Author: Lin Yutang
One
China has always been known as the Boss Empire. The word boss has a deep meaning, that is, it is old and big. Old characters are easy to understand, but big characters are incomprehensible and difficult to understand. The so-called first meaning of the old man is the old man. Today's primary school students all know that China has a history of 5,000 years, and this is really something we can conceit about. No matter how mixed up the law has been in the past 5,000 years, the 5,000 years have indeed been mixed up by us. It is worthy of admiration that a country can survive 5,000 years. The country, like people, is always greedy for life and wants to live, and it is better to be confused and live a long life than to be smart and die early. China has always advocated respect for the elderly, what is there to respect for the elderly? It is to pay tribute to his physiological success, the strength of resistance; Everyone else is dead, but he's still alive. In the past 100 years, his peers have long since passed away, or died of water, or died of fire, or died of disease, or died of bandits, and the drought, cold and heat have attacked them, and joy and sorrow have invaded them, and he can protect his health and be the victor in the end. This is the true meaning of respecting the elderly. If you meet an old beggar beside the road, see that he is poor and has no children and grandchildren, and does not respect him, this cannot be regarded as the spirit of true respect for the elderly. Therefore, respecting the old is just respecting his life test. The same is true for a country. China has a continuous history of 5,000 years, and in these 5,000 years, many countries have risen and fallen one after another, and he still exists; In the past 5,000 years, he has experienced droughts and floods, invasions by foreign enemies, the ravages of soldiers and bandits, and the virus of an even more terrible civilization, if it were a foreign race with more sensitive nerves, or it would have perished long ago, and China still exists today, this cannot but make us admire. This kind of place can only be understood, not spoken. At the same time, the old word also has a side meaning. It is the old age of "old-fashioned" and "old-skinned". The older a person gets, the thicker his skin always becomes. China is a country that is always older than others, and its skin is thicker than others. When he is older, he relies on the old and sells the old, and the glory, disgrace and misfortune have been put aside, and he doesn't care much. Zhang Shan said it well: "Young people must have the insight of old adults, and old adults must have the arms of young people; "It's that the young people are not as knowledgeable as the elders, and the old ones are not as good as the young people. The young man is high-spirited and has a long journey, so it is better to be bound by the old horse. So Confucius was very much against the condition of the elderly. One is said to be "I don't know that old age is coming", then it is said that "old and not dead is a thief", and the third is said "and its old age, quit it". The abstinence is to scold the old man for being greedy for money, and it is easy to suffer from the mistake of losing his temper in his old age. As the saying goes, "bustards love money, sisters love pretty", which is the meaning of Confucius. My sister is an idealist, and Bustard is a realist.
Great is the great righteousness. Chinese who think that China is really great! In fact, to call people great is to not understand the meaning. Once upon a time, a black man went in to listen to a teacher, and when he was asked what he thought, he said, "Great." When people asked him how great he was, he said, "I don't understand a word." When you don't understand, you're great, and when you're great, you're unincomprehensible. If you look at a fellow man on the road, or a laundryman, or a tailor, or a rickshaw driver, the description is not very intimidating. But consider that his kingdom was once 5,000 years old, Greece and Rome were long gone, and he survived. Although the China he represents, although a bit drowsy and old, the country is sluggish, but he has a long history, ancient culture, a philosophy of life, literature, art, calligraphy and painting, and architecture that is comparable to the West. Other people's races, after hundreds of years of civilization, are always corrupted, and the Chinese nation can still attract and assimilate the Henan Jewish nation. This is something that has never been done before in the Western nation. China's history has been going on longer than that of other countries, and China's culture has been able to spread over a larger area than other countries. According to the standard of pragmatism, he is the victor on the battlefield of victory and defeat, so this culture, although it has many weaknesses, also has the effect of competing for survival. So the more you think about it, the more you don't understand, and because you don't understand, the more you think about China, the greater it becomes.
Two
To be honest, after 5,000 years of civilization, the Chinese nation is also quite corrupt physiologically, and civilized life is always unfavorable to the nation. After 5,000 years of prostration, the Chinese said "good, good," so their chins shrunk and their faces smoothed. A nation's 5,000-year-old middle school said, "Ah! Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes," the face has to be rounded. Jiangnan is a cultural area, so Jiangnan also has a lot of white faces. The easiest thing to see is hair and skin. Chinese women have more tender skin, fine pores, and less armpit odor than Western women, which everyone admits.
