What does a nation need?

The German philosopher Hegel said that a nation can only have hope if it has some people who care about the sky. A nation only cares about what is under its feet, and it has no future. Is there a real university in China? My answer is that there was no real university in China for most of the centuries, especially in the past 20 years. What is a real university? I want to go further.

Confucius was great because he established a school, through which he popularized a theory and passed it on from generation to generation. Around the 5th century BC, several major civilizations in the world formed their own classics and passed on their national cultures in the form of words, so the world entered the axis era. Today, westerners are powerful-they later surpassed all other ancient civilizations. Especially in the era of globalization, a powerful force forces other civilizations to change themselves and cater to it. Where does this power come from? It was in college.

The more civilized a society is, the more it needs a group of professional scholars to build a systematic theoretical system and become the cultural identity of all social members. The * * * isomorphism formed by these intelligent intellectual elites is the university.

When did such a university start?

As early as Plato's time, the West established something called Academy. What should Plato's college do? Westerners believe that what is visible and tangible is not the most important thing, and there is an abstract logos behind it, which can be accurately expressed by mathematics, logic and language. In today's words, one law and one rule is the foundation of everything. As long as you master this law of logos and everything, you will master everything. This Plato's belief is the basic spirit of ancient Greek philosophy.

This is different from other thoughts, especially from China people's emphasis on intuition and perceptual thinking. China's agricultural culture holds that our intuition and perception enable us to establish a vivid, perceptual and intuitive relationship between people and things, which is the characteristic of China people. In Plato's time, he encouraged his students to look for the logic, mathematics and geometry behind everything, and explore the harmonious order and law of everything from these abstract ideas and concepts. Plato's wisdom spread to Aristotle, Alexander's science, Roman law and medieval Christian theology.

In the 5th century, Augustine's Christianity was integrated for the first time, which changed Christianity from a religious belief to a rational religion. Christianity is becoming more and more reasonable and pays attention to strict theoretical reasoning, so there are the earliest universities. Two months ago, I went to the first modern university in the west, the University of Bologna in Italy. This oldest university, with a history of nearly a thousand years, is still trying to keep it as it is. Those houses are so old that they can't stand it anymore. Just put a cement column on them, and some ruins in the street are well protected. What are these universities doing? They are looking for the laws and rules given by God when he created the world, an abstract truth, and the logos behind everything.

We know that one of Deng Xiaoping's great wisdom is "don't argue": whatever you study and read should be useful, and don't engage in useless things. Reading Marxism-Leninism should also work, otherwise what should we do? Too many arguments hinder action, so we advocate not arguing. How did that small fishing village in Shenzhen get rich? It depends on "doing" rather than "saying". You can't do it if you say it. Let's do it first. It doesn't matter whether you do it or not. You can't even say "edge the ball", let it go completely, otherwise why is it called the SAR? As a result, today's China people acquiesce that they can't do what they say and can't say what they do. Focusing on getting rich is the greatest cleverness.

However, the western academic civilization is just the opposite. First, it depends on what you say. Nothing will work. What is this? How many angels can stand on the needle tip; God turned one of Adam's ribs into Eve. Will this man lose a rib? After the resurrection of baldness, there is no hair in heaven; Can God be like a woman? Adam and Eve were not born in their mother's belly, so do they have navel? These questions are ridiculous and meaningless to us, but they have another meaning. They have established a belief that there is a fundamental truth behind everything, which can be inferred, searched, proved and argued. The more you argue, the more you understand the truth. The earliest universities began to do these things and made it clear that everything could develop in an orderly and rational direction. Therefore, from the very beginning, western elites believed that society must have a truth, rules, laws and order that transcends any individual will and material appearance. Although abstract, it strictly abides by the rules of logic, mathematics and argumentation. This is Greek rational thinking, this is the spirit left by Plato's Academy, and this is the spirit of modern universities. The four ancient civilizations are all naturalistic civilizations. Man's life depends entirely on the earth and the sky, on the cycle of the four seasons, on what grows on the land, and on the cycle of natural ecology.

But the Greek civilization corresponding to Plato is another civilization. I went to Greece two months ago. Today, it seems impossible for this place to produce a great civilization: Shan Ye is bare, with bad ecology and easy soil erosion. Therefore, after repeated several times in Greek history, Crete civilization and Mycenae civilization always failed for hundreds of years, which may be the reason. Later, Dorians rose. When the food provided by this land was close to the dangerous limit, they were influenced by the Phoenician trade activities. They no longer rely on the harvest on the land to support themselves directly, but rely on navigation, commerce, handicrafts and external division of production and mutual trade to achieve the supply of life. Grapes and olives can be planted on their mountains. These two crops will not only cause soil erosion, but also maintain soil and water. These two crops can't be eaten as food, but can be made into wine, and olive oil can be squeezed out, and they have very good sailing conditions. They exchanged wine and olive oil for others, and a special civilization was born.

