古老文明对话与人类命运共同体（中英）

古老文明对话与人类命运共同体

Dialogue among Civilizations and Community with Shared Future for Mankind

潘 岳

Pan Yue

2019年9月

September 2019

中国国家主席习近平先生指出，文明因多样而交流，因交流而互鉴，因互鉴而发展。多元文明的交流互鉴是构建人类命运共同体的人文基础。当世界面临百年未有之大变局，西方现代文明不再一家独大，拥有数百年乃至数千年历史的中华文明、希腊罗马文明、俄罗斯文明、印度文明、波斯文明、奥斯曼文明等古老文明，正在重焕生机。对人类命运共同体而言，古老文明，尤其是完成了现代性转化的古老文明，蕴藏着化解现实困境的宝贵经验，凝结着追求美好未来的恒久价值。当某些国家强调本国优先而“逆全球化”时，大多数古老文明却主张以包容性传统助推新型全球化;当某些国家将“现代化”简化为“唯美国化”时，大多数古老文明却主张以文化多样性追求多元现代化;当某些国家以“文明冲突论”而导致非彼即此时，大多数古老文明却主张以“文明的对话”去塑造和而不同的未来。古老文明并不都是完美的，但因其内生的开放包容传统，有益于形成各文明间平等对话的共同体。

As Chinese President Xi Jinping said, diversity spurs interaction among civilizations, which in turn promotes mutual learning and their further development. Interaction and mutual learning among civilizations are the cultural building blocks of a community with shared future for mankind. As the world is undergoing changes unseen in a century, the modern civilization in the West is no longer the dominant one, with a line of ancient civilizations with a history of several hundred or even thousand years re-emerging, including the Chinese civilization, and the civilizations of Ancient Greece and Rome, Russia, India, Persia, and Ottoman. The ancient civilizations, especially the ones that have accomplished the transition to modernity, have amassed valuable experience for meeting realistic difficulties and retained the eternal value of embracing a better future, which is essential to a community with shared future for mankind. As some countries underscore the need to put themselves first for de-globalization, most ancient civilizations assert the inclusive tradition to drive the new globalization; while some are turning modernization into Americanization, most ancient civilizations encourage cultural diversity in pursuit of a diverse modernity; and when some preach the Clash of Civilizations theory, most ancient civilizations seek to shape a future of harmony in diversity through dialogue among civilizations. The ancient civilizations are not perfect, but they all maintain the tradition of being open and inclusive, which is conducive to forming a community where civilizations could have dialogue on an equal footing.

一、古老文明共同体的共同命运

第一，各大古老文明共同缔结了人类的轴心时代。德国哲学家雅斯贝尔斯曾说，在公元前600至前300年间，各个文明都出现了伟大的精神导师，古希腊有苏格拉底、柏拉图、亚里士多德，以色列有犹太教的先知们，古印度有释迦牟尼，中国有孔子、老子……他们提出的思想原则塑造了不同的文化传统。这便是人类文明的轴心时代。此后漫长的历史时期，古老文明兴衰起伏，文明基因终究未泯。马克思将古老文明看成“人类的童年”，历史虽然永不复返，但仍然是“一种规范和高不可及的范本”，始终具有经久不衰的现代价值。

第二，古老文明在近代都遭遇了西方现代工业文明的冲击。在西方，现代工业文明的“进步力量”背离了古希腊古罗马文明的不少核心价值，让人产生了“越现代越好”的错觉，把自由主义玩过了头而变成了历史虚无主义。他们忘记了，在个人之上还有城邦，在欲望之上还有美德，在利益之上还有正义，在权利之上还有责任，在民主之上还有善治。在非西方世界，西方现代工业文明一方面给非西方古老文明国家带来了变革，一方面也无情中断了非西方古老文明的持续发展。印度1905年爆发反英抗争;伊朗1905年爆发反帝革命；土耳其1908年爆发青年土耳其党人革命;埃及1919年爆发反英大起义;中国1911年爆发了辛亥革命。 这些都是古老文明对西方冲击的被动反应。

