Is there any introduction to ancient Greece?

Characteristics of ancient Greek civilization

Characteristics of ancient Greek civilization and its modern significance

In the history of world civilization, ancient Greek civilization has its unique style and excellence His achievements were so well-known in later generations that he was even said to be "Greece". Indeed, its cultural creation reached the first peak of human civilization. Therefore, the rise of ancient Greek civilization, its "coming from behind", and its dazzling achievements are called "the miracle of Greece" by academic circles. In our opinion, to decipher and explain this cultural mystery, we have to look to a large extent from the characteristics of ancient Greek civilization (that is, the "Greek spirit").

"Greek spirit": a model

Seeking the harmonious development between living things and the environment. The ancient Greek civilization was a city-state civilization, and most of its city-states were small and fragile states, but this A space of limited scale is a unified entity with independent political life, self-sufficient economic life and rich cultural life. In this small community, each member puts other members within his field of vision, thus creating a certain sense of identity and intimacy among the citizens of the city-state. For the ancient Greeks, the city-state meant a kind of unified life. It was not only a living community, but also a moral community that realized human self-perfection. For a long time, the Greeks always regarded the city-state system as the only suitable form of national organization. Therefore, committing to the harmonious unity between social groups and civil life became the basic belief of every citizen of the ancient Greek city-state. However, this belief gradually faded with the decline of city-states. The "city-state crisis" that emerged after the Peloponnesian War and the growth of extreme individualism and extreme democratic methods led to the decline of citizen responsibility, which also drastically undermined This harmony and balance between civil groups and civil life is more obvious in the Greek world, especially in the defeated city-state of Athens. It can be seen that the decline of the Greek city-states was the time when the harmony between living things and the environment was lost. The Greek society after the 4th century BC presented to us such a scene of declining rivers and decline.

Stimulate the spirit of learning and creativity. In the history of world civilization, the ancient Greeks are worthy of being a nation with outstanding creations based on inheritance. Their creativity stems from their eagerness to learn, natural curiosity, and inquisitiveness. The pursuit of the bottom line and the open-minded national character prompted them to seek knowledge in every possible way, no matter where this knowledge came from. For example, the "father of history" Herodotus, the philosopher Thales and others traveled all over the East in search of true knowledge. Every corner. "Worship Eastern civilization as a teacher" was a wise man's vision at that time. "What the Greeks borrowed, whether it was Egyptian art forms or Mesopotamian mathematics and astronomy, was imprinted with the characteristics of wisdom that were unique to the Greeks. These characteristics boiled down to humility, curiosity and thoughtfulness. , eager to learn, and rich in common sense. "The various creations of ancient Greek civilization are indeed based on absorbing the excellent heritage of ancient Eastern civilization; it is the wisdom of the Greeks to move forward on the shoulders of "giants". In Plato's words, "We make everything we borrow from foreign countries more beautiful." The establishment of ancient Greek culture had a source of Eastern culture, and its own development became the source of Western culture. The creator is the real successor. Judging from the creativity of the Greeks, this statement is true.

Like freedom of thought or free thought. The freedom of thought or free thought mentioned here does not refer to a kind of innate and inner thinking activity, but to the rational understanding of thought as seen in the world. As a result, it appeared in the ancient world, and the Greeks were the earliest and most vital. German historical philosopher Karl Jaspers once clearly pointed out: "The Greek city-states laid the foundation for all free consciousness, free thoughts and free reality in the West." Modern American historian Edith Hamilton even said that among the Greeks "For the first time, the world has freedom of thought." In any case, freedom of thought and free ideas first sprouted in the Greek city-states, which were created by the high development of the slave economy and slave democracy. This is: abundant material conditions, a happy spiritual life and sufficient leisure. Time, and these have found their destination one by one in the ancient Greek city-state system and city-states that promoted democratic politics (such as Athens); in addition, in the actual life of the city-state, there was no powerful monk group and a kind of suppression. The unified religious ideology of people's freedom of thought had its own unique and inherent historical conditions compared with other places in the ancient world at that time.

Pursue the enjoyment of life and the enjoyment of this world. The Greeks attach great importance to this world. They also have the concept of Hades and Paradise, but they rarely talk about it; they also rarely consider the issues of the afterlife, and place their infinite hopes on the real world. No wonder, the ghost of Achilles said that he would rather be a hired servant in the world than go to the underworld to be the king. Even the gods in ancient Greek mythology have lost their mysterious aura. The scenes of ferocious fights and jealousy stories performed in that mythical world are nothing more than pictures of secular life filled with human interest.

God is like this, but what about people? Let’s see, they may go to the open square to attend citizens’ meetings, listen to other people’s speeches, and express their opinions impassionedly; or they may go to watch dramas, shocking tragedies and humorous comedies that criticize current ills, making them They stay up all night and linger; or go to Plato's Academy to listen to the master's lectures, understand the philosophy of life, and discuss various knowledge with each other; or go to sports to strengthen their bodies in peacetime, and join the army in war to protect the safety of the city; Five friends gathered at home to drink and talk until dawn... Meetings, reading, watching plays, listening to music, appreciating art, exercising, bathing, parties, etc. The Greeks enjoyed life to the fullest. Have fun, and in the process seek the growth of personal intelligence and the perfection of moral character. The Greeks paid attention to the present world rather than history. The historical spirit in Greek culture was pragmatism and secularism. People pursued historical knowledge because it was practical, and history became a school and training ground for people's political life. In other words, history is valuable because it allows people to better understand the present, enjoy the happiness of this world, and live a good life.

