A peaceful, evolutionary and quietly successful continuation of Dr. Sun Yat-sen's Revolution of "Nationalist, Democracy and the People's Welfare" (San Min Chu I or the "Three Principles of the People) has been under way for the last three years. It is the Chinese Cultural Renaissance movement, which was begun on November 12, 1966, and which may be considered the constructive answer to the destruction of Mao Tse-tung's "great proletarian cultural revolution" on the Chinese mainland.
The Chinese Cultural Renaissance combines both old and new. Values from 5,000 years of Chinese history and culture are a fundamental part of the movement. So are the forward-looking concepts of Dr. Sun, the Founding Father of the Republic of China, who was a lifelong advocate of the scientific method and a zealot in the cause of Chinese modernization. Democratic-minded people of free China and 18 million overseas Chinese find themselves at home in the under takings of Cultural Renaissance because the ground is familiar and the basic values are those for which China has always stood.
Unlike Mao's "cultural revolution", Chinese Cultural Renaissance offers neither ballyhoo nor excesses. It follows the Confucian precept that men are differentiated not by their nature but by their learning and practice. There is also exemplification of what Confucius had in his mind when he said: "When walking in a party of three, I always have teachers. I can select the good qualities of the one for imitation and the bad ones of the other for correction in myself."
The Maoist "cultural revolution" sought to destroy the "four olds" of ideas, culture, habits and customs. Cultural Renaissance preserves these but without sanctifying them - protecting what is good, reforming what is bad and creating in the synthesis a Chinese culture that is both old and new and suited to both the Chinese character and the environment of modern times., "Cultural revolution" destroyed education on the mainland. Cultural Renaissance has extended and expanded the minimum of assured education for every young person and enlarged the content of science to reinforce the usual curricula and provide acquaintance with China's great heritage.
Cultural Renaissance recruits no Red Guards. Its workers and practitioners are volunteers. The Chinese culture which they are advancing is a reflection of their lives and way of thinking. This is more than an undertaking of reply to Mao's attempt to tear down China and everything Chinese. Renaissance is an on-going of China and the Chinese, a rebirth that preserves the ethos of the past while stressing the inspirations of the present in order to meet the challenges and tests of today and 'tomorrow.
As a constructive movement, Chinese Culture Renaissance began, appropriately enough, with the dedication of a work of construction. This was the beautiful Chinese-style Chungshan. Building at scenic Yangmingshan (Grass Mountain) in suburban Taipei. The structure honors Sun Yat-sen and its doors were opened on his 101st birthday (100th according to Western reckoning) three years ago. "Chungshan" is the courtesy name by which Dr. Sun is known to the Chinese people.
Addressing nearly 2,000 officials, scholars and other dignitaries at the dedication ceremony, President Chiang Kai-shek declared that Chinese culture is centered on Confucian teachings, is reinforced by Dr. Sun's Three Principles of the People and therefore is indestructible. "The more violently it has been assailed, the stronger, healthier, brighter, greater and more durable Chinese culture has become," he said.
The President noted that Taiwan was "the unique treasure house conserving all the best in China's literature and artifacts" but said the people had been unable to see many of the treasures in "architectural settings doing justice to traditional culture". This led to the government decision to construct the Chungshan Building.
The structure has a main auditorium, the Chinese Cultural Hall, which seats 1,800. There is a dining room for 1,500, conference rooms, library and offices. Architectural design and interior decoration express the building's purpose of enhancing and disseminating the rich variety of Chinese culture.
Soon after the Chungshan Building dedication, the November 12 birthday anniversary of Dr. Sun was proclaimed as Chinese CuItural Renaissance Day. President Chiang did so at the request of 1,500 scholars, including Dr. Sun Fo, son of Dr. Sun Yat-sen; Kung Teh-cheng, 77th generation lineal descendant of Confucius; Archbishop (now Cardinal) Paul Yupin; and former Deputy Prime Minister Wang Yun-wu.
