The Evolution and Three-dimensional Structure of China's Ancient Core Values
During the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, China's traditional culture and core values underwent the second great change, that is, they were fully bred and developed, and many factions and theories were formed, which was called the era of "letting a hundred flowers blossom and a hundred schools of thought contend". Sima Tan pointed out in Six Essentials that during the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, there were mainly six schools of Yin and Yang, Confucianism, Mohism, famous artists, Legalism and Taoism, but Taoism was the one he admired most. (3) Originally, Laozi, the founder of Taoism, was older than Confucius, and Confucius asked Laozi for advice several times. However, Laozi's masterpiece or Taoist masterpiece "Tao Te Ching" seems to have been written later. At the same time, Lao Tzu did not pay attention to teaching students, so his school was formed later than Confucianism.
It is generally believed that Confucius is mainly a moral philosopher or ethicist, and the core thought of Confucianism he founded is an ethical and political thought, which mainly includes three aspects: first, the people-oriented thought of "benevolence", that is, the good human nature in the ontological sense and the benevolence of the subject; Second, the concept of "ritual" in patriarchal clan system is the external ritual provision of the object; The third is the golden mean, which is the overall ethical and political goal and value orientation. In fact, these three aspects of Confucianism objectively form a stable triangular framework of ethics and politics, that is, benevolence-courtesy-moderation, or in other words, these three aspects form a stable triangular relationship with the goal of moderation from the internal goodness and external courtesy. Benevolence and courtesy are like two wheels of a car. Benevolence is the principle of the heart, and ceremony is the external form to realize benevolence. People can give full play to their benevolent nature through politeness and reach the highest ethical and political realm of the doctrine of the mean. Of course, to reach this highest level, we must adhere to the cultivation method of "self-cultivation, keeping the family in order, governing the country and leveling the world". Only by continuous cultivation can we reach the summit, which is the basic framework of Confucius' whole ethical and political theory. In fact, as far as Confucius' whole ethical and political theory is concerned, the contents of benevolence, propriety and moderation are the full development of virtue; The self-cultivation method of "self-cultivation, keeping the family in order, governing the country and leveling the world" is mainly a comprehensive interpretation of self-improvement and teaching people to take the initiative to "join the WTO", which is a necessary expansion and further construction of China people's core values.
By the time of the Western Han Dynasty, after a fierce debate between Confucianism and Taoism since the Qin Dynasty, under the vigorous advocacy of Dong Zhongshu, after repeated comparisons and careful choices, the Han Dynasty finally established a cultural pattern of "ousting a hundred schools of thought and respecting Confucianism alone". Since then, Confucianism has jumped from an ordinary school in the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period to a world school, and Confucius quickly became the supreme saint. In particular, the establishment of Dong Zhongshu's so-called value model of "three cardinal guides and five permanents" and "feeling between man and nature" actually marks the final completion of the feudalization of China's traditional culture, and also marks the internal division and alienation of China's ancient core values, and the value and spiritual life of China people are completely politicized and religious. Throughout the cultural history of the Han Dynasty, firstly, the traditional culture of China with the Han nationality as the main body was formally formed; Second, China people with the Han nationality as the main body have finally found a cultural spiritual form or core value system suitable for their own development, which is Confucianism. The reason why Confucianism gained the exclusive position in the Western Han Dynasty is that it embodies the fundamental feature of "the integration of family and country" in China society and can best meet the needs of the development of China society and China society. Secondly, Confucianism is relatively developed in theory and basically forms a complete theoretical system. Coupled with the background of the unification of the Han Dynasty and the feudal strengthening of Dong Zhongshu and others, Confucianism can gain the exclusive position in the world, which is not only the need of social history, but also the internal logic of its own development.
