Tradition and Modern Society

The intricate relationship betweentradition and modern society is naturally a wide ranging and quite interestingproblem, but so far, this important problem has not been fully discussed inacademia, which is naturally a big defect in the academic realm; consideringthis situation, in this paper, we prepare to do some somewhat systematicdiscussions about many continuities and changes between tradition and modernsociety, which will probably help us to better understand the complexrelationship between tradition and modern society.

(I ) The Basic Changes in Politicsand Economy

As people’s general awareness, thetransition from traditional society to modern roughly started at theRenaissance in the 15thcentury, and these changes involve manybasic aspects, and in them, many significant changes take place in thepolitical and economic fields.

4 Many changes in economy. Likepolitics, in economy, compared with tradition, modern society also takes placemany essential changes. Here, we just want to discuss about ancient Greece’ssituation, and famous classicist Glotz once divides ancient Greece’s social andeconomic condition into four periods: Homeric period, Archaistic period, Athensperiod and Hellenistic period, and about these four periods’ economiccondition, Glotz does systematic and complex expositions. In these fourdifferent periods,Athensis the summit stage,and aboutAthensperiod’s social and economic condition, Glotz writes: “The circulation ofcurrency becomes active, and the Athenian people do not save money, but usethem to invest. Agriculture becomes commercialized and more intensive. Thedivision of land facilitates land’s recentralization and speculation.Agricultural technology teaches vegetable farmers, fruit growers and flowerfarmers more scientific planting methods.” With the many-sided prosperity ineconomy, trade inAthensalso has enormousdevelopment: “But inAthens,it is trade that shows great importance and universality. Through scientificand strict organization, it can undertake various forms of transaction.Business center (Emporia)provides a variety of cooperation for ship owner, transport agent and usurer,and mining and metalworking companies gather a large amount of capital, andbanks also apply money to various investments.” But, despite Athens period’seconomy show prosperous scene in many industries, Glotz also reminds us, thereis still essential difference between Athens society’s economic condition andmodern economy, and as he says: “There is no mechanics, and only slave. Thecontinued existence of family work, worker’s dispersion into small settlements,money used to investment is not much, and these all mean medium industry almostcannot move forward anymore.” “However, inAthens, the center of world trade, industryoften shows an inferior face. The deficiency of machine leads to thathandicraft workshops are difficult to develop into big factories, and laborforce are unable to centralize, meanwhile, massive product production cannoterase the mark of family work. Because, machinery and slavery areirreconcilable, but slavery is regarded as very necessary. Slavery is an inherentnotion in polis’ concept—in other words, it creates the essential differencebetween ancient and modern economy.”[2]Namely, Glotz thinks, slavery and the deficiency of machine caused by it thesetwo basic elements are the fundamental differences between ancient Greek andmodern economy.

To sum up, when examining thedifferences and similarities between ancient Greek and modern economy, we mustthink beyond some simple, mechanical concepts like agricultural economy andmarket economy, and need to make many concrete and detailed analyses likeGlotz, and obviously, ancient Greek economy’s complex situation cannot becharacterized by using simple words like “agricultural economy” and“traditional economy”. Comprehensively considering many-sided facts, we canprobably think, basic things such as industry, financial institution, largeenterprise and free laborer which extensively exist in modern economy are itsessential difference with ancient economy.

 (II) Individual Life’s Change and Continuity

   Above we examine some basic changes whentradition transits to modern society in political and economic fields, while inindividual life, modern society also has many new features; but, we also shouldnot overlook that, many kinds of experience in ancient still have highenlightenment and practical value for modern individual, namely, manytraditional things and many modern elements jointly shape our modern life.

