The Limitation of Western Civilization And the Revival of Oriental Civilization

By Professor Su Hao

Department of Diplomacy and Foreign Affairs Administration,China Foreign Affairs University

In the distribution of modern world civilizations,the Oriental civilization and Western civilization are the two major civilization systems.Western civilization is often represented by the Christian civilization in Europe and North America on both sides across the North Atlantic.Oriental civilization appears more diversified,among which the Chinese civilization,India civilization and Islamic civilization are the most influential three Oriental civilization systems.Located in the eastern Eurasian Continents,the Chinese civilization integrates Confucianism and Taoism of the Chinese origin,Buddhism coming from India and Islam from Western Asia,hence,having become four-in-one Chinese civilization composed of Confucianism,Buddhism,Taoism,and Islam.Historically,the Oriental civilization and Western civilization systems developed in their respective geographic regions,forming the strategic distribution of relative balance.Since modern era,with the Western colonial powers conquest and imperialist global expansion,the Western civilization rules the world.Even today,derived from Western civilization,the international system,and political theory and value concept still dominate the world.However,since twenty-first Century,impacted by two major trends of the globalized international relationship and integration of regional cooperation,the world is undergoing profound changes.In this changing world,the seemingly advanced Western civilization becomes increasingly unable to dominate the world,and is even also becoming ineffective in solving problems of Western countries.With emerging economies of the BRICS countries playing a more and more important role in the international community,and the collective rise of developing countries,countries of the ancient civilization with the traditional Oriental culture background gradually produces tremendous energy,and which determines the Oriental civilizations moving toward renaissance.This paper will analyze the core genes of Oriental and Western civilizations from the theoretical angle,point out that the Western civilization has exceeded the Oriental civilization,led to imbalance between the Oriental civilization and Western civilization.But dealing with the complex and diverse challenges in the 21st century faced by the human society,Western civilization shows obvious limitations.With the rising countries of ancient civilizations in Asia,the Oriental civilization will radiate new vitality through the"second Renaissance".

Part One,Genes and their Differences between the Oriental Civilization and Western Civilization

There are various civilizations in human history.For various reasons,some civilizations disappear,some civilizations continue,and some civilizations through mutual learning and integration get further enriched and developed.Today,the existing world civilizations are the results of a long evolution in the course of historical development,1and have their inherent logic kernel and basic value orientation.

In many civilizations existing in today's international society,the Western civilization and the Chinese civilization are the two important civilization systems.The two great civilizations have a long course of historical evolution.The German scholar Jaspers had discovered in the late 1940's that around the fifth Century B.C.,the main areas of human activity in the world witnessed a cultural leap,he called the period as the axial age of human history.2American well-known anthropologist Morgan once said that the human must first obtain all elements of civilization,then enters a state of civilization.3But the most decisive kernels of these elements of civilization then condensed into the culture gene of human civilization.It should be said that it is in the"axial age of human history"that the Chinese civilization and Western civilization create their culture genes.

The different human civilization gene is decided by its core logic starting point,and these logical starting points are decided by two major philosophical propositions:Firstly,what is man?Its core is to answer the question of what human nature is.Secondly,what is the relationship between man and nature?Its core is to answer whether man can get triumph over the nature.From the perspective of humanity's values,the ancient Oriental civilization and West civilization all belong to the native civilization and have their own answers to the two above-key issues,thus formed the value systems to determine their own civilization kernels,but also attached importance to people's self-refection,and shaped people’s good(Good or Virtue or Altruism)and evil(Evil or Greed or Viciousness)concept.4

(1)Ancient Western Civilization Genes

Western civilization originated along the Mediterranean,the ancient Greeks and Romans,as the later emerging groups,face the Mesopotamian civilization,and Nile Basin civilization pressures that became developed earlier,and their city-state competition,their small pieces of land and adjacent to Ocean prompted them to take voyage to other countries for trade and colonization in order to achieve better survival conditions.The native problems they face are how to obtain advantages in front of others to overwhelm them for surviving.Having abstractly combed the culture of ancient Greece,Platon put forward some philosophic viewpoints.5In this way,the Western civilization shapes a civilization gene of publicity personality and analytical inductive thinking.Different cultural genes between Oriental civilization and Western civilization determine their characteristics and differences.Obviously,the Western civilization gene carries prominent connotation of"individualism".Also some scholars argue that the cultural genes of modern Western civilization are mainly alloyed by combining the Greek philosophy of rationalism and Palestinian Jews superiority self-belief.6.

