20 19-0 1-09

There are many words that we use almost every day, but we may not know their true meanings, such as culture. Traditionally, we feel that culture seems to mean knowledge. At first, to say that a person is literate means that he can read and let everyone read, which is called popularizing culture; The current educational level refers to a person's educational background. Another understanding of the word culture refers to experience and habits, and all walks of life can be said to have formed culture. Geographically, there are food cultures everywhere: Cantonese cuisine, Shandong cuisine, Sichuan cuisine, and of course, hot pot culture and mala Tang culture. Tea drinking has tea culture, and drinking has wine culture, so eating zongzi should also have zongzi culture. Therefore, the debate about whether to put dates or meat in zongzi seems to be a cultural dispute. What's more, even selling fried stinky tofu in the night market, the slogan is "Inheriting the traditional stinky tofu culture in China".

The author of this book is Acheng. Speaking of his identity, there are really many. He is the author of the novels Chess King and king of the children, which caused a sensation in the literary world of China in 1980s. Screenwriter and art consultant, long-term cooperation with Hou Xiaoxian, Ang Lee, Tian Zhuangzhuang, Chen Kaige and other great directors. He is also a well-known photographer, painter and curator in China art world. At the same time, he is also a cultural project planner and folklore expert. Acheng has dabbled in almost all kinds of art and has reached a high level. Almost all the most influential writers, painters and directors in China admire Acheng, saying that he is an ordinary person and the inheritor of traditional elite culture.

According to the writer Wang Shuo, "Acheng's knowledge is obviously above my generation. If the whole country must idolize, I will chase Acheng. " When talking about cultural topics, these representatives of various artistic fields in China often quote Acheng's views and judgments. Because his cultural thought is not based on some academic theory, but comes from his understanding of China's reality and his artistic creation practice, which is both concise and to the point. It is no exaggeration to say that Acheng's cultural outlook is influencing China's literary and art circles.

Culture is not monosodium glutamate, but the sixth and seventh volume of Acheng Anthology, 20 16. This anthology was chosen by Acheng himself. It is worth mentioning that in the process of compiling his own anthology, he also asked to re-box all the words deleted in the past. More than 60 articles collected in this book are assembled for the first time and divided into six sections, namely: cultural topics, film reviews, calligraphy and painting photography reviews, music reviews, character reviews and essays.

These articles are in the form of preface, review articles and essays, as well as interviews, lectures and dialogues. The content is also borrowed from others, and the details are rich. From the course of China culture to contemporary movies and China literature, from Liu Xiaodong and Chen Danqing's oil paintings to Shaanxi farmers' paper-cutting art, from how to adjust the aperture of camera lens to the dynamic range of audio equipment, Acheng's extensive artistic activities and knowledge composition are vividly reflected. The clue that runs through it is his systematic understanding and interpretation of China culture.

Acheng has been thinking about the proposition of "what is culture" for thirty years. 1In July, 985, he published an article entitled "Culture Restrains Human Beings" in the Literary and Art Newspaper, and discussed how culture affects the lives of China people from the perspective of being higher than literature, painting, movies and other specific art categories. That article caused great repercussions in the literary and theoretical circles at that time, and was regarded as one of the starting points of "cultural discussion fever" in China in 1980s. Since then, with extensive participation in world cultural exchanges, Acheng's thinking on culture has gradually become systematic, in-depth and clear. Many of his literary articles in recent years, including folklore studies, are closely related to his cultural ideas.

Culture is a very big proposition. Human beings create culture and culture restricts human beings. Since modern times, due to the eagerness to change the backward situation, the cultural reflection on China is often centered on how to introduce western culture and transform China culture. Acheng believes that the occurrence and development of Chinese and western cultures have different characteristics. Although we can communicate, in a sense, cultures cannot guide each other.

This conclusion comes from the following three questions, which we will focus on in this audio: The first question is: What is the original intention of culture and what role does culture play in human society? The second question is: To understand culture, we must first understand China culture. What are the elements and characteristics of China culture? The third question: Since culture restricts us, how should we deal with the relationship between ourselves and culture in China culture?

first part

First of all, let's take a look at what the original intention of culture is and what its function is. In Acheng's definition, culture maintains the relationship between people and stakeholders in a standardized and civilized way, and culture plays a fundamental role in maintaining stability in society.

