Chapter 277 276 [On Religion]

How great was Toynbee as a historian?

Later generations of Western scholars even ranked him with Einstein, Russell and others, and praised the publication of "Historical Studies" as "one of the most important events in the spiritual history of the twentieth century."

"Historical Studies" mainly talks about civilization, and the emergence, development, decline, disintegration and demise of civilization. Many viewpoints in the book are common sense to high school students and college students of later generations, but they are of groundbreaking significance in the 20th century.

Generally speaking, the history studied by historians in the past belongs to micro history, which studies a certain period, a certain dynasty, or a certain country separately. On the other hand, Toynbee pioneered macro-historical research, taking the entire human history as a whole, and revealing its true colors from a philosophical perspective.

In fact, the "Guns, Germs, and Steel" that Zhou Hexuan copied before is also strictly speaking a macro-historical work, but the research direction is biased towards anthropology and sociology.

At this time, the two sat on the podium, and Luo Jialun, the principal of Tsinghua University, sat in the first row and acted as their conversation recorder. The students also picked up pens and paper one by one, and listened attentively to the dialogue between the two masters.

Zhou Hexuan said with a smile: "Mr. Toynbee, the content of my lecture just now is called "History of Human Civilization", and I was inspired by your series of papers on "Forms of History"."

"It's a great honor," said Toynbee. "In fact, I started thinking about civilization six years ago. But I didn't start writing until last year because of too many delays. Some of Mr. Zhou's views are more mature than mine."

Zhou Hexuan said bluntly: "Mr. Toynbee, I don't fully agree with the form of civilization, or the form of history you described in your paper."

"Oh, why?" Toynbee asked curiously.

Zhou Hexuan said: "The arguments you use to explain the historical view of civilization form mainly come from Western history, especially Greek history. I admit that your discussion is very exciting, but you use the special experiences of ancient Greece, ancient Rome and the Western world, as well as The path of development should be regarded as the general law of development of all civilizations. I think it doesn’t make sense to use this law of development to study and explain other civilizations, because you ignore the characteristics of each civilization.”

"No, no, no," Toynbee resolutely refused to admit his mistakes. He said, "When we study historical civilizations, we should throw out our individuality and explore the commonality of civilizations."

"Of course civilizations have commonalities, but you take certain characteristics of Western civilization as the commonality of all civilizations," Zhou Hexuan said with a smile, "With all due respect, your position is actually Western-centric, and Western civilization represents the development history of civilization. This is very biased."

Toynbee was not angry, and said, "Give me an example."

Zhou Hexuan said: "For example, your unified religion theory, I don't think there is any unified religion in China."

"Isn't Buddhism?" Toynbee asked rhetorically.

"Of course not," Zhou Hexuan said with a smile to the students in the audience, "Who do you believe in Buddhism?"

Tsinghua is still a missionary school today, founded with the support of the United States, and Luo Jialun is working hard to transform Tsinghua into a national university.

Since it is a missionary university supported by the United States, English is a language that must be mastered, and all the students present can understand what they are talking about. Hearing Zhou Hexuan's question in English, the Buddhist students immediately raised their hands, but only a few or eight were scattered.

Zhou Hexuan said, "You see."

Toynbee said: "The development of science will inevitably lead many people to give up their religious beliefs, but in ancient China, Buddhism was indeed a unified religion."

"Otherwise," Zhou Hexuan analyzed, "in my opinion, if there is a unified religion in China, it can only be Confucianism. Confucianism has developed to a certain extent, and it has certain religious characteristics, but it is always specious, and it is not a religion in the traditional sense. .”

Toynbee said: "No matter what, Chinese society still retains many Buddhist ideas, such as good and evil, reincarnation, and reincarnation. This is the proof of Buddhism as a unified religion. The difference between China and Europe is that there is no unified religion in China. Church, but in terms of influence, Buddhism fits the characteristics of all unified religions."

"Chinese people are never devout believers," Zhou Hexuan said with a smile, "Mr. Toynbee, you can find a devout Buddhist and take him to a Taoist temple, and see if he can burn incense and kowtow to Taoist gods .”

Toynbee explained: "After Buddhism was introduced to China, it carried out great localization reforms. It actually belongs to polytheism. Therefore, Buddhist believers kneel down to worship other gods. This does not deny the fact that Buddhism was once a unified religion in China. "

Zhou Hexuan did not argue, but asked: "Mr. Toynbee, have you heard of the integration of the three religions?"

"Three religions in one?" Toynbee was a little puzzled.

Zhou Hexuan said: "According to my understanding, the characteristic of Chinese civilization lies in its strong inclusiveness. Whether it is culture, science, or religion, no matter how strong these foreign things are, they will eventually be localized and absorbed in China. The core spirit of Chinese civilization is the idea of ​​"harmony between man and nature", which is the major premise for the study of Chinese civilization. It originated in the Western Zhou Dynasty and was recorded in the "Book of Changes". It is the general outline of the development of Chinese civilization for thousands of years. Whether it is Both Confucianism and Taoism follow this ideological principle, but their attitudes and pursuits are different. Even after Buddhism was introduced to China, it must also conform to this idea, the most representative of which is Zen."

Toynbee knew the unity of man and nature, and he also studied Dong Zhongshu, Zhu Xi, Wang Yangming and other figures, but he did not recognize the unity of man and nature as the core idea of ​​Chinese civilization. He did not immediately refute, but asked: "Then what is the integration of the three religions?"

"Buddha is Tao, Tao is Confucianism, and Confucianism is also Buddha," Zhou Hexuan said with a smile, "The idea of ​​the unity of the three religions originated in the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties, developed and expanded in the Song and Yuan Dynasties, and was generally accepted by Chinese people in the Qing Dynasty. Or In other words, it is subtle. Whether it is Cheng-Zhu Neo-Confucianism or Yangming Xinxue, these Confucian schools have developed to the end, and they all contain a lot of Buddhist and Taoist thoughts. Song-Ming Neo-Confucianism, as the new Confucianism at that time, absorbed a lot of Confucianism and Taoism philosophy Thought and basic concepts, Confucianism in Ming and Qing Dynasties is more Taoist than Taoism, and Buddhist is even more important than Buddhism. Buddhism and Taoism also actively or passively cater to Confucianism, which is the mainstream thought. In the end, the three religions have actually merged. Together, they affect the thinking of Chinese people. To be honest, China’s unified religion is essentially a freak of the fusion of Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism.”

"Mr. Zhou, your point of view is very interesting." Toynbee laughed.

Zhou Hexuan said: "China's attitude towards religion is inclusive. No matter which sect it is, it must abide by the secular ethics. No one can become a unified religion. Take the current Christianity as an example. There are so many missionaries in China. If If Christianity does not carry out localization reforms in China, then it will never be popularized and promoted. At most, it can only retain the form. For example, the Chinese adopt Christian wedding ceremonies, wearing wedding dresses and exchanging rings to swear to the Father. Another example is that everyone celebrates Christmas together , but this Christmas will not be religious, it will be just a carnival."

Toynbee was somewhat persuaded, but then fell into confusion, because in the historical view of civilization he created, unification of religion was a very important content. If the unified religion theory cannot be adapted to Chinese civilization, then it is possible that his other theories are not applicable to other civilizations either.