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吾国与吾民 [Wu guo yu wu min]
《吾国与吾民》（My Country and My People）又名《中国人》，是林语堂在西方文坛的成名作与代表作。由于该书将中国人的性格、心灵、理想、生活、政治、社会、艺术剖释得非常美妙，并与西方人的性格、理想、生活等做了相应的广泛深入的比较，在海内外引起轰动，美国许多知名人士推崇备至，被译成多种文字，在西方广泛流传。
该书论述了中国文化的方方面面，诸如中国人的性格、思维方式、人生追求、妇女问题、政治社会问题、文学艺术，乃至中国人的最佳生活模式。作者语言质朴流畅，娓娓道来，具有较强的可读性。“这本书问世了，正如所有伟大的书籍终会问世一样。它满足了我们一切热望的要求。它实事求是，不为真实而羞愧。它写得美妙，既严肃又欢快，对古今中国都能给予正确的理解和评价。我认为这是迄今为止最真实、最深刻、最完备、最重要的一部关于中国的著作。更值得称道的是，它是由一位中国人写的，一位现代的中国人。他的根基深深地扎在过去，他丰硕的果实却结在今天。”——诺贝尔文学奖获得者赛珍珠曾这样评价本书。
该书论述了中国文化的方方面面，诸如中国人的性格、思维方式、人生追求、妇女问题、政治社会问题、文学艺术，乃至中国人的最佳生活模式。作者语言质朴流畅，娓娓道来，具有较强的可读性。“这本书问世了，正如所有伟大的书籍终会问世一样。它满足了我们一切热望的要求。它实事求是，不为真实而羞愧。它写得美妙，既严肃又欢快，对古今中国都能给予正确的理解和评价。我认为这是迄今为止最真实、最深刻、最完备、最重要的一部关于中国的著作。更值得称道的是，它是由一位中国人写的，一位现代的中国人。他的根基深深地扎在过去，他丰硕的果实却结在今天。”——诺贝尔文学奖获得者赛珍珠曾这样评价本书。
493 pages, Paperback
Published January 1, 2008
204 people are currently reading
1470 people want to read
About the author
Lin Yutang
260 books342 followersProlific writer of a wide variety of works in Chinese 林语堂 and English; in the 1930s he founded several Chinese magazines specializing in social satire and Western-style journalism.
Lin, the son of a Chinese Presbyterian minister, was educated for the ministry but renounced Christianity in his early 20s and became a professor of English. He traveled to the United States and Europe for advanced study; on his return to China, he taught, edited several English-language journals, and contributed essays to Chinese literary magazines.
In 1932 Lin established the Lunyu banyuekan (“Analects Fortnightly”), a type of Western-style satirical magazine totally new to China at that time. It was highly successful, and he soon introduced two more publications. In 1935 Lin published the first of his many English-language books, My Country and My People. It was widely translated and for years was regarded as a standard text on China. The following year he moved to New York City to meet the popular demand for his historical accounts and novels. In 1939 he published his renowned English novel Moment in Peking. The Wisdom of China and India appeared in 1942.
Although he returned to China briefly in 1943 and again in 1954, Lin both times became involved in disputes stemming from his stand in favour of literature as self-expression rather than as propaganda and social education. In addition to writing books on Chinese history and philosophy, he made highly acclaimed English translations of Chinese literary masterpieces, such as Famous Chinese Short Stories Retold (1952).
Lin, the son of a Chinese Presbyterian minister, was educated for the ministry but renounced Christianity in his early 20s and became a professor of English. He traveled to the United States and Europe for advanced study; on his return to China, he taught, edited several English-language journals, and contributed essays to Chinese literary magazines.
In 1932 Lin established the Lunyu banyuekan (“Analects Fortnightly”), a type of Western-style satirical magazine totally new to China at that time. It was highly successful, and he soon introduced two more publications. In 1935 Lin published the first of his many English-language books, My Country and My People. It was widely translated and for years was regarded as a standard text on China. The following year he moved to New York City to meet the popular demand for his historical accounts and novels. In 1939 he published his renowned English novel Moment in Peking. The Wisdom of China and India appeared in 1942.
