At Beijing Capital Normal University, where I took my semester abroad this past spring, I enrolled in Classical Chinese. There, I developed confidence and an interest in reading simple classical Chinese. I also became more familiar with major schools of thought in the Pre-Qin period of ancient China, its prominent thinkers and their influence on modern China. After studying Classical Chinese, I developed a deeper understanding of Confucius’ saying:
“Reviewing the old enables one to know the new.” This statement concisely summarizes the
logic of thought that I have seen in many ancient Chinese scholars: They often revisited the ideas and events of the past to develop their own insights.
For example, in Inscription of the Humble Room (Lòu shì míng) and On the Love of the Lotus (Aì liǎn Shuō), the authors use historical figures or natural imagery to express their own aspirations and virtues. Inscription of the Humble Room is a kind of inscriptional prose, a literary form used to record the history or qualities of a place or thing. Liu Yuxi, its author, describes how although his dwelling is simple and crude, it reflects high moral character. At the end of the piece, he mentions Zhuge Liang’s cottage in Nanyang and Yang Xiong’s pavilion in Western Shu, comparing his own humble home to the modest abodes of these historical figures. In doing so, he stresses that although one’s surroundings may be plain, one’s virtue and talent can still match those of the Ancients. In modern society I was persuaded that a creative mixology of old and new culture interact and classical ideas serve as appendages for underlying psychology in modern society. The philosophy of the past, I found, provided footnotes for complicated social dynamics in the present.
My opinion is that one reason China remains open to new technology and creative solutions is because of the creative drawing from a vast index of previous thinkers. The early philosophies of China distill knowledge through describing foundational natural processes and interfacing with them based on their own unique context. I once discussed the idiom “the fox borrows the tiger’s might” with my roommate, and he shared a vivid example that highlighted power dynamics I was not aware of at the time.
When we went to a drone and camera shop outside of Shougang park (Beijing) together, he noticed that because I was a foreigner, the salesperson treated me with special enthusiasm and gave very detailed product explanations. After this experience, my roommate expressed to me laughingly that he “borrowed my prestige,” and received better service as a result. I think this situation also reflects ideas from The Doctrine of the Mean (Zhōng yōng), an early Confucius text that describes a middle way for expressing oneself. One line that struck me is: “When emotions are aroused, they should all be expressed in due measure.” In other words, one should not lean too far in any direction. In that experience, my roommate did not overuse my "foreign" advantage nor act forcefully, but instead found a balanced way to reach his goal. This illustrates exactly what the Doctrine of the Mean calls the “middle way.”
In “On the Love of the Lotus,” Zhou Dunyi conveys his ideal of moral character through his admiration of flowers. He writes that the lotus “emerges unstained from the mud, and remains pure when washed by clear water,” symbolizing the gentleman’s virtue — remaining untainted by vulgarity and steadfast in integrity. This metaphor shows how ancient thinkers often used the imagery of nature or the legacy of earlier figures to lead into reflections on contemporary life. Similarly, in Ouyang Xiu’s “On Factions and in The Great Learning,” we can also see that “self-cultivation” was the core goal of Confucian thought. Although different writers had their own interpretations of how to achieve this goal, they all drew upon history, metaphor, and earlier teachings to deepen their own arguments. This practice itself embodies the spirit of “reviewing the old to learn the new.”
Through studying these classical works, I have realized that traditional Chinese thought is not merely a memory of the past; it continues to influence people’s behavior and values today. To “review the old” is not only to revisit history but is also an important path to gaining new knowledge and inspiration in the present.
