The Cultural Gene and Historical Experience of China’s Peaceful Development

Peng Zongchao Lu Lu

The Western society pays close attention to Chinas development, draws supposed commonalities between China and the emerging powers that have competed for international power in history, and uses the “Thucydides Trap” to continuously amplify the “threat” posed by the growth of Chinas national strength. This point of view is based on the historical practice of Western countries that take competition as the supreme value and stems from the Western logic that “a strong country will seek hegemony”. However, the core fallacy of applying such stereotypes to Chinas development lies in the lack of a genuine understanding of Chinas cultural traditions and historical practices. The thought of peaceful development is the inherent gene of the Chinese culture. Chinas gene for peace refers to the ideological, cultural and historical tradition that has been passed down from generation to generation by the Chinese nation to deal with interpersonal, social and international relations based on the principles of “harmony and peace the most precious”, “harmony in diversity”, and “peace, concord and harmony”, including the corresponding beliefs, principles, values and historical practices. Excavating and interpreting Chinas peaceful gene will not only help clarify the misunderstanding and prejudice of Western countries toward Chinas development in order to refute the “China Threat Theory” and the “Thucydides Trap” but also help strengthen our historical and cultural consciousness of unswervingly following the path of peaceful development.

The Cultural Gene of Chinas Peaceful Development: “Harmony and Cooperation Culture”

“Harmony and cooperation” is the core concept of the Chinese traditional philosophy and culture. The idea of “harmony and cooperation” in the Chinese traditional culture first pursues the value of “harmony”, that is, “In practicing the rules of propriety, a natural ease is to be prized.” This means the proper and harmony is precious. The second pursuit is to emphasize harmony in diversity. “The superior man is affable, but not adulatory” That is, we should respect objective differences and seek an ideal way to maintain the independence of each subject while giving full play to their respective strengths and integrating symbiosis. Finally, we should pay attention to “peace, concord and harmony”, which ranges from self-cultivation to social relations, national governance and international relations.

In dealing with interpersonal relations, the Chinese people advocate “concord”. The Chinese people are accustomed to “concord”, or friendly interpersonal interaction. The pursuit of harmony and the avoidance of conflict have become inherent characteristics rooted in Chinese culture. “Now the man of perfect virtue, wishing to be established himself, seeks also to establish others; wishing to be enlarged himself, he seeks also to enlarge others.” The Chinese people follow the lenient and harmonious way of life that encourages one to put others before oneself and strive to create an interpersonal harmonious environment. The Chinese people also advocate humility and peace. The historical legends of the Boyi giving up the kingship to his brother Shuqi in the Shang dynasty; and the story of 6 Meters Lane, in which Prime Minister Zhang Ying suggested that mother, who still lived in their hometown, to concede 3 meters to reconcile a homestead border dispute with her neighbor, after which her neighbor also conceded 3 meters, forming a 6 Meters Lane between the two houses in the Qing dynasty, all reflect the Chinese peoples time-honored spirit of comity and seeking peace since ancient times.

In dealing with social relations, the Chinese culture advocates “harmony”. “He was able to make the able and virtuous distinguished, and thence proceeded to the love of the nine classes of his kindred, who all became harmonious. He also regulated and polished the people of his domain, who all became brightly intelligent. Finally, he united and harmonized the myriad States of the empire; and lo! The black-haired people were transformed. The result was universal concord.” That is, first, we should manage our family well so that we can love each other and live in harmony; then, we should pursue the comfort of the people, the stability and harmony of the society, and the peace of all nations. “Harmony” guides the social cooperation relations of different stakeholders in the country. “There are the rectification of the peoples virtue, the conveniences of life, and the securing abundant means of sustentation, these must be harmoniously attended to.” The country adheres to righteousness, utilization, welfare, and harmony so that virtue and benevolent government can benefit more people.