   1 Cooking, Food. Compared with ancientpeople, modern people have some evident changes in diet, but also have manyinherited places. Firstly, as for the sorts of food, ancient people also knowmost food modern people eat, like stewed pork with potatoes, carrot, tomato andegg soup, fried chicken, stewed fish, roast beef, etc, because there are alsomany kinds of food in ancient; for modern people, there are many kinds of foodin the restaurant, while for ancient people, they will also go to somerestaurants, and there are naturally also many types of food they eat there.Secondly, as for many cooking skills, compared with ancient people’s cookingskills, modern man’s cooking methods have some fixed places, meanwhile alsohave many changing and enriching places; because modern men have many modernconvenient tools such as gas stove and electric cooker, and thus, our cookingis easier and more convenient than the ancients, but many cooking skills arethe same as the ancients, like adding salt and oil, cutting meat, adding water,pancake, etc; when we cook in normal times, like frying ribs and stewing fish,we will also often mention many specific skills about these food which havepassed down for many generations; meanwhile, the ancients also have manycooking tools, such as pot, knife and fork, etc, and they also all directlycome down to modern society. Finally, as for the quality of eating and diet,the ancients’ normal food is certainly not as delicious as modern people, andthey are usually reluctant to eat meat and eggs, and they can eat somedelicious food like fish, chicken and pork only during holidays or receivingguests, while with productive force’ great improvement and life’s affluence,most modern people can eat much meat and many vegetables in normal life, andalso can often go to the restaurant, namely, modern people’s life quality ishigher than the ancients.

 If looking from the perspective of eating anddiet, compared with the ancients, modern people’s change mainly embodies incooking tools’ advancement (like electric stove, etc), while the kinds of mostfood do not change too much, namely, in our diet, there are both traditionalside and modern side, and these two are often interlaced. For example, inancient and modern kitchens, when people fry eggs, though the tools used whencooking are different, many concrete experience and feelings are still similar,and it means that, for cooking and food, even in modern society, our muchtraditional experience still has their rich values.

2 Dress, Clothing. Due to theimprovement of clothing technology, modern people’s dress is naturally quitedifferent from the ancients, and generally speaking, modern people’s clothesare more advanced and diverse than the ancients; for example, in the coldwinter, modern people can wear down jacket (born in 1936, and then quicklybecomes popular) and leather shoes to defend against the cold, while in springand autumn, people’s clothes types are also more than the ancients. A broadchanging tendency is, modern people’s clothing types are richer than theancients; take the jeans as example, American Levi’s invented jeans in themid-19thcentury, and in the 1950s and 1960s, jeans were alreadyvery popular worldwide, while modern people also have many clothes similar tojeans. But, despite modern people have more kinds of dress, compared with theancients, our many wearing skills and clothes-washing skills (using soaps,drying the washing, brushing shoes, etc) are still the same, namely, in basicaspects like dressing and washing clothes, we also have many inherited places.Except ordinary people’s clothing experience, the ancients also have manypoints we can learn from it in clothes making, because ancient people actuallyalso have systematic and mature clothes making technology, and the ancientclothing practitioners also can design many different styles of clothes, and theyalso have very rich, meticulous and ingenious relevant experience in clothes’color, styles and materials, and these all have extensive reference values formodern people.

Here, we can quote Mill’s onepassage in the 19thcentury: “A workman takes a stalk of the flax orhemp plant, splits it into separate fibres, twines together several of thesefibres with his fingers, aided by a simple instrument called a spindle; havingthus formed a thread, he lays many such threads side by side, and place other similarthreads directly across them, so that each passes alternately over and underthose which are at right angles to it; this part of the process beingfacilitated by an instrument called a shuttle. He has now produced a web ofcloth, either linen or sackcloth, according to the material.”[3]What Mill’s this passage describes is the method to produce cloth, and from it,we can see, though almost 200 years have passed, compared with the societythen, our cloth making experience today is still similar, which also fullyproves traditional experience’s importance in clothing. In a word, like eating,modern people’s progress in dress also mainly stems from technology’scontinuous improvement, but much traditional wearing and clothes makingexperience is still very applicable to modern people, because there are manydetails in wearing, washing and producing clothes, and they include muchdelicate experience, therefore, the ancients’ wisdom and living experience inthese aspects is often indispensible for us. Summarizing these many-sidedfacts, we can see, in clothing field, tradition and modern are alsointerpenetrated and interactive.

