Chapter 71 Cultural Differences and Mutual Exchanges between the East and the West
In order to better analyze and define the development process of human civilization, the process of human civilization is from low to high civilization stages such as the era of spiritual law, the age of divine law, the age of humanities, the age of science, the age of eternal life, and the age of freedom.
It is only after the sound of consciousness and thinking that human beings begin to enter the process of civilization. Before entering civilization, humanity should go through a very long period of obscurantism. After the comprehensive development of sound consciousness, thinking and perception, human beings begin to generate ideas and form the earliest world view, values, outlook on life and laws. The earliest enlightened human prophets believed that the spirit is the basis and foundation of the operation and change of everything in the world, all things have spirits, spirits are alive, and spirits are dead, and the spirit is the spiritual essence that does not depend on the body and matter, and the soul is the form of existence of this spiritual essence, and the soul can be attached to the body and matter, so that the body and matter work. At the same time, the soul can also exist apart from the body and matter, and the body and matter perish because of the loss of the soul, while the soul can remain immortal in the immaterial state. Due to the immaterial nature of the soul, neither human sensory organs, nor modern scientific instruments, can perceive the soul. The soul is a spiritual essence and form that human beings realize and know through thinking and reasoning. On the basis of the understanding of the spirit and soul, human beings have established the most primitive thoughts, that is, the earliest world view, values, outlook on life and laws, and this earliest thought is the idea of primitive shamanism, which is the norm and basis for human thinking and behavior, so we call this period of human civilization the age of spiritual law, that is, the era of shamanism ruling human thoughts and behaviors. We believe that the Spiritual Age was formed before the Great Migration, that is, 45,000 years ago, and continued until the end of the Great Migration, when humans began to settle and develop around the world, that is, 15,000 years ago.
Therefore, between 45,000 and 15,000 years ago, human beings around the world experienced the age of spiritual law.
With the stable life of human settlement and regional mobility, human beings began to create various professional gods and protectors with supernatural abilities on the basis of soul thoughts, such as the god of creation, fertility, agriculture, land, mountain, forest, faun, fire, wind, rain, thunder, heaven, sun, as well as wisdom, love, war, plague, death, undead, national protection, city protection, national protection, and so on.
The establishment of these gods enriched the spiritual world of mankind, cultivated human understanding and reverence for nature and everything in the world, and also enriched human worldview, values, outlook on life and laws, and established the earliest moral norms and legal basis of human beings. This period of the development of human civilization is the age of divine law, in which all human confusion and behavior must be consulted with shamans, priests and sacrifices, and only by obtaining the will of God can we solve doubts and act. Humanity all over the world has gone through its own era of divine law.
It occurred during the severe Xiaoice period between 4300 and 4100 BC, causing farmers and herders in cold regions to migrate to areas with warm climates and abundant water and grasses. In the east, the Huaxia and other northern farmers and herdsmen crossed the Qinling Mountains and the northeast of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau and migrated to various parts of Sichuan. Due to the conflicts and wars between the northern ethnic groups such as the Huaxia and the matrilineal imperial families and other high-ranking nobles of the ancient Shu Kingdom, the ancient Shu Kingdom was destroyed, and the matrilineal imperial class that held divine power and royal power was completely banned. Since then, the theocracy of the Eastern world has been completely eliminated, and the royal power and human rights of the Eastern world can be freely formed without the permission of the theocracy. The oriental civilization with Chinese civilization as the core ended the era of divine law and entered the era of humanity around 4,200 years ago.
More than 1,300 years ago, the Western civilization with Egyptian civilization and Mediterranean civilization as the core began to propose to break through the shackles of religious thought, emancipate human thoughts, pay attention to people's suffering and living conditions, develop productive forces, increase supply, meet the needs of the people and society, respect human rights, emphasize that royal power and human rights are higher than divine rights, and royal power and divine power jointly rule the country and society, and the Western world has only begun to enter the humanistic era. Based on this calculation, the Eastern world entered the humanistic era more than 3,500 years earlier than the Western world, therefore, the Eastern world does not have so many tall and strict stone churches in the Western world, and there is no kind of religion that has reached the peak of monotheistic development. The religion of the Eastern world only satisfies people's thinking and exploration of the soul and the afterlife, and the Oriental people are not obsessed with the illusion of God, and the Oriental people will not wait for God's salvation, let alone wait for God to bring them into the paradise of eternal bliss. Therefore, Westerners think that Easterners are atheists, while Easterners think that Westerners are superstitious and conservative.