The Western values emphasize the essence of man's"evil",7which is closely related to the ancient Greek and Roman historical and cultural traditions.The Greek civilization is a typical embodiment of,and is based on the concepts of freedom,optimism,secularism,rationalism,moderate beauty,commandment to human body and spirit,respect of individual dignity and value,and the Greek culture is the earliest one based on giving special attention to intelligence.8The ancient Greeks needed to respect humans,hence needed to emphasize individualism.But in the era of ancient Rome,the famous"Twelve Table Laws"clearly show the national guarantee for the civilian rights demand.9Western Christianity emphasizes the human nature"evil",so people have the"birth sin",hence they need to create a God beyond the human to regulate their behavior.10

The answer by Western civilization to the second question is that man can transform and conquer the nature,i.e.man can get a triumph over nature.Therefore,the confrontation between man and nature is the inherent logic of western theory since ancient times.11From the social life of ancient Greece and Rome,people built survival foundation through Ocean expansion,and since the modern times the Western efforts of nature transformation through development of science and technological means create an environment to satisfy people's endless pursuit of a comfortable life.The western position that"the human nature is evil"and"man can conquer nature"determines that its core value is"individualism".Therefore,many Western philosophers position their starting points of philosophical analysis on"egoism",or the moderate"ethical and rational egoism".12

There is a phenomenon worth of attention,i.e.a prominent feature of the Western civilization and the Islamic civilization is that their societies become very strongly religious with prominent single religion.But Christianity and Islam are both single religions,are the religions of comprehensiveness,and have high philosophical and political significance and the ontological theory,which attempts to explain the ontological maters of the world creation and man’s sources of origin.This requires people have strong worship in the relevant religion.In the object of faith,Christianity has a God above Christ while Islam has Allah above Mohammed.Therefore,the religious creation reflects control of the natural world by man,and they are God's religion.In essence,the creator is a human creation,so human can create the world,this is a singular ontological religion.

(2)The Ancient Oriental Civilization Genes:

Growing in the hinterland of Asian continent,the Chinese civilization ancestors,in front of the nature of harsh continental climate and unruly rivers,establish the irrigated farming civilization in order to adapt to the natural environment for survival.In this process,they need to resolve an indigenous issue,i.e.how human can survive in the face of nature.Trifling individuals are unable to fight with nature,and require the integration of human power to keep harmony with nature so as to achieve their own survival.Therefore,some scholars believe that the Chinese civilization culture genes exist in the wild culture,and Chinese civilization is not 5000-year old but 10000-year old".Regard this,in Mr.Li Zehou's words,this is a kind of"human naturization"tendency.14This tendency decides the Chinese civilization gene of developing centralized management and integrity.In this way,the Oriental civilization seems to contain some"collectivism"genes.

The Oriental civilization represented by the Chinese civilization,in answering the first question,advocates"good"human nature theory.China's Confucianism argues that"human nature is good",human beings should keep"precious harmony",and the whole world should enjoy"Great Harmony".Tang Junyi said that the Chinese cultural spirit,in a word,is the spirit of attaching importance to human and position human between Heaven and Land,i.e.Heaven referring to superior God while Land to natural world of substance.Attaching importance to human spirit does not deny the existence of God,does not ignore the substance of the natural world either,but to communicate to Heaven and arrive at Land with the human spirit,thus,making man stand upright in the universe.The core of Chinese moral ethics and philosophy is to establish man's dignity and to maintain the dignity as well.15Its core can be summarized as"collectivist"interdependence among people.

In answering the second question of the relationship between man and nature,the logic of Chinese civilization is the harmony between man and nature.The"Book of Changes"stresses that there is the earth,then things,then men and women,and then couples,so human is the product of nature and is a part of nature,Heaven and Earth are in place,saints can come into being.Therefore,"wealth is offered by the Heaven and the Earth,and also should serve the Heaven and the Earth,so as to support human people.16Expressions by Lao Zi in his"On Morality"is an outstanding representation,i.e.man-law-earth,earth-law-heaven,heaven-law-morality,morality-law-nature.17Having mentioned living with Heaven and Earth In the"Golden Mean",Confucius advocated that man should understand itself while also need to understand nature of the universe.While Mencius emphasized that loving human and cherishing things(nature)must be combined.18Philosopher Zhang Zai of the Song Dynasty in his book Xi-Ming pointed out a famous summery of compatriots being nurtured by the land,emphasizing human and things are born of Heaven and Earth,so human should treat the nature with"benevolence";relations among human kind should like that among family members,and treat the natural world just like treatment to mankind.Therefore,the Chinese traditional culture emphasizes"heaven and man integration",and upholds human"goodness"in collectivist"interdependence",decides the harmony between man and nature,man is a part of nature,and man is nature.