第三，各大古老文明被重新激活复兴。西方现代工业文明的弊端越是充分显露，强调多样性的古典文明越是彰显积极意义。在西方，列奥·斯特劳斯、阿伦特、麦金泰尔等西方思想家的理论建树无一不是主张重返古典文明。为了矫正个人利益凌驾于共同体利益之上，他们在亚里士多德《政治学》中去重温“人是城邦的动物”这一教诲;为了应对被剥离的政治与道德，人们在古希腊哲学中去重新寻找“美德伦理学”;为了应对民粹横行的乱象，人们在“苏格拉底之死”的悲剧中认识到了“多数人的暴政”，在柏拉图理想国中汲取贤能政治的智慧。在中国近代，传播了一辈子西学的中国思想家严复在一战中彻底看清西方现代工业文明容易陷入“利己杀人、寡廉鲜耻”的战争漩涡，因而告诫后人不要丢了中国的孔孟;梁启超深研了欧美政治学后更是提出，要“拿西洋的文明来扩充我的文明，又拿我的文明去补助西洋的文明，叫他化合起来成一种新文明”。这类想法在印度诗人泰戈尔那里也得到明显呼应。如今的印度正在用印度教民族主义引领国族再造。苏联解体后，俄罗斯正将东正教精神作为社会主流意识形态。伊朗在1970年代末期发起了广泛的“伊斯兰复兴运动”。土耳其也一改全面西方化的政策而重返奥斯曼文明传统。既要现代化，也要民族化，已经成为各大古老文明的集体共识。

1. The shared destiny of the community of ancient civilizations 

First, ancient civilizations jointly made the Axial Age. As German philosopher Karl Jaspers said, great thinkers emerged across all civilizations from 600 BCE to 300 BCE, such as Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle in Ancient Greece, prophets and prophetesses of Judaism in Israel, Sakyamuni in ancient India, and Confucius and Lao Tzu in China... Their thinking has shaped different cultural traditions. That’s the Axial Age of the human civilization. In the centuries that followed, ancient civilizations rose and declined, but their DNA has never changed. Karl Marx likened ancient civilizations to the childhood of mankind. History will never return, but it still provides “a norm and a lofty template” and always has enduring modern values.

Second, all ancient civilizations suffered the impact from the Western modern industrial civilizations. In the West, the progressive forces of the modern industrial civilizations ran counter to many core values held up in the civilizations of Ancient Greece and Rome, creating the illusion that everything that is more modern is definitely better, and turning liberalism into historical nihilism. But they might forget that there are city-states above individuals, virtue above desire, justice above interests, responsibility above right, and good governance above democracy. In the non-Western world, the modern industrial civilizations in the West triggered transformations on one hand, and interrupted sustainable development on the other. In 1905, the protest against British rule broke out in India and the anti-imperialist revolution was set off in Iran; in 1908, the Young Turk Revolution erupted in Turkey; in 1919, an outburst of anti-British rioting was initiated in Egypt; and in 1911, the Xinhai Revolution emerged in China. These are all passive responses of ancient civilizations to the shock waves sent from the West.

Third, all ancient civilizations have been reinvented and re-emerged. The more the drawbacks of the modern industrial civilizations in the West are exposed, the more significant the ancient civilizations that highlight diversity would be. The thinkers in the West, such as Leo Strauss, Hannah Arendt, and Alasdair MacIntyre, all proposed a return to classical civilizations. They revisited the notion in Aristotle’s Politics that says men are animals of city-states, to rectify the attempts that put personal above common interests; they picked up the virtue ethics in ancient Greek philosophy to re-integrate politics and morality that had been separated; and they recognized the tyranny of the majority in The Death of Socrates and gleaned the wisdom of political meritocracy from Plato’s utopia to respond to the prevalent populism. In modern China, Yan Fu, the Chinese thinker who spread the thoughts of the West all his life, finally discerned the nature of the modern industrial civilization of the West that could easily descend into the shameless act of waging wars for their own benefit, and hence warned future generations not to abandon the Chinese Confucianism; and Liang Qichao, a Chinese philosopher in the late Qing dynasty, studied the politics of the US and Europe and proposed to “enrich our civilization with the Western one, improve the Western civilization with the Chinese one, and integrate the two into a new civilization”. Such thoughts also strike a chord with the ideas of the Bengali poet Tagore. Now India is using Hindu nationalism to revive the nation. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, Russia regarded Orthodoxy as the dominant ideology of its society. Iran launched the Islamic Resurgence Movement in the late 1970s. And Turkey also shifted from its policy of full westernization to the tradition of the Ottoman civilization. Hence, it can be seen that embracing both modernization and nationalization has become the consensus among all ancient civilizations.

