Simon An (professor of philosophy, Department of Philosophy, Shanxi University)
安希孟（山西大学哲学系教授）
The term cosmopolitanism(世界主义) is a derivative of cosmopolitan who is familiar with and at east in many different countries and cultures including people from many different countries. Cosmos（宇宙） means the universe seen as a well-ordered whole. Nationalism means patriotic feeling, principles or efforts, an extreme form of which is marked by a feeling of superiority over other countries. A patriot means a person who vigorously supports his or her country’s policy, whether it is right or wrong, and is prepared to defend it against enemies or detractors. Patriotic means having or expressing devotion to and vigorous support for one’s own country. Patriotism means zealous love of one’s own country, even it is evil. Nowadays, in China, everyday we can see it.
Nation, a body of people recognized as an entity by virtue of their historical, geographical, linguistic or ethnic links, has more natural attributes than social, cultural or civilized attributes. So, “national” is in contrast with “international”. International in communist world means worldwide socialist or communist organizations. The First International was founded in 1872. Marx said that workers have no motherland.
Cosmopolitanism has a long history in Europe. It originates in late ancient Greece, and is carried forward in Christian theology. It encourages universal fraternity（博爱）. Christianity（基督教）does not love one’s own nation only, not love sages and men of virtues only, not love one’s close associates and compatriots only. Jesus（耶稣）did not teach that one should love his own nation or country. Christianity is not a self-respectful, self-centered and self-satisfied religion. In European history, especially after Napoleon（拿破仑）conquered Europe, cosmopolitanism gave way to nationalism. The purpose of education was to train good citizens, not human beings.
Christians are not docile citizens under the feudal regime. In the history of development, Christianity assimilates heritage form Judaism. Judaism（犹太教）is both universalism（普遍主义）and particularism（特殊神宠论）in some sense. But in essence, it is a nationalistic religion. Judaism is the preparation stage for Christian cosmopolitanism. Jesus broke the Jewish nationalist tie. This is a revolution in the history of human thoughts. Nowadays, Jewish thinkers developed a cosmopolitan view of Judaism. This is a great contribution to our world.
When Christianity was born, it has Judaism as its ancestor or mother. Judaism said that all men are born equal. All men are descendents Adam and Eve. In Jewish Testament, there are many teaching which mention “all peoples”, “all nations”, “all states（万国、万民、万族）”. These texts are opposite to Chinese strong nationalism. Jewish people are only selected people among other people.
The Jewish（犹太的） religion originally was a tribal and national religion and culture. The modern and contemporary Judaism departs the old nationalism to cosmopolitanism. But in Jewish Testament, there were many teachings about the whole mankind belonging to one God. There is no Chinese idea of descendents of Yan（炎） and Huang（黄） Emperors or the idea of successors of the Dragon(龙的传人). This is an idea of Totem Worship（图腾崇拜）. As early as the first century, Christianity and Jesus break throw the Jewish exclusionist isolation and conservatism, changing the Jewish national religion into open worldwide religion. In modern times, Jewish thinkers expounded cosmopolitanism from point of view of Jewish Testament. But we must discriminate the cosmopolitanism expounded by modern Jewish thinkers from the traditional Jewish belief. In Jewish scriptures, there were some useful materials about cosmopolitanism. Ancient Messianic（弥赛亚的）hope, no matter how worldwide, was always linked with Jewish national hope. There was always something disgusting. The modern Jewish thinkers believed that there will be only one humanity. The reconciliation between God and humankind means the union of all people and all nations. The split among humankind is temporary and false, but the unity of them is true and eternal. “The Lord will be king over the whole earth. On that day, there will be one Lord, and his name the only name”.(Zec.14.9) “They will beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will not take up sword against nation, nor will they train for war anymore. ”(Isa.2.4) “Then will I purify the lips of the peoples, that all of them may call on the name of the Lord.”(Zep.3:9)
Jewish people are not only a geographical ethnical, racial, anthropological notion, but also a cultural, civilized, historical notion. Cosmopolitanism does not negate or neglect nationality, but it pays little attention to the interests of nations or races. Nations and states must serve the more importantly high principle. Modern Jewish cosmopolitanism is the result of the Jewish response to the challenges from modern world. The Diaspora(散居) is not absolutely a disaster. When being deprived of the land, Jewish people have taken up their own mission. Deprivation of the lands and homes is not only a punishment, but also a part of the God’s plan. Diaspora（犹太人大流散） opened a wide space for Jewish mission. They learned that possessions, fortunes and powers are temporary. The Diaspora is a great school for them to train their heroic spirit. Modern Jewish thinkers developed an international view or cosmopolitanism.