Many other events of cultural significance marked the 101st anniversary of Dr. Sun's birth. Sun Yat-sen Cultural and Academic Awards of NT$50,000 (US$1,250) were presented to 21 writers, artists, scientists and scholars. Social Education Week was begun and citizens cited for their contributions.
The Council on Promotion of the Chinese Cultural Renaissance Movement was inaugurated at the Chungshan Building on July 28, 1967. President Chiang heads the council. Hundreds of branches have been set up in Taiwan and overseas. There are 81 committees for Taiwan province, the special municipality of Taipei, the offshore islands of Kinmen and Matsu, and for the colleges and universities of Taiwan. Each of the 20 hsien (county) and city governments under the Taiwan Provincial Government has a branch office. Public and private schools below the college level are participating.
Overseas offices number 17 and are increasing. They are found in Australia, Brazil, (Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo), Canada, India, Japan, Mauritius, Mexico, New Zealand, Panama, Peru, the Philippines, Portugal, Spain, Thailand and the United States (Cultural Renaissance Promotion Committees of New York and of Eastern U.S. Chinese Youths).
One of the initial tasks of the council was preparation of a "Code of National Life". This was published in newspapers in April of 1968. The council has distributed more than 1.5 million copies of the code in booklet form. Additional copies, many of them illustrated, have been circulated by newspapers and other agencies.
Radio and TV stations have presented many programs based on the code. The post office issued stamps illustrating various aspects of correct behavior. Liberty Lottery tickets have conveyed similar teachings to millions.
"Youth Activities Guidelines" have inspired inter-school contests with awards given some 50 primary and secondary schools. The council's Taipei branch and China Youth Corps sponsored student activity demonstrations at the China Sports and Cultural Center July 8, 1968. More than 12,000 students attended.
The Ministry of Interior drafted "Rules of Etiquette". These have been screened by specialists and approved by the council. Their announcement is expected soon. The ministry is working on a set of guidelines for proper dress.
The "happy family" campaign started under the Cultural Renaissance has reached 25,000 individual homes through various women's organizations. Model families have been chosen and cited.
In art and literature, these activities have been recorded:
- An Art and Literature Conference in Taipei in May of 1968 was attended by more than 300 representatives from Taiwan and overseas. One hundred resolutions were passed and then backed up by concrete action. New magazines have been established.
- Medals and cash awards have been given literary workers by the Ministry of Education's Cultural Bureau, the Committee for the Guidance of New Art and Literature Activities Among Servicemen, the Chungshan Scholarship Fund and the Art and Literature Association.
- Music Year was observed in 1968. Concerts were given, composition encouraged and the playing of ancient musical instruments revived.
- A drama troupe toured Taiwan and visited Hongkong and the Philippines to present the story of Emperor Wu of the Han dynasty. He reigned from 140 to 86 B.C. and was an enthusiastic patron of literature.
- Confucian rites have been brought into line with ancient practice. Costumes and musical instruments are more authentic.
- To encourage Chinese opera, the Ministry of National Defense set up a special committee to prepare 30 new scenarios and improve 127 old ones in a period of three years. Opera troupes of the armed forces are among the nation's best.
- To promote Sino-American cultural exchange, the National Museum of History in Taipei signed a three-year cooperation agreement with St. John's University in New York. Teaching materials on Chinese philosophy, history and fine arts have been sent to St. John's. Artifacts and reproductions have been loaned or presented for public showing in the United States.
- More than 300 representatives from Taiwan and abroad attended a three-day Journalism Conference in Taipei in June of this year. One of the eight resolutions urged promotion of the cultural movement through mass communications media.
Extension of free schooling from six to nine years in the autumn of 1968 is an important cultural step. Revised textbooks emphasizing ethics, democracy and science have been placed in elementary and junior high schools. Postgraduate work in literature and history has been expanded. The Cultural Bureau is sponsoring biweekly public lectures on cultural subjects.
Schools in overseas Chinese communities are accentuating the teaching of Chinese and Chinese culture. Textbooks and teaching materials come from Taiwan. Supplementary Chinese language classes have been set up in 22 foreign locations. New Chinese language classes have been established in Taiwan for foreign and overseas Chinese students.