Believe in humanism and attach importance to people and their own values. There have been many discussions in the academic circles on this. Here is just an excerpt from the insight of the famous classical culture scholar Ann Bonner: "The entire Greek civilization Its starting point and object is people, it starts from people’s needs, and it pays attention to people’s interests and progress. It explores both the world and people at the same time, exploring one side and the other.” /p>

The well-known myth "The Riddle of the Sphinx" reflects the primitive ancestors' initial thinking about the status of human beings. Since then, revealing people's status, achievements and historical role can be said to have run through the entire history of Greek civilization. There, due to the development of the Greek city-state system, the role of individual citizens as the main body of the city-state was continuously reflected, thus constantly strengthening the belief in personal value, individualism and personal dignity, so much so that Protagoras, the representative of the Sophists, There, the proposition "man is the measure of all things" was put forward, which became a banner of rational thought in the Greek world from the s to the 4th century BC. At the same time, in the fields of drama and art, there was even more intentional rendering and expression. Works of human will, power, and creativity are in the world, and they have a profound enlightening effect on the world. By extension, this humanistic spirit that constitutes all aspects of Greek culture has become a model of ancient Greek civilization.

Adhering to the spirit of moderation, all the points mentioned above, such as seeking the balance between living things and the environment, moderate freedom of thought, moderate life, harmonious development of human personality and specialties, etc., are all without exception. Not permeated with this Greek idea of ??the Middle Way, this development of balance and harmony. On the contrary, the spirit of moderation they believed in restricted all aspects of the civilization of Greek city-states and the lives of city-state citizens. It is no exaggeration to say that the reason why the ancient Greek city-state civilization could last for several centuries and shine in the history of world civilization is related to the spirit of moderation. Edith Hamilton's "All the achievements of Greece are marked by this spirit." "A brand of balance" is indeed the finishing touch, and it correctly expresses the huge and potential historical role of the golden mean advocated by the Greeks. One point that needs to be supplemented here is that the golden mean of the Chinese Confucian school can be called China’s “golden mean”, which is comparable to the “golden mean” of Aristotle of ancient Greece. However, there are differences between Chinese and Western doctrines of the mean. The doctrine of the mean in ancient Greece generally belongs to the category of ethics and uses logical deduction. However, the doctrine of the mean in Chinese Confucianism has risen from an ethical concept to a world view and has "become a world view." "A high-level philosophy that regulates social contradictions to achieve a neutral state" has an obvious and strong political overtone.

The transcendence of the Greek cultural classics

The civilization of ancient Greek city-states belongs to both the ancient world and the modern world. It is said to belong to the ancient world because it followed the ancient Eastern civilization and radiated shining historical brilliance in the first millennium BC. Greek civilization was the center and pinnacle of world civilization at that time; it is said to belong to the modern world because The "Greek spirit" established by it and referred to by academic circles has transcended time and space and has been carried forward in the West and even the world, becoming an indelible historical legacy that will illuminate future generations.

If we use the concept of "Cultural Yuan Dian" created by Chinese cultural scholar Feng Tianyu to comment on the modern significance of ancient Greek civilization from the spirit of the Yuan Dian of Greek culture, it is also an important topic of special academic value. Here we only discuss I can tell you a little bit.

In our view, in terms of the national spirit and the first academic classics contained in the Greek cultural classics, except for "The Republic" (Plato), "Metaphysics" and "On Instruments" (Ari Aris) In addition to the works of sages such as Stotle, there are also "Ilion" and "Odysseus" (Homer), "Aesop's Fables" (Aesop), "Principles of Geometry" (Euclidean), "Politics" and "Poetics" (Aristotle), "Prometheus" (Ischylus), "Oedipus Ren" (Sophocles), "Medi" (Euripides), "Birds" (Aristophanes), "History" (Herodotus), "History of the Peloponnesian War" (Thucydides), etc., their handed down has become the basis of Western culture It has laid a broad foundation for development and has had a huge and far-reaching impact on the development of world culture.

Feng Tianyu said that Yuan Dian's work "is full of originality in its ideas and permanence in its themes, so Yuan Dian has transcendence based on reality." The above-mentioned works listed as Yuan Dian undoubtedly have such character and characteristics. , Wa, the "Greek national spirit" bred by it, after generations of inheritance, enrichment, interpretation and development, has gradually been integrated into the collective consciousness of Western society, and has become a historical tradition that affects Western society and even world civilization. Humanity Civilization has continued to make progress in this process.

Marx once spoke highly of the achievements of Greek art and epic poetry, believing that it has "eternal charm" and "and in a certain respect is a normative and unattainable model." In fact, the lasting charm of ancient Greek civilization goes beyond art and epics. As the classical spirit of ancient Greek culture has been promoted and reconstructed again and again, the modern value of ancient Greek civilization has been pursued and created again and again (the Renaissance in the modern West) can be called a model). In this process, people can't help but feel the originality and unforgettable "eternal charm" of the Greek Yuancan spirit. This is also the "eternal charm" contained and emanated from ancient Greek civilization and Greek culture.