Although Toynbee was 39 years old at this time, his academic thoughts were still in the early stages and his understanding of China's situation was not in-depth. Therefore, on issues about China, Toynbee was easily persuaded by Zhou Hexuan.
and refuted.
It was not until the mid-to-late period that Toynbee traveled to China twice before he truly gained a systematic understanding of China and eventually became a "China fan."
In 1974, Toynbee had an exchange with Japanese scholar Daisaku Ikeda, and the conversation was compiled into "Looking to the Twenty-First Century."
Toynbee made a bold prediction: Humanity will develop into a single society, and the traditional method of military conquest will hardly work in the atomic energy age. If the world can be peacefully unified, it must be based on geography and culture, and it will continue to crystallize and expand.
This main axis is not in the United States, the Soviet Union and Europe, but in East Asia. China is the core of the unified world. The Chinese nation has advantages in the political and cultural fields and has unparalleled experience. China will gain a dominant position in the 21st century.
When Toynbee said this, China had not yet ended its ten-year special period, and no one would believe it at that time.
Even when Daisaku Ikeda asked Toynbee which country he would like to be born in if he could live again, Toynbee said without hesitation that he would be born in China.
Of course, this was Toynbee in his later years. He had a pessimistic attitude towards Western civilization, so he believed that Eastern civilization would dominate the world.
In his middle age, Toynbee was not a pessimist, but a romantic.
The two were not entangled in religious issues. Toynbee said: "The development of civilization lies in facing challenges and overcoming challenges. Every time a challenge is overcome, it is a progress of the civilization."
"I very much agree with this point of view." Zhou Hexuan said with a smile.
The students in the audience were very surprised because Zhou Hexuan had just told them about the civilizational challenge Toynbee mentioned some time ago, and the theories of the two masters were surprisingly consistent.
Zhou Hexuan added: "The industrial revolution in the West is a process of challenge and response. Western civilization has overcome the challenge, so it has made a qualitative leap and driven the progress of the entire human civilization. And the Chinese civilization is also facing challenges now. As long as it can step forward
After passing this hurdle, Chinese civilization will usher in a new life."
Toynbee said with a smile: "From the perspective of the development history of Chinese civilization, it will definitely be able to overcome challenges. It is just a matter of time. Chinese civilization is the most unique civilization in the world. It already has the core to overcome various challenges. The prerequisite
It’s about restoring the state of unity.”
"China is waiting for an opportunity," Zhou Hexuan said with a smile, "such as another world war."
"It is very possible," Toynbee said sadly, "The situation in Europe today is not optimistic, and various hidden dangers brought by capitalism are emerging one after another. In the next 20 years, either a great revolution or a huge war will break out in Europe.
The existing capitalist system must be improved, otherwise it will slide step by step into the abyss. This kind of improvement must be reshuffled through revolution or war before it can be carried out smoothly."
Damn!
Zhou Hexuan felt extremely shocked. The master is indeed a master. He can see through history!
Toynbee was not only a historian and an expert on international issues, but also had unique insights into the economy. He said: "Economists including Adam Smith believe that the only effective way to increase national wealth is freedom. I strongly agree.
From this point of view, the true purpose of the Industrial Revolution is that free competition replaced the medieval controls that controlled the production and distribution of wealth, greatly releasing productivity. But freedom is not perfect. Laissez-faire can break monopoly and control, but it will give birth to
A new form of monopoly will then brew up fierce social conflicts. At this time, the power of control needs to intervene to pull excessive freedom back to the correct and orderly track."
State capitalist ideology?
Before Zhou Hexuan could speak, Toynbee smiled and said: "I like the Chinese Yin and Yang theory very much, which can be used to explain the development of capitalism. The economic system under control in the Middle Ages was an extremely Yin state, while laissez-faire capitalism , it is an extremely yang state, which will transform into yin. At this time, it is necessary to reconcile yin and yang, well, in traditional Chinese thought, it is the golden mean."
"Mr. Toynbee, you have a profound understanding of Chinese culture." Zhou Hexuan said funny.
