Preface

China has five thousand years of history, the list of famous books, poems, and essays written over the course of China’s history shine not merely like stars but like the Milky Way spilled across the heavens. The long river of China’s history and culture provides nurturing sustenance for the soul of the nation. Among this list, the Confucian classics are like a towering monument or a bright pearl. Their philosophy and teachings have enchanted people throughout the ages with flashes of wisdom that illuminate future’s path forward.

President Xi Jinping attaches great importance to reading. In the congratulatory letter he penned for the first National Reading Conference, he wrote: “Reading is an important way for human beings to acquire knowledge, to spark wisdom, and to cultivate morality. Reading can inspire people. Reading helps to establish lofty ideals. Reading cultivates an aura of grandeur.Ever since ancient times, the people of our nation have been in favor of reading. By paying attention to the knowledge, sincerity and wisdom of the scholars who came before us, these scholars—who have given us our inheritance in the form of the spirit of the Chinese nation—have shaped the character of the Chinese people’s confidence and will to better ourselves. ”

Recitation is an aural method of reading that can cross the boundaries of the printed page.Babbling toddlers are generally unable to recognize a single letter and yet, they can be read to. Recitation is a way of making reading more vivid, colorful and feelable. This kind of aural reading transcends language, brings beauty and charm, and opens new chapters for exchanges and mutual learning between people from diferent civilizations.

It is important to read the classics. If you haven’t read the original words of the great philosophers, you will have a hard time penetrating the profound and spiritual world of China’s traditional culture. Throughout the process of reading the classics, it is possible to not only enjoy the pleasure of the spiritual world, but also to feel the heaviness of life, to gain a sense of the profound nature of cultural origins and the essence of humanity. Reading or reciting the classics allows us to travel through time and space, and open up a dialogue with history’s philosophers and scholars. When the light of five thousand years of Chinese civilization, and the words of the sages, enter our hearts, it illuminates the path forward.

Over the past few years as China has increasingly moved on to the center of the world stage,Chinese classics have become loved by more than just the Chinese people. Welcomed by people from foreign lands which have no historical ties to China, the classics have an eternal charm which represent the country’s excellent traditional culture in a way that transcends time, space and geography. The quiet of rustling pages is like a rope which is used to build a steel strong bridge of communication and understanding for exchanges and mutual learning between diferent civilizations.

President Xi Jinping emphasized that telling well the stories of China and spreading the voices of China would show the world what China really is in a comprehensive and concrete fashion.“It is necessary to carry out in-depth cultural exchanges in various forms and through various channels, to promote exchanges between people and cultures, to forge bonds between people and countries.”

The Nishan World Confucianism Center—as a platform for global Confucianism research and dissemination—is committed to enhancing the influence of Chinese culture, to promoting exchanges and mutual learning among world civilizations, and to building a community with a shared future for mankind. By constantly exploring a variety of paths, using ancient texts to convey philosophical truths, using classics to spread the voices of the ages, using culture to educate, it is possible to explain and promote to the world the excellence of China’s traditional culture, to showcase the Chinese spirit, and to display Chinese wisdom.

In 2021, the Nishan World Center for Confucian Studies, the China Confucius Foundation, and the Department of Education of Shandong Province jointly organized the “2021 Trans-lingual Chanting Conference of Confucian Classics.” The 2021 Confucian Classics Multilingual Reading Conference is a positive exploration promoting the practice of exchanges between people. Having already received a great deal of attention both domestically and internationally, it has set of a wave of Chinese culture learning around the world. Broken up into sections of Chinese/English,Chinese/Russian, Chinese/Japanese, Chinese/Korean, Chinese/German, Chinese/French, Chinese/Portuguese, and Chinese/Spanish, this year’s Conference will select the works of more than 100 authors (both Chinese and foreign) for readers to peruse as a collection entitled: Telling Chinese Stories to the World — Excellent Works of the 2021 Confucian Classics Multilingual Reading Conference. This collection will be an effective carrier for people both inside and outside of China to better learn and understand the China’s excellent traditional culture; and will cast a spotlight upon the process of exchanges and mutual learning.

Experts, scholars and readers both inside and outside of China are also invited to provide their opinions and commentary.