Great achievements have been made in the cultural exchanges between the East and the West in modern times. The general trend of learning seems to be collectivization and globalization. There is no difference in talent between the East and the West, but we are still inferior to others in some special studies. This is a fact, but it is a fact of the past.

Let's give an example: We know that human beings have preserved two greatest epics throughout history, which have been circulated in the West for 3,000 years. There are many translations in modern European languages, but not in Chinese. This is a noble and profound cultural origin, but we ignore it. How can we understand the background of western academic thought? Usually, we attach great importance to the development of western academics. We only know the present achievements, but we are envious and seldom pay attention to the origin of this result. If we study its origin a little, it is not only the history of each one, but also the background of its whole spiritual thought. We hope to publish a series of Greek books and collect translations of various famous books such as philosophy and literature one day. The first and the second are, of course, Homer's two masterpieces, Heriat and Odyssey.

Many world famous works have not been translated into Chinese, and maybe there will be translations in the future. Greek mythology has long been introduced; In philosophy, there have been some studies and writings. But so far, Greek classics have not been treated properly in the cultural circles. Therefore, it is very regrettable that it has not received the correct attention and due attention. The current situation or academic atmosphere is not very open. We know a little about the origin of Palestinian culture, which is largely derived from western culture, which Mathieu Arnold called "Hebrewism". Without it, the west will never achieve much, and it can be seen everywhere. But we often ignore the mainstream of Greek culture. Without it, the western world would not exist, nor would all modern industrial, technological, commercial and scientific western worlds exist. Then, its importance can be imagined. Moreover, there are even people who assume that Rome's opposition to Christianity was more thorough at the beginning of the century, and all Christian beliefs had already taken root. At that time, Greek culture gradually carved foreign countries, its Stoic theory would dominate the rulers, the political system would have replaced the Roman Empire, and slavery would have been abolished long ago. Then Europe must have developed to19th century or earlier (see Sir R.W. Livingstone's lecture). Sure, why not?

The development of history is not like this, and the rise of Christianity is not accidental. This is inevitable and scholars can discuss it. The replacement of the old and the new keeps pace with the times, and the result makes people feel boundless. The eaves gallery where Athenian philosophers gave lectures has long since turned to dust. Carved stone pillars and foundations, as well as some broken marble statues unearthed, are now scattered in museums all over the country, and the singing of the harp has long stopped. Philosophically, at least by the fourth century, the Greeks had completely withdrawn from the world stage. We assume that the whole culture began in 1000 BC. For example, one day, the dawn dawned, and the philosopher's lecture era was close to the sun, and the brightness was only 300 years. The beauty of the sunset can be seen in the rise of Neo-Plato School. What will happen in the future? Gradually fall into the night.

This is the yesterday of western culture, and its glory is growing. How can it be ignored and suddenly forgotten by future generations? We are Chinese gods who are far away from home and have never participated in its cultural fortifications. Silk from China was imported into ancient Rome. A tyrant, Heraga Barros (died in AD 222), put on a silk robe for the first time. At first, one or two pieces of gold were exchanged for one or two pieces of silk. Later, it was exported to more and more countries at low prices, making it a well-dressed veteran. That's just a material transaction, not a cultural contact. The two sides only have some classic records and some rumors about each other, separated by several ethnic groups with lower culture. Papermaking and engraving were introduced from China in the Middle Ages. In fact, the ancient Greeks and Romans never knew about us, and neither did our ancestors. Even if it is not a completely absurd story, the "Queen Mother of the West" that Mutianzi met may be the queen of a tribe in Central Asia, and it is definitely a place to visit Europe. In Homer's Epic, it is recorded that Tityus's corpse is nine mu across, which is very similar to the long emperor shot by Sun Shu in the Spring and Autumn Period, but the latter is history, the former is myth, and the times are far apart, so it is hard to say what the relationship is. In that case, we are naturally not as cordial and profound as westerners, but it is precisely because of the two indispensable "predestinations" of distance, time and space that we can see things, or we can see everything.

