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Archives of Peking University News - PKU English - 北京大学

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<strong>北京大学</strong>英语新闻网/<strong>Peking</strong> <strong>University</strong> <strong>News</strong><br />

Beijing Forum 2007: The Philosophical<br />

Foundation <strong>of</strong> the Humanistic Olympics<br />

<strong>PKU</strong> NEWS 2007--10--11<br />

http://ennews.pku.edu.cn/news.php?s=192083270<br />

Interviewer: Li Jinyue, Journalist with the China Reading Weekly<br />

Interviewee: Zhao Dunhua, Pr<strong>of</strong>essor from the Department <strong>of</strong> Philosophy, <strong>Peking</strong><br />

<strong>University</strong><br />

China Reading Weekly: Could you give an explanation why the Philosophy<br />

Sub-forum <strong>of</strong> this Beijing Forum kicks <strong>of</strong>f with ―the philosophical foundation <strong>of</strong> the<br />

Humanistic Olympics‖? Do the Olympics which originated from Greece have any<br />

bearings on Chinese philosophy?<br />

Zhao Dunhua: Actually the Olympic spirit is not exclusive to Greece, but universal to<br />

the world. The philosophical foundation <strong>of</strong> the Olympic spirit can be traced not only in<br />

the Greek civilization, but also in the Chinese civilization.<br />

The philosophical foundation <strong>of</strong> the Olympic spirit stems from the concept <strong>of</strong> ―the<br />

Axial Period‖ proposed by H. Jaspers. According to H. Jasper, the Axial Period<br />

spanning from 800 to 200 B.C. witnessed significant breakthroughs in the human<br />

spiritual civilization. Geographically separated as they are, the culture jointly created<br />

by China, India, Persia, the Mideast and Greece in the Axial Period opened up a new<br />

spiritual domain which enabled various nations to share something in common. So<br />

the human world is linked up by the common origin and the shared goals and it<br />

follows that China in the east and Greece in the west share some values.<br />

When it comes to the philosophical foundation, the opening topic is ―the Axial<br />

Period‖, that is, between Chinese philosophy and Greek philosophy a comparison<br />

shall be made about the cognate elements, such as the shared values and spiritual<br />

pursuits in both Chinese and Greek civilizations.<br />

China Reading Weekly: It is curious that the conception about the Axial Period has it<br />

that in the Pre-Qin Dynasty both China and the Ancient Greece saw separate<br />

regimes <strong>of</strong> many vassal states; the wars and battles between and among the vassal<br />

states were rife in China while the Olympics was born in Greece. Why so?<br />

Zhao Dunhua: That is a good question. But the differences between China and<br />

Greece were not as great as you just indicated. There were far more similarities<br />

between China and the Ancient Greece in the Axial Period, for instance, both nations<br />

561

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