Cultural Transformation and the Loss of Image Thinking

Since the early 20th century,with the introduction of Western education into China,Chinese people has closed the window of perception of while trying to open the window of rationality of scientific thinking,which put Chinese scholars in a situation of losing their subjective discourse.And later generations only pursue the single rationality of scientific thinking and cannot grasp the essence of traditional Chinese classics.The difference between Chinese and Western thinking modes derive from the difference of languages.Image thinking,as a pre-language and prelogical thinking mode,has its originality.During the Axial Period,the concept thinking,which was characterized by reason and logic,was developed in the West on the basis of Chinese image thinking and gradually became the main thinking mode in Western culture.The image thinking was a high-level form evolved from Confucianism,Daoism and Buddhism and became dominant in Chinese culture.Though Chinese and Western thinking modes,with their plural concepts(entity and non-entity),have distinct functions and values,they are not omnipotent.That is to say,they cannot replace each other but complement each other.Only the complementation can promote cultural innovation and development.