Toynbee shook his head and said: "I don't understand Chinese, let alone Chinese classical Chinese. Everything I know about China is translated and relayed by friends. To be honest, Chinese is too difficult to learn, and I don't have that experience. In-depth research and understanding. Therefore, there may be omissions and errors in my work about China. Thank you for your previous correction."
Zhou Hexuan smiled and said: "Speaking of China, Mr. Toynbee seems not to agree with the existence of Xia, Shang and Zhou?"
Toynbee said: "I think the Xia Dynasty is a legend. The Shang and Zhou Dynasties did exist, but they may not have formed an effective political entity."
"Mr. Toynbee, please take a look." Zhou Hexuan took out a stack of photos from his briefcase, which were taken by a reporter from "Ta Kung Pao".
Toynbee observed carefully and asked, "Is this a recent photo of the archaeological site in Shandong?"
"Yes," Zhou Hexuan pointed to the jade in the picture and said, "This is Zhang, this is Gui, this is Bi... These are the ritual vessels of Chinese civilization that have been handed down from ancient times. They have many functions, such as the following For example, in diplomacy, the most important function is to worship heaven and gods. Ritual utensils are the materialized expression of the ritual and music system. The presence of ritual utensils proves that a political system has been formed. These ritual utensils appeared in the Neolithic Age, indicating that from that time on , Chinese civilization has continued to this day, and its core spirit still remains."
"That doesn't prove that Xia, Shang and Zhou were politically unified countries. It only shows the long continuity of Chinese civilization." Toynbee said.
Zhou Hexuan smiled and said: "As we said before, the core of Chinese civilization is the idea of the unity of nature and man. The ruler of the Zhou Dynasty was called the Son of Heaven, which means the herdsman on behalf of heaven. Heaven and man are unified. The idea of great unification also sprouted in The Zhou Dynasty was the kingdom of the whole world, and all the tribes and ethnic groups that used these ritual vessels at that time were theoretically bound to believe in the emperor. Even if the rights were not unified, the Zhou Dynasty was definitely culturally and politically unified."
"No, no, no, your statement is too far-fetched," Toynbee shook his head repeatedly, "I have studied the enfeoffment system of the Zhou Dynasty, which is equivalent to the feudal system in Europe. To use a less vivid metaphor, the Emperor of Zhou is like The Habsburg emperor represented orthodoxy in name, but he was just a decoration. Can you say that the Habsburg emperor who lost his power could rule Western and Central Europe? At that time, Western Europe and Central Europe could also be called a country. ?"
Zhou Hexuan smiled helplessly: "Okay, let's end this argument, because no one can convince the other."
This is really impossible to debate, because the standards of Chinese and Western archeology are different. The Western standard is to have temples, city walls, and bronzes, while China attaches more importance to the discovery of jade, because jade is an important feature of Chinese civilization.
Toynbee and Zhou Hexuan chatted endlessly, sometimes about human civilization, sometimes about European and American politics, sometimes about East Asian cultural circles, and occasionally about economics.
The students were very excited, and Luo Jialun, who was responsible for recording the conversation, was also very excited.
Many of the contents of the conversation between the two were conjectures and inferences, as well as various breakthroughs in academic thinking. For future generations, these things may be something that a junior high school student can tell, and they are common sense issues.
But now it is the late 1920s, and the exchanges between them are full of amazing advancement, prophecy and breakthrough.
Maybe a casual sentence, to many students, seems to open the door to a new world, changing their understanding of history, culture, and the world.
Commonly known as, refreshing the three views.
The next day, Tsinghua University's academic journal published the full text of the exchange process between the two in detail. The headline of the news was "The Collision of Thoughts between Two Masters from the East and the West."
This journal was eagerly circulated by students and even reprinted by other universities in Peking, causing great repercussions in the northern cultural and academic circles.
It was not until 80 years later that this report was dug out of the old papers and the full text was posted on the Internet. It immediately caused a sensation and heated discussion because it predicted World War II, capitalist reform, and the rise of China.
Netizens began to make pranks, turning photos of Zhou Hexuan and Toynbee into various emoticons, jokingly calling them "Great Prophet" and "Law Master".
