What are China’s ancient values that are still applied today?

中国古代有哪些价值观在今天仍然适用？

以下是Quora网友的评论：

David Barry

Typical. Oliver and Gia who’ve clearly never been to China write utter rubbish.

Its amazing how the people in the US, think they have the knowledge without even travelling anywhere.

Take it from someone who’s lived in China since 2000; Confucian family values are still very strong; strong family and community, low crime.

果然啊，Oliver和Gia显然没去过中国，他们写的都是啥垃圾玩意儿。

我很惊讶，美国人居然可以坐在家中指点江山呢，还觉得自己啥啥都懂。

作为一个从2000年起就住在中国的人，大家听我说一句吧：儒家的家庭价值观至今仍然很强大；家庭和社区的凝聚力强，犯罪率低。

Taoist wisdom is still strong; respect for the environment and preservation of the environment and the nature.

Buddhism; calm and steady , non egoic minded people as compared to the crime ridden hell of the US.

道家智慧传承至今；尊重环境，保护环境和自然。

佛教；和犯罪横行的美国地狱相比，中国人冷静、沉着、不以自我为中心。

China’s traditions thrive and the culture runs deep and strong. The ancient buildings are preserved as are the Taoist, Confucian and Buddhist temples. The cities are a mix of the very developed and modern and the beautiful traditional. Wonderful gardens and architecture. The countryside is amazing with develop rural housing now and such beauty. China is Heaven on Earth compared with the West.

中国传统文化源远流长，文化底蕴深厚。中国的古建筑和道观、孔庙、佛寺都被妥善地保存了下来。中国的城市是非常发达的现代和传统的美丽结合。园林和建筑令人惊艳。中国的农村让人惊叹，乡村住宅舒适高级，美观大方。和西方相比，中国就是人间天堂。

Now Oliver and Gia; you’ve just arrogantly written slander with zero experience. You should be embarrassed. All it is now: US people who’ve never set foot in China; believing excrement, speaking excrement and arrogantly writing it.

Oliver和Gia，现在听着，你们对中国一无所知，却在网上傲慢地进行诽谤。你们应该感到惭愧尴尬。所以说：从未到过中国的美国人，信的是屎，说的是屎，态度傲慢轻狂，写的还是屎。

Tony Tan

This is the traditional American honor.

这是美国人的传统礼仪。

Lie and genocide.

满嘴谎言

Sean Landy

honor is not a Chinese tradition value.

It’s a 100% western word/concept and Chinese don't have that thing.

Chinese tradition value are:

所谓荣誉并不是中国的传统价值观。

这是一个100%的西方词汇/概念，中国人没有这种东西。

中国传统价值观有：

Benevolence, Righteousness,Wisdom .etc

That means people can cheating the god if necessary.

Don't watching too much Hollywood movie to study Chinese culture pls.

仁、义、智等

这意味着人们可以在必要时欺骗神明。

别通过好莱坞电影来学习中国文化。

There was nothing called “family honor” in real Mulan’s story, She just love her father and join the army could also solve the military tax problem of her family.

BTW, the key of all value in tradition China is:

Do Educations and pass your Examinations.

真正的花木兰故事里没有所谓的“家族荣誉”，她只是敬爱自己的父亲，想着只要参军就能解决家里的军税问题。

顺便说一句，传统中国所有价值观的重中之重是：

好好读书，通过考试。

William Yeo

The Declaration of Independence was inspired by the ancient chinese book Mencius.

Below are quotes from Mencius:

美国的《独立宣言》灵感就来自中国的古代典籍《孟子》。

以下是孟子语录：

Mencius said, 'Jie and Zhou's losing the throne, arose from their losing the people, and to lose the people means to lose their hearts. There is a way to get the kingdom: get the people, and the kingdom is got. There is a way to get the people: get their hearts, and the people are got. There is a way to get their hearts: it is simply to collect for them what they like, and not to lay on them what they dislike.

