Reflections on the Spiritual Tradition of China People

China People's Spirit —— Reading Gu Hongming's China People's Spirit

At the beginning of the 20th century, there was a saying in the west: You don't have to go to the Three Great Halls to go to China, but you must go to Gu Hongming. Who is Gu Hongming? He was born in Nanyang, studied in the West, married in the East and served as an official in Beiyang. He got a doctorate of 13, read English newspapers backwards and laughed at the British, saying that Americans had no education, and first translated China's The Analects and The Doctrine of the Mean into the West in English and German. He has a glib tongue, telling Japanese Prime Minister Ito Bowen about Confucius, and exchanging letters with literary master Leo Tolstoy to discuss the world cultural and political situation. He was called "the most outstanding China" by Indian Mahatma Gandhi.

Gu Hongming deserves to be called a "geek of the late Qing Dynasty". He is one of the few scholars in modern China who not only studied China tradition but also mastered western language and culture. He is proficient in nine languages, including English, French, German, Latin, Greek and Malay, as well as literature, Confucianism, law, engineering and civil engineering. He creatively translated three of China's "Four Books"-The Analects of Confucius, The Doctrine of the Mean and The University, and wrote works such as China Oxford Movement (formerly known as the Circulation of the Qing Dynasty) and China People's Spirit, which promoted the culture and spirit of the East to westerners and had a great influence.

Gu Hongming is also a fanatic. Gu Hongming lived in an unfortunate era. In such an era, as long as they are from China, they can only get sick and lose their lives. If you are sober, you will pay a particularly painful price if you want to fight. Facing the motherland at that time, Gu Hongming was worried about the fracture of China tradition and the smearing of Chinese civilization. He expressed his worries about China culture and his deep sigh for self-esteem in Zhang Wenxiang Shogunate Notes. Gu Hongming's wild attitude is the expression of his tears. He used the wild to protect his strong self-esteem.

It was Gu Hongming's wild and proud attitude towards his motherland that made him write The Spirit of China People, a book that praised China people from beginning to end.

The Spirit of China People is Gu Hongming's representative work to promote China's traditional culture to the west. The book is divided into four parts: introduction, introduction, text and appendix. The introduction expounds "good citizen religion"; The first chapter discusses China people's spirit, the second chapter discusses China women, the third chapter discusses China language, the fourth chapter discusses John Smith in China, the fifth chapter discusses famous sinologists, and the sixth and seventh chapters discuss China studies. The appendix discusses "Religion worships the masses" or "War and the way out".

In this book, Gu Hongming expounds his views on China people, China culture and its enlightenment to the West. In this book, he vividly describes the spiritual life of China people: "The spirit of China people is first and foremost gentle. Gentleness is not a natural weakness, nor a fragile submission, but a lack of toughness, harshness, rudeness and violence. Real China people may be rude, but they are not rude; The real China people may be ugly, but his ugliness is not terrible; The real China people may be vulgar, but there is no aggression in vulgarity; The real China people may be stupid, but they are not absurd in ignorance; The real China may be cunning, but there is no evil in his cunning. " From this series of discussions, we can easily see that China people do have many shortcomings, but these shortcomings are somewhat lovely. Then the author infers that the second spirit of China people is strong compassion, because almost all people in China live in strong compassion, which is a kind of spiritual life and an emotional life, because China people consciously or unconsciously regard their bodies as an organism. Because real China people live an emotional or human-influenced life, they may sometimes be considered as neglecting what they should do. In Gu Hongming's view, he is afraid of God and law because of his "evil nature theory" with westerners, so he needs external coercive force to restrain him. Spend a lot of money to support the "idle class" (such as priests and gendarmes). ) is not enough, but also imposed a strong constraint on people themselves, which in turn prompted people to go to extremes and extended to the state machine to form militarism-undoubtedly, this was also a major reason why the powers coveted China in the early 20th century. But China is different. China has a "religion of good citizens", that is, the self-restraint of moral sense, and then extends to its highest obligation, that is, the obligation of loyalty-selflessness and absoluteness, which naturally includes the three cardinal principles and the five permanent members. Therefore, China people live a "spiritual life". Therefore, a real China person has the brains of both adults and children. Therefore, China spirit is the eternal spirit of youth and the immortal spirit of the nation.

