On Canglang Island, Wang Xiaolie and Wang Yan were drinking and chatting. Talking about their respective experiences and insights in the past few years, they discussed the situation in the world. Before I knew it, it was afternoon.
In recent months, Wang Xiaolie has been deeply touched. I told Wang Yan today and felt much relieved.
I was full of confidence from the very beginning. I felt that based on the knowledge from my previous life, there was still room in the world that could make things difficult for me? Later, when I really did things according to my own wishes, I realized that that was not the case at all. It wasn't until a few days ago that I recruited officials and let them get to know the people, that I suddenly had a different feeling. This feeling was very strange, leaving Wang Xiaolie with a lot of things he wanted to say but not say, and a lot of things he needed to do.
When people live in this world, there are many things that they cannot think deeply about. Once you think deeply, you will find that this world is very different from the world you knew before, and it will feel like you don't recognize it at all. If you cannot break through this barrier, you will fall into confusion.
Wang Xiaolie now clearly feels this barrier, and he has yet to break through it even if he wants to.
As Xiangyang's power developed and became more and more independent, and Wang Xiaolie truly began to manage a country, he suddenly discovered some problems that he had not discovered before. The more I thought about these issues, the more complicated they became, and I couldn’t figure them out at the moment.
When you think about and arrange a regime as a person, as time goes by, you will find that this person becomes clearer and clearer. When a country's policies and destiny are attributed to destiny, even if it insists that destiny must come from the people, it will feel that destiny is becoming more and more realistic.
This feeling became more and more oppressive, sometimes making Wang Xiaolie feel at a loss. Finally, I decided not to think about these issues that are too far away from myself in the short term, but focus on reality.
If our understanding of the real world is pushed towards the minimum and maximum, or if we add time and follow our understanding to the end of time, we will find a different world. The world is so different that it is often unacceptable.
For example, when quantum mechanics emerged, Einstein firmly did not believe it, saying that God does not play dice. Because the gap between this quantum world and Einstein's understanding of the world is too great to accept.
Natural science is like this, but how much knowledge about human beings is like this? Don't talk about reaching the end of time. A set of theories will change its appearance when it is pushed down to everyone and upward to the country or civilization.
When a set of theories reaches the end of time, it is found that it has a different appearance from the real world. So, is it the world that is wrong, or is it people’s understanding that is wrong? Most of the time, humans cannot give the correct answer.
When you can't give a correct answer, don't force the answer, but move forward steadily. Forcibly giving an answer is like the God of European civilization, asking you whether you believe it or not. This is not the attitude that Chinese civilization should have.
Most of the knowledge about past lives is shrouded in the influence of European civilization. In the universe, how far have humans traveled and how many places have they known? How can we give an answer? In fact, both the big bang theory of the universe and the evolutionary theory of human understanding of themselves are hypotheses. Wang Xiaolie does not object to this hypothesis, but now realizes that it must be made clear that this is a hypothesis and not the truth.
This is true for natural science, and even more so for human knowledge. No matter what the theory is, it is unreliable if it claims that it can explain people's past and predict their future.
Knowledge about people must be done around people. How are the people living? Are they doing well? What dissatisfaction do they have, what hopes do they have, and what kind of life do they want to live. What people thought in the past, what they think now, and what they will think in the future.
Human learning cannot be done around God. No matter what people are like in reality, they make various assumptions, set up various logics, and assume many preconditions, and then explain the past and look forward to a future. Finally, I would like to say how comprehensive my knowledge is, how thorough my explanation is, and how bright my future is. If it cannot be done, it is said that the people are not good enough and the people should be transformed.
When there is a God in all theories, there is no problem in focusing human knowledge around God. If not, that's very problematic.
In Chinese civilization, there is no omniscient and omnipotent God who cannot do this kind of learning. If you study history, you need to study how people lived in the past, what were they thinking, and how were they living? What kind of life do they want to live? If we study the present, we must study how people live in reality, what are they thinking, and how are people doing? What kind of life do people want to live.
During the late Qing Dynasty and the Republic of China, Chinese civilization reached its lowest point and was bullied by almost everyone in the world. At that time, there was no problem for intellectuals to stand up bravely and speak loudly about transforming the spirit of civilization and transforming our culture. Because it was such an era, because we were facing such a dilemma, because we were facing such a despairing reality. But are these people right? That may not be the case.
