A Book Review of The Spirit of Chinese People

  I spent a lot of time reading the book The Spirit of Chinese People this holiday.Now I’m writing this to tell something about this book and my opinion on it.

  The book mainly tells about what precious spirit do Chinese people and Chinese civilization have got,and how can this spirit be used to solve the problems in European society.As an outstanding bookman of Qing Dynasty during which the national image of China is seriously distorted,the author ,Hongming Gu,spoke really highly of Chinese people and their spirit.In this book he profoundly admired the depth,broadness,simplicity and delicacy of Chinese people,and stressed the advantage and imortance of Confucianism in rescuing the European society from the vicious circle of getting more and more dependent on religion and militarism.

  In this book,Gu armed his love for Chinese people and their spirit with rational and serious analyze.First of all he showed his opinion that a civilization should be judged by what kind of people does it create.Then by making comparision with American,English,German and Franch,he explained the specificity of Chinese spirit.Besides,he told about the Chinese women and Chinese language.Above all,he showed the inner world of Chinese people,which means living a life of heart,and declared to the world that they can learn a lot from this ancient civilization.

  So it’s no wonder that once published,the book has evoked a storm of discussion in the literary arena all over the world.It put down the prejustice of some Western people on Chinese people,and asserted the dignity of Chinese civilization.It has been translated into several languages,and even arised a craze of learning from the author Hongming Gu in the following decades.

  What impressed me most in this book is the author’s confidence,which is not only a belief in his opinion,but also a belief in his motherland.This kind of confidence comes from the long history of China,the accoplishment of Confucianism,and his comprehension of them.With this confidence he dare to write this book to clarify for Chinese people in that dark time.This confidence of one’s own civilization is still of vital importance in our morden life.Today a few people often worship foreign civilization blindly,criticizing traditional Chinese culture and the character of Chinese people excessively.They are,in my opinion,laking in the confidence like the author’s.If one can’t believe in the spirit and the civilization of his own race,how can he be respected by foreigners?

  However,we still have to admit that,we can’t look up to this book as the only pattern in today’s situation.Even though it made such a great change at that time,we can’t agree to the author completely now.The reason,from my point of view,is that nowadays China is trying to leave an open ,inclusive,culturally advanced and harmonious impression on foreign countries.So obviously,it’s not wise to keep on rejecting foreign culture and civilization.But what we can get from this book through the years,is the belief that those virtues like depth,broadness,simplicity and delicacy of Chinese people should be admitted and keep on,that the spirit of Chinese is unique and worthy to be proud of,and that a country should learn how to learn from another,in order to keep it’s own civilization fresh and advanced,just like what Hongming Gu has told us in his book,the people of Europe will find something new to maintain civil order in the Chinese civilization.That’s how this book can be take in to practice in today’s changing world.