My Country and my People—book review
My Country and my People is written by Lin Yutang, 中考作文多少字an internationally famous Chine writer who was conversant with English and had deep understanding of both western and Chine culture. This book was intended for the westerners who want to have a better understanding of Chine culture, and who indeed need to have a better understanding of china. The publication of this book was like a bombshell in western countries and in China as well, since it was the first book about china that is written by a rious Chine who analyzed his culture 精神病的症状objectively. This book helps the western understand China and also helps Chine to reflect on their culture.
This book contains two parts—part one the Bas and part two the Life. The first part “the Bas”燕泉山 focus on the bas of Chine culture, covering the origin and development of Chine people, the Chine character, the Chine mind and the last chapter Ideals of Life, surveying the mental and moral constitution of Chine people and the ideals of life which influence the fundamental patterns of life. The cond part focus on the study of C
hine life itlf in its xual, social, political, literary and artistic aspects. Stated briefly, this part covers Chine women, society, government literature and art. Overall, the book was organized logically.
As the author says in the preface, very few people understood China—the western scholars were so arrogant and viewed China by the western standard, conquently reaching no conclusion other than that China is a barbaric country and the Chine people is a barbaric people; the Chine scholars, however, were the same arrogant and proud, unwilling to admit the weakness of Chine culture, only writing songs of extolling and defending Chine culture and their pride. We can borrow two famous words from Jane Austin—pride and prejudice, to characterize the attitudes of the Chine and western scholars. One typical example of extreme pride is Gu Hongming, a famous Chine scholar and professor of Peking University, who, though conversant with English, German and many other western language, was extremely conrvative and indiscriminately defended everything of Chine culture. He was unwilling to cut his little braid long after the overthrow of Qing dynasty and keep it all his life.
Except the subjective factors, there were other huge difficulties confronting the scholars in surveying China and Chine culture—China is so big, with a population of over 400 millions and a vast land over 10 million square kilometer and more than fifty peoples; Chine culture is so complicated, derived from a five thousand years of uninterrupted history and have no uniform religion that dominant the culture. To have a real understanding of China an Chine people, one must travel lots of places around the vast country to witness the Chine people’s life, the farmers, the citizens, the drudge, the vendors, watching them, listening to them, feeling what they are feeling, thinking what they are thinking; one must also spend time in their studies, reading the Chine classic books and studying the folk literature. It’s hard for a foreign scholar to do all this, considering the language barriers, the lack of Chine common n and the huge cultural gap between China and the west. Comparatively speaking, it is much easier for a Chine scholar, who is born and raid in China, receiving traditional Chine education and is conversant with both the Chine classics and folk literature, in one word, he has everything needed to study Chine culture. But the Chine scholar must also comman
d scientific method of studying history and culture, which is what the western scholars are good at, and he also need a kind of detachment, that is, he must detach himlf from the environment so that he can view the Chine culture with a cool mind.
Before Lin, there were a few attempts made by both Chine and foreign scholars to view Chine culture, but none one their works can be called a success. They either view Chine one-sidedly, or too subjectively. From the failure of the prior efforts of other scholars derived Lin some 唐突的意思important lessons and inspirations, the lessons being viewing Chine culture from a narrow perspective is impossible and subjective or personal emotions are to be avoided when surveying a culture, the inspiration being the possibility of surveying Chine culture from a macroscopic view.
Chapter One The Chine People我喜欢的一种动物
Chine people has survived five thousand years, keeping its vitality and integrity and absorbed in many other minority people, while none of her sisters, the other ancient civilized people—ancient Greek, Ancient India and Ancient地板护理 Babylon—remains alive today.
Generally, a people would start going downhill to extinction after reaching its peak. T相顾无言唯有泪千行he Greek is a good example, which reached its peak in about the cond and third century but quickly fell down in the fourth century. No nation other than China has survived as long as over five thousand years and still remains a young and vital, for they are doomed to degenerate.
A race or a people may degenerate both in its physical and spiritual aspects. After reaching the peak, a natural tendency of a race is to be indulgent in all kinds of pleasure, with the army left untrained, the official corrupted and the former aspiration and fighting will nowhere to be found. Neither China nor any other nations can avoid this degeneration, but only China 九谷口自然风景区survived.
The cret lies in Chine culture. A fundamental trait of Chine culture must be moderation, or “the doctrine of gold mean”, which keep reminding Chine people do not go to extremes under any circumstance—in times of prosperity, do not over indulgent in pleasure but prepare for the pitfalls instead; in times of adversity, do not be overwhelmed
with sadness but took another attitude of life and live on. This is a typical Confucian doctrine, deeply ingrained into every Chine from gentlemen to farmers.