The Rise of the Writers of the Republic of China

Although Toynbee was 39 years old at this time, his academic thinking was still at an early stage, and he did not have a deep understanding of the situation in China. Therefore, on issues concerning China, Toynbee was easily persuaded and refuted by Zhou Hexuan.

It wasn't until the middle and late period, after Toynbee traveled to China twice, that he really had a systematic understanding of China, and finally became a "Chinese fan".

In 1974, Toynbee had an exchange with Japanese scholar Daisaku Ikeda, and the content of the conversation was compiled into "Looking Forward to the 21st Century".

Toynbee's bold prediction: Humanity will develop into a single society, and the traditional method of conquest by force will hardly work again in the age of atomic energy. If the world can be peacefully unified, it must be based on geography and culture, which will continue to crystallize and expand. This axis is not in the United States, the Soviet Union, or Europe, but in East Asia. And China is the core of unifying the world. The Chinese nation has advantages in the political and cultural fields, and has unparalleled experience. China will gain a dominant position in the 21st century.

When Toynbee said this, China had not yet ended the ten-year special period, and no one would believe it at that time.

Even when Daisaku Ikeda asked Toynbee which country he would like to be born in if he could live his life again, Toynbee said without hesitation that he would like to be born in China.

Of course, this is Toynbee in his later years. He had a pessimistic attitude towards Western civilization, so he believed that Eastern civilization would dominate the world.

Toynbee in middle age was not a pessimist, but a romantic.

The two did not get entangled in religious issues anymore. Toynbee said: "The development of civilization lies in facing and overcoming challenges. Every time a challenge is overcome, it is a progress of this civilization."

"I agree with this point of view." Zhou Hexuan said with a smile.

The students in the audience were very surprised, because Zhou Hexuan had just told them about the challenge of civilization that Toynbee mentioned some time ago, and the theories of the two masters were surprisingly consistent.

Zhou Hexuan also said: "The industrial revolution in the West is a process of challenge and challenge. Western civilization has overcome the challenge, so it has achieved a qualitative leap and driven the progress of the entire human civilization. And Chinese civilization is also facing challenges today. After passing this hurdle, the Chinese civilization will usher in a new life."

Toynbee said with a smile: "From the perspective of the development history of Chinese civilization, it is only a matter of time before it can overcome challenges. Chinese civilization is the most unique civilization in the world. It already has the core to overcome various challenges. The premise It’s about restoring the state of unity.”

"China is waiting for an opportunity," Zhou Hexuan said with a smile, "like another world war."

"Very likely," Toynbee said sadly, "the current situation in Europe is not optimistic, and various hidden dangers brought by capitalism emerge one after another. In the next 20 years, Europe will either have a great revolution or a large-scale war. The existing capitalist system must be improved, otherwise it will slip into the abyss step by step. This improvement can only be carried out smoothly after a revolution or a reshuffle of the war.”

I'm stupid!

Zhou Hexuan felt extremely shocked, the master is indeed a master, he can see through history!

Toynbee is not only a historian and an expert on international issues, but also has unique insights into the economy. He said: "Economists, including Adam Smith, believe that the only effective way to achieve national wealth growth is freedom. I very much agree with From this point of view, the essence of the Industrial Revolution is that free competition has replaced the medieval regulation that controlled the production and distribution of wealth, which has greatly released productivity. But freedom is not perfect. Laissez-faire can break monopoly and regulation, but it will give birth to A new form of monopoly is brewing, and then fierce social conflicts are brewing. At this time, the power of control is needed to intervene and pull the excessive freedom back to the correct and orderly track.”

State capitalism?

Before Zhou Hexuan could speak, Toynbee said with a smile: "I really like the Chinese theory of yin and yang, which can be used to explain the development of capitalism. The economic system under the control of the Middle Ages was an extremely yin state, while laissez-faire capitalism , is the state of extreme yang, which will transform into yin. At this time, it is necessary to reconcile yin and yang, um, in traditional Chinese thinking, it is the golden mean.”

"Mr. Toynbee, you have a deep understanding of Chinese culture." Zhou Hexuan said with a smile.