In fact, from the beginning of the formation of China's traditional culture and core values, there are mainly two theories: Confucianism and Taoism. Even today, it is still a controversial issue whether China's traditional culture is dominated by Confucianism or Taoism. During the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, Laozi established a solid position of the Taoist school with an immortal masterpiece, Tao Te Ching. If Zhuangzi developed the idealism of Lao Zi's simple theory to the extreme of romanticism, then it can also be said that the Taoist sages in Xia Ji are deeply hidden in the old school, and refuse to easily show people the stupid and soft nature of "the southern skill of the king", extending a set of extremely sober and cold politics. This change means the great development of Taoism. In the early Han Dynasty, "the skill of Huang Lao" was transformed into "the rule of Huang Lao", which was very popular in feudal courts, marking the great success of Taoism in political practice. However, due to the Western Han Dynasty's "ousting a hundred schools of thought and respecting Confucianism alone", Taoism gradually retreated to a secondary position. By the Eastern Han Dynasty, Taoism had gradually transformed into Taoism in China. They regard Laozi as the leader and respectfully call him "the old gentleman on the throne", thus spreading and carrying forward in another form. In the Wei and Jin Dynasties, metaphysics appeared with the appearance of completely denying the inherent value conflict and division of Confucianism in the Western Han Dynasty. The central topic of metaphysics is the debate between "Ming Jiao" and "Nature", which runs through Yan He and Wang Bi's "Ming Jiao is based on nature". Ruan Ji and Ji Kang's "The more famous, the more natural"; Xiang Xiu and Guo Xiang's three dialectical development stages of "focusing on nature" finally found the core value of avoiding the world and living alone in Taoism after shaking the foundation of Confucianism.
The core values of Taoism are unknown to the world. It emphasizes the wisdom of life. Laozi's "doing nothing without doing anything" determines the naturalistic human foundation of Taoism, and the attitude and philosophy of life such as flexibility and contentment are the essence of Taoist values. Zhuangzi gave full play to the subjective factors in Laozi's theory and formed relativism and nihilism values. His world-weary attitude and true personality, such as protecting himself, not condemning things and keeping pace with the times, have a great influence on the core values of China people. In fact, if Taoism's naturalism, detachment from secularism, sanity and detachment from the old and slippery life attitude and philosophy are combined with the spirit of Confucianism's self-improvement and the rule of the country by the family, a dual structure of moderate relaxation and complementarity between Confucianism and Taoism will be formed.
Buddhism in Han Dynasty flowed into China, which was fully developed in Wei and Jin Dynasties and reached its peak in Sui and Tang Dynasties. In fact, since Buddhism was introduced into China, it has been experiencing the process of "China", which has been enriched by the spirit of Confucianism and solved the life contradiction in Confucianism by philosophical methods beyond life. The principle of karma and reincarnation completely solved the contradiction between Confucian humanity and life in theory, and the value of "self-denial and self-respect" was in good agreement with the realm of Confucian "self-cultivation". Therefore, Buddhism naturally played a structural supplementary role to the core values of Confucianism and Taoism of China people, and became the dominant form of outstanding learning, "Chinese studies" and China people's values in the Sui and Tang Dynasties.
So far, Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism have been abstracted and negated in the development of China traditional culture, and they have become one of the inevitable structures of China traditional culture by overcoming their contradictions. However, any single structure is not enough to become the main body of the whole China traditional culture. Abstraction must return to concreteness and negation must return to affirmation. In the Song and Ming Dynasties, China's traditional culture and its core values have reached the stage of dialectical synthesis. In the Neo-Confucianism of the Song and Ming Dynasties, the duality of nature of heaven and earth and nature of temperament basically solved the contradiction between good and evil in traditional human nature, while the integration of nature, reason and heart overcame the division and contradiction of soul, virtue and desire in traditional human nature. It is an effective way to strengthen traditional humanistic cultivation to "preserve justice and eliminate human desires". Therefore, the core values of China people in Neo-Confucianism in Song and Ming Dynasties have actually become "natural justice". The concept of "Tian Li" has raised heaven and man, Buddha nature, nature, transcendental experience, ethics and politics to the highest level of the so-called "harmony between heaven and man". At the same time, it completely integrates human relations and human nature through Taoism and Buddhism, thus constructing a self-sufficient and complete human nature promotion mechanism and realizing the reality of the unity of man and nature. At this time, a three-dimensional structure with Confucianism as the main part and Taoism and Buddhism as the wings or supplements was finally formed, which was a typical self-sufficient traditional cultural form and core value system of the Chinese nation in ancient times.