孟子曰： “桀纣之失天下也，失其民也；失其民者，失其心也。得天下有道：得其民，斯得天下矣；得其民有道：得其心，斯得民矣；得其心有道：所欲与之聚之，所恶勿施尔也。

Mencius said, '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. Therefore to gain the peasantry is the way to become sovereign

孟子曰： “民为贵，社稷次之，君为轻。是故得乎丘民而为天子。

Mencius said, 'He who outrages the benevolence proper to his nature, is called a robber; he who outrages righteousness, is called a ruffian. The robber and ruffian we call a lone tyrant. I have heard of the cutting off of the lone tyrant Zhou, but it was no regicide in his case.'

孟子曰： “贼仁者谓之贼，贼义者谓之残，残贼之人谓之一夫。闻诛一夫纣矣，未闻弑君也。”

Below is the start of the Declaration of Independence:

下面是美国《独立宣言》的开篇：

That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. …

为了保障这些权利，人们才在他们中间建立政府，而政府的正当权利，则是经被统治者同意授予的。任何形式的政府一旦对这些目标的实现起破坏作用时，人民便有权予以更换或废除，以建立一个新的政府。新政府所依据的原则和组织其权利的方式，务使人民认为唯有这样才最有可能使他们获得安全和幸福。

So, guess why the two documents looked so similiar?

a translated copy of Confuciucian book, in 17th century France:

所以，大家猜猜看，为什么这两份文件看起来如此相似？

这是一本孔子著作的译本，17世纪在法国出版;

Koketso Diana Mothobi

Related

Is honor deeply ingrained in Chinese culture?

在中国文化中，尊重他人是根深蒂固的美德吗？

I took a Chinese culture class in the final year of my International Business Administration degree at the University of Botswana, as a way to learn more about one of the largest trade partners of Africa; How they perceive certain occurances, their material and immaterial culture. In that time, I learnt that if there's one thing the Chinese are loyal to, its their culture. And at the very core of Chinese culture, is …. Honor.

在博茨瓦纳大学攻读国际工商管理学位的最后一年，我选修了一门中国文化课，想借此对非洲最大的贸易伙伴之一多一点了解。他们如何看待某些事，他们的物质文化和非物质文化都是什么样的。在那段时间里，我了解到如果一定要说中国人对什么忠诚，那就是他们的文化。中国文化的核心就是....尊重他人。

Honor, first, of one's ancestors… The Chinese have very elaborate practices that honor their deceased loved ones. Their death rituals, in my opinion, are second to none. And so they honor them as they come from them, without their ancestors, they themselves cease to exst. And so they honor them.

排在第一位的，就是敬重祖先。中国人会举办很多复杂的仪式来敬拜他们已过世的家人。在我看来，中国人的祭祀仪式是无人能及的。中国人敬重他们的祖先，因为他们源于他们的祖先，没有祖先，他们自己就不复存在，所以中国人敬重自己的祖先。

Honor of oneself. Carrying oneself in a certain way and wanting others to see the same. When a Chinese person has done something shameful, they do best to hide from the shame that comes with the consequences of their actions.

自尊自爱。他们通过某种方式展现自己，希望别人也这样看待自己。当一个中国人做了不光彩的事时，他们会尽一切可能掩饰由此导致的丢脸局面。

Honoring of mother and father. This is also termed xào (孝). One's life is dedicated to honoring their mother and father. I've added a picture of a man who prostrated himself at his parents’ feet on a station floor as to apologise for not having honored them enough.

敬重父母。这又被称为孝道。中国人一辈子都会孝敬父母。我上传了一张照片，一名男子在车站地板上跪倒在他父母的脚前，为没能好好尽孝而道歉。

Source: #StationManKneelstoParents: The kowtow of one Chinese son

来源:# stationmankneelstopparents：一个中国儿子的叩拜礼

So you ask, “Is honor deeply ingrained in Chinese culture?” My 1 semester's worth of learning about the Chinese culture says - absolutely.

iexe.

