Reaction to a book
During this winter holiday, I have read a book, called “The Spirit of the Chinese”. The writer of this book is Gu Hongming. He was skilled in the culture of the west and China, and he could speak nine languages fluently and professionally, including English, French, German, Latin, Greek and so on. Because of his very good understanding of Chinese and western culture , a creation of importance ,“The Spirit of the Chinese”, can only be produced . And this book has made the great difference in western society at that time.
“Why do we learn English? That is because we should spread the truth in life and culture of Chinese to western countries.” Gu Hongming said. As far as I am concerned, this sentence may be show one of the intents of Gu Hongming about why he wrote “The Spirit of the Chinese”.
“The Spirit of the Chinese” was published in “The comments of China” in 1914. At that time, the Chinese culture was looked down upon, and the Chinese nation was humiliated. Gu Hongming wrote this book to let the western countries and the people who looked down upon the Chinese culture know that they should learn our Chinese spirit to solve the problems in their society.
I’d like to talk about some of the most impressive parts.
He believed that modern European civilization may could conquer nature, but must not be conquer the human passions. In the absence of an effective moral force to control and suppress human passion, Europeans can only use natural forces again to maintain civilized order, but we all know that is temporary and fragile. "I can easily see the destruction of rifle worship, even though great men are rifle worshippers; and indeed, as God has proved, weapons need another weapon, and only the laws of love and justice can produce a once-and-for-all revolution. " This sentence is said by Emerson, and I think that it also the truth that Gu Hongming want to say. Besides, the laws of love and justice are included by the spirit of the Chinese. Because of the reasons above, Europeans must find this new moral power in China and in Chinese civilization. Gu Hongming calls this religion of good citizens, which can make militarism a superfluous moral force. In this book, Gu Hongming think “The two things that Europeans use to maintain civilized order are religion and law.”. And here, Gu Hongming get an interesting conclusion. He hold the view that Europeans maintain order because they fear God and the law. However, the reason why they may feel frightened is that God and the law means the use of strong. In China, Chinese people prefer to use their spirit, moral sense, to beat human passion, rather than use the fear of God and the law.
Another interesting thing to me is Gu Hongming's example of proving that Chinese people live a spiritual life. He said,“Among foreigners in China, children and uneducated people learn Chinese very easily, much easier than adults and educated people. Why? In my opinion, the reason is that children and uneducated people think and speak in the language of mind, while educated people, especially those with modern knowledge education in Europe, think and speak in the language of mind or knowledge.” This example may seem a bit unscientific, but it makes sense to think about it carefully. But I don't think all the uneducated people are like a blank sheet of paper, but the children must be. Moreover, a civilization is not spread only through education. When people have stayed in this social environment for a long time, they may unconsciously accept and get used to the civilization of this society。
京公网安备 11010802032529号