Westerners respect and superstitious religion (religions based on Judaism and Christianity) and theocracy, both geographically and historically. We can imagine how great the hearts of the ancient human ancestors who had just migrated to the Middle East, the eastern shores of the Mediterranean, Egypt and other regions felt when they saw those tall and majestic pyramids, obelisks and temples and other extraordinary structures towering high in the endless desert (where these great buildings were already standing 35,000 years ago, according to scientific measurements), they felt a great spiritual shock, how much confusion, horror and awe they felt! These spiritual shocks have led Westerners to believe that there is a heaven outside the heavens and a god outside of man, that the gods created and control the world, that the stories of disasters handed down by their ancestors about disasters such as the Great Flood (caused by the thaw of the Ice Age and the rise of sea levels) and the Great Escape are true, and that all natural disasters are God's punishment for mankind. At the same time, ancient human beings believed that ancient legends and mystical ideas about the creation of human beings and the world by gods and spirits laid a stubborn ideological foundation for the establishment of Western religions and theocratic systems.
In the Middle East and the Mediterranean region, after tens of thousands of years of life and civilization development of ancient human beings, the region formed local characteristic ideas and cultures on the basis of primitive shamanism and ancient thoughts, which became the theoretical basis of Western religion and theocracy, and thus gave birth to the characteristic religions and theocracy of the Middle East and the Mediterranean, and then gave birth to ancient Egypt and ancient Greece (modern archaeologists believe that ancient Greek civilization is suspected of fraud and exaggeration, Modern archaeologists have found that the temple architecture of ancient Greece was rebuilt on the basis of the churches of the Ottoman Empire, and the statues of ancient Greece such as the statue of Venus and the statue of David throwing the discus are all works of the European Renaissance, they are not the works of the ancient Greeks), ancient Rome and other early Mediterranean civilizations.
Primitive shamanism and the ideas of ancient humans are the basis of Western thought and religion, and the ancient Egyptians took the shamanic view of the soul to the extreme, making mummies of corpses, and their purpose was to preserve not only the bones of the dead, but also the flesh and blood of the dead, which they believed would make the spirits more perfect. However, mummified burials are very financially draining, so Western societies soon returned to burial and secondary burial, and many neatly stacked human bones can still be seen in ancient caves and tunnels in the Middle East and Europe, which are the remains of shamanic secondary burials.
In order to revitalize the country's economy and prosper the society and culture, Zoroastrianism is Zoroastrianism, which has completely repudiated the shamanic religious theory of "skull parasite", which believes that the essence of the soul is spirit rather than matter, and the soul does not depend on matter to exist, the religion opposes burial, advocates the destruction of corpses, and uses cremation, sky burial and water burial. The abolition of abstinence and asceticism, the encouragement of childbearing, the development of population and material production, the improvement of the social system, and the prosperity of the social economy, these revolutionary religious and social reforms, which are conducive to saving state and private financial resources, ensuring the rational use of land, ensuring population development, and the development of economic and industrial industries such as agriculture, animal husbandry, handicrafts and social services, so the religion laid the ideological and material foundation for Iran's hegemony in the Middle East and the Mediterranean region, and at the same time, because of the strong spiritual power of the religion, the religion has been used all over the world, In particular, Zoroastrianism was widely accepted by Asian people, and Zoroastrianism was deeply rooted in Chinese society during the Tang, Song and Ming dynasties, and the Fangla peasant uprising during the Northern Song Dynasty, and the revolutionary ideas and uprising troops of Zhu Yuanzhang, the founding emperor of the Ming Dynasty, were all related to Zoroastrianism.
After the emergence of Zoroastrianism, in order to resist the invasion of Western thought and religion, Jainism and Buddhism were born in the South Asian subcontinent, Buddhism downplayed the concept of God, Buddhism focused on the cultivation and sublimation of the soul, and clarified the relationship between the cultivation of the soul and the destiny of the soul; Subsequently, Judaism emerged in the Middle East, which advocated monotheism, preached the "Patent Theory of God's Chosen National Descent", forbade believers to worship other gods, and forbade people of different races and impure blood to join the religion as a way to resist the invasion of other religious ideas. On the basis of screening and integrating the ancient religious ideas of the Middle East and the Mediterranean, combined with the historical legends of the Middle East, the religious ideas and teachings of the religion have been formed, so the religion has been launched and has become widely recognized by the people of the Middle East and the Mediterranean.