Toynbee shook his head and said, "I don't understand Chinese, let alone classical Chinese. Everything I know about China is translated by friends. To be honest, Chinese is too difficult to learn, and I don't have the energy to learn it. In-depth research to understand. Therefore, there may be omissions and mistakes in my treatise on China, thank you for your previous corrections.”

Zhou Hexuan laughed and said, "Speaking of China, Mr. Toynbee doesn't seem to agree with the existence of Xia, Shang and Zhou?"

Toynbee said: "I think the Xia Dynasty is a legend. The Shang and Zhou did exist, but they may not have formed an effective political entity state."

"Mr. Toynbee, please take a look." Zhou Hexuan took out a stack of photos from his briefcase, which were taken by a reporter from "Ta Kung Pao".

Toynbee observed carefully with great interest, and asked, "Is this a photo of the recent archaeological site in Shandong?"

"Yes," Zhou Hexuan pointed to the jade on the picture and said, "This is Zhang, this is Gui, and this is Bi... These are ritual vessels of Chinese civilization that have continued from ancient times. They have many functions, such as the following: Employment, such as diplomacy, has the most important function of offering sacrifices to heaven and gods. Ritual vessels are the materialized manifestation of the ritual and music system, and the appearance of ritual vessels proves that a political system has been formed. These ritual vessels appeared in the Neolithic Age, indicating that since that time , Chinese civilization has continued to this day, and its core spirit is still preserved.”

"That doesn't prove that the Xia, Shang and Zhou dynasties were politically unified countries, but only shows the super-long continuity of Chinese civilization." Toynbee said.

Zhou Hexuan said with a smile: "As we said earlier, the core of Chinese civilization is the idea of ​​the unity of man and nature. The ruler of the Zhou Dynasty was called the Son of Heaven, which means that the herdsmen of heaven replaced heaven and man. The idea of ​​great unification also sprouted in Zhou, there is no king in the world, but all the tribes and nationalities who used these ritual vessels at that time, theoretically believed in the emperor. Even if the rights were not unified, the Zhou Dynasty was definitely unified culturally and politically."

"No, no, no, your statement is too far-fetched," Toynbee shook his head repeatedly, "I have studied the enfeoffment system of the Zhou Dynasty, which is equivalent to the feudal system in Europe. To use a less vivid analogy, the emperor of Zhou is like The emperor of Habsburg nominally represented orthodoxy, but it was just a display. Can you say that the Habsburg emperor who lost his power could rule Western and Central Europe? At that time, Western Europe and Central Europe could be called a country ?"

Zhou Hexuan smiled helplessly: "Okay, let's end this debate, because no one can convince the other."

This really cannot be debated, because the standards of Chinese and Western archaeological circles are different. The Western standard is to have temples, city walls, and bronzes, while China pays more attention to the discovery of jade, because jade is an important feature of Chinese civilization.

Toynbee and Zhou Hexuan chatted endlessly, covering human civilization for a while, European and American politics for a while, East Asian cultural circle for a while, and occasionally economics.

The students were delighted when they heard it, and Luo Jialun, who was in charge of recording the conversation, was also excited.

Many of the conversations between the two were conjectures and inferences, as well as various academic breakthroughs. For future generations, these things may be said by a junior high school student, which is a matter of common sense.

But now, in the late 1920s, their exchanges are full of amazing advancements, prophecies and breakthroughs.

Perhaps a casual sentence, to many students, seemed to open the door to a new world, changing their understanding of history, culture, and the world.

Commonly known as, refresh the three views.

The next day, Tsinghua University's school journal published the full text of the exchange process between the two in detail. The headline of the news was "The Thought Collision of Two Masters from the East and the West".

This academic journal was circulated by students eagerly, and even other universities in Peking also reprinted it, causing great repercussions in the cultural and academic circles in the north.

It was not until 80 years later that this report was dug out from the pile of old papers, and the full text was posted on the Internet, which immediately caused a sensation and heated discussions. Because it predicted World War II, the improvement of capitalism, and the rise of China.

Netizens began to play tricks, making various emojis of Zhou Hexuan and Toynbee's photos, jokingly calling them "big prophets" and "law masters".