preface one On the European side of the Arctic Circle, I'm standing in the snow in the last days of the 2000's. Now it is not difficult for people to go to the North Pole or Antarctica, but they usually choose to go to the North Pole in summer.I heard that we were going to go to the North Pole in the coldest day of winter. I don’t know how many people came to dissuade us along the way, but unfortunately we couldn’t persuade them anymore.After spending so long investigating ninety-six cities, which other city is qualified to be the end?No street can contain thousands of streets, and no gate can close thousands of gates.Only the ice and snow wasteland can explain the essence of the European land, which is the mystery of Eastern philosophy.Therefore, there will be a few orientals who dare to come here in such a season.

Wrapped tightly in two sets of down ski jackets, it was still indescribably cold.The aborigines' hut was neither sheltered from wind nor snow, and at least a fire was lit.The master saw us frozen like this, and held out a bowl of stag blood wine.I took it and brought it to my mouth with a shiver, feeling cold and fishy, ​​took a sip and handed it to the partner next to me.At this moment, I stood up and went outside the shack.It was too cold to stand here for a long time, so I quickly looked up at the stars to find out the direction.Then, facing south, I said in my heart: I'm done. The person I am talking to is none other than myself fifteen years ago.Fifteen years ago that night, at this time, I had just finished watching a very vulgar and spicy Nuo opera in a remote mountainous area. I felt that my study and writings over the years were seriously out of touch with the actual cultural phenomenon, and decided to travel with shame.Is it engaged in social practice?Or go on a field trip?There was only one thing that was certain, and the decision was fraught with danger.Look at such a field trip, in order to catch the early morning flight, I had to drive alone in the mountains, and I even picked up a stone and pinched it in my hand for self-defense.It is always dangerous for a literati to leave his study, and the further away he is, the greater the danger.

Later, a passage from the British modern scholar Collingwood helped me make a further decision, because he pointed out the greater danger hidden in the ivory tower, and we have already vaguely felt this danger on weekdays.He said that the ivory tower looks elegant and exquisite, but it is a kind of self-imprisonment.He bluntly described that the literary and artistic elites imprisoned in the ivory tower have nothing to talk about except themselves, and they become each other's audience after talking.He believes that all the boredom, troubles, and injuries come from mutual audiences in this small space.From this, he came to an astonishing conclusion: what real cultural people and artists do is exactly what the cultural and art circles are trying to oppose.This matter is obviously leaving.As long as the prisoners in the ivory tower are spectators, they will temporarily unanimously deal with the defectors as long as they see someone leaving the ivory tower. However, Collingwood believes that because of this, it proves that there is no choice but to defect.

Imprisonment is a reason for defecting, but as we go far, this reason gradually recedes, and the previous part of the road becomes the reason for the next part of the road. Every section of the road can answer some questions, but it brings out more new questions, so it is difficult to stop as you go further and further.Traveling far is lonely after all, so I wrote some words to communicate with readers near and far. Of course, the way of communication will not imitate the mutual audience in the ivory tower. In this way, the circle became bigger and bigger, and each new space brought new responsibilities, and finally went from domestic to foreign, from Chinese civilization to other civilizations.Examine Chinese civilization from other civilizations, and test other civilizations from Chinese civilization, and then make up your mind that as long as civilizations that have had a major impact on mankind, even if they have become rubble and become a nest of bandits, none of them should be missed.

Like a man who has gone mad in the forest and has no idea what fear is.I have also encountered thieves blocking the way, spilling dirt on treetops, night birds looking around, and owls singing like songs, but there is still a faint moonlight in the sky, and there are calls from friends in the distance. I did not disappear halfway.A few days ago, a Finnish professor said to me: I can’t think of any European traveler who has traveled as far as you in Europe. It is said that you have ventured through the most terrifying road in the world before, and of course China is also included. So tonight I will stand at the Arctic Circle and report to myself who just made up my mind fifteen years ago: I am done.

two Like every trip, this time I went to Europe, the thoughts after the trip were very different from those when I started.For example, I didn’t plan to write a book when I set out, the reason was mentioned in the preface of "A Thousand Year Sigh", but at this moment I changed my mind. Still the responsibility that comes with space.But this space is not only Europe, but also includes the Middle East, Central Asia, and South Asia, where the other two spaces I visited before became terrifying, and the land of China that has not yet fallen.The contrast of the three major spaces is in front of the eyes, and the vortex is in the heart. The feelings generated are indescribable, including some hidden worries.Feelings can be swallowed, hidden worries should be spit out, who should spit out to?Those two spaces don't care about the thoughts of a Chinese traveler for the time being, so they can only talk to our own people.

