On the morning of September 15, 2018, the opening ceremony of Jixia Academy and Plato’s Academy --- China-Greece Classical Civilizations Summit Forum was held at the Qi Cultural Museum of Linzi District, Zibo City. This forum was a splendid dialogue between Eastern and Western classical civilizations. More than 30 experts and scholars from home and abroad gathered in Linzi, the old capital of Qi state, to conduct high-end discussions on Jixia Academy and Plato’s Academy and their related academic issues of Sino-Greek classical civilizations.
The opening ceremony was attended by LYU Chuanyi, Secretary of the Party Committee of SDUT, WANG Zhimin, former Vice president of Shandong CPPCC, President of Qi Culture Research Institute of SDUT, BI Rongqing, member of Standing Committee of Zibo Municipal CPC and head of Publicity Department, XU Wenguang, Director of Science and Technology Department of Shandong Education Department, SONG Zhenbo, Secretary of Linzi District CPC Committee, Eleni Karamalengou, Dean of School of Philosophy of National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, and Cao Feng, Professor of School of Philosophy of Renmin University of China and the Yangtze River scholar. The opening ceremony was also attended by the heads of SDUT Party Committee (President) Office, the Publicity Department of SDUT Party Committee, the Social Sciences Department and the International Cooperation and Exchange Department. The opening ceremony was hosted by ZHA Yuxi, member of the Standing Committee of the Party Committee of SDUT and Vice President.
SONG Zhenbo first gave a welcome speech. He pointed out that Jixia Academy and Plato's Academy, the earliest institutions of higher education in the world, appeared at the same time in the East and West of the world, and became the centers of the integrative development of various thoughts and academic creations, which had contributed to the light of wisdom of human civilizations. Jixia Academy and Plato's Academy were not only the historical imprints of the two cities of Linzi and Athens, but also they were important sources for maintaining the city memory, cultivating their culture, and nourishing civilization. They had been becoming the common wealth of the whole world.
LYU Chuanyi pointed out that Jixia Academy as the earliest university in the East of the world and Plato's Academy as the earliest university in the West of the world were the ideological and academic cultural centers that had integrated higher education and academic research. They drew their own historical and cultural nutrition, playing an important leading role on the process of the consultation and discussion of politics, cultivating talents, impart knowledge, and writing books and putting forward thoughts. Besides, they had left valuable treasures for reference and learning in the freedom of academy, the respect for teachers and truth, the integration of teaching and learning and the autonomy of universities. Today, experts and scholars from Greece gathered in Zibo to participate in this academic event. They conducted high-level dialogues and discussions and carried out academic exchanges on Chinese and Greek classical civilizations respectively represented by Jixia Academy in China and Plato's Academy in Greece. This forum would surely become a great event in the history of the development of world civilization, a happy event in the cultural exchange between China and Greece and a major event in the constructive development of University of Athens and Shandong University of Technology.
Eleni Karamalengou (Dean of School of Philosophy of University of Athens), CAO Feng (representative of experts and scholars, vice president and secretary general of the Huaxia Laozi Association, special professor of the Ministry of Education as Changjiang scholar, and professor of Renin University of China, and XU Wenguang (director of the Science and Technology Department of Shandong Provincial Department of Education), delivered speeches respectively. The staff read a congratulatory letter from the International Confucianism Confederation.
BI Rongqing congratulated on the meeting and welcomed leaders and guests in her speech. She pointed out that Qi culture was an important source of Chinese culture and provided rich ideological nutrition for governance. This forum was of great significance to promote the study of classical civilization and the construction of modern culture.
From the ending of opening ceremony to the morning of 16th, 2018, an academic seminar had been conducting. The experts and scholars at the meeting expressed and expounded their views respectively on Jixia Academy and the Plato’s Academy, the China-Greek Classical Civilizations in the axis era and the subjects of their comparative studies.
This forum was co-hosted by Shandong University of Technology, Athens university and Zibo Municipal People's Government, and Co-organized by the Publicity Department of Zibo Municipal Party Committee, Linzi District People's Government, School of Philosophy, University of Athens, Qi Culture Research Institute of Shandong University of Technology, and Shandong Qi Cultural Inheritance and Demonstration Zone Construction Collaborative Innovation Center.