However, the religion's "Divine Chosen Ethnic Origins Patent Theory" and other regulations have restricted many religious believers from joining the religion, and in order to satisfy the beliefs and affiliations of various ethnic groups in the Middle East, a saint founded Christianity on the basis of this religion. Subsequently, the Arabs founded Islam on the basis of Christianity. At this point, the pattern of world religions was basically formed.
One of the differences between Westerners and Easterners is that Westerners give the best to God, while Westerners prefer to die for the afterlife; Oriental people give the best to themselves and their loved ones, and Oriental people are more willing to die for their dreams in this life. Therefore, Westerners like to build temples and royal palaces with expensive stones, precious stones, etc., so they compliment and glorify divine and royal power; Oriental people think that stone can only be used to build tombs, living dwellings can only be built of wood, the building does not seek to be gorgeous, only to be able to shelter from the wind and rain, so most of the materials used in the oriental building are made of local materials, more wood and fired bricks and tiles, the architectural style is simple and practical, the architectural concept of the Oriental people, reduce the cost of construction, improve the efficiency of construction.
In daily life, Orientals pay attention to food and health, Westerners believe that food has only one function - to fill the stomach and prevent hunger, Westerners do not want to live a long life, they only hope to die early and ascend to heaven; When it comes to work and wealth, the Oriental people work hard and diligently, like to store up for their possessions and take care of their families, while the Westerners pray and serve God, ignoring their families and others, and making the ascension to heaven the only priority in this life. The thoughts and behaviors of the Oriental people are based on humanistic thoughts, and the thoughts and behaviors of the Westerners are based on the ideas of divine law, which has led to differences, estrangements and conflicts between the Eastern civilization and the Western civilization.
An ancient Western traveler once wrote in his diary: Friend! If you want God's love, you must keep the West. If you want to live a wonderful and happy life, you must go to the East, where you will get everything you want in life!
It is not an inevitable historical process to enter the humanistic age from the age of divine law. From the perspective of the concept of regional culture, the entire Western world has not all entered the humanistic age, but the European cultural circle in the Western world has entered the humanistic era, while the Middle East is still in the era of divine law until today. Southeast Asia, the South Asian subcontinent, and the southern and western parts of the Tibetan Plateau, the oldest civilizations of mankind, are still in the Age of Divine Law to this day.
The reason why Chinese civilization entered the humanistic era from the age of divine law was that the matrilineal theocracy in the era of divine law seriously restricted the development of Chinese society, so the emerging patrilineal royal power directly eliminated the matrilineal theocracy and its culture in the form of war. Therefore, the Eastern civilization, with Chinese civilization as the core, has done a more thorough job than Western civilization in denying theocracy and feminism.
The development process of Western civilization is different from that of Eastern civilization, after the end of the Great Migration, they migrated from the East to the Middle East, the Mediterranean coast, Egypt and other regions of the matriarchal aristocracy, they not only mastered agriculture, animal husbandry, food processing industry and handicraft industry and other industrial technologies, but also mastered the right to cultural development and education, religious theocracy and discourse. Although the indigenous peoples of the Middle East, North Africa and Europe are still the majority of the population in these regions, they can only be subordinated to the Eastern immigrant aristocracy in order to integrate into the mainstream society of the New West, and successively the Semites, Hebrews, Greeks, Romans, Aryans, etc., gradually integrated into the mainstream Western civilization, and eventually evolved into the dominant forces of Western civilization, such as the Egyptians, Jews, Greeks, Romans, Iranians and Arabs. Although the Jews did not have a brilliant record in establishing and defending the country, they were very successful in cultural construction and business, in which they founded Judaism and Christianity, and eventually their religion became the mainstream worldview, values, moral standards and legal basis of Western society, and they established a class of de facto control of theocracy and cultural rights.