I would like to say that European civilization is indeed excellent and mature, but in recent years, due to excessive complacency and self-enjoyment, it has become autistic, and has many time and space illusions about the world and itself. Of course, there are many things we should look up to in European civilization. For example, Chinese civilization has advocated the golden mean for thousands of years, and it is still often caused by extreme thinking of either or both. Why can European civilization combine classical tradition and modern Innovation, personal freedom and social morality all in one?I am even more envious of the smiling gazes in the coffee shops on the street. With just a flash, I feel that the sun and the moon are long and the mountains and rivers are safe.This civilization has learned and washed away much from its early expansions and subsequent great wars, and in recent years the union of European nations has made it more leisurely and serene.It even feels that it has entered the extreme state of civilization development, and there is no need for hard work.The views of the French philosopher Alexandre Kojeve (Alexandre Kojeve) expounded in Francis Fukuyama's book "The End of History" are very representative, that is, Europe has concentrated a variety of nutrients from Christian civilization to the French Revolution, and overcame In terms of material abundance, individual freedom, institutional democracy, and social stability, it has entered the end of history. Although there will still be local conflicts in the future, the overall trend is against the background of global integration. Consumption and gaming.

I seriously doubt it.Because I can't forget the sights all the way from the Middle East to South Asia, which is not far from Europe.It’s fine if we don’t talk about global integration, but if we talk about it, how can we omit all kinds of crises, grievances, and violence from the concept of globalization?However, they often omit it, hiding in their own value system and closing their eyes.We walked that road for several months and met few Europeans, a far cry from their adventurous predecessors.In fact, needless to say the big crisis, even batches of smuggled immigrants have frequently interspersed among the cafes on the street, stuffing the space that Europe does not want to face up to.The most logical and predictable European cultural people in history should remind the world of a little crisis, but it has been a long time since such a voice has been heard.

I remember the last time I came to India just across the borders of Iran, Pakistan, and Afghanistan, and I met a reporter from a developed country waiting to interview me there. Panicked for the safety of my own life, and what I said is even more panic is that human beings can kill each other, religious conflicts, and population explosion have not shown signs of easing until the turn of the century.In the diary I sent to Hong Kong Phoenix Satellite TV that night, I wrote: All problems are imminent.Culture is supposed to be a reminder and a force for thinking, but it often backfires and becomes a fascination with priorities reversed.Whenever I encountered a particularly shocking ruin on the road this time, I always wondered whether there were thinking figures and calling voices here before the destruction?But a large amount of historical data tells me that no, always no.Under the shadow of a generation of heroes and a century of hegemony, culture often becomes extravagant embellishment, boring tastes, and bitter peering, and sometimes it is still elaborately dressed up until the soldiers approach the city.As a result, barbaric power always overcomes corruption, and culture dies unjustly, and what dies along with culture is always a rare period of light in history.Therefore, culture is the easiest to be trivial and the least should be trivial, and the culture that is most used to being particular about it should be the most vigilant about being particular about it.Cultural morality and cultural conscience are always the soul of culture, otherwise, a buzzing culture is a harbinger of self-burial.

When human beings are facing such dense problems, I hope that more wise men will take on the real cultural responsibility, and no matter how many stones are thrown, they will still be able to maintain a steadfast group.Mobs can assassinate Gandhi and Rabin, but their voices remain in the world after all. This time in Europe, I feel that their culture is largely in the ecstasy of reversed priorities.Their own excellence makes them less sensitive to the external space, so they lack responsibility. Can a culture that lacks responsibility continue to be excellent?Sometimes they feel this too, and try to reawaken their responsibility to the world, only to reverse their priorities because of their lack of personal experience.

