Gu Hongming/Huang Songxiaoqing/Translation

I once heard a foreign friend say that as a foreigner, the longer I live in Japan, the more I hate the Japanese. On the contrary, the longer I live in China, the more I like China people. This foreign friend has lived in Japan and China for a long time. I don't know if it's appropriate to comment on the Japanese, but I believe everyone who has lived in China will agree with the above comments on the China people. As we all know, the longer a foreigner lives in China, the more he likes China people. China people have something indescribable. Although the lack of hygiene habits, but life is not very particular; Although their thoughts and personalities have many shortcomings, they still win the love of foreigners, which is beyond the reach of any other nation. I sum up this indescribable thing as tenderness. If I don't defend this tenderness, it may be mistaken for China people's physical and moral defects-meekness and cowardice. The gentleness mentioned here again is the gentleness that I have proposed from sympathy or real human wisdom-neither from reasoning nor from instinct, but from sympathy-from the power of compassion. Then, how can China people have such sympathy?

I take the liberty of giving you an answer-or a hypothesis. If you like, you can regard it as the secret of China people's compassion. The reason why China people have this power, this powerful sympathy power, is because they live a spiritual life completely or almost completely. China people's life is a perceptual life-this kind of emotion does not come from the sense of sensory intuition, nor from the passion of your nervous system, but from the depths of our human nature-the passion of the soul or the emotion of human love.

Let's see if China people live a spiritual life. In this regard, we can use the general characteristics of China people's real life to illustrate.

First, let's talk about the language in China. China's language is also the language of thinking. It is an obvious fact that it is much easier for children and uneducated foreigners living in China to learn Chinese than adults and educated people. The reason is that children and uneducated people think and use language with heart. On the contrary, educated people, especially modern Europeans with rational education, think and use language with their brains and wisdom. There is a proverb about Elysium that is also used to learn the language of China: Unless you become a child, it is difficult for you to learn it.

Secondly, we will point out a well-known fact in the daily life of China people. People in China have amazing memories. What is the secret? China people remember by heart, not by brain. It is much better to keep a mental record of sympathy for power than to use the mind or intelligence, which is boring. For example, most of us have better memories in childhood than in adulthood. Because children, like people in China, rely on their memories, not their brains.

The following example is still a fact that is reflected in the daily life of China people and recognized by everyone-the courtesy of China people. China has always been regarded as a country of etiquette. What is the nature of politeness? This is the feeling of understanding and caring for others. China people are polite because they live a spiritual life. They fully understand their own feelings, easily put themselves in others' shoes, and show the characteristics of understanding and caring for others' feelings. Although the etiquette in China is not as complicated as that in Japan, it is pleasant. On the contrary, Japanese politeness is complicated and unpleasant. I heard some complaints from foreigners. Compromise politeness should probably be called polite rehearsal-just like drama rehearsal, it needs rote learning. This is not from the heart, out of natural courtesy. In fact, Japanese politeness is a flower without fragrance, while China's real politeness is from the heart, full of a strange fragrance similar to expensive perfume.

The last example of the characteristics of China people is their lack of precise habits. This is an idea put forward by arthur smith and made it famous all over the world. What is the reason why people in China lack accuracy? I say it's because they live a spiritual life. The mind is slender and sensitive, and it is not as rigid and rigid as the mind or wisdom. In fact, China people's brush can be regarded as a symbol of China people's spirit. It is very difficult to write and draw with a brush, which seems to be difficult to be accurate, but once you master it, you can create beautiful and elegant paintings with ease, which can't be done with a hard pen in the west.

It is precisely because China people live a spiritual life and a childlike life that they are somewhat naive in many ways. This is an obvious fact, that is, as a great nation with a long history, China people are still so naive in many aspects. This makes some shallow overseas students think that China people have failed to develop civilization, and Chinese civilization is a stagnant civilization. It must be admitted that the intellectual development of China people has been artificially restricted to some extent. As we all know, China people have made little or no progress in some areas. This is not only in natural science, but also in purely abstract science, such as science and logic. In fact, the words "science" and "logic" in European languages cannot be expressed in Chinese.