A prominent feature of the Chinese traditional civilization is religious weakness.Some scholars hold that since ancient times,Chinese belief consciousness is very weak.China had no real sense of religion,neither a comprehensive religion nor the Creation religion.China’s religion is incomplete,so are both Confucianism and Taoism,and Buddhism is also very incomplete.19In general,a religion and reality in the Oriental civilizations are closely linked,religion’s major figure is often the abstract of a living person,such as Confucius of Confucianism,Lao Zi of Taoism and Sakyamuni of Buddhism.Therefore,the Oriental religion is the religion of man,and reflects man’s reality in nature.This is a pluralist natural religion.Therefore,in Chinese civilization Confucianism,Taoism and Buddhism interpret three Chinese concepts,i.e.Confucianism embodies the moral responsibility,Taoism embodies the detached nature,and Buddhism embodies the spiritual intelligence.Or the native Confucianism and Taoism in China reflect the humanistic character of combining hardness and softness,20while Buddhism coming from India guides mind-regression.

From the above answers to the two issues,the native differences existing in cultures determine the essential differences between the Oriental civilization and Western civilization.Thus,the Eastern and Western civilizations from their birth create genes of prominent differences.And in the ancient world,the native-born Eastern and Western civilizations developed in their respective geo-environment,revealing a East-West balance.

Part Two,the Dominance and Limitations of Western Civilization

Since modern times,the Western civilization has experienced the"Renaissance",on the basis of rediscovery of ancient Greek-Roman cultural values,sublimes the genes of Western civilization,set people free from"God"(religion)imprisonment,formed"humanist"ethical views,and then found"natural rights"–the logic starting point of the modern Western political philosophy in the"Enlightenment",thus,gradually formalized a core value concept of"freedom and democracy".Having guided by these advanced social concepts,western countries take the lead in realizing modernization in the world.With the advancing historical progress and modernization waves in the world,"freedom and democracy"are generally accepted by other regional nations and countries in the world.Therefore,"freedom and democracy",as the achievements of human civilization progress,has become the common value of human civilization with universal significance.

However,the West makes these values absolute superior,the"freedom and democracy"as the absolute standard,and narrowly dominate the whole mankind with Western civilization.The Western countries,with the evolution of political concepts,advanced technology and strong military and economic strength,and through the colonial conquest and imperialist expansion,structure the West-dominated world.Therefore,the Western civilization achieved global advantages in the last five centuries,and then obtained the absolute advantages in the last one or two centuries,which is a mutation by chance in the long history of mankind,but a kind of inevitability,21thus,formed the West-centered cultural hegemony in the process of modernization in the world.22The world presents a phenomenon that the West conquers,rules and dominates the East,and an East-West imbalance is highlighted by the Western civilization outweighing the Oriental civilization.

Today,the West is still accustomed to conceited and arrogantly overlooking the world with"freedom and democracy"position,lodges condemnation against the"human rights"of developing countries at different stages of development,or randomly launches economic sanctions and even uses force.The so-called"political correctness"has since the 1990s become a unchallenged noun in the dictionary of the Western political and public opinion.23Mobilized by this thinking,the Western countries,with their own"freedom and democracy"models,promote"democracy movement"all over the world.They have actively promoted African"democracy"movement,launched the Afghan war and the Iraqi war,implemented the"Greater Middle East Plan",encouraged Color Revolution in Central Asia,defined some countries as"rogue states"aiming at"regime change",tried to carry out the so-called"values diplomacy"and establish"value alliances"and artificially divided the international community,even whipped up random questions on China’s environment for hosting the Olympic Games under the banner of"human rights",or unwarranted linked the Darfur issues with Beijing Olympic Games reputation.As a result,in today's international arena,wherever the West implements its"Democratic plan",an existing problem often gets more complicated,and the already unstable situation becomes more turbulent.

After the cold war,ideology competition is no longer a major content of state-to-state relations,while the position of civilization transcending ideology in international relations is highlighted.24But it is worth noting that in the current international political reality,there are still some people who attempt to have the"freedom and democracy"values with universal significance as the excellent achievements of human civilization established as a fixed political model,and the rigid standards,refuse any amendments,exclude other models,and mandatorily demand others to follow.Politically,this ideological behavior was very common during the cold war.Unfortunately,today,some western countries’behaviors have not just shown a"cold war mentality",but even a cold war style behavior.In fact,a major theoretical defect of Huntington's clash of civilizations theory is ideologicalize the human civilization politically,and dwarf the civilization status in world history,thus reach the extreme conclusion that the result of relationship between civilizations can only be conflict and clash.Therefore,we must avoid making the human civilization ideological.On the one hand,opposing the West making"freedom and democracy"ideological and the rigid doctrine,and excluding the core values of other civilizations;on the other hand,we should not make the rational core of our own civilization ideologicalized,and avoid engaging in the so-called"political ideas competition"and a major war on values.25By so doing,can we avoid clashes and confrontation between civilizations,and prevent human society from producing a tragedy again.