There are some elements and foundations of cosmopolitanism in Judaism, which can be borrowed and used by Christianity. There is duality in Judaism—both nationalism and internationalism. Judaism—Christian monotheism criticized natural religion. Some scholars praise the universalism of Judaism and criticize the Greek particularism. M.Kaplan criticized the nationalism in Judaism. He advocates that Judaism should go to the world. We should point out that as a national religion, Jewish religion never gave up the hope of becoming a world religion. It’s Jewish religions that established a basis for Christian mission. It is Jewish religion that establishes a notion of humankind. Chinese phrase says: within the four seas, all men are brothers. But according to Jewish tradition, outside the four seas, all men are also brothers. Nevertheless, Jewish religion is basically a nation’s religion, which is different from Christianity. Yahweh (Jehovah) is the Hebrew name for God. Modern Jewish scholars expound the cosmopolitanism of Jewish religion. They were influenced by modern spirit.
Chinese culture is agriculture. It is cultivation of the soil. It means field-cultura. Chinese people worship gods of field, heaven, weather, sex, season and food, etc. These are all natural phenomena. Agricultural nations worship emperors and national Gods. Chinese traditional culture is an agricultural culture. As an agricultural nation, Chinese culture has shortcomings of nationalism. Traditionally, Chinese religions have Gods of agriculture， nature, marriage, medicine, but no Gods of arts, wisdom, crafts, no commercial goddess.
Today, some Chinese scholars promote “Language Sovereignty”. They advocate the idea that in 50 years time, Chinese language will replace English and become a world language. This is self-glorification. How can Chinese language replace English and become a world language? It is impossible at all. Chinese language is pictographic characters（象形文字）, not alphabetic writing. English is phonetic alphabet（拼音文字）: phonetic letters have many advantages. Pictograph has some shortcomings than alphabetic systems of writing. In early evolutionary period of human history, every nation used pictographs, but later on, they developed phonetic alphabets. So, English is a worldwide language, it is not because of Britain and American imperialism. The man-made language Esperanto（世界语）cannot replace English, because it is artificial. Some Chinese scholars advocate that Chinese language will replace English as a world language 50 years later. This is utterly groundless nonsense. English has more advantages than Chinese. In our society, we can see English slogans and advertisements everyday. This is not bad. Today, some Chinese scholars hate English. They promote a strong Chinese Language Movement. They even oppose English slogans, boards, marks and advertisements. Some articles in our country say that the 21st century is Chinese century. So scholars oppose foreign languages examination for promoting Academic titles. Many of my friends even suggest “Chinese Theology”. It is strange enough that I don’t understand the meaning.
In Chinese lunar calendar（阴历）, the Heavenly stems and Earthly Branches（天干地支）designate the years. Today, Some people suggest that China should have its own St. Valentine day（情人节）—the seventh day of the seventh month of Chinese lunar calendar. But China has adopted Gregorian calendar（公历纪年） in 1949, and especially important, the seventh day of the seven month in Chinese lunar is not the love of male and female, but of a young peasant and a female celestial, not earthly love! It’s a national “lovers day”. Other peoples can’t adopt it.
Recently, in Qufu(曲阜), Shandong, China, the hometown of Confucius, a memorial ceremony for Confucius（祭孔大典）is held by the local government. Attendants offered flower baskets to Confucius. This is the same as national ceremony for Huang Emperor Tomb(全民公祭黄帝陵). These national religions do not admit the only common ancestor of all human beings. It’s not a international spirit.
In our times, if one only loves his own nation or his own church, he betrays Jesus’ message. Our times are times of globalization. This is the realization of cosmopolitanism of Christianity. Today, in China, the Christian “Three-selves” Patriotic Movement goes against the main tendency of the world history. The leaders of Chinese churches change the essence of Christianity into a national selfish and self-centered religion. As Athens Olympic Games（雅典奥运会） is over, Chinese people celebrate its victory. The whole country is immersed in national carnival（狂欢）and fanaticism. As Chinese man-made spaceship is launched, the whole nation saw it as a nation’s own success. But it is in fact the whole world’s success. As a nation with strong nationalistic feeling, China will not melt into world culture. A nationalistic culture has no change and has not its history. History means change and revolution.
Simon An. 16-15, Philosophy Dept. Shanxi University, Taiyuan, 030006, China. Tel: 0351-7010517 Oct,16.2004
From Oct. 11 to 15, 2004, there held an International Symposium on Judaism in Nanjin University. There are over 40 attendants—including professors from America, Canada, Israel, Spain Britain, Germany, China, etc. Professors An of our department attended the symposium. Below is the abstraction of his paper.
