Zhou Hexuan asked with a smile: "Mr. Bernard Shaw, have you heard of Hermann Helmholtz?"
"Of course, some people call him the greatest scientist after Darwin," said Shaw. "He invented the ophthalmoscope, and he also proposed the law of conservation of energy."
Zhou Hexuan smiled and said: "If you still have doubts about Mr. Zhu Zaiyu, you can read Herman's works, which contain comments about Zhu Zaiyu. Herman said this as early as 70 years ago:
Among the Chinese, it is said that there was a prince named Zhu Zaiyu. He advocated the heptatonic scale despite the opposition of the old-school musicians. The method of dividing the octave into twelve semitones and changing the tone was also the method of this talented and skillful Chinese.
invented."
Bernard Shaw had gradually chosen to believe it, and he said: "I will confirm it."
Zhou Hexuan added: "The invention of the twelve equal temperaments is not a single research result. Because it involves ancient metrology, mathematics and music acoustics, this shows that China's science during the Ming Dynasty was not lagging behind, and may even have advanced in some aspects.
More advanced than the West."
"Maybe." Bernard Shaw nodded.
There is a joke on the Internet in later generations: Never argue with an idiot, because he will bring your IQ to the same level and defeat you with his rich experience.
Bernard Shaw was not an idiot, but he was equivalent to an idiot in an unfamiliar field. Zhou Hexuan just wanted to bring the topic to a field that he was familiar with and unfamiliar to Bernard Shaw, and then refuted him, persuaded him, and defeated him!
Zhou Hexuan said: "Mr. Bernard Shaw, you said that there is no culture in China now. But what is culture?"
Bernard Shaw explained: "Natural science, literature, art, or advanced customs, ideas, and even beliefs can all be called culture."
Zhou Hexuan said: "According to your point of view, I can understand it as: Is culture a concrete manifestation of civilization?"
Bernard Shaw thought for a while, nodded and said, "You can say that."
Zhou Hexuan said with a bad smile: "From the perspective of the attributes of human civilization, civilization is a collection of all social and natural behaviors that enable humans to escape from the barbaric state, including: family concepts, tools, language, writing, beliefs, religion, law, science
, art, city-state and country, etc. Do you have any objection to this definition?"
Bernard Shaw was a little confused, but he still nodded and said: "It should be like this."
Zhou Hexuan added: "After research by Mr. Toynbee and I, there are six mother civilizations of human civilization, namely ancient Egypt, Sumer, Minoan, ancient China, Maya and Andes. These six mother civilizations are related to
There are more than ten other existing civilizations, which together constitute more than 20 civilized societies of mankind."
"Wait, where is Western civilization?" Bernard Shaw asked quickly.
Zhou Hexuan explained: "Ancient Greece is a descendant civilization of Minoans, and modern Western civilization is a descendant civilization of ancient Greece. Do you understand?"
"I understand." George Bernard Shaw felt dizzy. He felt like he was taking a history class.
In fact, according to later archaeological discoveries, there is no inheritance relationship between Minos and ancient Greece. However, due to the existing archaeological knowledge, Zhou Hexuan had to agree with Toynbee and regard Minos as the ancestor of Western civilization.
Zhou Hexuan also said: "Every civilization contains several stages of origin, growth, decline and disintegration. The parent civilizations of Western civilization, Minoan and ancient Greece, have been lost in the long river of history, while ancient Chinese civilization continues to this day.
, there must be a reason.”
Bernard Shaw smiled and said: "According to your statement, Chinese civilization is in the stage of disintegration."
"No, it is not a stage of disintegration, but a stage of decline," Zhou Hexuan corrected, "Western civilization is an emerging civilization. It is indeed in its strongest period and is rapidly expanding around the world and assimilating other civilizations. According to the development laws of civilization
Look, the development of civilizations is not independent, but affects each other. The rise of Western civilization not only inherited ancient Greek civilization, but was also greatly influenced by Chinese civilization. Without the compass invented by China, there would be no Age of Discovery in the West.
"Without China's papermaking and printing technology, the Renaissance would not have been possible in the West. Mr. Bernard Shaw, do you agree with this point of view?"
George Bernard Shaw nodded and said: "Ancient China was indeed very powerful, but those were the glories of the past."
