世界四种传统文化略说

The Brief Account of the Four Traditional Cultures in the World

人们常常把世界文化分为东方文化和西方文化,这种文化的"东西两分法"不符合历史事实。自从上古两河流域文化和尼罗河流域文化消亡之后,欧亚大陆上的许多文化摇篮渐渐聚合成四种地区传统文化:东亚文化、南亚文化、西亚文化和西欧文化。西欧文化扩大到美洲,称西方文化。东亚、南亚和西亚合称东方。东亚是东方的一部分,不能代表整个东方。东亚文化以华夏文化为基础,发源于黄河流域,传到长江和珠江流域;传到越南、朝鲜和日本。南亚文化以印度吠陀文化为基础,印度的主体民族和主流文化都是外来的,多民族、多语言、多文字、多宗教,是印度的特色。西亚文化以伊斯兰教为基础。西欧的文艺复兴得力于阿拉伯文转译的古代希腊著作。西方文化包括西欧和北美,以希腊和罗马文化为基础。从文艺复兴到启蒙运动这500年间,西方文化发生了改换人间的突变。以上四种地区传统文化的精华,随着人群活动范围的扩大,聚合成覆盖全球的国际现代文化,同时保留各地的传统文化。凡是能为全人类造福并受到全人类欢迎的事物和意识,合成"共创、共有、共享"的国际现代文化;凡是没有被全人类认同的,仍旧保留在传统文化之中。现代是地区传统文化和国际现代文化相辅相成的双文化时代。

People usually divide the world culture into the east culture and west culture. This ＂east and west division＂ does not accord with the historical fact. Since the vanish of the ancient two rivers valley culture and the Nile river valley culture, The many cultural cradles in European and Asian continent have gradually assembled into four traditional cultures： east Asia culture, south Asia culture, west Asia culture and the west European culture. The west European culture, after expanding to America, becomes the west culture. East Asia, South Asia and West Asia are called the East. The East Asia is one part of the East cannot stand for the whole East. The East Asia Culture, based on the Huaxia Culture, is originated from the Yellow Valley and then spread to the Yangtze and the Pearl River valleys, to Vietnam, Korea and Japan. The South culture is based India culture. The main nation and the main trend of culture are foreign and the feature of India is multiple nations, multiple languages, multiple writings and multiple religions. The West Culture is based on Islam. The west European Renaissance benefits from the ancient Greek works translated from Arabic writings. The West Culture including the west Europe and the North America is based on the Greek and Roman cultures. From Renaissance to the Enlightenment, the West Culture has taken the changes which affect the human society. The four traditional cultures mentioned above have become the international modern culture which covers the whole world along with the expansion of human activities and at the same time it still remains the traditional cultures of various regions. What can be used for the happiness of the whole people in the world have combined into the international modern culture and what cannot be recognized by the whole people in the world still remain in the traditional cultures. Modern time is the bilateral cultures in which the regional cultures are interweaved with the international modern culture.