Although he returned to China briefly in 1943 and again in 1954, Lin both times became involved in disputes stemming from his stand in favour of literature as self-expression rather than as propaganda and social education. In addition to writing books on Chinese history and philosophy, he made highly acclaimed English translations of Chinese literary masterpieces, such as Famous Chinese Short Stories Retold (1952).
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 46 reviews
October 24, 2019
Speaking to the Dead
I acquired this book mistaking it for a recent analysis of Chinese society. So I was more than a little confused by the introductory Baroque paean to China. The flowery, wandering prose says nothing important except about the writer’s self consciousness. It is an extended throat clearing.
The book, of course, is not about the China of Xi Jinping but of the somewhat lesser known Lin Sen. It describes a China of eighty years ago, a China which was oppressed, conquered, and in a state of political and economic disintegration. And it begins with a denunciation of what the world, the Western world at least, believed China to be: a permanently crippled place of chaos. To be reminded of that misconception is the obvious point of the book’s republication.
It is impossible for an outsider, at least this one, to identify the vestigial cultural tropes that might remain from 1935 in today’s China. Not many, I suspect, after the profound dislocations of the Japanese occupation, World War II, civil war, Maoism, famine, Communist persecution of tradition and religion, and an almost miraculous industrialisation. Certainly assessments like “the Chinese soul revolts against efficiency” are simply quaint. While the claim that “China is the greatest mystifying and stupefying fact in the modern world” is true but in ways the author never could have imagined.
There’s another problem as well. The book is aimed to influence a reader who is absent in the twenty-first century - primarily the English Old China Hand, whose experience is that of the commercial colonial overlord. This type was educated in a particular style at Eton and Harrow. He was immersed in certain Western cultural references from Marcus Aurelius to Bertrand Russell. It is these references, with the occasional allusion to American practicality (and the lack of culture represented by the boxer, Jack Dempsey), that Lin uses to make his points about ‘common humanity’ and the uniqueness of Chinese culture. By making these references he is establishing his bona fides. But neither the social class nor the colonial type exist any longer. Lin is speaking to as well as of the dead.
Lin’s descriptions of the regional differences of China are often racist to modern sensibilities. How else can this typical sort of evaluation be considered? “Down the south-east coast, south of the Yangtse, one meets a different type, inured to ease and culture and sophistication, mentally developed but physically retrograde, loving their poetry and their comforts, sleek undergrown men and slim neurasthenic women, fed on birds’-nest soup and lotus seeds, shrewd in business, gifted in belles-lettres, and cowardly in war, ready to roll on the ground and cry for mamma before the lifted fist descends, offsprings of the cultured Chinese families who crossed the Yangtse with their books and paintings during the end of the Ch’in Dynasty, when China was overrun by barbaric invaders.” Is this anything but regional profiling to serve some unstated purpose?
Lin’s more general historical, political and aesthetic prejudices are obvious and persistent. He presents caricatures rather than characters of contemporary Chinese leaders like Chiang Kaishek. Mao, as far as I can tell isn’t even mentioned, despite the fact that he had already established a break-away republic at the time of original publication. The purported virtues of the Chinese people like ‘mellowness’ and ‘conservatism’ are farcical given subsequent history.
I suppose My Country and My People could serve as a case study for what colonial oppression does to the intellectual layer of a society. Lin had been in a certain sense conned into his role as explicator of Chinese culture to the West. On the one hand he has his Chinese heritage; on the other he has his Western education. So he has some street cred on both sides. But what he writes is apologetic tripe which is largely fictional and doesn’t offend the dominant powers. Ultimately it’s insulting to everyone.
Postscript: it is interesting to compare this book with a more recent assessment of Chinese culture. See https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
I acquired this book mistaking it for a recent analysis of Chinese society. So I was more than a little confused by the introductory Baroque paean to China. The flowery, wandering prose says nothing important except about the writer’s self consciousness. It is an extended throat clearing.
The book, of course, is not about the China of Xi Jinping but of the somewhat lesser known Lin Sen. It describes a China of eighty years ago, a China which was oppressed, conquered, and in a state of political and economic disintegration. And it begins with a denunciation of what the world, the Western world at least, believed China to be: a permanently crippled place of chaos. To be reminded of that misconception is the obvious point of the book’s republication.