Zhou Hexuan smiled and said: "I don't want to say how great ancient China was, but I want to say that the development of civilizations affects each other. Western civilization is rising and expanding strongly, while Chinese civilization is declining rapidly. I don't want to deny this.
However, Chinese civilization has a very unique ability, which is the super ability of self-evolution. If you think that China has no culture at all, in fact, the Chinese people have realized their backwardness and are frantically learning and absorbing Western culture. This
It is a very special stage in the history of civilization. If China cannot successfully absorb Western civilization, Chinese civilization will move towards a stage of disintegration; once China successfully absorbs Western civilization, Chinese civilization will inevitably revive again and continue its own growth stage."
George Bernard Shaw thought: "A very interesting statement."
Zhou Hexuan also said: "The rise of Western civilization originated from the Renaissance of ancient Greek civilization. China cannot blindly imitate the West, otherwise it will inevitably be assimilated by the West. We are also currently undergoing a Renaissance. On the one hand, we are learning from the advancement of the West.
Culture, on the one hand, is combined with China's traditional civilization, so that it can maintain its own attributes. China is not without culture. The biggest culture is to actively learn from Western civilization and complete a special stage of self-evolution. This kind of strong cultural competitiveness, you
It’s something you can’t see in countries like India.”
Bernard Shaw scratched his forehead and said no more.
Zhou Hexuan continued: "The rise of Western civilization is based on ancient Greek civilization and the development of a powerful modern civilization. The revival of Chinese civilization is based on ancient Chinese civilization and absorbs aspects of Western civilization, thereby developing a powerful modern civilization.
Modern civilization. Ancient Greece had many sages, and ancient China also had hundreds of schools of thought. The renaissance of Chinese culture is actually using Western civilization combined with hundreds of schools of thought to evolve itself."
"All schools of thought?" Bernard Shaw frowned.
Zhou Hexuan smiled and said: "Take Legalism as an example. The Chinese dynasties have always been about external Confucianism and internal law. Legalism does not specifically refer to law. The purpose of Legalism is the integration of 'law', 'shu' and 'shi'. Law represents
Rules and techniques represent means, and momentum represents authority. This can be applied to any modern political system, that is, the close combination of law, national policy and political system. Whether it is communism, capitalism, or socialism, legalist laws must be followed
, the principle of combining techniques and potential. To form a government with a political system that best suits the national conditions, this is called "power"; and then use it to formulate legal rules, which is called "law"; with these, we can then formulate an administrative plan based on the actual situation, this is "law"
It is a 'skill'. As long as the three elements of Legalism's magic and force are integrated into one, no matter what political system it is, it can pass through unimpeded, achieve good results, and promote the development and growth of the country."
Before Shaw had any reaction, Cai Yuanpei clapped his hands and praised: "Mingcheng's words are wonderful, and his explanation of Legalism is amazing!"
It is inevitable that Cai Yuanpei would make a fuss. Scholars during the Republic of China yearned endlessly for the democratic rule of law in the West and mechanically pushed Legalism up there, making Legalism only represent the rule of law.
In fact, the legalist theory of governing the country is very systematic and complete. Shang Yang belongs to the "law" school, Yi Shen belongs to the "power" school, and Shen Buha belongs to the "shu" school. In the period of Han Feizi, the three schools of Legalism finally merged into one, and Han Feizi said
It is said that "all three are indispensable, and they are all tools of the emperor." That is to say, law, technique, and power are all indispensable, and they are all important tools for the emperor to rule the country.
At that time, the king was as majestic as a mountain, and his orders and prohibitions were called "power". Once the emperor's orders could not leave the capital, the emperor lost his "power" and the world would inevitably be in chaos. The method by which the king controlled his ministers was called "shu", which is the art of the emperor.
, if the emperor does not have the skills of an emperor, he will inevitably be deceived by his ministers and become a clueless emperor. "Law" is better understood, that is, the law of the country. If the law is not enforced fairly and the law is not followed, the country will fall into chaos.
.
This is a very complete ideological concept that can be applied to any political system. The "power" is changed from the emperor to the government, the "law" is still the national law, and the "skill" refers to the governance strategy and civil service system.
Therefore, it can be said that all Chinese dynasties were based on external Confucianism and internal law.
Exclusively respecting the "Confucianism" in Confucianism is only one of the manifestations of Legalist "skills", and it only stabilizes society through Confucian thought.