Abstract：In both the Chinese and English worlds, the connotation of culture undergoes a long historical evolution and thus is understood and used in multiple perspectives. Culture is defined differently with different focuses, but these definitions differ but in perspective and degree of subtlety. Anyway, culture has the common features as follow： it often comes out as a special symbolic system, which is a sign of man＇ s separation from Nature ; it expresses a certain meaning, including a kind of evaluation ; its universally accepted meanings and judgments formulate social norms; these meanings and judgments vary with time and region, and thus culture is the way that man and Nature adapt to each other. So, the function of culture can be simplified as to teach and cultivate a natural man to become a fit social member. Up to now, the educational function of culture has already been fully developed, giving rise to different cultural spaces, which in turn gives rise to different cultural systems. The world culture is a multiple one, requiring us to handle properly the relationship between native culture and foreign culture, between elite culture and mass culture, and between humanistic culture and scientific culture.
南帆. 文化的意义及其三种关系[J]. 江苏大学学报（社会科学版）, 2009, 11(4): 1-10.
Nan Fan . Meaning of Culture and its Three Relations. Journal of Jiangsu University（Social Science Editi, 2009, 11(4): 1-10.
2009, Vol. 11 
