Qilu Culture: Created by and for the People

At present, there are six cradles of Chinese civilization generally acknowledged, including the area of Mount Taishan and Huashan, Sichuan Basin, Jianghan Plain, the lower reaches of the Changjiang River, Liaoxi Plain. Among them, the area of Mount Taishan is the biggest and earliest one.

There are a lot of ancient cultures found in this area, such as Beixin Culture of 7000 years ago, Dawenkou Culture of 5000 years ago, Longshan Culture of 4000 years ago, etc. which were explored for the first time around Mount Tai, and named after the place where they were found.

Quite a lot of the activities and contributions of Fu Xi, Yan Di and Emperor Huang-ti, the pioneers of Chinese culture, are in Shandong. Later on, Yan Di's descendant set up Qi State and Huang-ti's established Lu State. In Spring and Autumn period, because of having kept the complete Zhou Li, Lu State became the important strategic place of China's ideology and culture of that time. Under the management of Duke Huan of Qi and Guan Zhong, Qi State took the lead in reform. Then, Qi State's national power became prosperous and strong. Nine times, Duke Huan hold summit meeting of dukes under an emperor and restored peace to the country. Gradually, Duke Huan became the first one of the "Five Overlords of Spring and Autumn Period".

In the Warring States Period, Qi State ranked among the "Seven Great Powers" (Qi, Chu, Yan, Han, Zhao, Wei, Qin). At that time, Qi state possessed developed economy, prosperous culture and strong military, and hold sway over a region to the people for a time. In the corresponding period, Qi State in the east and Greece in the west were called the two poles of the world.   

In China's history, the Spring and Autumn and Warring States Periods is an ideologically active era. In the period, there are many schools of different thoughts and views. The era "Let a hundred flowers bloom, let a hundred schools of thought contend." Meanwhile, many sages are coming forth in multitudes on the earth of Qilu, for example, Confucius, Mencius, Zeng Tzu, Tzu Si, Mo Tzu, Guan Zhong, Yan Ying, Sun Tzu, etc. They are founders of the Qilu Culture. The Qilu Culture is a mainstream of China's outstanding traditional culture.

Based on "people", Qilu Culture regards "benevolence" as a core, "gentility" as the form and "harmony between man and nature" as the goal. These thoughts have influenced China more than 2000 years.

In a favorable position, Shandong gains special advantages to be influenced by the cultures' quintessence deeply. Someone has counted, more than 1000 natives of Shandong are involved in the Twenty-Four Histories. The Sage Zhu Ge-liang, the holy calligraphist Wang Xizhi, the patriotic poets Xin Qiji and Li Qingzhao, the novelist Pu Songling, etc., who are the founders of Qilu Culture, make remarkable contribution for the culture's development.

People of Shandong are industrious, honest and hospitable. They always treat people warmly and politely, respect teachers and praise education, respect the old and love the young, and are glad to help the weak and the poor. All these traditional virtues originate from the Qilu Culture.   

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