It is impossible for an outsider, at least this one, to identify the vestigial cultural tropes that might remain from 1935 in today’s China. Not many, I suspect, after the profound dislocations of the Japanese occupation, World War II, civil war, Maoism, famine, Communist persecution of tradition and religion, and an almost miraculous industrialisation. Certainly assessments like “the Chinese soul revolts against efficiency” are simply quaint. While the claim that “China is the greatest mystifying and stupefying fact in the modern world” is true but in ways the author never could have imagined.
There’s another problem as well. The book is aimed to influence a reader who is absent in the twenty-first century - primarily the English Old China Hand, whose experience is that of the commercial colonial overlord. This type was educated in a particular style at Eton and Harrow. He was immersed in certain Western cultural references from Marcus Aurelius to Bertrand Russell. It is these references, with the occasional allusion to American practicality (and the lack of culture represented by the boxer, Jack Dempsey), that Lin uses to make his points about ‘common humanity’ and the uniqueness of Chinese culture. By making these references he is establishing his bona fides. But neither the social class nor the colonial type exist any longer. Lin is speaking to as well as of the dead.
Lin’s descriptions of the regional differences of China are often racist to modern sensibilities. How else can this typical sort of evaluation be considered? “Down the south-east coast, south of the Yangtse, one meets a different type, inured to ease and culture and sophistication, mentally developed but physically retrograde, loving their poetry and their comforts, sleek undergrown men and slim neurasthenic women, fed on birds’-nest soup and lotus seeds, shrewd in business, gifted in belles-lettres, and cowardly in war, ready to roll on the ground and cry for mamma before the lifted fist descends, offsprings of the cultured Chinese families who crossed the Yangtse with their books and paintings during the end of the Ch’in Dynasty, when China was overrun by barbaric invaders.” Is this anything but regional profiling to serve some unstated purpose?
Lin’s more general historical, political and aesthetic prejudices are obvious and persistent. He presents caricatures rather than characters of contemporary Chinese leaders like Chiang Kaishek. Mao, as far as I can tell isn’t even mentioned, despite the fact that he had already established a break-away republic at the time of original publication. The purported virtues of the Chinese people like ‘mellowness’ and ‘conservatism’ are farcical given subsequent history.
I suppose My Country and My People could serve as a case study for what colonial oppression does to the intellectual layer of a society. Lin had been in a certain sense conned into his role as explicator of Chinese culture to the West. On the one hand he has his Chinese heritage; on the other he has his Western education. So he has some street cred on both sides. But what he writes is apologetic tripe which is largely fictional and doesn’t offend the dominant powers. Ultimately it’s insulting to everyone.
Postscript: it is interesting to compare this book with a more recent assessment of Chinese culture. See https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
March 26, 2021
Update: three years later, I no longer think this way, but I will keep this review for old day's sake.
I very rarely thought about the special quality of China and its people until I came to US for college, and it is in a foreign country (a special country that seems to be dominating the world and replacing all local cultures with its own) that I gradually started to rediscover the essence of my country and my people.
Lin Yutang had a similar study-abroad experience in the early twentieth century, and I feel affinity with his feelings towards his motherland expressed in this book one hundred years later. Like Lin, I am proud of my country but this pride is not unmixed with elements like ashamedness. But at the bottom of my mind and my heart (like in the case of Mr. Lin), there is family loyalty, there is bittersweet childhood memory that is quintessentially Chinese, and there is pride in myself who is and will always be Chinese.
China. What a strange old soul! What a great old soul! What a mystic and chaotic soul that I admire but I as its child cannot penetrate into let alone foreigners. Who would have the confidence to declare he/she truly understands this great nation and where it is headed? Lin's book is a contemplation on China and I think it did a great job. There are a lot of good points he made (though repetitive). I don't want to summarize all of them, but I will evaluate some ideas that stuck with me when I read this book.
Fundamental to Western mind is logic and scientific method, but Chinese dislike the drudgery of all that; instead, Chinese have an overdose of common sense and prefer the intricacy of insights. Common sense and insights are highly flexible, and that's why Chinese people are not people with strong principle: we present different values in different circumstances: "All Chinese are Confucianists when successful, and Taoists when they are failures." Confucianism (a positive philosophy) and Taoism (a defeatist philosophy) are fundamental to Chinese mentality: Confucianism is our culture, our rule of decorum, our declared value, but Taoism (the very opposite of Confucianism) is our nature, our poetic/romantic soul, our relief from the hypocrisy of Confucianism.
