FILE PHOTO: L’Ami des hommes Ou Trait de La Population authored by Victor de Riqueti, marquis de Mirabeau, which documented the first appearance of the term “civilization”

“Civilization” is a concept and paradigm to interpret history. It has come into wide use globally, both in the East and the West, since modern times. In the mid-18th century, the term “civilisation” emerged in France and has since occupied an important position in the historical discourse of Western academia.

Chinese intellectuals began to accept the Western concept of civilization in modern times and have offered new interpretations continually. Today, civilization has been extensively recognized as a noun which encompasses all positive features of human groups. However, it also is tangled with value judgments of varying characteristics across historical periods. Currently, as China is striving to build a modern Chinese civilization, it is essential to precisely clarify what civilization means in the Chinese context so as to provide intellectual support for the nation’s modern civilization construction cause.

Origins and development

It is generally believed that the term civilization, as universally acknowledged in the West, has French origins. The word “civilisation” first appeared in print in the 1756 French book L’Ami des hommes Ou Trait de La Population (The Friend of Man, or Treatise on Population) written by Victor de Riqueti, marquis de Mirabeau, a prominent economist and revolutionary politician in 18th-century France. According to Mirabeau, the noun civilisation etymologically stemmed from the ancient Greek word “civil” and then French parlance derived words like “civiliser” and “civilisé,” to refer to sincere, gentle, and polite behaviors and manners when interacting or conversing with others. Other French words at the time conveyed a similar meaning, such as “polis” (polite).

Words of this category are attributable to a certain social and historical background. In the mid-18th century, rationalism and experimental science became popular and fostered an entire set of theories and measures within a very short period of time. This framework helped reshape the minds of thinkers of the late 18th century. According to Encyclopédie, the French encyclopedia, civilization was a result inspired by a new philosophy of nature and humanities. After scholars progressively enriched and reflected upon the term, it came to possess complicated connotations. Civilization has become an emblem of a cultural and social community with rich criteria like language, history, religion, customs, institutions, and self-identity.

However, the word carried value judgment almost at the beginning of its emergence. Around the mid-18th century, although the Age of Exploration and Westerners’ colonial expansion gradually led to a more interconnected world, most people held heavy biases against the outside world. The initial meanings of “gentle” and “polite” in the term civilization only applied to the “self,” while “others” were described as barbarian and uncultured. Therefore, the word was inherently hierarchical in Western settings. American scholar of global history Bruce Mazlish explicitly defined civilization as “a colonial ideology—that is, the use of the concept of civilization to justify domination and superiority over others,” in his magnum opus Civilization and its Contents, which was published in 2004.

When civilization was used in plural form, as “civilizations,” the hierarchical nature was even more evident. From the late 18th century to the early 20th century, as Western explorers and archaeological enthusiasts discovered a series of civilizations distinct from Europe in Egypt, Mesopotamia, India, as well as Central America and South America, European intellectuals quickly made a preliminary judgment. While accepting the plural form of civilization, they regarded Western civilization as superior and used this criterion to measure other civilizations, attempting to find fault with these other civilizations. Over time, civilization was reduced to white supremacy, manifested as discrimination according to perceived racial differences. Classifying civilizations other than Europe as “inferior,” Europeans justified colonial plunder against non-white nations. Till now, this white supremacy still looms large in the form of power imbalances in the global economic and political landscapes.

After WWI, significant changes took place in the international order. In particular, accelerated globalization prompted thinkers and social scientists to revisit the concept of civilization. Stressing humanity as a whole, the research paradigm of global history focused on landmark events in the evolution of human society, the impact of global forces on historical development, and interactions between different ethnic groups and peoples worldwide. In an effort to challenge West-centrism, global history paid more attention to civilizations and societies that were overlooked in the past.

In terms of historical periodization, scholars abandoned the division of “ancient, medieval, and modern times” in traditional Western historical narratives in favor of new terms like “the origins of civilization,” “classical society,” and “post-classical society,” or have directly benchmarked history against specific years, such as 1500 BCE, 500 BCE, 500 CE, and 1500 CE. Nonetheless, these alternative ways to divide history are still not divorced from West-centrism. Many neglected civilizations and societies played an immense role in different stages of world history, including Chinese civilization.

