Wei Junquan: Effectively Narrating the Story of the Peacefulness of Chinese-path Modernization
The Third Plenary Session of the 20th CPC Central Committee proposed that "Chinese-path modernization is the modernization of taking the path of peaceful development. In our external work, we must firmly pursue an independent foreign policy of peace, promote the building of a community with a shared future for humanity, practice the common values of all mankind, and implement the Global Development Initiative, the Global Security Initiative, and the Global Civilization Initiative" [1]. Peace is both an important spiritual hallmark and cultural essence of the modern power of Chinese civilization, as well as a key vector for enhancing the communicative power and influence of Chinese civilization. It serves as an important fulcrum for the construction of the national image within the field of international communication.
At the Seminar on Cultural Inheritance and Development [1], General Secretary Xi Jinping identified "peacefulness" [peaceful nature] as one of the "prominent characteristics of Chinese civilization" [2]. The Chinese nation is a people that prizes harmony; its peaceful nature is profoundly engraved into the entire process of the development of Chinese civilization and deeply influences the communicative concepts of the Chinese nation as it carries out the practice of civilizational dissemination and engagement.
The emphasis of the Third Plenary Session of the 20th CPC Central Committee—that "Chinese-path modernization is the modernization of taking the path of peaceful development"—and the proposition by General Secretary Xi Jinping at the Seminar on Cultural Inheritance and Development—that "Chinese civilization possesses a prominent peaceful nature"—respond to and deeply constitute one another. Therefore, investigating the conceptual sources, practical performance, and modern value of the peaceful nature of Chinese civilization is of great theoretical and practical significance for the profound elucidation, practice, and expansion of peacefulness. It allows for a better response to and reflection on how to promote Chinese-path modernization, deepen mutual learning between civilizations, tell China’s story well, spread China’s voice, and present a China that is credible, lovable, and respectable.
I. Tracing the Conceptual Origins of the Peaceful Nature of Chinese Civilization
Since ancient times, China has possessed the Tianxia [2] (All-under-Heaven) ideology of "harmonizing all nations" and "working together with one heart," as well as the ideal of a "Great Unity" (Datong) [3] harmonious society. In today's civilizational exchange and cultural inheritance, China proposes modern civilizational concepts such as "harmonious co-existence" and "peaceful development," alongside a model of interaction between nations and states based on the "community." "'Harmony' (He) contains the Chinese nation’s imagination and pursuit of an ideal state, condensed into the deep-seated view of life and behavior of the Chinese nation; it is also a representation of the ideal form of specific exchange and interaction in activities such as internal self-communication, external relational communication, and mass communication of Chinese civilization" [3].
China has been a nation that prizes harmony since antiquity; its peaceful nature reflects the unswerving pursuit of cultural values by the Chinese nation. The construction of the peaceful nature of the Chinese nation represents a synergy of multiple forces: it is imbued with the Confucian "Kingly Way" (Wangdao) [4] thought, which serves as the main axis of Chinese rites and music, and it also crystallizes the brilliant ideas regarding "harmony" from the Mohists ("mutual love and mutual benefit") and the Daoists ("blending the vital breaths to achieve harmony" and "nourishing all things and harmonizing the world").
From the perspective of historical origins, the idea of "harmony" is fully reflected in various schools of thought. Confucianism has always advocated a virtuous view of interaction based on "subduing people through virtue." Confucius’s dictum, "If people from afar do not submit, then one must cultivate the civil arts and virtue to attract them" (Analects, Ji Shi), embeds a relational philosophy of peacefulness through "virtuous interaction." The Daoists, represented by Laozi, also held that "those who assist the ruler with the Dao do not use military force to coerce the world" (Laozi, Chapter 30). The Mohists also advocated peaceful interaction through "mutual love and mutual benefit" (Mozi, Universal Love) and "non-aggression" (Feigong).
Behind the philosophy of peaceful relational interaction lies a reflection of China’s "Kingly Way" thought and Tianxia-ism of "harmonizing all nations." "Peacefulness primarily takes the Confucian concept of peace in Chinese tradition as its value philosophy, with 'harmony and integration' (Hehe) as its core value, ultimately pursuing the common goal of all humanity: 'Great Peace' (Taiping) under heaven" [4], as stated in the Canon of Yao: "He was able to make illustrious his lofty virtue, and so he brought harmony to the nine branches of the family. When the nine branches of the family were at peace, he regulated the people. When the people were enlightened, he harmonized all nations" (Book of Documents, Canon of Yao).
