Chapter 26 3. Human spirituality

Gu Hongming helped me untie the cable and pushed me into the sea of ​​doubt.Perhaps without Gu Hongming, I would also return to the mainstream of Chinese thought; because no Chinese who is rich in research spirit can be satisfied with a long-term understanding of China itself with a half-knowledge.It is a deep yearning to recognize the voice of one's own country's historical heritage.There is something in the Chinese language that, though invisible, can powerfully change the way people think.Ways of thinking, concepts, images, and the tone of each sentence are very different between English and Chinese.When speaking English, people think in the British way; when speaking in Chinese, people inevitably think in the Chinese way.If I write two articles with the same topic and the same point of view in one morning, one in English and one in Chinese, the two articles will appear to be different, because the flow of thought follows different images, quotations, etc. , and Lenovo will automatically import different ways.Man does not speak because he thinks, but he thinks because he speaks, and he thinks because he arranges words. Thought only interprets words.When we speak a different language, the concepts themselves take on different clothes and colors, because the words have different timbres and different associations.So I started to study Chinese with Chinese thinking, and it made me instinctively understand and accept certain truths and images. It is a bit strange to think in the middle of two languages ​​that are so different, Chinese and English.My English laughs at Chinese monophonic characters as smooth, shiny boulders; while my Chinese recognizes the greater clarity and accuracy of English thought, but still laughs at it as dubious and abstract offal.

I must say that the Chinese are not interested in abstract ideas.The Chinese language is like a woman's gossip. Every thing is either to climb or go, or to marry out or to marry back.Chinese abstract ideas, following Chinese pragmatic thinking conventions, are often a mixture of two realities, so size represents "area" (how big is that diamond?), length represents "length", and weight represents "weight" .Even more puzzling, the common word for "thing" is "thing" (do you have anything to eat in your fridge?).Strict philosophical concepts, "positive", "righteousness", "loyalty" and "benefit" are all esoteric monosyllabic words, and they are often similar.Taking right and wrong as an example, it combines the two relative concepts of true and false, right and wrong, and the boundaries of regions are eliminated.There is also the separation of heart and mind into two things, when a Chinese admits that they think with their heart (I think in my stomach, sometimes I think in my heart), the word "heart" is It refers to the heart and the mind at the same time, so the Chinese are emotional in their thinking. The word "bowels" (owels) in the Bible is closest to it ① Cromwell wrote to the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland in 1650 and said: "I beseech you with the bowels of Christ (love) to consider whether you may have False." The Chinese, therefore, have rather little or no abstractions in their minds, and they never leave the sphere of life, and are in no danger of indulging in abstract reasoning for too long.Man, like a whale, must rise to the surface of the sea to breathe the free air, and occasionally to glance at the clouds and the sky.A consequence of this thinking is that in Chinese philosophy there are no theoretical terms, no codes specifically conveying ideas, no distinction between "mass" knowledge and scientific knowledge.There is no shame in writing about philosophy in a language that ordinary people can understand.Chinese scholars are not ashamed of the "popularization" of knowledge.It is said that Plato wrote two philosophy books, one for experts and the other for popular people. Fortunately, the expert book was lost later, so modern readers can enjoy the clarity of Plato's dialogues.If Western philosophers could write in English with the simplicity of Plato, philosophy would still have a place in the minds of ordinary people. (I guess if they had written clearly, it would have given away that they really had nothing to say.)

①Owels, in the "Bible", sometimes interpreted as "gut" and sometimes as "love". ——Annotation. Sometimes I ask myself, has there ever been an idea like Kant's in China?The answer is obviously no, and it is impossible for China to have one.A Chinese Kant laughs at himself the moment he speaks of "things" themselves: his reason—he may have a powerful reason, direct, intuitive—will tell him that it is ridiculous.All knowledge, according to Kant, is derived from knowledge: it is good.All understanding is determined by an innate law of the heart: it is good.A blind man may gain knowledge about pears and bananas by feeling the difference in texture between pear skins and banana skins through the sense of touch with his fingers.True, but the Chinese philosopher would feel that there must be different qualities in the peel of pears and bananas that correspond to differences in the sense of touch.Isn't this kind of knowledge "true"?Why do you need to know about the banana itself and the pear itself?Suppose there is a being different from human beings, with a different structure and endowed with different spiritual powers. For example, a Martian would use a different sense and a different method to perceive the difference between a banana peel and a pear peel .Isn't this difference still consistent with the difference between the banana itself and the pear itself?However, when we talk about bananas and pears themselves instead of knowing the direct feeling and experience of the toughness of the pear skin and the softness of the banana skin, what good is it?The toughness of the pear skin and the softness of the banana skin are enough to tell people what it is, which is direct, correct, and most useful.The same is true for the ear's direct understanding of different sound waves and the eye's direct understanding of different light waves.This is the natural way of "knowledge," so subtly developed that a deer can tell from a long distance that a tiger is approaching by its sense of smell, hearing or sight.These feelings have to be correct and have to match the real environment, so they have to be "real", otherwise the deer cannot survive.We have to remember, for example, that images of changes in the outside world, a car approaching or going in the direction of a person two hundred yards away, are recorded in the images of the retina, which is no more than half an inch in size, so the car The image itself is only about one-thousandth of an inch in size, and the tiny movements of this one-ten-thousandth of an inch are recorded directly and often without errors. Why did Kant talk about the car itself?Western philosophers would immediately reply, "Chinaman, you don't understand what Kant is talking about." The Chinese would retort, "Of course I don't." "Can I eat my banana now?" The West must each shrug their shoulders and walk away.