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Chinese may replace English in this century
from: http://tanklao.spaces.live.com
By Tank Lao (Tingkai Liu) at Institute of Hydrobiology, CAS
Chinese has been widely used in East Asia for thousands of years. It was supposed to be the leading global language, but an accident happened. English quite by chance took its place. Will Chinese seize the place? The answer is definitely YES! Because Chinese has so many advantages over European languages including English that I would like to say Chinese is superior to them.
Chinese, especially Chinese characters, is more stable than European languages. An average student of higher schools in China can easily read the books, say Lunyu, Laozi et al, that were written 2000 years ago But a Ph D of native England can hardly read the books their ancestor wrote 500 years ago. In China a pupil of primary school can easily read The Romance of Three Kingdoms which was written more than 600 years ago. Because Chinese is a ideographic language in which the characters are generally true to their ideas while European languages including English are phonetic languages in which the words should be principally true to their pronunciations. For hundreds of years the pronunciation changed, as a result words of English changed; but characters of Chinese remained almost the same. In the next five hundred years, God alone knows what English will become. But Chinese, I predict confidently, will not change so much, especially its writing.
Chinese is more compatible especially the writing Chinese. Some experts in the ISO (international standard organization) classify Chinese as a language family which contains Mandarin Chinese, Cantonese Chinese, Minnan Chinese, Wu Chinese et al. In the speaking sense it's definitely right, but in writing sense it's absolutely wrong. We should admit that that the difference between Mandarin and Cantonese is greater than that between English and German. But that is just in speaking. In writing they are almost the same. No matter what kind of Chinese you speak, you can easily communicate with others by writing, because all kinds of Chinese are compatible in the way of using Chinese characters. So Chinese should be identified as one language. But English is different. Although English is considered as one language, An American is quite hard to understand Indian English and African English. Within just 100 years of changing, Americans have difficulties to understand Indian English and African English. In another 100 years Indian English may be identified as an independent language, not English any more. So may African English, Singaporean English, and even Chinese English. But different kinds of Chinese, which underwent thousands of years of changing, are still well compatible. People in the UK have a pride of their language. "English - A global language; English - A global language!" Everyday everywhere they say this. But this is a false pride. Indians speak and write in English, but in their own English, not the global one. So do Chinese, Singaporeans and Africans.
Written Chinese is more informative. Chinese characters carry far more information than any other language. In the five official languages of the United Nation, Chinese is the most informative. According to the report by Benjamin K. Tsou in the Language Information Sciences Research Centre of City University of Hong Kong, the Entropy of Alphabets or Characters is Chinese 9.65 bits, followed by Russian 4.35 bits, then English 4.03 bits, Spanish 4.01 bits and French 3.98 bits. We can put it in another way to understand the report like this: if we use 100 pieces of paper to write a novel in English, it needs only 42 in Chinese, which is nearly 60 percent less than English. If the US uses Chinese as its office language, it will save at least half of its forest that is used to produce paper. So do computer disk and anything that is related to writing. The United States is always trying to save resources and protect the environment. One of the best ways, I suggest here, is to let Chinese become the official language, because Chinese is more informative and will save a lot of resources.
Chinese runs faster. Take memorizing times table for an example. English students take 1.5 times longer to read the table than Chinese student do, and correspondingly take 1.5 times longer to memorize it, according to the essay Aspects of Chinese Sociolinguistics by Yuen-Ren Chao, a Chinese American linguist. It was also found that reading Chinese is also much faster than reading English, because Chinese is an ideographic language that is very suitable for silent reading. When a Chinese student reads three books, an American student may read just read one. No wander why Chinese students of high schools get more Olympic prizes in science. When these students become a Ph. Ds, they use mainly English in their research, so their speed has been slow down greatly. If Chinese scientists translate all the scientific papers into Chinese and publish all their papers in Chinese, I believe that China will surpass the US in science very soon, because Chinese is a language that runs much faster than English. There was a case to prove it. It took US more one thousand times to invent the nuclear bomb, but it took only about 50 times for China to finish the same work independently.