二、古老文明共同体的共同特质

第一，大多数古老文明善于处理传统与现代关系。西方现代工业文明的崛起，仅有几百年的历史，只是人类文明史的一小片段。与之相比，各大古老文明历经千年风雨存在至今，蕴含着处理传统与现代的丰富经验。如中华文明是世界上唯一一个以国家形态发展至今从未中断的伟大文明，造就了独特的中华民族共同体，体现了强而不霸、弱而不分的文明根性。如印度文明有着阿拉伯文明与西方文明会通交融的成功经验。如波斯文明即使在人民改信伊斯兰教之后，仍然遗存了国家文化传统。古老文明因具有深沉的文明自信，即使跌入历史最低谷，仍焕发着顽强的生命力。

第二，大多数古老文明善于处理不同族群关系。如中华文明具有无与伦比的包容力。习近平主席在亚洲文明对话大会上强调，“中华文明是在同其他文明不断交流互鉴中形成的开放体系。从历史上的佛教东传、‘伊儒会通’，到近代以来的‘西学东渐’、新文化运动、马克思主义和社会主义思想传入中国，再到改革开放以来全方位对外开放，中华文明始终在兼收并蓄中历久弥新。”同样，其他古老文明如希腊文明，亚里士多德的学生亚历山大建立起横跨欧亚非三大洲的帝国后而开启希腊化时代，使几大古老文明东西传播，封闭的古希腊城邦地方主义文明由此变为开放的世界性文明。如罗马文明在兴起之初便包容了美索不达米亚文明和埃及文明，所以，两河流域的太阳神马尔杜克和埃及女神伊西斯能同时进入罗马万神殿接受人们的膜拜。罗马还让高卢人、不列颠人以及日耳曼人的文明保持了传统特色，并促进它们同拉丁文明的融合。伊斯兰文明也曾有过开放包容的文明传统。《古兰经》中穆罕穆德便说过，“智慧即便来自多神教徒也应采纳。”当时古希腊经典在欧洲已经失传，若没有早期伊斯兰的开放包容，没有早期穆斯林翻译保存希腊文明经典，就没有日后欧洲的文艺复兴。再如俄罗斯自古以来就是“西方的东大门、东方的西大门”，博采东西方文明优长而熔炼出自己的独特文明。相反，那些单纯崇尚军事征服而无包容性文明传统的国家，比如亚述人、匈奴人、赫梯人建立的王国尽管一度强盛之极，却不过一两百年就烟消云散。

第三，大多数古老文明善于处理西方与非西方关系。西方现代工业文明以资本为动力，以普世为旗帜，以自我为中心，不断征服贬损其他文明共同体。反观非西方的古老文明共同体，反倒更加开放更加虚心地学习西方工业文明的长处，不断调适自身与西方文明的关系。中华文明的学习精神体现于中华民族伟大复兴整个历史进程中。1840年以来，我们通过洋务运动学西方技术；通过维新变法学君主立宪；通过新文化运动学习科学民主。不到一百年时间，各种主义、各种方案、各种思想流派粉墨登场，几乎重演了西方不同现代化版本。中国入最后选择的社会主义，也是学习来自西方的马克思主义。同样，日本、土耳其、印度、伊朗、埃及等古老文明都是通过学习西方的科学知识、体制机制、现代教育和工业体系，而完成了现代转型。欧洲也曾向各大古老文明学习。比如魁奈、伏尔泰等法国启蒙家在中国儒家思想中获得了大量理性元素并付诸实践。英国借鉴中国的科举制而建立了文官制度。遗憾的是，后来的某些大国抛弃了西方早期的开放精神和学习传统，认为自己是文明演进的最高阶段最高形态，是历史的终结，这完全违反了文明自身发展规律。古老文明的发展历程一再表明，并非所有杂交产物都是优良品种，但所有的优良品种都是杂交而成。

2. Common characteristics of ancient civilizations 

First, most ancient civilizations have proved to be adept at handling the relations between tradition and modernity. The rise of modern industrial civilizations in the West experienced only several hundred years, which is a tiny part of the entire history of human civilization. In contrast, the ancient civilizations survived till today after many twists and turns, making them much experienced in handling the relations between tradition and modernity. For example, as the only civilization that has never been interrupted as a nation-state in the world, the Chinese civilization has become a unique community of the Chinese nation that reflects the nature of civilization characterized by the persistence in refusing to seek hegemony when it’s strong or fragment when it’s weak; the Indian civilization has had its experience of successful communication with Western civilizations; and the Persian civilization still retained its national cultural tradition after its people converted to Islam. All of these indicate that ancient civilizations were still very resilient and strong with great confidence in their own civilizations even when they declined to the very bottom.