Businessmen sail on the dull sea, which is different from farmers' direct contact with the earth in an emotional way. They see the sun, the moon and the starry sky, so their astronomy and geometry are very developed. Businessmen always calculate the proportional relationship of numbers, so mathematical thinking is developed and Pythagoreanism is produced; Navigation and trade need developed handicrafts, and handicraft products are more developed through commercial promotion. The development of handicraft industry led to the emergence of atomism, mechanical materialism and the original analytical natural science.

We know that in addition to using science as a powerful tool to change the world, westerners today have another thing to deal with the relationship between people, and that is law. How do people in China deal with interpersonal relationships? Through face, through feelings, through human feelings, through morality, and finally through power. Westerners, on the other hand, restrict everyone's behavior mainly through laws, contracts, social ethics and objective measures grasped in everyone's mind. This kind of legal thinking, just like natural science thinking, thinks that there is an abstract rule, law and rule that dominates everything and is above all individual things, and this abstract rule can be expressed in a strict logical and mathematical way.

The secret of the strength of westerners today lies in two things, a science and a law, both of which evolved from Greek philosophy. These two things seem quite different. Law governs the relationship between people, and law governs the relationship between all things in nature, but in western languages, they are the same thing, both called law. Are all from Plato, who believes that there is a universe behind everything. This thing is invisible and intangible, and can only be grasped by rational thinking.

University is the continuation of Plato's Academy. Medieval is scholasticism, while modern is university. It persistently pursues the rules behind everything, and I believe that the more you argue, the clearer it becomes. This attitude towards life, which regards knowledge as the highest pursuit, is embodied in almost every philosopher.

Thales was the first person to represent Greek wisdom. He is a businessman, but it is not easy to make money in business. He is always groping for useless things, so he is poor and spends a little money on traveling. So some people say that philosophers are useless and can't make money. It is said that Thales used his knowledge to make a large sum of money one year. Of course, this statement may be fabricated-he knew that there would be a bumper harvest of olives in Athens that year, so he rented all the olive juicers in the city, took the opportunity to raise the monopoly price and made a sum of money, in order to prove that a philosopher can earn more than others if he wants to, but he has more important things to do and things he is more willing to pursue. There is another story. One night, Thales was walking in the wilderness and looked up at the stars in the sky. He predicted that it would rain the next day. Just when he predicted that it would rain, he fell into a pit and almost died. Someone saved him. He said thank you, you know? It will rain tomorrow! So it became a joke again. Philosophers are people who only know the things in the sky and don't know what will happen under their feet. Two thousand years later, the German philosopher Hegel said that a nation can only have hope if it has some people who care about the sky. A nation only cares about what is under its feet, and it has no future. No one represents the truth

No one represents truth, and teachers don't necessarily have truth; Truth is above everything else. In an invisible place, everyone can know the truth through their own reason. Aristotle said: I love my teacher, and I love truth more. There is a very different place between western universities and China University. Our book specially chooses the elegant school of Raphael and Confucius' lecture as the cover to show the differences between the two universities. "Athens School" is a very famous painting. In the Vatican Museum, the people in the picture are all in one hall, and there is no hierarchy. Everyone is busy, or communicate with each other. Aristotle and Plato walked side by side, arguing with each other. No one represents truth, and teachers don't necessarily have truth; Truth is above everything else. In an invisible place, everyone can know the truth through their own reason. In China's universities, the teacher must be on the stage, the teacher is very big, in the center, the students draw very small, beside. Students know nothing. They are asking the teacher one by one. Teachers know everything. He announced the truth. This is a university in China.

Every one of us lives in the middle of eating, drinking and having fun, in the middle of daily necessities, in the middle of secular life, but if only these, this nation can not have the highest civilization. In modern European cities, there is always a center, academy or university, which plays the role of the core and soul in the whole society. Therefore, the establishment of a successful modern country without universities is unthinkable.

