Page 5 - ON BUILDING A HUMAN COMMUNITY WITH A SHARED FUTURE

ON BUILDING A HUMAN COMMUNITY WITH A SHARED FUTURE

Chinese intellectual horizons. Exchanges between the Chinese and other
civilizations grew more frequent still, and while they were not without
conflicts, frictions, doubts, and rejections, they were more about learning,
digesting, integration, and innovation.
Buddhism was born in ancient India, but after entering China it
went through a long period of change and developed in fusion with
Confucianism and Taoism, ultimately producing a kind of Buddhist
culture with Chinese characteristics. This had a deep influence on the
Chinese people’s religious beliefs, philosophy, literature, art, etiquette, and
customs. What we see in Xuanzang (Hiuen Tsang), the Tang Dynasty
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monk who braved hardship and adversity as he journeyed to the west for
Buddhist scriptures, is the Chinese people’s determination and fortitude
in learning from other cultures. I imagine you’ve heard of the Chinese
classic Journey to the West, which was based on his story. The Chinese
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people continued to develop Buddhist thought based on Chinese culture
and produced their own form of Buddhist theory. They also prompted
the spread of Buddhism to Japan, Korea, Southeast Asia, and beyond.
Over the course of some 2,000 years, Buddhism, Islam, and
then Christianity were introduced to China, and our music, painting,
and literature continuously absorbed much of value from foreign
civilizations. The delightful style of Chinese freehand oil painting was
a new form created by combining Chinese traditional painting and
Western oil painting, and the works of its masters like Xu Beihong have
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enjoyed wide acclaim. China’s Four Great Inventions — papermaking,
gunpowder, printing, and the compass, led to changes around the world,
one of which being the European Renaissance. Chinese philosophy,
literature, medicine, silk, porcelain, and tea reached the West and became
part of people’s everyday lives, and The Travels of Marco Polo generated
significant interest in China.
I imagine you have heard of the terracotta warriors, the buried
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legions of Emperor Qin. French President Jacques Chirac, after visiting
the site, commented that just as a visit to Egypt isn’t complete without
seeing the pyramids, a visit to China isn’t complete without seeing the
terracotta warriors. In 1987, this national cultural treasure, which had lain
buried for over 2,000 years, was added to the UNESCO World Cultural
Heritage list. A great many achievements of the Chinese civilization have

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