There is another layer, the Chinese nation has survived until now, and half of it has relied on the import of foreign blood, otherwise it may not be more than this decadent and languishing trend today. Today, if you look at the physique of the northerners and the southerners, you can see the difference. (Southerners need not rejoice, northerners need not panic, because the so-called "pure race" recognizes "mythology" in anthropology, and no one in the country today can pinpoint who the "pure Chinese" is.) In Chinese history, every 800 years, there must be a king, not because of the king, but because of the addition of new blood. There is no country in the world that has not been in turmoil for more than 500 years; The source of the chaos is that after four or five hundred years of peace, the nation has become corrupt, the household registration has become dense, the economy has been impoverished, and as soon as it is poor, thieves and plagues have come one after another, and revolution is indispensable. Therefore, in the cycle of every 800 years, the first four or five hundred years are peaceful, and the last two or three hundred years are civil strife and bandits, from the soldiers and bandits rise and the dynasty perished, first split, then move the capital, the north and the south are separated, and finally overcome by foreign peoples, after overcoming, there is a new bloodline and then unification, and the culture is prosperous again. This was the case for the eight hundred years of the Zhou Dynasty. First unification and then splitting, then Chu and the princes became independent in the south, and then perished in Qin. From Qin to Sui is also about 800 years, the Han and Jin dynasties are relatively unified, to the Eastern Jin Dynasty will be five chaotic China, to the Sui and unified. From the Sui to the Ming Dynasty, it was also about 800 years, the beginning of the peace, the country's momentum was greatly revitalized, to the Southern Song Dynasty and gradually declined, to the Yuan and extinction. From the Ming Dynasty to the Qing Dynasty is also a period, the Taiping 500 years have passed, we can only hope that the 300 years of chaos will not start, which has been done by someone in detail. All in all, the northern race is mostly mixed by foreign races, so it is stronger in the north than in the south. You see, the emperors of the previous dynasties were all from the north of the Yangtze River, and none of them came from the south of the Yangtze River. So the Chinese have a saying, called, those who eat noodles can be emperors, but those who eat rice cannot be emperors. Zeng Guofan was unfortunately born in the south of the Yangtze River, and it is a rice-producing area in Hunan, so he ate too much rice, otherwise he would have been an emperor a long time ago. No matter how fine and elegant, except for King Wu of Zhou, Qin Shi Huang and Tang Taizu were born in Longxi, the founding emperors of all dynasties were near Longhai Road, east of Anhui, west of Shandong, north of Jiangsu, and south of Hebei. Han Gaozu was born in Jiangbei, Emperor Wu of Jin was born in Henan, Song Taizu was born in Hebei, and Ming Taizu was born in Henan. Therefore, the serval of the Jianghuai thieves is the birthplace of the emperor. Which of you has a daughter, ask for a son-in-law or want to learn from Lu Buwei to find Handan Ji to give birth to an emperor, and ask for the third-class car on Longhai Road, but also. Recently, Wu Peifu, Zhang Zongchang, Sun Chuanfang, and Lu Yongxiang came out of Shandong. Hebei produced Qi Xieyuan, Li Jinglin, Qiang Zhijiang, and Lu Zhonglin. Henan produced a Yuan Shikai, and almost ascended the dragon throne, and Anhui also produced Feng Yuxiang and Duan Qirui. Jiangnan has never produced famous generals, and only a few good tea rooms have been produced.
Three
However, despite this distinction between the north and the south, the Chinese nation still has a common special personality in terms of opposition to foreign races. Some of the reasons for this national character are due to the ethnic group, some are due to culture, and some are due to the economic environment. The Chinese nation also has advantages and disadvantages, if it is frugal and simple, if it loves nature, if it is diligent and thrifty, if it is humorous, if it is good and does not talk about it, talk about its bad. For the country is the same as being a person, you should think about the bad things, don't talk about your own strengths, in order to cheer up. Some people can talk about national literature, but if they are exaggerated and frivolous, and if they do not examine themselves, they will eventually perish. The most important thing is to study what our weaknesses are and where they come from.
Let's first examine these three weaknesses: patience, dispersion, and cunning, and examine their sources. I believe that these are the results of a special culture and a special environment, and they are not born Chinese, so they endure humiliation and dirt, they cannot be united, and they are so cunning and treacherous. There is a way to prove this, that is, everyone can experience it in his own experience. Originally, when people talk nonsense, I oppose it; Now that people are talking nonsense, I nodded and said, "Yes, yes, yes." "From this measure, the day is great and the blessing is deep. From the eyes of others, it is said that my cultivation has improved. Not only for me, but for everyone. When people reach middle age, if they are willing to reflect honestly, they will have such progress in cultivation. Twenty-year-old young people are enthusiastic about state affairs, and thirty-year-old people are "state affairs in charge of other mothers". We have to ask, why does Chinese society make people patient, not talk about state affairs, and have an attitude of being exquisite? I think that forbearance comes from the family system, and the slowness and relaxation are due to the lack of protection of human rights, and the cunning and perfunctory are due to Taoist thinking. There is not only one source of natural diseases, but also each of them is related to each other; However, for the sake of clarity and convenience, it can be temporarily divided into sources.
