Reaction1.0
Before my reaction to this book, firstly I need to say that I am not totally in agreement with what Mr. Gu said in this book. However, I believe that few of us, especially people like me who hasn’t accepted quite formal and systematic education about the spirit of the Chinese people, can make adequate and faultless judgement to this book. What I am trying to say is the book tried to show the world what we have got and I have to confess it’s remarkable to successfully complete this work.
Now let’s talk about what we learned from the book. Considering the author’s nostalgic attitude to the authority of Qing dynasty, some of his thoughts are not quite acceptable to the mass of the people who or whose ancestors once suffered from the authority’s cruel and merciless rule. Mr. Gu tried to convince the whole world that we Chinese do have superior civilization. He had a great confidence to our civilization, which is unquestionable, and he adores feudal society. Please do not misconceive what I am trying to say, what I want to say is that Mr. Gu, as an idealist, fell in love with traditional Chinese civilization and could not think about the defects existing in our civilization clearly. Of course, he is not responsible to make it clear because he was trying to show our superiority to the world. In the book, Mr. Gu analyzed people’s qualities, or maybe I should say it’s moral trait, and he believes that we, Chinese, own some very precious qualities, which means we Chinese people are deep, broad, simple and delicacy. From the perspective of our whole race, it’s correct and convincible.
As we all known, we don’t have faith in religion. Mr. Gu told us it is the very existence of Confucian in our civilization that makes it possible for us to live without any religions and at the same time live a peaceful life. As for German’s belief in might, I believe it’s partly necessary because we need it to protect our country from being invaded. I must admit that militarism is a devil’s creation and its disciples are crazy because militarism, at least from the history we know, can bring nothing good to the whole civilization but short-term prosperity and following chaos, along with death and wars. There is one thing about Confucianism is beneficial to us that we should follow the teachings of Li. We don’t need religion, militarism because we are civil. With the edification of Li and Confucianism, even the mass of our civilian are gentlemen. We can not deny that we do have defects and weakness, but totally we are good.
When it comes to Mr. Gu‘s opinion about the female, I have to beg to differ. People are born to be restrained by families, regulations, morality, laws etc. but we try to be free men. Being free means we have to respect everyone around us. So for the sake of the long-term and sustainable soundness of the whole society, we should cast away some traditions like concubinage in our civilization.
Last of all, I want to talk about my thoughts about the reasons why Mr. Gu writed these articles. It’s obviously that Mr. Gu, as an erudite scholar and a Chinese with a sense of national pride, was intended to inform the world, especially some western countries, that the spirit of Chinese civilization and its value to all mankind. In a word, Mr. Gu attempted to show a method of dealing with the chaos and wars happened in Europe. Let’s forget about the ill-suited words and improper standpoints of feminine ideal, just focus on his pure purpose of giving publicity to our civilization and reclaiming the great value of our culture. His confidence in our civilization is now desperately needed to many of our compatriots. For many decades, we are blind to worship the western culture and their accomplishment while neglecting ours. After reading Mr. Gu’s article, which offered me a new dimension of understanding our own civilization, I feel proud about the greatness in our civilization. Despite the fact that there are some unseasonable viewpoints in the essays, the book still taught me a lot.
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