China people who live a spiritual life like children are not interested in abstract science, because there is nothing they can do about it. As a matter of fact, anything that doesn't require mental and emotional participation, such as statistical work, will arouse China people's antipathy. If statistics, charts and abstract science only arouse the antipathy of China people, then the so-called scientific research that Europeans are engaged in now, and the so-called science that destroys and dismembers the living body in order to prove a scientific theory, has already made China people feel scared and suppressed by them.

In fact, what I want to point out here is that the most wonderful feature of China people is not that they live a spiritual life. All ethnic groups in the primary stage live a spiritual life. As we all know, Christians in medieval Europe also lived a spiritual life. Matthew arnold once said, "The Christian world in the Middle Ages lived by the mind and imagination." The most prominent feature of China people is that when they live a spiritual life and live like children, they have the power of thought and reason that medieval Christians or any other nation in the primary stage do not have. In other words, the most wonderful quality of China people is that, as a nation with a long history, they have both the wisdom of adults and the ability to live a childlike life-spiritual life.

Therefore, we say that China people are a nation that will never get old, not that their development has been hindered. In short, as a nation, the most wonderful feature of China people is that they have the secret of staying young forever.

Now we can answer the original question-who is the real China people? We now know that the real China people are people who have a deficit heart and the wisdom of adults and live a spiritual life. In short, the real China people have the heart of a child and the wisdom of an adult. The Chinese national spirit is a spirit of eternal youth and an immortal national soul. What is the secret of China people's eternal youth? You must remember that I once said that it was compassion or real human wisdom that made people of China type, thus forming the unspeakable tenderness of real China people. This real human intelligence is the organic combination of sympathy and intelligence, which makes people's mind and brain harmonious. In a word, it is the harmony between mind and reason. If the spirit of the Chinese nation is a spirit of eternal youth and an immortal national soul, then the secret of the immortality of the national spirit is the perfect harmony between China people's mind and reason. (Excerpted from the Spirit of China)

Gu Hongming and China Spirit —— Preface of Translator

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Here, we are translating a world-influential masterpiece by Gu Hongming, a "cultural geek", which is called The Spirit of China People, also known as Justice in the Spring and Autumn Period or Yuan Hua.

Gu Hongming (1857- 1928), whose real name is Tang Sheng, is from Tongan, Fujian, and was born in an overseas Chinese family in Penang, Malaya. /kloc-went to study in the west at the age of 0/3 and studied in Britain, Germany, France, Italy and other countries for ten years. After returning to China, he worked as a foreign copywriter for the shogunate of Zhang Zhidong for a long time. In the late Qing Dynasty, he served as a doctor in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. In the early years of the Republic of China, he was Professor Peking University.

In modern times, Gu Hongming was a cultural celebrity with an international reputation. Especially known as "eccentricity". People who respect him, such as Lin Yutang, call him a "freak", while people who despise him, such as Hu Shizhi, call him a "monster". His thoughts have little influence at home, but his reputation is not small. For a long time, anecdotes about him have been circulating.

In the eyes of ordinary people, Gu Hongming especially belongs to the extremely stubborn "feudal remnant". He defended the imperial system and concubinage, and used the "three-inch golden lotus" to maintain the braid, which has been known to people so far. But it is such an extremely conservative figure who is proficient in nearly ten languages, such as English, German and French, and enjoys extensive influence in the western world and modern Japan. This fact has not attracted extensive and sufficient attention.

It is no exaggeration to say that in the modern west, especially in the first two decades of this century, no China scholar can compare with Gu Hongming in fame and prestige.