Thus,as the arrogant Western countries promote its civilization,a dilemma emerges.Although mankind has generally accepted the idea of"freedom and democracy",yet,there should be different practice styles in all regions of the world with different cultures.Some western countries,in an attempt to simply impose a"free and democratic"model by external forces through political and ideological ways,are unable to solve the complicated problem of the world.In today's world with the background of globalization,mankind is faced with a series of unprecedented challenges of non-traditional security issues.Transnational crime problems such as terrorism,ethnic conflicts,drug abuse,piracy,illegal immigrants,smuggling and money laundering,trafficking in persons,etc.have the human life order upset,while climate change,epidemic disease,lack of resources,famine,etc.as the nature’s warning bell have shown threats to the environment for human survival.At the time when the West pushes for the universal value of"freedom and democracy",but"democracy unadapted"appears also in developing countries.Democratized African ethnic conflicts get worsened,"Arab Spring"of West Asia and North Africa evolves into the"Arab Winter";the democracy matured Japan in East Asian region shows political turmoil of"frequent reshuffle of government",party rotation rule of China’s Taiwan leads to social fragmentation,and corruption behind the"strongman politics"in the process of democracy in Southeast Asian and South Asian countries is rampant.

Even in those democratic Western countries,democracy seems unable to solve the local social problems.Even in the standard democracy U.S.,the financial capital greed leads to the"occupation of Wall Street campaign",two parties’politics evolve into fierce struggle between the two political forces,the distinct bipartisan political interests lead to the so-called"fiscal cliff"problem.In Europe the high welfare society based on people’s fundamentals has led to malignant disease of the financial crisis,the European debt crisis cancer finds no solution due to the in-depth reasons of five major intervened contradictions.i.e.the aging population,industrial hollowing,financial debt,over-advanced welfare and democratic campaign extremes.26It seems that the modern democratic system in the West has also encountered a"bottleneck",or is approaching the development critical point.

Obviously,the West-originated science is for the benefit of mankind,but the nuclear weapons and a variety of high-tech weapons created by its advanced development may destroy the earth;the West-originated industrial modernization generates human wealth,but the global climate change it has created may threaten the survival of humanity;the West-originated Westphalia international relations system safeguards the narrow interests of nation-states,but takes nation-states to war for sovereignty;the West-advocated universal value of freedom and democracy has generated instability for many non-Western countries,and even also yielded loss to the Western society.Obviously,only by value concept of"democracy and freedom"can hardly free the human kind from these complicated and changeful predicaments.Some western learnid people have seen the U.S.limitations in implementing the freedom and democracy values.In January 2008,the U.S.bimonthly Foreign Affairs published an article entitled the Rise of China and the Future of the West by Princeton University Professor Ikenberry,who put forward a question:Can liberal system survive?27While an article entitled the Moral Core For U.S.Foreign Policy by Derek Chollet with the U.S.New Security Studies and Todd Lindberg with the Hoover Institution a few years ago in the U.S.Policy Review magazine also asked:Will idealism perish?28Many Western scholars are thinking whether"free capitalism"is outdated,and some even argue that it is"already dead".Clearly,human kind needs to have broader and more diverse cultural perspectives and styles to respond to complex and wide-ranging challenges and problems brought to mankind by the wave of globalization.

Part Three,the Prospect Of Oriental Civilization Revival

The West-dominated world finds it difficult to cope with the challenges and difficulties faced by human race under the background of globalization,we need to turn attention to other regional civilizations of the world,and the Oriental civilization with profound historical heritage and rich cultural connotation can provide the human society with an important choice.The Chinese civilization is an important part of the Oriental civilization,in the disadvantaged position in modern history shows strong desire and ability to learn from the West,and will also promote the revival and sublimation of the civilization with gradual awareness and development in the contemporary world.China is a country with a long history,but in modern time is always lack of civilized discourse system of its own,with a rising China,will establish civilized discourse in the international society,which is an essential condition to realize national rejuvenation and civilization historical jump.29The revival of ancient Oriental civilizations such as the Chinese and Indian ones,etc.will make the human society re-discover the East in its process of development.30

The holist evolution thinking genes of the Chinese civilization determine its"one family under heaven"concept,31and form the open and inclusive traditions.Historically,our civilization integrated with Buddhist culture,accommodated the Islamic civilization,and also opened his arms to the Western civilization.Modern Chinese sages proposed"barbarian high technology"doctrine,and extracted the"applying Western model to China"conclusion.Contemporary advanced Chinese intellectuals in the May 4th Movement advocated learning from"Mr.De"(Democracy)and"Mr.Sai"(Science),thus introducing the concept of"freedom and democracy".Then"Mr.Mo"(Moral)and"Mr.Luo"(Law)models followed.The elite of the Chinese nation,under the banner of democracy and science,made unremitting efforts for building a democratic and prosperous new China.There public,democracy and science are internalized into the value standard of the Chinese people.Therefore,a Chinese scholar pointed out that if the Western concept is not referred to,a modern history of China is unknown how to start,and these ideas are deeply rooted in our daily life and various systems.32Through over 30 years of reform and opening-up,the Chinese government and people,in the process of learning and practice,actively advocate the"outlook on scientific development",and is determined"to promote people's democracy by expanding inner-Party democracy"so as to establish socialist democratic politics,and also holds the achievement of"democratization of international relations"through"developing democracy,harmony,coordination and win-win spirit".Obviously,democracy and science have become the principles for our Party in power to serve the people and handle international affairs.At present,China's Communist Party encourages further emancipating the mind,deepening their understanding of democracy,and sublimating our political culture with promotion of democratic values in order to improve our socialist democracy.

