According to the differences of geographical environment on which their respective cultures are based, we can divide Chinese and western cultures into inland culture and marine culture, which are called "yellow civilization" and "blue civilization" respectively.
"One side nourishes the other" and "Yan and Zhao are generous and sad people", all of which are the contributions of nature, and also show the great influence of natural environment on personality shaping. "People's personality is the product of innate organization, and it is the product of people's environment in their own lives, especially in the process of development." [2] The environment here includes not only the social environment, but also the natural environment. The natural environment has a subtle influence on people, which makes people consciously or unconsciously get some edification and influence. Marx pointed out that "different communes have found different means of production and different means of subsistence in their respective natural environments. So their production methods, lifestyles and products are also different. " [3]
Chinese national civilization originated in the Yellow River Basin, and the geographical environment with three sides of land and one sea makes China almost isolated from the world, thus maintaining the strong stability and historical continuity of its own culture. This unique natural environment has created the unique cultural tradition and social psychology of the Chinese nation. Confucian ethics, which was born in the semi-closed natural environment of the mainland, teaches people to move from the important place to the light, be content with poverty and be happy, and rest at sunrise and sunset, which makes people precipitate a closed inert psychology and inertia thinking mode in a long tradition, conservative and lacking open consciousness; Cherish home and advocate quietism; Be content with the status quo, stick to the rules, stick to the rules, have a weak sense of risk and competition, and have a weak sense of time and enterprising. The so-called "mountain blocking, water letting people pass" is the truth. "Orientals don't have the sense of busyness and competition of westerners. They always look serious, never worry, and have no idea of time. Just as the word' efficiency' represents the keynote of western society leading people's thinking, the word' average' that China people often say also shows their attitude towards life. " [4] Narrow and closed life circle, fixed and long-term contact between people, in order to live in harmony, China people attach great importance to the way of the world, "everything is learned, everyone knows", which also cultivated the modesty of China people.
The traditional virtues of vanity, prudence, tolerance and implication. China's natural environment and cultural traditions under the influence of this environment have cultivated the introverted personality of the Chinese nation. As the source of western culture, ancient Greece and Rome were both located on the peninsula, facing the sea, with developed maritime traffic and prosperous maritime trade, which made these countries form an open society that broke the blood relationship. Fierce social unrest, frequent personnel exchanges and turbulent seas and oceans have formed its open and changeable cultural character, forged its national spirit of flexibility, openness, courage, enterprising and cooperation, and advocated hard work and self-improvement. Therefore, westerners like to be unconventional, innovative, adventurous and brave. In the west, it is the cultural tradition formed in this natural environment that has developed the extroverted character of westerners. "In Marx's view, geographical environment influences people through the production relations in certain places on the basis of certain productive forces ..." 5 P&G T;
Therefore, we can neither exaggerate nor belittle the influence of natural environment on personality, nor overemphasize or ignore it at will, but should be objective and fair. As Russell said, "the current science can't fully explain the national character. Although the climate and economic environment explain part of it, it is not all. " [6]
2. Ethical culture and utilitarian culture
According to the differences between Chinese and western values, we can classify Chinese and western cultures into ethical culture and utilitarian culture respectively.
The general orientation of China's traditional ethics is to value righteousness over profit. "Discrimination between righteousness and benefit" is a basic problem that runs through the history of China civilization. Mohism, which advocates giving consideration to both righteousness and benefit, has forgotten the middle way because it has lost the soil for survival, while Taoism, which advocates the abandonment of skill and benefit, completely excludes merit, fame and fortune from personality standards. Although this thought once kept pace with the Confucian concept of justice and benefit, it was not used by the ruling class because it did not meet the needs of the society at that time. As the mainstream ideology that dominated the feudal society in China for thousands of years, Confucianism's basic ideas are "valuing righteousness over profit", "seeing profit as a stream" and "controlling profit with righteousness". It advocates that when there is a contradiction between justice and benefit, one should give one's life for justice. The China tradition of pan-moralism explained everything with morality, which led to people's value orientation of being willing to give lectures and ashamed to talk about benefits, emphasizing moral cultivation and ignoring external achievements, thus leading to the loss of scientific independent personality value and social status in ancient China. People focus on their inner world, lose interest in reason and nature, and lack the rational tradition of western culture and the enthusiasm for scientific exploration. The separation of morality and reason makes China's tradition tend to be anti-rational, which hinders the development of China's scientific spirit. This is the deep reason for China's empty talk, the prevalence of metaphysics, the decline of science and the underdevelopment of commerce in ancient times. Science and technology were regarded as the cunning of prostitution, and the businessman was demoted to the last of the four, which led to the serious consequences of China's ancient developed science but difficult to put it into practice, the slow development of commerce and the country's poverty and weakness. In modern times, it became the object of aggression by western colonialists.
In the west, although we say that in the long process of social and historical development, its social values are complex and diverse, but the western society is based on individuals, and the value goal pursued is the realization of individual rights and interests, and they are considered sacred, innate and gifted. It is an individual's instinct to seek advantages and avoid disadvantages, and the purpose of survival is to strive for benefits. You don't have to bear any moral responsibility in the process of pursuing your own rights and interests, and you can do whatever it takes. Therefore, utilitarianism has always occupied the mainstream position and played a leading role in western society. Undoubtedly, this utilitarianism played a catalytic role in the germination of capitalism in later generations, but it also made the primitive accumulation of capitalism very cruel and bloody. As Marx said: "When capital comes to this world, blood and dirt are dripping from every pore from head to toe." [7] This value orientation of valuing righteousness over profit in western society has mobilized the enthusiasm of individuals to pursue material interests to a certain extent, thus promoting the development of western social economy and science. However, the contempt and degradation of righteousness can easily lead to the unilateral pursuit of material interests in western society, which will harm others and benefit themselves, lead to the alienation and deterioration of the relationship between people and become a naked relationship of money and material interests. Utilitarianism and pragmatism prevailed in western history, which constituted the mainstream value orientation in the west, and the sanctity of private property became the eternal creed of society. Driven by the concept of maximizing self-interest, science and technology are particularly valued in the west, and rationalism and scientism are very developed in the west. In real life, westerners show novel, innovative and practical personality spirit. Scientific concepts and technical awareness are deeply rooted in people's hearts and become a hook and a fan. What's the point of refuting Lun Jia's tanning? Finally? He is good at reasoning but not emotional, good at logical thinking and ignoring intuitive feelings.
