It’s extremely difficult for me to read an English book like this. Now, I even can’t be aware of that I have finished reading it. But in my views, I still don’t understand the lemma of the Spirit of Chinese People. But, I want to say the meaning I have learned.

As we all know, this book was firstly published in 1997. But the author of it , Gu Hongming, was usually active in 1910th. So there may be something difficult to comprehend for us modern students. Now I want to say what I have learned from it .

First of all, Mr. Gu introduced the religion of citizenship.  In this part, Mr. Gu said that the Confucianism is not a religion, but it produces an effect on Chinese just like a religion. At the same time, he told about the religions which have an influence on other countries just like  Christianity and Islam. He completely made me get into the Spring and Autumn. It’s quite nice.

Then, he told about the spirit of the Chinese people. “The real Chinaman may be coarse, but there is no grossness in his coarseness .” The beautiful sentences make me understand the meaning easily. I know that the quality of inexpressible gentleness in the real Chinaman is the product of a combination of two things, sympathy and intelligence. It’s quite nice.

Thirdly, he told about the Chinese woman. I think this part is the most interesting in all the book. I have learned many useful traditional knowledge. For example, there are in every legal marriage in China six ceremonies. Asking for the name, receiving the silk presents, fixing the day of marriage, fetching the bride, pouring libation before the wild goose, temple presentation. I also learned many details which are quite interesting. Even more, the love between husband and wife in ancient China has a deep impression on me, although the husband could take concubine and surname. The three obediences refer to that in ancient China a woman was required to obey her father before marriage, and her husband during married life and her sons in widowhood and four virtues refer to fidelity, physical charm, propriety. I think modern female are lucky and free.

Finally, I want to introduce the Chinese language to you. Let’s read. “the beauty ,who with one glance brings down a city and another glance destroys a kingdom.” I love it. Nothing can changes the beauty of Chinese language. 

Mr. Gu is a man of literary culture. He translated many masterpieces , includes the Analects of Confucius and the Doctrine of Mean, into other languages which have an effect on the entire world. 

Now, I want to write something in my heart. There is no doubt that the Confucianism exists deeply in Chinese culture. What we do in daily life is under the influence of it. So we must learn it well to inherit and develop better.