In Europe, except for the Greeks and Romans and other maritime peoples who once ruled the Western world, the other European peoples were marginalized by Western civilization, they are Germanic people (today's Germans, Austrians, Swiss, Anglo-Saxons (English), Dutch, Norwegians, Danes, Swedes, Icelanders are Germanic, among which Germans, Austrians and Swiss speak German. ); Slavs (present-day Poles, Czechs, Slovaks, Sorbians, Russians, Belarusians, Ukrainians, Luxonians, Serbs, Montenegrins, Croats, Slovenes, Macedonians, Bosniaks, Bulgarians are all Slavs. ); The Celts (the present-day Irish, the Scottish, the Welsh, the Cornish in England and the Bretons in France all belonged to the Celts, among which the Irish, Scots, and Welsh were represented. ), that is, the three barbarian tribes of Europe.
In order for these barbarians to enter the mainstream of Western society and become legitimate residents of Western society, they must adhere to the mainstream religion and become believers and god-people of these religions, so that the Germans, Slavs and Celts of Europe will soon become followers of Western religions, and will visit the holy city of Jerusalem The noblest goal of life and actively participate in the crusading holy war to protect the holy city.
The barbarian believers were quick to excel, receiving rewards such as canonization and land gifts from the pope, and they soon established the state of Armenia in Transcaucasia and Western countries such as the Rus' Empire, Germany, France, and Great Britain in Europe. Therefore, at present, the mainstream countries of the Western world have benefited from the Western religious theocracy in the age of divine law. However, in the course of later historical development, the Western world was repeatedly invaded, looted and enslaved by the Huns, Khitans, Turks and Mongols and other Eastern nomadic peoples, and the states established by the Slavs, Germans and Celts were always the biggest victims, so Europeans were forced to think about survival and the way forward. When Europeans feel that religion is not omnipotent, they will definitely give up part of the theocratic dogma and seek ways and means to solve difficulties in the real world, which is the reason why European society has entered the early age of humanities and science.
Let us now review the basic conditions of the various eras of human civilization. In the era of spiritual law, human beings have understood the irresistible power of nature, the helplessness, fear and pain of human beings in life, old age, sickness and death, and at the same time have understood the soul, deduced the existence and movement form of the soul, and deduced the principle and mechanism of the soul on the natural world and life. Therefore, the people of the spiritual age revere nature, resign themselves to fate, and live exactly according to their own understanding of the soul, or the interpretation and guidance of the clergy such as shamans, priests, and priests.
In the age of divine law, the clerical elite had sublimated the soul into a god, and although God existed in the form of an immaterial mental state like the soul, God had a completely independent consciousness and an immortal individual, and had the ability to know everything, to be omnipotent, to do whatever he wanted, and to transcend nature, which no soul could possibly possess. Due to the need of human beings, various gods were created by the clerical elite, and in order to liberate the minds of believers, religious rituals such as praying to God, worshiping God, and practicing rebuke became more and more developed and expensive, resulting in confusion in the belief system and more and more difficult to operate religious ceremonies.
In order to solve these spiritual problems, the Semites founded monotheistic religions such as Judaism, Christianity, and Islam on the basis of the primitive religions of the Middle East. From then on, the pursuit of the life of the monotheistic people became very simple, in addition to doing some necessary things to earn a living, what they had to do was to please and obey God, to worship God's sanctuary on earth, and to wait there for the end of this life, and the sanctuary to wait for God's last judgment in the underworld, and prepare to enter heaven and obtain eternal life and bliss. This is the life pursuit and the greatest dream of believers.
The Iranians were based on the original Aryan religion of Zoroastrianism, which later evolved into Zoroastrianism, Manichaeism and other religious forms, which put forward the concept of good and evil, and took the promotion of good and the rejection of evil as the basic content of religious practice. The spread of the religion in the East was very successful, and the teachings and canons of the religion were integrated into the Hinduism of the South Asian subcontinent, perhaps Hinduism revered the custom of ox, and the funeral forms such as sky burial, cremation, and water burial were all derived from Zoroastrianism.