Tolstoy of Russia corresponded with Gu, discussing how to resist the destructive power of modern material civilization and openly supporting his cultural conservatism. Frenchman romain rolland said that he was "famous in the West"; Mao Mu of Britain paid a special visit to him, calling him "the greatest authority of Confucianism in China" and "a philosopher with lofty voice", and admitted that he "occupies an important position among people who care about abstract things". Brandeis of Sweden praised him as an "outstanding China scholar" and "the most important writer in modern China". Tagore of India once communicated with him and took a photo with him; Gandhi called him a "respectable China man". Especially in Germany before and after World War I, Gu Hongming's influence was incredible. Not only did some people in the university organize the "Gu Hongming Research Association" and set up the "Gu Hongming Club", but his name was also widely circulated among ordinary people. In this case, German students studying in China at that time were shocked and excited. During the Second World War, there was a modest "Ku Hongming fever" in Japan. In the 1920s, Ku was invited to give lectures in Japan for three years (1924- 1927).

Undoubtedly, this widespread response overseas contains many complicated and specific historical reasons. But this at least shows that Gu and his cultural thoughts are worth studying.

In fact, Gu Hongming's cultural mystery of "being proficient in western learning and extremely conservative" is itself a question of modern cultural history worth discussing. The in-depth study and analysis of this issue will help people to grasp the cultural relationship between China and the West in modern times and better understand the historical era of conflict and integration between China and the West.

Gu Hongming has been dead for nearly 70 years. Whenever I read his works, I strongly feel that it is too simplistic to treat such a unique cultural freak as a stubborn and ridiculous villain and treat him blindly with party sickness and ridicule.

In fact, the Gu family is not a complete failure in modern culture and the Chinese nation. His extreme, conservative and even backward cultural thoughts still have some merits. For example, the comparative understanding of Chinese and western civilizations, the exposure and criticism of the shortcomings of modern western civilization, and the revelation of some characteristics of China's traditional civilization are enlightening to the in-depth understanding of Chinese and western civilizations at that time and even today.

Gu Hongming also did some positive work in modern cultural exchanges between China and the West. It is the initiative of China people to independently and completely translate Confucian classics into the west. Even those foreign language works that promote Confucian culture have no positive value for westerners to understand China culture. It is true that in this process, from a stubborn and conservative standpoint, he improperly publicized and safeguarded some dross in his own civilization to the West. However, cultural problems are very complicated, and often dross and essence coexist, and strength is connected. Different cultures may have different values and have different influences on different nationalities in different times, so it is difficult to simply distinguish them. Confucian civilization, as an ancient and valuable discipline in China's traditional civilization, is even more so. Modern China was in the pre-capitalist stage, facing the historical task of getting rid of the burden of feudal civilization, stepping out of the Middle Ages and moving towards modernization. In this case, the traditional Confucian civilization shows more negative aspects; For the western world, which has gradually entered the post-capitalist society, it can show some civilized values that help the west reflect on the shortcomings of current civilization and inspire people to seek a new spiritual realm. During the First World War and the early postwar period, Gu's thoughts had a considerable influence in the West. It can be said that he made a certain contribution to the reconstruction and development of western post-war civilization.

In addition, since the late Qing Dynasty, from the standpoint of patriotism and love for tradition, Gu has persistently criticized the political oppression, cultural aggression and ethnic discrimination in the West, and has also done a lot of useful work to safeguard national rights and interests and national dignity. At that time, due to various factors, very few people really had the courage and ability to do this job. Although concrete analysis is needed when evaluating his activities in this field, on the whole, he should be fully affirmed.

Related to this, China's passionate heart and feelings of self-respect and self-respect are admirable. Compared with those foreign slaves who felt immortal as soon as they set foot on the ocean and decided that "the moon in the west is rounder than that in China", they forgot their roots and were ashamed of being China people, which is really commendable. Unfortunately, his self-esteem is closely related to his conservative cultural understanding, which eventually develops into a deplorable national arrogance and even falls into the position of defending his own national shortcomings. This unhealthy and harmful cultural mentality cannot but be said to be a profound lesson left by Gu Hongming.

