The sacrificial spirit of the Olympic flame ceremony and ‘mutual learning of civilizations’: a case study of the Beijing 2008 and 2022 Olympic Games

The flame ceremony of the Classical Olympic Games was a foundational sacrificial rite, embodying Greek ideals of peace, individual sanctity, and the pursuit of truth, goodness, and beauty. While the modern Olympic movement inherited this tradition, it currently confronts significant humanistic challenges, as commercialization and politicization appear to erode its core “sacrificial spirit.” Drawing on cultural anthropology to define ritual and sacrifice, this paper argues that the concept of “civilizational mutual learning” offers a potential avenue for revitalization. This paper presents the Beijing 2008 and 2022 Olympic Games as a key case study, arguing that the infusion of the Confucian sacrificial spirit provided tangible ethical resources to address these contemporary challenges. Specifically, this paper analyzes how Confucian principles—such as valuing righteousness over profit (yi vs. li) and promoting harmony in diversity (he er bu tong)—may offer a philosophical counterpoint to pervasive commercialism and divisive nationalism. The study concludes that integrating Chinese sacrificial culture into the Olympic ceremony serves not merely as a multicultural gesture, but as a practical demonstration of how an ancient non-Western ethical framework can contribute to reclaiming and enriching the universal humanistic mission of Olympism.