In short, the traditional or feudal China culture and core values were fully nurtured and developed in the pre-Qin period, especially in the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, forming the so-called "a hundred schools of thought contend" era. However, these spiritual elements all exist in the form of embryos, and there is no complete cultural value system, and no theory dominates. In the Han and Tang Dynasties, not only Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism were fully developed abstractly, but also their respective development was quite sufficient, and the dominant position of Confucianism was also established. Neo-Confucianism in Song and Ming Dynasties organically unified Confucianism, Taoism and Buddhism in the form of reviving classical Confucianism, and finally formed a three-dimensional structure of typical China traditional culture and core values with Confucian virtue as the main part and Taoism and Buddhism as the wings or supplements. Confucianism has prompted people to make positive progress in joining the WTO; Tao, so that people can still be free and easy in adversity; Buddha, connecting life and death, teaches people how to settle their souls. China people have every reason to treat everything calmly, whether in prosperity or adversity, before or after death. This three-dimensional cultural structure and values are not only suitable for different people in China, but also for everyone in China at different times. For thousands of years, China people have developed in such a three-dimensional cultural structure and value system, and at the same time, they have accumulated into a unique cultural value gene of China people.
1840 After the Opium War, China was sent into modern times by the rumble of western powers. An extremely powerful feudal empire finally became a semi-colonial and semi-feudal country with many holes. After the disaster, a large number of people of insight rose to reflect on how to save the crisis of the Chinese nation. How to avoid national extinction? How to treat the traditional culture and core values of ancient China? Where is the way out for China? As a result, China's traditional culture and core values have undergone the third great change, especially after the May 4th Movement of 19 19. With the spread of Marxism, it directly led to the "Renaissance" and the new-democratic revolution in China. All these fully show that it is the need of social development and the crisis of national survival in modern China that forced the people of China to seek a new development path.
After the Opium War, Lin Zexu, Wei Yuan, Gong Zizhen and others took the lead in "opening their eyes to see the world". In order to resist foreign aggression, Wei Yuan advocated learning from western science and technology, and proposed "learning from foreigners to control foreigners". At the same time, they also criticized Zhu Cheng's Neo-Confucianism internally, trying to break the imprisonment of Neo-Confucianism on human nature and morality and liberate human nature. 65438+In the 1960s and 1990s, the Westernization School put forward the famous idea of "taking middle school as the body and western learning as the application", which was once very popular and may still have a market today. This theory not only defends China's traditional spiritual culture, but also advocates the introduction of western material culture, in which "body" is fundamental and "use" is representation and service. Xue Fucheng, an early reformist, made it very clear: "We sincerely learn western weapons technology to defend our way, Tang Dynasty and Tao." ⑷ It should be considered that the thought of "Chinese style and western use" not only played a positive role in the Westernization Movement, but also played a positive role in breaking through the imprisonment of the inherent system of Confucian culture. In fact, the Westernization School's "Chinese style and western use" inherits the Confucian way of "sage inside and king outside", but there are also significant differences between them. Under the proposition of "Chinese style and western use", Confucian culture no longer has omnipotent absolute authority, and the logic of Confucianism pushing out "external king" from "inner sage" has been destroyed, so it is unprecedented to introduce western material civilization into China culture, which is a historic progress. However, when the Reform Movement of 1898 touched the foundation of the feudal system, "Chinese style and western use" in turn became a huge countercurrent and resistance, which shows that this proposition also has considerable limitations. During the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom and the Boxer Rebellion, the bourgeois reformists, represented by Kang Youwei, Tan Sitong and Yan Fu, put forward the slogan of "breaking the net" in view of China's traditional culture, especially sharply criticized the "three cardinal guides and five permanents" and tried to replace China's feudal morality with western bourgeois moral norms. In the "Reform Movement of 1898" that broke out in 1898, the reformists, led by Kang Youwei, Liang Qichao and Tan Sitong, tried to carry out political, educational and scientific reforms through Emperor Guangxu, hoping that China would quickly embark on the modernization road of western constitutional monarchy, but it only took 103 days to fail. When Empress Dowager Cixi asked Emperor Guangxu why he wanted to "change the ancestral law", Emperor Guangxu replied with trepidation: "Foreigners are too eager to persecute, want to preserve the national pulse, and try their best to accommodate the new law." 5] It should be said that Emperor Guangxu basically explained the relationship between national salvation and political reform. 