The Choice of Values and the Development of Chinese Culture

The Choice of Values and
the Development of Chinese Culture
Abstract: Values, in some sense, can be considered as cultural norms which are deeply rooted in one's heart and represented by one's behaviours. During the development of Chinese culture, the traditional values of Chinese people have witnessed certain changes which have exerted great influences on Chinese culture. The article will focus on how Chinese core value's changes influence the culture development. What's more, it will also attach some attention to the contrastive cultural differences between China and the west under the influence of different values.
Key words: individualism, democracy, communitarianism, collectivism
Values are deeply held beliefs- usually based on cultural traditions, long-held family and religious teachings and long-lasting memories of personal experiences. Cultures are created by humans as a whole, representing the choice of core values of the majority. Values, in some senses, can be regarded as to be the norms of a culture. Different values represents different social norms, thus different cultures. China, a country with five-thousand-odd history, has a splendid culture. From its traditional culture till now modern culture, the changes of core social values have played a great part in the development of Chinese culture.
China is a great oriental country identified with deep collectivism.The traditional Chinese thinkers have always pursued a personality of saints, which brings their politics, mentality with idealism. China's tradition has always valued statecraft, which demands the scholars and other people as a whole put the social responsibility on their shoulders and give due concerns to society and politics. As a result, the values
concentrating on the whole country and entire society, in other words, collectivism has given birth to a culture based on sacrifice of individual interests and more attention above overall development. As we all know, confucianism conforms to such choice of values. That's why Confucius culture has governed ancient China dynasties after dynasties.
The values has manifested its power over culture in many ways. The Two kinds of Chinese and Western culture in which certain words have a different color with appraise. Such as: ambition word itself has Judgments in two kinds of meaning. Chinese people with its derogatory sense, saying that "ambitious," while others draw upon Anglo-American compliment, saying that "ambitious." Aggressive term used by Chinese people to describe someone "provocative" "aggressive", while Americans used to describe a person "aggressive motivated and possess a pioneering spirit."
China's mass culture attaches great importance to the relationship between family relatives and friends,and takes it as the composition of the cell of society. While in Western countries, advocating an independent self-reliance. Chinese people attach importance to the traditional ruler and subject, father, son, seniority and hierarchy. While in Britain, equal status between older and younger, non - Everyone regardless of boundaries, and many more friends along. The traditional concepts of Chinese people has always been advocating, "Four Generations Living together "Family Reunion ", since ancient times" when your parents do not travel to distant lands, "a statement of good old maxim; in Anglo-American
Have to rely on their own hands, independent life. Similarly, the older the parents even if the loss of life since the countries, 18-year-old children are still living at home and rely on their parents life is unthinkable, they will surely
What's more, the great attachment on values of mentality has also consolidate the spread of Confucius culture. In its design, the ideal society is one with saints as the governors and people all cooperate and work for the society. The west valued God above everything else, which direct its people toward religious beliefs. However, it is not a overwhelming culture phenomena in China. The traditional Chinese culture will never be called a religious culture. In other direction, Chinese people, under the values of mentality, choose to believe in some kind of saints. The pursuit of detachment is among the born desires of human. The different choice of values has separated certain starting point of culture of China and the west.
Confucius culture is characterized by the philosophy of being saints inside and governors outside.1To resolve human and spiritualism, Chinese culture emphasizes on internal cultivation. In this way, we can reprove that the emphasis of Chinese traditional values rely on mentality. To cultivate oneself into a saint-like person has be set up as the supreme realm of personal growth. Some other minor cultures like Taoism shares common beliefs with Confucius culture such as regarding the people and heaven as one. The choice of value on mentality has directed Chinese ancient people cultivating themselves inside, instead of seeking support outside which the western people try to seek from God and thus has formed a religious culture.
From the Renaissance to Enlightenment, individualism has greatly spreaded and deeply set its root into western people's heart, and becomes the core of western values. China, boasting of long-standing eastern value system, certainly will not reroute its road of values. However, with the timeshift and the policy of opening-up and reform, China has undoubtedly been influenced by the western values. The several changes of China's value system has exerted obvious influences on the overall culture system and displayed plenty of cultural phenomena in its society.
