Dismantling vs. Preserving the Civilizational Skeleton A Comparative Study of the Republic of China's Cultural Rebellion and Israel's Persistence Based on the Five Religious Domains Model

【Abstract】This study employs the "Five Religious Domains" model to analyze the radical divergence between the abandonment of tradition by intellectuals during the Republic of China (ROC) era and the persistent attachment to the ancestral homeland by the Jewish people throughout two millennia of exile. The research finds that the ROC era (represented by the KMT leadership and May Fourth elites) responded to the "backlash" of modernity by dismantling the foundational Sacred Axioms (Domain I) and castrating Private Wisdom (Domain V), leading to an "evisceration of the civilizational skeleton." Conversely, Israel maintained civilizational continuity by shielding non-territorial Sacred Axioms through rigorous "Collective Apologetics." The thesis posits a novel conclusion: the hyper-instrumentalization and politicization of tradition by the KMT acted as the primary architect of China’s cultural rupture.________________________________________【Core Chapter Framework】I. Civilizational Resilience under the Five Religious Domains1. The Stabilizing Function of Domain I (Primordial/Sacred Axioms): Analyzing how foundational axioms serve as the "cognitive anchor" of a nation.2. The Restorative Function of Domain V (Private Apologetics/The Rebel): Exploring how the awakening of subjectivity heals the civilizational trauma caused by "staring at the Truth."II. The "Cognitive Zeroing" and Skeletal Collapse of the Republic of China1. The Radical Abandonment of Domain I: Elites of the ROC era mistakenly identified "Sacred Axioms" as obstacles to scientific progress, attempting to import "Scientific Branches" into a rootless void.2. The KMT’s "Zombified Reconstruction":• Evisceration: Retaining the "Power Skeleton" of Confucianism (Domain IV) while extracting its intrinsic "Mandate of Heaven" wisdom.• Instrumentalization: The "New Life Movement" as a case study in reducing tradition to mere behavioral codes, thereby losing the protection of the Observer (Xinxue).3. Conclusion: In the pursuit of progress, the ROC era discarded the "medicine" (traditional wisdom) for healing backlash as if it were a "virus," leaving the national soul "spiritually naked" before modernity.III. The Persistence of Israel: Two Millennia of Cognitive Defense1. Non-Territorial Domain I Axioms: The Jewish civilization proves that as long as the "Axiom (Torah/Law)" survives, the civilization retains the capacity to reboot, even without land (Domain III: Material Space).2. Socialized "Apologetics": Utilizing systems like the Talmud to transform wisdom from an untransferable "Father-to-Son" intuition into a "Collective Logical Exercise," thereby solving the paradox of wisdom's transmission.3. Absorption of Science: Jewish scientists (e.g., Einstein) possessed a profound "Domain I" foundation, granting them superior psychological resilience when facing scientific paradoxes.IV. Comparative Reflection: Why the ROC Could Not Become a "Restored" Israel1. Attitudes Toward Tradition: The ROC employed "surgical excision," whereas Israel practiced "ecosystemic migration."2. The Verdict of the "Culpable Party": Arguing how the KMT, through its logic of "Instrumentalized" and "Pseudo-Tradition," became the substantive force behind the destruction of the living soul of Chinese culture.3. Inference from Results: A civilization lacking "Observer Subjectivity" will inevitably be absorbed by the "State-Divine Machine," regardless of its scientific tools.________________________________________【Closing Statement】Through the lens of the five-domain model, civilizational survival is shown to depend not on the preservation of form, but on the tension between "Sacred Axioms" and "Private Wisdom." The failure of the ROC era lay in the dual loss of both; the miracle of Israel lay in the fact that even in two thousand years of exile, its "Observer" never ceased the dialogue with "Truth."