This book reveals the development and trace of the Chinese values from traditional society up to now. It focus on the present values of modern Chinese people, and discusses the content of Chinese values in political, economic, cultural and social life. In this book, the author explains the core values of Chinese, especially their values on life, harmony, ritual, justice, intelligence, progress, beauty, and hereby reveals the spirituality and belief of modern Chinese.

What are values? What is the use of values? What is the relationship between values and me? What are the values of the Chinese like? And what are the contents of values? All these questions may flash into the readers’ minds at their first sight of this book. But，with a little understanding of the purport and scope of this book，the reason why the Chinese have that kind of values perhaps will be the question that readers are most interested in before and in their reading of this book. As a matter of fact，the discussion of the issue about values is ften regarded as a very serious academic topic or theoretical matter. And，when people discuss values，they usually interpret them through some abstract theories that make people feel very abstruse but still can not get rid of the fuzzy sense. Thus，the first impression of the word“values” left in people’s mind is“vague and elusive”. As a result，as regards such a topic about values，people tend to be reticent on it and avoid mentioning it. Even if talking about it，they often can not grasp its true meaning，or only touch on its superficial meaning like a dragonfly skimming the surface of the water. Nevertheless，in the scope of the knowledge of most people，or the scope seen or heard by them，there are still some works that talk about the values of the Chinese. Although these works do not mention them directly，values have permeated in their contents. Most of them are literary and historical works with light and easy style，which may inspire the readers and make them learn something，and this，is a common way to write about values. Such works are mostly derived from the authors’ experiences，which are able to stand up to the test of their readers，and deserve the careful reflection in thought，the slow approaching in feeling，or the gradual closing in mind. There is quite a lot of such kind of works，even only counting those works that are still popular in recent years，and it is easy to give some examples: The Spirit of the Chinese People by Gu Hongming， My Country and My People by Lin Yutang， The Character of the Chinese People by Luo Jialun，A Survey of the Chinese People by Bo Yang，etc. However，this book you are reading is different from the above works，and in fact，the difference is precisely where the main idea of this book is，which，in a nutshell，is manifested in the following three aspects:
First， the difference in the direct title. Obviously，the theme of The Values of the Chinese is to deal with the values. As we know, values are different from the culture or the cultural personality，or even the personality spirit. They are standards，the core of culture, as well as the kernel of human spirit，and they are not neutral，but capable of making choices and judgments. Any kind of values embodies its value as well as the judgment of its value. However，value judgment is a very complex activity，which is related with people themselves，conditions people live in and the emotion，knowledge，quality and character of them. Since values permeate and manifest themselves in all aspects of people’s life，production，study，work and contacts，it is hard to write about them，for which the very reason is that values exist everywhere at any time，in every person and every thing. For this reason，the works with the title of values that we usually see are either attributed to being too academic or too common. As for the former，the public may be unwilling to read or unable to understand it; while as for the latter，the public may find it hard to draw impressive and intuitive conclusions owing to its vacuous ontents and spirit. Thus，obviously it is quite difficult to take a middle road between the two styles so as to organically combine academic study and common life. Despite this，I am willing to make some attempts to directly use values to title this book and transform some abstract and theoretical academic points of view into common and aceptable popular knowledge. Of course，this is the wish of the author，as for what the effec

Chapter One A General Discussion and Evaluation of the Values of the Chinese
1.The Values and Their Appearance
2.The Manifestations of the Values of the Chinese
3.The Western Evaluation of the Values of the Chinese
4.New Changes in the Values of the Contemporary Chinese

Chapter Two The Endless Survival Values
1.The Traditional View of Fate of the Chinese
2.The Modern View of Life of the Chinese
3.The Survival Values of the Chinese
4.The View of Lifelong Learning of the Chinese

Chapter Three The State Supremacy Political Values
1.Cultivating the People，Regulating the Family，Governing and Pacifying the Country
2.Patriotism and Internationalism
3.A View of State Governance by the Use of Both Law and Morality
4.A View of International Association Advocating Equality，Peace and Harmony

Chapter Four The Beneficial Economic Values
1.Have the Chinese People Become Economic Animals?
2.A Gentleman Fond of Wealth Will Gain It in the Proper Way
3.A View of Efficiency and Fairness in the Distribution of Interests
4.A View of Civilized and Harmonious Ecological Resources

Chapter Five The Diverse and Inclusive Cultural Values

1.A View of Harmonious But not Uniform Cultural Relations
2.A View of Incongruous and Diverse Cultural Beliefs
3.A View of Cultural Utilization Through Learning from Others
4.A View of Harmonious，Happy and Shared Cultural Home

Chapter Six The Civilized and Progressive Social Values
1.A View of Social Collective of Respecting Work and Being Gregarious
2.A View of Free and Equal Social Democracy
3.A View of Healthy and Positive Social Morality
4.A View of Coordinated and Progressive Social Stability

Dr. Yuwen Li，PhD advisor，director of Institute of Ideological and Political Education，chair of Institute of Civic Education，research fellow and director assistant of Center for Socialist Theory Studies，Peking University. He is also members of China Hominology Society，China Youth & Children Research Association，China Film Inspection Committee. He has been the primary researcher of several National Social Science Fund Projects and has won national prize for chairing projects by Ministry of Education of the PRC. His main works: The Contemporary Development of Chinese Ethos (2007)，A Reader of Chinese Ethos(2008), Modern Curriculum Theory of Ideological and Political Education(2012).