My conclusion is that modern western civilization is the echo of urban movement and university movement, and it is the operation of reality and the guidance of ideal. This is also the case. Before the Renaissance, there was the University of Bologna, the rise of France was the University of Paris, the rise of Britain was Oxford and Cambridge, and the rise of the United States was Harvard. /kloc-When Germany was about to rise in the early 9th century, there was the University of Berlin. At that time, Germany was divided and defeated by Napoleon. It is too poor and timid to cede land, pay reparations and achieve peace. Humboldt, one of the most far-sighted figures, influenced the Prussian emperor. He believed that the key to the national rise was the spiritual rise of the nation, and the highest means of spiritual rise was the university. Humboldt became the most important person in the cabinet. He founded the University of Berlin, and the first president was the philosopher Fichte. China's greatest pride and misfortune in the 20th century.

To rise, a nation needs to change three aspects. The first is the change of people's heart, the second is the change of political system, and the third is the change of utensils and economy. As we all know, the United States is much richer than Latin America, and it is still in full swing today. Since the 1960s and 1970s, the so-called Latin American phenomenon has emerged, that is, Latin America has fallen into a hopeless trap. Why is there such a big difference between America and Latin America? Because the pioneers in Latin America, like the pioneers in Shenzhen and Hainan, are just people who make money. In fact, the conditions in Central and South America were much better than those in North America. North America doesn't even have advanced Indian civilization, while Central America and South America have splendid Inca civilization, Aztec civilization and Mayan civilization. But what makes North America strong? Today, we know that the earliest immigrants in North may flower were 65,438+003 Puritans. In fact, when may flower arrived in North America, there were already more than 1000 immigrants there, but all American history books were written from may flower. Why do historians like this 103 person so much? That's because the people's belief in may flower represents the source of American spirit and forms what Weber called the capitalist Protestant ethics. It was only 16 years after these Protestants landed. Before they were fully established, they established the earliest university in North America. The following year, they named Harvard after the biggest donor. From this point of view, North American immigrants were special from the beginning. First of all, they are Puritans. Second, they established universities, which is the secret that America is so powerful today. Qin Hui, a famous American scholar, also studied the differences between Latin Tsinghua and North America. He thinks that America is superior to South America because it has a good system. I don't object to this statement, but I want to emphasize that Puritans were different from Iberians as soon as they landed. It took them only 16 years to establish the university and 160 years to establish the United States and the American Constitution. Do you think culture is important or system is important? Is there a university or a constitution? The rise of the heart

What we can do is to rise within ourselves. There is no real university in reality, but we can be real college students and create a sound university life in our own hearts and actions. In China today, everything should be useful, including universities, all majors and even people. However, the real university is useless, because the university is to cultivate people, and people are not tools to be used, but people themselves are the purpose. Generally speaking, people are bosses, people are not talents and people are not wage earners. When I say boss, I mean someone who knows what to do and can guide others to do it. China doesn't have a boss. If he does, he runs with others. After all, he is still a wage earner. Therefore, there are no influential figures on the world stage in China today, and there are no fields, brands and standards that lead the trend. We have exhausted our resources and caused irreparable environmental damage. The greater harm is the disintegration of people's thoughts and the complete loss of self-confidence and creativity in their inner world. Only by attaching to external wisdom can we exchange the consumption materials needed to meet the desire expansion and GDP digital growth.

The dependence on the west caused by this integration is amazing. Things in China can't sell at high prices in the west. In Europe and America, China people can't hold their heads in the face of westerners, because made in China is synonymous with inferiority. No matter how beautiful you are, you can only sell it at a fraction of the price of others.

China must change this road, and must have its own brain, its own wisdom and its own real university. The only way out for China in the future is to build a country through culture. All successful modern countries in the world are established by culture. Japan has long been a cultural country, and South Korea is also a cultural country. But Chinese mainland, this voice can't spread, because countless idiots occupy the stage.

Since the reform and opening up, we are all familiar with the idea of taking economic construction as the center. N years later, a group of intellectuals finally came out and said that system construction is also the key, and system construction is more important than economic construction. However, China people can't accept the inner change, which is the real key to all problems.

So I say that the rise of the Chinese nation depends on the rise of universities, and the rise of China University is still quite far away today. What can we do? What we can do is to rise within ourselves. There is no real university in reality, but we can be real college students and create a sound university life in our own hearts and actions. The real university is not in high-rise buildings, authoritative forums or arrogant things, but in the life of every soul, that is, independent thinking and free expression, that is, detached dialogue and exchange, forming an academic atmosphere that spreads step by step and wraps more and more people in it. When a real university is formed, it will soon become a cultural movement, there will be a group of really smart elites, and the whole country will have hope.