By Liu Ji, honorary president of CEIBS, former vice president of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences

(I) The Historical Merits of Humanism

According to western scholars, the humanism has experienced the following periods of evolvement: the Cicero's humanism in Roman age; the Renaissance and Enlightenment humanism during the 14th to 16th century and the German humanism in the 18th century. Cicero’s humanism focused on social etiquette, rules and customs, serving for the then emerging feudalist system; the German humanism reflected more philosophical insights; and the Renaissance and Enlightenment humanism boasted the widest social influence.

The Renaissance and the Enlightenment were great ideological liberation movements in Europe, especially in Western Europe. The humanism campaign arising in the Middle Ages strongly protested against the intervention and repression of monarchical power and religious authority on both the physical and mental world of the people. Italian poet Petrarca Francesco (1304-1374), the first one to challenge the religious doctrine with the humanist philosophy, has been widely recognized as the father of Humanism. The humanism advocates replacing the "religious dogma" and "monarchy orientation" with a "human focus", highlighting the awareness of the human nature and the individual ego, and the focus on human history, human world, human activities, as well as human spirits, image and bodies. It protests to fight against fate, and purse one’s own happiness freely. It believes that people are born equal, and strongly rejects the feudal hierarchy which decides the social status of people based on their family backgrounds, thus calling for people to fight for human rights and democracy. Following this appeal, a large group of artists, scientists and philosophers took a lead in the humanist movement, explored a path for Western Europe to transit from the Middle Ages agricultural society to the neoteric industrial society. In other words, the humanists made significant contributions to the great social transition from feudalist system to capitalist system.

With its overwhelming spiritual power, the humanism soon spread from Western Europe to North America and the rest of the world, being widely accepted by well-educated people. Wherever the humanism went, it would stir up a grand movement of human spiritual liberation and creativity liberation, as well as an unprecedented prosperity of material civilization, and thus promote the human modernization process.

To sum up, the historical achievements of humanism are of great and far-reaching significance.

(II) Historical Challenges for Humanism

As the wheel of history went forward for anther hundreds of years, the world also underwent radical and tremendous changes, presenting radical and tremendous challenges to the humanism in terms of the following three aspects:

1. Challenge of science The humanism has evoked the awareness of human nature in a rational way, and facilitated the progress of science and technology in recent times. With a fast pace of development, the modern science and technology have not only become a primary productive force, but have penetrated into the entire human life and society. As the primary productive force, science and technology enable human beings to create extensive material commodities and lifestyles, igniting people’s desire for material wealth at the sacrifice of human nature, as well as many noble human qualities and emotions. Furthermore, the scientism belief that science is all-powerful has become a common and dominant understanding among the masses. The status of humanism is thus impaired and shows downward tendency. The substitution of scientism for humanism can be evidenced by the overwhelming superiority of scientific thinking and the alienation among people. The marvelous development of communication technology is largely depriving people of chances of face-to-face emotional exchange and interaction. The increasing indifference of human nature is inevitably to cause disastrous consequences including some unexpected ruthless and inhuman actions.

2. Challenge of industrial society The humanism boosted the birth and prosperity of industrial society; but the development of the latter failed to follow the humanist direction. The "sweatshop" under capitalist system exploited in an undisguised manner not only the labor, but human nature and dignity of workers; the industrialization of developed economies was realized on the basis of relentless colonial plunder, and even the restoration of slavery system by reassuming the trading of black slaves; these anti-humanist bygones are still exerting negative effects on today’s world, leading to the enlarged wealth gap and even polarization among economies. The new science and technology revolution centered on microelectronics in the mid 20th century tolled the funeral bell for industrial society, and created a brand new society with special focus to information, knowledge and Internet. Since then, information and knowledge have been regarded as the major and strategic resources for productive activities of human beings. Scientific research industry thus emerged as the times required to emphasize on the studies of production related knowledge and information. Similar to the Industrial Revolution, the new science and technology revolution this time is a new round of industrial revolution to replace the industrial society with a totally different scientific research oriented society. At this turning point, people have recognized and are trying to resolve various evil heritages of industrial society, such as the social injustice and loss of social morality caused by the Jungle Law competition, and the destruction of ecological balance due to the industrial pollution and abuse of natural resources. These problems are threatening the survival of human beings, actually going against or deviating from the humanism.

