Core socialist values, including patriotism, harmony, and dedication, are grounded in traditional Chinese culture. Photo: TUCHONG

General Secretary of the CPC Central Committee Xi Jinping noted at a seminar on cultural inheritance and development in June 2023 that the modern Chinese civilization is “a new culture for our times.” In contrast, China’s historical civilization, which spans over 5,000 years, can be classified as traditional Chinese civilization. Contemporary historians are tasked with defining its core meaning, investigating ways to modernize it, and understanding the historical foundation needed to build a modern Chinese civilization.

Agriculture as foundation

China was among the key cradles of agriculture worldwide. As early as 10,000 years ago, rice was cultivated in the southern part of the country, while northern China saw foxtail millet and broomcorn millet planted. In the Yangtze and Yellow River basins, the subsistence economy began to shift from gathering to agriculture. The agricultural landscape, featuring rice in the south and millet in the north, gradually took shape.

In the Miaodigou phase (4005–2780 BCE) of the Yangshao Culture (c. 5000–3000 BCE), agriculture had replaced gathering as the predominant economic sector for Chinese ancestors. Agricultural advancement laid a groundwork for the formation of civilization and the state. The emergence of early states in ancient China was inseparable from developed rice-based agriculture in southern areas and advanced millet-dominated agriculture in the north. Thereafter, each advancement in ancient China was closely related to the development of agriculture.

Farming culture was foundational to Chinese civilization, but this doesn’t mean that its material foundation rested only on agriculture. As Chinese civilization progressed, different regions across the nation exchanged needed goods, spawning business activities alongside a nascent commercial culture, which influenced the development course of the civilization.

Prosperous commerce during the Spring and Autumn and Warring States Periods (770–221 BCE) gave rise to many business giants. The Ming Dynasty (1368–1644) even witnessed embryonic capitalism in regions south of the Yangtze River. Emerging commercial culture also powered the development of Chinese civilization. Beyond agriculture and commerce, inclusive Chinese civilization even accommodated nomadic culture in certain historical stages.

After the state was formed, states in ancient China developed continually toward centralized power and great unity. The advancement of agriculture and the expansion of the farming population couldn’t be divorced from the state formation of great unity and the administrative model of power centralization.

First, water conservancy was a prerequisite for agricultural development. With a vast territory and widely different geomorphic features across regions, China was in need of massive government-led hydraulic engineering projects. Each flood control project along the Yellow River, along with the construction of the Grand Canal, was closely tied to the centralization of power and the pursuit of national unity.

Second, ancient China was plagued by frequent droughts and floods, requiring the central court to effectively transfer food from harvest locales to disaster-stricken areas. This relief model was likewise inseparable from centralized power under great unity.

Third, conflicts between various states often disrupted each other’s agricultural production, but this practice largely vanished during periods of great unity. As a result, ancient China, being an agrarian society, saw agriculture shape its political culture, with great unity and power centralization at the core.

Distinctive cultural genes

Farming culture also fostered a series of cultural genes unique to Chinese civilization. The first and foremost intellectual tradition of the civilization is the “people-centered thought,” which is not only a political philosophy, but also defines Chinese intellectual culture. As stated in the Confucian classic Mengzi, “The people are the most important element in a nation; the spirits of the land and grain are the next; the sovereign is the lightest.” Since agricultural development depended on human labor and good harvests depended on hard work, virtues like industriousness, frugality, and the pursuit of self-improvement were fostered.

Another significant intellectual trait shared throughout the Chinese nation is the love for peace and objection to unjust wars. Since the great unification in the Qin (221–207 BCE) and Han (206 BCE–202 CE) dynasties, the central court basically never waged war against nomadic areas in the north or coastal areas in the south, with the exception of resisting foreign invasion or aggression, reflecting the peaceful nature of the Chinese nation. The imperial court regarded regions south to the Great Wall and north to the sea as its core administrative area primarily because it was an agrarian zone. In other words, national governance by the court was centered around farming culture.

In terms of social culture, ancient China featured prevalent patriotism and decorum, which was also rooted in agrarian traditions. After the pre-Qin era (prior to 221 BCE), clan organizations and kinship networks disintegrated. Small-farmer households under direct control of the state became the basic organizational unit for society. However, in villages, kinship continued to play an essential role out of the need to cooperate during production, and clan-based settlement and burial were common in these regions. Clan organizations were rather closed, in which affairs were decided by patriarchs according to customs and conventional practices, known as “rites” in ancient China.

