tradition As Well As Its Cultural Signification For The Construction Of Community Of Shared Future For Mankind

Based on the fundamental tenets of Marxism,the relation between social existence and social consciousness is dialectic.With respect to the community of shared future for mankind,we should not only focus on global economic cooperation which plays a crucial role in the community of shared future for mankind,but should also pay some attention on cultural identity for different nations,which plays an irreplaceable role.According to 19 th National Congress’ s statements of the new era,the unbalance and insufficiency of development does not only refer to the economic contradictions.The different cultural ideas even conflicts might be the one that is a more urgent academic issue for us to resolve.What the thesis concerns is to explore the role of culture played in community of shared future for mankind through elaborating the different cultures especially the theory of harmony.The discussion of harmony in China and in West has a very long history.The Chinese and Western philosophers has started to the subject of harmony since ancient time.In Chinese tradition,the theory of harmony was mostly elaborated through he.The idea of harmony in Confucianism and in Taoism was converged under the proposition of the unity between human and nature.The ides of these two schools formed the main characteristic of Chinese theory of harmony,which had a huge influence to art,politics and so on.Thus,there were numerous masterpieces of art that expressed the spirit of harmony very well.With respect to politics,the influence has been lasted until the thought in Sun Zhongshan in modern time.In ancient Greece,Pythagorean School was the first to study the theory of harmony through the philosophy of nature.Then,it has been developed by Heraclitus,Plato and so on,which made the theory of harmony become a critical part of western culture.After the darkness of Middle Age,the theory of harmony reached its another peak,by the aid of the rise of human,which made a great contribution to the development of human reason.Thus,according to the history of the theory of harmony,both China and West had the pursuing of harmony.As well as they both had a similar interpretation of definition of harmony.Namely,harmony is the balance of diversities and also represents order.Therefore,the premise of harmony is the different constituents.To harmonize means that constituents stay in an appropriate place according to the order.Whereas,the difference between Chinese and Western theory of harmony should not be neglected.One of most significant differences is that Chinese theory of harmony has a close connection to politics.The elaboration of he aimed always to politics,the goal of unity of human and nature was also served for the hierarchical order of feudal society.The realization of harmony based on the practice of moral,then leading to the harmony of society.This is an approach by self-cultivation.While,the proportion plays an important role in western theory of harmony.The harmony depends on the accurate proportion.The western painting and sculpture inflected this principle,conveyed that the beauty in art means the accordance with proportion.It shows that western theory of harmony take a way of exploring the knowledge.This difference between China and West is actually the difference between moral and science.Chinese theory of harmony pays more attention on moral,on to be good.While in west,on science,on to be true.Essentially speaking,this is the difference about the idea of the subject-object relation.Both China and West pursue the harmony between subject and object.But In Chinese theory,it is the human that needs to obey the nature;while in West,it is the human that needs to conquer the nature.The reason of such a difference has something to do with social reality and also the influence of religion and myth.Through the comparison between theory of harmony in China and in West,we can get some inspirations for the construction of community of shared future for mankind.Firstly,the common pursuit of harmony both in China and West is the cultural ties among nations.Secondly,the Chinese theory of harmony constrains the activity of human,while the Western theory of harmony gives excessive praise of man’s ration.Both of these two flaws should be avoided in the community of shared future for mankind.Thus,we need to balance the individual and the collective,they are not contradict.Meanwhile,the use of reason should under some control,it is necessary to develop cultural communication in order to maintain de diversity of culture,and to construct a harmony community.