In dealing with international relations, the Chinese nation pursues “peace”. Since ancient times, China has advocated such concept as: “If the people of the world all love each other, the strong would not dominate the weak, the many would not plunder the few, the rich would not despise the poor, the noble would not scorn the lowly, and the cunning would not deceive the foolish”. It has put forward the admonition that a big but warlike country will surely perish itself. “Thus, even though a state must be vast, those who love warfare will inevitably perish. Even though calm may prevail under Heaven, those who forget warfare will certainly be endangered.” The Chinese nation has handed down reflections on peace from generation to generation, such as turning hostility into friendship. “In ancient times, Emperor Kun of Hsia built a towering wall; but the Lords rebelled and the distant people became suspicious and wily. And so Yu, seeing the opposition of the kingdoms, erased this wall to the ground and filled in the moats, scattered the wealth accumulated, burnt the implements of war and administered the empire on the principles of virtue, not of force. As a result, the distant people brought their tributes and the barbarian tribes their offerings. The concord sealed at the conclave of the Lords, at Tu Shan, resulted in valuable tributes from myriad kingdoms.” “Under heaven the great harmonious society”.

Different from traditional Chinese culture, the Western culture pays more attention to the supremacy of competition and the assumption of conflict relationships. The struggle and opposition between God and man run through ancient Greek mythology. Medieval Christianity once preached about the opposition between gods and devils. The “Abrahamic religions” (Judaism, Christianity, Islam) all believe in only one supreme or main god and regard other beliefs as heresy.

The peace gene of Chinese culture transcends the competitive zero-sum game thinking advocated by the Western school of realism, inherits the tradition of respecting the differences between different subjects in Chinese traditional culture, and advocates the concept of harmony and cooperation, thereby giving full play to the respective comparative advantages of these values and achieving win-win cooperation. After experiencing creative transformation and innovative development, the “harmony and cooperation culture” is found to be suitable for handling political party relations, ethnic relations and class relations within the country. It has also become an important ideological source and value for China to follow in order to carry out international exchanges.

The historical experience of Chinas peaceful development: a strong country upholds peace and national hegemony will decline

General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out that “Peace, concord, and harmony are ideas the Chinese nation has pursued and carried forward for more than 5,000 years. The Chinese nation does not carry aggressive or hegemonic traits in its genes”. The peace gene of the Chinese nation exists not only in the tradition of ideology and culture but also in the tradition of historical practice. The main political tradition accumulated by the historical experience of the Chinese nation is “a strong country advocates harmony rather than hegemony”.

Peaceful development is integrated into the cultural gene of the Chinese nation. During the heyday of the Spring and Autumn Period (770 B.C.-476 B.C.), the alliance changed from a traditional military alliance of mutual annexation and common interests among the vassal states to a bond of eliminating disputes and uniting the vassal states. Duke Huan of Qi called on the vassal lords to “honor the king and resist the barbarians”. The most influential league meeting then was in K‘wei-k‘?w. Duke Kwei-ch‘ow also called on the vassal lords to make a covenant at Ts?en-t‘oo. During this period, the number of wars was greatly reduced, and the society was peaceful. The Tang dynasty and the Tubo dynasty established a “peace and kinship” relationship and achieved long-term close and peaceful exchanges. In 1005 A.D., the Northern Song dynasty and the Liao kingdom concluded the “Alliance of Chanyuan” after weighing the advantages and disadvantages of military action. In the following 120 years, in addition to disarmament and mutual respect, the two countries always sent envoys to notify each other once major domestic events or wars happened, which benefited the economic and social development and cultural exchanges of both sides.

There is no cultural gene for hegemony in the blood of the Chinese nation. In the period of strong national powers, as long as the surrounding regimes did not infringe on the core interests, the foreign policies of the Central Plains dynasties were mainly lenient. Historically, tributary countries such as Korea and Vietnam have each had their own complete state institutions. The Central Plains dynasties did not interfere with their internal affairs, did not annex their territories, and there was no exploitative relationship. Therefore, in some periods, the Central Plains dynasties limited the number and scale of tributaries due to the excessive burden of their returned awards on the tributary countries.

The foreign policy of the Chinese nation has always attached great importance to peaceful exchanges and cooperation. Zheng Hes voyages during the Ming dynasty did not rely on the army, nor carrying out military occupation and unequal trade, but instead relied on a real journey of peaceful exchanges. However, some European countries started the colonial expansion and foreign wars by plundering the Americas, Asia and Africa after the great voyages. In the political tradition of the Western countries, war is a way to seize territory, resources, population and wealth to achieve international hegemony. The old path of the Western countries development based on hegemony, colonization and war has brought huge disasters to mankind. “What you do not want done to yourself, do not do to others.” (The Confucian Analects of Book XV WEI LING KUNG) Thus, China resolutely refuses to take the development path of hegemony that relies on aggression and expansion.