3. Challenge of globalization The mergers and acquisitions of MNCs in the late 20th century gave birth to many global conglomerates featured the effective allocation of production factors on a global scale, which marked the initiation of economic globalization. On this basis, the globalization tide further spread to involve both the political and cultural world. The globalization trend presents a new perspective for human beings to rediscover themselves: human beings live on the one and only earth, and share a common fate; the existence and development of diversified cultures across the globe are backed by unshakable driving forces and intrinsic edges. The rise of China as a large economy with peaceful development represents the great rejuvenation of Chinese nation, urging the whole world including Chinese people to rediscover and understand Chinese civilization:

1) The only civilization in the world with 5,000 years of history and active till today, indicating a magic vitality;

2) A grand civilization tying 1.3 billion Chinese people together, and extending wide influence to Southeast Asia;

3) A highly inclusive civilization involving 56 ethnic groups, in which, the Han group or the majority group accounting for over 90% of the population, is built upon numerous times of national syncretism (five major great syncretism in the history); the Han culture being the crystallization of countless national culture integrations as well as cultural absorption of advanced western culture through the famous Silk Road and other ways;

4) A civilization creating the second to none flourishing civilization for several times, and making distinguished contribution to the progress of human beings. The importance of the Four Great Inventions of Ancient China (papermaking, printing, compass and gunpowder) was commented by the great British philosopher and Father of Science Francis Bacon as "that no sect, no star seems to have exerted greater power and influence in human affairs than these mechanical discoveries." Besides the well-known boom in Han, Tang and Song dynasties, China had been the most developed country in the world in terms of science and technology development and GDP figures till the 16th century, according to the research of the famous British historian of science Joseph Needham.

5) A unique civilization completely different from the Ancient Greece-originated western civilization since its inception. The geographic isolation did matter a lot since China neighbored to vast ocean in the Southeast, Himalayas and Pamirs in the Southwest, spacious desert areas in Northwest and snowy Siberia in the North. But the fundamental reasons for this uniqueness lied in: the western civilization was the inheritance and development of animal husbandry and business civilization while Chinese civilization was a classic example of agricultural civilization. Hence, the western civilization since its inception was out of the secularity by creating the divine God and Christianism while Chinese civilization was born with direct connection to the secular world and the human society. Though Chinese do not promote any religious worship as the western people do, it doesn’t mean they have no beliefs at all. The confucianists advocated to "stay at a respectful distance from ghosts and gods", and attached great importance to the worship of the nature, the ancestors, all heroes making significant contribution to the society, as well as the saints delivering spiritual guide to people. Dedicated temples were constructed to show people’s heartfelt worship. Before the 1949 nationwide Liberation, most Chinese households were used to enshrining tablets inscribed with "Tian Di Jun Qin Shi" (Heaven-Earth-Sovereign-Parents-Teachers) in the lobbies of their houses to show their worship to these powers.

Since farming was a family or group activity, Chinese people had long put family and group at a premium. A country is also a family in a broad sense. Chinese people like using the word "nation" to describe their motherland and attaching equal importance to family and nation. They uphold the supreme status of family interest, the brotherhood and mutual help without asking for repayment. Hence, it’s natural for them to adopt the average allocation system of household heritage among all sons, which has exerted substantial influence on the development of society with Chinese characteristics, and accounted for the formation of the integrity-focused synthetic thinking of most Chinese people. "Taking the interests of the whole into account" and "bearing in mind the big picture" have been regarded as good qualities of a person. Bearing in mind the overall interests requires a person to be tolerant, forbearing, conciliatory and modest. The western animal husbandry civilization and business civilization are all related to individual behaviors. Hence, the western civilization emphasizes on individuality, giving priority to individual rights and interests. People in western economies tend to have weaker sense of family; the eldest son of a family usually has closer relation with his father and the older generation. It’s well-reasoned for them to exercise the system of primogeniture which brings about a steady accumulation of family wealth. The younger brothers not covered by the primogeniture system have to make their livings as culture and art activists, scientific researchers and warriors, or even go to explore work opportunities overseas including robbing the wealth of other nations to enhance their own social status. The system of primogeniture has had far-reaching influence on the social evolvement of western countries, helping to shape the analytic thinking and aggressive attitude frequently seen in western people. They were for the national separatism, ignored and even opposed to national integration, impeding the unification of Europe today.

The western civilization originated from Western Europe has facilitated the rise and development of neoteric humanism, which was the most significant contribution it has made to the civilization of human beings. With the lash of globalization tide, people begin to recognize a serious defect in humanism, the absent connotation of the best achievements of diversified human cultures, which prevents it from catching up with the global trend.

How shall the humanism meet these challenges in the 21st century? The only right path is to keep pace with the times, adopt an inclusive culture to make best use of the advantages and bypass the disadvantages, learn from others’ strong points to offset one's weaknesses, and transform the humanist scientism into new humanism. The renowned British historian Arnold Joseph Toynbee ever pointed out that the existing common problems in the world could find their root in the egocentric illusion and the veneration for local sovereign powers of various separated cultures. A thorough solution lies in a revolution within the inner world of human beings to make it align with the outer civilization. It sounds reasonable and well outlines the mission of new humanism!

(III) The Era of New Humanism

The new humanism does not come out of nowhere, and is abreast of the times.

