~ Daisaku Ikeda, at Peking University

This is my sixth visit to Peking University. Four years ago, I had the honor to express my views at Peking University. Today, I have another chance to exchange views with my friends in China. Here, please allow me to express my sincere respect and deep gratitude to President Ding, teachers, dear students and gentlemen present. Today has passed and will never come back. I hope that today, which is full of commemorative significance, we can push Japan-China friendship further.

In my last speech, I talked about my personal views on the real face of the people of China with the topic of "A Survey of China". Today, from the perspective of a civilian, I would like to talk about the concept of establishing permanent peace that I have always believed and worked hard to achieve with the title "The Road to World Peace-My View".

So far, apart from your university, I have also given speeches at forums such as Los Angeles College, Moscow University, Guadalajara University, Sophia University and Bucharest University. I have always held the belief that there can be no peace without deep understanding and extensive exchanges between ethnic groups, and it is impossible to sit idly by and ignore such understanding and exchanges. Based on this belief, I hope that my speech today will contribute to the peaceful and friendly development of Japan and China.

It may be said that no matter whether it is a conflict between individuals or a war between countries, any dispute arises under the condition of losing self-control. This is especially true when there is a dispute between countries. Plato, a famous philosopher, and Hobbes, an English philosopher, once compared the country to a monster out of human control. If this metaphor is quoted, it must be said that it is extremely difficult for a monster to exert his self-control ability.

Goethe has a famous saying about this difficulty. He lamented: "Unfortunately, so far, we have not found a country with strong armaments and a complete defense system, but it can consistently and only be satisfied with maintaining this defense system."

Ideally, no country has armaments. However, it is unrealistic to realize this ideal situation at once. In fact, there has never been an era in history that has called for peace so strongly as today, but no significant progress has been made in disarmament negotiations. On the other hand, despite the long road, the people's sincere efforts to achieve peace are accumulating and growing. There is no other way to achieve disarmament. I think that under the current situation, the urgent task we need to solve is how to use the "literary" power of cultural civilization to contain armaments, that is, the "military" power. This is what I want to say about giving full play to the national self-control ability.

The Pulse of China's "Advocating Literature"

From this perspective, I think the 3,000-year history of China can give us a lot of enlightenment. Throughout the history of China, I have a strong impression that China is a "literary" country rather than a "military" country. Of course, this is in a comparative and relative sense. Just like a country without complete "martial arts", there is no country with pure "literature". The question is what is the mainstream. In my opinion, with very few exceptions, the ethos of "respecting literature" has always been a great force to promote the history of China.

Of course, China, dominated by "advocating literature", did have an era of military expansion, such as the establishment of the Han Dynasty and the Yuan Dynasty under Mongolian rule. Moreover, the border once symbolized by the Great Wall of Wan Li has been repeatedly attacked and defended. Coupled with domestic chaos, the scale of the war is indeed extraordinary from the perspective of an island country like Japan.

I also want to make it clear that the pure spirit of Chongwen is not "advocating literature", but "weak writing", which leads to the decadence of the spirit of the times. It is obvious proof that dynasties have been in a state of chaos.

Nevertheless, I would like to say that, compared with other powerful empires that have experienced ups and downs in the history of world civilization, it is difficult to find an example of brazenly pursuing militarism and aggression by relying solely on force in China's history. Although the temporary force doctrine was reluctantly promoted, it was quickly absorbed by the sea-like power of culture and civilization. China is called "the oldest country in the world". In its vast history books, we can find that it is full of ethics and morality as long as we turn over a few volumes. It is precisely because China is a "literate" country that it is possible to generate such power to contain military aggression by force.

There is a traditional power to restrain power.

The understanding that "foreign conquest is immoral" is said to have originated in Sui and Tang Dynasties. It is no accident that China is at the top of the world and the flower of civilization is blooming. This fact gives us great enlightenment, showing how great the power of culture and civilization is. Just as Emperor Yang Di's expedition to Koguryo forced the people to make great sacrifices, an anti-war song "Go to Liaodong and die without waves" was popular among the people. In the later years of Emperor Xuanzong of Tang Dynasty, when he wasted the wealth of the national treasury and engaged in useless border management at the expense of a large number of human lives, Du Fu not only expressed the people's anti-war and war-weariness in his famous words such as "military vehicle shop", but also people could hear the implication that it was immoral to regard foreign conquest. He wrote in "Military Vehicle Shop":

"They followed you, crying, pulling your sleeve and crying to the sky.

Passers-by asked the soldiers how they got there, saying only that the roster was frequently recruited.

Some people go to the north of the Yellow River at the age of fifteen, even if they go to the western border to open up wasteland at the age of forty.

Long in the middle, the hair is tied up with a headscarf, and when I come back, I am bald and guarding the border.

Countless border guards shed blood and sacrificed to form seawater, and the concept of border defense in Huang Wu has not stopped.

