December 28, 1999, Pokhara, Nepal, overnight at Fish Tail Lodge

The beauty of Pokhara's landscapes made it difficult for me to write quietly, always looking east and west, and it was not until night that I settled down. Last night I simply turned off the lights and lit the candle on the table to write, thinking that this was in a mountain house under the snowy mountains, I felt really luxurious.

Early this morning, I woke up early again alone and crossed the river to see the top of the snow-capped mountain that was dyed red by the rising sun. The raft worker pulled up the cold rope that had been immersed in the river overnight with both hands, and said to me: "You are so lucky, the snow-capped mountains have been covered by clouds for five days, and you only show your face today." ”

There is silence under the snowy peaks, and I am still continuing yesterday's thinking, looking for the reasons for the decline of several ancient civilizations.

I think that in addition to being dragged down by expeditionary horse teams, burned by barbaric wars, trampled by disorderly feet, and buried by the anger of strife, there are many other reasons for the decline of human civilization, such as ignorance and conservatism.

Civilization needs to be studied, so it is very easy to drill into the horns; Civilization needs self-respect, and therefore it is extremely easy to exclude; Civilization needs to spread, and therefore it is very easy to exaggerate - all this leads to confusion, and all kinds of small confusion can become self-destructive disasters if they swell into big confusion. Nowhere is this more concentrated than in certain religious fanaticism, which we have felt very deeply along the way.

All high-level civilizations have always been based on reason, including religion. For example, in a series of relics of Shakyamuni's cave penance, enlightenment under the tree, and opening the altar of teaching, which we recently visited, there are no traces of superstition and extremism. Most of the other religions were also clear and clear in the founding period, but as time goes by and the number of believers increases, they will undergo a metamorphosis in the internal and external strife, especially in the compilation of myths, the rejection of heresies, the restraint of behavior, the interpretation of doctrines, etc., are likely to go to extremes, and even launch religious wars, causing human tragedies, and sometimes rivers of blood within the same religion. Recall how many corpse-strewn scenes in human history were associated with religious wars and religious conquests? This is completely contrary to the philanthropic principles of the founders of religions.

In the course of this investigation, I have repeatedly seen that there is no greater damage to ancient civilizations than religious wars, because religious wars are a kind of spiritual sweep, and the civilization of others is used to move the sword. For this reason, even the Mughal ruler Akbal the Great, who came to power in India through religious conquest, naively hoped that the various religions would unite and merge into a new religion. Of course, he did not do it, but regrettably, we have come this way, and we have witnessed that religious strife is still a major problem in the world today, and it is difficult to be optimistic in the next century. We are on the path of the birthplace of ancient civilizations, but it is amazing that there is more living religious strife than anywhere else in the world.

Some religions also breed another evil consequence, that is, they ignore the normal value of life, the quality of life, and social progress, causing a large number of people to think only about what happened before and after death, and live a mess of real life. In some parts of North Africa and West Asia, and especially in South Asia, the lifestyles of the large and extremely poor groups are not at all like the poverty we have ever seen, but rather a deliberate indifference to indoctrination and exhortation, which is obviously not entirely for economic and political reasons, but is related to a long history of religious misdirection. As a huge backward force, this has repeatedly weakened the civilization of its own people, and it will continue to inhibit and destroy other civilizations. I say this without detracting from my respect for the noble religious spirits of human history. These religious spirits have excavated and maintained the noble essence of human beings, coordinated the harmonious relationship between human beings and the universe, and created a splendid world of art, which will always be the treasures of human civilization.

It is a fact that the Chinese civilization lacks a lofty religious spirit, but it has also avoided the all-round encroachment of religious obscurity. From ancient times to the present, Chinese culture has been "emphasizing reality and dismissing fantasy", from content to form, it has honestly entered the WTO and applied it to the world, and does not pursue the ethereal images of the world on the other side, so it has also got rid of the danger of drowning in the water after leaving the world on this shore. China accepted Buddhism with an attitude of humility, but in ancient times, ordinary scholars were often based on Confucianism, believed in Buddhism, and Buddhism was also transformed close to family ethics, which was close to real life and was always tested by real life, and it was unlikely to fall into overall obscurity again.

Another reason for the decline of civilization is conservatism.

The greater the civilization, the more reason there is to be conservative, but to be conservative is contrary to the nature of civilization. What is the nature of civilization? It seems to me to be the establishment of an order that preserves creation. Conservatism leaves order and throws away creation. This situation is often unavoidable, because the development of most ancient civilizations is related to the support of absolute monarchs, whether it is internal political needs or external needs for conquest and self-defense, which will lead to a conservative form of culture. This is exemplified by the Babylonian civilization of the Two Rivers and the Pharaonic civilization of Egypt, which lasted for a long time without much change.

How can a civilization that lacks change in its glory days develop normally in the future? When the Juche civilization is no longer creative, then, as long as the special protection factor is lost, it will inevitably give way to the lower civilization, the primitive civilization, just like the trend of Buddhism gradually giving way to Hinduism in India after the king of the sun. By the contrary, the European Renaissance, although not centered on Greece, eloquently demonstrated the magnificent results of ancient civilizations such as the Greek civilization when they were given new creative vitality, but such a revival did not occur in several other civilizations.

In the midst of this, the defenders of many civilizations often become the victims of such civilizations. The priests of Egypt, the monks of India, and even some fundamentalists in modern times are such characters. A civilization of the past, no matter how great it once was, must find its new fulcrum of life after entering different time processes and receiving groups. At this point, several civilizations seem to lack resilience. The civilization of the two rivers was only practical at that time, and the elasticity was very small, which is conceivable; Egyptian civilization can only be said to be in a state of isolation, if not of decline; Indian civilization has long since lost its creativity, and there is no possibility of sealing it as it was.

The fundamentals of Chinese civilization are also quite conservative, which has caused it to repeatedly produce crises, but it also hides an internal elasticity that prevents conservatism from reaching the point of fragility. This kind of internal elasticity is the inclusive spirit of "harmony and difference" and the balancing principle of "golden mean", which avoids both exclusivity and extremes, and enables Chinese civilization to repeatedly extricate itself from crises. In the field of Chinese culture, a large number of conservatives with extreme attitudes have been produced from ancient times to the present, but it has been proved that these people are always abandoned by people sooner or later because of their extreme attitudes, and as a result, it is difficult for their conservatism to become a climate for a long time, let alone bury Chinese civilization as a whole. Chinese civilization is often a headache for both innovators and conservatives, and there is another reason for its longevity buried in this interesting state.

As far as I've observed, there's an interesting logic here. Conservatives always accuse innovators of destroying order, but slowly everyone sees that in the period of social transition, it is the conservatives who really disrupt the order; Both Chinese society and Chinese civilization have a tendency towards order, so it is difficult for conservatives to gain power in the period of social transition just for the sake of order.