Chapter 40 7. About "The Art of Living"

This is a personal testimony, a testimony of my own thoughts and life experiences.I don't want to express an opinion on an objective standpoint, nor do I want to establish some immortal truth.To be honest, I have a lot of disdain for objective philosophy; I just want to express my personal point of view.I would love to title this book "Lyric Philosophy," using the word "lyrical" to represent an extremely private and personal conception.However, the title is so beautiful that I must give it up, because I am afraid I will aim too high, and thus make the reader expect too much, and because the main component of my thinking is matter-of-fact prose, this level is easier. Maintained, because it is more natural.Let me lie low, close to the soil, close to the grass roots, and I will feel very satisfied.My soul wriggled comfortably in the sand and felt happy.Sometimes when a man is intoxicated with the land, his spirit seems so light that he thinks he is in heaven.But in fact he is just a six-foot body standing on the ground.

I also really want to write the whole book in the way of Plato's dialogues.What an expedient way of putting into words private casual thoughts, and inserting meaningful trifles of our daily life, and above all loitering on the meadows of beautiful and quiet thought.But, somehow, I didn't do that.I don't know why.Or I'm afraid that this kind of article is very unpopular now, maybe no one wants to read it, but a writer wants people to read his works after all.When I say "dialogue," I don't mean conversations like newspaper interviews, or those commentaries cut into many short paragraphs; I mean really good, long, leisurely conversations, A few pages at a time, with many detours, and then a sudden turn in the most unexpected place, a short cut, and a return to the problem at the beginning, like a man climbing over a fence to go home , to the astonishment of his traveling companions.Ah, how I love climbing over the back gate fence and winding the way home!At least my companions will admit that I know the way home and the surrounding country well... but I dare not.

I am not original.The ideas I present here have long since been thought over and expressed by many thinkers in the East and West; the truths I have borrowed from the East are commonplace truths there.Nevertheless, they are my ideas; they have become part of my life.If they have taken root in my life, it is because they can express something original in my mind; when I first encountered them, my mind instinctively agreed.I like them because they are ideas, not because they represent who these thinkers are.To be honest, when I read and write, I take a detour.Many of the writers I cite are obscure, and many may confound Chinese literature professors.If some of the people I cite are celebrities, I accept their notion only on the basis of my intuitive approval, not because the writers are famous.I have a habit of buying cheap editions of obscure old books to see what I can find there.If the professors of literature knew the origin of my thought, they would be appalled at such a vulgar thing.But it is happier to find a small pearl in an ashes jar than to see a large pearl in a jeweler's window.

My thoughts are not deep, and the books I read are not extensive.If a person reads a book that is too extensive, he will not know what is right and what is wrong.I have not read Locke, Hume, or Berkeley, ① Locke, 17th century English philosopher; Hume, 17th century Scottish philosopher; Berkeley, 17th century Irish philosopher. Nor did I take any philosophy courses in college.Technically speaking, the methods I use and the training I receive are wrong, because I don't read philosophy, but just read life directly as a textbook. This is an unconventional method of philosophical research-wrong method .Some of my theories are based on the fact that the old lady employed by my family, Huang Ma, has all the ideas of cultivating good women in China; a Suzhou boat lady who is full of curse words; a Shanghai streetcar conductor; my cook's wife; A lion cub in a zoo; a squirrel in New York's Central Park; a ship's steward who said a kind word; a reporter who wrote an article in a newspaper's astronomy column (dead for more than ten years); and any writer who doesn't kill our sense of human curiosity, or any writer who doesn't kill his own sense of life's curiosity... How can I go on and on?