In the northern part of the South Asian subcontinent and the southern foothills of the Tibetan Plateau, the clergy elite founded Buddhism on the basis of ancient religions such as Shamanism and Jainism, and Buddhism has the most profound and incisive description and explanation of theological concepts and mechanisms such as soul and god, this life and afterlife, reincarnation, heaven and hell, etc., while Buddhism also has the concept of good and evil, and clearly pointed out that the manifestation of good and evil in life determines the destination and treatment of future lives. Buddhism does not have the concept of God, Buddhism emphasizes practice, and the highest state of practice is to become a Buddha, after becoming a Buddha, you can not only transcend the cycle of life and death, but also enter the immortal Western Elysium. Therefore, we can think of the Buddha as the highest form of the soul, which is actually God. There are many precepts in Buddhism, among which the precepts such as not killing and not eating meat are difficult to be accepted by nomads and other meat-eating peoples, so the belief in Buddhism is often a vegetarian-based farming people. SINCE HINDUISM (SELF-PROCLAIMED JIM/GIM) AND BUDDHISM (HINDU'S BOJIM/BOGIM) BOTH ORIGINATED IN THE SAME CULTURAL REGION, THEY HAVE A MUTUALLY INFLUENCING RELATIONSHIP.
The greatest role of religion is to relieve the helplessness, pain and despair of life, so that believers can find peace, satisfaction, joy and happiness in the world of religious expression. Despite this, many people still choose to be sober, brave and calm to face the real world and helpless life. The idea of facing reality, thinking about problems and values in reality, and pursuing peace, satisfaction, happiness and happiness in life has brought mankind into the era of humanity. People who lived in the humanistic era toiled to get food; In order to relieve the pain, they endured even greater pain and tried all kinds of incredible treatments; In order to have a place to shelter from the wind and rain and sleep peacefully, they look for burrows or build huts on the trees they are messing with; In order to seize and protect the land of survival, they formed armies and fought to the death against foreign races; In order to associate with the alien race and obtain greater benefits, they will make themselves the likes of the aliens, grovel to the powerful, and learn the languages, customs, and ways of life of the aliens. In order to solve major practical and social problems, they formed huge organizations, city-states, and states that were fully functional, complex, and difficult to function...... Wait a minute. Although the results are not satisfactory, they are always happier and more free than those who do nothing and wait for death.
Judging from the result of the inevitable death of all things, everything in the world is running according to the inevitable law of "rebirth, growth, prosperity, decline, and extinction", and this process really has no value and significance. But the greatness of humanity lies in the fact that there is always an elite among humanity who believe that they can break this inevitable stereotype of everything, and that they can allow life and soul to exist in an eternal and free state, free from the influence and constraints of the material world.
Of course, aside from the great ideals and goals of life, human beings can still find a lot of value and meaning in life, and some people regard life and feeling the present as the value and meaning of life; Some people regard loving and being loved, gratitude and dedication, promoting good and abandoning evil as the value and meaning of life; There are those who will explore mysteries, pursue truth, and create miracles that are the most valuable and meaningful in life...... Wait a minute. The courageous and indomitable spirit of human beings has enabled mankind to unconsciously enter the age of science from the age of humanities.
The basic idea of the humanistic era is to be people-oriented, to work for the needs of life, to work for a better life, and to strive for longevity and the continuation of the human race. The humanistic era is to carry out various tasks as the core of satisfying people's needs. Basic human needs include survival, security, security, pleasure, comfort and freedom. However, in order for these needs to be fully satisfied, the social productive forces must be greatly enhanced, and the social production sectors must provide society with a rich variety of goods and services. The full release of human needs will inevitably lead to human beings having to think about many practical problems, to design strategies and means to solve these problems, and to create more powerful technologies and tools. In this process of thinking and acting, human beings will eventually lead human beings living in the humanistic era to the road of science and open the scientific era of human civilization.
The mission of science is to pursue the truth, discover, verify and apply the truth, and use the truth to solve the problems of human existence and destiny, so that mankind can reach a state of eternal life, freedom, comfort and happiness. Therefore, science begins with the study of real society and things in the natural world. At present, in the human science system, mankind has established basic disciplines such as mathematics, physics, chemistry, astronomy, biology, materials science, manufacturing, and engineering, and established scientific production and service departments involving agriculture, animal husbandry, mining, metallurgy, manufacturing, transportation, and service industries.
In 1533 AD, the Polish astronomer, mathematician, doctor of canon law, and priest Nicolaus Copernicus published his great work "Theory of the Movement of the Celestial Sphere", in which the "heliocentric theory" corrected the human cosmology, and the "Theory of the Movement of the Celestial Sphere" was verified and generally accepted by the scientific community, marking the beginning of modern astronomy.
