《中国人的精神》书评 徐霄羽 E13 2020180753
When I read the book, I was struck by Mr. Gu's straightforwardness and confidence. In modern Europe, where the maintenance of social order by moral forces represented by religion had already declined, the worship of force developed into militarism, and the conflict of economic interests evolved into the conflict for world domination, and this eventually led to the collapse of the whole European social order. However, as a civilian of the suffered nation aggrieved by militarism, Mr. Gu only stood still and calmly, when the citizens were pursuing the upsurge of western thoughts. Instead of the complaints from the weak, he boldly pointed out to the foreigners:
Europeans will find this new moral force in China -- in Chinese civilization.
He has the confidence, and I think I have the confidence, too. The realization of moral power does not completely depend on the literal meaning of religion in Europe, but can be extended to a broader belief system, that is, what he thought existed in the hearts of Chinese people for thousands of years, the Religion of good citizenship.
When I heard of this phrase for the first time, I was confused. However, when I reviewed the history of Chinese Culture, in fact, from my opinion, traditional China has its religion. But it is not Buddhism, not Islam, and even not Taoism. It is, as a matter of fact, Confucianism. Here, the connotation of faith has already surpassed the so-called "supernatural" worship, but in fact it is the ultimate life concept rooted in the heart of a nation through the formation of family ties and social atmosphere. The origin of this idea is not different from common Christianity. It comes from the love of couples, from the love of parents, and under the influence of social structure, it is further derived into loyalty to the monarch or emperor.
However, as an old scholar of the old China, Gu’s opinion is something old-fashioned, and even feudatories. Especially in the latter part of this book, when the author talks about Chinese women, he holds the view that “a man should own several concubines.” Such views, in fact, reflect the dross of traditional culture.” The real Chinese may be rough, but there is nothing rough in rough. The real Chinese may be ugly, but there is no hideousness in ugliness. The real Chinese may be vulgar, but there is no aggression and noise in the vulgar.” However, the pursuit of spiritual life is not an excuse for being humble and rude, but a motivation to improve the environment and improve self-cultivation. Mr. Gu, as a great scholar of Confucianism, did not mention the outline of the analects of Confucius. Instead, he covered it up with the inexplicable superiority of "spiritual life". Maybe it was also a helpless action to fight one extreme against the other. By "the Chinese live a spiritual life", this book leads to another strange point of view, "Chinese language is also a spiritual language", and points out that with the European intellectual education, who think and talk in the language of the mind or intelligence，foreigners than untrained children learn Chinese more difficultly, but ignore the scientific fact that the language ability of child's brain is stronger than adult’s.
However, Mr. Gu is really respectable. Mr. Gu was born in South China, studied in the West, married in the East and worked in the Northern government. He was proficient in English, French, German and other nine languages, but he was not accepted by western individualism. Indeed, he was an untimely scholar, who criticized western culture, but won the respect of westerners; He strongly advocated and adhered to the traditional Chinese culture, but was ridiculed and spurned by his compatriots. Behind the interweaving of various contradictions, is the imprint left by the feudal era in its final stage. We, should honor and respect him.
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