By the way, I would like to explain a common problem here: that is, the past is irreversible. Gu, there is no answer, you can't answer, and you shouldn't answer. Man must live in the present and look to the future. But the moment of progress or transformation, now immediately become the past, three times consistent, without pause. The Romans made a statue of janus, facing the past and backwardness, and facing the future and progress. Without looking at the past, there is no reason to establish the present, because the future is unknown. If we don't look forward to the future, it has become dilapidated and even more untenable. Whenever we study ancient culture, principle is a symbol. No matter from the east or the west, we can get its cultural essence from it, which is precisely for the development of modern and future. To exaggerate, we are creating the future, which means imitating the past. But no one can create the past in modern times. Rebirth is new life, new life is old death, revival is rebirth, revival is new revival and old abolition. For example, the Italian Renaissance after 13 and 14 centuries, in retrospect, is a new creation, which has never "restored" ancient culture to any extent. But its light passed through it at least a thousand years ago.

The distance between time and space is so far that we don't know it. It is this that requires us to learn, study and choose. Probably no matter the material truth or the spiritual truth, there will never be any difference between a country and a nation, between ancient and modern times. Has this massive academic culture of ancient Greece been eliminated? No, everything that holds "truth" has been preserved so far, and it is still fresh, fresh and clear, because truth is always new.

We don't care about all kinds of academics, such as profound philosophy. We only cite two very common things as examples, which are usually ignored and considered very inconspicuous, but they were quite important in ancient times. First, vegetarian food. People in China never attach importance to vegetarianism, except in Buddhism, where people eat quickly. But this is exactly what the ancient Greek philosophers emphasized. Since Pythagoras, vegetarianism has been advocated, beans are not eaten, and killing is prohibited; Killing animals to sacrifice to God is exactly what we oppose. From that time (assuming that Pythagoras died in 497 BC) until the third century AD, Theophrastus, one of Minstrel's stamina, was still advocating this theory, which was the same as that of porphyria philosophers at that time, but prevailed for more than 800 years. (The truth of Zhao Jianzi in ancient China is: "Isn't it kind to kill horses and eat people?" It can be seen that people are the center of the universe, but they don't kill livestock for gluttony. If the so-called "vegetarianism" is just hypocrisy, without truth or not a representation of some truth, then it can't stand thousands of years of experiments in the East and the West and has long been abolished. Modern young people meet meat only when they eat western food. If they know nothing about ancient times, they will misunderstand that the west has never been a vegetarian. Another thing is reincarnation. There are some sporadic records in the history of China. "Sanshengshi" was mentioned in the Tang Dynasty, and many people still believe in Buddhism. According to this statement, in 553 AD, the second Christian Congress in Constantinople announced a "ban" (also translated as "the law of destruction"), arguing that heresy and heresy had no test of origin, and Pythagoras could be tested at the earliest. He counted many lifetimes before his death, and one life was born as someone, and he had already participated in the Trojan War as early as BC 184 (from the first life), so this statement was banned by the Christian church. It has been circulating in the west for at least 1000 years. Only modern westerners believe that there is nothing after death. Throughout history, we know that Pythagoras is indeed a great hierarch, although many legends about him are not credible. We are only familiar with one of his famous mathematical formulas, A? +b？ =c？ . The Trojan War also happened in ancient history, although some historians hold different views. Take these two incidents for example, there are many things that can be said afterwards. We know how beautiful, sublime and lovely the ancient western cultural world is, and there are indelible reasons. Let's take a look at the Christian cross again. How much struggle and painstaking efforts of believers are needed to build it in the incense of the altar in Greece and Rome.