In 1776, the British inventor and entrepreneur James Watt built the first practical steam engine. This marks that mankind will completely get rid of the era of human and animal power and enter an industrial age where unlimited mechanical power can be obtained.
On October 17, 1831, the famous British scientist Michael Faraday discovered the electromagnetic induction phenomenon for the first time, and then obtained the method of generating alternating current; On October 28, 1831, Faraday invented the disc generator, the first generator created by man. This marks the beginning of mankind's entry into the infinite and magical era of electricity and electromagnetism.
In 1863, Nobel, a Swedish chemist, engineer, inventor, manufacturer of military equipment and inventor of diatomite explosives, succeeded in developing modern explosives with his father and younger brother, obtained a patent for nitro explosives, and established an explosives company. This marked the beginning of mankind's entry into the modern military age.
This was the time when European scientists made significant discoveries in physics and chemistry and the practical application of these scientific truths.
The development of science and technology has greatly enhanced mankind's ability to transform the natural world and create new things, and whoever first masters and applies science and technology will be able to stand in the forefront of the development of civilization and who will be able to conquer and enslave the nations, which are backward in science and technology, and in culture. As a result of this cultural renaissance and technological revolution that took place and matured with Europe, the European powers conquered the world in just over 500 years.
The European powers first conquered the Americas through the Great Voyage, and the indigenous inhabitants of the Americas, the Indians, who migrated from the west coast of Asia and the Pacific Ocean 20,000 or 30,000 years ago, were wiped out by the Europeans in confusion, terror and confusion.
Later, the Europeans conquered all of Africa by land and sea, and Africans became cheap slaves to the Europeans, who were sold to the Americas and around the world to work as coolies.
Subsequently, the Europeans conquered all of the Middle East, Central Asia, and most of Asia, including India.
Finally, the Europeans conquered Southeast Asia and Chinese mainland, among other regions, and came to this. The Europeans completed the conquest of the whole world.
Surely the Europeans did not think that the world could be so vulnerable in this long war of conquest? So mean, vulgar and ugly? When the foreign spear team of Europeans, under the guidance of Chinese guides, attacked the city of Beijing, the thousand-year-old imperial capital of the East, when they saw the Forbidden City, which they had imagined to be a paradise, when they saw the dusty princes and ministers, the people of Li, trembling in front of them, and when these Orientals, who they once regarded as gods, knelt down on both sides of the road in pieces to welcome them into the city, they must have felt that they had been rewarded for their hard work in believing in God for many years, and that they were indeed the messengers and people sent by God to the world. And the Orientals they once admired were just their slaves.
Of course, the elites of the conquered countries must have mixed feelings and misery in their hearts, because their fate is closely related to the country. However, for a country like China, which often changes dynasties, the most painful thing about each national disaster is only the ruling class such as princes and nobles, while the middle and lower class people such as the Li people are only limited to worries about their lives and futures, and the common people never care who is the emperor, they only care about how the new emperor will treat them and what benefits or disadvantages they will bring?
In the world of the jungle, the strong in society are all demon kings who have no moral bottom line, as well as robbers who rob homes and houses, and they are just to maximize profits. The European powers are no exception, after occupying the imperial capital of the Qing Dynasty, the Europeans signed an unequal treaty with the Qing court to obtain the Qing court's land reparations, as well as trade and other benefits, the direct harm of Westerners is only at the national level, Westerners and the Qing people, that is, the Chinese, have no direct conflict of interest, therefore, many Chinese who have no sense of state and nationality and are deeply oppressed in the Qing Dynasty also think that the European powers are saving them from the rule and cruelty of the "Qing demon". The feudal patriarchal system determined that the Qing Dynasty belonged to the Manchu aristocracy, and the people of the Qing Dynasty were only the objects of the Manchu aristocracy's rule and enslavement. Therefore, the fall of the Qing Dynasty belonged to the wall and was pushed by everyone, not the credit of the Western powers.
History is ruthless, so we can't always hope that the world will always be full of goodness and beauty, we need to face reality, we need to think calmly and adapt to changes, so that we can see the light in the darkness, and we can survive and turn evil into good fortune.