   3 Transportation, Travel. In transport,compared with the ancients, modern people’s advantage is somewhat more obvious,because ancient people could not have many modern transportation tools such ascar, train, airplane and steamship. For ancient people, they will feel quitedifficult to go to distant places, and can just rely on some backward ways likecarriage, and thereby, it is inconvenient to communicate even between twoplaces which are just hundreds of miles apart, and will bring certainpsychological pressure; while for modern people, it is just a minor problemwhich can be somewhat easily solved. Certainly, despite there are evidentdifferences in transportation tools, when the ancients and modern peopletravel, they will still have similar thoughtful, emotional and psychologicalconditions: when travelling, what the ancients and modern people think arestill many issues about family and career, and people will also try toaccumulate living experience in various aspects, namely, in the ancient carrierand modern train, people’s thinking and feelings when travelling are actuallysimilar; while at seeing-off and reunion, though the places aredifferent—ancient people are in tavern, while modern people are at railwaystation and bus station, people will still have similar mental condition.Indeed, for modern people’s travel, many new things have emerged such as subwayand bus, and they will all bring certain change for people’s mindset andbehavior pattern, and thus, modern people need to accumulate some new relevantexperience, but many kinds of traditional experience will still bring us manybenefits.

In a word, though with technology’sleap progress, modern people’s transportation tools are indeed more advancedand convenient than the ancients, ancient people’s much travel experience stillcan apply to most modern scenarios, and can produce direct or indirectenlightenments for modern peoples’ travel. The reason behind this basicphenomenon is, travelling is a somewhat complex thing, which involves manyaspects like diet, daily living, personal career, custom, etc, and thus, muchrelevant traditional experience will have multi-sided help for us. In summary,in transportation and travel, broad traditional experience’s impact will alsoextend to modern society.

4 Housing, Natural Environment. Interms of housing, as people’s simple common sense, modern people mostly live inmodern architectures like buildings, which is quite different from theancients, and when ancient people build the house, they do not have many modernmaterials such as steel, slab and cement (reinforced concrete structure wasn’tborn until the beginning of the 19thcentury), and therefore, theancients’ building a house is more difficult than modern people, and it willcost more time, and also needs more energy and labor. Take the insulation andheating as another example, ancient people only have some rude methods such asfurnace and fan, while modern people have many advanced devices such as airconditioning and electric fan, namely, modern people’s heat dissipation andwarming is already a somewhat easy thing, while the ancients will feel somewhatdifficult to dissipate heat or defend against the cold. But, despite thereexist large differences in these technical level, in housing, modern people’smuch experience still has similarities with the ancients, because ancientpeople also need to build the house and repair the building, and also have someissues like rain leakage and security, which involve many technical problems,and these many types of housing experience are somewhat consistent with modernpeople; meanwhile, it is easy to understand that, ancient architecture isactually also very complex, and in terms of eaves, palace and bridge, it alsoinvolves many meticulous and flexible architecture skills (like the Pyramids),and the ancient architects also summarize and accumulate a set of systematic,complex and delicate architecture skills, and these broad and delicateexperience also have direct reference values for the modern practitioners. Takethe daily living as another example, ancient people also need to decorate theroom and keep the house clean, and also live and receive guests in their ownroom, which are also similarities with modern people.

As for larger space outside housing, ancientand modern people all live in the external natural environment, and in thisrespect, modern and ancient people also have some similarities, but with manychanges, too. Both the ancient and modern people will experience the change ofseasons from spring to winter, and the surrounding various kinds of trees andflowers will also flourish and wither with the seasonal change; take spring asexample, in “Spring Chant” by Yu Xin, he writes: “Eyebrow and willow bothbecome green, and face and peach are both red. The shadow is in the pool, whilethe flower comes into the clothes.” For modern people, they can also feel theserich visual experience, because in modern natural environment, there are alsoscenes like willow, peach and pool, and in spring, modern people can also seemany blossoming flowers and new green leaves; in the burgeoning spring, forancient people, they can see many trees like birch and willows on the sides ofthe somewhat rough road, while modern people can also see similar naturalscenes on the sides of the broad and clean road, and they will bring peoplesimilar aesthetic and psychological feelings. Certainly, different from ancientagricultural society, in industrial society, modern people mostly live in thecity, and thus, they can come into contact with many trees and grasses only bygoing to the parks or scenic spots, while the ancients’ living environment iscloser to the lush and colorful natural scenery. To conclude, for modernpeople, compared with ancient times, the natural environment they live in alsohas many continuities, and thereby, ancient people’s various experience alsocontinuously permeates into modern society.

