Here are the reasons for the decline of China culture and the arrival of Indian culture in the East, which can also be used for reference by future generations:
(a) Worse than thieves and hooligans. Before the pre-Qin period, the founders of entrepreneurship were mostly sages; After the Qin Dynasty, there were many rebellious revolutionaries and thieves. Thieves and rogues become emperors when they succeed, and they don't know how to rule the country and level the world; If you lose, burn it, and then grab it, especially to protect cultural friendship.
(2) worse than the imperial examination. The imperial examination system originated in the Han Dynasty and was well prepared in the Tang Dynasty. Although the imperial examination can annihilate the classes of aristocrats and civilians, it is tempting to gain wealth, which greatly damages personality and runs counter to the righteousness of ancient education.
(3) Lack of religious belief. China citizens were the first people to get rid of primitive superstition. Tang Yu, a three-generation sage who devoted himself to human affairs, said that Yin people are still ghosts, which is similar to religion. But their sacrifices are mainly people and ghosts, and there is no religious absurdity. After the founding of the People's Republic of China, political education can't meet people's expectations, and there is no religion to support it, so people's hunger is more than that of countries with primitive religions.
Since the Warring States period, the theory of immortal alchemists has flourished, but its effect is intangible. Enough to confuse fools and enlighten the wise. Buddhism flowed into China at that time, which coincided with the trend of China people yearning for religion. There were five disturbances in China, and foreign regimes initially promoted Buddhism for various reasons. However, with the absorption of China people, Indian culture became China culture, spread and developed, and flourished in the place where it originated. During this period, it can be said that foreigners were ravaged in central Xia Zhishi and assimilated in central Xia Zhishi. Before the Han Dynasty, political sovereignty was entirely in Xia nationality, and other nationalities were assimilated by the rulers. After the Han Dynasty, political sovereignty was not entirely in Xia nationality, but all other nationalities were assimilated by conquering Xia nationality. On the occasion of the post-Han Dynasty, from the study of Pu to the discussion of tourism. At the end of the Han Dynasty, Wei was in great chaos, and those who followed the trend did not pay attention to morality. Broad-minded people, seeing the decline and chaos, don't want to hide it, so they trust and let go, and then open the wind of talking. The prosperity of the Jin Dynasty, the chaos of the world is not over yet, and the followers of Xiang embroidery are beneficial to Feng Xuan. The goal of all the talks is Hyunri. Many of his theories are interlinked with Shi's. Therefore, since the Jin Dynasty, the teacher treated Laozi and Zhuangzi, and the speaker often dealt with him, so Buddhism and China's theory merged. In other words, Buddhism, Confucianism and Taoism are said to be the same, and gradually become the exchange and integration of Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism. More than 500 years from the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty to the Sui Dynasty was an eventful autumn, and it was also the period when the Central Plains culture had the closest communication with the surrounding Hu people. North China is one of the birthplaces of Chinese culture, and it is also the most disturbed area by nomadic people in grassland. From the northeast to the southwest border of China, there were five foreign nationalities in the Western Jin Dynasty, namely Xianbei, Xiongnu, Qiang, Di and Jie, which were collectively called "Five Lakes". During the Wei and Jin Dynasties, some of these five ethnic groups migrated internally. At the end of the Han Dynasty, China was in chaos, and primitive peoples attached to it began to invade China society. In addition, more nomadic tribes outside the Great Wall moved into North China. China people living in North China were infected with the customs of the Hu people, and also introduced cavalry equipped with stirrups. In North China, during the chaotic period of 130 years, the Hu people had an invasive internal migration; It was not until the Northern Wei Dynasty gradually annexed North China, especially after the reform in the ninth year of Emperor Xiaowen and Taihe in the Northern Wei Dynasty (485) that social and economic production began to recover gradually.
This situation continued until the Sui and Tang Dynasties, and it was not uncommon for all ethnic groups in Central Asia to migrate in large numbers. Sui and Tang Dynasties allocated land to settle down and let them live freely. The influx and activities of Hu people have become a major feature of China society. A large number of Buddhist monks have also become the pillars of Buddhism in China. Hu people have been rulers in the north for a long time, but in the end they are inclined to China people. The political form of Hu rulers mostly imitated the Han people, and Emperor Xiaowen of the Northern Wei even had a movement to sinicize filial piety. Hu customs and Hu names are Hanfu, Han customs and Chinese names, and Hu and Han marriages are encouraged. On the other hand, the Han people who have lived in the north for a long time have become accustomed to Hu Feng in customs, resulting in the phenomenon of China and Hu Hua. The Hu people who invaded North China often married the local Han scholar-officials, resulting in a semi-civilized half-blood upstart, who became the new rulers and unified China. The integration of Hu people and Han people not only produced a new nation, but also showed different styles and characteristics in their living habits. Sui and Tang dynasties brought this trend to areas outside the Great Wall. In order to make friends with the nomadic people in the west and north of China, the Sui Dynasty successively married the princess to the monarchs of Tuguhun, Turkic and Gaochang. Emperor Taizong further married the princess to the Tubo king, and international marriage further promoted cultural exchanges.
