《中国人的精神》书评E20王一诺
Feelings and Thoughts
on Reading the Spirit of the Chinese People
2020182053 王一诺
After reading the Spirit of the Chinese People, many feelings and thoughts were roused in my mind.
In 1915 the Spring and Autumn Annals was published. Not only did Mr.Gu Hongming show Chinese culture to the world with idealistic enthusiasm, but also he criticized the western civilization profoundly and sharply in the book. From his perspective, in order to estimate the value of a civilization, the question we must ask is what type of humanity, what kind of men and women it has been able to produce, which shows the essence,the personality, so to speak, the soul of that civilization. He criticized that those who was called the Chinese Civilization Research Authority missionaries and Sinologists did not actually know Chinese and Chinese knowledge. Also, he pointed out uniquely that in order to understand the real Chinese and the Chinese civilization, a man must be deep,broad and simple, for the three characteristics of the Chinese character and the Chinese civilization are: depth, broadness and simplicity. Apart from the three characteristics, he added one more characteristic, that is delicacy.
Mr.Gu Hongming made a distinctive comparison between the Chinese and Americans, the British, the Germans and the French,highlighting the characteristics of the Chinese people: Americans were broad and simple but not deep enough; the British were simple and deep but not broad enough; the Germans are broad and deep but not simple; The French are the people, it seemed to him, who can understand and had understood the real Chinese and the Chinese civilization best. The French, it was true, had not the depth of nature of the Germans nor the broadness of mind of the Americans nor the simplicity of mind of the English but they had the delicacy. Only the Chinese have all these four qualities. That's why, he said, the general impression that Chinese people leave is inexpressible gentleness. Behind the image of goodness of the Chinese people lies their pure and utter innocence and adult wisdom. Mr.Gu Hongming wrote, ”Chinese live a life of the heart, the life of a child”.
Besides, Mr.Gu Hongming asked an interesting question: Why didn't Chinese have systematic and universal religious worship? That is because Chinese people have Confucianism, which, like Western religions, establishes social ethics and inherits them in a ritual way. And he pointed out that Confucianism's fundamental power to unite China was the sense of honor. Thus, based on the above two points, he considered Confucianism as the religion of good-citizenship.
Nevertheless, due to the limitation of the times, the book has also been severely criticized. In my opinion, it is the following two points that have led to its criticism. The first point is the loyalty to the emperor. Mr.Gu Hongming regarded the loyalty to the emperor as the origin of all the honors of the Chinese and only the loyalty to the emperor can bring honor to people. However, is loyalty really related to a sense of honor? Confucianism came into being in feudal times and was attached great importance by the rules. Therefore, the rulers may use it to make people loyal to themselves.
The second point is about Chinese women. This part is written independently, but talks about concubine culture in China. Mr.Gu Hongming focused on the question of why there is such a long-standing concubine culture in China. Because of the loyalty of wives. Therefore, I think this part should be named THE CHINESE WIFE rather than THE CHINESE WOMAN. He clearly distinguished wives from concubines in the book. Wife is the hostess of the family who needs to make her own contribution to the family.But concubines are the playthings of the host.Mr.Gu Hongming talked about the equality and love between husbands and wives in the chapter. I want to ask him a question: Wives is biologically defined women, isn't concubines? Since they are both, why are there so many differences? Wives have the right to divide up family property and live apart while concubines concubines are only objects that the host can give away at will. Although this chapter is called THE CHINESE WOMAN, in fact, only the wife is a woman, concubines are not even counted as humans. Reading here, I was more than astonished. Such a learned Mr. Gu should have said such a thing! 13 doctor’s degrees in western education had not changed his traditional perception of the inequality of personality between men and women, so it seems reasonable to think that wives can abuse at will in remote areas.
As far as I’m concerned, it is difficult to evaluate the Spirit of the Chinese People.Good parts are extraordinarily good-Mr.Gu Hongming clearly explained the role of Confucianism in the operation of feudal society. Meanwhile, it also completely exposes the deep-rooted bad habits of our traditional culture. He explained how Confucianism maintained the world for 3,000 years from a cultural perspective, and also talked about ignorant loyalty to the emperor and gender issues. It is due to the limitations of the times. No matter how talented a person is, he will be limited by the times.
From my point of view, the Spirit of the Chinese People can represent the Chinese traditional culture-good and bad coexist. Faced with culture, we should also take its essence and remove its dregs.
京公网安备 11010802032529号