5 Many psychological elements like needs.Besides the continuity and changes of dress, food, housing and transportation,another factor which deserves examining is humanity’s changes. I think we canroughly suppose, the ancients’ human elements are more or less the same asmodern people, namely, many basic elements in humanity, such as sense of pride,virtue, desire, perseverance, wisdom and sense of contentment, do not changetoo much with technology and society’s great evolution. For example, we canspecifically examine one problem, namely the basic problem of reason andsensuality, and we can easily see, during these hundreds of years, in varioussocieties, this problem’s condition probably does not change too much, forexample, in the 16thcentury, Shakespeare once wrote: “If thebalance of our lives had not one scale of reason to poise another ofsensuality, the blood and baseness of our natures would conduct us to mostpreposterous conclusions.”[4]For modern people living in the 21stcentury, Shakespeare’s thisstatement is still true, because in our real life, there are still some peoplewho can not well balance the relationship between reason and sensuality.Through this simple observation, we can realize, the broad and rich human elementsdo not change too much with the transition from tradition to modern society,and due to this basic reason, much experience in tradition still has theirvalue in modern society.

Considering that needs is animportant basic element in individual life, in this passage, we want to examinecertain situations of individual requirements. Brilliant scholar Menger oncedoes systematic analyses about human requirements, and firstly, he says: “Inthis case also men correctly consider their requirements to be fully met whenthey are able to have at their disposal quantities of goods sufficient for allanticipated eventualities.” Namely, Menger thinks only when quantities of goodssatisfy individuals’ various needs can they be said as sufficient, which isprobably a somewhat high demand; furthermore, Menger also points out humanrequirements’ another important characteristic, namely, human desires’continuous growth: “A further point that must be taken into consideration hereis thecapacityof human needs togrow. If human needs, are capable of growth and, as is sometimes maintained,capable of infinite growth, it would appear as if this growth would extend thelimits of the quantities of goods necessary for the satisfaction of human needscontinually, indeed even to complete infinitely, and that therefore any advanceprovision by men with respect to their requirements would be made utterlyimpossible.”[5]Namely,Menger thinks human’s diverse requirements will continuously grow with theobjective situation, and therefore, they will continually enlarge, hence, aredifficult to completely satisfy, which is also an important characteristic ofhuman requirements. Generally speaking, Menger’s these analyses are bothapplicable to ancient and modern people, which also illustrates that humanity’smany basic features do not correspondingly change with the evolution oftechnology and society, and compared with the ancients living in the 1stcentury, our many features in emotion, psychology and character are stillsomewhat similar. Certainly, we must add that, with technology and society’scontinuous growth, human emotions, after all, have many changes, enrichmentsand deepenings in local characteristics and overall appearance, for instance,the range of individual aesthetic sense has developed from simple things likeancient brass into complex things like mobile phone and modern house. Toconclude, as for human elements, tradition and modern society also have bothinherited places and some changes.

   In this section, we examine individuallife’s many continuity and changes, and here, we can also feel the basic factof individual life’s continuity through observing people’s universal lifeexperience in different ages. In the broad fields of real life, everygeneration will discuss about some similar basic issue, such as money, familyrelationship, marriage, physical health (like backache and gastrosis, etc),career, children education, some historical figures, youth and old,superstition, the relationship between theory and practice, etc, and theseuniversal and concrete issues will be constantly discussed by many people inevery generation. Here, we can give one appropriate example, the 19th-centurywriter Wang Yongbin once wrote: “The world is infinite, while life is finite, aday passes, then days decrease; wealth is fixed, while knowledge is notdefinite, pursuing more, then acquiring more.”[6]This sentence contains two familiar truths: value time and love knowledge,namely, the ancients also do much thinking about issues like time andknowledge, and here, his first half of the sentence is very consistent withmodern people’s notion like “Time is money”, while his second half also accordswith modern people’s view like “Knowledge is power”. Therefore, as every familywill talk about their previous generations of elders’ many life experiences,though there are many changes in living environment and scientific products,compared with the previous generations, our life course is actually stillsimilar. To conclude, considering the situation in many basic aspects, we canroughly think, compared with the ancients, modern people indeed have many bigand small changes in individual life, but also have many inherited places.

