中国文化通览(2)

先秦文化

先秦是中国文化的发展由萌芽到初具体系规模的时期。中国文化的起源是多元的，有人喻之为“满天星斗”，但主要源头有三，一是东夷文化，二是西夏文化，三是南蛮文化。东夷文化起源于黄河下游的今山东、苏北地区，东夷族的著名领袖有太昊、少昊、蚩尤、帝喾、舜等。西夏文化发源于黄河中上游的今陕甘晋南地区，著名领袖有炎帝、黄帝、颛顼、尧等。南蛮文化起源于江淮流域，领袖有盘瓠等。东夷和西夏二族的发展是沿黄河对进，长期的又战又和的格局最终促成了民族间的融合，形成了华夏族的前身。夷、夏文明的冲撞为中国古代文化的形成奠定了基础。华夏集团又南下征服了南蛮集团，形成了中华民族的雏形。他们远祧炎帝、黄帝二祖，所以中华民族又被称为“炎黄子孙”。

夏、商、西周史称“三代”，“三代”是统一的、宗法性的王权专制国家形成发展的时期。在这一时期，“溥天之下，莫非王土，率土之滨，莫非王臣”的大一统观念逐渐形成，宗法性质的礼乐文化成型，并对以后中国文化的发展打下了深刻的印记，中国被称为“礼仪之邦”。所谓“礼仪”文化，指通过繁复的、无所不在的礼节规定，将每个人的社会角色意识加以强化，明确其应该享有的权利和应该承担的义务。三代的物质文明成果是青铜文化，精美绝伦的青铜器成为世界古代文明的瑰宝。商代的甲骨文、西周的青铜铭文已经是相当成熟的文字，构字方法已有了象形、指事、会意和形声，并出现了由这些文字记录而成的文献。

春秋、战国是中国早期文化大发展并形成初步体系和规模的时期。虽然在这一时期政治上呈现出列国争霸兼并的割据状态，但共同的民族文化意识将这些割据战争定性为民族的统一战争，战争成为中国走上新的统一的途径。在战争中，更多

的部族国家参与进来，促进了更大范围的文化融合，从而为秦汉统一的封建大帝国的建立打下了基础。与政治上的割据状态相适应的是思想领域“百家争鸣”的局面。春秋末年孔子首创私学，打破了“学在官府”的学术垄断，建立了儒家学派。孔子是中国文化继往开来的伟大人物，他整理了夏商周“三代”的文化成果“五经”，即《诗》、《书》、《礼》、《易》、《春秋》，又创立了“礼”和“仁”结合的思想体系，开辟了中国思想文化的新局面。其时各学派可以自由地发表政治主张与学术见解，形成了学术的争鸣。这些多彩各异的诸子学说成为中国精神文化发展的活水源头，秦汉以后形成的各种学术思想大都是先秦诸子思想在新的历史条件下的重新组合，以及在此基础上的创新。

春秋时期中国的生产力发展进入铁器时代，促成了战国时期经济的大发展

Culture Before the Qin Dynasty

Pre-Qin was a period of the Chinese culture starting from its embryonic stage to the stage when the basic form began to take shape. There were three main influences: the Eastern Yi culture, the Western Xia culture and the Southern Man culture. The Eastern Yi culture originated in the region of present Shandong Province and the northern part of Jiangsu Province in the lower Yellow River Valley. The leading figures were Taihao, Shaohao, Chiyou, Diku and Shun. The Western Xia culture originated in the region of present Shaanxi and Gansu provinces and the Southern Shanxi Province in the upper and middle Yellow River Valley. The

renowned leaders included Yandi, Huangdi, Zhuanxu, and Yao. The Southern Man culture originated in the Yangtze-Huaihe Valley. The leader was Panhu. The Eastern Yi and Western Xia moved in the opposite directions along the Yellow River. In a long process of alternative conflict and peace, they gradually merged, thus becoming the predecessors of Hua Xia nationality. The culture collision and assimilation between Yi and Xia laid a foundation for China’s ancient civilization. After Hua Xia nationality moved southward and conquered the Southern Man, the embryonic form of the Chinese nation appeared. In honor of this, they held a memorial ceremony to enshrine their distant ancestors, Yandi and Huangdi. Thus, the Chinese nation can claim to be the descendants of Yandi and Huangdi.

The dynasties of Xia, Shang and Western Zhou are historically called “Three Dynasties”, during which the unified patriarchal state, based on the autocracy of royal right, was formed and developed. The notion of great national unity, i.e. “all the land under the sky belongs to the king; all the people within this country are the king’s subjects”, gradually came into being. The patriarchal culture of rites and music was completed, greatly influencing the development of the Chinese culture. Hence, China is called “the land of ceremony and propriety”. The ceremony and propriety have embodied the different social strata of nobles through pervasive and over-elaborate ritual formalities, their privilege and

responsibility. The quintessence of material civilization of the Three Dynasties was the brilliant Bronze culture. The bronze wares, exquisite beyond compare, are the gems of ancient civilization of the world. The inscriptions on tortoise shells or animal bones of the Shang Dynasty, and the inscriptions on bronze or copper wares in the Western Zhou Dynasty demonstrated fairly mature writings. There was already evidence of what constitutes a character: pictographs, self-explanatory characters, associative compounds and pictophonetic method. Besides, literature recordings appeared using these types of characters.

The Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period witnessed a strong momentum of growth of the Chinese culture. This phase was characterized by the separatist regime. All the states vied with each other for supremacy and annexed others. Nevertheless the shared consciousness of national culture determined the nature of the wars between the rival principalities; and they had the effect of unifying the nation, by way of which China was reunited. In the process of the war, more states were involved, promoting the cultural fusion in a broader realm, which laid the basis for the foundation of the unitary feudal empire of the Qin-Han dynasties. Corresponding with the political separatist regime was the contention of numerous schools of thought of ideology. At the end of the Spring and Autumn Period, Confucius initiated the privately run school, breaking the academic monopoly set up by the notion that “education