19 1 1 year, Sun Yat-sen led the famous "Revolution of 1911" with the fundamental purpose of overthrowing the feudal monarchy and establishing the bourgeoisie and the country, and achieved success in one fell swoop. The Revolution of 1911 is a milestone for China people to rise up to save the country and revitalize China. It has brought historic changes to China's economy, politics, culture and other fields, and has epoch-making historical significance. When talking about the revolutionary trend of thought at the beginning of the 20th century at Whampoa Military Academy, Sun Yat-sen once said with great emotion: "This revolutionary trend of thought was recently introduced to China in Europe and America. China people feel this trend, are patriots, have sympathy for others, and can't bear to die, so they feel the revolution in Europe and America and want to come to the China revolution. " . ⑹
19 17, "The October Revolution brought us Marxism-Leninism with artillery". 19 19 years ago, the famous New Culture Movement and the May 4th Movement broke out in China, which set off the climax of pursuing individual liberation and saving the country and people. Therefore, the May 4th Movement can be called the revival of China. 192 1 year, the China * * * production party was proclaimed, marking the formal acceptance of Marxism by the people of China. For China, Marxism is a foreign culture, which first spread to Russia from Germany, Britain, France and other countries in Europe. Lenin and others successfully carried out the practice of the October socialist revolution on the basis of Russian Marxism. It can be considered that China people learn Marxism from Russians, and Russia and its October Revolution are the bridge between Marxism and the reality of China. As a matter of fact, as soon as Marxism spread to China, it soon became the guiding ideology of advanced intellectuals and people of insight in China. They constantly promoted the China of Marxism, thus winning the final victory of the new-democratic revolution.
1929, Hu Shi first put forward the idea of "total westernization", but in the 1930s, he declared that "total westernization" would be replaced by "total globalization". Although "total westernization" has certain positive significance in opposing the feudal revivalism and cultural absolutism of the Kuomintang, its fatal mistake is that it completely ignores the nationality of culture, so it is simply not feasible. 1935, ten professors, including Wang, Wang and Wang, jointly published the Declaration on the Construction of China-based Culture and formally put forward the "China-based Culture Theory". Although this view has certain positive significance, it is only a copy of "Chinese style and western use" in the final analysis, and its direct purpose is to meet the needs of the Kuomintang's cultural rule policy.
Since the mid-to-late 1930s, the producers of * * * in China have also extensively explored the development direction of China's new culture, and reached a very important conclusion. This is the "truly national, inevitably democratic, scientific and popular" culture put forward by Zhang Wentian in his report 1940+0 "The New Culture Movement of the Chinese Nation since War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression and its future tasks". Being at the same time, Mao Zedong in the "New Democracy", in favor of Zhang Wentian's formulation, and further summarized as "national science popular culture".
Looking at the evolution of China's traditional culture and core values for more than 0/00 years since modern times, there are two basic characteristics: First, it can be divided into two stages in time. The first stage is from 1840 to 19 19. The main feature of this stage is the conflict between China's traditional culture and its core values and Western culture and its core values, and it ended with the victory of 19 165438 Xinhai Revolution and the outbreak of19/9May 4th Movement. The second stage is 19 19 to 1949. The main feature of this stage is that China's traditional culture and its core values, western culture and its core values, Marxism and its China are intertwined and conflict with each other, and it ends with the final victory of China's new-democratic revolution * * * on 1949. Secondly, in terms of content, although the evolution of "China, West and Malaysia" has its own emphasis, "West and Malaysia" are basically in a position of impact and conflict with "China". In the evolution of China's traditional culture and core values, the focus is on opposing feudal ethics such as "Three Cardinals and Five Permits" and "breaking the net" to liberate human nature. For revolutionaries and reformers, this is almost the same. In vigorously introducing and publicizing western culture and its core values, the emphasis is on publicizing western natural human rights, constitutional monarchy, democracy and legal system, utilitarianism and reasonable egoism, and advocating freedom, equality and fraternity. In the aspect of Marxism, the key point is to spread Marxism and combine it with the concrete reality of China, so as to find the revolutionary road of Marxism in China.
