启蒙的真谛原文：
[1] “启蒙”的本义是开启蒙昧，识字读书，明白事理。在中国古代，人们从小要接受“蒙学”，才能成为有教养的人，否则就是“教化未开”。据说，早年被启蒙到了什么程度，决定其日后可达到的智力高度。
[2] 同样，人类社会从传统向现代转型的过程，也与启蒙相伴随；没有启蒙就没有现代化。
[3] 然而，作为现代话语的“启蒙”，却源自于近代西方。在人类历史上，近代启蒙思想和启蒙运动首发于17世纪后期的英国，后传播到法国、德国等欧洲国家，波及北美，19世纪后期又影响到日本、中国等亚洲国家。
[4] 正是由于西方有了洛克、斯密、伏尔泰、卢梭、狄德罗等启蒙思想家，才有了之后欧美的工业革命、市场经济和宪政体制。在中国，自晚清时期出现近代启蒙思想后，中国知识分子在“救亡图存”的背景下，借助西方近代思想，改造中国传统文化，塑造新型国民，引发了洋务运动、戊戌变法、新文化运动等。特别是在当代，1978年关于“实践是检验真理的唯一标准”的大讨论，极大地解放了人们的思想，带来了之后“改革开放”的巨大成果。由此，思想的.力量可见一斑。
[5] 长期以来，人们对于启蒙运动有一种误解，认为那是先知先觉的知识分子和哲人启发、教育、训导被启蒙者，因而“启蒙”成了及物动词，其宾语是未开化的芸芸众生。其实，根据现代启蒙思想家康德的解释，启蒙的本质不是“他启”而是“自觉”，即人们从由自我原因的不成熟状态（在缺乏指导下无力运用自我理性的状态）中觉醒，其根源并非是人们缺乏理性，而是缺乏对理性的运用。
[6] 这种真知灼见至今闪烁着理性的光芒。
[7] 在西方，启蒙思想的支撑源于人们对于客观规律的认知，如哥白尼的“日心说”、牛顿的“万有引力”、伽利略的“宇宙论”等，认为整个宇宙中的一切物体都遵守同一定律，进而冲破千年的宗教束缚，将这一理性思考引入了人类社会，从而开创了一个不断进取的新时代。在中国，几千年的封建农业社会，使得科技落后、法治传统缺乏，只是受到近代西方启蒙思想（包括马克思主义）的影响，才引入了科学、民主、法治的概念，开始与世界文明接轨。
[8] 在这一历史大潮中，中国现在比历史上任何时期都更接近中华民族的伟大复兴。正如“一带一路”被越来越多的国家认识到不是中国的独角戏，而是沿途民族的大合唱，每个中国人对于客观与主观世界的深刻、自觉的理性开发，最终将汇集于前所未有的“中国梦”的实现。
启蒙的真谛翻译：
The Truth of Enlightenment
[1] The original meaning of “enlightenment” is eliminating ignorance, acquiring literacy and understanding ethical norms. In ancient China, children went to “private school” in order to be educated people, unless they were “uneducated’. It is said the education that children receive in their early years can determine their future intelligence.
[2] Similarly, the transition from traditional society to modern society was accompanied with enlightenment. There was no modernization without enlightenment.
[3] However, as a modern word, “enlightenment” originated from modern Western world. In human history, modern enlightenment thought and enlightenment movement first began in England in late 17th century, and later spread to France, Germany and other European countries and North America. In late 19th century, it spread to Asian countries like Japan and China.
[4] Because Western world had the enlightenment thinkers like John Locke, Adam Smith, Voltaire, Rousseau and Diderot, it had industrial revolution, market economy and constitutional system later. In China, after modern enlightenment thought appeared in late Qing Dynasty, with the idea of “saving the nation from subjugation and ensuring its survival”, Chinese scholars utilized Western modern thought to reform Chinese traditional culture and remake new citizens, and launched Westernization Movement, Hundred Days’ Reform Movement and New Culture Movement. Especially in modern times, the debate about “Practice is the sole criterion for testing the truth” in 1978 freed people’s minds greatly and brought the great achievement under the reform and opening up policy. So the power of thought is evident.
[5] For a long time, people had a misunderstanding about the enlightenment. They thought the scholars and philosophers who had foresight inspired and educated people, so the word “enlighten” was a transitive verb, the object was uneducated people. In fact, according to the interpretation of the modern enlightenment thinker Kant, the essence of enlightenment is not “be inspired by others” but “self-awareness”. That is people’s awakening from the immature state of self-cognition (a state of failing to use rationality without guidance). The root is not the lack of rationality, but the lack of the utilization of rationality.
[6] This penetrating judgment still has the rational radiance today.
[7] In western world, the enlightenment thought was supported by people’s perception of the objective principles, such as Copernicus’s heliocentric theory, Newton’s law of gravity, Galileo’s cosmology. They believed all objects in the universe followed the same rule, so they broke the thousand years’ religious restriction and brought this rational thought to human society, thus initiated a new era of continuous progress. Due to China’s thousand years’ feudal agricultural economy, China was backwards in terms of science and technology and lacked law tradition. Only because influenced by modern Western enlightenment thought (including Marxism), China introduced the conceptions of science, democracy and law, and began to integrate with the world civilization.
[8] In this tide of history, now China