3. Harmonious culture and rebellious culture
According to the different concrete forms of Chinese and western cultures, we can classify them into harmonious culture and rebellious culture respectively.
In dealing with the relationship between man and nature, the mainstream of China's traditional culture focuses on advocating "the unity of man and nature", emphasizing respect for nature, following the laws of nature, and pursuing the harmony between man and nature, and holding that "if heaven is guilty, you should not pray" [8]. "One of the characteristics of China culture is that it not only does not isolate people from interpersonal relationships, but also does not oppose people and nature ... There are people in the sky, there are days on earth, and the idea of harmony between subject and object constitutes a remarkable feature of China culture." [9] China culture mainly regards nature as the object of worship rather than research and conquest, and as the object of imagination rather than exploration. For nature, it is not only absurd but also futile to be too obsessed with the illusory exploration of heaven because of "the distance between heaven and man is near" [10]. We just need to appeal to the heart, and there are universal natural laws in people's hearts. We can understand with our hearts, and those who understand know the sky. "Everything is ready for me." [1 1] Therefore, the ancient culture of China valued human beings over natural principles and morality over knowledge. In dealing with interpersonal relationships, China's culture has always emphasized that groups are more important than individuals, and harmony is more important than struggle, patriarchal clan system and discipline. It exhorts and restricts people, fetters people's free will and creative spirit, and ignores the value and dignity of individual life. China culture always puts the pursuit of harmony between man and nature and society in the first place.
As the main theme of life ideal, harmony and unity oppose people's independent will and forge ahead, cultivate people's group view, obedience consciousness and sincerity consciousness, and seek a moderate and harmonious coping style. The harmonious concept of China culture also embodies and cultivates the national spirit of obedience, submission, conservatism, not striving for progress and being content with the status quo.
Zinc crutches? Do you want your head in Doby? ! Dad vented? Climb like a blanket? Hey? The historical concept of "Tao remains unchanged" makes Europeans and Americans generally think that there is no difference between China in 1990 and China in Confucius' era. ""Old things are extremely valuable, and new things are meaningless. "[12] This also creates a weak cultural character of modesty, prudence and introversion.
In the west, philosophers in ancient Greece and Rome turned their attention to nature from the beginning, explored the mysteries of nature, conquered and dominated nature, and became the masters of nature. Heraclitus saw that "harmony comes from struggle" [13], and Prot Gora's "Man is the measure of everything" is a vivid portrayal of the separation between man and nature. Although Socrates brought philosophy back from heaven to earth, the exploration and conquest of nature by western culture never stopped. The adventurous life of maritime shipping in the western commercial society and the inevitable encounter of natural laws that are difficult to grasp make westerners feel the sharp opposition and fierce conflict between man and nature at all times. It is in the surprise and confusion of strange natural phenomena that people begin their philosophical exploration. The philosophy of ancient Greece was mainly a kind of natural philosophy from the beginning, taking nature as the object of people's thinking and exploration. Dominated by the binary opposition thinking mode of separation between man and nature, western society has distinguished and opposed nature and man since ancient times. Nature is only the object that people know, use and conquer, emphasizing people's independence and initiative, and pursuing free will and independent spirit. In dealing with interpersonal relationships, the west advocates individual freedom of will and independence of personality, emphasizes the value and dignity of individual life, attaches importance to the acquisition and protection of private property, and has a weak overall consciousness and collective concept. Westerners are full of the spirit and mental state of facing challenges, pursuing boldly, advocating martial arts, seeking quick success and instant benefit, and even willing to achieve their goals and win by one-sided thinking and unscrupulous behavior, thus forming a straightforward, open-minded and rigid cultural character.
Because China culture advocates "harmony between man and nature", humanitarianism should be based on heaven, humanity should be based on heaven, virtue should be matched with heaven, harmony between man and nature, the sense of existence is extremely developed, image thinking is very prominent, people pay attention to intuitive feeling and poetic imagination, and people pay attention to heaven while ignoring demonstration and metaphysics, resulting in underdeveloped natural science and extremely prosperous humanities. "If according to this logic, the development of epistemological consciousness is part of the reason why science appeared in Europe, then the underdevelopment of this consciousness should also be part of the reason why science did not appear in China." [14] Western culture advocates the separation of heaven and man, and man can conquer nature. It not only understands and explains nature, but also conquers and transforms it. Developed scientific and technological awareness, highlighted abstract thinking, and paid attention to logical reasoning and empirical research. Therefore, China has a large number of "careful verification" Chen Jingrun, and the west has a large number of "bold assumptions" Goldbach.
Four. Concluding remarks
By comparing the differences between Chinese and western cultures in the above three aspects, we can see that Chinese and western cultures have their own characteristics. Based on their respective systems and very different cultural backgrounds, Chinese and western civilizations have led to different values and ethical orientations, thus making the real personality characteristics of China and the West very different.
In addition, the in-depth discussion of cultural differences between China and the West is of great significance, which will solve the mystery of a series of major issues such as the differences in scientific and technological development between China and the West, thus having a far-reaching impact.