A few years ago, I occasionally read an article by Lindbergh in the United States. Lindbergh was a hero who flew across the Atlantic for the first time. This is a feeling of the times. It is said that if you want to develop your spirit and thoughts, you should go back to Greece. (To this effect, the original text was published in a magazine. At that time, the author didn't take it seriously, thinking why not ask ancient China or ancient India? Later, when I thought about it, I understood Lindbergh's words better. What that culture contains is really rich in spiritual beauty, which is enough to inspire the present and show it to future generations. The eyes of the East always look inward, seeking China can repair its internal and external diplomacy, and seeking India purely inward. Greek eyes look not only inward, but also outward. No matter whether the origin of everything is water, fire or atoms, there is always outward-looking wisdom and technological development, which has created modern civilization. Even if today's scientific world has its shortcomings, we can never say that the development of science should stop in this sad twentieth century. Generally speaking, extroversion is so extreme. At a certain point, the inside and the outside can merge, and then we can hope for the great sublimation of Superman. Although this is a retrospective exhibition in Europe and America, it is still the same process; In our example, it seems to be additional; But we have always been good at taking advantage of others and absorbing foreign things. In short, we no longer accept western culture. If there are adoptions, tracing back to Greece is the first priority. Here, it is possible to build a bridge between eastern and western cultures.

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In terms of knowledge, "common knowledge" is the best in the world, but this realm is not easy for ordinary people. Then, it is not too much to expect "common sense" and "sympathetic knowledge". Strictly speaking, knowledge and emotion are two different things, but on a certain level, emotion and knowledge can be combined, but this level is still too high, so it is even more impossible to make "inferential knowledge" in academic research. The most taboo thing is that knowledge is covered by emotion. If it is covered by emotion, the vision will not be correct and biased. However, although it is reasoning, it is still difficult to be complete and comprehensive without considerable sympathy. The most common is "knowledge perception", the most unreliable, and must not be abandoned. After all, dealing with classicism, it is more appropriate to attend the meeting in your own place, and send it with considerable sympathy for better understanding. In other words, be tolerant.

Let's tell a true joke: The ancient Athenian Ding Meng, nicknamed "Fool", had a quiet garden with a big fig tree in it. Occasionally, a suicide hangs from that tree in the dark. Later, the same thing happened, and another man hanged himself on that tree. He had to cut down the tree. But before it fell, he ran to the market and announced loudly that the fig tree in his garden was going to be cut down and some people were willing to commit suicide. Where should we go quickly!

This is the great irony of life and the consistent spirit of Greek tragedy. It can be said that this man is crazy. He didn't mean to joke with the citizens, he was angry, and this anger was out of mourning for the dead. He had no choice but to shout out the bitterness of life in this form of ridicule, which made the listeners at that time laugh and cry. This may be the reason why this little story has been handed down. If it is crazy to dismiss it as demonic sarcasm, then it is far from correctly understanding it-although this person is bound to make mistakes in reasoning. The mistake is to regard the accident of the past as the necessity of the future, and it is very frequent, which is quite ignorant of Aristotle's logic. It is wrong to laugh at and scold the masses, and its sin is only anger.

People who usually talk about "retro" can't help but make this mistake, which is what the ancients called "waiting for the rabbit." In fact, it was extremely difficult for us to have a clear positive solution in ancient times. Not only in Greek classics, but also in ordinary ancient people, we always think that they are not as clever as modern people. Of course, modern common sense is more advanced than ancient times, but it would be quite wrong to think that the ancients were not smarter than us, could not explain some natural phenomena and were superstitious about spiritual things. No matter how advanced our material technology (not necessarily science) is today, no matter how humans set foot on the moon, no matter how we build a space station, our common wisdom is not much different from that of the ancients. If the ancients' understanding of spiritual things is uncivilized, we don't know much. In particular, there is little leisure in modern civilized life, while there is more leisure in the life of the ancients, so they have the opportunity to wait and see, meditate, refer to and understand. It is wrong to think that they live in the chaos of ignorance. Of course, there were many shrines in ancient Greece, and many things were close to absurdity. The purpose of these words is to get a clue in the middle or to determine some value. But we need to get rid of this prejudice. The ancients in the East and the West were never smarter than us modern people, nor were they ever stupid. Many saints, sages, philosophers, poets, prophets and debaters are enough to prove this point.

