Han Pao-te (Director, National Museum of Natural Science)-- Reclaiming the Spiritual Values of Rural Culture

If only we could reestablish our old preurban ethics and let the values of Confucianism, Taoism and worldly enjoyment flourish alongside one another, our society would naturally experience balanced development. Taiwan would become a land of harmony and peace, and our national image would of itself grow better.

Lately we've come to sense an excessive pursuit of wealth in our society. Yet a high regard for money and enjoyment of life are no disadvantages, in fact they're distinctly Chinese features.

Compared with other people the Chinese are relatively unreligious and have a strongly humanistic culture where the accent is on a worldly feeling of happiness. Happiness is often linked to enjoyment, and material enjoyment requires the solid backing of money.

The Chinese philosophy of enjoying life was already evident in the Han dynasty. Utensils recovered from tombs are often painted with scenes showing feasting, drinking, music and dancing. Quantities of paper objects such as gold ingots, houses and boats were always burnt for the dead to ensure that they would be wealthy in the next world. Our custom of wishing each other "good fortune" at Chinese New Year has never changed to this day.

I doubt that any other nation in the world has a tradition which emphasizes worldly enjoyment of life like the Chinese.

But earlier society had other spiritual values which counteracted the instability introduced by wealth, namely Confucianism and Taoism.

Confucian propriety constrained people's unfettered nature and maintained harmonious social relations; Taoism's unworldliness let people free themselves from material temptations, emphasized the aesthetic side of life, and allowed people to find spiritual satisfaction beyond material things through the contemplation of nature.

Chinese culture is unique in being based on the triple blend of Confucianism, Taoism and worldly enjoyment. Realism flourishes readily, but Confucianism and Taoism must be taught and practiced. Sadly, social change has consigned both the latter to neglect. While society's new ground rules have yet to be established realism has run riot, leading to the situation we have today.

The most important task before us is to re-establish ethical values and consolidate social order. This requires high-level attention and policy-making on the part of government, and objectives must be formulated so as to improve policy proposals.

Before policy decisions are taken we must first understand where the roots of Chinese culture lie. Our culture is built upon rural values, which provide the basis for the tripartite coexistence of Confucianism, Taoism and secular hedonism. People used to grow up in the rural hinterland, and the lessons imbibed there would serve as the basis of their work ethic and social principles in their subsequent urban career.

Rural life, the embodiment of homeliness, diligence and generosity, was a storehouse of ethical virtues. For anyone who had left home to workin the city, returning to hearth and home was like a "forest bath" whichwashed away all the city grime and purified your mind ready for anotherfresh start.

Modern Taiwan's rural hinterland could hardly be expected to provide ethical regeneration and social harmony as it used to in the past, because concentration of the population in cities is already an established trend. But rural culture's essential spiritual values can provide the basis for cultural development.

A nation's international image is an outward reflection of its domestic civilization, and the power to guide Taiwan's cultural development lies in the hands of the government. Individuals have little power, but what they do can have a certain effect. If parents, for example, constantly talk about money with their children and make material reward the basis of relations between them, then once the children grow up they will continue to pass on this "tradition." Taking money seriously is not a fault, but other values must be taught at the same time so as to let children acquire a more diverse ethical outlook.

Our middle class is constantly expanding, and these people have an excellent educational level and potential as opinion-formers. Once they become aware of the importance of regenerating spiritual values in our civilization, I believe balanced social development will be within our grasp.