   (III) The Continuity and Change in SocialLevel

   Above we roughly examine some changes andfixed places in the process from tradition to modern society in individual lifelevel, meanwhile, if we extend our range of examination to the social totalitylevel, we can also find many changing and fixed places between tradition andmodern society.

1 The similarities and differencesof profession types. If we examine many ancient and modern profession types, wecan easily see, most careers in modern society also existed in ancient times,merely that modern relevant occupations are much more complex and diverse thanthe ancient. For example, there is also business in ancient society, and manypeople also do business; some of them also run restaurants and pharmacies, andthey also accumulate much business experience (such as grasp businessopportunity, emphasize honesty and value reputation, etc), which are the sameas modern people, but, the business types modern people engaged in are, afterall, much more than the ancients, for instance, there are many smallbusinessmen in ancient times, while there are also many modern smallbusinessmen, but modern people’s small business types are certainly more thanthe ancient times (like printing shops). Meanwhile, ancient people also havesome technical works, and they also need to learn many crafts, and there arealso many architects and doctors, etc, merely that modern people’s technicalworks are more diverse and more profound than the ancients. Similarly, theancients will also participate in politics, and they will also serve as officials,and government officials also have rich political experience, which are alsosimilarities with modern people. Likewise, in ancient society, there are alsomany scholars, and they will need to read books and learn, and also need to dooriginal academic research and art creations (for example, Sophocles’ dramas inancient Greece exactly have many similarities with 20th-centuryJoyce’s novels); certainly, due to the enormous progress of many scientific andliving fields, modern society’s scope of knowledge is also much broader thanthe ancient times. In conclusion, there are also many different career types inancient society, and people engaged in these particular career types also havetheir different mindset, character features and much professional experience,which is the continuity between ancient and modern society; certainly, due toscience and technology’s enormous development and social organizations’ greatcomplication, compared with ancient, these profession types in modern societyhave great developments and changes.

2 Social structure’s change andcontinuity. In section (I), we examine the significant changes of somepolitical and economic institutions in ancient society when they enter themodern stage, but, if we do more detailed examinations about these problems, wecan still easily see, in terms of these social institutions, there are stillmany traditional factors in modern society. As we mention in section (I), inancient society, people more value political behavior’s “goodness”, while modernpeople more emphasize “right”, but, in modern politics, when people comment onpolitical phenomena they will still pay attention to certain governmentofficials’ moral issue, and will also judge political figures’ moral behavior;for democracy, many political institutions in ancient times still retain in themodern stage (such as council, law, election, etc); in economy, many modernbusiness behaviors and commercial trades can also trace back to the relevantancient factors. Meanwhile, the ancients’ many basic notions actually all alsohave modern meaning, for instance, ancient people already think that freedommust be restricted by law, and the ancient Greece also value business, whilethe ancient Romans very value law’s function, and ancient scholars also valuescience’s axiomatization (such as Euclid and Archimedes’ mathematicalresearch), and these institutions and ideas all show strong modern spirit. Toconclude, there are still many traditional factors in modern society, whilethere also contain many modern elements in ancient tradition, and these twoaspects are both important basic facts.

