Abstract: Societies develop with cultures. Edward B Tyler， a 19th-century anthropologist， provided one of the earliest definitions of culture: cultures included knowledge， belief， arts， morals， laws， customs and any other capabilities and habits acquired by man as a member of society.

According to the definition， one can be somewhat sure that culture is what people think of and do. Culture is also the result of what people do. It is quite true that rarely two individuals are the same， but， undoubtedly， all the members in one society have something in common， because the culture they share has a chief characteristic that influences people who share it. Throughout 2，000 years， Confucian thoughts had been the chief characteristic of Chinese traditional culture. Chinese people were totally influenced by Confucian thoughts.

摘要：社會(huì)與文化是同步發(fā)展的。19世紀(jì)著名的人類學(xué)家泰勒給文化做出了一個(gè)最早期的定義：文化包括知識(shí)、信仰、藝術(shù)、道德、法律、習(xí)俗以及作為一個(gè)社會(huì)成員的人所習(xí)得的其他一切能力和習(xí)慣。

根據(jù)這樣的解釋，我們可以多少認(rèn)為文化就是人們的所想和所做。文化同樣也可以看作為人們行為的結(jié)果。可以肯定的是世上很少有兩個(gè)完全相同的個(gè)體，但毋庸置疑，社會(huì)當(dāng)中的人也有一定的共性，因?yàn)樗麄兊奈幕幸环N主要的特征來影響著他們。在過去的2000年里，儒家思想是中國傳統(tǒng)文化的主要特征。中國人都受到了儒家思想得影響。

Keywords: culturea member of societydefination characteristic Confucian thoughts

關(guān)鍵詞：文化；社會(huì)成員；解釋；特征；儒家思想

[中圖分類號(hào)]：B222[文獻(xiàn)標(biāo)識(shí)碼]：A

[文章編號(hào)]：1002-2139(2012)-10-0164-02

Ⅰ、The Confucian School and Their Thoughts

The Confucian school “treat Six Arts as law， believe people should have proper manner according to their status”， and “think the Tao is paramount”. The marrow of Confucian thoughts is kindness. The main content is “三綱五常” [the three cardinal guides and the five constant virtues] advanced by Dong Zhongshu， an famous ideologist [179B.C.-104B.C.]. The three cardinal guides are 君為臣綱，父為子綱，夫?yàn)槠蘧V. [ruler guides subject， father guides son and husband guides wife]. The five manners refer to仁義禮智信[benevolence; righteousness， propriety， wisdom and fidelity]， which is the most important one in the five manners. The wisdom includes three aspects: the understanding of ethics， the process of learning knowledge and the human’s born abilities.

What is said above is the controlling kernel of the Confucian school. All theories and thoughts of the Confucian school are derived from these basic theories. Regarding “three rules and five manners” as a starting point， one can come to a conclusion that the Confucian school only focused on secular reality， never paying even little attention to ideals on “ the other shore”. As far as Chinese society is concerned， the purpose of Confucian thoughts is to make it orderly and peacefully developed. For individuals， from the emperor down to the mass of the people， all must consider the cultivation of the person the root of everything besides. Logically speaking， the final purpose of Confucian thoughts is to lead the world to a flawless future. In the perfect future， all things are concordant， and the society and emperor are still most important and valuable. These thoughts did a great favor to Chinese feudal rulers. The emperor would enlighten people by Confucian thoughts. With the development of Chinese society， Chinese traditional culture formed by degrees under the control of Confucian thoughts.

Ⅱ、The Dominant characteristic of Chinese Traditional Culture

Essentially speaking， Chinese traditional culture is a polyhedron. When researching such a complex topic， one will come to assorted conclusions if one focuses on different aspects， and， the conclusions are equally correct.

Some other scholars believe that the marrow of Chinese traditional culture is pragmatism， which means that Chinese people had eradicated dream， and paid all attention to reality. In other words， Chinese traditional culture is a secular culture， ignoring scientific knowledge and methodology. This conclusion is also reasonable， though it is hard to offer objective evidence.