The word culture has many definitions. Starting from the function of culture, Acheng believes that culture in the true sense refers to a relationship between people and groups. Therefore, culture is a big concept, which does not mean knowledge, nor does it mean that all walks of life modify themselves. Regarding the abuse of the word culture like monosodium glutamate, Acheng thinks that the most inappropriate example is "military culture", because it completely violates the original intention of culture. In Acheng's observation, the significance of this relationship between cultures is very clear, which is opposite to the "martial arts" of conflict struggle.

Wushu came into being before culture, which is a primitive instinctive relationship. More than twenty years ago, Acheng published a series of articles entitled "Common Sense and Common Sense" in Harvest magazine, in which Conrad Lorenz, the Nobel Prize winner and the father of modern animal behavior, introduced his research on human nature. Modern animal behavior believes that human nature is rooted in animality, of which aggression is the most important. Aggressiveness is a fighting instinct, which is used to invade and fight against the same kind. This nature generally exists in human society in the form of violence, plunder and oppression. If we make an acquired moral judgment on such human nature, then Wu undoubtedly represents evil. The logic of Wuhua is: as long as I am strong and powerful, I can rob you of all your resources, and you can't even protect yourself.

What about culture? It is a method developed and established by human beings in social development to suppress the aggressive nature. By widely observing social ethics, the relationship between culture and culture can be formed, and long-term stability can be achieved. In ci culture, the original meaning of ci is mode, which is extended to the system and contract made by human beings according to certain rules; The meaning of the word "Hua" can refer to the past saying of "melting in blood and implementing in action", which means that this kind of thing is not in blood originally, but integrated the day after tomorrow. In other words, the content of the text is not human instinct, but acquired. The process of culture is to make people's behavior details, including ideological details, gradually meet the requirements of culture.

Therefore, according to Acheng's explanation, saying that a person has culture does not mean that he has knowledge, but that he can handle the relationship with others with words, not martial arts. Here we need to talk about Acheng's personal experience.

He was born in 1949. He went to the countryside to jump the queue in his freshman year. He went for eleven years and didn't return to Beijing until 1979. Throughout his teenage years, he had a deep and painful memory of the martial arts scenes in China's special historical period. Knowing this, we can understand why he has been thinking about the proposition of China culture. For example, he said that at that time, the old ladies in the neighborhood committees were ignorant of martial arts, and everyone's doors were pushed open and they didn't knock on the door to ask for permission. In the early 1980s, a notice in a restaurant near his home said "We don't beat and scold customers", which we find very funny now, but at that time, it was very common for restaurants to beat and scold customers. He felt that the relationship between people and groups in that era was so martial that a country with thousands of years of cultural history had to learn to say "please, thank you" and "sorry" again.

Therefore, the role of culture in society is by no means decorative monosodium glutamate, but also the basis for maintaining stability and the guarantee for people to settle down. This effect is very obvious. For example, many people sit in a room and argue. If the jungle law of martial arts is implemented, there may be fights and some people will not be able to get out. Only cultural relations can guarantee everyone's safety. Zootopia, a popular animated film of Disney 20 16, sets a world in which all mammals have evolved advanced intelligence. It can make herbivores and carnivores live in the same city, abide by the same social rules, and establish an equal right relationship for animals, that is, realize cultural relations. In the film, animals are poisoned by "midnight howling" and become wild animals in nature. We think this is degradation, because they recognize the identity of animals as social people, which is cultural identity. On the contrary, when we encounter the behavior that we don't know how to knock on the door and interfere with public order casually, you look at him and he asks, "What are you looking at?" This is more unacceptable than the animals in comics. This standard of identity based on ideas and behaviors, rather than race, is cultural identity.

When it comes to cultural identity, we often hear the saying of cultural diversity. Recognizing cultural diversity means recognizing that different cultures among countries, regions and nations can exchange and coexist on an equal footing. This requires distinguishing between culture and civilization: civilization is the level of human development, which mainly includes accumulated experience, science and technology, etc. There is a unified value standard, different degrees and monism. The so-called utilitarianism refers to bringing the scientific and technological achievements of advanced civilization. Being backward means being beaten, and it also refers to the backwardness of military civilization. Culture varies from person to person, from environment to environment and has different styles and characteristics. Culture has both advantages and disadvantages, but it can't be arbitrarily distinguished or transplanted stiffly. Of course, among the diverse human cultures, we are most concerned about China culture. So, what are the elements of China culture?

the second part

When discussing the cultural composition of China, Acheng mainly analyzed the secular spirit in the cultural order and life concept formulated by the Confucian tradition.