Civilization in Chinese culture

The Chinese equivalent to the word civilization, wenming (文明), appeared in ancient Chinese documents centuries ago, such as I Ching, or the Book of Changes, dating back more than 3,000 years to the Zhou Dynasty (1046–256 BCE), and Wenxin Diaolong (The Literary Mind and the Carving of Dragons) of the Southern Dynasties (420–589). In ancient Chinese texts, civilization emphasizes human virtues, which resembles the definition offered by Mirabeau. However, in traditional Chinese culture, the conceptualization of civilization has been consistent through the years and does not connotate hierarchy, West-centrism, or any form of racial supremacy as in the West.

After the First Opium War (1840–1842), Chinese intellectuals started to look at the world with an open mind, trying to chart a path that could save the nation from subjugation. They expected to improve the Eastern culture with knowledge of Western civilization. Renowned scholar and translator Yan Fu proposed “eliminating our vulgarity by acquiring civilized qualities of others,” when the Western notion of civilization was officially introduced to China. Thereafter, Yung Wing expressed his aspiration to build a “new civilization” and renew Chinese civilization. During this period, the “new civilization” as termed by Chinese intellectuals generally observed the logic of West-centrism.

Following WWI, Chinese scholars began to reflect on the idea of “new civilization” and proposed constructing a “new culture.” Chen Duxiu brought forth a “distinctive Chinese civilization,” while Li Dazhao envisioned “the civilization of youth…the future of China.” To create such a radically new culture, Sun Yat-sen and Liang Qichao suggested integrating Chinese and Western civilizations.

After the Communist Party of China (CPC) was founded, the integration of the basic tenets of Marxism with China’s specific realities marked the beginning of adapting Marxism to the Chinese context. At the Sixth Plenary Session of the Sixth CPC Central Committee, Comrade Mao Zedong emphasized the importance of interpreting and applying Marxism from a national perspective. Building a national, scientific, and popular socialist civilization represented Chinese communists’ outlook on civilization.

Discourse in the new era

The integration of Marxism with China’s actual conditions has run through the CPC’s development course for over 100 years. At a seminar on cultural inheritance and development on June 2, 2023, General Secretary of the CPC Central Committee Xi Jinping profoundly summed up the five prominent features of Chinese civilization: continuity, innovativeness, unity, inclusivity, and peaceful nature. He also clarified the intrinsic logical relationships among these five prominent features and assigned the task of integrating the basic tenets of Marxism with China’s specific realities and fine traditional culture, urging efforts to build a modern Chinese civilization.

The five prominent features of Chinese civilization are the five cornerstones for building a modern Chinese civilization. Continuity is the primary feature of Chinese civilization; unity preconditions continuity; innovativeness and inclusivity ensure sustained, stable development of the Chinese nation internally and externally; and the peaceful nature nurtures Chinese civilization’s unique demeanor to continue its development. Among other prominent features, inclusivity and peaceful nature transcend the narrow-minded and hierarchical nature of civilization as defined by the modern West, pointing to the right direction for building a new type of “civilization.”

In the development history of Chinese civilization, interactions, exchanges, and mutual learning with other civilizations have persisted. The Chinese nation has always believed that civilizations should be diverse, equal, and inclusive. As General Secretary Xi Jinping stated, “exchanges and mutual learning among civilizations must not be built on the exclusive praise or belittling of one particular civilization,” “no single civilization can be judged superior to another,” and “if all civilizations are inclusive, the so-called ‘clash of civilizations’ can be avoided and the harmony of civilizations will become reality.” These theses directly counter the Western view of civilization, characterized by West-centrism and white supremacy, endowing civilization with new Chinese connotations.

As a new form of human advancement, the modern Chinese civilization, in the making, is anchored in the global status and future value of Chinese civilization and will definitely contribute a more brilliant chapter to the development history of human civilization.

Liu Jian is a research fellow and deputy director of the Institute of World History at the Chinese Academy of History under the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.