In the early 20th century, shocked by the society stinking of money and deterioration of business culture in the United States, the famous scholar Sarton began to advocate for the new humanism. In his book titled The Critic and American Life, American literary critic Irving Babbitt protested to replace "statuta realia" with "statuta personalia", and emphasized the functions of literature to defend tradition and represent "conscience and rationality", thus making the book a manifesto of new humanism. At the time, this advocate for new humanism was responded by some literature groups in China but failed to extend its influence beyond the literature territory to the whole society and the world.

Amidst the mind emancipation movement at the beginning of China’s reform and opening-up, several scholars took a stand over a new enlightenment of new humanism. The key ideas of them were to reinvent China’s traditional culture or reinterpret the connotation of Marxism with humanism, so as to make up the missed "enlightenment" chapter for China. Admittedly, this initiative did carry value to some extent, but it conformed neither to the trend of the times nor to the specific national conditions of China. As a result, its influence was only restricted to the small world of scholars rather than the whole society.

By raising the topic of "new humanism" here, we hope to highlight the pros of traditional humanism and renovate it to meet the emerging challenges for a smooth transition into the era of new humanism.

The humanism emerged to fight against the monarchical power and religious authority in the Middle Ages, calling for the emancipation of human nature, the respect for personal dignity and value, and seeking for the freedom of thoughts and citizen rights. Today, to meet the aforesaid three challenges from all aspects, the focus shall be given to the all-round development of human beings. In addition to the free and comprehensive development of individuals, the all-round development also covers:

1) The amicable relationship between people, such as fairness, mutual help, tolerance and non-violence.

2) The harmonious relationship between human and the society, with equal emphasis on law, virtue and affections.

3) The synergic relationship between human and nature: transforming the nature in scientific and reasonable ways, as well as protecting and sustaining the nature to serve and facilitate the development of human beings.

4) The integration of different cultures and civilizations through extensive and intensive communications, knowledge exchanges on the basis of mutual respects to create more sophisticated civilization for all mankind.

Hereby, I believe that we can gain a lot of inspiration from China’s ancient culture and use it for the development of new humanism. The ancients had long pinpointed the importance of humanistic values. The earliest academic work The Book of Changes (Yi Jing) coming out thousands of years ago put forward that "The alternation and mixture of rigidness and flexibility composes the ornaments of the sky; the social system and ethical relations compose the life of people. By observing the ornaments of the sky, we may understand the principle of the transformation of the four seasons; by observing ethical human relations and teaching the common people, we may transform social traditions for the better", stressing the observation of human nature and teaching common people based on the observation results to build a better human society. In fact, the humanistic philosophy shines from time to time in China’s five thousand years of civilization. Here, we just give four examples.

1. Virtue

In the long history of Chinese civilization, "virtue" has always been highly valued, which involves both personal virtues and social virtues, functioning as a guide to what people say and do in daily life.

The rule of law established in Western civilization on the basis of scientific reasoning can normalize the behavior of people and keep social development in order by enforcing an external power; the rule of virtue, by contrast, relies on the inner conscience of people for the normalized social behaviors. The rule of law had existed in China since ancient times but it has been regarded more often as a piece of fishing net requiring the coordination of rule of virtue to put all social behaviors under control. Therefore, the rule of law and the rule of virtue are not opposite but complementary to each other. The future civilization shall feature a perfect combination of law and virtue rules.

2. Affections

Affections, including affections to the lover, family members, friends, fellow townsmen, and compatriots, are of great significance to Chinese people. Meanwhile, Chinese people also attach extreme importance to "the debt of gratitude" they owe to others and always claim that they are willing to repay such a debt at any price. Even when the struggle philosophy of Marxism was brought into China, it was soon localized to include the affections to people of the same class and people with the same belief.

The modern science has proven that human brain can be divided into two hemispheres: the left hemisphere is good at logic thinking while the right one the center of emotions. The special structure of brain decides that logic and emotion are two integral parts of human nature, separating human beings from any other beings. The logic of western civilization promotes the formation and progress of science and society ruled by law; while the Chinese people care about affections, and seek for the perfect combination of "fairness and rationality". The prevalence of affection over law has been a major defect of Chinese society; and the law-first principle widely implemented in western countries is also lop-sided. Only when the two hemispheres of human brain are mobilized simultaneously can its potential capability and functions be brought into full play. Hence, the logic and affection shall be combined together to give a full-scale representation of humanism, which is undoubtedly a major content of the new humanism.

Virtue and affections are also complementary to each other. Virtue can be the manifestation of affections; affections can add glamour to the virtue, and need to be controlled and regulated by the virtue. Affection without virtue is labeled as "villainous" affection. For one thing, Chinese people think highly of the affection to family members, trying to avoid suing their family members in court; for another, they also exclaim that "it is often hard to attain loyalty to the nation and filial piety to parents at the same time". To defend the interest of the society, the nation and the country, they will "forsake family loyalty for righteousness", which is regarded as a supreme virtue in China.