About social structure’s internalcontinuity, many scholars all now this basic truth, and as the brilliantscholar Hsiao Kung-Chuan writes: “Wang Yong once says: ‘If one people justknows the ancient, but does not know the present age, then he is pedantic.’ Forthe need of ‘learning for practice’, studying modern is useful and importantwork. But from the academic perspective, not knowing the ancient and just knowingthe present, not knowing the historical context and just focusing on thecurrent situation, the research result is easy to be superficial andfallacious.”[7]What Mr.Hsiao says here is an important fact, namely, ancient society’s variousaspects, such as politics, economy, society, science, culture and law, all havecomprehensive and profound impacts on every contemporary society, andtherefore, to better understand contemporary society, we need to knowtraditional society’s various conditions. Here, another important fact is, ifwe see the 15th-century Renaissance as the starting point of modernsociety, then, from the 15thcentury, every era will all form itsnew tradition in the developing process; for example, in the 19thcentury, its science, thought, politics and law greatly changed human society’sface, and meanwhile, many big and small things in various aspects it producedwill form new tradition; namely, in every stage after the 15thcentury, many things people create will also form one part of the tradition,and thereby, for every other half century, tradition’s intension in humansociety will have a large expansion, namely, the tradition we say does notmerely include many things before the 15thcentury, but also includemany ingredients in the modern and contemporary stage, which is certainly alsoa basic fact we need to clearly understand.

 (IV) The Impact of Science and Technology andScience’s Continuance

Since science and technology playan enormous role in shaping modern society’s appearance, in this section, wewant to examine science and technology’s differences and similarities betweentradition and modern society from several perspectives.

Science and technology naturallyplay a decisive role in shaping modern society’s basic form, and science doesnot have only one field, but includes many branches, which also means thatscience’s impacts not only embody in one aspect, but embody in many differentsides. About science’s impact on human society, we can give one simple example,with the emergence of Internet, people can watch TV series and news online,which has certain impact on people’s previous work and life habits, and alsochanges people’s mindset and psychological structure in some degree, namely,the emergence of one new technology will bring many changes in social andindividual level, and will also generate new permutations and combinations ofthe old tradition. With science and technology’s continuous development, everygeneration’s study, life and work methods are all continually changing, andevery generation’s habits of shopping, travel, social contact and communicationalso have many differences with the previous generation; but, it does not meanthat we have abandoned our forefathers’ study, life and work methods, and theforefathers’ much experience still has their basic value and still deserves ourreference; namely, due to scientific things’ strong infiltration, everygeneration’s work and life pattern will all have changes, but also with manysuccessive places, namely, the relationship between tradition and modernsociety is largely shaped by many scientific things.

Because science and technology isone of the major forces to promote human society’s progress, the scientificfactors are all important components in every society, which is true in bothtradition and modern society. As for scientific elements’ spread in socialscope, in today’s 21stcentury, we have science fiction films like“star wars”, while in the 19thcentury, due to the limitation oftechnology, there was so science fiction film, but then there were many sciencefictions (which is the precursor of science fiction film) written by peoplelike Verne, which all enrich the scientific elements in every society.Meanwhile, as for academia, in ancient Greece, there are Pythagoras and Plato’smathematical research, Aristotle’s physical and biological research, and inancient Rome, there is Ptolemy’s astronomical research, and in the 19thcentury, there are also many scientists in various universities, and they areall tirelessly engaged in original scientific research, while there are alsomany brilliant scientific scholars in the 21st-century universities,and they also fully prepare to make new scientific discoveries. To sum up, intraditional (like ancientGreece)and modern society, there are many scientific factors, though the concretemodes of existence are continually changing, they all can well displayscience’s value and spirit. Because science and technology is so important forsocial totality, like some basic things, such as economy, politics and thought,scientific factors are all broad and necessary components in every society;while from tradition to modern society, various scientific things all havesuccessive places, but also with many changes.

