Spiritual Presence and Physical Absence of the Past in China At this stage, my intention is not to provide any answers, but simply to define the question. The topic being vast, I shall merely outline here some of the directions and themes which a fuller inquiry ought to pursue. This essay attempts a preliminary exploration of the parallel phenomena of spiritual preservation and material destruction that can be observed in the history of Chinese culture. (Whether the spiritual continuity was achieved in spite of, or thanks to, a partial destruction of the material expressions of tradition is itself another issue, that will only be briefly evoked later on.) It seems that there is a paradox at the heart of this remarkable cultural longevity: cultivation of the moral and spiritual values of the Ancients appears to have most often combined with a curious neglect or indifference (even at times downright iconoclasm) towards the material heritage of the past. Such a unique continuity naturally implies a very complex relation between a people and their past.
Joachim du Bellay, Les Antiquités de Rome (1558)Ĭhina is the oldest living civilisation on Earth.