There are two main lines of development of Chinese culture, one is the cultural development line led by the imperial courts of all dynasties, which promotes benevolence, righteousness, propriety, wisdom and faith, emphasizes loyalty to the monarch and patriotism, and emphasizes moral education. The second line of cultural development exists in the folk, which advocates the Book of Changes, Taoism, Yin and Yang, Bingjia, etc., and emphasizes the way of life such as judging the situation, forbearance, avoidance, surprise attack, and killing. During the Three Kingdoms period of the Later Han Dynasty, Zhuge Liang was the military advisor of Shu and Sima Yi was the military advisor of Wei, and the two of them vividly expressed the two main lines of Chinese culture. Zhuge Liang's "Teacher Table" to Adou said all the benevolence, righteousness and morality, and he was the representative of the first cultural line. Sima Yi gave his son a mantra on his deathbed, and in just a few words, he said that life is desolate and fierce, Sima Yi said: Humiliated by others, immovable. Observe the faults of others, and do not praise others. Feel the deceit of others, and do not be angry with others. Hide the utensils in your body and move when the time comes. If you want to be a goshawk, don't fight with birds.
In the troubled times, Sima Yi's 40 words were better than Zhuge Liang's benevolence, righteousness and morality, and in the end, under the guidance of the family motto, Sima Zhao defeated Shu and Wu to establish the Jin Dynasty, and achieved the imperial dream of the Sima family!
Why were Europeans able to enter the age of science so quickly after entering the age of humanities? We believe that we can benefit from the following aspects.
After the establishment of the Ottoman Empire by the First Turkic People, the Turkic people comprehensively collected, sorted, renovated and translated the cultural classics and books of ancient Egypt, China and other Eastern and Western cultures, so that these ancient classics and books involving a wide range of categories were systematically and completely preserved and inherited. In the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, after Europe entered the Renaissance, scholars from various European countries translated these ancient classics and books into the national form of the Ottoman Empire, so the Europeans quickly established their own scientific foundation;
Second, geographically, European countries are connected to the territory of the eastern nomads, and they are directly facing great pressure to survive, so they urgently need to improve their productivity and competitiveness through the development of science and technology. They developed modern astronomy to solve the problem of navigation in navigation; They developed modern guns and ammunition to resist aggression and dominate the world; They developed internal combustion engines and electromagnetic equipment in order to solve the bottlenecks of the industrial sector, in order to meet the needs of large-scale production, as well as low-cost operation of industrialization.
In the end, the Europeans achieved great success in science and technology, so they conquered the entire planet and became the sole hegemon of this world, forcing the world's peoples to rush into the age of science. In the last years of the Qing Dynasty, under the coercion of Europeans and Americans, China became a colony and vassal state of the Western powers, and since then the Chinese have been painstaking, emancipating their minds, enduring humiliation and hard study, and striving to catch up. Today, the Chinese have stood at the pinnacle of human civilization from the new, and have the ability and wisdom to comprehensively challenge the Western powers.
Chinese society entered the humanistic age 3,500 years earlier than European society, but why can't Chinese society naturally enter the scientific age?
We believe that, first, China's affluent, self-sufficient and relatively closed social environment, the Chinese elite has lost the motivation to think about the essential problems and truths of the world. Before the Qing Dynasty, among the Chinese intellectuals, that is, the scholar class, there were only literati who could recite poems and paintings, write orally, and make contributions to their minds, and there were no technicians and engineers who solved production problems and practical problems, let alone scientists who pursued truth. Second, China's scientific and technological development basically relies on non-governmental forces, which mainly rely on personal consciousness and wisdom, and can create tools and equipment that can meet basic needs, rather than pursuing perfection and perfection. For example, the ancients felt that manpower was not as good as animal power, so the ancients domesticated cattle, donkeys, horses, etc., and then the ancients thought that it was okay to domesticate more livestock, and they would no longer think about the power of animals, of course, they would use slaves as livestock, but this scientific method is a way of management.
Despite this, the Chinese still rely on their ingenuity to create many technologies that affect the progress of human civilization, such as mathematics, easy learning, astronomy and calendar technology, abacus, weights and measures technology, fire technology, metal smelting and casting technology, ceramic manufacturing technology, waterwheel and water mill technology, woodworking technology, construction technology, agricultural technology, animal husbandry technology, textile technology, food processing and storage technology, brewing technology, Chinese medicine technology, printing, gunpowder, compass, Papermaking and other major inventions that can meet the comprehensive needs of mankind are important material and spiritual foundations for mankind to enter the scientific age.
