Certain characteristics of historical origins of civilization between China and Western contribute to the understanding between them despite a long separate development that they experienced.
Chinese culture are mostly influenced by Taoism , Confucianism and Buddhism.
The sages of Taoism are Lao-Tze and Chuang-Tze. They both advocated freedom. Lao-Tze argued that everyone and everything should and should be encouraged to conform to their natural way or manner of behaviors.The hope of escaping death was an implicit philosophical element too. Additionally , Chuang-Tze raised a flavor of mysticism to avoid strife in the world.Furthermore, both sages have the Chinese characteristics of humor , restraints, and under-statement which belong to all Chinese literature and art as well as the conversation of cultivated Chinese nowadays .The Romantic movement leads westerners to like vehemence whereas Chinese aim at being exquisite in art and reasonable in life.
Nevertheless, Confucianism is more popular than Taoism among the educated classes for its dominating place in the civil service exam and the administration .The sages Confucius emphasized trivial points of etiquette.He succeeded in producing a whole nation possessed of exquisite manners and perfect courtesy on various condition with which the Chinese have hitherto conquered their conquerors.
The only important foreign element in the Chinese traditional civilization is Buddhism.Differentiating from incompatible faith in Western, Buddhism and Confucianism don’t conflict with each other.But there is a temperamental difference:Buddhism has a way of salvation and a future life whose ethical instruction is based on metaphysical and religious dogma while Confucianism’s is purely mundane. However , Confucianism-driven governors who are literary skeptics , and the performance of their administration is rather poor.
When it comes to Western culture , it derives from Greek culture and its urbane social outlook , fanatical belief and the conception of sin from Jewish religion and ethics as well as the power, the sense of power and the empirical method from modern industrialism.
In contrast ,China has something in common with Greek .But almost none of the above-mentioned later two factors has affected China except the emergence of science and industrialism recently through European influence.Therefore , in spite of the mental look between the people of them has little in common, they can still understand each other.