Gu Hongming believed that the western powers at that time were no longer bound by morality, even though their fear of religion and law was lost in the war, and the only way to save such a western world was in China, that is, above the spirit of China people. It can be said that Mr. Gu Hongming really praised the culture of China to the extreme, and his self-esteem and pride have reached the point of arrogance.

However, what Gu Hongming describes in this book is only the people of China at that time, even long before that time. At that time, China was still in a feudal society, so there were some absurd views in Gu Hongming's book. These statements are really ridiculous. For example, in this book, Mr. Gu Hongming's view on women is somewhat inappropriate. There are some words in the article: China's concept of women is that women take a broom to clean and keep the house clean. In fact, the word "woman" in China was originally composed of a woman and a broom. Is this ridiculous? In the description of women in the second chapter of the book, Gu Hongming wrote "three obedience and four virtues", which was greatly appreciated. This is where he is pedantic. He trusted Confucius and Mencius too much in some places. What is even more ridiculous is that he once compared men to teapots and women to teacups. A teapot usually needs several cups, so he thinks a man should marry a concubine. Isn't this ridiculous?

Comparing Mr. Gu Hongming's The Spirit of China People, I saw an ugly-ugly-China person. This book is the work of a famous writer in Taiwan Province Province, Mr. Bai Yang. This book starts with the ugly side of Chinese people and points to the bad habits of China people. Pointed out the ugly side of China people, China's 5,000-year-old "excellent traditional culture" was severely examined for the first time. Bai Yang said, "The people of China are deeply hurt. Instead of cultivating the ability to praise and appreciate others, they have developed into polarized animals that oppose themselves or flatter others. Moreover, because it has been sauced in the sauce jar for too long, thoughts, judgments and horizons have been polluted by the sauce jar, and it is difficult to jump out of the scope of the sauce jar. " So he wants to write a book "Ugly-Ugly-Germany-China-Country-People" to let China people know their own shortcomings. I feel sorry for the "sauce jar culture" in China, reflect on the "ugliness" of China people, and hope that China people can live with dignity. "Dirty, messy, noisy, throbbing!" said the poplar. Three China people make a pig together! Never admit a mistake; In order to cover up a mistake, we have to make more mistakes to prove that the first mistake is correct. Like to put on airs, bear grudges, lack of inclusiveness, China people have an endless hatred that can't compete with three generations! Inferiority means no self-esteem, lack of independent thinking ability and fear of independent thinking. There is no right or wrong, no standard, only a fuss. " The shortcomings such as "dirty, chaotic, noisy", "throbbing", "unable to unite" and "never admitting mistakes" are all listed in the book. I regret to say that it seems that these ugly aspects really existed in China, not once or twice, not one or two people, but widely existed in China. This book totally denies China people with the most incisive and profound statements, and thinks that China people are fundamentally ugly.

But are China people really ugly? Admittedly, we still have many shortcomings, but people are not plants and trees, and people are not sages. Apart from these shortcomings, as Mr. Gu Hongming said, China people still have the spirit of China people. This spirit is humility, kindness, loyalty and kindness! In my opinion, this spirit of China people has been deeply rooted in the flesh and blood of China people, and China people have been carrying this spirit since birth!

Don't encourage others' ambitions, undermine others' prestige, don't belittle yourself, but face yourself squarely. For better or worse, there are all of us. No one is perfect, no one is ugly. What we have to do is to try to correct our shortcomings and discover our strengths. I think the significance of the book "The Spirit of China People" written by Mr. Gu Hongming is to awaken people at that time, let those China people who gave in to feudalism and imperialism stand up and fight, and let the sleeping lion wake up again!

However, in today's world, China is not a developed country, and there is still a long unknown road for her to become strong. This is a mission that needs us to complete. We should rely on the spirit of China people and the precious spiritual wealth left by our ancestors to create the best conditions for our future.

The spirit of the people of China will last forever!

I hope this helps.