The path of peaceful development leads Chinas future

The Communist Party of China (CPC) is the faithful inheritor and promoter of Chinas fine traditional culture. Unswervingly adhering to the path of peaceful development is a strategic choice made by China in accordance with the development trend of the times and the fundamental interests of the country.

Since the founding of the Peoples Republic of China, “harmony” has been one of the key words in the governments policies on diplomatic relations. The CPC, with Comrade Mao Zedong as the main representative, insists on independence, resolutely safeguards national sovereignty and territorial integrity, and advocates the basic norms of international relations with the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence as the core. In response to a series of anti-Communist frictions caused by the Kuomintang die-hards, Comrade Mao Zedong proposed as follows: “We will not attack unless we are attacked; we are attacked, we will certainly counter-attack”. This statement can also be applied to the struggle for the maintenance of national sovereignty after the founding of the Peoples Republic of China, including the war to resist U.S. aggression and aiding Korea from 1950 to 1953, the Self-Defense Counterattack on the Sino-Indian Border in 1962 and the Self-Defense Counterattack against Vietnam in 1979. According to the development and changes of the international situation, Comrade Deng Xiaoping concluded that “peace and development are the two major issues of the contemporary world”, and opening up has become a basic national policy of China. In the handling of international relations, China insists that international disputes should not be based on ideology; rather, they should be handled with the guiding principle of shelving disputes and joint development, expounding the oath of “China will never seek hegemony”. Comrade Jiang Zemin further deepened the understanding of peace and development, believing that “the pursuit of peace, cooperation and development has become the mainstream of the times. The factors for maintaining world peace are constantly increasing. In a long period of time, it is possible to avoid a new world war and to strive for a good international peace environment and surrounding environment”. Focusing on comprehensive security in the handling of state relations, a new security concept of “mutual trust, mutual benefit, equality and cooperation” has been proposed. Comrade Hu Jintao examined the development of China and the world with the scientific concept of development and put forward that “the most distinctive features of Chinas peaceful development path are scientific development, independent development, open development, peaceful development, cooperative development and common development”, thus striving to build a harmonious world with various civilizations.

General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out that “Chinas adherence to the peaceful development path is a strategic choice and a solemn commitment.” China adheres to the path of peaceful development, builds a new type of international relations with win-win cooperation as the core, and promotes to build a community with a shared future for mankind. At the same time, it clarifies the principles and bottom line of Chinas peaceful development, namely, “We will never relinquish our legitimate rights and interests, or allow Chinas core interests to be compromised” and “We should forge a global partnership at both international and regional levels, and embrace a new approach to state-to-state relations, one that features dialogue rather than confrontation, and seeks partnership rather than alliance”.

Different countries will have different social and political relationship models due to differences in historical conditions and cultural traditions; they will also have different foreign policy orientations in international competition. China needs a stable domestic environment and a peaceful international environment. Chinas development does not rely on transferring problems and contradictions to other countries, nor does it develop itself by plundering other countries. In various complex situations, China has always adhered to an independent foreign policy of peace, advocated for and adhered to the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence, and handled international relations from the perspective of national strategic interests. Clearly, our goal of pursuing peace and the state of peacekeeping also have a bottom line and principles. Our national sovereignty, security and development interests cannot be violated.

Chinas peaceful development path is rooted in the fine traditional Chinese culture that has been nurtured by the Chinese nations more than 5,000 years of civilization, thereby creating a new situation in the diplomacy of major countries. This is not only an important part of the CPC peace gene, and it also fundamentally denies the outdated logic of “a strong country must seek hegemony”; thus, it provides a Chinese solution for maintaining world peace and promoting common development.

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Peng Zongchao is Director of Center for Crisis Management Research at the Tsinghua University.

Lu Lu is Associate Researcher of Research Center of General Administration of Customs of the Peoples Republic of China