On December 30, 1999, he returned to Kathmandu from Pokhara and stayed overnight in Eve

Est hostel

This morning, I watched the snow-capped peaks of the Himalayas for a long time, and then set off for Lumbi

i), the birthplace of Shakyamuni.

The road is long and treacherous, but the scenery is beautiful in a few steps. On one side is the turquoise cliffs, on the other side is the mighty rapids, and the mountains are full of the remnants of the roof of the world. It's a pity that Lumbini is too close to India, and the sight that no one likes has reappeared. It is very difficult to enter the garden where the Buddha was born, and it should be well managed. Fortunately, we have seen many places in Nepal and have faith in the country, believing that it will change in a few years.

More than 100 years ago, British archaeologists excavated an Ashoka pillar here, which was engraved with the words "Shakyamuni Buddha was born here". Ashoka is not far from the time of Shakyamuni and should be credible. Now there is a sign standing next to the pond in the garden, which reads in Nepali and English: After the famous Chinese traveler Xuanzang arrived here, he once recorded the location of Lumbini, as well as the Ashoka Pillar and some worship platforms and stupas he saw.

It can be seen that Xuanzang has once again become a witness to the Holy Land.

I washed my hands in the pool where the Buddha was bathed, watched the old stone brick prayer platforms one by one, climbed a high slope to worship the red brick Buddha pillars, and then left the garden to visit the newly completed Zhonghua Temple not far away. Zhonghua Temple is still under construction, we Zhejiang man-made, Mr. Zhao Puchu inscription, very magnificent. On the side, the Japanese and Vietnamese are building temples.

At this point, our tracing of Buddhist holy sites is relatively systematic. I remember that at the beginning of this trip, I had followed closely to the source of Greek civilization and visited many places; As the end point of the foreign part of this trip, the history of the origin of Buddhism was completely explored, beginning and end, which can be called a complete conclusion.

To visit Lumbini, we drove 600 kilometers round trip. Therefore, there is plenty of time to think in between the scenic spots. I am still thinking about the decline of several major civilizations, and the facts of the past few days have proved that the more I think about it, the more I cannot avoid the other side of this problem, that is, the reason why the Chinese civilization has only survived and has not declined.

When I was at home, I was not sensitive to this issue, and I became accustomed to it. When I traveled in Europe and the United States, I saw more of the ills of Chinese civilization, and I thought that our predecessors and scholars examined the reasons for the strength of the West because they felt the repeated defeats of Chinese civilization in the war with Western civilization, and naturally adopted a bitter and critical attitude towards Chinese civilization. Now it seems that we have no reason to excuse ourselves or boast about our long history, but the path of development that is different from that of other ancient civilizations is always an important method of self-knowledge. It's a pity that due to various reasons, too few of our predecessors and scholars have come to this place.

Along the way, I have said many times to my companions that the more I go, the more I understand Chinese civilization. It can even be said that this is a 100-day course on Chinese culture in a foreign land, and some of the content of the course is very emotional.

This scenario can be illustrated with the help of an image. In the streets of many Indian cities, there are "sacred cows" that do nothing but eat whatever they want, whether in shops, stalls, or in the baskets of passers-by. They walked in the center of the road, blocking a large number of vehicles, and no one dared to drive them, so they could only follow them. Extreme privilege makes them extremely casual, so calm and idle, completely ignoring the world, and even the eyes are absolutely irresponsible. For me, only when I have seen too many such cattle can I really know the Chinese cattle that I have been accustomed to since I was a child, and I know how much hard work, obedience and meekness are in the eyes of Chinese cows. That is to say, on the streets of India, I have made up for the lesson that I have misread since childhood.

In the same way, I have a deeper understanding of the cultural choices of my ancestors than I have ever been.

Judging from the ancient civilizations we have visited this time, the early exchanges between them were relatively close, and even clues to the exchanges between civilizations can be vaguely found, while the Chinese civilization basically occurred independently and completed independently due to the semi-closed structure of East Asian geography. The basis for its occurrence and completion is not the influence of other civilizations, but the economic life form provided by the land on which it stands. This form of economic life, according to the historian Mr. Xu Zhuoyun, is the type of "intensive cultivation".

Only intensive cultivation can feed a large population on a small arable land; However, it is precisely because of intensive cultivation that the gathering of families and kinships is inevitably strengthened, and stability and continuity are valued, and turbulence and migration are averse.

This can still be seen along the way. We have come all the way from West Asia, Central Asia, and South Asia, and with a few exceptions like Israel, the vast majority of farmland is not cultivated in comparable conditions as in rural China, where it is either abandoned in large areas, or widely harvested, and few people are labored.

China's commendability lies in the fact that it has established a set of spiritual principles from hard work; The great contribution of the pre-Qin princes lies in the fact that they have worked together to complete a series of cultural choices related to this from different perspectives. For example, the spirit of pragmatism, the cyclical model, the rhythm of nature, the golden mean, the tolerant mind, the centralized thinking, the people-oriented consciousness, the joy of the sky, the tendency to settle the land, etc., almost all come from the agricultural civilization, and all of them have extended eternal universal significance, becoming the basic rules and conventions to ensure the continuous survival of Chinese civilization. Is all this an inevitable product of agrarian civilization? Not necessarily, as we have seen along the way, many countries that are also agrarian civilizations do not have these spiritual achievements. Therefore, it is still necessary to deeply admire the wisdom of our ancestors.

Among them, Confucian culture, as the core form, is more worthy of study. It does not seek a profound system, does not flaunt the birth of a high and high, does not reject other cultures, but only popularizes the real good order and rational spirit in a natural way of education, which not only contains social and political principles, but also permeates ethical and moral norms, and calmly and effectively plays a role in calming people's hearts, stabilizing society, and maintaining civilization. It is no wonder that when I was in Greece, the scholar told me that the study of Western philosophy to a certain height always turned to the East, and the study of the East was always attracted first by Indian philosophy, and finally attributed to Chinese philosophy. I should also tell my two friends that I have a better understanding of their cultural behavior. In the past, although I also admired the Confucian studies of Mr. Tu Weiming and Mr. Li Zehou, and felt that they were too obsessed with the classics, in fact, they were right in their humanistic orientation. The year before last, I had an open dialogue with Mr. Tu Weiming and others in Singapore on Chinese culture across the centuries, and I still lacked the reference coordinates of several other ancient civilizations. Before this trip, I had a long talk with Mr. Li Zehou in Hong Kong, but I have not yet formed my current feelings.

Of course, the weaknesses and shortcomings of the Chinese civilization should continue to be studied, criticized, and revealed, but at this moment is the turn of the millennium, and the millennium civilization is the only one that is still continuing. This rhetorical question of mine really means that some young people of our student generation do not study well, only take denial and ridicule as their profession, and they are resentful at the mention of their ancestors, and they should really persuade them to open their eyes and know that the Chinese are not an inferior nation, and that it is not easy for them to be a beneficiary of Chinese civilization.