Of course, how to know and evaluate Gu Hongming and his thoughts is a matter of different opinions. The achievement of consensus still depends on the depth of research. Unfortunately, many people can't comment on this at present, because they haven't had a chance to see Gu's large number of original foreign languages. In fact, the lack of academic research on Gu Hongming and related issues is also a very important reason.

Gu Yisheng's major works are mostly written in English, such as "Respect for the King" (also known as "Collected Works of the Governor's Office"), "The Moral Causes of the Sino-Russian War", "The Story of the Oxford Movement" and "The Japanese Spirit". In addition, there are works preserved in German and Japanese versions, such as Scream and Gu Hongming's Lecture.

Among all Gu's works, The Spirit of China People is the most representative of his ideological style, and the name that domestic scholars are familiar with is Justice in the Spring and Autumn Period (the Chinese name on the cover of the original book). Its English title is: China people's spirit. 19 15 was first published by Beijing Daily, and 1922 was reprinted by Beijing Commercial Press. It is a series of essays composed of China People's Spirit and China Women. Among them, "China people's spirit" is its core, so the book is named after it. As for Gu's calling it The Meaning of the Spring and Autumn Annals, it is because in this book, he emphasized the Confucian classics such as "respecting the king and rejecting the foreign countries" and "birthright" contained in Confucius' Spring and Autumn Annals.

The main purpose of The Spirit of China is to reveal the spiritual life of China people, publicize the value of China traditional culture, and advocate the theory that Confucian civilization saves the West. It is one of the representative works of the oriental cultural trend of thought that rose around the world before and after the First World War (that is, the May 4th period). Compared with similar works, such as Liang Qichao's My Heart in Europe, Liang Shuming's Eastern and Western Cultures and Their Philosophy is four or five years earlier.

After the book was published, it immediately caused a sensation in the west, especially in Germany, and various newspapers and magazines copied and translated it one after another, becoming "people who refused to discuss". Soon, Oka A.H Schmitz translated and published a German translation (19 16), and later published a French translation prefaced by the famous Italian historian, writer and anti-fascist fighter Ferrero. During World War II, the Japanese official translated and published the Japanese version of From Fish to Good Man. The influence of the western "China Spirit" has also been fed back to China. 19 18, the Oriental Magazine, edited by Du Yaquan, translated an article entitled "The Judgment of Chinese and Western Civilizations" from the Japanese Light of East Asia, and introduced the overseas response of Gu's works, which caused many "queries" from Chen Duxiu, the actual editor-in-chief of New Youth, thus making the debate between the two magazines heated up. Although the new youth party exposed and condemned the essence of Gu's theory of restoring ancient ways, their attitude towards Gu's cultural thought was almost totally negative, lacking in analysis and objective justice. In fact, Du Yaquan, Chen Duxiu and Li Dazhao didn't read the whole book carefully at that time, but often just read its "outline" as Li Dazhao thought. This certainly does not help to understand the whole picture of Gu's thought. Here, I don't want to make a comprehensive evaluation of Gu's book. I just want to briefly talk about my two feelings after translation.

First of all, I think Gu is really an extremely intelligent person. His book is an early achievement that China scholars should not ignore when comparing Chinese and Western cultures. For example, the comparative analysis of Confucianism and western religions in the book can be said to be a bit comprehensive, from the object of belief, basic teachings to mission, cognitive roots and even social and political influence, both breadth and depth, reached a higher level at that time. If we put aside his ultimate value judgment, we can say that his relevant opinions are sharp and wonderful. As he pointed out, China people have no personal life, only social and ethical life; Confucianism is not a religion, but it can replace religion to influence people and play the role of religion; "in Europe, politics has become a science, but since China had Confucianism, politics has become a religion? Quot The separation of western religion and philosophy causes the conflict between western rationality and emotion, and so on. Some of these views have been highly praised by western scholars, while others have been vigorously promoted by China scholars in the future. A lot may have become common sense now, but at that time, I have to say it was quite insightful. There are still some ideas in the book that may not be very confusing, but they are novel and unique, thought-provoking and worth pondering over. For example, he thinks that traditional women in China have three characteristics: modesty, softness and leisure, which are difficult for western nations to achieve. The typical one is Guanyin, while the west is a completely different and unfriendly Maria. For another example, the Chinese nation has four characteristics: deep, broad, simple, sensitive, and especially sensitive to immeasurable. The major nationalities in the west are either lacking this or that, and they are not as complete as China people. Therefore, they naturally cannot understand the mysterious China people and their civilization. In all fairness, I'm afraid these views still reflect some subtleties of Chinese and western national character.