Surveying the developmental process of the Chinese nation, from the initial "valuing the Central Plain and disparaging the barbarians," to the "Four Seas as One Family" of the Tang Dynasty, to the further developed Ming Dynasty concept of "ethnic unity" and the shared philosophy of peaceful development—alongside the ethnic interaction ideas of "no distinction between Chinese and barbarians" and "sharing Great Peace"—and into the Qing Dynasty’s concept of peaceful interaction through "virtue as defense," "harmony" has consistently served as the basic code of conduct and conceptual guide.
From the history of Chinese civilization's foreign relations, Zhang Qian’s mission to the Western Regions [5], Jianzhen’s voyage to Japan [6], and Zheng He’s seven voyages to the Western Seas [7] were all practices of peaceful diplomacy and civilizational exchange upheld by the concept of peacefulness, demonstrating China's reciprocal mode of interaction defined by "proportionality in rites" (Li shang wang lai). It can be said that the wisdom inherent in the peaceful nature of Chinese civilization undoubtedly provides a reference for contemporary civilizational relations and state practices.
II. The Practical Performance of the Communication of Chinese Civilization’s Peaceful Nature
All human communicative activities are carried out around certain relationships and simultaneously construct relationships during the process of communication. Therefore, relationship has become the fundamental proposition of communication. "Harmony" itself is the Chinese nation’s reflection and summary of different relational patterns such as "man and man" or "man and nature." It is the concentrated expression of the Chinese nation’s philosophy of harmonious relations, demonstrating the unique holistic thinking and collectivist orientation of the Chinese nation.
On the one hand, regarding the relational pattern between man and nature: "Chinese-path modernization is the modernization of harmonious co-existence between man and nature" [5], and "harmonious co-existence between man and nature is a basic characteristic and a necessary condition for comprehensively building a modern socialist country" [6]. The relational logic of the peaceful nature of Chinese civilization itself reflects the inherent value differences between Chinese and Western civilizations. Under the "man-nature" relational logic of Western capitalism, "nature" is a resource to be "dominated"—that is, "nature (whether as a consumer good or as a means of production) is subject to human needs" [7]—presenting an unequal "man-nature" interaction that inevitably leads to the alienation of the relationship between man and nature. From the current developmental logic of Chinese-path modernization, it is evident that Chinese-path modernization is the modernization of harmonious co-existence between man and nature.
The peaceful nature of Chinese civilization is mainly reflected in the following levels of interaction between man and nature: First, it regards the natural environment as an important "medium" for the inheritance and development of human civilization—a kind of environmental medium or "media environment" [8]. That is, "man himself is a product of nature, developed within and along with his environment" [9], and the relationship of this "medium" is directed toward co-existence: "Man lives because of nature, and man and nature share a symbiotic relationship" [10]. Second, nature is regarded as an important "subject"—that is, a dialogue with nature can be achieved through appropriate communicative behavior, realizing a communication with intersubjective overtones, echoing the imagery of "unity of heaven and man" and "heaven as father and earth as mother." In the context of Chinese culture, the interaction between man and nature is itself intended to achieve the settling of one's life (anshen liming) and the steady development of human civilization and society—that is, "the reconciliation of man with nature and the reconciliation of man with himself" [11].
On the other hand, the peaceful nature of Chinese civilization is also profoundly reflected in the relational communicative activities between individuals and between states. In the field of interpersonal interaction, China has the ideas that "he who is at harmony with men is called happy" and "let the people interact with one heart." This has formed an interpersonal philosophy of "harmony is precious" and "harmony brings wealth." Meanwhile, in the field of international relations, the "path of peaceful development" currently upheld by China is an elucidation and practice of the "peaceful nature" of Chinese civilization. It is "the choice made by the Chinese nation during the process of the Sinicization of Marxism after a comprehensive and profound examination of Chinese history and China's current national conditions" [12].