When China comes out of the bottom, no longer allows others to bully it, and gains self-confidence, of course it will have to re-examine the world. Of course, many things were different from the views of the late Qing Dynasty and the Republic of China. If it remains the same, then there is a big problem with Chinese civilization.
China has been catching up with advanced civilization for nearly two hundred years. It has resisted, hesitated, learned, and even obeyed. But in the end, it was destined to take another path. This path has nothing to do with doctrine or ideology. It is the path of Chinese civilization.
In Chinese civilization, there are two words that are difficult to get around. Regarding nature, about people and nature, there is one word. Regarding the country, the people, and the human being itself, it is a word of heaven.
What is the greatest significance of New China to Chinese civilization? It is to pull the sky down from the high and illusory world and place it among the largest and most reliable people. Everything depends on the people and everything is for the people. This is the new way of heaven.
New China was founded by the People's Liberation Army, not by intellectuals. When Chinese civilization hit rock bottom and Eastern and Western civilizations collided, the performance of Chinese intellectuals was really unsatisfactory. Most people neither understand Chinese civilization nor learn Western civilization. They just learned some knowledge from Western civilization and felt that they were ideologically superior and could come back to enlighten Chinese civilization.
It is better to learn Western knowledge and science and technology. Originally, there was not much conflict between European civilization and Chinese civilization. As for humanistic knowledge, it is difficult to describe in a word. What should be studied is what shortcomings China has, what difficulties it faces, and understanding of Western humanities knowledge, which ones can help one make progress, which ones are irrelevant, and which ones should be avoided. But the vast majority of people don’t know what difficulties China is facing, nor what Western humanistic knowledge is about. Instead, they learned it wholesale and brazenly stated that they wanted to transform Chinese civilization.
What ancient Greek thought was the light of reason that inspired Europe to enter modern times, what is metaphysical and what is metaphysical, what philosophy guides science, what citizens of the city-states of ancient Greece and Rome were, democracy and freedom. It’s not just that you have learned these superficial things, you have to use what you have learned to explain Chinese civilization. Reinterpreting Chinese history and reinterpreting Chinese thought are condescending and disgusting.
They have woven a set of civilized knowledge on their own. The ancient city-states and citizens, the aristocratic republic, and the numerous small countries are almost as real as they come. Part of it is based on the patterns handed down from ancient Greece and Rome, and part of it is based on my own imagination. It is said that if it is like this, civilization will not fall behind. I completely forgot that there was a dark Middle Ages in Europe, where not only witches were burned, but scientists were also burned to death.
If civilization were a person, how would you feel when you watched the students you sent out with great hope and paid a huge price to learn these things? Will you be disappointed and say, what have you learned?
If civilization reaches a certain level, an exam is required. So different civilizations have different test papers, and of course the content of the test is also different. As a student, the first step is of course to review the question. Because the questions were difficult and I didn’t know how to answer them, I sent some people to study in other civilized examination rooms to see how others answered them. The people who came back said that their first answer was B, the second answer was C, and so on. What is the use of such an answer for your own exam? Studying should not be about looking at what other people's test questions are, how they answered it, and why they answered it the way they did. Their answer is why this is right and that is wrong. In this way, it is useful.
Looking at the founding of New China, through various narratives from the left and the right, we can find that those who do not seriously study China's reality and only think about learning from foreign countries will always fail. Only those who study China's reality seriously can succeed.
Teachers' thinking is the Sinicization of Marxism. Many people cannot understand what Sinicization is. Even fewer people realize that the most important thing is Sinicization, not the previous content.
If we go back to ancient times, how can we save China? If I was in elementary school, I would talk about the answers in the books. Enter capitalism in advance, or even go further, enter what-is-ism in advance. If it gets bigger, there will be people who want to reform Chinese culture, and abolish Confucianism and so on. Some people even whimsically say that Confucianism should be abolished and the Legalists should be replaced, and the Mohists should be replaced by Mohists.
When you really grow up, you should understand that you must first examine the topic and understand what kind of society ancient China was and what era it was in. Only then can we take out the knowledge from previous lives, transform what is not good, carry forward what is good, and check for omissions and make up for them.
For Wang Xiaolie, the previous impulse to feel that he knew everything was over. The first step is to examine the topic, to truly understand this era, and to understand how your actions will change this era.
Some of the knowledge from past lives can be used, and some cannot. What I have to do is not to change this civilization and make it look like something else. It's impossible to turn that look into someone else's civilization, it can only be different.