The Academic Studies, Publication and Promotion Committee of the Cultural Renaissance Council is in charge of recompiling and reissuing Chinese classics, propagating Dr. Sun's teachings and President Chiang's writings, and translating and introducing works on modern science. The purpose is not merely to pro mote traditional virtues but also to bring the best of world culture into the mainstream of Chinese life.
Choice of Dr. Sun's birthday as Chinese Cultural Renaissance Day is appropriate. Much of Dr. Sun's genius lay in his ability to combine old values with the scientific method.
Born in 1866, Sun was brought up in the Confucian tradition. He later tried to interpret and identify himself with humanistic aspects of Chinese history and philosophy. In describing his cultural preferences, Dr. Sun wrote:
"In Chinese I like the writings of the Three Dynasties and the two Hans. In Western writing I am fond of Darwin. I have also read logic and politics. In religion I worship Jesus Christ. As for individuals, I admire China's Tang and Wu and America's George Washington."
The Three Dynasties were the Hsia, Shang and Chou. They span the ancient period of China's history from the 22nd to 3rd centuries B.C. The two Hans are the Western Han dynasty (206 B.C.-9 A.D) and the Eastern Han (25-220 A.D.). Tang was the founder of the Shang dynasty in the 18th century B.C. and Wu was the founder of the Chou dynasty in the 12th century B.C.
In the face of incredible odds, Dr. Sun labored for changes in Chinese life and politics. Seeking to free the Chinese from the shackles of superstition, autocracy and foreign domination, he urged identification of the people with China as an independent nation. His goal was Ito bring China into the modern world in an equal and honored place. His thoughts were always of China. He was first and foremost a Chinese.
Nevertheless, Dr. Sun was one of the most Westernized of the Chinese of his time and spent most of his life outside China. His longest periods of residence ill China were the first 12 and the last 9 years of his of 59 years. He lived in Hawaii, Europe and Japan. He made at least four trips to the United States. Even during the rough sailing following the Revolution of 1911, he maintained his contacts and correspondence with Westerners in many walks of life. His foreign studies, contacts and experiences profoundly influenced his cast of mind and his approach to the problems of his country.
Although the mainland of China has been in Communist hands since 1949, nearly all Chinese are agreed that Communism is not the end that Dr. Sun had in mind for the country. Dr. Sun's thinking was never that of a Communist. He never stopped trying to work out a synthesis of Western democracy and Confucian tradition. Examples are his promotion of Chinese nationalism by associating it with the family, the clans and the ancient virtues of China. Tragically, Dr. Sun died in 1925 before he was able to complete the foundations for a China in which tradition was adapted to the needs of the 20th century.
The Chinese Communist Party, which was founded in the summer of 1921, took advantage of Dr. Sun's demise and at first pretended to take over his Revolution. But Chinese Communism rejects Confucianism and the other traditional values of China. There is a great gulf between the ideas and principles of Dr. Sun, who believed in Confucian harmony, the golden mean and universal brotherhood, and the ideology of the Peiping leaders who are destroying the Chinese family and regimenting the Chinese people with a ruthlessness that appalls even the Communists of other lands.
Close examination reveals that San Min Chu I faithfully and correctly presents the essence of China's culture. The San Min Chu culture of the Cultural Renaissance movement fits the needs of China and has contributions for the rest of a troubled world.
Dr. Sun's Min Tsu Chu I (the Principle' of Nationalism) seeks the adjustment of Chinese racial problems through accommodation. Ties of love are to involve every individual in a relationship with family members, neighbors, clansmen and fellow countrymen.
Min Chuan Chu I (the Principle of Democracy) teaches the difference between rights and powers, the five-way division of government power, the delegation of authority and local self-government.
Under Min Sheng Chu I (the Principle of the People's Livelihood) come food, clothing, housing, transportation, nurture and recreation - the six indispensable elements of life. Science is essential to successful implementation of this principle.
Dr. Sun's emphasis on Chinese culture was wise and natural. Experience is not lost in either individuals or in nations. The Chinese are an old and sophisticated race. The ancient China of pomp and ceremony is joined to today's China by a thread of more informal lucidity that must be recognized if the modern scene is to be understood.
