"Harmony" and "Sameness" are generally regarded as different concepts in traditional Chinese thinking. There was even "a debate on the difference between Harmony and Sameness". As a story recorded in Zuo-zhuan told us, once the Duke of Qi asked Yan-zi: "Is there only Ju get on with me in harmony?" The reply of Yan-zi was: "Ju merely expresses the same opinion with Your Highness, -- how could it be called harmony?" "Is there any difference between Harmony and Sameness?" asked the Duke. "They are quite different." replied Yan-zi, "Harmony is like well-cooked dish, you must concoct fish and meat with water, fire, vinegar, sauce, salt and plum, and then cook the dish with firewood. The cook harmonizes these flavors to make it moderate. If it is too light, then salt should be added; if too salty, then water. When Junzi dines with such a dish, his heart would be pacified. This is analogous to the relationship between the King and his magistrates... But Ju is different from it. When Your Highness say that something is right, he agrees; when Your Highness say the opposite, he agrees as well. It is as if to moderate water with water, -- who could tolerate to eat such a dish? Or as if a zither always plays the same tune, -- who could tolerate to enjoy such music? This is why Sameness differs from Harmony." (《左傳•昭公二十年》) Another saying of Shibo (史伯) was recorded as: "In fact, only Harmony could activate the growth of lives, and Sameness would stop it on the contrary. Harmony is to moderate something with heterogeneous things, -- only in this way, the lives would flourish and find their belongings. If something is supplemented by homogeneous things, it could only be abandoned after exhausted. Thus the ancient virtuous emperors had concocted Earth with Metal, Wood, Water and Fire[30], to transform it into miscellaneous lives." [31](《國語•鄭語》). From the quotes above we see that Harmony and Sameness are totally different concepts. Only under the presupposition of difference and correlation could things "be moderated with heterogeneity", and the diverse things progress together in harmony with each other. "To supplement something with homogeneity" is to aggregate the sameness, which would only suffocate the lives. The supreme ideal of traditional Chinese culture is that "miscellaneous lives are nourished together without harming each other; miscellaneous ways are practiced together without counteracting each other."[32] The "miscellaneous lives" and "miscellaneous ways" mean Diversity; the "without harming each other" and "without counteracting each other" mean Harmony. This doctrine would provide us with inexhaustible resource of thinking for the coexistence of diverse cultures.

　　Now in Western countries, people of insight have already admitted the possibility of coexistence of civilizations, that the clash or war provoked by mere cultural differences should be avoided. They believe that different nations and states should be able to achieve common understanding through cultural exchanges, dialogues, and discussions. This would be a process from "Diversity" to mutual understanding. This mutual understanding is neither to extinct nor to assimilate the other, but to find a crossing point in the coordinate system and to propel the progress of both cultures, -- such is the function of "Harmony". It is just because of the differences of cultures that human civilization has become so colorful, and that the inter-supplementary and interactive structure has been formed gradually in the flowing river of human history. Cultural differences might lead to clashes or even wars, but not all differences are destined to cause clashes or wars. Especially in an era when sciences and technologies are rapidly developing, a massive war, if it happened, would destroy human being ourselves. Thus we must endeavor to pursue the harmonious coexistence through intercultural dialogues. Many scholars in China and abroad has realized now the importance of mutual understanding achieved by the dialogues bridging different cultures; for example, Habermas, who begins to emphasize the concepts of justice and solidarity. In my opinion, they are significant principles in dealing with international cultural relationships. Habermas' "Principle of Justice" could be understood as a right for every national culture to protect its independence and autonomy and to develop by free will; his "Principle of Solidarity" could be understood as an obligation to sympathize, understand and respect other national cultures. By incessant dialogues and communications, there will be one day, sooner or later, that a positive cycle of interactions between different national cultures be formed.[33] Another example is Gadamer, the German philosopher who left us only recently. He proposed that "understanding" should be extended to "universal dialogue". Because of this extension, the relationship between subject and object (as cognitive or grammatical concepts) is able to be transformed from inequality to equality; in another word, only when the dialogists are in equal status could they have meaningful dialogues and fruitful results. Gadarmer's consciousness of equality between subject and object and his theory of "cultural dialogue" are important ideas earnestly needed by our time,[34] illuminating enough for us to understand properly and thoroughly the cultural or national relationships between China and other nations. However, no matter Habermas' principles of justice and solidarity or Gadamer's theory of universal dialogue, their common presupposition should be the principle of "Diverse Harmony", since, only when nations and states in different cultural traditions could coexist in harmony through dialogues, could they acquire equal rights and obligations and could the "universal dialogue" between them be meaningful and fruitful. Thus, the Confucian principle of "Harmony in Diversity" based on the belief that "harmony is most valuable"[35] could be practiced as one of the basic principles in dealing with intercultural relationships. This principle, if practiced in dealing with relationships between states and nations in different cultural traditions, would be of positive meaning not only in eliminating the disaccords, conflicts and even wars, but as dynamics in propelling states and nations to progress through communications. It is just in this sense that Bertrand Russell said: "Contacts between different civilizations have often in the past proved to be landmarks in human progress."[36] The contemporary human society needs different cultures to develop their proper traditional characters through mutual learning and convergence, in order to realize the coexistence of civilizations on a new basis.