Before I read this book, I felt uneasy. The title of this book is The Spirit of the Chinese People, which reminds me that the entire book should be boring and difficult to understand.What's more, it may also make me confused. But when I read the first sentence of the book, whereas, I felt the author's straightforwardness. He directly told us that "The object of this book is an attempt to interpret the spirit and show the value of the Chinese civilization." Although there were some redundant and insignificant words behind, it has given me the confidence to read on.

 

This book is divided into several chapters and points. And it's mainly around the spirit of the Chinese citizen, Chinese women, Chinese characters and so on. Each of its chapters has some consequential sentences. The entire chapter relates to those sentences. As an example, in the preface, the core point is, "in order to appreciate the real Chinaman and the Chinese civilization, a man must be deep, broad and simple, for the three characteristics of the Chinese character and the Chinese civilization are: depth, broadness and simplicity." Additionally, the writer added another one, "and the chief characteristic, namely delicacy. "

Next I may as well talk about what I think of this book. It goes without saying that this is a fine book which can reflect the writer's wisdom and enthusiasm. It introduces the splendid Chinese culture and traditional virtues. The book tells us that in Western countries, moral power worked via the literal religious doctrines. Nevertheless, our country, takes advantage of our own culture and shapes the philosophy of life, which rooted in the heart of the nation, through family ties and social atmosphere. The moral power came from loyalty to the king, respect for parents and love for the future generation. The writer also said something about Chinese ideograph in the book. "The Chinese people are living a life of the heart, so the Chinese language, is also a language of heart." I subscribe to that from the bottom of my heart. That's why Chinese is the most difficult language to take in. It is universally acknowledged that there are some Chinese cultures that other languages can not express. Chinese always express deep feelings in simple language, which many other languages can not do.

After reading this book, the most impressive part for me is the author's attitude. Absolutely he took pride in his own country. The confidence and frankness that the author showed in his composition deeply shocked me in that it was rarely seen in that era. In the old Chinese society which was impacted deeply by Western culture, he still had a firm faith and a strong belief. The confidence came from his profound comprehension of the traditional culture of China five thousand years especially Confucianism. Deserve to be mentioned, he grew up in the West. Nevertheless he always criticized Western culture and admired Chinese traditional culture. A case in point, after China was subjected to foreign invasions, quite a few people called the Chinese weak and meek. But he used the word "gentle" to describe Chinese citizen in his book. When other countries discriminated against our nation, he spoke for it. His writing is not the lament of the weak, but the voice of a confident man. It can't be denied that the author's patriotism should be respected.

Nevertheless, I have to say that I can't subscribe to some of the opinions in this book. This may be caused by the changes of the times and ideas. To name only a few, from my point of view, it is unreasonable to regard women's "selflessness", men's "sense of honor" and "concubinage" as traditional Chinese virtues. What's more, the author may not really recognize the Chinese society at that time. Maybe he idealized it for the reason that some words in this book make me feel untrue. Actually we all have a sporadic understanding of the history. The Chinese citizen at that time can't really be called as deep, broad or simple. So reading should "take its essence and discard its dregs". In today's society, we have always been attaching great importance to the cultural self-confidence, which is easy to find in this book. What's more, there are many ancient Chinese sentences in the book and they have a special charm in English.

To sum up, sometimes the writer's analysis ability really amazed me while sometimes I thought he was too bigoted and didn't agree with him. At the beginning of the 20th century, China was bullied and frightened. He used to be a lion, but that time people began to wonder if he was dead. Even when he woke up, it was all he could do to lick his wound and hide in the corner. Not only he was called the sick man in East Asia, but also his ideology and culture were not recognized by others. But here, relying on the background of dual education at home and abroad, the writer made Chinese culture be conversely disseminated. But he seemed to overcorrect it. The profundity and superiority of the Chinese spirit were not in line with the mainstream view in the old society of China. And some arguments had no substance. In addition, when defining the spirit of the Chinese people, it's all about Confucius. He forgot the Taoist and Legalist thoughts which shaped the character and social habits of the Chinese people at the same time, not to mention Buddhism which absorbed by Confucianism. It is rather far-fetched to generalize like this way.