Second, most ancient civilizations have proved to be adept at handling the relations among different ethnic groups. For example, the Chinese civilization is remarkably inclusive. As President Xi Jinping stressed at the Conference on Dialogue of Asian Civilizations, Chinese civilization, as an inclusive and integrated whole, has become what it is today through constant interactions with other civilizations; it has been enriched by the introduction of Buddhism and the confluence of Islam and Confucianism in the old days, by the introduction of Western learning, the launch of the New Culture Movement, and the introduction of Marxism and socialism in modern time; and all-round opening-up of the country, starting with the reform and opening-up programme, has added to its vitality today. This is true for other ancient civilizations as well. For example, in the Greek civilization, Aristotle’s student Alexander the Great founded the empire extending across Europe, Asia, and Africa and ushered in the ancient Greek era, making it possible to extend the reach of ancient civilizations to the East and West and turn the closed local civilizations of the ancient Greek city-states into open global civilizations. For example, as the Roman civilization received the Mesopotamian and Egyptian civilizations in the early days of its prosperity, Marduk of ancient Mesopotamia and Isis of ancient Egypt could be worshiped by people in the Pantheon. Ancient Rome also allowed the Gauls, the British, and the Germans to retain the traditions of their civilizations and promoted their integration with the Latin civilization. The Islamic civilization also had the tradition of being open and inclusive. As Muhammad said in the Quran, even wisdom from the polytheists shall be absorbed. Had it not been the openness and inclusiveness of the Islam in its early days or the effort of early Muslims to translate and preserve the ancient Greek classics that was almost lost in Europe at that time, there wouldn’t have been the subsequent Renaissance in Europe. And as the East Gate to the West and the West Gate to the East, Russia has drawn upon the advantages of the Eastern and Western civilizations to form a unique civilization. In contrast, those that upheld military conquest with no regard for inclusiveness, such as the Assyrians, the Huns, and the Hittites, survived for only a few hundred years, though they had their heyday.

Third, most ancient civilizations have proved to be adept at handling the relations between the West and the non-West. The modern industrial civilizations in the West have conquered and derogated other civilizations with capital and the so-called universal values in a self-centred way, whereas the ancient civilizations in the non-Western world have remained open-minded to learn from the industrial civilizations in the West and adjust their relations with the West. The willingness of the Chinese civilization to learn has been well reflected throughout the entire historical process of the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation. Since 1840, we learned technologies from the West through the Westernization Movement, the constitutional monarchy through the Hundred Days’ Reform, and science and democracy through the New Culture Movement. In less than a hundred years, various doctrines, plans, and thoughts appeared in China as almost all versions of modernization in the West. And socialism, as China eventually chose, is also the Marxism exported from the West. Likewise, other ancient civilizations such as Japan, Turkey, India, Iran, and Egypt, all made their transition to modernization by learning science, systems, and modern educational and industrial systems from the West. Europe learned from ancient civilizations as well. For example, the Enlightenment thinkers in France such as Quesnay and Voltaire acquired many rational elements from the Chinese Confucianism and put them into practice, and the UK established the civil service system by drawing inspiration from China’s imperial examination system. But unfortunately, some countries in the West abandoned the open-mindedness and learning tradition, believing that they are the end to the human history as the highest level of civilization, which completely goes against the law of the development of a civilization. The evolution of ancient civilizations has repeatedly indicated that not all hybrids are superior varieties but all superior varieties are all hybrids.