Of course, Confucianism is the most prominent factor in China culture. This still has to start with Confucius. Confucius lived in the late Spring and Autumn Period. In his eyes, the cultural situation at that time was "improper manners and music", which was about to become an era of improper martial arts. His ideal society is the society in the early Zhou Dynasty, because the system of literature was established in the early Zhou Dynasty, which was both orderly and prosperous. In the cultural composition of Confucianism, the most important thing is to establish and maintain order. This order is based on ethics, and everyone in the family should abide by the ethics determined by blood. Correspondingly, in politics, we should abide by political ethics, and everyone should act according to the rights and obligations stipulated in his position.

Confucius believes that the way to rebuild culture is to be polite and happy. Ceremony is the norm of cultural relations. Being in different social classes, we should abide by different etiquette and not cross the line. Music is an important means to practice etiquette and restrain nature. The age of Confucius or witchcraft. Confucius opposed witchcraft and relied on music to adjust people's mental state. When we read the Analects of Confucius, we know that Confucius always sings while playing the piano, just like a talk show, which is to help students enter the mental state of listening to lectures.

The most obvious feature of China culture is the concept of filial piety, which can hardly be found in western languages. Filial piety is not a natural instinct, and the survival law of nature is cruel. Once animals get old, they lose the qualification of resource allocation. The concept of filial piety put forward by Confucianism is precisely to restrain this animality and establish a firm order. In social relations, filial piety at that time was a kind of old-age insurance system, which dispersed the socialized old-age care that appeared later to different families, and the court could not bear the specific burden. "People are old", so the concept of filial piety seems to be beneficial to everyone, especially to human beings, and it is easy to be widely recognized. Moreover, filial piety can be extended, and "providing for the elderly and relying on them" will subtly spread the Confucian cultural concept of being close to each other and respecting others.

In ancient times, the duty of filial piety included the duty of loyalty to the monarch, so the imperial power was willing to use the Confucian cultural system to adjust social relations. Later generations observed the elements of Confucian culture and found that it was seriously alienated because of precocity. Confucianism, especially in the Song and Ming Dynasties, changed Confucius' thoughts beyond recognition. For example, the phrase "all parents are at fault in the world", which was spurned by later generations, came from Confucianism and Taoism in the Song Dynasty and had nothing to do with Confucius' filial piety. The main problem of Confucian culture is alienation.

In the process of observing China culture, Acheng emphasized another cultural element: secular spirit. His observation is that China culture has profound metaphysical content, but it is essentially secular character and spirit. Confucianism is responsible for the cultural order in China, while the secular spirit is responsible for the quality of life in China. The so-called secularism means paying attention to real life and clinging to life. In novelist Yu Hua's masterpiece Alive, Fu Gui, the hero, lost the people and beliefs that supported him in his later years after a rough and bitter life. Although he has neither hope nor faith, he still lives tenaciously. It is a natural choice to interpret it with secular life. The core spirit of secularism is "Life is worse than death". It is this secular spirit that has enabled the Chinese nation to continue as a cultural group after thousands of years of famine and war.

The main feature of China's secular spirit is self-purification: it is to solve realistic problems with realistic methods. For example, persuade a grieving widow not to say that your husband went to heaven and died in bliss, but to say, "You cried your body badly. What can you do in the future?" Who will take care of the children? " The advised person will stop crying if he wants to live. Secular spirit determines that China people will not be immersed in the religious beliefs from tradition to reality. Many foreign cultures that tried to change China people's mental outlook were finally assimilated by China's secularism. For example, Indian Buddhism does not recognize this world and advocates being divorced from the real world. When you arrive in China, you will become a Buddhist and do good deeds, and get a better life in the afterlife.