Central to Taoism is the idea that life is so full of sorrow that the only way to be happy is to be indifferent, and once we are indifferent, happiness comes naturally. While Westerners stress the right to vote or the right for liberty, Chinese stress the right to be happy. We ridicule all the efforts to change the status quo at the expense of the enjoyment of the present life. The idea that woman cannot be happy without equal pay or homosexuals cannot be happy without the right to get married is considered ridiculous. Chinese believe that everyone can be happy as long as he/she has a full stomach before going to bed, and even with an empty stomach, we can always look at the beauty of the moon. In the absence of religion, earthly happiness is all we cherish, and we are indeed good at finding sources of happiness on earth. "We are not humanitarians, we are humanists."
But China is changing. The influences of both Confucianism and Taoism are decreasing, and I am not positive that the elements that make China a uniquely great soul can survive Americanization and the force of capitalization and pop culture. I think Mr. Lin a hundred years ago also expressed a certain fear for that. He believed that "Chinese race, instead of reaching full maturity with Confucius, was really enjoying a prolonged childhood." Yes we have an old soul, but oldness doesn't necessarily mean maturity. Scientific methods developed a lot, but common sense is stagnant in comparison. Can this old yet immature soul stand the intrusion of a force as strong as globalization? As a true lover of diversity, and moreover a proud Chinese, I wish it can.
I very rarely thought about the special quality of China and its people until I came to US for college, and it is in a foreign country (a special country that seems to be dominating the world and replacing all local cultures with its own) that I gradually started to rediscover the essence of my country and my people.
Lin Yutang had a similar study-abroad experience in the early twentieth century, and I feel affinity with his feelings towards his motherland expressed in this book one hundred years later. Like Lin, I am proud of my country but this pride is not unmixed with elements like ashamedness. But at the bottom of my mind and my heart (like in the case of Mr. Lin), there is family loyalty, there is bittersweet childhood memory that is quintessentially Chinese, and there is pride in myself who is and will always be Chinese.
China. What a strange old soul! What a great old soul! What a mystic and chaotic soul that I admire but I as its child cannot penetrate into let alone foreigners. Who would have the confidence to declare he/she truly understands this great nation and where it is headed? Lin's book is a contemplation on China and I think it did a great job. There are a lot of good points he made (though repetitive). I don't want to summarize all of them, but I will evaluate some ideas that stuck with me when I read this book.
Fundamental to Western mind is logic and scientific method, but Chinese dislike the drudgery of all that; instead, Chinese have an overdose of common sense and prefer the intricacy of insights. Common sense and insights are highly flexible, and that's why Chinese people are not people with strong principle: we present different values in different circumstances: "All Chinese are Confucianists when successful, and Taoists when they are failures." Confucianism (a positive philosophy) and Taoism (a defeatist philosophy) are fundamental to Chinese mentality: Confucianism is our culture, our rule of decorum, our declared value, but Taoism (the very opposite of Confucianism) is our nature, our poetic/romantic soul, our relief from the hypocrisy of Confucianism.
Central to Taoism is the idea that life is so full of sorrow that the only way to be happy is to be indifferent, and once we are indifferent, happiness comes naturally. While Westerners stress the right to vote or the right for liberty, Chinese stress the right to be happy. We ridicule all the efforts to change the status quo at the expense of the enjoyment of the present life. The idea that woman cannot be happy without equal pay or homosexuals cannot be happy without the right to get married is considered ridiculous. Chinese believe that everyone can be happy as long as he/she has a full stomach before going to bed, and even with an empty stomach, we can always look at the beauty of the moon. In the absence of religion, earthly happiness is all we cherish, and we are indeed good at finding sources of happiness on earth. "We are not humanitarians, we are humanists."
But China is changing. The influences of both Confucianism and Taoism are decreasing, and I am not positive that the elements that make China a uniquely great soul can survive Americanization and the force of capitalization and pop culture. I think Mr. Lin a hundred years ago also expressed a certain fear for that. He believed that "Chinese race, instead of reaching full maturity with Confucius, was really enjoying a prolonged childhood." Yes we have an old soul, but oldness doesn't necessarily mean maturity. Scientific methods developed a lot, but common sense is stagnant in comparison. Can this old yet immature soul stand the intrusion of a force as strong as globalization? As a true lover of diversity, and moreover a proud Chinese, I wish it can.