In addition,China also attaches great importance to the inheritance and development of West-originated Marxism,integrates it with concrete practice of the Chinese society and makes it glow with great vitality in China through combining socialism with the Chinese historical tradition and culture core.From the vertical development process of Marxism,a new interpretation is in place since the Chinese people are working hard to build socialism with Chinese characteristics.From the horizontal perspective of contemporary international community,the Chinese people in the course of promoting socialism with Chinese characteristics,are developing a value system of universal significance such as people-oriented ideas,opposing oppression between social strata,realizing full social security,taking special care of vulnerable groups and achieving common prosperity.This is the ideal pursued by all countries including Western countries in the world.Relaying a view of another German social philosopher Oskar Negt’s in his new book entitled"China modernization with dragon as a symbol and the European modernization myth",a German scholar Gunter Fries said that China will achieve a special kind of democracy,which will take into account the social,cultural and economic characteristics of this country,and this Asian' socialist democracy' is related to the unprecedented continuous thinking about' Confucius public theory',rather than abstract copying of Western bourgeois democracy.Because in the real world today,any copying is not sustainable,and may take the bitten track rather than pioneering in the end."33

However,in the diversified world civilization systems,"freedom and democracy"are not the only values of universal significance.Francis Fukuyama defines"freedom and democracy"as the political framework of the end of history,which is a narrow vision on confining human kind within the Western civilization.As Western civilization is in plight,the Oriental civilization gets great vitality,and will decide the re-rise of Asian continent.34Among them,values embodied by the Chinese civilization show new significance to respond to the real problems in the current world.It is worth noting that the western academic circles feel that the contemporary international community faces the huge challenges and threats from its own and the nature,the long-term research project entitled Integrated History and Future of People on Earth launched by many scholars in 2003 from various countries combined the biophysics and Anthropology and other related disciplines,and analyzed the relationship between human activity and the earth ecological system problems.In 2007,U.S.scholars had some conclusions of this research project released.University of North Carolina anthropology professor Carole Crumley and few others published a report entitled Sustainability or Collapse:What Can We Learn from Integrating the History of Humans and the Rest of Nature?,which screens the data of ice cores,tree rings and sediment,etc.over the past few thousand years,in combination with a large number of human history records,and discusses interrelations and interaction between human activities and natural environment in different time and space,in order to further understand human behavior in ecosystem.So the conclusions point out that human kind cannot predict its future,but the full understanding of history can help us make decisions in favor of the future.35Recently,some Western scholars further argue that once the natural environment cannot meet human needs,social civilization will be in jeopardy,therefore call for a world-wide debate on human behavior itself,deepen the understanding of human race itself and its behavior,and give warning to mankind now facing threats from natural science and social science perspectives.36Obviously,Western scholars have already felt the production activities based on modern science has violated the coherent relationship between human and nature,but found no answer yet.Therefore,the value concept of Oriental civilization will help people to form new ideas,or even to find solutions to the problems.Accordingly,human society,at least the Oriental society will obtain the reborn,the reborn will determine the revival of Oriental civilization.While this Renaissance first needs a kind of Oriental-styled Renaissance.So we call this Renaissance the Second Renaissance.

The elevated status of development of human society and the emerging economies and developing countries in the international community has laid a solid material foundation for the second"Renaissance".The National Intelligence Council(NIC)on December 10,2012 published a new report entitled Global Trends 2030:Alternative Worlds.The report says China in 2030 will overtake America as the world's largest economy.At the same time,in the next 20 years,the rise of Asia will be the end of West-dominated position for as long as more than two centuries.Compared with today's world,the world of 2030 will witness cross-board changes.By 2030,no state–be it the United States,China or any other country--will become hegemony.37The Western global dominance in the past more than two centuries will be weakened,the United States and European countries will no longer enjoy the hegemony either,but this position will be shared in a multi-polar world and by vibrant emerging economies.