Chinese is more vigorous in front of the challenge what is called the information explosion. Everyday lots of English words or terms are coined. There is going to be a vocabulary explosion of English, which really become a big challenge. Lots of new words or terms are created in Chinese as well. But this does not become a problem, because a Chinese new word typically composes of two or three characters which imply its meaning. A Chinese person can easily understand a new word which he/she has never seen. Let's take a look at the new words that the two languages have coined in the past few decades. China didn't have wine until the westerner brought it to China. In Chinese “wine” is translated as putaojiu（葡萄酒） in which putao means grape and jiu means a kind of beverage which contains alcohol. Every Chinese speaker can easily understand the meaning of putaojiu without any explanation or looking up a dictionary. Baijiu(白酒), translated to English in terms of Mandarin Pinyin, is also a kind of beverage. But it is really hard for an average English speaker to understand what baijiu is without looking it up a dictionary or getting some explanations. In the field of sciences, new term are created everyday. In English one new term in many cases means one new word. In Chinese a new term mean a combination of two or three or more characters to make a new sense. One can easily memorize the new term because the characters of the new term imply its meaning. For example, microcystin is a biological term. An average English speaker may have little idea about it, although they know that “micro” means small. Its equivalent term in Chinese is weinangzaodusu(微囊藻毒素) in which wei means tiny, nang means package, zao means algae, du means poisson, and su mean a kind of chemical. So an average Chinese speaker will perceive the term as a kind of poisonous chemical produced by a kind of algae the form of which is like a tiny package. This information is absolutely enough for every average speaker. Most of scientific terms in Chinese can be understood in this way by the average readers and speakers. For another example. I pick up 25 words or terms that are very basic in each of their fields as following (English followed by characters and Mandarin pinyin):
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tampon 棉球 mianqiu,
flask 烧瓶 shaoping,
exarticulation 脱臼 tuojiu,
nephrolith 肾结石 shenjieshi,
schizophrenia 精神分裂症 jingshenfenliezheng,
senile dementia 老年痴呆症 laonianchidaizheng,
cuboid 长方体 changfangti,
rhombicosidodecahedron 二十面体 ershimianti,
saleratus 小苏打 xiaosuda,
selenium 硒 xi,
theostat 变阻器 bianzuqi,
manostat 稳压器 wenyaqi,
sturgeon 鲟鱼 xunyu,
pheasant 野鸡 yeji,
drone 雄蜂 xiongfeng,
ozonosphere 臭氧层 chouyangceng,
troposphere 对流层 duiliuceng,
monsoon 季风 jifeng,
flute 长笛 changdi,
granite 花岗岩 huagangyan,
mutatis mutandis 作必要的变化 zuobiyaodebianhua,
epistemology 认识论 renshilun,
metaphysics 形而上学 xing'ershangxue,
bourgeoisie 中产阶级 zhongchanjieji,
proletaria 无产阶级 wuchanjieji.
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If you take these 25 words or terms (that are from fields of medicine, mathematics, chemistry, physics, zoology, musicology, geology, meteorology, philosophy and politics) to have a test, I can bet that an average reader of English can hardly understand five of them and that an average reader of Chinese can hardly miss five of them. Obviously Chinese has more vigor to deal with the new terms of sciences. It will be only Chinese, I predict confidently, that can undertake the big challenge of information explosion we meet today.
Chinese is far simpler than English. Chinese is always considered to be the hardest language in the world. This is just because people including Chinese themselves have prejudice against Chinese language. Just on the contrast, Chinese is one of the simplest languages in world. I was told that “spoken Chinese is very simple” by lots of foreigners who are Canadian, Indian Canadian, Australians (one of them speak Chinese very well), Vietnamese Australian, American, Chinese American (who was sold to an American family when he was born), Croatian (one of my present coworkers who can speak very well and think in Chinese way), Indian (whose mother tongue is Tamil) Cameroonian (who speak one of African native language as mother tongue, French as official language, and English as third language), and foreigners who can speak both English and Chinese (but neither is their mother tongue) from Korean, Japan, Bombay, Vietnam and Malaysia. As a matter of fact the simplicity lies not only in spoken Chinese but written Chinese as well. Some Chinese learners have experienced the simplicity of written Chinese. If we let 5-years-old children whose mother tongue is neither Chinese nor English begin to learn Chinese and English at the same time, I believe that they will master Chinese before English. Chinese has no grammatical inflections – it possesses no tenses, no voices, no numbers (singular, plural; though there are plural markers), only a few articles (ie. equivalents to "the, a, an" in English), and no gender*, although it do have some helper characters that accomplish the same function of English grammar, which are not the equivalents of English grammar in my opinion. More and more westerner who learn Chinese realize that Chinese, at least spoken Chinese, in fact is very simple. Chinese characters are quite logical. So do the words and phrases. Once you learn it you will love it.
To sum it up, Chinese has the advantage of stability, compatibility, informativeness, speed, vigor, and simplicity over English, and will probably replace English in this century. It's time for us to take action to reconsider Chinese now. It's time for every country to teach Chinese now. Any country that moves slow in this action will certainly fall behind.
Acknowledgement
I would like to thank Abraham Smallwood and Ke Wang, my English teachers in my courses of Ph D, for correcting the grammatical mistakes and giving me some very valuable advice in this article. This article is my homework of English course.
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