In daily life, Buddhism is integrated with Taoism and Confucianism to serve the secular life of China people together. People burn incense, worship Buddha, and make wishes, and they are also asking God and Buddha to solve their troubles in reality. Matteo Ricci, a Catholic missionary who came to China in the Ming Dynasty, was asked by China people whether he could worship his ancestors. Because he knows China culture, he answered yes. Because he knew that if he answered no according to the doctrine, the number of Christians in China would immediately decrease. The content of secular life is nothing more than eating and drinking Lazarus, weddings and funerals, birth and death; In the emotional experience, it is joys and sorrows, sadness and separation are also secular self-purification, in order to better experience joy and harmony. Although the secular spirit appears trivial and superficial, even vulgar, its vitality is extremely tenacious. In modern China, in order to transform the culture, there appeared many systematic criticisms of the secular spirit, and promoted social transformation at the national level, trying to reverse the old traditions and customs of China people and completely cut off the secular culture.

These attempts, or soon disappeared, for example, in the 1930s, the government of the Republic of China launched an artistic, productive and militarized new life movement, trying to transform China people's old secular life with a Christian way of life, and the result ended hastily; Or it caused a cultural rupture. For example, during the Republic of China, intellectuals thoroughly criticized the national character and China culture and tried to introduce western civilization and culture, but culture could not be directly replaced, leaving a blank in China culture. According to Acheng's definition, destroying culture itself may return the society to the relationship between martial arts and culture. Even though there are many conservative and backward elements in the secular spirit, it is the background of China culture and cannot be replaced at will. It is an effective way to maintain China people's outlook on life and cultural relations by following the Confucian order and conforming to the secular spiritual needs.

Therefore, Acheng's exposition of culture is not about how to manage the society from the perspective of power, nor is it criticizing the national character from the perspective of reflection. On the contrary, it is willing to acknowledge the various factors of China culture, and advocates a deeper understanding of culture, protection of secular experience and maintenance of cultural vitality. He emphasized the importance of culture, and even more emphasized the need to respect people's independent life under culture. Compared with his cultural mission, he prefers to talk about how to get along with culture and how to live better in the cultural atmosphere of China from a personal perspective.

the third part

As I said just now, culture is the guarantee for people to settle down and live. In the cultural environment and systematic relationship, we are always faced with the problem of how to live and survive in culture. Acheng first emphasized that he must maintain his secular living space.

There are many understandings of the phrase "courtesy is not inferior to Shu Ren". For example, Professor Qian Wenzhong interpreted it as "politeness is not inferior to Shu Ren" in Lecture Room, which means that people can't be excluded from etiquette. Acheng's understanding of this sentence is that the scope of ceremony is aimed at the power class, excluding the secular world. This can give the secular a flexible space and keep its vitality. Once the ceremony is held in central Shu Ren, people will have a hard time. For example, the initial etiquette did not restrict the remarriage of folk women. Things like chastity memorial archways became popular in Shu Ren after the ceremony, and it was not until later that women were required to bind their feet. Acheng advocates establishing and protecting people to take care of their secular life.

For the description of secular life samples, he chose two developed cities: Shanghai and Hong Kong. The symbol of Shanghai's prosperity is the establishment of a large-scale secular life. From the opening period, concession period to modern times, various cultural elements can flourish and coexist peacefully in Shanghai. A more extreme example is that during the concession period, high-class prostitutes were popular to wear clothes with yellow colors and dragon and phoenix patterns, which were forbidden by the people, while the coachmen in brothels wore yellow jackets only worn by court ministers, because this was in the concession, the British did not care, and the Qing government could not control it. Being at the forefront of secular culture and relatively lacking taboos is also one of the foundations of Shanghai's economic prosperity.

The secularization of Hong Kong is more thorough, and even many cultural elements of the Qing Dynasty have been directly preserved. Almost all the customs that disappeared in the mainland have been preserved in Hong Kong. For example, Chinese in Hong Kong is a mixture of English and Chinese, and the ancient China customs have been preserved. There are few words like "de" in popular lyrics, but there are words like "your residents" in official documents.

Witchcraft and superstition survived together. For example, under the overpass in downtown, there are stalls cursed by "beating people" for generations, which are still deeply loved by the public. White-collar workers who work in the financial district often visit after work to vent their dissatisfaction with colleagues and bosses. Acheng also has different views on the statement that Hong Kong is a "cultural desert". He thinks that the other side of Hong Kong being so busy is that people who like music and reading can easily buy any records and books anywhere in the world, depending on how you choose. Therefore, culture is specific to personal life, and what needs to be adhered to most is the spirit of self-choice and self-responsibility.

