Xi Focus-Closeup: Dialogue on ancient civilizations

BEIJING -- One November morning in 2019, Prokopis Pavlopoulos, then president of Greece, accompanied his guests -- Chinese President Xi Jinping and his wife Peng Liyuan -- and took a tour of the sun-lit Acropolis Museum, Athens.

They talked about not only the exhibits at the museum -- artifacts found on the archaeological site of the Acropolis -- but also the ancient Greek civilization behind them, as well as its many resemblances to the distant Chinese civilizations thousands of miles away.

They stood before the "Mourning Athena," a basso-relievo dated circa 460 B.C. -- one of the most famous sculptures in the museum.

"Athena is resting and contemplating after fighting a war," Pavlopoulos explained. The piece, though small, is very significant, he said.

"She is reflecting on what exactly war means," said Xi, quoting the Chinese idiom "Zhi Ge Wei Wu," which means that boldness lies in the suspension of hostility. The Chinese leader's comments were appreciated by his Greek counterpart.

During that tour, Xi showed an interest in many of the museum's exhibits. He listened attentively to the explanations, stopping from time to time and asking questions.

At the end of the visit, Dimitrios Pandermalis, president of the Acropolis Museum, presented Xi with a replica of the Athena relief as a gift, and Xi expressed his thanks.

"It is with great respect for civilizations and high expectations for a bright future that I will once again visit this beautiful country, something I very much look forward to," Xi wrote in a signed article that was published in a Greek newspaper ahead of his state visit to that European country.

During his visit to the Acropolis Museum, Xi said the tour had left a beautiful and memorable impression on him, deepening his understanding of ancient Greek civilization. He said he felt the impact of history and further realized that China and Greece, as two ancient civilizations, have much in common.

In his signed newspaper article, Xi also noted a resonance between humanism, which traces its origins to the Sophists of ancient Greece, and the Confucian teaching that "people are the roots of a country."

The conversation before the "Mourning Athena" seemed to be a continuation of a previous dialogue one day earlier, when Xi told Pavlopoulos that, since ancient times, the Chinese people have believed in such values as "don't do unto others what you don't want others do unto you" and "the world is for the public," as well as the "harmonious and peaceful co-existence of various nations."

Xi firmly believes that different civilizations need to engage in dialogue and exchanges on an equal footing to facilitate mutual learning. "Long-term self-isolation will cause a civilization to decline, while exchanges and mutual learning will sustain its development," he once said.

What is more, he is committed to efforts to "let wisdom of ancient civilizations shine through the future," a sentiment reflected in the title of his signed article.

Reflecting on the museum tour, Xi said that the Chinese and Greek sides had reviewed the past together, learnt from the past and looked toward the future, noting that both sides decided to work more closely with each other to open up a better future.

In particular, he said, the two sides should strengthen people-to-people exchanges, advocate dialogue among civilizations and make contributions to promoting inclusiveness, mutual learning and harmonious co-existence among different civilizations and countries, boosting world peace and prosperity and building a community with a shared future for mankind.