How Confucian harmony anchors China's global security vision

Editor's note: Gao Jian, a special commentator for CGTN, is the director of the China-UK People-to-People Exchange Research Center, Shanghai International Studies University. The article reflects the author's opinions and not necessarily the views of CGTN.

The world today is undergoing profound and radical changes unseen in centuries. Structural contradictions are becoming increasingly prominent, regional conflicts occur frequently, and hegemonism and power politics still exist to a certain extent. The current political and economic crises in the world are essentially cultural crises – crises of modernization. Facing the turbulent and volatile international landscape, what can China contribute for world peace and development? This is not only a political and economic issue but, in essence, a cultural one.

Cultural confidence is the most fundamental guarantee of a nation's enduring vitality. As inheritors of the fine traditional Chinese culture, the Communist Party of China leads the Chinese people in building up socialism with Chinese characteristics for a new era in the name of the Chinese path to modernization. To fully grasp the essential characteristics of Chinese modernization, it is necessary to gain a profound understanding of the spiritual values and cultural wisdom embodied in its civilization.

Chinese civilization has a long and rich history, and its cultural spirit has continued to the present day with remarkable sustainability and continuity. As a cultural mode that has persisted since the "Axial Age" of human civilization (500-300 BCE), the Chinese nation upholds the philosophical concept of harmony between humanity and nature. As early as the Qin and Han dynasties, it gradually formed a grand cultural landscape with Confucianism as its centerpiece, where various schools of thought coexisted and integrated.

At the very beginning of Chinese civilization, it chose the path of spiritual development characterized by such principles as "following the ways of nature, winning others over with virtue, adhering to the Doctrine of the Mean and common sense, and achieving harmonious coexistence and shared development." It upheld the moral principle that "when distant peoples are not willing to commit, one cultivates civil virtue to attract them."

These core elements of the Chinese cultural spirit, as the most fundamental cultural genes of the Chinese nation, have helped the Chinese nation to stand and thrive in the world. They are the cultural ideology infused into the blood of every Chinese, manifesting as the daily life consciousness and practical principles widely adopted by the Chinese people.

The world is a single entity, and human beings form a community with a shared future. The concept of harmony and unity profoundly reflects the holistic consciousness of Chinese culture. Ever since its dawn period, Chinese civilization has been conceiving of things as ensembles of relations and pursuing balance and coordination among things within an integrated structure. This characteristic is vividly embodied in the uniquely Chinese theory of yin-yang and the five elements.

The Chinese nation believes that "harmony generates new things, while mere sameness cannot sustain development." It has always maintained an open and inclusive attitude toward heterogeneous things and consistently adhered to the dialectical principles between "seeking common ground" and "preserving differences." This concept has provided a powerful ideological foundation for contemporary Chinese people of all ethnic groups for reinforcing a sense of community for the Chinese nation. It is also the cultural origin of the Chinese government's proposal to build a community with a shared future for humanity.

As the German thinker Max Weber, in his book The Religion of China: Confucianism and Taoism, points out, in Chinese civilization, there is no tense opposition between the "living world" and the "transcendental world." This observation profoundly explains the inclusiveness of Chinese civilization, which takes daily life as its foundation and constructs social ethical principles based on common human sentiments and everyday relationships. It ensures that Chinese culture is always ready to be open-minded to embrace the diversity of world civilizations.

Chinese civilization highly emphasizes the importance of family, particularly focusing on the common care and concern deeply rooted in human relations in defense of the principle of harmony. In the view of Chinese civilization, no culture is superior or inferior; all are members of the global family.

Just as in building family relationships, different cultures should understand and respect each other, so that the world family of cultures can complement one another and coexist harmoniously. It is widely believed that maintaining the openness and inclusiveness of its national culture is the fundamental guarantee for a nation's enduring vitality and flourishing prosperity. Drawing on the outstanding achievements of all civilizations around the world is the only path to building a modern Chinese civilization.

It is precisely on the basis of the above cultural characteristics that we can understand why peace is a cultural gene deeply engraved in the Chinese nation. As a typical agricultural civilization, Chinese ancestors recognized early on the fundamental significance of a stable and enduring environment and a collaborative collective for real life. The agricultural production model, based on blood relationships and bound together by family ties, nurtured the Chinese nation's life philosophy of "harmony as the most precious value" and formed social norms that emphasize resolving conflicts and disputes through consultation and mediation.

"In the practice of rites, harmony is the most valuable," and "after a great army, there are sure to be years of famine." Such views opposing war and advocating peace are ubiquitously found in Chinese cultural classics. Even in The Art of War, a military treatise specifically focused on the strategies of warfare, the author repeatedly warns that "war is a dangerous instrument" and that "the best strategy is to outmaneuver the enemy through wisdom, next is to defeat them through diplomacy, next is to defeat them through military force, and the last choice is to attack their fortified cities."

In order to address the root causes of international conflicts and improve global security governance, the Chinese government has put forward its Global Security Initiative, which is a concrete practice of the vision of building a community with a shared future for humanity in the field of security.

The Chinese government adheres to a vision of common, comprehensive, cooperative and sustainable security, practices true multilateralism, emphasizes the indivisibility of security, does not base its own security on the insecurity of other countries, and insists on resolving differences and disputes between nations through dialogue and negotiation in a peaceful manner.

We firmly believe that the fine traditional Chinese culture will play an even more profound and irreplaceable role in the historical process of building a modern Chinese civilization and will also make a critically important cultural contribution to the peaceful development of all humanity.

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