'For a better world': Nishan Forum urges common value of mankind to tackle global challenges

By advancing the common values of mankind and enhancing equal exchanges among different civilizations, countries nowadays can build a better world and solve global challenges, officials and scholars stressed at a forum on civilizations in east China.

The Ninth Nishan Forum on World Civilizations held its opening ceremony on Wednesday in Qufu City, east China's Shandong Province, the hometown of ancient Chinese sage Confucius.

The forum brought together officials and scholars from home and abroad to embrace Confucius' wisdom and explore the common values of humanity across various civilizations. This year's forum, which runs until Thursday and is themed "Common Values of All Humanity and the Community of Human Destiny," has attracted over 300 foreign guests, including foreign dignitaries, representatives of international organizations, and envoys to China.

To build a better world

The forum opened in a bigger context, as this year marks the 10th anniversary of the concept of "a global community of shared future" proposed by China.

China's State Council Information Office released a white paper on Tuesday titled "A Global Community of Shared Future: China's Proposals and Actions," which stressed that the concept has deep roots in China's profound cultural heritage and its unique experience of modernization and manifests China's time-honored historical traditions, distinct characteristics of the times, and a wealth of humanistic values.

Addressing the opening ceremony of the Ninth Nishan Forum on World Civilizations, Shohrat Zakir, vice chairman of the Standing Committee of the 14th National People's Congress, called for respecting the diversity of civilizations, vigorously enhancing the common values of mankind, and promoting the building of a global community of a shared future in order to build a better world.

Echoing Zakir, scholars on Chinese philosophy who attended the forum believed that the forum advocates the common values of mankind, the realization of exchanges and dialogues among different civilizations with a broad mind, and learning from all the outstanding civilizational achievements, which emphasizes using unity to dissolve divisions, cooperation to face confrontation, and tolerance to replace exclusivity.

Equal exchange and mutual learning

Since its inception in 2010, the Nishan Forum on World Civilizations, which has been successfully held for eight sessions, has focused on the dialogue of different civilizations in the world and has increasingly become an important platform for promoting the inheritance and development of the traditional Chinese culture, carrying forward the common values of mankind, and intensifying international humanistic exchanges and cooperation.

Dialogue, exchange, and diversity were among the key words in the themes of the previous Nishan forums, and experts and scholars from different cultural backgrounds have reached consensuses after heated discussions that respect, equality and mutual appreciation are the ways for different civilizations to coexist peacefully and develop together.

"At a time when the future and destiny of the nations are closely intertwined, the theme of the 9th Nishan Forum on World Civilizations will still be dedicated to the realization of inclusive coexistence, exchange and mutual understanding among different civilizations," said Liu Tingshan, deputy director of the Nishan World Center for Confucian Studies.

Scholars also believed that this year's forum, which focuses on the common challenges faced by humanity and the building of a better future for mankind, is expected to explore feasible solutions to these issues.

As the world today is undergoing major changes unseen in a century, equal exchanges and mutual learning among different civilizations will provide powerful spiritual guidance for mankind in solving the problems of the times and realizing common development, Zakir noted at the openning ceremony.

(Cover: Nishan Sacred Land in Qufu City, the birthplace of Confucius, east China's Shandong Province. /CFP)