Haven't you heard that there are hundreds of villages covered with vegetation in 200 states east of Huashan Mountain? ……"

These 100 poems accuse the useless war of aggression under the pretext of the soldiers who went out to war. It is under such circumstances that the idea of treating foreign aggression as immoral and immoral took root among the people and became the spirit of the times at that time. It was also during this period that the envoys of Sui Dynasty and Tang Dynasty began direct diplomatic relations between Japan and China.

This thought was particularly evident in China's diplomatic posture at that time, especially in its tribute diplomacy and trade. At that time, China only demanded suzerainty over most subordinate countries, and did not try to conquer them. The so-called tribute is to recognize China as the suzerain and come to pay tribute to prove that he has fulfilled his duties as a courtier. In response, Emperor China also presented some handicrafts from China as gifts. This tribute system was a special diplomatic and trade means at that time. The starting point of this tribute trade is to convince neighboring countries with civilization and culture. This idea is also based on the idea of "respecting literature" and the pride of the Chinese nation.

It is worth noting that China, as the suzerain country, did not get any benefits from this tribute trade. The expenses of the emissary and his entourage during their stay in China are all borne by the suzerain country, and the gifts given by the emperor are always higher than the value of the tribute. It is said that once a subordinate country pays tribute, it can always get five or six times the benefits as a courtesy in return. Historians also pointed out that one of the background reasons why Emperor Hongwu of Ming Taizu implemented the policy of forbidding the sea was that China at that time could no longer bear such a burden.

I don't want to talk about China's economic prosperity as a big empire here. What I want to emphasize is that we can see from this that there is a generous sense of order in the history of China. In recent years, I have been to several countries in Eastern Europe, where I learned some extremely cruel historical facts about the forced exploitation and oppression of subordinate countries by the Ottoman Empire, which made my hair stand on end. From this, I think, relatively speaking, China's generosity and "literary grace" attitude in the tribute trade left a deep impression on me. Not only that, I think this feeling is completely different from the nationalism in modern Europe and the dominant and dominated ideological structure produced by this nationalism. When Peking University was at the boiling climax of the May 4th Movement, Bertrand Russell, who had visited your school, described his impression of China in this way. He wrote: "If we are looking for a country that is too proud to go to war, it is China. The attitude of China people is extremely natural, tolerant and friendly, and it is an attitude of wanting to treat others with courtesy. "

As we all know, Russell's evaluation of China did not take into account the negative aspects of China's feudal residual system, which caused fierce refutation by Lu Xun and others. However, Russell clearly saw and described the beauty essence of Chinese civilization from the perspective of different civilizations, and this fact should also be affirmed.

I think the essence of this kind of beauty is the civilized power that people or countries control their instincts and animality-that is, self-control or inhibition. I believe that there is no other way to realize the peaceful path of arms control and disarmament than to accumulate and exert this power. 16 years ago, many people in our country were talking about the threat from China. It was at that time that I proposed the normalization of diplomatic relations between Japan and China. In that proposal, I put forward the conclusion that "the possibility of China launching a war of aggression directly by force is unimaginable in any case", which is based on your country's history and tradition. Later, Japan and China resumed diplomatic relations, and after your country returned to the United Nations, you repeatedly made it clear that "it will not provoke big country disputes". I know something about the history of your country, so I believe this statement is by no means a strategic cover.

Take "people" as the starting point of everything.

I have studied the background of China's self-control, and found that people always occupy a central position in this view and concept. A sharp scholar who is familiar with China Thought in China wrote: "The characteristic of China's philosophy is to constantly explore the purpose of life. The painstaking thinking of philosophers has never left the field of concern. Thinking about nature is always based on thinking about human problems from the perspective of naturalism. In other words, philosophy is first and foremost about human learning. "

"After all, I have never left my field of concern", that is to say, when thinking about any problem, people are always the center or starting point. I think not only philosophy, but also Chinese religion, science, politics and any other knowledge about human behavior can be said to be people-oriented. People-oriented philosophy, people-oriented religion, science, politics and so on, in the history of China, like a river intertwined with misfortune and happiness, has this person's coordinate axis never wavered?

This seems to be taken for granted, but in fact it is not easy to achieve. In the monotheistic world such as Christianity or Islam, especially in medieval European society, the coordinate axis of history is often occupied by "God" rather than "man". Man is only the servant of God, and philosophy can only be the handmaid of theology. At that time, social activities seemed to be human activities, but in fact they were philosophy with God as the purpose, religion, science and politics with God as the purpose.

This way of thinking has not changed much after abandoning the idol of God in modern times. Not God, but the concept of "progress" and the belief in science and technology become the center of the coordinate axis. People talk a lot about it. Here, take the proper orientation of modern science as an example. Many people have realized that modern science has been divorced from the "field of human concern" and has become the product of rational self-movement and self-completion. Of course, I don't want to deny the achievements of scientific and technological civilization and the benefits it brings us. But science will fall into a huge trap if it doesn't develop blindly with people as the axis.

