Later Western scholars even ranked him with Einstein, Russell and others, and praised the book "Historical Research" as "one of the most important moments in the spiritual history of the twentieth century."
"Historical Research" mainly talks about civilization, as well as the emergence, development, decline, disintegration and destruction of civilization. Many of the ideas in the book are common sense to high school students and college students in later generations, but they were groundbreaking in the 20th century.
significance.
Generally speaking, the history studied by historians in the past was micro-history, studying a certain period, a certain dynasty, and a certain country individually. However, Toynbee pioneered macro-historical research, looking at the entire human history as a whole.
Reveal its true colors from a philosophical perspective.
In fact, the book "Guns, Germs and Steel" that Zhou Hexuan copied before is strictly speaking a macro-historical work, but the research direction is biased towards anthropology and sociology.
At this time, the two people were sitting on the podium. Luo Jialun, the president of Tsinghua University, was sitting in the first row and personally acted as the recorder of their conversation. The students also picked up paper and pen one by one and listened attentively to the conversation between the two masters.
Zhou Hexuan smiled and said: "Mr. Toynbee, the content of my lecture just now is called "History of Human Civilization" and was inspired by your series of papers on "The Form of History"."
"It's a great honor," Toynbee said. "In fact, I started thinking about the issue of civilization six years ago. However, due to too many delays, I didn't start writing until last year. Some of Mr. Zhou's views are more mature than mine."
Zhou Hexuan said bluntly: "Mr. Toynbee, I do not completely agree with the civilizational form, or historical form, you described in your paper."
"Oh, why?" Toynbee asked curiously.
Zhou Hexuan said: "The arguments you used when elaborating on the historical view of civilization mainly come from Western history, especially Greek history. I admit that your discussion is very exciting, but you combined the special experiences of ancient Greece, ancient Rome and the Western world, as well as
The path of development should be regarded as the universal law of development of all civilizations. And then using this law of development to study and explain other civilizations, I think it is a bit unreasonable. You have ignored the characteristics of each civilization."
"No, no, no," Toynbee resolutely refused to admit his mistake. When he studied historical civilizations, he should put aside his individuality and explore the commonalities of civilizations."
"Civilizations certainly have commonalities, but you regard certain characteristics of Western civilization as commonalities of all civilizations," Zhou Hexuan said with a smile. "With all due respect, your position is actually Western-centric. Western civilization represents the development history of civilization.
This is a very biased approach.”
Toynbee was not angry and said, "Please give me an example."
Zhou Hexuan said: "For example, your theory of unified religion, I don't think there is any unified religion in China."
"Isn't that Buddhism?" Toynbee asked rhetorically.
"Of course not," Zhou Hexuan said to the students in the audience with a smile, "Which of you believe in Buddhism?"
Tsinghua is still a missionary school, founded with the support of Geng Geng funds from the United States. Luo Jialun is working hard to transform Tsinghua into a national university.
Since it is a church university supported by the United States, English is a language that must be mastered. All students present can understand what they are talking about. When Zhou Hexuan asked questions in English, the Buddhist students immediately raised their hands, but only seven or eight of them spoke.
.
Zhou Hexuan said: "You saw it."
Toynbee said: "The development of science will inevitably lead to many people giving up their religious beliefs, but in ancient China, Buddhism was indeed a unified religion."
"Otherwise," Zhou Hexuan analyzed, if there is a unified religion in China, it can only be Confucianism. As Confucianism later developed, it already had certain religious characteristics, but it was always specious and not a religion in the traditional sense."
Toynbee said: "No matter what, Chinese society still retains many Buddhist ideas, such as good deeds are rewarded and reincarnation. This is proof that Confucianism is a unified religion. The difference between China and Europe is that China's unified religion does not
Church, but in terms of influence, Buddhism meets the characteristics of all unified religions.”
"Chinese people are never sincere believers," Zhou Hexuan said with a smile, "Mr. Toynbee, you can find a devout Buddhist and take him to a Taoist temple. See if he can burn incense and kowtow to the Taoist gods.
.”
Toynbee explained: "After Buddhism was introduced to China, it underwent great localization reforms. It is actually a polytheistic religion. Therefore, Buddhist believers kneel down to worship other gods. This does not deny the fact that Buddhism was once a unified religion in China.
"
Zhou Hexuan did not defend himself, but asked: "Mr. Toynbee, have you ever heard of the unification of the three religions?"
"Three religions in one?" Toynbee was a little confused.
Zhou Hexuan said: "According to my understanding, the characteristic of Chinese civilization lies in its strong inclusiveness. Whether it is culture, science, religion, no matter how strong these foreign objects are, they must eventually be localized in China and be tolerated and absorbed.
The core spirit of Chinese civilization is the idea of "harmony between man and nature", which is the major premise for studying Chinese civilization. It originated in the Western Zhou Dynasty and was recorded in the "Book of Changes". It is the general outline of the development of Chinese civilization for thousands of years. Whether it is
Both Confucianism and Taoism follow this ideological principle, but their respective attitudes and pursuits are different. Even after Buddhism was introduced to China, it must also conform to this idea, the most representative of which is Zen."
Toynbee knew about the unity of nature and man, and he also studied Zhu Xi, Wang Yangming and other figures, but he did not recognize the unity of nature and man as the core idea of Chinese civilization. He did not immediately refute, but asked: "Then what are the three
What about teaching unity?”
"Buddha is Tao, Tao is Confucianism, and Confucianism is also Buddhism," Zhou Hexuan said with a smile. "The idea of the unity of the three religions originated in the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties. It developed and grew in the Song and Yuan Dynasties, and by the Qing Dynasty it was generally accepted by the Chinese. Or
It is said that it is a subtle influence. Whether it is Cheng-Zhu Neo-Confucianism or Yangming Xue Xue, these Confucian schools contain a lot of Buddhist and Taoist thoughts until the end. Song and Ming Neo-Confucianism, as the New Confucianism at that time, absorbed a lot of Confucian and Taoist philosophy
In terms of thoughts and basic concepts, Confucianism in the Ming and Qing Dynasties was more Taoist than Taoist, and more Buddhist than Buddhist. Buddhism and Taoism also actively or passively catered to Confucianism as the mainstream thought. In the end, the three religions have actually merged.
They jointly influence the thinking of the Chinese people. If you really want to say it, China’s unified religion is essentially a weird fusion of Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism.”
"Mr. Zhou, your point of view is very interesting." Toynbee laughed.
Zhou Hexuan said: "China's attitude towards religion is inclusive. No matter which sect it is, it must abide by secular ethical standards. No one can become a unified religion. Take Christianity now as an example. There are so many missionaries in China. If
If Christianity is not reformed and localized in China, it will never be popularized and promoted. At most, it can only retain its form. For example, the Chinese adopt Christian wedding ceremonies, wear wedding dresses and exchange rings and swear oaths to the Father. Another example is that everyone celebrates Christmas together.
, but this Christmas will not have religious significance, it will only be equivalent to a carnival."
Toynbee was somewhat convinced, but then he fell into ideological confusion, because in the view of civilization history he created, unified religion is a very important content. If the unified religion theory cannot be adapted to Chinese civilization, then it is possible that his other theories will also