How great was Toynbee as a historian?

Later Western scholars even ranked him with Albert Einstein, Russell and others, and praised the book "Historical Research" as "one of the most important periods in the spiritual history of the 20th century". Pen, fun, pavilion www. biquge。 info

"Historical Research" is mainly about civilization, and its generation, development, decline, disintegration, and demise. Many of the ideas in the book were common knowledge to later generations of high school and college students, but they were groundbreaking in the 20th century.

In general, the history studied by historians in the past belongs to microhistory, and a certain period, a certain dynasty, and a certain country are studied separately. Toynbee, on the other hand, pioneered the study of macrohistory, which looked at the whole of human history as a whole and revealed it as it really was from a philosophical perspective.

In fact, the book "Guns, Bacteria and Steel" that Zhou Hexuan copied before is strictly speaking a macro-historical work, but the research direction is biased towards anthropology and sociology.

At this time, the two sat on the podium, and Luo Jialun, president of Tsinghua University, sat in the first row and personally served as their conversation recorder. One by one, the students picked up pen and paper and listened attentively to the conversation between the two masters.

Zhou Hexuan said with a smile: "Mr. Toynbee, the content of my lecture just now is called "The History of Human Civilization", which was inspired by your series of essays on "Historical Forms". ”

"It's a great honor," Toynbee said, "that, in fact, I started thinking about civilization six years ago." However, due to the delay of too many things, I did not start writing until last year, and some of Mr. Zhou's views are more mature than mine. ”

Zhou Hexuan said bluntly: "Mr. Toynbee, I do not fully agree with the form of civilization or the form of history that you expounded in your paper. ”

"Oh, why?" Toynbee asked curiously.

Zhou Hexuan said: "The arguments you use to expound the historical concept of civilization form mainly come from Western history, especially Greek history. I admit that your argument is wonderful, but you regard the special experiences and paths of development of ancient Greece, ancient Rome, and the Western world as the universal laws of development of all civilizations. I don't think it makes sense to study and explain other civilizations through this law of development, because you ignore the characteristics of each civilization. ”

"No, no, no," Toynbee resolutely refused to admit his mistakes, saying, "When we study historical civilizations, we should throw out individuality and explore the commonalities of civilizations." ”

"Of course, civilizations have commonalities, but you regard certain characteristics of Western civilization as the commonalities of all civilizations," Zhou Hexuan said with a smile, "With all due respect, your position is actually Western-centrism, and Western civilization represents the history of the development of civilization, which is a very biased approach." ”

Toynbee was not angry and said, "Please give an example. ”

Zhou Hexuan said: "For example, your theory of unified religion, I don't think there is any unified religion in China. ”

"Isn't Buddhism?" Toynbee asked rhetorically.

"Of course not," Zhou Hexuan said to the students in the audience with a smile, "which of you believe in Buddhism?" ”

Tsinghua is still a church school, founded by a U.S. grant, and Luo Jialun is working to transform Tsinghua into a national university.

Since it is a church university supported by the United States, English is a language that must be mastered, and all the students present can understand what they are talking about. Hearing Zhou Hexuan's question in English, the students who believe in Buddhism immediately raised their hands, and the result was only seven or eight.

Zhou Hexuan said: "I saw it. ”

Toynbee said: "The development of science inevitably led many people to abandon religious beliefs, but in ancient China, Buddhism was indeed a unified religion. ”

"Otherwise," Zhou Hexuan analyzed, "in my opinion, if there is really a unified religion in China, it can only be Confucianism." Later, Confucianism has had certain religious characteristics, but it has always been specious and has not been a religion in the traditional sense. ”

Toynbee said: "In any case, there are still many Buddhist ideas in Chinese society, such as the reincarnation of each kind, which is the proof of Confucianism as a unified religion." Unlike Europe, the unified religion in China does not have a church, but in terms of influence, Buddhism meets the characteristics of all unified religions. ”

"Chinese are never sincere believers," Zhou Hexuan said with a smile, "Mr. Toynbee, you can go to a devout Buddhist and take him to a Taoist temple, and see if he will burn incense and kowtow to Taoist gods." ”

Toynbee explains: "After Buddhism was introduced to China, it underwent a great deal of indigenization, and it was actually polytheistic. Therefore, the fact that Buddhist believers bow down to other gods does not deny the fact that Buddhism was once the unified religion in China. ”

Zhou Hexuan did not defend himself, but asked: "Mr. Toynbee, have you heard of the unity of the three religions?" ”

"Three religions in one?" Toynbee was a little confused.

Zhou Hexuan said: "According to my understanding, the characteristics of Chinese civilization lie in its strong inclusiveness. Whether it is culture, science, religion, no matter how strong these foreign objects are, in China they must eventually be localized and tolerated and absorbed. The core spirit of Chinese civilization is the idea of 'the unity of heaven and man', which is the premise of the study of Chinese civilization, which originated in the Western Zhou Dynasty and is recorded in the Book of Changes, which is the general outline of the development of Chinese civilization for thousands of years. Both Confucianism and Taoism follow this ideological principle, but their attitudes and pursuits are different. Even after Buddhism was introduced to China, it must also conform to this idea, the most representative of which is Zen Buddhism. ”

Toynbee knew that heaven and man were one, and he also studied Zhu Xi, Wang Yangming and other figures, but he did not recognize the unity of heaven and man as the core idea of Chinese civilization. He did not immediately refute, but asked, "Then what is the integration of the three religions?" ”

"Buddha is the Tao, the Tao is Confucianism, and Confucianism is also Buddha," Zhou Hexuan said with a smile, "The idea of the unity of the three religions originated in the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties, developed and grew by the Song and Yuan dynasties, and was generally accepted by the Chinese by the Qing Dynasty." In other words, imperceptibly. Whether it is Cheng Zhu Lixue or Yangming Xinxue, these Confucian schools have developed to the end, and they all contain a large number of Buddhist and Taoist thoughts. As the neo-Confucianism of the Song and Ming dynasties, it absorbed a large number of Confucian and Taoist philosophical ideas and basic concepts, and the Confucianism of the Ming and Qing dynasties was more Taoist than Taoism, and more Buddhist than Buddhism. The two religions of Buddhism and Taoism also actively or passively cater to Confucianism as the mainstream thought, and finally the three religions have actually merged and jointly influenced the thinking of the Chinese. If you really want to say it, China's unified religion is in fact a freak after the fusion of Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism. ”

"Mr. Zhou, this point of view of yours is very interesting." Toynbee laughed.

Zhou Hexuan said: "China's attitude towards religion is inclusive, no matter which denomination it is, it must abide by secular ethical norms, and no one can become a unified religion." Take Christianity as an example, there are so many missionaries in China, and if Christianity does not carry out local reform in China, then it will never want to popularize it. At most, it can retain the form, such as the Chinese using Christian wedding ceremonies, wearing wedding dresses and exchanging rings to swear to the Father. Another example is that everyone celebrates Christmas together, but this Christmas will not have religious significance, it is just a carnival. ”

Toynbee was somewhat convinced, but then fell into confusion, because he created a view of the history of civilization in which a unified religion was a very important element. If the theory of unified religion cannot be adapted to Chinese civilization, then it is possible that his other theories are not applicable to other civilizations either.