今天，作为本次会议的资助单位之一，我非常高兴参加由南京大学历史系召开的"人类历史上的对抗、冲突与化解"学术研讨会。我谨代表爱德基金会对各位代表的到来表示热烈的欢迎。

    著名意大利哲学家托玛斯·阿奎那（Thomas Aquinas）有句名言："人是社会的政治的动物"。人作为社会人，生活在家庭、团体和社会之中，从维护自己的利益出发，难免引发人与人之间、家庭与家庭之间、民族与民族之间的矛盾对抗、冲突，甚至伤害、仇恨。

    我们回顾人类历史的时候，我们发现历史充满了这样的冲突悲剧。 且不说远的，发生在20世纪30-40年代第二次世界大战夺走了成千上万人的生命，其中中日两国人民深受军国主义之害，相互交战，互生仇恨，而且这样的情绪还在令人不安地继续下去。进入上世纪末和本世纪初，世界上发生了卢旺达的种族清洗，科索沃的宗教冲突，巴以民族冲突，更有911恐怖袭击和伊拉克战争。

    就中国本身而言，自20世纪70年代改革开放以来，中国的经济增长和社会发展取得了令人瞩目的成就，同时中国的社会结构也发生了深刻而急剧的变化，应该说，中国仍然处在两个历史性的转变过程之中，即从农村农业社会向城市工业化社会转变和从计划经济向市场经济转变。这样的一个过程产生了新的不同的利益群体，从而产生了不同的利益诉求，同时埋下了对抗、冲突的潜在种子。从世界和中国历史来看，这样的研究就显得特别重要，在我们探讨构建和谐社会的时候具有特别的现实意义。

    就冲突和宽恕而言，中国文化似乎是个矛盾体，我们不妨略举几个有关冲突和宽恕的词汇。 我们"有冤报冤，有仇报仇"、"血债血还"、"此仇不报，誓不为人"、"君子报仇，十年不晚"，<<水浒>>中的武松一直被后世传为复仇的英雄，而忘记了他还是一个"滥杀无辜"的"杀人犯"。传统文化中，中国也有"以德报怨"、"和为贵"、"相逢一笑泯恩仇"等，在这样的矛盾体中，我想两者之间更需要的是宽恕和和解。

    爱德基金会是一个由中国基督徒发起成立、社会各界人士参与的从事扶贫发展的民间团体，旨在促进中国的教育、医疗卫生、社会福利和农村发展的工作。爱德的宗旨是：在信仰互相尊重的原则下共同献策出力，开展同海外的友好交往，发展我国的社会公益事业，促进社会发展，服务社会、造福人群，维护世界和平。爱德基金会的目标是：1）为我国的社会发展和对外开放做出贡献；2）使我国各界人民更广泛地了解中国基督徒的积极贡献；3）为增进世界各国人民的友好往来和资源分享沟通渠道。我们的项目工作是帮助基层老百姓满足最基本的生活和生产需要，爱德的项目遍布大陆地区的31个省份。如果套用本次会议的主题，我们的实际项目工作就是一个促进社会和解和谐的工作，通过我们的工作，我们试图缩小东西部地区人民生活的差距和城乡差别，促进基督徒和非基督徒之间的了解，增进中国人民和世界人民之间的友谊和了解。

    中国政府去年提出了构建和谐社会的目标，即假设一个"民主法治、公平正义、诚信友爱、充满活力、安定有序、人与自然和谐相处的社会"。我们爱德愿意与在座的各位学者及社会各界人士一起，携手共进，为建设这样一个和谐社会做出我们的一份贡献。

    最后祝本次研讨会取得圆满成功。
 
Honorable Vice President Zhang,
Honorable Vice Mayor
Dear friends,
Ladies and Gentlemen,

Good Morning! As one of the sponsors for this seminar, I feel extremely honoured to be here and attend this seminar on "Confrontation, Conflict and Reconciliation in Human History" hosted by Department of History of Nanjing University. First of all, I, on behalf of the Amity Foundation, would like to extend our hearty warm welcome to all the participants of this conference.

Thoma Aquina, the famous Italian philosopher once said, "Human being is a social and political animal." Rightly, as a social being, we human beings live in families, among social groups and at large in society. In order to safeguard his or her own interests, it is not avoidable to have confrontation, conflict, or even hurt and hatred between peoples, families and ethnicities.

When we look back at our human history, we found that history is ridden with these confrontations and conflicts. We don't have to date back too far. The Second World War in the 30s and 40s of the 20th century claimed millions of people's lives. The Chinese people and Japanese people were particularly the victims of the Japanese militarism, which led to the war and hatred between our two peoples. I am worried that that enmity or unfriendly feelings, to say the least, is somewhat still simmering among both nations. At the juncture of the 20th and 21st centuries, we witnessed the ethnic cleansing in Rwanda, the religious conflicts in Kosovo, the long-standing antagonism between Israel and Palestine and September 11 terrorist attach and the Iraqi war.
 
In terms of the situation in China, the Chinese economy and social development have made tremendous progress since China institutionalized the opening-up and reform policy in late 70s of 20th century. This policy has resulted in profound changes in Chinese social structures. It is fair to say that China is still caught in the two historic transitions: One is from a rural agriculture society to an urban industrial one; the other is from a planned economy to a market one. This has led to the birth of different interest groups, which may plant the seeds of potential confrontation and conflict. Both the world history and Chinese make this subject of study and discussion particularly important for scholars and as well as people at large at home and abroad.

It seems that the Chinese culture is a paradox when it comes to the concepts of conflict or enmity and forgiveness. Let's go through some of the idioms or catch phrases related to these two concepts in Chinese language. We often hear the following when one talks about taking revenge or hatred: "blood for blood", "never too late for a gentleman to take revenge or avenge in ten years". Wu Song, the character from the Outlaws of the Marsh, has been and still is being remembered as a hero for taking revenge while many of us neglected the fact he was also a murderer or homicide for he killed another 12 people. However, we also hear the following phrases for reconciliation:  

The Amity Foundation, an independent Chinese voluntary organization, was created in 1985 on the initiative of Chinese Christians to promote education, social services, health, and rural development in China. We believe that the basic principle and foundation of the universe is love. Our objective is: Abiding by the principle of mutual respect in faith, Amity builds friendship with people at home and abroad. Through the promotion of holistic development and public welfare, Amity serves society, benefits the people, and strives to promote world peace.

Amity's goals are: 1) Contributes to China's social development and openness to the outside world; 2) Makes Christian involvement and participation in meeting the needs of society more widely known to the Chinese people; 3) Serves as a channel for people-to-people contact and the ecumenical sharing of resources. We are now operating project in 31 provinces on Mainland China.

Our practical project is perfectly in line with the topic of this seminar. Through our project work, Amity is making conciliation between people in the eastern coastal and western hinterland areas. Amity is making reconciliation between people in urban and rural areas. Amity is making reconciliation between Christians and non-Christians. Ultimately, Amity is making reconciliation between Chinese people and peoples in the other parts of the world.

The Chinese government called to build up a harmonious society, which will feature democracy, the rule of law, equity, justice, sincerity, amity and vitality. I am confident that this seminar has its practical implications and will have a far-reaching consequence. Amity is willing to make concerted efforts with all the stakeholders to contribute our small part towards that end.

Finally, I wish every success to this seminar