《中国人的精神》书评
“Backward” Gu hongming’s “advanced theory”
It was only vaguely known that Gu hongming was a “geek” in the late Qing dynasty and was known as a die-hard royalist. I took it for granted that he was just a decadent feudal relic who could recite four books and five classics. But read his the spirit of the Chinese, just realiz how reckless and shallow I was.
In this interesting book, you can see a kind of almost religious beauty for people to forget hunger and anger, as light and relief. This is the refuge Gu has built for himself, and if the readers are crazy enough, it might make everyone a believer. He respectfully called the religion “Confucianism”. The establishment of this sect is not so much that gu found a solid root for himself, but rather that he was a genius who used his talent to cover up the defects of Confucianism and shaped a perfect root for his heart after thousands of years of experience.
“The real Chinese, is a pure heart and adult intelligence of the high combination, is the domestication of biological, this kind of mild and gentle, is the most noble body incense, is the most expensive incense……It was too far away from our society then.”
See this, you may be able to touch the old man has been hurt, soft heart, and that a hopeless and deep sign…This heart of compassion bounded in the breast of an old man who was in a state of intoxication, and he was sometimes dismissive, sometimes full of thoughts, because sometimes he could not tell—for whom was he worrying?
It is undeniable that ‘the Chinese spirit” emphasized by Gu is indeed desirable and nostalgic. In his opinion, due to westerners’ theory of “evil nature” and their fear of god and law, external coercive force is need to restrain them. Spending a large amount of money to support the “idle class” (such as priests, military police, etc.) is not only a problem, but also causes s strong constraint on people themselves, which then urges people to go to extremes and extends to the state machinery to form militarism. Undoubtedly, this is also the major reason why the great powers in the early 20th century were involved in China.
China, on the other hand, has a “good citizen’s religion”, a moral sense of self-restraint that extends to its highest obligation, the duty of loyalty. Therefore Chinese people live a “spiritual life”. A true Chinese, then, has both the mind of an adult and the heart of a child, so the Chinese spirit is the spirit of eternal youth, is the national immortal spirit.
In this book, Gu repeatedly emphasized the above argument through various analyses. There is no denying that there are some elements in the process of argumentation, but there are also some rationality. The national pride that emerges between the lines is obvious, and the essence of the eastern spirit cited is also profound and occasional. From the seemingly arrogant nationalist heart, or can strongly feel the kind of undeniable light of the Chinese national.
Culture and society are very complex things, and it is often difficult to see what the dominant factors are. Therefore, exploring the Chinese spirit has not and should not end.
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