三、古老文明共同体的共同使命

第一，超越文明中心论，重塑文明多元性。古老文明自身多具有多样性。例如，中华文明内部保持着丰富的多样性，形成既有统一性、又有差异性的治理体系。在宗教关系上，中华文明强调“多元通和、政主教从”，比西方更早提出政教分离，从未发生过宗教战争；在民族关系上，中华文明强调“和而不同、多元一体”，既有一个共同的中华民族，又有各具特色的少数民族。在国家结构上，中华文明既有一竿子插到底的郡县制，也有因俗而治“一国多制”传统。即使在欧洲，越是具有深厚传统的文明，越是提倡文明多样性。比如法国始终具有文化自豪感，始终高扬文化主体性，始终坚信葡萄酒比可乐更高贵，率先提出文明多样性理念。无独有偶，同样具有深厚文化传统的德国在战后始终强调文化多元主义。当代德国哲学家哈贝马斯提出了多元文化之间的“交往理性”，他的弟子霍耐特则提出了不同文明之间的“承认伦理”。在德国、法国、希腊、意大利、西班牙、葡萄牙等欧盟国家共同推动下，联合国教科文组织通过了《保护和促进文化多样性公约》。

第二，超越单一现代化，探索多样现代化。文明多元化决定了现代化道路的多元化。世界并非只有美国一种模式。同一个现代化，有拉美模式、有东亚模式、有阿拉伯模式和中国模式。同样是市场经济，美国有新自由主义市场经济，德国有国家与市场相结合的市场经济，中国有社会主义市场经济。即便在民主政治内部，美国的三权分立与英国的君主立宪不同；欧美的选举政治与亚洲的选举政治也不同。每一个国家根据自己的国情寻找符合自身发展的道路，恰恰是多元文明的特征。然而令人遗憾的是，正是得益于多元文化交融而强大的某大国，却企图用自己单一的模式来取代全球的多元模式。

第三，超越文明冲突，促进文明对话。文明冲突的根源不是古老文明的现代复兴，而是单一文明的唯我独尊。相比文明冲突论，各大古老文明都有对话协商的文化传统。比如，中华文明追求天下为公的大同境界，而非弱肉强食的丛林法则；坚持“远人不服则修文德”的沟通方式，而非“力量即正义”的实力原则；秉持“民胞物与”的共同利益，而非“非敌即友”的二元观念。所以，中国即使是在综合实力最强的时候，也没有对外扩张、没有殖民掠夺、没有炮舰政策、没有强加于人的不平等条约。再比如，上世纪50年代，中印率先倡导“和平共处五原则”，印度提出的不结盟运动，显然有助于跳出西方二元对立的思维模式，弥合东西方文明断裂的鸿沟，以合作共赢的新思维代替零和博弈的旧思维。因此，以文明对话超越文明对抗，是早已为古老文明所印证的共生共存智慧。

第四，超越文明优越论，促进文明交流互鉴。现代西方文明具有根深蒂固的“文明优越感”，而古老文明历经风雨荣辱，既不妄自尊大，更不妄自菲薄。单一的西方现代工业文明如果不与各大古老文明交流借鉴，更加无法成为普世文明。与此同时，我们当然相信，不与西方文明交流互鉴，非西方文明也难以发展壮大．各大古老文明绝非完美，当年之所以被西方超越和冲击，正是因为自身深重的积弊。古老文明必须保持开放的心态，坚持不懈地交流互鉴，与西方现代文明携起手来，形成更可持续发展的人类文明力量。我曾提出，生态文明可成为一个融汇不同文化、不同宗教、不同意识形态的中西文明交流平台。这样的平台还能找到很多。

朋友们，习近平主席指出，“人类只有肤色语言之别，文明只有姹紫嫣虹之别，但绝无高低优劣之分。认为自己的人种和文明高人一等，执意改造甚至取代其他文明，在认识上是愚蠢的，在做法上是灾难性的。”当世界走到新的十字路口，全人类面临着诸多共同挑战。我们是要文明一元化，还是要文明多元化；是要单一现代化，还是要多样现代化；是要文明的冲突，还是要文明的对话；是要文明的自我封闭，还是要文明的交流互鉴?正确答案，不言而喻。我坚信，古老文明共同体的复兴之路，就是构建人类命运共同体之路。各大古老文明秉承开放包容传统而彼此借鉴学习，形成多元文明共同体，正当其时；各大古老文明在构建人类命运共同体的历史进程中淬炼出人类共同价值，形成东西文明交流新格局，正当其时！

