The Nine Commentaries on the Communist Party were first published in November of 2004, followed quickly by an English translation. This series has led more than 115 million Chinese to renounce the communist party and its affiliated organizations, fostering an unprecedented peaceful movement for transformation and change in China. Here we republish the newly re-edited Nine Commentaries, linked to video and audio versions produced by our partner media, NTD Television and the SOH Radio Network. For the other Commentaries, please see the Table of Contents. —Eds.
Foreword
Culture is the soul of a nation. This spiritual factor is as important to mankind as physical factors such as race and land.
Cultural developments define the history of a nation’s civilization. The complete destruction of a national culture leads to the end of the nation. Ancient nations that had created glorious civilizations were considered to have vanished when their cultures disappeared, even though people of their races may have survived.
During the Cultural Revolution, the red guards smash a Confucius temple while chanting communist slogans.
China is the only country in the world whose ancient civilization has been passed down continuously for over 5,000 years. Destruction of its traditional culture is an unforgivable crime.
The Chinese culture, believed to be passed down by God, started with such myths as Pangu’s creation of heaven and the earth,[1] Nüwa’s creation of humanity,[2] Shennong’s identification of hundreds of medicinal herbs,[3] and Cangjie’s invention of Chinese characters.[4]
“Man follows the earth, the earth follows heaven, heaven follows the Tao, and the Tao follows what is natural.”[5] The Taoist wisdom of unity of heaven and humanity has coursed through the veins of Chinese culture.
“Great learning promotes the cultivation of virtue.”[6] Confucius opened a school to teach students more than 2,000 years ago and imparted to society the Confucian ideals represented by the five cardinal virtues of benevolence, righteousness, propriety, wisdom, and faithfulness.
| Traditional Chinese culture sought harmony between man and the universe and emphasized an individual’s ethics and morality. |
In the first century, Shakyamuni’s Buddhism traveled east to China with its emphasis on compassion and salvation for all beings. The Chinese culture became more wide-ranging and profound. Thereafter, Confucianism, Buddhism, and Taoism became complementary beliefs in Chinese society, bringing the Tang Dynasty (A.D. 618–907) to the peak of its glory and prosperity, as is known to all under heaven.
Although the Chinese nation has experienced invasion and attack many times in history, the Chinese culture has shown great endurance and stamina, and its essence has been continuously passed down. The unity of heaven and humanity represents our ancestors’ cosmology.
It is common sense that kindness will be rewarded and evil will be punished. It is an elementary virtue that one does not do to others what one does not want done to oneself.
Loyalty, filial piety, dignity, and justice have set the social standards, and Confucius’s five cardinal virtues of benevolence, righteousness, propriety, wisdom, and faithfulness have laid the foundation for social and personal morality. With these principles, the Chinese culture embodied honesty, kindness, harmony, and tolerance.
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