As a path completely different from the law of the jungle, zero-sum games, and hegemonism incubated by the Western "clash of civilizations" theory, if the "clash of civilizations" reflects the individualistic orientation of Western "atomism," then "peaceful development" internalizes the unique holistic thinking of Chinese "Qi-ism" (Qi lun) [8]. This views all things as a holistic whole of "transforming qi," closely related to one another and co-existing in harmony.
III. Elucidating the Modern Value of the Peaceful Nature of Chinese Civilization
The world today is undergoing great changes unseen in a century. Confrontation and conflict are intertwined with peace and development, leaving the majority of people worldwide in panic and confusion regarding survival and development. How to settle one's life and how to continue nations and civilizations have become questions of concern for all humanity. Standing at the crossroads of hegemonism and power politics versus peaceful development and win-win cooperation, "peace" has become the common aspiration of humanity today. In a current era where political patterns are increasingly complex and volatile and civilizational exchanges are more frequent, war and ethnic conflict have never truly disappeared, making the contemporary significance of peacefulness increasingly prominent.
From the perspective of a comparison between Chinese and Western civilizations, the development of Western capital must undergo a process of capital accumulation, which was accompanied by colonial plunder, the opening of markets by force, and a series of behaviors implying a logic of hegemony. "Although it flaunts freedom, democracy, human rights, and fraternity as the universal interests of all humanity, because it is dominated by the logic of capital and based on abstract human nature theory and capitalist private ownership, it is essentially a conceptual representation of bourgeois material production. This has caused failures in global governance, hindered civilizational interaction, and led to a lack of trust between different countries, plunging the world into various uncertain risks" [13].
The new type of international relations we propose pursues the "noble value pursuit of seeking happiness for the people, rejuvenation for the nation, and Great Harmony for the world. It takes the realization of common prosperity for all people and the free and comprehensive development of individuals as the fundamental value pursuit and the proper value orientation. It takes the promotion of building a community with a shared future for humanity and the realization of a beautiful world where 'each appreciates their own beauty and shares in the beauty of others' to achieve Great Harmony as the core value pursuit" [14]. Its practical process and ultimate goal are peace—that is, taking the people's ability to live and work in peace and contentment and to settle their lives as the basic requirement, centering on the people, and pursuing the people's happiness as the ultimate goal.
In the context of modern civilization, the peaceful nature of Chinese civilization, which we uphold by blending the ancient and the modern, demonstrates that China consistently adheres to the principles of a "shared future" and "peaceful development." It persists in the basic practical plan of building a community with a shared future for humanity and refuses to engage in adversarial development such as zero-sum games or [exclusive] multilateralism. Instead, it resolves contradictions arising in international relations through dialogue, consultation, and win-win cooperation, actively promoting the building of a new type of international relations and striving for the common development of all humanity, thus presenting a unique Chinese governance solution and model.
In the process of marching toward modernization, China still holds high the banner of peace. In the construction and communication of its image as a peaceful major power, it has engaged in many communicative practices. Whether in the dimension of communicative discourse construction—such as the Global Development Initiative, the Global Security Initiative, and the Global Civilization Initiative—or in the dimension of communicative relational construction—such as the concept of a community with a shared future for humanity and the Belt and Road Initiative—China has consistently demonstrated its concern and pursuit of world peace and human peace. This also shows that China’s modern civilization is not only a reflection on China’s specific national conditions and civilization but also a dialogue and reflection on the development of all human civilizations today. It carries out various practices based on the concept of "peacefulness," presenting a "new blueprint different from the Western modernization model" [15] and manifesting the unique "Governance of China."
Overall, in the process of Chinese-path modernization, the prominent characteristic of peacefulness is both a reflection and extraction of the Chinese nation's own developmental history and the inheritance and development of fine traditional Chinese culture. It is also a reflection and response to the universal survival and communication issues common to all humanity. The peaceful nature of the Chinese nation holds important enlightened significance for more profoundly promoting the construction of Chinese-path modernization, enhancing the communicative power and influence of Chinese civilization, succeeding in the inheritance and development of fine traditional Chinese culture, and promoting the construction of an international social environment defined by harmonious co-existence, peace, stability, and cooperative fairness.