The mission of science is to discover and validate truth, and to use it to solve humanity's ultimate problems. At present, four disciplines, including mathematics, physics, chemistry and biology, are recognized as the basic disciplines of science.
Mathematics is the precise description of the movement and stationary condition of the subject. At present, mathematics can effectively and accurately define numbers, proficient in the operation of various algorithms of numbers, and at the same time, modern mathematics can also define new number patterns and mathematical patterns according to practical needs, design complex and efficient algorithms, and budget and deduce the real things that are about to develop through the process and results of algorithm operations. The advent of ultra-large-scale electronic computers has enabled various mathematical models and algorithms to be implemented perfectly and quickly. The high development of modern mathematics has enhanced the ability of human beings to conduct scientific research and explore truth.
Physics is the science that studies the nature and properties of matter and the laws of its motion. There are many categories of physics, which are generally divided into general physics, astrophysics, geophysics, quantum physics, general mechanics, fluid mechanics, mechanical mechanics, mechanics of materials, electromagnetism, electricity, electronics, electronic engineering, etc.
Chemistry is the science that specializes in the study of the laws of change in matter. At present, modern chemistry has developed to a very high level. Chemistry is the study of the conditions and laws of the decomposition and synthesis of substances at the atomic and molecular levels. Chemistry is the basic discipline of metallurgy, chemical engineering and materials science, and the chemical and material industry is the foundation of modern manufacturing, so the level of chemical research determines the height of modern manufacturing.
Biology is the science that specializes in the nature of life, the laws of movement and change, and the maintenance of life and health. General Biology, Anatomy, Cytology, Genetics, Immunology, Pathology, Virology, Medicine, Surgery, etc. Biology is a basic discipline in medicine, agriculture, and animal husbandry. The more truths that humans grasp in terms of biology, the longer they will live, even reaching the state of immortality.
Today's worldview of human beings has become closer and closer to the real situation, and the natural environment in which human beings live in the earth, solar system, galaxy, universe, etc., their essence is material, and at the same time, the essential basis of human life is also material. Current scientific research has shown that all matter in the universe is produced by a big bang, the process of material diffusion and expansion, forming various material forms, celestial bodies, galaxies and cosmic space. Under the action of the supergravity of the black hole in the center of the universe, the entire universe begins to rotate and contract towards the center of the universe, and finally the matter of the entire universe enters the black hole, and is completely deconstructed and destroyed in the black hole. Maybe the next Big Bang will come after that, and then the same process will be repeated.
The results of this scientific study are indeed a devastating blow to mankind's pursuit of eternal life and the dream of freedom! But if we think about it from a different angle, we will gain new hope and hope. Since matter and the universe have undergone countless destructions, if life did not evolve naturally (the current mainstream of human thought believes that life is not the result of natural evolution, but the result of the creation of advanced intelligent beings), then how did life come to this world? There is only one possibility, that is, there is an immaterial form of soul in every life, the soul can exist apart from matter, and the soul body retains the information and functions that reproduce the material form of life, and retains the supernatural information and functions such as the information and functions that form the ideology and wisdom of life.
In the case of the complete destruction of matter and the universe, the soul can still exist in the immaterial form of the universe, and when the material universe is formed again, in a suitable material environment, because of the action of the soul, the material form of life is immediately reproduced. Perhaps this is the true source of life.
Therefore, the next great task of science is to study the mysteries of the immaterial world, the mysteries of the soul, which is the only way to achieve human beings to transcend the bondage and constraints of matter, and to achieve eternal life and freedom. It's a very difficult area of research, just as hard as learning to fly freely in the sky, but nevertheless, humanity has to go to this uncharted territory. Of course, when mankind began this study, mankind naturally entered the age of immortality and the age of freedom.
The age of eternal life is when human beings have mastered the truth of the immaterial world, the truth of the movement of the soul and eternal life, and at this time human beings can enter and exit the material and immaterial worlds as needed.
The Age of Freedom is the age when human beings enter the age of eternal life, and they can travel in the material and immaterial worlds as they like according to their own consciousness and dreams, and fulfill their aspirations.
If there is no Age of Eternal Life, the Age of Freedom, then humanity, life and soul will surely be destroyed by the terrible black hole along with this universe!