Many people have an illusion that as long as China is still alive, China people are still alive, Mandarin is still alive, and the knowledge and cultural heritage about China are still alive, the traditional culture of China is still stable and even developing, whether it is gratifying or annoying. So at the same time, we hear the voices of "2 1 century will be the century of China culture" and "China, which is opening to the outside world, still faces the heavy responsibility of eliminating feudalism". But the problem now is that these two seemingly contradictory statements have a common premise, that is, the living existence of China traditional culture is almost disappearing, and the mainstream of China traditional culture is facing a major crisis of childlessness and unsustainable development.

Culture, especially tangible culture or "elegant culture" that has had a significant impact on a nation's characteristics and historical trend, is an organic life with her or their historical life and soul. Whether the culture in this sense still exists mainly depends on whether she still lives in the real life of a certain nation or community. The specific sign is to see: (1) whether there are any strict descendants of this culture, that is, people who consciously inherit her "orthodoxy" in a group way and in their own life practice; (2) Whether the most basic social structure on which she lives still exists; (3) Whether her basic value orientation can still affect people's major choices in life; (4) Whether her unique language still lives in the writing and art forms where people express their key thoughts and deep feelings. In short, whether a culture has vitality depends on whether its basic spirit can still impress the real people and whether it can echo the real life and historical process. According to this view, we can't say that the ancient Egyptian culture still lives in Egypt, or that the two rivers culture still lives in Iraq. Of course, any living culture will develop and change, but this is a natural evolutionary process, and there are blood relations and "genes" between the old and new forms. If there is a cultural break, that is, people's way of life, way of thinking and spiritual orientation are forcibly changed and replaced by another heterogeneous culture, instead of blending with it, it can no longer be said that this is a new form of the original culture. More specifically, if the phenomenon represented by one of the four signs mentioned above basically disappears, then there will be great problems in this culture. If two or three signs are not obvious, this culture will be in crisis. If these four signs are invisible, this culture will die out.

So, what changes have taken place in China's traditional culture since the New Culture Movement, the Cultural Revolution and the reform and opening up? A simple answer is that she has been largely replaced by the rampant western culture, and the rest is being further swept away by the globalization process. As Confucian culture is the main body of China traditional culture, the following discussion will mainly take Confucian culture as an example to illustrate this judgment. In view of the above four signs, let's discuss this problem:

First of all, there is basically no way to consciously inherit the descendants of Confucian orthodoxy or cultural essence in the form of groups and all their life activities. In other words, the real Confucian group is the group whose ultimate pursuit is to inherit the Confucian cultural paradigm (etiquette, literature, benevolence, morality, spring and autumn, etc.). ), it has basically disappeared now. Please note that inheriting cultural orthodox life practice does not mean being interested in a certain cultural form, doing research, having a good impression, practicing occasionally and so on. For example, although Taoist culture is weak so far, it still has its own life practice group, that is, a group of people or groups, like Taoism, are inheriting the essence of Taoist culture for a lifetime. The inheritance group of Buddhist culture is also the successor. So is Hinduism in India, and so is Shintoism in Japan, or a lot of prosperity. Not to mention western religious groups. Only some religions or quasi-religions that have had a great influence on world history, such as ancient Egyptian religions and ancient Greek religions, have completely disappeared. Great religions or quasi-religions that have survived for nearly a thousand years are rarely completely extinct, just like declining religions such as Jainism (Tianyi religion, Baiyi religion) and Zoroastrianism (Zoroastrianism, Zoroastrianism) are still circulating today. Like Confucianism or Confucianism, its influence was once so great and deep, but in less than a century, its inheritance group disappeared. Although there are some specific reasons, such as the close relationship between Confucian groups and historical and political forms, it can be seen that China destroyed the main carrier of his traditional culture in the past century.

Secondly, according to my observation, the social soil on which Confucian culture depends is a semi-natural and semi-educated aggregate structure based on family, led by agriculture. Since the Western Zhou Dynasty's "Village Age" and "Biyong School", great changes have taken place in the past 3,000 years, but the characteristics of "farming and reading" still remain. However, since China, as a powerful country, devoted all its energy to industrialization in the western sense, this structure has been declining and almost disappeared. Compared with industrialized and urbanized lifestyles, the status of land-based agricultural lifestyles is getting lower and lower. Modern western-style education system is fundamentally unfavorable to rural areas, and the education level of villagers' children is far less than that of cities. Moreover, once rare people stand out, most of them will enter industries and cities and never return. In fact, the countryside has become a poor and backward place. To get rid of poverty, we must rely on the people in the city, rely on the "Hope Project" and stop being a farmer by thoroughly remoulding. Of course, some surveys show that the family structure in rural areas is still preserved to some extent. However, due to the suppression of orthodox ideology, this structure has to lie down during the day and go out at night, without any beneficial guidance and adjustment. Moreover, due to the deterioration of the general environment, such as the disappearance of gentry with social status and rural intellectuals (such as scholars and juren), or the decline of the macro-organic structure in rural areas, this family structure is also losing its previous cultural significance (such as family rules and ancestral training) and the characteristics of a virtuous circle, and is increasingly inclined to the shallow combination of interests and simple exclusion. As for the living structure of urban people, it is gradually becoming inorganic. Not only is the family getting smaller, but the relationship between families is getting weaker. Even the structure of small families is being destroyed by voluntary childless families, divorce, unmarried cohabitation and happy bachelors. Contemporary China people's views on filial piety are quite different from those of a hundred years ago. The general tendency is to downplay indifference and pay attention to the effectiveness and development of individuals and interest groups. The meanings of "unit", "institution" and "company" have become people's main sources of income.