所以你问，“在中国文化中，尊重他人是根深蒂固的美德吗？”以我学习过一个学期的中国文化基础来说——当然根深蒂固了。

谢谢。

Oliver John Nathan Watson

I believe that Chinas ancient values are long gone in the Mainland except amongst the very elderly who may have lived through the last of the Qing dynasty but they are few and far between though I did find it in Hong Kong in the 1980’s. and in Thailand for example.The modern Chinese has no sense of honour,a handshake means nothing though some of the Taiwanese still retain this.I know I will get a lot of chriticism about this but from my lengthy experience of dealing with Chinese it is true

我觉得中国古代的价值观在中国大陆早已不复存在了，也许除了那些经历过清朝末年历史的老人们之外，但这些人已经少之又少了。1980年代，我在中国香港和泰国发现了这种古老的价值观。现代中国人已经不太讲究传统礼仪了，但有些中国台湾人仍然保留着这种价值观。我知道我会招徕很多批评，但以我和中国人长期打交道的经验来看，我说的就是事实

Gia Dinh Hang

Oh you know. Values people praise in public or to their children then ignore it when it is convenient.

哦，你知道的。人们会在公共场合互相吹捧或夸赞对方的孩子，然后转头就忘。

Anthony To

Related

What is the comparion between Chinese Values and Western Values?

While China has indeed modernized and has slowly adopted more and more Western values, there are still some Chinese values that exst today that are distinct from those from Western societies, and I will touch on 3 of them here:

中国价值观和西方价值观的不同之处是什么？

虽然中国已经实现了现代化，并逐步接受了西方价值观，但今天仍然保留了一些与西方社会不同的中国价值观，我想列举其中3个：

1.  The first important Chinese value that I’d like to touch on and that is still very prevalent in Chinese society today is the Confucian concept of 孝 (xào) or Filial Piety which stresses the importance of valuing and respecting one’s parents and elders, and eventually taking care of them when they are older.

1. 第一个具有重要地位的中国价值观，在今天的中国社会中仍然非常普遍，那就是儒家提倡的“孝”或“孝顺”，强调敬重父母和长辈的重要性，要求中国人在父母年迈时照顾好自己的父母。

2. The second important Chinese value is 關係 (Guanx), which is an ancient Confucian value that emphasis on maintaining social connections and orders with people around you, along with big emphasis on trust, obligation and most importantly, reciprocity. Guanx today is highly used among Chinese businessman, as this is how they network with each other using the principles of trust, obligation and reciprocity in order to build their wealth. However, Guanx should never be used too explicitly, as it can be seen as having an ulterior motive.

2. 中国的第二个重要价值观是“关系”，这是一种古老的儒家价值观，强调与周围的人保持社会关系和秩序，同时非常看重信任、人情，最重要的是，互相帮助。中国商人很喜欢搞关系，因为这是他们利用信任、人情和互惠原则建立人际关系的方式，以积累财富。不过千万不能太直白，否则就是别有用心。

3. The last Chinese value that I would like to touch on is the concept of face, or 面子 (miànzi), which refers to how one’s social status, prestige and level of respect within the community is perceived by others, as China, unlike the West is a very collectivist society, so how one is perceived by other people is very important in China, and people will go to great lengths to avoid losing face or gaining face in order to build their social status or level of respect in the eyes of others. For example, complimenting people and being humble about yourself gains you face in the eyes of others, as it makes you look like a better person, while being argumentative and creating conflict makes you lose face in the eyes of others.

These are pretty much the three main Chinese values that still exst in Modern China and that are pretty distinct from Western culture.

3. 最后一个价值观应该是面子，这代表着一个人在社区内的社会地位、声望和受尊重程度。中国和西方不同，中国是一个集体社会，别人的看法和态度非常重要，所以中国人会竭尽全力避免丢脸或者讲求面子，目的就是为了提高自己的社会地位或受人尊重的程度。例如，夸赞别人、贬低自己会让你很有面子，因为这样做会让别人觉得你是一个优秀的人，但喜欢争辩、挑起争端就会让你没面子。

以上3点就是当今中国社会依然沿用的主要价值观。