Book Report: The Spirit of the Chinese People

In the early 20th century, there is a saying among the westerners: When you go to China, you can not visit Taihe Palace-Zhonghe Palace-Baohe Palace, but you must visit GuHongming. GuHongming was born in the South(Nanyang), studied in the West(Xiyang), married in the East(Dongyang), worked in the North(Beiyang). And he was proficient in English, French, German, Latin, Greece, Malaya and other kinds of nine languages. What’s even more amazing was that he had received 13 doctorate degrees. Once a time, he read English newspapers took tures in the bus and ridiculed British that they were lacking of culture. Moreover, he was the first people who translated Lunyu and Zhongyong into English and made them widespread in the Western countries. With the silver tongue, he talked Hole Science with Japanese Prime Minister Ito Hirobumi. He corresponded with literary master Lev Tolstoy to discuss the world cultural and political situation. He was known as "the most distinguished Chinese people" by Mahatma Gandhi in India. The Spirit of the Chinese People is the representative work of GuHongming and it collected from a series of papers with the core of the spirit of the Chinese people. At the time of facing Western powers bullying the Chinese nation and discriminating against the Chinese culture, Gu Hongming is to reveal the main thrust of the spiritual life of the Chinese people, expounding the eternal values of Chinese traditional culture. The first spirit of Chinese people is gentle, a gentleman by nature and is not weak, nor is it vulnerable to yield, but not tough, harsh, rude and violent.The book says if you can get all mainkind to recognise right and justice, as a force higher than physical force, and moral obligation as something which must be obeyed, then the use of physical force will become unnecessary; then there will be no militarism in the world. But of course there will be in every country a few people, ciminals, and in the world, a few savages who will not or are not able to recognise right and justice as a force higher than physical force and moral obligation as something which must be obeyed. Thus against criminals and savages a certain amount of physical or police force and militarism will always be necessary in every country and in the world. That is to say, you should believe in right and justice. In fact, you shoule believe in the power of goodness. The Religion of good citizenship in China teaches every child as soon as he is able to understand the meaning of words, that the Nature of man is good. And because of the wrong conception that human nature is evil, the whole structure of society in Europe has always rested upon force. So at first they have to maintain a large number of expensive idle persons called priests, then another class of still more expensive idle persons called policeman and soldiers to help them maintain civil order. But real Chinaman, he is a person who costs the world little or nothing to keep him in order. Compared with Americans, British, Germen and Frencmen, Chinese characters and the three major characteristics of Chinese civilization is deep, broad and simple, in addition to delicacy. So the Chinese people give the impression overall is that “gentle”, “an unspeakable kind of moderation.” The second is the strong spirit of compassion, because almost all the Chinese people living in strong sympathy, this is a kind of spiritual life, but also a feeling of life, this is the Chinese people as a result of the body as a organism resulting from consciously or unconsciously. In the book, the author also talkes about the Chinese language and he suggests that Chinese is a language of mind. Why foreigners find Chinese difficult to learn but children and ordinary people in China find it very easy is because well-educated foreigners in learning Chinese, the use of the mind has been full of wisdom, rather than the soul, the languages of the West are essentially of this type, while China is the soul of the Chinese language. As discusses in the spirit of the Chinese people, it will not be able to bypass Chinese civilization, when the author compares the Chinese civilization and modern civilization in Europe, it is to the conclusion that the religion of modern Europe make their hearts rather than the minds have been met, philosophy make their mind rather than the soul have been met. Why do Chinese people do not need religion? It is because the Chinese believe that Confucianism is a philosophy and ethical system which can be a substitute for religion to make an impact on the civilization of human society and education. Author believes that the true greatness of Confucianism is to give countries the right idea, and turn this into a religious philosophy. In fact, Confucianism is not a religion, but a life of gentleman. The Spirit of the Chinese People describes the Chinese people of that era, it is mainly talking about the characteristics of the intellectuals. Although it is not so magnificent like other people, it is accurate and vivid; although it is full of humorous ridicule, it is contains a lot of serious topics. The book is full of the love from GuHongming to China and Chinese people.