With the rapid development of China and enhanced influence in world affairs,the wisdom of Chinese civilization has been flashing in the international community.Japan's diplomatic critics Inoue Shinobu recently points out in Le Mond that,in the global crisis of natural environment deterioration,the traditional Oriental civilization featuring"the man is part of nature,and harmonious coexistence between man and nature"concept has again reflected the value,and should become the thinking foundation of mankind.38There is a noteworthy Chinese historical logic,i.e.China’s anti-disaster efforts made through 5000 years of its history.Dujiangyan water conservancy project built in 256 B.C.is a typical description of China anti-disaster efforts.Different with Europe having a little knowledge of the earthquake,China from ancient times up to the present continuously withstands disasters outbreak,the harsh natural environment tests Chinese wisdom,but also creates a strong Chinese character.39Indeed,a very important concept of the Chinese traditional culture is"integrated man and nature",i.e.having the greatest esteem for"harmonious coexistence"between man and nature and is regarded as an ideal.It requires that human kind for its own survival needs to maintain a"priority on holism"in the face of nature,rather than provide the best guarantee for individuals.This is a way of"the Golden Mean",and to achieve a coordinated state through mutual compromise and balance between various social factors.Therefore,since ancient times the Chinese civilization attaches importance to the construction of systematic and highly organized society,forming a so-called"super-stability structure".40Currently,the Chinese Government has proposed the"harmonious society"and"harmonious world"concept,applying the traditional"integrated man and nature"concept to the designing of the contemporary domestic social governance and international order structure.

From this perspective,a basic view of some Western scholars in the past regarding this situation as"Oriental despotism"41is only a superficial understanding.In fact,the positive effect exhibited by the traditional ideas of Chinese civilization is being recognized by the Western society.Actually,a book entitled"Loropiar"written in 5th Century B.C.by Ciro Dodd,commended by the famous Roman Cicero as the"father of history",mentioned China,42"Oriental culture is a cradle for all cultures and all wisdom."In the book's fourth volume,with rich imagination,he describes China thousands miles away"beyond North wind".Although such a few words can only vaguely outline China,yet,we can still notice the respect for China by the ancient Greeks.Because in Greek religion,"man beyond the North wind"is the beloved nation of sun god Apollo.Obviously,the ancient Greek sages had more rational understanding of Oriental civilization.In the contemporary era,the British scholar Joshua puts forward the concept of"Beijing Consensus"in the analysis of China’s development mode,and stresses that this concept has great appeal to many developing countries.43It is worth noting that during the Spring Festival in 2007,the then French President Nicolas Sarkozy pointed out in his congratulatory remarks to the Chinese Festival that the secret of the Chinese successful integration may find source from the wisdom of Chinese philosophy,and the core value of Chinese philosophy is the doctrine of the Golden Mean,which just can eliminate differences,reconcile the extreme,and facilitate the opposition parties to live in a harmonious collective.44In the National Interest magazine article,Professor Weber of American University of California points out that"a world without the West"concepts of governing international society is developing45Some scholars also argue that we need to re-examine the world resources management mode.Asia can play a key role in this process......Asia does not have to give up capitalism,but must reshape capitalism.46While Asia must create a set of academic thoughts,......which challenges the orthodox cornerstone supporting the Western thoughts.47It should be said that with rejuvenation of the Chinese civilization,a new type value system with universal significance will emerge in the Oriental society and be complementary to Western values and bring out the best in each other.

As for rapidly developing China,during the 35-year reform and opening-up,China has shown strong momentum of development,and become an engine of the world economy.Therefore,the economic development is the development trend of China.And in the next 30 years to come,China will continue rapid development,but the decisive factors for the general trend of development are changing,i.e.from economic growth into cultural development.That is to say,the factors determining future development trend of China will be culture.And the gradual emergence of thoughts,theories,concepts,principles under the cultural background will decide China's"Second Renaissance".In this sense,to realize the"Chinese dream"--"the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation"--will promote the Renaissance for the Oriental civilization.

In the contemporary world of globalization,especially in the Eastern world mainly composed of developing countries,a new values form is breeding in the traditional culture,and decides the"second Renaissance"of human society.Some scholars hold that the beginning of 21st century marks the end of a long historical cycle period:the end of the absolute West-dominated historical cycle period beginning with 16th century;the end of separation of social contracts determining domestic life of a state from fights in international relations and the end of Enlightenment cycle period featuring monopoly by the national politics beginning with 18th century;the end of the capitalist economic cycle established for ruling a center;and the relations between a center and the rest of the world may unnecessarily be peace and prosperity,happiness and stability.48This Renaissance will be enriched and elevated by the Oriental civilization genes and gradually derivate a set of social governance theory influenced by"collectivism"logic and impacted by the integrated man and nature concept.Finally,the Oriental civilization and the Western civilization will learn from each other and get integrated at higher level,and breed a new civilization and values system with universal significance shared by mankind.