Although the Yangtze River valley had produced outstanding civilization in the late Neolithic period, it was not fully integrated into the China cultural system until the early Han Dynasty. At the end of the Western Han Dynasty, most areas south of the Yangtze River were sparsely populated. However, in the Eastern Han Dynasty and the Three Kingdoms period, in order to avoid the war in the Central Plains, a large number of Han people began to emigrate to the Yangtze River basin. At the beginning of the 4th century, the Western Jin regime in the northern Han area of China was destroyed by the Hu people, and a large number of northern Han immigrants took refuge in Jiangnan, which led to the integration of the original residents in Jiangnan and Chinese culture. The Anshi Rebellion in the middle of the eighth century in the Tang Dynasty led to the third southward migration of Han people, and Jiangnan gradually became the focus of Han people's gathering. The Eastern Jin Dynasty and the Southern Dynasties were the fastest growing periods in the south of the Yangtze River. As the northern families moved south, the population flourished and the cultivated land area increased rapidly. The unification of the Sui Dynasty, although the north unified the south militarily, was spread from the south to the north culturally. After the Anshi Rebellion, the south also surpassed the north in economic conditions.
The influence of family society in Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties is no less than the patriarchal clan system in Zhou Dynasty. The difference is that the influence of patriarchal clan system spreads from politics to the people, while the family society is just the opposite. Family status was formed in the Eastern Han Dynasty, one of the reasons was that the study conditions were difficult at that time, and employment was limited to a few families with superior economic and cultural conditions, which formed these families to be officials for a long time and gradually became family status. After the demise of the Eastern Han Dynasty, civilians lost their protection and attached themselves to the extended family for asylum. These big families organized self-defense groups and built cities to defend themselves. Families have more military and economic influence. During the Northern and Southern Dynasties, the foundations of political power were unstable and often supported by families. Because the gentry did not need to serve, the civilians rushed to attach themselves, and the family status became more and more developed. Family status has developed from legalization to legalization, so that state power can only be continued if it is recognized by family status. The formation and development of aristocratic families were not completed in a short time, but in response to social objective conditions and the formation of extensive cultural ecology. The vitality of aristocratic families lasted for hundreds of years. In order to maintain their position, the gentry family mastered the nine-product system of the government's talent access pipeline on the one hand, and chose a considerable family marriage on the other hand, in order to maintain the dignity of the family. The manor of the gentry family provides all kinds of agricultural economic resources and owns handicraft workshops. Since the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, due to the sluggish national luck of the Han and Hu regimes, the atmosphere of contempt for politics has gradually developed, and the atmosphere of openness between ethnic groups has prevailed. As a result, Jiangnan gentry flaunted that they did not ask politics and eventually disappeared. Because of the mixed blood, the Northern Han family began to attach importance to national strength and care about politics, and relied on it to unify the north and the south. The imperial examination system was implemented in the Sui Dynasty, and civilians could be officials through the imperial examination, but the gentry could not expand their family business through talent selection. By the end of the Tang Dynasty, the family society tended to decline and disappear.
