Introduction to Traditional Chinese Culture

Author: Wang Xinting
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2004-08-01
Features: What is culture? What aspects does traditional Chinese culture include? This is a relatively complex question. Academia both domestically and internationally has proposed over a hundred definitions of culture, but this does not hinder our understanding of culture. Culture is a material and spiritual way of life formed by a nation or a regional group during its historical development, which is beneficial to the survival and prosperity of that nation or group. Alternatively, the concept of culture used in this book is primarily narrow, but it also involves a portion of broad cultural phenomena; it focuses on elite culture while supplemented by popular and folk customs culture. Culture is an ever-evolving process. Every nation and ethnic group has a history of cultural development, with its yesterday, today, and tomorrow. The discussion in this book primarily focuses on the "yesterday" of Chinese culture, referring to Chinese culture before the Opium War in 1840, i.e., traditional Chinese culture.