Patience and peace are also among the virtues. But it's too much; In China, enduring humiliation and dirt has become the virtue of a gentleman. This virtue of patience has become the specialty of the people. Therefore, if the Westerners come to China to preach, it is okay to do anything else, if the white people want to teach the yellow people to be patient and peaceful without resistance, this is simply too immeasurable and feverish. In China, obedience has become a wise saying, and the law of the jungle is almost equal to the principle of heaven. The poor are bullied, which is also called patience, and the people of Sichuan have paid taxes for 30 years in advance, but the result is still patience. Patience has thus become a hallmark of East Asian civilization. However, the more "arranged to endure hardships", the more bitter there is to suffer. If the Chinese people are unwilling to endure hardships like this, there will not be so many hardships. Therefore, in China, corrupt officials exploit the common people, such as a big fish eating a small fish, they can open their mouths and wait for the small fish to swim in by themselves, which is not only effortless, but also very reasonable. There is a Russian fable that one day a small fish rebelled against the annihilation of the big fish and said "Why do you eat me?" The big fish said, "Then please try it." I'll let you eat, can you eat it? "The view of this big fish is the philosophy of the Chinese, which is called keeping oneself and separating oneself. The small fish retreats from the big fish and is called "guarding themselves", and the retreat from swimming into the belly of the big fish is called "peace". This is also Mr. Wu Zhihui's so-called "peace for the country", if you endure me, I will bear you, and the country will be peaceful.
I think this attitude of patience was learned from the life of a large family. If a man wants to endure, he must first refine his temper, and if he has a good temper, he will endure. In China's big family life, talent gives us the opportunity to practice patience, because in the big family, the son endures his father, the younger brother endures his brother, the sister endures his sister, the nephew endures the uncle, the woman endures the aunt, and the concubine endures the concubine, which naturally becomes a situation of reunion between five generations. The impact of this daily life grind is too great to ignore. It's not like I'm spreading rumors. In the past, Zhang Gongyi was in the same house for nine generations, and Tang Gaozong went to his house to ask what the trick was. Zhang Gongyi only asked the paper to write 100 words of "forbearance". This is Zhang Gongyi's humor and the most profound criticism of the big family system. Later generations did not notice, but took Bairen as a family heirloom. Naturally, this makes sense. The reason is that there are too many people, and if they are together, if they are not compatible, there is nowhere to turn over, and they are at home and in the country, the same reason. Those who can endure each other as a family in this way can naturally be at peace with each other for the country.
In history, we can also prove that it is not natural for Chinese to be wise and wise to protect themselves and not talk about state affairs. Wei Jin Qing talked about it, and people scolded him for misleading the country. At that time, the literati were either hidden or flashy, or gave poetry to wine, or talked about alchemy, and the result was the Yongjia Rebellion, which was one of the most negative and indifferent periods of state affairs among the Chinese, but why did they cultivate this general style of clean talk? Historical facts can be used for us. At the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, this was not the case with Dr. Zi. The 30,000 students often criticize current affairs, and they talk about state affairs, not without talking about them. However, because there was no legal guarantee, the authority of the Qing Dynasty could not withstand the power of the eunuchs, and finally there was a disaster of party corruption. The people of the Qing Dynasty were slaughtered, exiled or tortured, or razed their families, and killed again and again. As a result, the wind of pure discussion is broken, and the wind of pure talk is formed, and the wise people are either indulged in exaggeration or indulge in wine, and reach the period of wine virtue. Some of them took refuge in the mountains, slumped in sub-houses, and passed food through the windows. Some turned into woodcutters and begged their relatives and friends not to visit them to avoid their eyes and ears. The seven sages of the bamboo forest came out, and everyone took poetry and wine as their life. Liu Ling went out to bring a pot of wine, asked one person to bring a shovel, and said to him, "If you die, bury me", and people were called virtuous. A virtuous is wise, because he can feign madness and get a good death. People admired him at the time, just as a small turtle admired the solidity of the shell of a big turtle.
Therefore, if we want the Chinese people to change their dispersion into unity and turn the negative into positive, we must first change this attitude of protecting oneself with a clear mind, and if we want to change the attitude of protecting oneself with a clear mind, we must change the social environment in which people have to protect one's self with a few empty words, that is, to provide the Chinese people with the guarantee of justice and law, so that everyone can open their mouths, do their own things, display their talents, and act their own aspirations within the scope of the law. Not only snow sweeping, but also frost. In other words, if the Chinese are not like a plate of scattered sand, they must fundamentally give the protection of constitutional human rights. However, today we can notice this truth, and there are very few people who truly understand the relationship between the protection of human rights and our attitude towards the world.
□ excerpted from "Lin Yutang's Translation of Life Sketches", Zhejiang Literature and Art Publishing House, 1990