After the cultural exchanges between Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties and the complete establishment of Sui and Tang Dynasties, Chinese civilization was back on the right track and resumed development. Sui, Tang, Five Dynasties and Song Dynasties became one of the most prosperous dynasties in China history. The country is characterized by unity, rising, self-confidence and openness. Due to the blending of two different cultural types and ideologies, the culture of Sui and Tang Dynasties showed unprecedented prosperity. The cultural and economic foundation of Sui and Tang Dynasties was based on the successful land policy. The land equalization system distributed wasteland and part of private land to farmers all over the world, and Confucianism from Mencius finally came true. Since Indian Buddhism was introduced to China through Central Asia, art forms related to Buddhism have also entered China, among which the most important are the murals and sculptures of Buddha statues. Because Indian Buddha statues are influenced by Greek culture, the carving art of China Buddha statues combines China culture, Indian culture and Greek culture. India did not have the habit of making Buddha statues in the first 500 years. People think that the supreme perfection of Buddha can't be described by human appearance, so early Buddhist artists used the footprints of Buddha or the "Bodhi Tree" enlightened by Sakyamuni as the symbol of Buddha. Later, due to the influence of Greek culture on India for 200 years, the ancient Greeks' idea of advocating the beauty of human nature was implanted in India, which opened the Buddha sculpture in India, and Greek culture also had a far-reaching influence on the Buddha sculpture. China Since the rise of Buddhism in the Southern and Northern Dynasties, Buddhist monks in China immediately attacked the Indian Buddhist monk fashion, dug cliffs in the mountains to practice, and decorated the caves with paintings and sculptures of Buddha statues. There are two Buddhist grottoes in China today. One is North China, which was ruled by the Northern Wei regime for a long time. Yungang Grottoes and Longmen Grottoes were opened in Datong and Luoyang, and their capitals were successively established. The second important cave group is located in the northwest of China, including Bingling Temple Grottoes in Yongjing County, Gansu Province, Maijishan Grottoes in Tianshui at the eastern end of the Silk Road, and Dunhuang Mogao Grottoes at the western end of the Silk Road. In addition, there are isolated grottoes, such as Qizil Thousand Buddha Cave and Dazu Grottoes.
With the prevalence of Buddhist beliefs and the development of grotto statues, from the Southern and Northern Dynasties to the Sui and Tang Dynasties, it became an era in which religious art prevailed. Paintings and three-dimensional Buddha statues have expanded the new field of traditional art in China, and various decorative patterns related to Buddhism have also penetrated into the people. Buddha's painting skills complement the characteristics of traditional line drawing in China, and the pagoda and Buddhist temple architecture enriches the original architectural style in China. The religious art in the Southern and Northern Dynasties was full of Indian, Greek and Persian colors because of the workers in the western regions and India, which became the most exotic period of China art. Compared with later generations, the Northern Wei Dynasty was particularly exotic, and the Western Wei Dynasty was already sinicized in the later period. During the Southern and Northern Dynasties, in addition to Buddhist paintings and sculptures, due to the rise of Buddhism, bronzes, stone carvings, weaving and embroidery were full of religious colors. Lotus and honeysuckle, as symbols of Buddhism, have become the characteristics of this issue. In terms of painting techniques, in the mid-Southern and Northern Dynasties, the Buddhist painting style, which focused on color blooming and infiltration, was very popular, which had a great impact on the traditional line drawing method. By the end of the Northern and Southern Dynasties, the technique of using color was far better than sketching. Zhang Sengyou, a Southern Liang painter, absorbed this technique, further abandoned line drawing and created boneless painting. During the Sui and Tang Dynasties, religious art was not only China in form, but also changed in spiritual concept. The unification of the Sui and Tang Dynasties and the prosperity and peace of the economy promoted the style of religious murals to be gorgeous and cheerful from the tragic atmosphere of saving the world in the Northern Wei Dynasty. The scene that originally came from India to show Sakyamuni's past sufferings disappeared, and it was replaced by a fantasy picture of joy and happiness. The Buddha statues in the Tang Dynasty replaced the Northern Wei Dynasty with healthy and plump statues. Replace the extraordinary dust of the Northern Wei Dynasty with kindness and concern for reality. The arts and crafts of the Northern and Southern Dynasties are mainly Buddhist in subject matter, but they are still close to the Han and Wei Dynasties in style. The arts and crafts of the Tang Dynasty broke away from the primitive style of Shang, Zhou, Han and Wei Dynasties and opened up a new decorative style.
