Сhinese "Harmony Culture" and Russian "Sobornost"

In: Problemy dalnego vostoka, Heft 5, S. 149

Abstract

The article analyzes the similarity between the Chinese "Harmony Culture" and the Russian "Sobornost", which are the core of the national traditional culture and remain active and radiate vitality in the new era. The first part of the article analyzes the origins and content of the concepts of "Harmony Culture" and "Sobornost". The Chinese "Harmony Culture" dates to the eight trigrams in ancient times, advocates harmony, "All under heaven are of one family", "Harmonious but different", "Golden mean", etc. The notion of "Sobornost" goes back to the cathedral or village community, advocates unity, solidarity, tolerance, cooperation. The second part of the article analyzes the manifestation of the concepts of "Harmony Culture" and "Sobornost" in modern societies. In modern China, "Harmony Culture" is embodied in the goal of building a "Harmonious Socialist Society" and in the diplomatic concept of building a "Community of Human Destiny". In modern Russia, the "Sobornost" is embodied in Putin's "idea of new Russia" and various policies to revive "Russian traditional culture". There is a high coherence and correspondence between the two concepts, which is an important ideological source to deepening mutual understanding between Russia and China, steadily developing Sino-Russian relations in the new era and preserving long-term peace on earth. The Russian and Chinese governments will be able to find common ground and overcome their differences.