As early as September 1949, on the eve of the founding of New China, the "Same Program" adopted by the China People's Political Consultative Conference stipulated: "The cultural education of the people of China is new-democratic, that is, national, scientific and popular." This stipulated the cultural development direction of new China in the form of interim constitution. 1956, Mao Zedong put forward the policy of "letting a hundred flowers blossom and a hundred schools of thought contend" to prosper academic culture. It should be said that the new China not only quickly established the guiding ideology position of Marxism in all the work of the whole party and the whole country, but also the whole cultural cause developed briefly. However, with the fever of our party and leaders and the changes in the international situation, since the mid-to-late 1950s, under the guidance of the all-round "Left-leaning" with class struggle as the key link, the cultural field has also quickly embarked on the "Left-leaning" road. From 65438 to 0957, a brutal "anti-Rightist" struggle was launched with the focus on the cultural field. From 1966 to 1976, the so-called unprecedented "cultural revolution" broke out, thus pushing the "left leaning" in the cultural field to the peak. In fact, in the 20-year "Left-leaning" era, China's culture and core values were a bit like the Western Han Dynasty's "ousting a hundred schools of thought and respecting Confucianism alone", but now it's just "ousting a hundred schools of thought and respecting equestrian alone". China's traditional culture and some advanced western cultures are completely excluded from the culture of new China, which is not only extremely sad, but also extremely sad.
1978 After the Third Plenary Session of the Eleventh Central Committee, China quickly ended the long-term "Left-leaning" era, re-established the party's ideological line of "seeking truth from facts" and entered a new era of reform and opening up. Soon, since the 1980s, there has been an unprecedented "cultural craze", which is characterized by the great integration of reality, universality and cosmopolitanism. It can even be considered that this "cultural craze" is still in the ascendant. Of course, since the "cultural craze" after the reform and opening-up, there has always been an intertwining and debate between Marxism, reviving China's traditional culture and introducing western culture. The guiding ideology of the whole Party and the whole country is the theoretical achievement of Marxism and its China-ization, and it is the mainstream culture and core values stipulated in our Constitution. But how to treat China's traditional culture, especially Confucianism? We should think that traditional culture is undoubtedly the root of China people's culture and the gene of China people's core values. No matter how China people develop and change, they can't leave this root in the end, but there are also many dross in traditional culture that need to be abandoned. However, some people put forward the theory of "revival of Confucianism" from the perspective of overall affirmation, thinking that only the revival of Confucianism is the fundamental and can effectively solve all the problems in contemporary China, and soon set off the climax of the revival of Confucianism in the whole country, which is still booming today. How to deal with the strong introduction of western culture? Of course, China should fully absorb the excellent elements of western culture, such as democracy, legal system, human rights and science. After the country was fully opened, some people moved out of Hu Shi's thought of "total westernization" and thought that only "total westernization" could save China. At the same time, the so-called "Westernization serves China" theory and "New Enlightenment" theory appeared, which are similar to "total Westernization". In addition, some people put forward the theory of "complete reconstruction", thinking that China culture must be completely broken and dissolved, and completely anti-traditional, in order to finally establish a new culture. ⑽
It can be considered that the present situation of China culture and its core values is basically the interweaving of Marxism, China traditional culture and western strong culture. Of course, the theoretical achievement of Marxism and its China is the mainstream and dominant culture, and it is the core value of China people, which is a basic cultural development direction; However, China's traditional culture, especially the Confucian ethics and moral system, is also flourishing and reviving, and is increasingly becoming an important part of China people's values today. At the same time, western culture, especially democracy, legal system, human rights, science and so on, including "self-prominence", "utilitarianism" and "pragmatism", with its strong posture, has continuously become an important part of contemporary China people's values through various channels. In fact, contemporary China culture and its core values are going through a difficult process of rebirth and phoenix nirvana, in which transformation and reconstruction coexist.
