Reading report

When it comes to Thomson, the author of the Spirit of the Chinese People, I have to say that I am curious about him. Several years ago, I have known him from Notes on Travelling in China written by Akutagawa Ryunosuke. Now with this book, I catch some new ideas.In Thomson’ s mind, the special spirit of Chinese is desirable, because of its own shining meanings, which differ from western culture. He hold the idea that the westerners are fear of god and the law, so they need to be restrict by the external force. However, China is not the same. Chinese have a kind of "good citizen religion", or moral self-discipline, which then extends to its highest duty, namely the mixture of selfless, and absolute, including three cardinal guides ", etc. To a certain extent, the Chinese are living with "spiritual life", which can be described as that a real Chinese need to own the mind of adult as well as children's heart. That’s may be the reason why the spirit of the Chinese people keeps the country alive.As his stories have been considered, he is worth to be admired as a brave man. With the demise of the Qing dynasty, he had to travel around Europe when young, suffered a countless amount of sarcasm. Talents on language as he had, he was still despised because of his colour of skins and his declined country, which he had no ability to avoid and hide.Nevertheless, he began to show his talent on debate and thought. Chinese traditional culture was used by him to solve the negative impact of the western industrial revolution and became the basement of the analysis on western culture as well as disadvantage. Then a lot of westerners who was living with confusion began to believe him as a legend man who had the secret key to touch the essence of world.However, there were still several unpleasant ideas in this book. First, most of his argument are unreasonable with senseless words. In addition, his logic is full of chaos. Sometimes, I can only get a figure with arrogant or proud exactly. Second, after years of travelling abroad, he did not change his thought on women. The traditional Chinese women are best representations of the world, completely sacrificed themselves to help their men achieve the goals. Chinese women are too good, so it didn't hurt them when men marry other wives, And marry concubine is a skill, he said in his book, a man in a big family with a lot of women without quarrel, that is not easy. Only Chinese men have the right to marry a concubine. Obviously, that is unacceptable.In my view, Thomson had known the most significant thing which can help Chinese be stronger authentically. Due to the ages he lived, he was brave enough with advanced mind.But he also kept several decadent ideas when he wrote this book.