As early as in the period of new culture movement, the individualism has been publicized and supported and practised. However, the total individualism could not set root in China as it goes too far away from China's value system and thus it's difficult for it to be assimilated by Chinese culture. Marx's principle of collectivism, and communist ideals conform to the Confucius value system basis and are thus choosed as the new value theory of recent history of China. Two-hundred years' hesitation, experience and wandering, China has made its new choice to upgrade the Confucius value system with Marxism instead of western individualism and liberalism.
As a result, China's culture again reflects the cultural identity of group. This cultural identity of group will never allow anyone to put his personal values above the group interest.
The founders of Marxism in the study of human historical development in the process revealed a certain culture in particular the ideology of the entire social structure of the status and role. Marx clearly pointed out: "People live in a society in their own production of a certain place, the inevitable, not to their will for the transfer of the relationship, that with their material productive forces for a certain stage of the
1《中国哲学简史》，冯友兰著，涂又光译，北京大字出版社1985年版，第388页。

production relations.2The sum of these relations of production constitute the economic structure of society, that is legal and political superstructure erected on it and have a certain form of social consciousness corresponding basis in reality.
Mode of production of material life conditions the social life, political life and spiritual process is not a decision of the people's consciousness of the existence of the people, on the contrary, is that people's social being that determines their consciousness. " The basic principles of historical materialism declares a certain society, the nature and modalities of cultural production is ultimately the social structure of material production and human relations to nature determined. In a different form of ownership in different socio-economic and political conditions, the erection of a by a variety of different ways of thinking and world view consisting of the entire ideological superstructure. all forms of social consciousness and products such as law, religion, morality, art, philosophy, etc., are not arbitrary structure and eliminated, there are real social basis and objective historical conditions. Of their generation, development and demise of a people's will has not the regularity of the transfer.
Since its policy of reform and opening up to the outside world, China has gradually recognized the rationality of individualism. The long-locked desire has been untightened step by step. Under the impetus of the desire to develop economy, our material civilization has witnessed world-renowned achievements. At the same time, our traditional value system has also been going through a reform from absolute collectivism to mass mentality with more consideration on individuals.
Comprehensively building a moderately prosperous society in history, people's lifestyles and consumption of significant changes taking place in the concept of spiritual and cultural needs of the rapid increases in the independence of people's ideological activities, selectivity, variability, the difference obviously enhanced the development of the socialist advanced culture, and put forward higher requirements.
17 great emphasis on strengthening the Party's cultural construction, improving the national cultural soft power, the strategic significance of implementing the scientific concept of development, promoting the great development and prosperity of socialist culture and made full deployment. This reflects our party's development trend of the times and the direction of China's cultural development, scientific certainty,
2Ronald Inglehart, Culture Shift in Advanced Industrial Society, Princeton University Press, 1990, pp125.
Reflects our party in the new historical conditions of cultural consciousness. Scientific concept of development as a Marxist world outlook and methodology on the development of a concentrated reflection of the socialist cultural construction to deepen understanding of the nature of the law, enriched and developed the cultural theory of Marxism. Only implement the scientific concept of development to enhance the consciousness and firmness in the scientific development concept to guide the new century and new stage of cultural system reform and innovation in order to continuously create a socialist culture with Chinese characteristics and the development of a new situation3.
As our choice of values develops, so does our culture. The past values have some senses of people-governing society and integration of powers, which may do harm to the harmony of society. The balance between the group and the individuals is the outstanding improvement in our choice of values, thus makes great contributions to the establishment of socialist harmonious culture. The Scientific outlook emphasized people's own right and the overall social interest at the same time, which gives rise to a more liberalized culture atmosphere and thus a more splendid cultural society.
From the development of Chinese culture, we can see the change of the choice of values has played a great part in its developing course. Values direct people to choose their common cultural norms and then display an overall cultural phenomena. I'm deeply convinced that as the globalization and contact of different values, China will continually improve its value choices and cultivate a growingly more rational socialist culture.
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《文化价值论》，司马云杰著，山东人民出版社1990年版
《人类的家园—现代文化矛盾的哲学反思》，卢风著，湖南大学出版社1996年版3《世界政治与中国外交》，王逸舟，世界知识出版社2003年版，第142页。