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The Past as Future:  

Chinese Tradition and Process Thought for Ecological Civilization 


Wm. Andrew Schwartz 
Executive Director, Center for Process Studies 
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​This talk was delivered at the International Academic Symposium on Xi Jinping Thought on Culture at Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou (September 27, 2025). The symposium was jointly organized by the Research Center for Xi Jinping Thought on Culture of Xinhua Branch, Sun Yat-sen University, and the Publicity Department of the CPC Guangdong Provincial Committee. ​

 
The Crisis of Western Modernization 

Western modernization is in crisis. Mounting inequality, social fragmentation, and ecological degradation expose the limitations of the modern industrial civilization that has shaped much of the global order for the past several centuries. Consider the United States as a case study: 
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• The top 1% of the population controls more wealth than the bottom 90% combined.i 

• More than 38 million Americans live in poverty, and 650,000 are homeless on any given night.ii 

• More than 60% of college students in America reported having anxiety or depression.iii 

• Roughly 85% of U.S. adults don’t trust the government to do what is right most of the time,iv and 8 of 10 adults say politicians (84%), large corporations (82%) and wealthy people (82%) have too much power and influence in American society.v 

• Ecological crises mount, with 46% of Americans live in areas failing ozone or particle pollution standards,vi while 20–25 million Americans receive water from systems that fail to meet health-based Safe Drinking Water Act standards each year.vii 

• The U.S. generates nearly 292 million tons of waste annuallyviii and remains among the world’s highest per-capita carbon emitters, averaging 14–15 metric tons per person.ix 

These crises are not isolated. They stem from underlying assumptions: that the world is composed of independent objects, that nature is inert matter to be exploited, and that economic growth is the ultimate measure of success. Consider an iceberg. Only a small portion of the iceberg is visible (above water). The majority remains hidden, below water. Civilizations are like this. If we want to change the visible world (what's happening) we need to address what lies beneath the surface -- trends/patterns, systems/structures, values/worldviews. 

So what worldview lies beneath our failing modern civilization? The modern worldview, of course! From Aristotle’s emphasis on static substances, to Descartes’ mind–body dualism, to Newton’s clockwork universe, the Western story privileges permanence over change, independence over interdependence, and control over harmony.  
If humanity is to survive and flourish, a new civilizational model must be forged—one that rethinks the very foundations of culture, economy, and human identity.  
 
Ancient Chinese Wisdom as Resource 

Fortunately, China has over 5000 years of rich tradition to draw from--a deep reservoir of wisdom emphasizing harmony, change, and interconnection: 

• Tian–Ren He Yi (天人合一) – the unity of heaven, earth, and humanity, reminding us that human flourishing is embedded in natural harmony, not separate from it. 

• The Yijing (易经)  – reminds us that change and transformation are fundamental to reality; no situation is static, and balance emerges through the dynamic interplay of yin and yang. 

• Daoist concepts of Ziran (自然, spontaneity) and Wu-Wei (无为, effortless action) – reminding us to align with the natural flow of life, minimizing coercion and domination (a model for interacting with one another and the environment). 

• Buddhist interdependence (缘起) – reminding us that all phenomena arise mutually and come into being through dependent co-origination. 

• Confucian virtues of Li (礼, ritual/propriety) and Ren (仁, benevolence) – reminding us of the importance of moral cultivation, relational ethics, and responsibility within networks of community. 

​So, how can these traditional cultural insights connect to the demands of modern science, governance, and global crises? Here, I propose that Alfred North Whitehead’s process philosophy might serve as a powerful bridge.  
 
A Whiteheadian Bridge for China’s Second Integration 

Alfred North Whitehead (1861–1947), mathematician turned philosopher, sought to overcome the mechanistic assumptions of modernity. His process philosophy offers three major transitions: 

• From Being to Becoming – Reality is not composed of static substances but of processes and events. All things flow. 
• From Independence to Interdependence – Every entity exists in relation; nothing is wholly self-contained. All things are interconnected. 
• From Objects to Subjects – Value is intrinsic to existence; every event has its own perspective and contributes to the creative advance. All things matter. 

Behind these three transitions is one fundamental paradigm shift: from mechanism (the world is dead) to organism (the world is alive!). Whitehead’s constructive postmodern vision resonates profoundly with Chinese classics: the flowing transformations of the Yijing, the Daoist celebration of natural harmony, and Confucian emphasis on relational order. This affinity with Chinese thought, coupled with the fact that Whitehead’s philosophy was developed in the early twentieth century in close dialogue with Western modernity and science, uniquely positions process thought as a possible bridge between ancient Chinese wisdom and modern scientific sensibilities. For example: 

• Biology → The cell is not a machine or a "bag of enzymes" but a self-organizing unity, shaping its future through relations. 

• Ecology → Ecosystems are not collections of species but interdependent webs, where balance and resilience emerge from patterns of cooperation and flow. 

• Society→ Societies are not just a collection of separate individuals, but that to be a person is to be a person-in-community. 

 
Applications: From Biology to Civilization 

Where does this bridge take us? Instead of viewing reality as composed of things/objects, we could say reality is made up of events/relations. Rather than saying the universe is a deterministic machine, we could say the universe is an emergent process. Nature is not inert (dead) matter-in-motion, but alive and experiencing intrinsic value. Humans are no longer conceived as separate from nature, but as part of nature and dependent upon the health of a living Earth.  

All this would have significant implications for how we modernize. What would it look like if cities, schools, governments, economies were organized according to these principles? 

Rather than economies driven purely by the goal of GDP growth, treating nature is an externality (using life to make money), we could have economies that prioritize overall wellbeing, and operate within our planetary boundaries (using money to support life).  

Rather than having education systems where schools are designed like factories, students are products (or as consumers of fragmented disciplinary knowledge), and success is measured by scores on standardized tests; we could design schools as gardens, where students are alive, nurtured by integral and whole person education, and where success measured by a student's ability to apply knowledge to real world issues. 

Rather than having social structures that emphasize independent individuals as primary, we could recognize that we’re all interdependent individuals-in-community. And that each community exists as a community of communities, of communities (and so on).  

Perhaps most importantly, we could transition away from “us vs them” isolationism which too often results in war between nations, and move toward modes of cooperation, built on the principle of interconnection, in pursuit of peace. 

This is a glimpse at the kind of world we could build on the foundations of Chinese tradition and process philosophy, and I’d call it an ecological civilization. 
 
Summary 

Western modernization is failing. A new model is needed. A new model of modernization must emerge with a new worldview. This is the beauty of President Xi Jinping’s idea of a “Second Integration”--weaving China’s excellent traditional culture together with modernization--for a Chinese-style modernization.x Ancient Chinese wisdom provides a framing that fundamentally contrast the core assumptions of Western modernity, guided by the principles of harmony, transformation, and interdependence. But how to bridge the ancient with the future?

Here, I think Whitehead's process philosophy can help, since it resonates so well with Chinese thought, but was developed in the 20th century in response to the modern worldview and directly engages modern scientific notions.  

My hope is that together, process philosophy and traditional Chinese thought can help to ground China's transition toward ecological civilization. And as a result, China might lead the world toward a future where humans live in harmony with each other, with nature, and with the creative advance of the universe itself.  
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The Iceberg Analogy
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​The Whiteheadian Reframing
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