October 3, 2007
Lin Yutang was a Chinese Nobel-Prize nominee writing in the first half of the 20th century, mainly with the purpose of explaining Chinese culture to the West. His piercing insight into the attitude and character of most Chinese people resonates with me every day that I live here. He writes completely in English, with the skill of a gifted native speaker (he was Harvard-educated). If anyone wants to understand into what the average Chinese person was like in the early 20th century, a period of chaos and warlordism, one would do no better than to read Lin Yutang's books.
However, one major drawback to Lin Yutang is that his books were written so long ago about perhaps the most quickly changing nation on the planet. Sometimes, his insight is prophetic, as in one section where he states that if Communism were to take hold in China, it would be changed beyond recognition (as is true with the socialist-authoritarian-market-free-for-all-capitalism that exists in China today). At other times, too much has changed for his characterization to be true, such as when he discusses the Chinese virtue of patience as a direct result of the large families (whoa, one-child policy happened!). Finally, there's the historical bias of relying too much on early 20th century eugenical history in explaining the Chinese characteristics as a result of evolution.
All in all, though, I recommend this book to those interested in China. But good luck finding a copy!
However, one major drawback to Lin Yutang is that his books were written so long ago about perhaps the most quickly changing nation on the planet. Sometimes, his insight is prophetic, as in one section where he states that if Communism were to take hold in China, it would be changed beyond recognition (as is true with the socialist-authoritarian-market-free-for-all-capitalism that exists in China today). At other times, too much has changed for his characterization to be true, such as when he discusses the Chinese virtue of patience as a direct result of the large families (whoa, one-child policy happened!). Finally, there's the historical bias of relying too much on early 20th century eugenical history in explaining the Chinese characteristics as a result of evolution.
All in all, though, I recommend this book to those interested in China. But good luck finding a copy!
January 1, 2013
The book is almost a century old and I guarantee you that most Chinese look very different at a glance. But if scraping off the communist ideology on the surface Chinese are still very much the same people, especially the intellectuals.
This is also a very quotable book, full of little gems (think Oscar Wilde).
Highly recommended.
This is also a very quotable book, full of little gems (think Oscar Wilde).
Highly recommended.
August 13, 2015
"So they fell more seriously to business of living than to the business of making progress. They took infinite pains and spent sleepless nights over the planning of their private gardens or the cooking of sharks' fins, and fell to eating with the seriousness and gusto of an Omar Khayyam, who trailed the dust of philosophy in vain and took again the vine for his spouse..." How true it is -- here's someone who can't sleep because of thinking too hard about making some chicken soup... A note at the beginning of part II
March 15, 2016
Lin Yutang writes here in a systematic approach to a western audience about China and Chinese culture. Still prescient even today, after nearly seventy years, Lin truly understands what it is to be Chinese and conveys that to his audience, and is frank and sincere about China's shortcomings and positives. Highly recommended at the time of its publishing, it ought to remain so today.
July 5, 2010
Old Chinese Scholar reflects on Chinese culture, mentality, style, lifestyle, etc. And because it's an old Chinese dude, it's super "Chinese things are awesome!"
By the way, it made me realize how Chinese I am. Shoot.
By the way, it made me realize how Chinese I am. Shoot.
July 26, 2011
Anyone contemplating spending time in China should read this book. I wish I had BEFORE working in Shanghai.
April 6, 2014
If one wants to understand Chinese people in 20th century, there is no better than this.
August 25, 2023
Any foreigner with the slightest interest in China or Asia (as Chinese culture permeates so much of the region) this is a must-read. Possibly even interesting for Chinese people. Lin Yutang bottles the culture and zeitgeist of a 3,000 year and 22 dynasty old country in absolute brilliance with incredible Chinese sense of humour and wit. Nevertheless, he is particularly biased and does not sugarcoat that the West is inferior to China in many respects, which is a fair account if you compare to how Western authors and historians superficially glance over such a nuanced country. It should also be noted that Lin takes sometimes quite a conservative view, slightly reactionary, on topics that many modern readers would probably disagree with. All in all a great read that will make you wonder and smile several times. The last chapter on the Sino-Japanese war is optional reading imo, but can be interesting to get an at that time current perspective on the 30’s war.