3. The shared mission of the community of ancient civilizations 

First, break the civilization centralism and reinvent the civilization pluralism. Ancient civilizations are diverse. For example, the diversity of the Chinese civilization is reflected in its governance system of both uniformity and diversity. In dealing with religion, the Chinese civilization adopted the approach of allowing the state to play a dominant role and religion to play second fiddle in a way that encourages diversification and harmony, earlier than the West in proposing separation of religion and the state, yet without any religious wars fought. In handling ethnic relations, the Chinese civilization asserted the community of the Chinese nation for harmony in diversity with ethnic groups diversified yet integrated as one. And in establishing the structure for the state, the Chinese civilization put forward both the one-size-fits-all approach of the system of prefectures and counties and the tailor-made systems for different regions of the state. Even in Europe, civilizations with deeply rooted richer traditions have been more vocal in encouraging diversity. For example, France has always had a sense of cultural pride, always held up the subjectivity of culture, always firmly believed that wine is more noble than coke, and was the first to introduce the civilization diversity theory. Germany, a country with a rich culture and tradition too, has always highlighted cultural diversity as well after the World War II. Contemporary German philosopher Jürgen Habermas came up with the concept of communicative rationality for interactions between civilizations, followed by the ethics of recognition introduced by his disciple Axel Honneth. And with the joint efforts of Germany, France, Greece, Italy, Spain, Portugal and other EU countries, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization adopted the Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions.

Second, reject singular modernity and explore plural modernity. Civilization diversity ensures diverse paths to modernization. The US model is not the only model in the world. There are the Latin American, East Asian, Arabian, and Chinese models for modernization. And for the market economy, there are the neoliberalism in the US, the state-market approach in Germany, and the socialist market economy in China. Differences even exist among the political systems of democracies: the separation of powers in the US is different from the constitutional monarchy in the UK, and the electoral politics in Europe and the US also differ from that in Asia. Each and every country to find its development path that fits own conditions precisely indicates the pluralism of civilizations. But unfortunately, a great power that has benefited from cultural diversity and interactions has attempted to replace the global plural model with a singular one.

Third, discourage clash of civilizations and encourage dialogue of civilizations. The clash of civilizations originates not from the modern rejuvenation of ancient civilizations, but from the egoism of a particular civilization. All ancient civilizations have the cultural tradition of dialogue and consultation as opposed to the clash of civilizations. For example, the Chinese civilization pursues the future of a world as one community with universal peace, rather than the law of the jungle; it advocates the way of winning the hearts and minds of people with virtue, rather than the principle of strength that preaches power as justice; and it seeks to share the interests with the people as brothers and sisters rather than as either friends or foes. That’s why China didn’t resort to expansionism, colonization, the gunboat policy, or coercive unequal treaties even in its heyday. And in the 1950s, China and India established the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence, and India initiated the Non-Aligned Movement, both of which helped eclipse the mentality of binary opposition in the West, bridge the gap between the East and the West, and replace the zero-sum game with win-win cooperation. Hence, it can be seen that dialogue of civilizations rather than clash of them was already a lesson learnt by ancient civilizations long ago for coexistence.

Fourth, abandon superiority and push civilizations to interact. Modern civilizations in the West have a deep-rooted sense of superiority, whereas ancient civilizations don’t have false pride or belittle themselves after going through many twists and turns. Without interactions with ancient civilizations, any one modern industrial civilization in the West wouldn’t become a universal civilization. In the meantime, we also believe that non-Western civilizations wouldn’t thrive if they didn’t interact with the Western ones. No ancient civilizations are perfect, and it was just because of their drawbacks that they were once surpassed by the West. Ancient civilizations have to remain open and committed to interactions and work together with modern civilizations in the West to form a human civilization for more sustainable development. As I said, ecological civilization may present a platform for Chinese and Western civilizations to interact where different cultures, religions, and ideologies would meet. Such platforms are many.

My friends! President Xi Jinping said, “civilizations only vary from each other, just as human beings are different only in terms of skin colour and the language used. No civilization is superior over others. The thought that one’s own race and civilization are superior and the inclination to remold or replace other civilizations are just stupid. To act them out will only bring catastrophic disasters.” When we are at a new crossroads where the entire human race is confronted with a myriad of shared challenges, what should we choose? Singular or plural civilizations? Singular or plural modernization? Clash of civilizations or dialogue of civilizations? Self-imposed isolation or interaction? The answers are self-evident. I firmly believe that the path to rejuvenation for the community of ancient civilizations is to build a community with shared future for mankind. Now is the time for all ancient civilizations to remain open, inclusive, and committed to interacting with and learning from each other for a community of diverse civilizations, and to extract the shared human values from the efforts to build a community with shared future for mankind to usher in a new landscape of interactions between the East and the West.