Secondly, from the perspective of the history of cultural thought, this book is also of great significance for revealing the spiritual life of China people and expounding the spiritual value of China culture and morality. The profound and subtle development in this respect was completed by the "Oriental Culture School" and modern Confucianism in the future. To some extent, Gu Hongming can be regarded as the forerunner of their thoughts. His related thoughts are not only quite mature, but also unique. Some comments are quite wonderful and unforgettable. You see, he used a brush to express the so-called wisdom of China's spiritual life and culture. How vividly he said: "China's brush can be regarded as a symbol of China people's spirit. It is very difficult to write and draw with a brush, and it seems that it is not easy to be accurate, but once you master it, you can make beautiful and elegant paintings with ease, which can't be achieved with a hard western pen. " As early as the early 1930s, people began to pay attention to the study of the ideological relationship between Gu's thought and the future "Oriental Cultural School" figures. For example, Chen, a "total Westernization" who charged deeply, once made a "detailed postgraduate study" on Liang Shuming's "Eastern and Western Cultures and Their Philosophy" and Gu's books, and said: "I suspect that Mr. Liang is greatly influenced by Mr. Gu. ..... Is it a good coincidence that Mr. Gu's thoughts are consistent with Mr. Liang's central thoughts? Quot Indeed, in Gu Hongming's thoughts, there are many similarities or similarities with the "Oriental Cultural School" and the future Neo-Confucianism, which is the aspect that we should pay special attention to when reading this book (see Gu Hongming). The Spirit of China has never been published in a complete Chinese translation in China. During the May 4th Movement, a gentleman named Chen Zenggu translated this book, but he didn't go to the world. He only published some translations of classical Chinese (Asian academic journal L-4? Six, huh What's the matter with you? Fei xinkang is harmonious? School? I'm in a hurry, but I don't know what to do. Lang Xiaofang, do you see it? In fact, when this book was first published, New Youth magazine had not been published. In this way, in the eyes of ordinary people, this book can only leave an image memory, just like Gu's legendary pig tail, but it has become a vivid symbol of his stubbornness and conservatism. As for the content, most of them are not detailed.

1987 In the summer, under the guidance of Professor Gong Shufeng, my school brother Song Xiaoqing and I completed the translation together. 199 1 I published "Gu Hongming and His Influence on the World" (No.4 of the Journal of Literature and History in that year), specifically introducing this book. Last year, Hainan Publishing House expressed its hope to publish the collected works of Gu Hongming, and to publish the translation of this book first. So we are happy to turn over the old translation and polish it, which is this compilation. In order to help readers understand this book and Gu more comprehensively and deeply, we have specially added some appendices, including the preface of other language versions of this book and important articles other than Gu's own book. In the process of translation, we got the help of many friends. Among them, American Mentality and Democracy and War were translated by Zhu. What is democracy? The Similarities and Differences between Eastern and Western Civilizations was translated by Yao Chuande. The preface of Spirit of China is translated by Yang Baicheng in German, Song Jun in Japanese and Zhang Dezhao and Fan in French. In translating other words involved in the book, I also got the help of my good friend Yu, and I am grateful here.

Because Gu Hongming's English works are often mixed with many languages, despite many inquiries, I am still afraid that there is something wrong with the translation. So welcome friends at home and abroad to criticize and correct me.

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Yu China Renmin University Qing History Institute

1March, 996