How should the new culture and core value system of contemporary China be constructed? First of all, we must figure out the path of construction. In fact, as early as the late Ming and early Qing Dynasties, when "Western learning spread to the east" and China people began to contact the so-called "Taixi learning" (mainly referring to modern western science and technology), the famous Xu Guangqi put forward the idea that "if you want to be outstanding, you must be proficient first"; Historian Wan Sitong believes that it is necessary to "learn from China and the West and lose its spirit"; Scholar Jiao Xun also advocated that "the two schools (referring to China and the West) should learn from each other's strong points and should not be biased"; In the late Qing Dynasty, Wei Yuan put forward: "Heaven and earth are transported from the northwest, and the southeast must live at home and abroad." Although these thoughts are difficult to draw a clear line with compromise and reconciliation, they are of considerable progressive significance for breaking through the fan of Chinese centralism. In modern times, this view of the integration of ancient and modern times and the integration of China and foreign countries has almost become the unanimous opinion of many people of insight. Zhang Taiyan advocated understanding "the righteousness of China saints, the words of eastern and western scholars"; Sun Yat-sen said: "Yu's thoughts on the China Revolution include thinkers who inherit China's inherent thoughts, thinkers who study European teachings, and thinkers who have gained something from my unique insights." . Cai Yuanpei also advocated: "To be a further invention of Europeanization, rather than just introducing Europeanization;" We should not only preserve the quintessence of our country, but also expose the truth of it by scientific methods. " ⑾
Around the May 4th Movement, a group of Marxists also put forward the idea of cultural exchange and complementarity between ancient and modern China and the West. Li Dazhao believes: "On the basis of feelings, Eastern and Western civilizations have their own advantages and disadvantages, and it is not appropriate to be conceited." Yun also pointed out: "Living in today's world, we should exchange the advantages of Chinese and Western civilizations and create a new spirit of our country." ⑾ On the basis of fully absorbing other people's insights, Mao Zedong further deepened and developed a dialectical and comprehensive cultural view and put forward the famous "ancient and modern Chinese and foreign laws". He said: "The so-called' ancient and modern' is the development of history, and the so-called' Chinese and foreign' is China and foreign countries, that is, themselves and each other." Xu Teli once explained Mao Zedong's Ancient and Modern Chinese and Foreign Laws in a very popular way. He said: "The ancient and modern Chinese and foreign laws put forward by Comrade Mao Zedong are what we want in ancient times, what we want now, what foreign countries want, and what China wants. Making the past serve the present, combining with modernity, turning the outside world into its own use, and combining with China's, this is Marxism–Leninism's way of looking at the problem. " "The combination of ancient and modern, Chinese and foreign, become mine. It's like eating beef or dog meat, which becomes my meat. That's right. It is by no means that I will become dog meat when I eat dog meat. " ⑿
Professor Zhang Dainian, a famous contemporary philosopher, once put forward the theory of "comprehensive creation", that is, "Make the past serve the present, make foreign things serve China, critically inherit and innovate in an all-round way". [13] Professor Zhang Dainian further believes that "a series of important problems need to be solved to synthesize carefully selected cultural elements from different cultural systems in ancient and modern China and abroad into a modern China cultural system. They are: we must adhere to the guidance of the universal truth of Marxism, we must adhere to the principles of socialism, we must carry forward the spirit of national subjectivity, we must take the road of combining Chinese and western, we must make synthesis with the spirit of creativity, and we must create something on the basis of synthesis. " [14] Professor Cheng Enfu of China Academy of Social Sciences, based on Professor Zhang Dainian's basic views, also explored the path of building a new culture and core value system in contemporary China. In some papers and speeches, he believes that the basic path is "taking the world as a mirror, taking the national conditions as the foundation, taking the party situation as the key, taking horse learning as the body, taking western learning as the use, taking Chinese studies as the root, and making all-round innovation." Later, he summed it up as "Ma Xue is the Sect, Chinese studies are the root, and Western learning is the mirror". It should be considered that these explorations are very meaningful.
Today, the 17th National Congress of the Communist Party of China has completely summarized the basic contents of the socialist core value system, including: the guiding ideology of Marxism, the national spirit of the unity of Socialism with Chinese characteristics's ideal and patriotism, the spirit of the times with reform and innovation as the core, and the socialist concept of honor and disgrace. These four aspects are an organic whole, interrelated, interrelated and mutually promoting. They are the most important part of socialist ideology, the refinement and summary of rich ideological and cultural achievements formed by our party leading the people in long-term practice, and the scientific revelation of the profound connotation of the socialist core value system. In short, Marxism is the soul of the socialist core value system; * * * Ideal is the theme; National spirit and the spirit of the times are the essence; The concept of honor and disgrace is the foundation. We believe that under the guidance of the socialist core value system, the Chinese nation will certainly be able to revive at an early date and stand on its own feet among the nations of the world.