The Situation and Two Sources of Legitimacy of Chinese Tradition

Abstract

Samuel Huntington (1968) pointed out that modernity brought stability while modernization brought instability. Nowadays, China accelerates its process of modernization, which brought a series of problems in politics, economy as well as culture. Chinese tradition is suffering from the impact of cultural instability. It is still powerful but also vulnerable. I summed up two sources of legitimacy for Chinese tradition in the light of modernization: stability, cohesion. And I think it is important to go towards the balance between tradition and modernization in the future.