More sober is Harvard University professor Huntington, who pointed out in a timely manner that the conflict between various civilizations was about to begin just after the end of the Cold War.He saw that the underlying reason behind all political and military conflicts is the confrontation of civilizations. He predicted that history would wash away the appearance and reveal the essence, so he warned Western civilization not to dismiss other civilizations.It's a pity that he was too clinging to the position of the Western standard, and turned the newly stripped civilization issue into a political issue.However, even so, most Western cultural people did not heed Huntington's warning, and continued to dismiss other civilizations with arbitrary speculation.The most ridiculous example is that they always use fantasies to assert the desire of Chinese civilization to expand abroad and the threat it will pose to them. They don’t know that although Chinese civilization has many disadvantages, it is not a nautical civilization or a nomadic civilization by nature. Without this desire, even Zheng He, who had sailed thousands of miles, never thought about that road at all.He is so ignorant of the civilizations listed by Huntington as the most important besides Western civilization, let alone other civilizations. three Indifference to space must also be indifference to time. Tao Yuanming has made this relationship clear in "Peach Blossom Spring".Then, if a civilization cannot face up to the outside world, it must also be unable to face up to its own history, especially the fierceness left by the struggle with ignorance and barbarism in history.Blindly dressing himself up as a spotless judge of the world, on the contrary, took away his strong physique.Mr. Li Zehou said that even if it is as fierce as gluttony, it will accumulate profound historical power and retain great aesthetic charm.What a pity if a civilization loses this charm. Most of the previous generations of oriental cultural people looked at European civilization with envy and admiration, resulting in a kind of triviality, sentimentality and superficiality based on misunderstanding.This tendency has grown in Europe itself in recent years, as it has suddenly paid off all old debts, and with it various historical burdens, both negative and positive.If I allow me to use small words to describe the big, then this scene is like an old woman in Bergen, Norway. Some time ago, this old woman sent a hundred kroner to a fish shop, saying that the fish shop 50 years ago She did not return the five kronors that the shop found extra, and now she has to return the principal with interest.She repeatedly reflected on the young owner of the fish shop: that year was too poor.This trifle moved me for a long time, a continual honesty that ennobled negligence.But then I thought, what will happen to this old woman who has paid off her debts tomorrow?Will she collapse because the goal of fifty years has finally been achieved?Europe is the old woman. When history no longer leaves pain, time no longer bears the mission, and memory no longer bears responsibility, it may enter a trance of self-lostness. We have no reason not to care about other people's loneliness.Since it has been partially misunderstood before it is lost, once it is really lost, we have a double confusion.Therefore, to find its true life is to find ourselves.In the superficial sense of civilization, this can be said to be clear to the outsider. In the deep sense of civilization, each other is an invisible alliance. Based on my previous reading impressions and on-the-spot visits, I feel that European civilization should have a rough and powerful prototype of life, an adventure plot that runs through thousands of years, some little-known secret corners, and a bunch of shame and shame that cannot be traced. Regrets, a few low-toned admonitions and testaments.Only by finding these, can we actually settle the theories, masters and procedures that we were familiar with before. Of course, this kind of search is not to hide thousands of miles away for pedantic textual research, but to go straight there, face the strange land with both doubts and trust, knock on the ignorance and barbarism that have always been involved and wrestled together. civilization. Not long after I left my study to travel, I realized my calling on the road.Halfway through my travels eight years ago, a reporter asked me about the subject of my writing, and I replied: at least one of the most primitive themes: what is ignorance and barbarism, and what is their rival civilization?Civilization may not win every fight, so we have to shout for it from far and near. "Fragments of Civilization.Title Narrative" I have long said that far and near, there is no boundary in this matter. This time, what was called out from the depths of that distant land turned out to be some authentic voices that I wanted to listen to a long time ago. It should have been a landslide and earth-shattering destruction at the beginning, but it was not a religious fable.Destruction is the abridgement of history, and the possibility of reappearance is buried under the thick volcanic ash. What cannot be reappeared is the soul of a wise man.The wise man once cast the first inquiry to China, so one more destiny was destroyed in the destruction. The post-destruction revival needs to travel not only through time, but also through a large number of personality disasters, so there are too many sighs and sobs soaked in the cheers across history.The city that ended the Middle Ages handed over its splendor to the whole of Europe, and only defended its aggrieved sons, without making a sound.It lures countless wonderful notes, verses and colors in the vast land, but all of them are also almost without exception surrounded by ignorance and barbarism.The most clearly heard at this time is the sound of anchor lifting by the wanderers on the south coast.This voice finally made Europe understand its position in the world, causing groups of wise men to ponder in the forest castles of Central Europe, and the changes repeatedly spread to the world from the riverside markets in Western Europe.Wisdom and desire have brought both the hustle and bustle of the city and the dust of war, and finally, in the cycle of destruction and revival, peace is brought out. However, the greatest calm still belongs to the northern snowfield.There, the bloody screams of pirates were imported countless times into the hinterland of Europe, but what was brought back was the generous sound of church bells.The pirates on the snow field were finally shocked, and began to spy on the law and order in the lava of the volcano every year. In the end, it was they who proved the power of civilization with their own rebirth. It can be seen from this that although European civilization is still deep in the central part and brilliant in the west, it takes the south and north which are neither deep nor brilliant as its lifeblood.The south always leaves scorching desolation because of the great departures; while the north always leaves the most symbolic battlefield because of the personality wars where human nature captures animal nature and civilization incorporates barbarism. Therefore, in this book, I push European civilization back to the wilderness of self-reliance, and put the keyhole for reading it next to the lava of Thingvellir, Iceland. Any kind of civilization will lose itself due to many reasons. Only by putting them back to the front line of fighting ignorance and barbarism, can they wake up, constantly re-experience their own civilization nature, and communicate with other civilizations.This also reflects the basic differences between us and Professor Huntington: he only pointed out the conflicts among civilizations, but what we need to call out is that, if these civilizations are truly civilizations, they must have a common language and a common enemy . Then, even the Chinese civilization, which has too many historical grievances with European civilization, will not blindly cling to the conflicts between civilizations to seek self-rejuvenation. It is gradually understanding that the main obstacles to self-rejuvenation are near and far. Ignorance and barbarism, so it is even more necessary to explore, learn from and remind each other with other civilizations, and then deal with the shadows scattered everywhere side by side. It is in this sense that the multi-faceted comparison between Chinese civilization and European civilization in this book breaks through the bipolar orientation in the study of comparative literature, but always retains a larger third orientation, which is the opposite of all civilizations.For this reason, Chinese civilization is willing to observe the ups and downs of European civilization with a more modest attitude, and humbly ask for advice. No matter when European civilization can also treat Chinese civilization with this attitude. February 3, 2001, in Hong Kong.