我們將中國傳統(tǒng)文化的特點(diǎn)概括為主體的自我中心性[Basically， Self-centered orientation may be a summary of Chinese traditional culture]. Yet， the Self-centered-orientation does not connote selfishness or individualism. It implies human-centered-orientation. As mentioned in the previous part， this kind of human-centered orientation differs from western humanism. After the Renaissance， western people treated human as paramount beings. The ultimate value of society was the self-achievement of human beings， which signifies that people should study the nature， research the nature， and conquer the nature at last. Conversely， Chinese traditional culture concentrates all attention to realize human’s temperament， to set up moral norms， and to reform the world in subjective ways. This is why self centered-orientation is practiced instead of Human-centered-orientation.

The main characteristic Chinese traditional culture， the self-centered orientation， can be found when comparing Chinese traditional philosophy with western philosophy.

Chinese traditional philosophy， as the crystallization of Chinese culture， progresses with the research of humans themselves. In contract to western philosophers， Chinese traditional philosophers did not explore the meaning of the world， and the value of existence. They never deeply probed the difference of objects and subjects. Western philosophers put hearts into what is real existence and what is illusion. Chinese traditional philosophers were only concerned about subject.

Chinese traditional philosophers treated man as the center of all researched subjects. Thus， the self-centered-orientation was actually formulated by Chinese traditional philosophy. So the theory of life was fully developed. Mostly， Chinese traditional philosophy is concerned about human life. The topics of it have been discussed deeply in varied aspects.

Chinese traditional philosophers believed that people’s disposition was the world’s disposition. But， which is first? In other words， which is the basis? As discussed above， it can be sure that Chinese traditional philosophers believed that people’s disposition was the basis. They added the people’s disposition to objective world by illusion. The world became the “ world” in people’s minds.

Without focusing on human’s practice， Chinese traditional philosophers studied objects by feeling instead of precise practice and experiment. The result of this was that knowledge had been got from only inspiration. It might cause Chinese natural science to lay behind western science.

Ⅲ、Confucian Thoughts in Chinese Traditional Culture

The main characteristic of Chinese traditional culture is the “self-centered-orientation”. In order to be convenient to discussion， it is researched in cultural patterns， which are shared beliefs， values and norms that are stable over time and that lead to roughly similar behaviors across situations.

Beliefs are ideas that people assume to be sure about the world， and that form the basis for cultural members to decide what is and what is not true and correct .Chinese people do not have real beliefs， because they have accepted the worldly sense of the Confucian school. They only attach importance to common life and seldom think of what the world is. The psychology intention of it is also the “self-centered-orientation”， or we can say that Chinese people’s beliefs are equal to those moral principles， which have been generally accepted. Confucius and his successors had emphasized the ethics for two thousand years. Chinese people refer to themselves as paramount beings， and believe their lives are only true things because they can feel happy when they put their hearts into their own lives. Yet， it is well known that human abilities are limited. One can never know all the truths of the universe. When people hold the “ self-centered-orientation” as principle， anything but themselves can be easily ignored.

Norms are the outward manifestation of beliefs and values， which are socially shared expectations of appropriate behaviors. Norms are invisible， but one can find them in search of people’s behaviors， because people follow norms voluntarily. For example， Confucian thoughts underline filialism. It is good that Chinese people have accepted it. But， in ancient ages， filialism developed in an abnormal direction in China. If parents were hungry， they may eat their children as nourishment when food was not enough. It was ever regarded as filialism. Nowadays， situations have totally changed. However， as a child， he or she is required to obey parents， even including how to dress. All of these originated from the “the Three Rules and Five Manners”.

To this extent， we can come to a final conclusion that Confucian thoughts played a chief role in Chinese traditional culture. They had precipitated in people’s mind in ancient China for 2’000 years or so. Today， People are still influenced to some degree， though China has not been what it was.

參考文獻(xiàn)：

[1]、論語/ 楊伯峻今譯; 劉殿爵英譯 = Confucius: the analects / translated into modern Chinese by Yang Bojun， D.C. Lau (English). 中華書局， 2008

[2]、《新儒家思想史(張君勱儒家著作集)》，張君勱著，中國人民大學(xué)出版社2006年版."

[3]、《儒教中國及其現(xiàn)代命運(yùn)》，列文森著，鄭大華等譯，中國社會(huì)科學(xué)出版社，2000。

[4]、《儒家的困境》， 作者：（美）狄百瑞（Bary，W.T） 著；黃水嬰 譯，出版社：北京大學(xué)出版社2009年版。