3. Harmony

Harmony is an important concept of humanism in Chinese civilization. It is not only regarded as a necessary feature of an ideal society, but penetrates into people’s daily life to be demonstrated by the "gentle and polite" and "good-tempered" personalities of individuals, the family belief that "a family that lives in harmony will prosper", the socializing principle that "the true gentleman is conciliatory but not accommodating", the business philosophy that "harmony brings wealth", the country governance principle that "harmony is most precious", and the ultimate pursuit of all mankind for "a world of universal harmony". It is totally different from the western struggle philosophy of "competition for existence, survival of the fittest" and Law of the Jungle that "the weak are the prey of the strong". Harmony also describes an ideal relationship between human and nature. Both the statements that "man is an integral part of nature" and "man’s adaptation to natural laws" emphasize the oneness of human and nature, urging human beings to act according to natural laws. Chinese people highly appreciate the "gentle breeze and mild rain" of the nature and even introduce this harmonious feeling into the arena of debates. The new humanism shall absorb this key ingredient of Chinese civilization to uphold the construction of "a society of harmony" and "a world of harmony".

4. Love

The Confucianists pay tribute to benevolence, the Mohists to universal love, the Taoists to big love (big love is silent and boundless), and the Buddhists to kindness. Love seems to be a universal topic for all schools of thoughts in China.

The school of Confucianism carries the most striking humanistic mark and all Confucian theories are human centered. The literal meaning of Chinese character "Ru" is to follow the needs of people. The core of Confucianism is benevolence. "What is benevolence?" asked Yan Yuan, a disciple of Confucius; Confucius answered, "loving people"; and he further explained the connotation of benevolence in the dialogue with another disciple: "Do not do to others what you would not like yourself"; " You yourself desire rank and standing; then help others to get rank and standing. You want to turn your own merits to account; then help others to turn theirs to account". To be benevolent, you shall do as you would be done by others. Social ethics such as loyalty, forbearance, knowledge, righteousness, ritual, bravery, filial piety, kindness, warm-heartedness, reverence, frugality and self-effacing, as well as the ways to cultivate oneself, put family in order, govern the state, and pacify the world are all concrete items derived from the extensive concept of benevolence. Mencius absorbed and further developed Confucius’ ideology, and held that man’s benevolence was endowed by nature. "The sense of compassion is the beginning of benevolence; the sense of shame the beginning of righteousness; the sense of modesty the beginning of decorum; the sense of right and wrong the beginning of wisdom. Man possesses these four beginnings just he possesses four limbs." And "it is the four senses that make man different from animals"; only with the integrated development of these four senses could men become really human. In terms of the country administration, Mencius advocated that "of the first importance are the people and of the least importance is the ruler". The doctrines of Confucius and Mencius have been the mainstream humanistic ideology in China for more than three thousand of years and are still influencing the social life till today. According to the record of some literature, it was influenced by the thoughts of Confucianism that the enlightenment philosophers in Europe worked out the monumental classic---Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen.

On the basis of benevolence, the ultimate goal of Confucianists is to develop a world of universal harmony: "When the great Tao prevailed, the whole world was one community. Then people might select the worthy and promote the capable, and have regard for credit and amity, so people would love not only their own kinsmen and children, but also do their duties to the others. As a result, the aged would live their full span, the able-bodied would be of some use, the young would grow up, and the spouse-bereaved, the orphan, the single, the invalid and the diseased would be supported, the male had a sufficient share, and the female had proper marriage. Goods seemed to dislike to lie on the ground, so there was no need to keep them in one’s own house; the strength seems to dislike not to come from the body, so there was no need to use it for one’s own purpose. Therefore nobody would plot anymore; there were no robbers and bandits, thus it was unnecessary to close the gate. If so, we may say, the whole world has truly become one community" ("Li Yun" in the Book of Rites), a world where people’s potentials can be put to best use, material resources turned to good account, social wealth created, owned and shared by all people, people deeply attached to each other to lead a peaceful and happy life. This may well explain why the western Marxism could take root in China.

I believe that the inclusion of these Chinese ingredients is sure to enrich the content of new humanism. The famous British historian Toynbee ever foretold, "The predominant status of America as the center of civilization seems to vanish in short time…in next chapter of civilization, East Asia is to surpass America to take a leading role", and the future development of Chinese civilization would be "of great significance to the profess of all mankind at this crucial historical stage" (Mankind and Mother Earth, Toynbee).

As the human society evolves forward in high speed, the construction of a harmonious world which has long been the universal ideal of all mankind, calls for the rise of new humanism. Let’s embrace the coming of the era of new humanism with full enthusiasm.