Mankind needs a phenomenon of transcending ideological competition,promotion of dialogue and exchanges between various civilizations and gets integrated in the end.After the Oriental civilization is sublimed by the“second Renaissance”,the universal values of the two civilizations will have mutual exchanges and integration.The Chinese civilization with open and inclusive attitude is absorbing“freedom and democracy”—the Western core values.By the same token,the Western civilization should be similarly broad-minded to understand and learn those rational factors of the Oriental civilization with equal and respected attitude.In the process of responding to challenges commonly faced by mankind under globalization,in the course of dialogue,exchanges and cooperation between the Oriental“yellow”civilization and Western“blue”civilization,a mankind commonly shared civilization can be shaped,i.e.finally shaping a new-typed“green civilization”through integrating yellow civilization and blue civilization.

Conclusion

Mankind is commonly living on the Earth.The Earth is very huge so there are different civilizations distributed in different regions,where different civilizations should communicate and respect each other,those core values created by different civilizations should complement and influence each other,and their co-existence and co-prosperity will bring the world to a colorful civilizations systems.The Earth is very small so we all are members of this Earth village,different civilizations are too closely related to get separated so that values systems of different civilizations should have dialogue and cooperation.Diversity does not only enrich the world and integration of different civilizations can get elevation because“an alloy”is harder than any one of its elements.49Under the major background of globalization,“yellow”civilization with Oriental characteristics and“blue”civilization with Western characteristics should not be competitive to each other,but further exchange and integrate on the basis of mutual dialogue and cooperation,so as to have the human society’s civilizations holist elevation and breed a new-type“green civilization”shared across the world.

Reference Notes:

1.Western scholar Huntington divides the real world civilization systems into seven civilizations,not scientific though,but provides us with an important method to understand and analyze state to state relations from human civilizations perspective.(U.S.)Samuel Huntington,"the Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order",the Xinhua Publishing House,2002.

2.Karl Jaspers,“The Axial Age of Human History”,COMMENTARY,Vol.6,No.5,November 1948.

3.(U.S.)Lewis Morgan，"Ancient Society",translated by Liu Feng,Beijing:Jinghua Press,2000 Edition.

4.Sun Haohui,"the Chinese Native Civilization Apocalypse",Shanghai People's Press,2012.

5.Peng Lun,Wenhui weekly chief reporter--an interview with Professor Wang Xiaochao,

http://www.people.com.cn/GB/14738/14760/21872/19

6.Yao Guohua,"The Cultural Gene of the Rise of Western Civilization,"The"21st Century Economic Report",March 12,2007,http://finance.sina.com.cn/roll/20070312/16311258863.shtml.

7.Human nature is evil(greedy)rather than good

8.(U.S.)Robert E.Lerner,"Western Civilization",translated by Wang Juefei,etc.,Beijing:China Youth Press,2003,p.133.

9.Ibid.p.168.

10.(Germany)Feuerbach,"The Essence of Christianity",translated by Rong Zhenhua,the Commercial Press,1984.

11.Zhang Yan,"Some Observations on the Differences Between Chinese Culture and Western Culture From the Relationship Between Man and Nature,"Literary Theory",July 2010,pp.117-118;Wang Xiaohua and Han Dexin,"A Comparative Study of the Man-Nature Relationship Between the Ancient West and the Ancient East Based on the Cultural Differences,"Guanzi Journal,No.4,2011,p.5,pp.64-68.

12.Nietzsche’s philosophy is that of human egoism,of the assertion of individuality which all great philosophers have advised us to overcome in order that we may become really great and blessed.See Swami Krishnananda.The Philosophy of Life.Divine Life Society/Rishikesh,2003,p.352.

13.Lin He,"China’s Sorcery History:A Preliminary Study on the Chinese Civilization Genes",Huacheng Press,August 2001.

14.Li Zehou,"A Current Reading of the Analects",The Sanlian Bookstore,2004.

15.Tang Junyi,"A Development of Chinese Humanistic Spirit",Guangxi Normal University Press,2005.

16."The Book of Changes:Sorcery","the Book of Changes:Rites"and"the Book of Changes:Biography".

17.Lao Tzu,"The Classic of the Virtue of Taoism".

18."Mencius–Vigorously Following After".

19.Chinese scholars argue that Buddhism does not answer the question of creation,Buddhism itself does not contain political justice,nor political philosophy.Taoism became regimen,and something for personal discipline.Confucianism as a religion is not established,and if Confucius is taken as the master,a character similar to God,then,how to solve the matters before him?-and this religion is a very shallow religion.Since ancient times,Chinese people have faith indeed,but very weak."Liu Junning,Zheng Xiong"On Spiritual Dilemma for the Chinese People",Guangdong Haifeng",No.6,2011.