Third, the basic values of Confucian culture, including Taoism and Buddhism, have basically failed to influence the important choices that modern China people face in their lives. How much influence does Confucian culture have on a China child from pregnancy, birth, upbringing, education (teenagers, youths, middle schools and universities), finding a job, getting married, maintaining a family and treating elderly parents, to how he or she can get entertainment and spiritual satisfaction, how to deal with diseases and setbacks, and how to face death at last? How much influence does the overall form of traditional culture (including traditional skills, such as abacus, Chinese medicine, calligraphy, folk music, Beijing opera or local opera) have? Physically, the methods and techniques of western medicine are dominant, such as delivery, vaccination, physical examination, diagnosis, medication and operation. Few people will ask Chinese medicine for help. In education, where are the shadows of traditional private schools, academies, universities and imperial examinations? Only the categories and rules of western education and examination system. Behind many problems in China's education-such as quality education and exam-oriented education, professional education and generalist education, the conflict between unified norms and flexible mastery, the abnormal distribution of educational resources, Chinese teaching and pseudo-scientific phenomena in many non-natural science disciplines-there are indeed bad consequences brought about by the demise of traditional national education methods and contents. Today, our best university is only a preparatory course for western graduate schools to some extent. "New Oriental School" is actually a "western-oriented school", and the places where TOEFL and GRE are trained every year are overcrowded. Those who study abroad, like children from rural areas, go to school in cities, stay in other countries and work for others, accounting for the majority. As for finding a job and starting a business, there is little motivation and connotation of traditional culture. Be an official, make money, be famous and dominate everything. In the face of setbacks and death, Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism can certainly provide some help, but they have been or are being marginalized, and the ideology of interest groups and the influence of western religions are expanding.

Finally, does the unique language of Confucianism and even traditional culture still live in the words and art forms that people express their key ideas and deep feelings? The situation seems to be that although there are still remnants, they are in jeopardy. Confucian language is concentrated in classics such as the Four Books and Thirteen Classics. Under the influence of the vernacular movement, the change of simplified characters aiming at pinyin, the prohibition of reading classics in schools after the Republic of China, and the western-style "scientific" Chinese teaching, young people nowadays can rarely directly enter the language world of traditional culture, that is, they can directly read traditional classics (traditional characters without punctuation and vertical arrangement) and write essays and poems in ancient Chinese. At present, traditional languages can only remain in people's discourse in broken forms such as idioms and quotations, and flash in historical novels in the form of jokes. Alas! After the founding of New China, Indians have made great efforts to revive Sanskrit, an ancient script that has long since died out, and the French government has spared no expense to maintain pure French and resist the discourse hegemony of English. Why are China people so heartless about maintaining their ancestral culture in Long Mai? Unless they think it is the root of backwardness, they must eradicate it. Everyone who has studied abroad will have this experience. I have read and used western languages for many years. When reading Chinese and ancient Chinese, my understanding is clear, cordial and rich, which makes people drink fairy wine. The age, richness and intuitive spirituality of China people are unparalleled in the world, and destroying it is more sinful than cutting down virgin forests and turning grasslands into deserts.

In addition, officially recognized festivals and holidays can be regarded as national languages and national languages. What festival are we celebrating now? Starting from spring, May 1 International Labor Day, June 1 International Children's Day, July 1 Party's birthday, August 1 Army Day, September 10 Teachers' Day, National Day and New Year's Day (Gregorian calendar). Judging from the national laws and regulations, the Lantern Festival, Dragon Boat Festival, Cowherd and Weaver Girl's Beggar's Day, Double Ninth Festival, Confucius' Birthday, Sakyamuni's Birthday, Laozi's Birthday, Laba Festival, etc. have not been marginalized, leaving only one Spring Festival, but it is also forbidden to pretend to be dumb in big cities such as Beijing. Compared with the rich, in-depth, grand and sacred celebration of Christmas in the west, our Spring Festival has already passed. On New Year's Eve, there was only a "gala" on the TV screen, but during the Cultural Revolution, there was no or [now] the traditional folk custom and etiquette of harmony between man and nature from the 23rd day of the twelfth lunar month to the 15th day of the first lunar month was rarely seen. Without these customs that can make children happy, make young people simple, enrich adults and comfort the elderly, and without firecrackers that are full of festive and exorcism cultural functions, how many springs will there be in the Spring Festival? It is forbidden to set off firecrackers on the grounds of wounding and igniting, instead of trying to guide them to seek advantages and avoid disadvantages. This kind of government behavior implies conscious and unconscious cultural discrimination. Smoking kills people, causes fires, drowns in swimming and dies in car accidents every year ... which is much more harmful than setting off fireworks in a short time. Why can't you help it? Is the custom of maintaining traditional culture "useless"? Can you bully? Besides, which language has not been westernized to a great extent in our body, materials and ideas, such as clothing, architecture and academic methods? What are children playing with toys, young people watching movies, adults dancing and old people falling in love?

It can be seen that among the four signs, Confucian culture is either completely missing or dying out; Taken together, they show the fact that the traditional culture of China, which is dominated by Confucianism, has fallen into a crisis of survival, which can be said to be "the people are in poverty and their future is uncertain", and judging from the current development trend, the overall situation is still deteriorating. The historical lesson is that after the anti-cultural disaster like the Cultural Revolution, the strong culture (popular in western developed countries since modern times), such as overheated forest land, rebounded and recovered more vigorously than before; However, weak culture and elegant culture tend to recover. The current situation is that our own culture, even the overall cultural soil, is rapidly becoming barren, inorganic, simple, hardened and desertified. What flows from the Yellow River is the blood of our Chinese nation, while the current trend of the times washes away the vitality and blood of our national spirit. "Where is China going?" This issue, which was once completely politicized, has now gained and is gaining more and more tragic cultural meanings.