简评《中国人的精神》

What can be called a civilization? Is there a difference between civilization and inferiority? The Chinese Spirit, written by Gu Hongming, a famous writer in the late Qing Dynasty, may answer your puzzlement. In those days, the Chinese were suffering. However, the publication of this book has thoroughly changed foreigners' misunderstanding of China. The book mainly explains the differences between Chinese and Western cultures and the differences between the two are compared. He defended the dignity of the Chinese people with his pen. In the book, Gu Hongming compares the Chinese with the Americans, the British, the Germans and the French: Americans are broad-minded, simple, but not deep; Englishmen are deep, simple, but not broad; Germans are broad, deep, but not simple; French people are not as deep as Germans, but have the sensitivity that these three nations lack; only Chinese people have all these four excellent spiritual characteristics. Gu Hongming,cultural eccentric,wrote that the Chinese people live a spiritual life, so that "the development of the Chinese people is not so much hindered as it is a nation that never grows old", a nation that "has the secret of keeping youth forever". Of course, this "child-like" nation is not interested in abstract and rigid science and technology. This profoundly exposes the traditional virtues of the Chinese nation since ancient times and the national spirit of continuous self-improvement. The spirit of the Chinese people is the eternal young spirit and the immortal national spirit. Immortality is the perfect union of mind and mind. Why can the Chinese nation remain young forever? The answer is in Chinese civilization. For thousands of years, the Chinese civilization has not been contested endlessly in the development of modern European civilization, and the Chinese people's thirst for religion is not as ardent as that of Westerners. In other words, the Chinese people do not have religion, instead of religion, they have a complete philosophy and ethical and moral system, which is related to the civilization of human society - Confucianism. Why can Confucianism replace religion? Religion comes from people's fear of the unknown world. People hope that religion can dispel fear for them, especially for the civilians. Confucianism has such characteristics that it can provide people with a sense of security and eternity. In fact, in a broad sense, Confucianism can also be called religion, but it is different from western religion. It teaches people to love the masses. The concept of emperor's divinity can help rulers govern the country more effectively. In addition, as a religion in a broad sense, Confucianism emphasizes a sense of honor, that is, the way of gentlemen (the western gentleman's law), in which the creed of "righteousness of fame" is an important basis for maintaining social stability. In contrast, modern society tends to maintain stability by means of interests, force and deception, which is often unsustainable. In fact, apart from the prevailing dialectical view of Confucianism, and combining with the social reality of Gu Lao at that time, we can see his good intention in writing this article. Among them, the predecessors have already mentioned more. If we repeat it here, it will be of little significance. More importantly, we should see whether the Chinese spirit put forward by Gu Lao still has reference significance today. We should look back on the so-called dross which we criticized more than before with the main points put forward in his article.