Chinese history has been highlighted by eras of brilliant cultural achievements that emerged in an atmosphere of peace and stability. However, these have alternated with periods of retrogression, stagnation and confusion. Nineteenth-century China was at a particularly low ebb in cultural history when the modernization of the West exploded on her doorstep.
When the Japanese war of 1894-1895 dealt a heavy blow to a China already tottering under the Manchus, public indignation led Ito attempts at modernization. In the "great cultural debates" that started late in the 19th century, there were proponents of "Chinese substance and Western application", conservatives (including bigots, extremists and revivalists), sceptics, Westernizers, guardians of Chinese essence and transcendentalists.
Dr. Sun's Hsing Chung Hui (Society for Rebuilding China) was organized while he was in Honolulu in 1894. This was a predecessor of the Kuomintang (Nationalist Party).
In China, Kang Yu-wei and Liang Chi-chao organized what - they called the Society for the Study of National Rejuvenation. Kang wrote papers protesting against the Treaty of Shimonoseki and demanded reforms. His petition was adopted by Kuang-hsu, the young emperor, and an extraordinary period known as the Hundred Days Reform began late in April of 1898. But the conservatives under the Empress Dowager took alarm and moved against the emperor. The empress announced her second regency August 6. The period of reform was short-lived but led to subsequent attempts to change things.
At the conclusion of World War I in 1918, China should have pressed at the Paris Peace Conference for Japanese withdrawal of their "21 demands" and of their troops from Tsingtao in Shantung province. When word of the Chinese delegation's failure Ito do so reached home, thousands of college students joined in Pei ping a protest demonstration on May 4 of 1919. This led to the May 4th Movement under the slogan of science and democracy. Many intellectuals advocated use of the vernacular language instead of the classical writing style, which they said was a stumbling block in the way of popular education.
The Hundred Days Reform and other cultural movements that followed tended to involve slogans that had neither content nor widespread support. These movements were short-lived or unproductive. The May 4th Movement was literary rather than cultural.
The San Min Chu I Revolution has been wholly different. It has substantial content and aims at thoroughgoing reform. San Min Chu I is a new cultural expression, one that has inherited the best of Chinese tradition. The San Min Chu I culture is based on ethics, democracy and science and is fitted to become the main current of human thought.
The Renaissance of the West started Europeans on the road to modernization. People were given the courage to tackle the problems of this world. The God-centered view of the universe gave way to one in which man became more important. Applied to politics, this led to the rise of democracy.
The Industrial Revolution subsequently pushed the West's material civilization far ahead of the rest of the world. The simultaneous rise of capitalism and imperialism brought tragedy to weaker peoples. The Communists have carried the misuse of science to a further extreme.
In his inaugural address January 20, President Richard Nixon of the United States said that although the Americans are now conquering the space, they "have endured a long night of the American spirit". This implies that the culture of the West has reached a point where a second Renaissance is essential to as sure the emergence of a better world through ethics, democracy and science. In moving toward this goal, the Chinese Cultural Renaissance Movement has followed these lines:
1. Practice and enforcement of San Min Chu I.
2. Political, social and welfare reconstruction.
3. Creation and reconstruction, fulfillment of combat missions, and the rationalization and modernization of national life to assure all-round, long-range reconstruction.
4. Renewal of such traditional virtues as benevolence and justice to enhance the personality of the nation and cultivate a spirit facilitating the counteroffensive and national recovery.
5. Anti-Mao and anti-Communist struggle to defend and revive Chinese culture.
Dr. Sun Yat-sen envisaged a China that the Communists could never attain. And it is Dr. Sun's China that more than 700 million Chinese people want brought into existence and perfected. This is why Communism is a mere passing phase of Chinese history and doomed to fall as surely as have other dictatorships and totalitarianisms. Given new energy and confidence by the Cultural Renaissance movement, the Revolution of San Min Chu I will bring freedom and democracy, unity, and peace and prosperity to the new China of tomorrow.