This daily news commentaries is read by the founder of Gongshiwang Zhou Zhixing. It published 15 short episodes here. (I didn’t find anything particularly special among these 15 entries but thought this format is pretty cool - I would expect something interesting in the future).
Since March 5, 2015, Gongshiwang App has had a new column on its audio channel, which is called “Zhou Speaks”. Zhou speaks for one minute a day, records it and publishes it. It is like a radio program. I am the broadcaster. Of course, it is just my own thoughts. It is going to be one minute a day, and five times a week. Each time it is going to be about 270 words. I think I am going to collect 15 episodes all together once and call it a bi-monthly talk.
从2015年的3月5号开始，共识网客户端(APP)的有声频道推出了一个栏目，叫“周说心语”，由我这个姓周的每天说一分钟，录下来发布，相当于一个广播电台的栏目，我成了播音员，当然，是我自己的的思想而已。每天一分钟，一周五次，每次大约270字，我想，每15期归堆成一篇，就叫半月谈吧。
Discussion on New-Tianxia-ism, Xu Jilin, Bai Tongdong and Liu Qing
(Picking bones on Xu Jilin - reflecting on the discussion of the wide-spread machoism especially among intellectuals - discussed on China Speaks on Feb. 27, 2015, Xu Jilin started the conversation like this: Hello everyone, today is International Women’s Day and it is also a Sunday. I see there are many women here participating this very masculine topic. 许纪霖：各位朋友下午好，今天是三八妇女节，又是周日，台下有不少女同胞，来参与我们这个非常阳刚的话题。)
1, Xu Jilin: Tianxia-ism is a very core concept in Chinese civilization. Actually it has two layers. First, in ancient China there was no concept of a nationalist country like today. There was just the concept of a country like a kingdom. Beyond the country there is Tianxia. Gu Yanwu from the turn of Ming and Qing dynasties said that the country could die but Tianxia could not die. If Tianxia dies it is going to be a jungle world. Tianxia represents a set of values and orders of civilization. Second, it is a geographical concept. The traditional Chinese concept of the world is centered on the main plain of China, and there are foreign savages from four differections. Different from the current race concept, as long as those foreign savages accept this set of civilization, they are members of the Chinese civilization, which all constitute China’s “Tianxia”.
1, 许纪霖:
天下主义是中国文明的一个非常核心的观念，实际上它有两层意思：第一，古代中国没有今天的民族国家概念，只有王朝国家，国之上有一个天下，明末清初的顾炎武说，可以亡国，不能亡天下，天下一亡，就成为丛林世界了。天下代表了一套文明价值与秩序。第二，它是一个地理概念，传统中国人对世界的想象，是以中原文明为中心，周边有东夷、南蛮、西戎、北狄。但现代种族主义不同，只要蛮夷接受了这套文明，就是华夏的一员，就是中华文明的一部分，这就构成了中国的"天下"。
2: In Chinese people’s words we could describe a nationalist country as one that is aristocratic internally and aggressive externally. The best examples of late-comer countries are Japan and Germany. They got rich and stronger before they took revenge. If on one hand we use the language of a nationalist country, and on the other hand we tell others that we are on a peaceful rise, normal people would know that we are talking nonsense. To let an emerging country peacefully integrate into the world system, especially for a big country like China, there needs to be a set of language that is beyond nationalistic concepts. In Chinese traditions, there are many resources that could be adopted to forge this new set of language.
2,白彤东:
民族国家用中国人的话说就是对内王道、对外霸道。后起民族国家两个最好的范例就是日本、德国，先富强再复仇。如果一边用民族国家的语言，一边还跟别人说我们是和平崛起，正常人都应该知道这种话是瞎扯。为了让新崛起的国家，比如像中国这样一个大国，和平地融入世界体系，就必须要找一套超越民族国家的语言。而中国的传统里面有很多资源，能够提供一个新的语言出来。
3, Xu Jilin: New-Tianxia-ism is extracted from ancient Chinese civilization. It is universal civilization that exceeds beyond the boundaries of nationalist countries. East Asia today is as dangerous as Europe during the end of the 19th century till the first half of the 20th century. At that time each country considered their own national interests the priority. They all fought for resources and power, which led to the world wars. Today’s East China is on the verge of similar wars. From this perspective, this Tianxia system initiated by Pengdong, what I call the Tianxia-ism, is probably a way for us to deal with this dangerous East Asia and dangerous world.
3, 许纪霖：
因为新天下主义是从中国古老文明当中来，它是一个超越了民族国家意识的普世文明。
东亚今天就像19世纪末、20世纪上半叶的欧洲一样危险，当时每个国家都把自身的国家利益、民族利益看成是至上的，争夺资源，都要称霸，最后引发了世界大战。而今天东亚恰恰也处于这样一种战争的边缘之中，所以从这个意义来说，彤东提出天下体系，我是说天下主义，大概我们都是应对着这样一个危险的东亚，危险的世界。
4, Tianxia-ism is a not a special culture - it is universal civilization. The concepts between civilization and culture are different. Civilization refers to a set of universal values and universal language. Culture refers to a particular country, ethnicity, place or even group. You can say that each country, region and ethnicity has their own culture, but there are very few cultures in the world that could be considered a set of civilization.
