18、The Essential Difference between Chinese Culture and Western Culture

Chinese culture is mostly represent by the ideology of Confucius and Mencius, while Western culture is mostly represented by the ideology of Darwin’s law of the jungle, democracy, freedom, and human rights.

However, the ideology of Confucius and Mencius and human rights are a manifestation of things, as we see cars running on the road, as well as bicycles, what’s the difference between them? It is very superficial if it is only distinct between price, appearance, and function. Only to look into the substance of things can people really make comment on it; otherwise, there will be no practical significance. The appearance of things is changing any time, and the nature of things does not change. Cars are the transport which the power is generated from internal combustion engine, while bicycles are the human-powered transport, which is the most essential difference between cars and bicycles.

There is also an essential difference between Chinese culture and Western culture, of which that Chinese culture is a kind of culture that treats the whole country, region, family, and clan as a system to adjust the relationship between people.

The Western culture is a kind of culture that is individual-centred and to put personal interests and needs as well as individual rights and obligations as the research object and the central task to adjust the relationship between people.

Briefly, Chinese culture is a system culture and Western culture is an individual culture.