Usually, we always think that many barbaric customs of primitive people have been preserved in ancient times, and today there are still some uncut areas on the earth as evidence. However, I think it is amazing to draw a clear line only from the front and back of history. In the centuries before history, when we read Wells' Outline of World History, we wondered whether the metaphor of time was very appropriate. In all fairness, the cultures built by the tribes of the inhabitants of these islands or peninsulas in the Aegean Sea actually occupied a leading position in ancient Europe, Asia and Africa. Solon, one of the Seven Sages, or Darraco, a former Athenian legislator, was a figure in the 7th century BC. In the spirit of attaching importance to the rule of law and personnel, where can we find traces of primitive barbarism? Darraco legislates that laziness is severely punished, and lazy people can even be sentenced to death. Isn't he a thoughtful and knowledgeable politician? Homer was born in 907 BC, so how can literature be the product of lower culture? At the same time or later, how much is the difference between Hersiad's poems and Homer's? It will be said that those myths are the remnants of primitive beliefs, and the performance of barbaric folk customs seems to be inaccurate compared with the cultural level of its time.

Ancient superstition is not enough to prove the uncivilized of the ancients, just as modern superstition is not enough to prove the uncivilized of modern times. It is not the ancient Greeks who believe in ghosts, but the prosperous Romans in ancient times. In Rome, there are mountains, forests, orchards, roads and rivers, all of which have gods; There are auspicious gods, fierce gods, sleeping gods, dreaming gods, idle gods, silent gods, stealing gods and deceiving gods. It can be seen that polytheism has more beliefs than ancient Greece.

These things are recorded in Frilander's History of Roman Customs, and some people will study them easily in the future. But are these the legacy of ancient barbaric folk customs or the product of cultural development? Moreover, does it help the development of culture or hinder the development of culture? In what ways is it helpful? To what extent? From what aspects and to what extent? It's time to observe it calmly. Spiritual things, if carefully examined, are never as stupid as you usually think.

Even so, it is a big fallacy to say that there is no stupidity in Greek mythology. In our modern eyes, everything is wisdom, everything can meet our spiritual needs, and everything can solve problems in life. This is not only for us today, that is, the ancient Greeks themselves, but also for their traditional holy land. Zeus is the god who rules all things. Fearing that his sovereignty would be overthrown, he swallowed the baby he gave birth to, and the hidden baby grew up to retaliate against his father. The god was kicked out of heaven because when his father Zeus bound his mother with a gold chain, he wanted to liberate her.

Plato has different names for these things, and their defects and weaknesses force a philosopher to find another spirit. If he can't get satisfaction from the traditional gods, where can he seek it? It's just a question of self-seeking-"know yourself", the eternal famous saying of ALFY's altar-so, Greek morality and religion were not built on the ancient altar, but opened up a new concept of God and Tao on "man", requiring the poor to have nothing in body and mind, human freedom and happiness, and so on. Thus, Greek humanism began.

As soon as we turned to philosophy, Greek culture blossomed with exceptionally beautiful flowers, which are still enviable in both East and West, needless to say. One thing can be roughly said, that is, no matter which school of philosophy, it always returns to the spirit in the end, and there is no important school that is not theistic. Many speculations about nature were proved to be right or wrong by later science, but only matter has no spirit, and no school made such an assumption. At the same time, the mainstream of polytheism was still spreading, flowing to Rome, Asia Minor and Africa until the Trinity Christianity ruled the West. Even so, there are still many beliefs circulating among the people, which cannot be abolished and banned, and became mysticism in the Middle Ages. Of course, there are not only the origins of ancient Greece, but also the teachings of Palestine, Africa and Northern Europe. But under the oppression of the Christian church, it has never been made public. When special people appear, they will inevitably set themselves on fire and be burned to death on the pyre. There are also some secret societies, which are fragmented and occasionally have some symbols. How much influence has dominated society and shocked people in history remains to be verified. Icebergs float on the water, and the part below the sea surface is rarely speculated. Perhaps a part of human nature is secret, and the power of esoteric religion has never been greater than that of obvious religion. If this is true, it may not be small.