Because of this lack of academic training in philosophy, I am less afraid to write a book on philosophy.For this reason, everything seems clearer and easier; in the eyes of orthodox philosophers, this is not a compensation.I'm quite skeptical.I know someone will complain that I don't use words long enough, that I make things too easy to understand, and finally that I lack discretion, that I don't speak humbly and walk with restraint in the sanctuary of philosophy. Walking lightly, without showing a proper look of fear.Courage seems to be the rarest of virtues among modern philosophers.But I have always been wandering outside the realm of philosophy, which gives me courage.You can think up your own ideas based on your own intuitive judgment, create your own unique opinions, and confess them in public with a childlike cheek; People who feel the same way will agree with you.A man who has formed an idea in this way is often surprised to find another writer who has said the same thing and felt the same way, but perhaps expresses the thought in an easier and more elegant way.Thus he discovered an ancient writer who was his witness; they became eternal spiritual friends.

Therefore, I should be grateful to these writers, especially my spiritual Chinese friends.I have been working with a group of genial and genial geniuses on this book; I hope they like me as much as I like them.Because, in a very real sense, these gods are with me, they have spiritual communication with me, this is what I think the real way of communication--Thinking of two people from different times Thinking the same, feeling the same, fully understanding each other.When I was writing this book, some friends gave me special help with their contributions and advice: Bai Juyi in the eighth century, Su Dongpo in the eleventh century, and a large group of people in the sixteenth, seventeenth and two centuries Ingenious characters - the romantic and eloquent Tu Chishui, the witty and original Yuan Zhonglang, the profound and majestic Li Zhuowu, the sensitive and sophisticated Zhang Chao, the gourmet Li Liweng, the cheerful and funny old hedonist Yuan Zicai, and Kim Sung-tan, who is jovial and ebullient—these are all unconventional people, men with too much independent opinion, too deep a feeling for everything, to please orthodox critics, these Because people are too good, they cannot abide by "morality", and because they are too moral, they are not "good" in the eyes of Confucianism.The presence of this select group of companions was few in number, and I enjoyed a more precious and sincere joy in their presence.Several of these characters may not be mentioned in this book.But they are still with me in this work.It is only a matter of time before they regain their importance in China... There are others, though less famous, whose appropriate remarks are equally welcome to me, because they express my opinion so clearly. it is good.I call them my Chinese Amiel)①—some people who don’t talk much, but always speak very kindly. I admire their understanding and sensibility.There are also immortal philosophers of ancient and modern ages, in all countries, east and west, who, like the unknown ancestors of great men, when inspired, say something wiser than they know.And finally there are still greater ones: I take them less as spiritual companions than as masters, whose lucid understanding is so near and divine, and their wisdom has become something quite natural, So it seems easy to behave and requires no effort at all.Zhuangzi is such a character, Tao Yuanming is such a character: their simplicity and innocence of spirit are beyond the reach of lesser people.In this book I let the characters speak directly to the reader, sometimes after considerable declaration, and sometimes speak for them, as if we were speaking ourselves.The longer I maintained my friendship with them, the more I came under the influence of their thoughts; my thoughts, under their influence, tended to be of an intimate, informal, elusive, invisible type, and this influence Just like the influence of parents on good home rearing.It is impossible to point out a single point of similarity.I also want to speak from the standpoint of a modern person who lives a modern life, not only from the standpoint of the Chinese; I don't want to be just a respectful translator of the ancients, I just want to express what I personally absorb into my modern mind come out.This procedure has its drawbacks, but on the whole a person can do more honest work in this way.Therefore, what I choose and discard is based on personal opinion.I do not here wish to give the full thought of any one poet or philosopher; it is impossible to criticize them on the basis of the examples given in this book.I must therefore conclude this preface by saying, as a rule, that the value, if any, of the book is due in large measure to the helpful suggestions of my collaborators, and that all errors, defects, and premature opinions, It should be entirely my responsibility.I would like to express my great gratitude to Mr. and Mrs. Richard J. Walsh, first, for encouraging me to write this book, and secondly, for their useful and frank criticism.I also have to thank Mr. Hugh Wade for helping me print and proofread this book, and Miss Lillian Peffer for compiling the index at the back of the book for me.

① Amiel (1821-1881), a Swiss writer.