4, 天下主义不是一种特殊的文化，而是一种普世的文明。文明和文化这两个概念是不一样的，文明指的是一套普世的价值、普世的话语，文化属于某一个特定的国家、民族、地方，甚至某一个社群，你可以说世界上每个国家、地区、民族都有自己的文化，但是世界上可以称得上文明的文化是不多的。
5, In my view, the Tianxia-ism is a big challenge to those who advocates China’s special characteristics. You are wrong! You think you are standing on the stance of China, but actually you are not. It is because Chinese civilization has never been special from the start. It is universal. It contemplates the world from the whole human beings’ perspective, including China’s own problems. When you use the perspective of “a special culture” to think of China and the world, and consider this great universal Chinese civilization as a special culture, you are actually dwarfing the great Chinese civilization. It is just you haven’t realized it. I believe Tongdong would agree with me. When we talk about Tianxia-ism or Tianxia system, we firstly need to reflect this China special theory based on nationalistic views.
5,我说的天下主义，就是要对这些鼓吹中国特殊论的人大喝一声：你错了!你自以为站在中国的立场，其实你是最不中国的，因为中国文明从一开始就不是特殊的，而是普世的，是从天下人类的立场来思考整个世界的问题，也包括中国自身的问题。当你们用一种"特殊的文化"来思考中国、思考世界的时候，把中国这样一个伟大的普世文明说成是一个特殊的文化，就是矮化了伟大的中国文明，只是你们意识不到而已!我相信彤东也会同意我的看法，当我们提出天下主义或者天下体系的时候，首先就是在反思今天中国所出现的一套民族国家至上的中国特殊论。
6, New-Tianxia-ism is a double transcendence from traditional Tianxia-ism and contemporary nationalistic views. It maintains the traditional of Tianxia-ism’s universal values. It thinks and makes decisions based on the whole mankind’s universal civilization and global interests. Meanwhile it gets rid of the self-centered aspect of Tianxia-ism: I am the strongest; I am the most civilized. This is first.
6, 新天下主义是对传统的天下主义和近代的民族国家的双重超越，既保持了天下主义的普世主义传统，从整个人类的普世文明、全球利益来思考和决策，同时又抛弃天下主义的自我中心观：唯我独大，唯我文明。这是第一。
7, Second, how to decentralize, how to de-classify? After all, the traditional Tianxia-ism has constructed classes. The core is the most civilized, and the more it is closer to the periphery, the more savage it is. The New-Tianxia-ism needs to absorb healthy values in contemporary class-centered systems: each nation, no matter big or small has to be equal. Each country needs to respect others’ sovereign power. We could see that the New-Tianxia-ism is not a complete negation to contemporary nationalistic countries; it is a detox towards conflicts…… The contemporary universal civilization of the world can’t be monopolized by the West, nor can it be represented by China. The sharing of different civilization and culture in the world is what I call the New-Tianxia-ism.
7, 第二，如何去中心化，去等级化?传统天下主义毕竟建构了一个等级，中心是最文明的，越到边缘越野蛮，而新天下主义要吸收的是近代民族主义中的健康价值：各个民族，不论大小，一律平等，各个国家，相互尊重主权。我们可以看到新天下主义并不是对近代民族国家的完全否定，而是和它产生对冲后的相互的解毒剂。........当代世界的普世文明，既不是西方所能垄断，也不是中国所能代表，是全球不同的文明、文化所共享的才是我说的新天下主义。
8, Liu Qing: I have always wondered, how come whenever we talk about cultural differences, we automatically think about the difference between Chinese culture and Western culture? How come the first question is not the difference from contemporary culture and ancient culture? It is as if the spatial distance is considered difference, but time difference is not a difference. There is continuation as well as rupture in history. There is split and encounter of space in history as well. Globalization is culture’s more frequent and intimate encounter in space. The collapse of Tianxia-ism is due to culture’s encounter in space. It is because when culture encountered another civilization, or encountered the exterior it collapsed. Meanwhile, the West is facing China’s rise and it is encountering many strong reflects from non-Western civilization. That kind of old “superior European culture” or the “culture empire” centered on the West can’t be sustained today.
8, 刘擎: 我一直疑惑，一谈到文化差别，为什么我们理所当然地首先想到是中国文化与西方文化的差别?为什么首要的问题不是现代与古代文化的差别?好像空间上的距离才是距离，而时间上的距离不是距离。历史有延续也有断裂，而历史上的空间也有分割与遭遇。全球化就是文化在空间上更加频繁和紧密的遭遇。天下主义的崩溃就是文化在空间上遭遇的结果，因为天下遭遇到另一种文明，遭遇到外部，天下就塌掉了。同样，西方遭遇到中国的崛起，遭遇到许多非西方文明的强劲反弹力量，那种旧的"欧洲文明优越论"或西方中心论的"文明帝国"模式，在今天不可能再维系下去。
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