A Great Intellectual Current Worthy of National Pride: The Rise of the Intellectual Current of Taking Humanity as the Foundation in the Spring and Autumn and Warring States Periods, and Its Historical Significance

Abstract

In the European Renaissance, from the fourteenth to the sixteenth century, there emerged an intellectual current for which the peoples of Europe held a deep sense of national pride, namely, the current of humanistic (renwen zhuyi) thought. Accompanying this current, there arose a group of great writers and artists, such as Dante, Petrarch, Boccaccio, Da Vinci, Raphael, Titian, Michelangelo, Montaigne, and Shakespeare, all celebrities in the history of world culture, beloved of people throughout the world, who placed their influence on the world in a longlasting and profound way. The emergence of this intellectual current not only strengthened the national confidence and pride of people throughout Europe, but also greatly enriched the cultural treasury of the entire world.