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北京大学英语新闻网/Peking University News
Tang Yi-jie: let alone disputes between
East and West, syncretize advantage of
different cultures
By Ma Keke
PKU NEWS 2003—10—24
http://ennews.pku.edu.cn/news.php?s=72159411
Peking University, Beijing, October 24th: Tang Yi-jie, the outstanding professor of
philosophy department of Peking University on Friday delivers a speech about
cultural harmonization at the opening ceremony held in library of Peking University.
Professor Tang Yi- jie says the formation of Chinese culture is based on its
continuously absorbing other cultures from different nationalities, countries and
areas in its history of five to six thousand years. During this long history, there are
two foreign cultures which have influenced the development of Chinese culture. The
first one is the inflow of the culture of Buddhism since the 1st century .The second
one is the inflow of western culture since the late of the 16th century.
Professor Tang states philosophy is the core of culture, and philosophy deeply
reflects the spirit image of an era. The inflow of Buddhism in history can provide us a
reference for the research on the Chinese philosophy‘s development under the
impact of western philosophy. The inflow of Buddhism had experienced three phases
of development: the first spread by penetrating itself into the native culture; the
independent embodiment of itself and having conflicts with the native culture, and
the two cultures influenced and absorbed each other; the Buddhism melting itself
into Chinese culture completely , and new Confucianism coming into being.
Professor Tang concludes, the development of Chinese culture nowadays seems lie
in the transition from the second phase to the third phase: from conflicts to blending.
Therefore, we should throw away the opinions of separating ―West‖ and ―China‖ or
separating ―ancient‖ and ―modern‖. What we should do is to completely and deeply
absorb western culture. In this process, Chinese philosophy will develop into a new
and modern Chinese philosophy which is different from western philosophy.
Edited By : Hu Xiaoling
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