Keynote speech by Ven.Huang Xinyang, Deputy Secretary-General, Vice President of China Taoist Association at International Symposium on Northeast Asian Peace in 2013

Common Development for a Happy Life and Lasting Peace

Dear friends,

I feel so happy to attend the meeting in Japan as a delegate of the CCRP. I thank KCRP and WCRP Japan for their invitation and thoughtful arrangements.

The topic for today is peace and development from the perspective of life, and I think this is a good point, because life is the foundation of all, and treasuring of life is the highest human virtue. As a Western saying goes, life is above all else. Treasuring of life is also at the core of traditional Chinese culture. Chinese Taoist teachings regard treasuring of life as one of the most important doctrines, and its Scripture of Delivering People begins with "Immortal way means treasuring your life, and immeasurably saving people." Chinese Buddhism regards "compassion and treating life well" as the main doctrine. According to the Book of Changes dating back thousands of years, "The great virtue of universe is life." It is an important immutable creed since ancient times to uphold people-oriented notion of treasuring human life. This is the basic idea jointly pursued in Eastern and Western civilizations and a golden rule that peoples of different nationalities, different countries and regions always abide by.

Chinese people treasure life, and also emphasize harmony. According to Laozi' Daodejing, "Knowing harmony is to understand the always-so, and knowing the always-so is to be illumined." Development should be harmonious, peaceful and cooperative. Sustainable development is not selfish interest, gaining at the expense of others, or I win you lose, whether within a country or between countries. We hope that our life is getting better and better, and someone else's life is getting better and better also. Especially in today's world, with the unprecedented breadth and depth of converging interests between countries, zero-sum confrontation will lead nowhere, while win-win cooperation is the right way. China, Japan and Korea are all Pacific countries. Open your mind like the Pacific, there will be space for development as wide as the Pacific, and you will make the Pacific more peaceful.

We Chinese have a saying: Look into history and we know the rise and fall. China, Japan and Korea enjoy a geographical proximity, cultural similarity, economic complementarity, and a long history of friendly exchanges. Japan sent its envoys to the Sui and Tang Dynasties, and China had a monk Jian Zhen who went to Japan. China's Taoism spread to the Silla Dynasty in the 9th century. We three peoples have learned from each other, interacting with each other, and promoted the development and progress of their respective countries, enriched the East Asian and the world civilization. But in modern times, the East Asian region has experienced an unfortunate history. The wars of aggression launched by fascism and militarism wreaked havoc to peace and development. Some of the aftermath of wars has cast a shadow on regional peace and development. "History is the echo of the past spread in the future, is a reflection of the past by the future." History and reality are difficult to separate. It is essential to East Asian and the world peace and development to uphold the correct view of history, the correct concept of development, and the correct concept of security.

China, Japan and Korea are neighbors. It is closely related with the three peoples' interests for the three countries to maintain mutually beneficial cooperation, keeping the neighbors as partners and being good to the neighbors. Not only should politicians take this seriously, the community should also be concerned about it, including our religious leaders, who should play an active role.

I still remember two of our predecessors; one is the originator of CCRP and the first president Zhao Puchu, another one an old friend of CCRP and one of the founders of WCRP, the Japanese Rissho Kosei-kai's former president, Niwano Nikkyō. They made unremitting efforts and positive contributions to promoting the religious, friendly exchanges between Japan and China, between the two peoples and promoting regional and world peace. They also established a profound personal friendship. Their spirit is what we can learn and develop. In 1985, Zhao said when accepting Niwano Peace Prize, "I consider this award as the collective honors of our religious circles, and also as a symbol of growing Sino-Japanese friendship and cooperation between the two peoples."

CCRP as a Chinese national organization of religion and peace will take "promoting harmony and peace" as an important job of the Organization. Internally, CCRP members participate actively in the work to promote economic and social development and build a harmonious society. Chinese religious circles are to explore in depth the positive factors of our religious classics and teachings, to explain correct faith and conduct, guiding people to love life, be patriotic and law-abiding, to comply with social ethics, be friendly to people, to pursue a good life with self-esteem, calm and rational, tolerant, positive attitude. Chinese religious circles actively carry out charitable activities, social services, to save the world instead of themselves. According to incomplete statistics, in the past five years China's religious philanthropy invested approximately $ 500 million in cumulative donations. For example, the China Taoist Association has organized annual charity concerts of Taoism, charity sale of paintings and other activities every year. CCRP has initiated praying for world peace, which has become the conscious action of Chinese religious circles. Externally, CCRP as a member of ACRP and WCRP supports the ACRP and WCRP in fulfillment of their purposes, and actively participates in activities of the two organizations. CCRP also conducts friendly exchanges with Conference of Religions for Peace of other countries, such as Korea, the United States, Canada, Russia, France, Belgium, Germany, Italy, to promote understanding among the different countries and different civilizations, practice concept of equality, trust, tolerance and mutual learning, and win-win cooperation.

A better and happy life is a common aspiration of mankind, which cannot be separated from peace and development. Chinese people have unforgettable memories of suffering in war, poverty and backwardness, a tireless aspiration to peace and development and cherish our life of peace and stability. Chinese people love the road of peaceful development, and hope other countries will take the road of peaceful development. Only when everyone takes the road of peaceful development can all countries develop jointly, coexist peacefully, to provide a solid guarantee for the people of the region to achieve a better life together.

With history as a mirror and facing the future, we will inherit and carry forward the fine tradition of friendly exchanges between the peoples of the region, and promote the cause of peace and development to move forward. This should become the common goal and common action of East Asian countries. The social community at large should vigorously promote the concept of peaceful development. So CCRP has repeatedly stressed the importance of peace education, which involves both our religious beliefs and our social obligations, what the religious circles can do. CCRP deems it very important to strengthen dialogues and exchanges for the promotion of peace. Exchanges should be based on the spirit of mutual respect, equality and win-win cooperation. Not long ago, a Japanese scholar published an article in the newspaper, "Friendship is built up through numerous face-to-face contacts and exchanges, and each such interaction has made their tiny but valuable contribution." Today, we gather here to discuss peace and development in East Asia. I think, isn't it just a very useful thing?

Thank you.