Handicrafts in the Tang Dynasty generally have the characteristics of being broad, fresh, gorgeous and plump. In the modeling design of various handicrafts, outward curves with large radians are adopted, giving people a rounded and plump texture. Color shows a variety of shades of color levels, with rich and gorgeous artistic effects. The most outstanding handicraft production in the Tang Dynasty is the statue of pottery figurines, especially the three-color pottery figurines in the Tang Dynasty, which have vivid shapes and show the spirit of prosperous society in the Tang Dynasty. Although the pottery figurines in the Tang Dynasty lay particular stress on animal modeling, the decoration of daily-use handicrafts was contrary to the tradition of giving priority to animal patterns since the Shang, Zhou and Six Dynasties, which opened a new style with plants and flowers as the mainstream decoration for more than 1000 years, further embodied the lifestyle, got rid of the dignified and calm atmosphere, and made people feel free, relaxed, lively and cordial. In terms of mirror-making technology, the decorative patterns of bronze mirrors since the Han, Wei and Six Dynasties are mainly metrical, while Tang mirrors are mostly freestyle and lively. The earliest recorded painter in the history of China was in the Wei and Jin Dynasties. At that time, the literati's atmosphere was still music, calligraphy and painting, lofty and elegant. They pursued the liberation of personal temperament, which led to the delicate description of personal character and characteristics in painting. Traditional paintings before the Tang Dynasty were mostly murals, reflecting political and religious colors. Since the Tang dynasty, the main purpose of the shift has been appreciation. During the Sui, Tang and Five Dynasties, the three categories of China's paintings, namely figure painting, landscape painting and flower-and-bird painting, became independent. Since the middle and late Tang Dynasty, landscape painting has become the mainstream of literati painting in China, lasting for more than 1000 years. During the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties, social unrest, old values and social order have collapsed. The new social order is still being rebuilt. At that time, thoughtful intellectuals devoted themselves to getting rid of the shackles of Confucian classics tradition since the Han Dynasty and turning to the awakening and pursuit of inner personality. They explored some highly abstract theories through philosophical argumentation, which resulted in the main academic thought at that time-metaphysics.
The influence of metaphysics is all-round. In the metaphysical atmosphere, individual consciousness is the unique spirit of the ideological circle in this period. Thereby establishing a completely different outlook on life and world from the previous generation. This thought is completely different from that of the Han Dynasty, but closer to that of Taoism in the Warring States Period. Therefore, metaphysical thinkers highly admire two works of Taoism in the pre-Qin period, Laozi and Zhuangzi, and Zhouyi, which is closely related to the Taoist spirit. They regard these three books as the main classics of metaphysics and call them "San Xuan". During the Southern and Northern Dynasties, Buddhism attached itself to metaphysics in order to expand its local influence. Buddhism expounds Buddhism and preaches teachings in the language of metaphysics, which makes Buddhism very popular, so metaphysics also integrates the views of many Buddhists and Confucianism.
The popular period of metaphysics is also a period of political turmoil. Relatively speaking, the constraints of politics on academic thought have also been greatly reduced. Without the academic standards set by the royal government, the ideological circle at that time was quite free and open, and the atmosphere of discussion and debate was quite popular. "Clarity" is the main activity of metaphysical discussion in this period. The discussion is purely convincing with reason, regardless of seniority or seniority. The ideological activities in this period are comparable to those in the Warring States period. Different from the Warring States, the Warring States paid attention to the way of governing the country, while the Wei and Jin Dynasties paid attention to individual personality consciousness. Metaphysical experts are good at distinguishing names and reasoning, and have a heated discussion around propositions such as existence, origin and end, body and use, speech and meaning, and movement. The debates among various factions are very fierce, which formed the most active period in China's history to discuss the theory of the universe. This form of argument contributed to China's rational philosophy. The theoretical nature and achievements of this philosophy are unprecedented.
In this era, many fields discussed by metaphysicists are problems that have never been considered before. During the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties, society did not pay attention to academic seniority, but emphasized the vividness and creativity of ideas. Therefore, many young people have gained a high reputation in the ideological forum through heart-to-heart, which is the era when the largest number of young thinkers were born in ancient China. Many famous thinkers, such as Zhong Hui, Wang Bi, Wang Rong, Xiang Embroidery and Wei Jun, all became famous before the age of twenty. It can be seen that the academic thoughts of Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties and Pre-Qin period showed different trends. At this time, although the achievements of the Han nationality in foreign countries are limited, the achievements of internal ideological creation are considerable.
Metaphysics is also very popular in the north. After the Jin family crossed the south, the wave of metaphysics quickly spread to the south of the Yangtze River, while the clans who stayed in the north turned to worship the basics and be pragmatic, so they were good at studying history. The Southern Dynasties, regarded as cultural relics by the north, are often highly valued by their thinkers once they come to the north. It can be seen that the change of political territory affects the change of ideological territory, and also sees the fact that political power and cultural advantages are different.