20.WangJian,"the Contemporary Value of Chinese Traditional Culture",http://cms.zknu.edu.cn/s/114/t/360/a/36730/info.jspy.

21.Yao Guohua,"The Cultural Gene of the Rise of Western Civilization,"The"21st Century Economic Report",March 12,2007,p32.http://finance.sina.com.cn/roll/20070312/16311258863.shtml.

22.Zhou Ning,"Study on the History of Western Chinese Image:Problem and Field",Southeast Academic,No.1,2005.

23.Zheng Ruolin,"Why the French media has an in-depth anti-China Hostility",Oriental Morning Post,April 23,2008.

24.Samuel P.Huntington,"The Clash of Civilizations?",Foreign Affairs,Summer,1993,pp.22-49.

25.Some domestic scholars advocate an ideological competition with the West,which is actually fall into a trap of ideologizing civilizations.See Pan Wei's article"Be brave to unfold a political concept competition with the West",Global Times,January 30,2008.

26.Tang Shuangning,"The World Economy Will Get More Uncertain Next Year",Global Times,December 25,2012,p/14.

27.G.John Ikenberry,“The Rise of China and the Future of the West:Can the Liberal System Survive?”,Foreign Affairs,January/February 2008.

28.Derek Chollet and Tod Lindberg,“A Moral Core for US Foreign Policy”,Policy Review,January 2008.

29.Sun Haohui,"the Chinese Native Civilization Apocalypse",Shanghai People's Press,2012

30.Wang Ruechuan,"The Identity of Oriental Culture and Chinese Stance",Southeast Academic,No.1,2005.

31."Taking the whole world as a family and whole China as a person","the Rites Record and Application",China’s Ancient Works Press,2010.

32.He Huaihong,"The Preface","Concept Information on going to West for Learning",20 Strategic Lectures,Shi Hongyi,edi.Tianjin People’s Press,2008,p.6.

33.Gunther Fries,"Give and Take:Oscar Negt on China’s and Europe’s Modern Theism",New German News",February 7,2008.("Negt new book argues that China will implement a special' socialist democracy'",References Daily,February 21,2008,pp1-2.)

34.Kishore Mahbubani,"The New Asian Hemisphere:The Irresistible Shift of Global Power to the East",Perseus Publishing,January 2008.

35.Costanza R,Graumlich L,Steffen W,Crumley C,Dearing J,Hibbard K,Leemans R,Redman C,Schimel D.“Sustainability or Collapse:What Can We Learn from Integrating the History of Humans and the Rest of Nature?”,Ambio:AJournal of the Human Environment,2007 Nov;36(7),pp.522-7.

36.Paul R.Ehrlich and Anne H.Ehrlich，“Can a collapse of global civilization be avoided?,Proceedings of the Royal Society B,10 January 2013,http://rspb.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/280/1754/20122845.full.

37.National Intelligence Council,Global Trends 2030:Alternative Worlds,DECEMBER 2012 NIC 2012-001,ISBN 978-1-929667-21-5,To view electronic version:www.dni.gov/nic/globaltrends.

38.Inoue Shinobu,the"Earth Crisis Is a Pain in the Process of New Civilization Birth",(Japan)World Daily January 23,2008.

39."Anti-Disaster History Continues Throughout China’s 5000 Years","Global Times",May 23,2008,p.7.

40.Jin Guantao,Liu Jifeng,"the Prosperity and Crisis:on the Super-Stable Structure of Chinese Feudal Society",Hunan People's Press,1984.

41.See Karl A.Wittfogel,"Oriental Despotism:A Comparative Study of Total Power",Yale University Press,January 1,1967).

42.According to research,this is the first mentioning of China by Western classics.

43.Joshua Cooper Ramo,“The Beijing Consensus”,Foreign Policy Centre,London,Britain,Spring 2004,http://fpc.org.uk/publications/123.

44."Sarkozy's New Year Message"(French)"European Times"(in Chinese),February 26,2007.

45.Naazneen Barma,Ely Ratner,Steven Weber,"AWorld Without the West",The National Interest,July 2007

46.Cheng Zijun"Don't Mention Asian century Again",Financial Times(Chinese website),March 13,2012,http://www.ftchinese.com/story/001043620#utm_campaign=1D110215&utm_source=EmailNewsletter&utm_medium=referral.

47.Cheng Zijun,"Asia Must Get Rid of the Shackles of Western Thinking",Financial Times(Chinese website),December 31,2012,http://www.ftchinese.com/story/001048251#s=d.

48."Crisis Ushers Us into an Unknown World",(French),October 6,2008.A Review on"Entering an Unknown",this economist argues that we will get freed from the Western rule and enter an ambiguous multi-polar world,Reference Daily,November 4,2007,p.7.

49.Gao Zhanxiang,"Culture Force",Peking University Press,2007,p.262.

Su Hao speaking.