On the Chinese Civilization's Cultural Genes and its Modern Transmission(Seminar)

To develop the spirit of the civilization of China, we must trace back to its source. Guided by the key concept of cultural genes, the following articles will attempt to analyze from different points of view the characteristics of the origin of the Chinese civilization, as well as its position in the world history. Professor Wang Dong has given a general presentation of the five splendid periods during the 10,000 years of development of the Chinese civilization, and sums up five genes of the civilization of China. Professor Hu Fu-chen holds the view that the secret of the uninterrupted civilization of China lies in the traditional Taoist culture. For the Taoist tradition to continue and develop in the modern world, it has to be integrated and recreated. Liu Jun proposes that the greatest characteristic of the Chinese civilization is its continuity and it is mainly embodied in the wisdom of the ecological ethic of Confucianism. Wei Xiao-wei takes Chinese written characters as the cultural gene of the Chines civilization. She will give a modern reinterpretation and explanation of the Chinese written characters from the perspectives of semeiology and information theory.Li Hong-wei explains the achievement and unsatisfactory aspects of Kwang-chih Chang's theories on the origin of the Chinese civilization. She suggests that there needs to be a continuance to the Marxist theory on the origin of civilizations that applies particularly to China.