“文明因交流而多彩，文明因互鉴而丰富”。中西方文明比较，既能使中国与西方世界深刻地认识对方，准确地认识自己；更能淬炼人类共同价值，推动构建人类命运共同体。

本书为潘岳先生“中西文明比较”系列图书首卷的英文版，聚焦“战国与希腊”时期的政治，通过荀子、伊索克拉底、亚里士多德等思想家的命运，对中西文明的根性进行了深刻剖析和比较，深刻论证了中西文明交流互鉴的必要性和重要意义。

本书聚焦“战国与希腊”时期的政治，作者以极其敏锐的眼光、缜密的分析，从学理上探寻中西文明之源，对中西政治文明进行比较，论证了中西文明交流互鉴的重要意义。他指出，对自由优先与秩序优先的分歧，不应成为中西文明交流的障碍，反而应成为中西文明互鉴的基础；唯有懂得反省反思、不断包容、和谐共生、互鉴互融的文明，才是真正可持续发展的文明。本书附录精心选编了多位专家的精彩评论，有助于读者更好地理解、把握本书的深刻内涵。

潘岳，历史学博士。曾任国务院经济体制改革办公室副主任，环境保护部副部长，中华文化学院党组书记、第一副院长。现任国务院侨务办公室主任。

Foreword

II

The West has been the primary author of global history for the last two centuries. As a result of its dominance, the world sees history through a Western prism, based on an underlying assumption that the Western experience is universally relevant. The classic example is the nation-state. It has become the pre-condition for the recognition of polities. When a vast number of countries won their independence from their colonial masters after the Second World War, they were required to become nation-states. It was a condition of their independence. Yet the invention of the nation-state was an entirely European affair dating back to the Peace of Westphalia in 1648. The global dominance of Europe, and then the West more generally, imposed on the world a European-designed international system at the heart of which was the nation-state. It was not until the late 19th century that China was finally forced by its state of abject weakness to adapt to the European norms of the international system and begin the process of becoming, at least in part, a nation-state.

But China had never been a nation-state. It was a product of an entirely different history that was rooted in the Chinese civilization. China was a civilization-state. It is still primarily a civilization-state, although, being secondarily a nation-state, it might be described as a hybrid. And China is not alone. As Pan Yue points out, there are many other nation-states that are the product of civilizational histories such as Iran, Turkey, and Russia. But it is China that concerns us here. It is impossible to make sense of China unless its history as a civilization is recognized and understood. Alas, the West is in denial. It sees the world, and China, in narrowly Western terms. As a result, in a most fundamental way, the West does not understand China. It requires China to be Western, but China does not conform to the Western paradigm, never has and never will. During China’s long history of weakness, this did not matter. China could be used, abused, and ignored. But China’s rise makes this position unsustainable. The West is now obliged to understand China as it is not how it thinks it should be.

Pan Yue’s book is a book for our time. He shows how profoundly different the histories of Europe and China have been over more than two millennia and how this has resulted in the very different societies we see today. This is not a reason for regret but embrace and celebration: It is testimony to the richness of human history and the diversity of human experience. A knowledge of history, and a resulting respect for difference, opens up the possibility of a new kind of creative dialogue between the West and China based on mutual respect and understanding.

I cannot recommend this book highly enough. The fundamental problem in the West is that it does not understand China, or even know how to understand China. The ideas in this book are the path of enlightenment.

Martin Jacques,

British Scholar of China Studies