When considering the issue of peace, we should pay special attention to the background of colonialism, the chief culprit of modern wars between countries, and also have this way of thinking that people are not the axis. However, we must point out that modern western Europe, as the only benchmark, divided human society into "civilized" and "uncivilized" parts, which produced a false sense of voters and supported the colonial system from behind. In this sense, we can say that although the modern civilization in Europe has brought us many material and spiritual attributes, as far as its general tendency is concerned, this civilization has not suppressed man's savage impulse instinct, but has become his most ideal hidden tool.

If we want to find something corresponding to the "God" in Christian civilization in Chinese civilization, it is probably the concept of "heaven". The concept of "heaven" often appears in Chinese religion, philosophy, morality and science. However, except in ancient times, "heaven" was not regarded as a transcendental entity like the Christian God. "Heaven" is not a transcendental existence, not a command and guidance of people's behavior, but something that people encounter and are questioned in experience.

I don't know what the word "day" means in modern China. Perhaps some people understand it as a relic of feudal morality that brings all kinds of poison.

But for me, what matters is not the content of "Tian" itself, but the way people think about "Tian", that is, "Tian" meets people in experience, and people think about "Tian" internally and externally. I also mentioned in my last speech that I think China people's attitude towards life is "to see the universality through the individual", that is, to understand "heaven" from the human side through reality, and the key point is to constantly strive and practice to transform reality on the basis of this understanding. In other words, its characteristic is not so much static as dynamic.

On the contrary, based on a certain fixed concept, the way of thinking to judge everything is too dependent on the fixed concept, so we can't see that the so-called concept is just the product of people's practical activities in the river of life. If we don't see this, we will have theoretical beliefs, institutional beliefs and efficiency beliefs, and the living will be controlled by these things. I think the root of contemporary false belief lies in the lack of thinking from the perspective of people. For example, the belief in nuclear deterrence is based on mutual distrust, mutual hatred and mutual fear among people. Few people who hold this belief think that nuclear weapons will never be eliminated unless this foundation is eradicated.

Decisive action and courageous dialogue.

Regarding this "dynamic" image, I will briefly talk about Lu Xun's work "Non-attack". As we all know, this work introduces the deeds of Mozi, a famous pacifist activist in the Warring States period. A Japanese translator translated it into "The Story of Stopping the War". This story is about:

Mozi, a native of Lu, learned that Chu, a big country, was going to attack Song, a small country. Moreover, the reason why the king of Chu moved this idea was because Mozi's fellow villagers built a ladder and a siege weapon for the king of Chu.

Mozi set out for Chu to stop the war. Along the way, he saw with his own eyes the poverty of Song State and the wealth of Chu State. What did Chu attack Song for? ..... Mozi saw a defeat for the first time and told him the stupidity and injustice of the war. It's like being defeated, saying that he persuaded the king of Chu to attack the Song Dynasty, and now it can't be stopped. So Mozi went to see the king of Chu through defeat. Although the king of Chu agreed with Mozi, he said, "However, like a public defeat, I have built a ladder, so I want to attack it." Mozi was an armchair strategist in front of the king of Chu, but he was defeated like a loser, and then he began to kill Mozi. Realizing this, Mozi claimed to the king of Chu with his own wisdom: "The Song State adopted my suggestion, and the wall defense is indestructible. Even if you kill me, my 300 disciples are already there, and you can't attack the Song State. " Finally, the king of Chu finally gave up the idea of attacking the state of Song.

This is the outline of the whole story. It is said that in the contention of a hundred schools of thought, Mr. Lu Xun has the greatest respect for Mozi. I was deeply impressed by the wonderful satire in this work. Especially the sentence that the king of Chu said: "I built a ladder like a public defeat, and I'm going to attack it." Isn't what we see here the embryonic form of modern military expansionists?

The reason why I want to mention "non-attack" here is because I think only Mozi's peaceful radicalism is the key to opening the breakthrough and achieving peace. In short, action, dialogue and action for peace. I firmly believe that this "movement", even if it seems far away, is the only way to turn unbelief into faith, hate into love, fear into friends, and the road to peace. If we work hard in this direction, we will eventually communicate with each other.

Mr. Ba Jin, President of China International PEN, attended the International PEN Conference held in Tokyo last month, and I had the opportunity to meet him before the conference. Mr. Ba Jin called his speech at the meeting "making friends with literature", which is really the language of people from a country that respects literature. In his speech, he said: "A drop of water wears away the stone, and his works will be deeply rooted in the hearts of the people for a long time. With a pen as a weapon, we can expose the truth, expose evil, fight against the dark forces and unite the forces of justice. As long as all peace-loving and justice-upholding people in the world unite closely and take control of their own destiny, world wars and nuclear wars will certainly be avoided. "

I think so too. A person's efforts, even if they are as small as water drops, will eventually penetrate the stone, and countless water drops will merge into a river that can overturn and wash away the rock. In order to achieve the goal of peace, we must constantly take decisive actions and engage in courageous dialogue. Although my ability is meager, I will continue to work hard in the future. I hope that all the gentlemen here who shoulder the heavy responsibility of your country's future will also forge ahead courageously on the road of peace!

Thank you, gentlemen.

(1June 5, 984)

Only the Chinese version was found