In ancient China, the ideal of jiaguo tonggou, which means the family is a reduction of the state, and the state is an amplification of the family, was critical. Loving the state was equated to loving the family. During the Xia (c. 21st century–16th century BCE), Shang (c. 16th century–1046 BCE), and Zhou (1046–256 BCE) dynasties, many small states were grounded in a large clan. Members of the clan were not only kinsmen, but also state citizens. The family and the state were truly integrated. Respecting kinship networks and clans easily evolved into a patriotic tradition.

In the Han Dynasty, the people were encouraged to translate their filial piety into allegiance to the monarch, which was also an embodiment of jiaguo tonggou. Although the emperor represented the state in ancient dynasties, scholar-officials’ loyalty to the ruler was not contradictory to patriotism. To ordinary people, their pride in farming culture largely mirrored their high sense of identity with the agriculture-based Han ethnic group, showing a nation complex and patriotic spirit.

Moreover, the ancient Chinese highly valued the relationships between humanity and nature, and between humanity and the environment, culminating in the ecological philosophy of tianren heyi (unity of heaven and humanity). Tianren heyi, more specifically, means harmony between humanity and nature and stresses the importance of following the laws of nature. The will of heaven was paramount, a lesson learnt from thousands of years of agricultural production practices. According to Mengzi, “If the seasons of farming are not interfered with, the grain will be more than can be eaten.” Only by complying with farming seasons could the people have food to eat.

Abiding by agricultural rules, the ancient Chinese invented the groundbreaking concept of 24 solar terms, a crystallization of wisdom collected by Chinese ancestors when observing celestial phenomena to guide agricultural production. For example, after the third solar term Jingzhe, or Insects Awaken, the weather gets warm and the land thaws, creating conditions appropriate for spring ploughing. Whenever it was time to farm, farming became the priority to align with the ancient wisdom of agricultural seasons.

In summary, as early as the pre-Qin era, or the Qin and Han dynasties at the latest, Chinese civilization had been marked by a civilizational model in which the material, political, intellectual, social, and ecological cultures influenced and depended each other. The material culture was based on agricultural traditions and embraced other cultural models such as commerce and nomadism. The political culture was focused on power centralization and great unity. In the people-centered intellectual culture, the people were hardworking, thrifty, self-reliant, and peace loving. Societally, neighbors helped each other, and patriotism, decorum, and collectivism were advocated. The ecological culture was characterized by an emphasis on harmony between humanity and nature.

The five cultural systems were all rooted in farming traditions. It was agriculture that formed the cultural genes and conventions of Chinese civilization, enabling the Chinese nation to maintain a continuous civilizational thread. This framework supported reforms, encouraged innovation, and allowed for the incorporation of advanced cultural elements from nearby areas and ethnic groups, showcasing tremendous vigor.

As such, the five prominent features of Chinese civilization, namely inclusivity, unity, peaceful nature, continuity, and innovativeness, are evidenced, respectively.

Building modern Chinese civilization

From the perspective of traditional Chinese civilization, we can understand modern Chinese civilization from change and constancy between contemporary and traditional China.

When it comes to change, contemporary China varies greatly from ancient China both in the economic base and superstructure, particularly after more than seven decades of socialist construction. In terms of constancy, the core values of modern Chinese civilization are inherited from traditional culture.

First, the ideals of great unity and power centralization in traditional Chinese civilization have endured today, serving as a crucial backing for building modern Chinese political culture. Second, agriculture remains the primary industry in contemporary China. The emphasis on clans and the spirit of mutual aid in farming culture still exist in vast rural areas across the nation. Rural China, a critical component of modern Chinese civilization, will support the construction of modern Chinese intellectual culture. Third, traditional Chinese civilization values universal harmony. The requirement of achieving common prosperity, raised in the report to the 19th CPC National Congress, is not only a defining feature of socialism, but also a continuation of traditional Chinese culture. Fourth, the philosophy of pursuing harmony between humanity and nature aligns perfectly with General Secretary Xi Jinping’s theory that “lucid waters and lush mountains are invaluable assets,” which can bolster the building of modern Chinese ecological culture.

Compared with traditional Chinese civilization, modern Chinese civilization is both continuous and innovative. The continuity is manifested in the creative assimilation of traditional civilization’s essence, demonstrating the coherence of China’s history which has lasted for more than 5,000 years. With respect to innovation, China has, under the leadership of the CPC, upheld and developed socialism with Chinese characteristics and opened up a Chinese path to modernization, thus injecting new vitality into Chinese civilization and providing a new model of human advancement for the world.

Wang Qi is an associate research fellow from the Institute of Historical Theories at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.