October 4, 2022
Great book about China written by a western-educated Chinese author. Insightful and well-written.
March 12, 2021
Despite the hideous cover, this book was written by a thoughtful Chinese scholar for Westerners in the 1930s. It is a readable, understandable introduction to a culture since transformed by violent, scientific, and cultural revolutions.
The world today is small. In the fields of Tibet, farmers play Celine Dion. Business is conducted in suits from the rising to setting sun. Reactionaries against Western dominance have nothing in their arsenal except European individualist ideals.
There is no more exotic escape from cultural claustrophobia than the past. Lin Yutang is a good travel agent. He will teach you a little Chinese, a little history, a little politics, and even a little cooking before you step into the Dream of the Red Chamber or Journey to the West.
The world today is small. In the fields of Tibet, farmers play Celine Dion. Business is conducted in suits from the rising to setting sun. Reactionaries against Western dominance have nothing in their arsenal except European individualist ideals.
There is no more exotic escape from cultural claustrophobia than the past. Lin Yutang is a good travel agent. He will teach you a little Chinese, a little history, a little politics, and even a little cooking before you step into the Dream of the Red Chamber or Journey to the West.
March 13, 2016
Most of all, "My Country..." is worthwhile because of Lin's brilliant explanation of the opposing roles of Daoism and Confucianism in Chinese society. Lin has a fast-paced and very quotable style--this proved useful for getting through some dull parts of the book.
The chapter on Chinese literary life is essential and provides very good background for recent events like the New Culture movement. Lin's opinions on race and gender roles might be offensive to modern readers but I think they're interesting insofar as they more clearly illuminate the worldview of a undeniably brilliant Chinese scholar.
The chapter on Chinese literary life is essential and provides very good background for recent events like the New Culture movement. Lin's opinions on race and gender roles might be offensive to modern readers but I think they're interesting insofar as they more clearly illuminate the worldview of a undeniably brilliant Chinese scholar.
January 23, 2014
This was an interesting read in the fact that I could still see quite a bit of overlap in Chinese culture that he described of the early 20th century and current Chinese culture. I didn't really appreciate his commentary of Christianity and thought it surprising that he could have a pastor as a father and yet be so misinformed about Christianity. I also didn't really care for his ethnocentric overtone that Chinese culture is superior, but I guess that in itself is a rather common element of Chinese culture.
October 14, 2013
Some years ago I read and really enjoyed The Importance of Living, so I thought I might like this book, which I found at a used bookstore. Lin Yutang writes beautifully, and has an interesting take on things, but ultimately I found long stretches of this book rather tedious.
May 21, 2017
I don't agree with everything he writes here, especially as it is dated by now, but it's an accomplishment that he even got this far, and the way he is able to weave in cultural references from the East and the West is a feat in itself.
February 19, 2008
great for the study of chinese character~
Want to read
November 30, 2008I have just bought this book,and I'm going to read it.You know,this book was written by a Chinese.I'm proud of it,and I believe it is a wonderful book.
Want to read
January 27, 2012Recommended by Lorisa, postcrossing (CN-497974).
March 18, 2012
a large portion out-dated, some ideas still interesting
June 15, 2012
very interesting to read 1935 views re the Chinese people.
February 22, 2013
If you need read one book to understand China, this is the one
January 17, 2014
Rather tedious overall, but many parts of it were very insightful (and quotable!)
February 29, 2016
Great introduction to Chinese culture. Really enjoyed the first several chapters, which are about the characteristics and personality of Chinese people. Worth reading.
November 19, 2016
What did China look like in 20th century in the eyes of a scholar who had been deeply influenced by western cultures and literatures. But he still had neutral opinions on many of the issues.
November 3, 2019
Still hilariously relevant today
October 11, 2020
really helped me understand China, while i lived there for some 5 years
February 11, 2024
Tocquevillesque.
A mellow understanding of life and of human nature is, and always has been, the Chinese ideal of character, and from that understanding other qualities are derived, such as pacifism, contentment, calm and strength of endurance which distinguish the Chinese character.