About science and technology’sdevelopment, there is still one place worth our attention, namely, afterentering the modern stage, their developments still have some new importantchanges; we can probably think, since the second half of the 19thcentury, human society’s industrialization level greatly improves, namely,since the second Industrial Revolution, science and technology’s complexity andsophistication have large improvement. For example, electric engineering as arising field did not appear until 1950, while many new types of chemicalmaterials also emerged in the 20thcentury, and many new medicinesdid not exist until they were developed by certain drug companies in the 20thcentury, and 20th-century mathematical research’s range and depthalso had great expansion than before; generally speaking, most familiarhigh-tech products, such as special steel, nitrate, electric car, syntheticmaterial, chip and radio communication, did not appear until the second half ofthe 19thcentury, while the technology categories in the 17thand 18thcenturies were relatively few, and also somewhat simple.Take the scientist as example, in the 18thcentury, there were stillsome scholars simultaneously studying many subjects such as mathematics,physics, chemistry, astronomy and geology (like Leibniz and Franklin), but intoday’s 21stcentury, such kind of scholar rarely exists, because,current mathematics, physics and chemistry are all broader than that time, andalso more difficult. In conclusion, science and technology in the 16-18thcenturies were still somewhat shallow, and people could master much scientificknowledge even by self-study, while after the 19thcentury,science’s width, depth and complexity have great improvement, which alsoquickly changes people’s many life habits. In other words, even if we see theRenaissance as the beginning of modern period, in the following centuries,there are still somewhat evident differences in the basic characteristics ofscience (and social composition), namely, we should not see modern society as afixed thing, and its different stages (like the 18thcentury and 20thcentury) actually also have many changes.

Meanwhile, another important factwe need to know is that, though the nature of science and technology isinnovation, and it is also many scientific things that propel our society’scontinuous progress, every science and technology actually all has its ownprofound tradition; if we carefully analyze many innovations in science andtechnology, then we can easily see, most scientific innovations are actuallythe products of renovations, and are all based on the old discipline tradition.For example, the Dirac equation in physics is the corresponding Schrodingerequation by considering relativity effect, while the Yang-Mills theory comesfrom the generalization of Maxwell equations; in mathematics, Riemanniangeometry is the generalization of Gauss’ intrinsic geometry, and the birth anddevelopment of topological K-theory is strongly enlightened by the algebraicK-theory; in computer, its many notions also have certain foundation in thepast logic. To conclude, most scientific innovations are not the result ofdreamy thought, but have many-sided profound foundations in the past scientifictradition. Correspondingly, for scientific and technological workers, to dogood research, they need to fully know the previous generations of scholars’research results, and need to know the important works of many good scholars inthe previous and contemporary generations, and if he does not know the existedresearch of the previous generations, and only works behind closed doors, thenhe is difficult to make some substantial contributions. We can say that, goodscholars mostly have broad and delicate mastery about the previous generationsof people’s important papers and books, and only in this way can they make goodinnovations based on knowing many problems’ background.

 (V) The Intension of Tradition and theInterweaving of Tradition and Modern Society

Through the above analyses fromseveral perspectives, we can see, the influence of tradition on modern societyis complex and multi-faceted, and meanwhile, many modern things are alsocontinually changing people’s old tradition. About the internal relationshipbetween tradition and modern society, firstly, we need to recognize, traditionstill has strong influence on our modern life; for example, 21st-centurypeople still need to read classical works such as Aristotle’sNicomachean Ethicsin ancient Greece orCicero’sLaw in ancient Rome, andabsorb abundant nutrients from them, and these works are not out of date inmodern society, which illustrates that many traditional elements still havelong-term vitality in modern society. Here, as a partial summarization of theabove parts, we also want to simply generalize the overall intension oftradition; from the 1970s, with the appearance of certain academic groups, likecommunalism, academia begins to seriously look at tradition’s rich values, andsome scholars such as Maclntyre, Sandel and Charles Taylor express theirrespect for tradition, but, they mostly restrict the impact of tradition in theethical and political fields, namely, they think tradition has profound impactson people’s moral behavior and life path[8];while some other scholars such as Hayek and Whitehead also value the meaning oftradition, and their understanding angles are somewhat different from thecommunalism, and they think tradition contains extensive and profoundexperience, which is the summation of dozens of generations’ variousexperience, but, their relevant expositions are also somewhat abstract andgeneral, not concrete and detailed enough; in summary, since the latter part ofthe 20thcentury, though academia begins to value tradition,people’s understanding about the wide intension of tradition is still notsufficient, and from this paper’s analyses, we can see, the range of traditionnot only concentrates in ethical and political fields, but is much broader, andthere are many different kinds of traditional experience, such as tradition inscience, tradition in life experience (dress, food, housing, transportation,etc), tradition in business, etc, namely, we must extend our understandingsabout the overall intension of tradition. In real life, when we mentiontradition, it seems to be a holistic concept, but, we must realize thattradition is not a monolithic whole, but contains many different subfields, andthere are tradition in science, tradition in economy, tradition in art,tradition in daily living, etc, and these traditions have independent side,which have existed for a long time in certain range, and they will all havelasting and strong impacts on their own fields. In a word, we need to havesufficiently concrete and detailed understandings about tradition’s many faces.