While maintaining the secular spirit, the attitude towards cultural order should conform to the inherent laws. In Acheng's view, cultural conservatism is a commendatory term. Only by maintaining it can progress be implemented and culture be formed. The Conservative Party has played an important role in the development of British culture. They kept every progress and didn't let it retreat. In social operation, every time we deal with a social contradiction, we will fix our experience as a legal provision, and we can directly quote precedents when we encounter such problems in the future. The rules and taboos formed in culture should not be easily violated. Primitive people had many taboos, all of which originated from things that once destroyed this clan or surrounding clans. These things remain as cultural memories and are directly related to feelings. Once cultural taboos are violated, there will be cracks in the relationship between people and groups, which may never be repaired.

While obeying and adapting, we should also clearly realize that culture is based on human animality. While restricting and restraining, we should rely on the channels determined by culture to release our instincts reasonably. Antagonistic exercise, for example, is an effective way to release offensive instinct. Countries and regions such as Northern Europe and the Netherlands are relatively tolerant of violence and pornography in art. They believe that literature and art can spread animal instinct, but it is conducive to maintaining social and psychological health.

Emphasizing the conservatism of adapting to culture does not mean stagnation or intellectual self-isolation, but it is more necessary to establish an open knowledge structure and enhance cultural discrimination. A vibrant culture will continue to develop and its composition should be as open as possible. Distinguishing culture requires a broad personal vision and the ability to judge various factors.

To conform to the cultural characteristics of China, we must first understand western culture. If nationalism is used as an excuse to exclude western culture, we should at least know that both the concepts of nationalism and nationalism originated in the west, and even these two words are taken from Japanese. When building your own knowledge structure, you don't have to pursue a unified educational model and ready-made standard answers. For example, when reading, don't judge whether it is a good book or a bad book just by looking at it. Read everything first to see what it says, and then have an ideological dialogue with what you have accumulated. Only by broadening one's horizons and knowledge can one find one's own model, so as not to feel fresh about everything and grasp the core. This is the only learning process.

When it comes to the composition of knowledge, Acheng also specifically said that he should have secular social experience. Speaking of worldly experiences, it is easy to connect with rivers and lakes. Acheng said that Jianghu gas is secular, not hooliganism, but only with Jianghu gas can we learn to deal with hooliganism. The interpersonal relationship in secular life is the cultural atmosphere of China, which can handle human feelings and predict their changes, that is, "everything is learned when things are clear, and human feelings are articles", which is an important ability to get along with China culture.

First, the significance of culture is to use cultural standards to regulate the relationship between people and groups. The role of culture is to maintain social stability and ensure that people can settle down in society.

Second, the two most important elements of China culture are Confucianism and secular spirit. Confucianism is responsible for establishing order in culture, and secular spirit is responsible for ensuring people's quality of life.

Thirdly, we are in the cultural atmosphere of China. How can we get along better with culture and live better? It is necessary to maintain personal living space and the necessary secular spirit in culture. At the same time, we should respect the inherent laws of cultural order. We should establish a broad vision and knowledge structure.

When I mentioned China culture before, I felt that the concept was vague, and there was a vague sense of bondage and heaviness. It seems that culture is either an important task that we inherit and carry forward, or an object of criticism and resistance. This time, Acheng simply restored the original intention of culture and sorted out the inner essence of culture. However, his view that culture is a relationship is not the final conclusion in politics and sociology, but more like Acheng's cultural "private kitchen". For this kind of opinion, he has not written a monograph to discuss it systematically. In this book, Acheng's exposition on culture is also scattered in many interviews and speeches. As he said, we should read more books without prejudging our own views: first look at what is written on it, and then compare it with what we have accumulated to enrich our knowledge structure.

After comparison, we find that Acheng's cultural interpretation has at least two meanings: on the one hand, it removes many specious things attached to cultural concepts, which helps us to clarify the relationship between individuals and culture, especially China culture; On the other hand, his views fill a gap in the cultural discussion in China.

In the past, when discussing cultural construction, especially artistic concepts, we always emphasized the cultivation of the spirit beyond the secular. But few people like Acheng realize that secularism is the background of China culture, and literary and artistic creation should restore the traditional secular spirit and character. Secular life is not against elegant art and excellent ideas. Chinese and foreign history has proved that when the secular life of human beings presents prosperity and diversity, thoughts and art will find soil and usher in opportunities.