During the popular period of metaphysics, people realized that a short life is always full of where you are going, sadness and misfortune. This concern about where to go, the short sadness, emotion and exclamation of life, from Wei and Jin Dynasties to the middle of Southern Dynasties; From the middle and lower classes to the royal family, it has always been a typical social atmosphere of the whole era. However, metaphysics is not blindly sad, and the direction of life guided by metaphysics is still to seize life, cherish life, and fully grasp this short and bitter life meaningfully and consciously to make it richer and more satisfying. Metaphysics pursues the personality of absolute freedom and infinite transcendence. The ideal personality is to have feelings without being bound by feelings, and to have feelings and be integrated with the universe. After people reach the metaphysical realm, spiritual achievements replace external conduct and ethics, and become the highest meaning and index of life. This invisible spirit transcends the tangible body anywhere. In the Eastern Han Dynasty, morality, ethics, Confucianism and integrity were still good and were evaluated, while in the Wei and Jin Dynasties, people's talent, temperament, style, style, character and ability became the new focus of evaluation. The "character" in the Wei and Jin Dynasties requires the superb internal personality to be expressed with a beautiful external appearance, and the infinite internal expression to be conveyed and displayed through a limited and infinite external speech image.
Metaphysics is the mainstream thought during the 400-year turmoil in Han and Tang Dynasties. The main thinkers and important classics of metaphysics also appeared in this period. The most important figures in metaphysics are Ji Kang, Ruan Ji, Yan He and Wang Bi. Yanhe and Wang Bi are committed to the integration of ethics and metaphysics, which makes ethics metaphysical. Ruan Ji and Ji Kang, on the other hand, took the lead in forming an atmosphere of abandoning ethics and liberating personality, which triggered the first anti-traditional personality liberation movement in history and became a trend at that time and in the following hundreds of years. Many scholars follow their example and lead a dissolute life.
Due to the laissez-faire social atmosphere, literature developed rapidly in this period. Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties is the beginning of China people's conscious artistic creation. Lyric literature also began to mature in this period. Before Wei and Jin Dynasties, there was no clear concept of literature, and most people just used articles as a tool of expression, so literature did not have an independent artistic status until Wei and Jin Dynasties. Because literary creation was advocated by Wei Wendi and became the focus of attention of literati, the status of literati was improving day by day, and a large number of literary works emerged. The emphasis on literary atmosphere first sprouted in the south and spread to the north in the late Southern and Northern Dynasties. During the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties, pure literary works appeared in China, and the mainstream was "aestheticism". Literati writing generally emphasizes temperament beauty and rhetoric beauty. Since Cao Zhi, scholars have been emphasizing the choice of words and sentences in articles, forming a "parallel style" that emphasizes gorgeous rhetoric, carving words and melody. Since then, scholars have studied the characteristics of Chinese rhetoric to the extreme, and their greatest achievement is "temperament". During the Southern Dynasties, Shen Yue and others created the four-tone pronunciation of Chinese characters according to the spelling of Buddhist scriptures and Sanskrit, and formally established the theory of temperament. Literati began to consciously write poems with rhythm, and consciously arranged flat tones alternately, thus forming a rhythm of high and low. This is the beginning of China's metrical poems.
The greatest artistic legacy left by the Tang Dynasty belongs to literature and art, among which poetry is the best. There are 50 thousand Tang poems handed down today. Poetry in the early Tang Dynasty still inherited the gorgeous and feminine style of the Six Dynasties. The theme of poetry is mainly court life. About half a century after the founding of the Tang Dynasty, poetry began to reflect the general atmosphere of the new era, and the theme of poetry shifted from the palace to the broad social life; The language style also got rid of the gentle and charming temperament of the Six Dynasties and turned to the vigorous style of Han and Wei poetry. During the Kaiyuan and Tianbao years, the Tang society reached the peak of economic prosperity and strong national strength, which was called "the flourishing age of Kaiyuan", and the development of Tang poetry also reached a climax. Meteorology in the prosperous Tang Dynasty is the name of this period. Poetry in this period is rich in content, magnificent, vivid and romantic. The most outstanding poet in this period was Li Bai, whose unrestrained poetic style pushed romantic poetry creation to the peak. In the prosperous Tang Dynasty, another poet named Li Bai was the poet Saint Du Fu. Du Fu's poems pay attention to parallelism and rhyme, each sentence is unique, refined and forged, deliberately seeking work, and every word is repeatedly scrutinized. The form of China's poems was ready when the Tang Dynasty was mature. As a result, the Tang Dynasty reached the peak of China's poetic achievements, and the creation of later generations could not surpass the Tang Dynasty. In order to achieve new success, it has to find another way to develop in the field of lyrics and songs. The Anshi Rebellion, the former prosperity is no longer, and the new prosperity presents a trend of popularization and diversification. Poetry also echoes this point.