   At certain occasions, we can somewhatevidently feel the dialectical relationship between tradition and modernsociety. For example, when we some science fiction films like “Transformers” or“Spider-Man”, we will often marvel at the scene’s spectacle and excitement, andfurther marvel at modern technology’s sophistication, and also admire theimagination in the film, but, if we just live in such a modern society merelyshaped by science and technology, our life will be incomplete, because we also liveunder the complex tradition, and we still need to undertake familyresponsibility, and also need to know many traditional things, and also need todo business and maintain the daily life’s functioning, which are all majorparts in our life. While when we watch some movies and TV series in livelihoodcategory like “Godfather”, we will have other feelings, at this time we willthink about some realistic life issues. To sum up, though modern society’s manycreations are indeed impressive, many aspects of tradition are alsoindispensible for both the individual and society.

   But, meanwhile, if we just value thetraditional side, and not emphasizing the innovative side in modern society,which is also certainly inappropriate, and will also bring serious negativeeffects. For example, in ancient Chinese society there are not many scientificinnovations, and people’s life then is somewhat narrow and fixed, and people’sadvancing thinking qualities like creativity, imagination and personality willbe largely inhibited in such kind of static society. The debate betweentradition and modern society is a long existed problem, and it will be moreobvious especially during the social transition periods, and at this time, somepeople will say they somewhat hate the turbulence of modern society and preferto the tranquility of traditional life, and they think modern societyoveremphasizes efficiency and progress, which does harm to them on enjoyinglife’s comfort and leisure, but, we still can easily see, in the rapidly movingmodern society, we can also find some comfortable and leisurely moments (liketraveling in the holidays, resting at home in the weekend, or gathering withrelations and friends, etc) to enjoy life’s ease, namely, the progress ofmodern society will not necessarily hamper the tranquil and calm elements inlife. Combining many-sided facts, we can probably get a general conclusion: themore broad and profound scientific creations and more diverse modern andtraditional things in society are, the more energetic people’s life and morewide and rich every individual’s life experience is.

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[1]John Rawls,Lectures on the History of Moral Philosophy, Introduction, Section 1:2, p.2, Cambridge:HarvardUniversityPress, 2000.

[2]Gustave Glotz,AncientGreeceat Work, “Conclusion”, pp. 366-369,Shanghai: Gezhi Press,2010.

[3]John Mill,Principles of Political Economy, Book I, Chapter I, Section 2,Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1963.

[4]William Shakespeare,Othello,Act I, Scene III,London:Penguin Books, 2005.

[5]Karl Menger,Principles of Economics, Chapter II, Section 1, “Human Requirements”, pp. 82, 83, Auburn:Ludwig Von Mises Institute, 2004.

[6]Yongqin Wang,Dialogue around a Stove, Section XXXVIII.

[7]Kung-chuan Hsiao,Inquiry and Study Retrospect, Chapter XIX, p. 226,Shanghai:Xuelin Press, 1997.

[8]As Charles Taylor says: “People may see their (ethical) identity asdefined partly by some moral or spiritual commitment, say as Catholic, or ananarchist. Or they may define it in part by the nation or tradition they belongto, as an Armenian, say, or a Quebecois.” SeeSources of the Self, Chapter 2, Section 1, p. 27,Cambridge:HarvardUniversityPress.