I also asked myself, did China ever produce ideas like Aristotle?The answer is obviously no.China is also impossible.China does not pay attention to analytical ability, conceptual and systematic logic testing; nor does it have an objective interest in the differences in the way of thinking and the scope of knowledge.What is remarkable about Plato and Aristotle is that their reasoning methods are modern, while the Chinese reasoning methods are completely different.Medieval pedantic reasoning and the quest for epistemology, after all, began with Aristotle.A Chinese is willing to listen to Aristotle's ethics, politics, and poetics...but his knowledge of botany, astronomy, meteorology, and biology, although a bit rough, is impressed by his profound knowledge. Surprised and moved.Serenely observed, in physics as well as in biology, his curious, objective dissection of all parts of life (for Aristotle was a physician) is astonishing.The limited vision of the Chinese forces him to scientifically classify all chickens as either "hard" or "soft".As for its possible relationship with other birds, such as pheasant and guinea hen, it is discarded as useless.Confucius had a student, Zixia, who had a hobby of collecting facts and reports, and was interested in the birds and insects mentioned. Confucius said to him: "Women are Confucianists of gentlemen, and Confucianists of innocence." What one learns is not enough to be a teacher."

The Chinese are in fact obsessed with the intuitive understanding of the whole, which Yale University professor Northrup calls "a continuum of undifferentiated aesthetics."What Professor Northrup means is that the Chinese like to measure things at first impression, and in this way retain a better feeling for them as a whole.Always suspicious of the division of the indivisible, they prefer to rely on immediate perception.Freddie, speaking to thought in the tone of Emerson, tells the truth of the Chinese philosopher: "Here is his opinion, unprepared, indisputable, like the navigator from the cloud cover Signals emerging from the deep sea of ​​the Opinions, but by way of natural and often accidental orders. Such things as order of content, introduction, modulation, do not exist for him. When he starts to express a point, we think he is systematically Weaving it carefully, explaining it from all sides, and fortifying it against all possible attacks. Suddenly, a picture from outside, or a simile, a epigram or a summary, touched him and filled the back of his mind. In the middle of a session, the theme has since spun on a new axis."

This is how the great journey begins, and at first I feel nothing.My mind, armed with modern thought as any college graduate, is bound to skim those continents of thought and find them strange, dull, empty (Confucius's words often sound a little empty at first hearing).On my fortieth birthday, I wrote a couplet for myself: "Two feet on Eastern and Western cultures; one mind on commenting on the universe." I must use a more precise framework of logical thinking to explain Chinese people's conscience and intuitive knowledge, and put The advice of Western thought is put to the test by the judgment of Chinese intuition.

So I must stop and describe, in chapter by chapter, what I saw along the way before I finally accepted Christianity as the satisfactory answer to man's spiritual problems.When I switched back to Christianity, some people expressed surprise and found it hard to believe that I would have given up acceptance of the world and realism for a more dubious and more metaphysical Christian "belief."I thought I should spell out my evolution and transformation by detailing the beauties and flaws of the Chinese way, pointing out where they have reached their highest point, and pointing out where their answer was incomplete.I should also make it clear that heaven and hell have nothing to do with this, and I still think, as I have said elsewhere, that if God loved me half as much as my mother did, he wouldn't send me to hell— —not five minutes, not five days, but forever in hell—a sentence that even secular courts will never feel comfortable with.I would not believe such a thing.My return to Christianity was rather due to my intuitive knowledge of morality, the induction of "signals from the depths" that the Chinese are best at.I also have to explain that the procedures I went through were not convenient and easy, and I will not easily change the principles I have always believed in.I have roamed in the sweet, quiet prairie of thought, and seen beautiful hilltops; I have lived in the hall of Confucius' humanism, and climbed the peak of Daoshan and seen its majesty; I have glimpsed the mists of Buddhism Hanging above a terrible emptiness; and only through these did I descend on the Jungfraujoch of Christianity, to the world of clouds and sunshine.

I will only discuss Confucianism, Taoism, the two most important and influential mainstreams of thought, and Buddhism, the third largest spiritual power in the East.In ancient Chinese philosophy, in addition to Confucianism and Taoism, there are Sophists, Legalists, Theorists, Mohists (disciples of Mo Di) and Yang Zhu School (live for me), in addition to some small schools .I don't even want to talk about Mohism, because this school died out in the third and second centuries B.C. and left no permanent influence on Chinese thought.But Mo Di and his disciples have attracted attention because of the development of question-and-answer methods and theory of theory.His doctrine is actually a notable religion of asceticism and self-sacrifice based on the doctrine of "God's fatherhood" and the doctrine of the brotherhood of man.It is said that the Mohists belong to the "poverty faction", which means that they have worked so hard to help others that only a handful of bones are left.At the same time, Mo Di firmly advocated a single god. He called himself Tian. In China, Tian is a general name for God.