The Chinese people have put up with more tyranny, anarchy and misrule than any Western people will ever put up with, and seem to have regarded them as part of the laws of nature.
…fatalism is a great source of peace and contentment.
So, in my mind, I pictured the Saviour of China. I would believe in a revolution, any revolution, and in a party, any party, that would replace the present government by Face, Fate and Favour by a government by law. These three have made the rule of Justice and the weeding out of official corruption Impossible. The only reason why official corruption remains is that we have never shot the officials, not one of them. We couldn't so long as these three goddesses still remain. The only way to deal with corruption in the officials is just to shoot them. The matter is really as simple as that. … That time will come, but it requires a change of ideology; the family-minded Chinese must be changed into social-minded Chinese, and the pet ideas, age-old, of face, favour and privilege and official success and robbing the nation to glorify the family must be overthrown. The process… is already at work, invisible, penetrating the upper and lower social strata, and as inevitable as dawn. For a time yet there will still be ugliness and pain, but after a while there will be calm and beauty and simplicity, the calm and beauty and simplicity which distinguished old China. But more than that, there will be justice, too. To that people of the Land of Justice, we of the present generation shall seem but like the children of the twilight. I ask for patience from the friends of China, not from my countrymen, for they have too much of it. And I ask for hope from my countrymen, for to hope is to live.
These words were being published when Mao Zedong and the Chinese communists were on their long march to northwest China. Eerie.
A mellow understanding of life and of human nature is, and always has been, the Chinese ideal of character, and from that understanding other qualities are derived, such as pacifism, contentment, calm and strength of endurance which distinguish the Chinese character.
The Chinese people have put up with more tyranny, anarchy and misrule than any Western people will ever put up with, and seem to have regarded them as part of the laws of nature.
…fatalism is a great source of peace and contentment.
So, in my mind, I pictured the Saviour of China. I would believe in a revolution, any revolution, and in a party, any party, that would replace the present government by Face, Fate and Favour by a government by law. These three have made the rule of Justice and the weeding out of official corruption Impossible. The only reason why official corruption remains is that we have never shot the officials, not one of them. We couldn't so long as these three goddesses still remain. The only way to deal with corruption in the officials is just to shoot them. The matter is really as simple as that. … That time will come, but it requires a change of ideology; the family-minded Chinese must be changed into social-minded Chinese, and the pet ideas, age-old, of face, favour and privilege and official success and robbing the nation to glorify the family must be overthrown. The process… is already at work, invisible, penetrating the upper and lower social strata, and as inevitable as dawn. For a time yet there will still be ugliness and pain, but after a while there will be calm and beauty and simplicity, the calm and beauty and simplicity which distinguished old China. But more than that, there will be justice, too. To that people of the Land of Justice, we of the present generation shall seem but like the children of the twilight. I ask for patience from the friends of China, not from my countrymen, for they have too much of it. And I ask for hope from my countrymen, for to hope is to live.
These words were being published when Mao Zedong and the Chinese communists were on their long march to northwest China. Eerie.
March 2, 2025
Written in the midst of the Chinese national crisis unleashed by the Japanese invasion of 1931, it reflects colloquially and amusingly in his very characteristic style on Chinese civilization, culture, history and daily life, very much in the style of The Importance of Living. Overall this is another Lin Yuntang approach to such exciting and as yet ill-defined issues as the character and soul of China.
He has some sharp nuances on the difference between the West and the East, to highlight the aesthetic and moral superiority of China over capitalist Western civilization.
It will always be difficult to controvert a Chinese person on his own instrospection of his culture, much more so if he is someone as reputable as Lin Yutang, but in some parts his validation of certain aspects of China's feudal mentality can be problematic even considering the historical context.
Of enormous appeal and value I believe are the sections on Chinese art, painting, poetry, calligraphy and literature.
He has some sharp nuances on the difference between the West and the East, to highlight the aesthetic and moral superiority of China over capitalist Western civilization.
It will always be difficult to controvert a Chinese person on his own instrospection of his culture, much more so if he is someone as reputable as Lin Yutang, but in some parts his validation of certain aspects of China's feudal mentality can be problematic even considering the historical context.
Of enormous appeal and value I believe are the sections on Chinese art, painting, poetry, calligraphy and literature.
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