In the next three chapters dealing with Confucianism, Taoism, and Buddhism, I think the concern is with the spirituality of man and with the insights these venerable systems of thought have regarding the universe and philosophy of life.I am most concerned with the ideals of life and the character of man.The teaching of Jesus is in a unique category, unique and strangely beautiful, setting forth some accepted teachings not found in other religions.But first of all, I want to make it clear here that we cannot make a contrast between darkness and light just for convenience, saying that Christianity is "true" and therefore Confucianism is "false".We cannot therefore dismiss Buddhism as an "idolatry cult" in a simple sentence.It cannot therefore be said that Jesus' teaching about love and humility is right, while Lao Tzu's teaching about the power of love is wrong.Perhaps it is for this reason that I must enter these three systems of thought and these ideals of life before making comparisons.

Next, we must point out that these systems of thought seldom exclude each other in all ideas.Even Stoicism and Epicureanism are superficially mutually exclusive, but if you look closely, they are actually close.And this is especially true of the lessons of the Chinese schools, as viewed by the Chinese themselves; it is not Chinese skepticism, but the Chinese ability to accept truth and beauty wherever it is found.Great Chinese, like Bai Juyi (eighth century) and Su Tungpo (eleventh century), lived Confucian lives but wrote Buddhist poetry imbued with Taoist insights.This is especially the case with Confucianism. We say that a Christian cannot be a Confucian scholar at the same time, because Confucianism is the religion of "gentlemen" and "well-educated" and "polite" people. Be a gentleman and a polite person.Taoism overemphasizes the teachings of love and gentleness advocated by Christianity, which makes many people afraid to accept it.If the way of salvation in Buddhism is different from that of Christianity, its basic starting point—the recognition of sin and deep concern about the fact of human suffering—is very close to Christianity.

The best example of this cultural fusion can be found in the poems Su Tungpo gave to his concubine Chaoyun.Su Tungpo, one of China's greatest poets and a great Confucian scholar, lived a life of exile at the age of sixty.His wife was dead, and his young concubine voluntarily followed him to the garrison Huizhou in 1094.Chaoyun had become a Buddhist at the time, and Su wrote poems praising her for serving God (Buddha) like a Vimalakirna.In one of these poems, Su Tungpo talks about her abandoning her former singing, shirt, and dancing fans to concentrate on Buddhist scriptures and elixir (Taoism).When the elixir of immortality is found, she will say goodbye to him and go to the fairy mountain, no longer like the goddess of Wuxia and his marriage of life and death (Confucianism).What makes this poem stand out from the others is this wonderful mix of emotions.The imagery of the Buddhist Vimo Goddess reappears in the poem.According to the Buddhist legend, the goddess scattered flowers from the sky, and the petals would fall off the clothes and bodies of the saints, but they would cling to those who still had lust in the world.White-haired and pale-faced, it is the realm of Vimo.What's wrong with the empty abbot scattering flowers?The red lips and chopsticks are touched, and the hairpin is more lively.These only exist in thousands of lives.Good-hearted, caring mood.Gathering clouds under the idle window, Ningdai.In the Dragon Boat Festival of the Ming Dynasty, people who are waiting to learn orchids are adorned, looking for a good poem to book a nepotism. Chaoyun died in the summer of the following year. When she breathed her last breath, she recited a Buddhist gatha, and according to her wishes, she was buried near a Buddhist temple.The poem Su Dongpo inscribed on the white plum tree next to her tomb is the most delicate thing I have ever read. The jade bones are full of worry and mist, and the ice posture has its own fairy style.When Haixian sent to explore Fangcong, hanging upside down with green hair Yaofeng.Plain face is often too powdery, and the lipstick does not fade after washing makeup.Gaoqing has chased away the dawn and the sky, not dreaming with pear blossoms. This is real life, and the problems of pain, death, and loneliness: the relationship between spirit and body represented by the great human mind.Here, the human mind encounters the problems of life, its sadness and beauty.And Jesus solved these life problems in a simple and clear way. ① ①The above three sections are respectively selected from the first chapter, the second chapter, and the first section of the third chapter of "From Pagan to Christian".The title of the first section of the third chapter is drafted by the editor.This book is Lin Yutang's culmination of exploring the similarities and differences between Eastern and Western thought; he started with religion, under the sign of converting to Christianity, full of praise for Eastern thought, and fulfilled his promise to teach Chinese culture to Westerners.According to Lin Yutang, the book "records his own adventures, difficulties and perplexities in faith" ("Preface"), which can be regarded as Lin Yutang's personal spiritual autobiography, spiritual autobiography.It's just that the discussion is too specific and difficult to read, so two chapters and one section are used for readers to get a glimpse of the leopard.