The first series of my autobiography Section 1 Brief Biography I was born in the year before the Sino-Japanese War (1893).After this war, international aggression increased day by day, and the country was in critical condition. In 1937, "July 7" Incident, my country was invaded by Japanese invaders for eight years.Most of my life was spent in these two Sino-Japanese wars. My original name is Huanding, and my ancestral home is Guilin, Guangxi.But since his great-grandfather got up and won the Jinshi in the Beijing Examination, he traveled in the north.His late father, named Ji, with the style name Juchuan, was a secretary in the cabinet in the late Qing Dynasty, and an alternate attendant in the later Jin Dynasty. His work was mainly to copy royal archives for Huang Shicheng.My late father was a loyal man, conscientious in everything, focused on practical results, and disliked vain words. At the same time, he valued chivalry, cared about the overall situation, and advocated reform.Therefore, instead of requiring my children to read the Four Books and Five Classics, I was sent to the Chinese and Western Elementary School, Shuntian Middle School, etc., to learn physics, English, and receive a new-style education.This is rare among my peers.Because my late father adopted a trusting and relaxed attitude towards his children, he only expressed his own opinions and never interfered. At the same time, he was always concerned about the future of the country and discussed national affairs with me. He has a sense of responsibility to the country and society, and despises the life of a "self-made man" who only seeks food and clothing for one family.This upward drive has prompted me to pursue life and social issues since middle school.Due to social issues, he initially tended to reform and reform, and then turned to revolution. Before graduating from middle school, he joined the Beijing-Tianjin branch of the Tongmenghui and engaged in secret activities to overthrow the Qing Dynasty.When the Revolution of 1911 broke out, he worked as a field reporter for the "Republic of China" of the Tongmenghui, so he had to witness all kinds of scandals in the political arena at that time.At this time, I read "The Essence of Socialism" written by the Japanese Kotoku Shusui. I was influenced by the book's opposition to private ownership, so I was enthusiastic about socialism. I once wrote a pamphlet "Socialist Essence", advocating the abolition of private property ownership. , mimeograph distribution to friends. In 1913, he withdrew from the "Republic of China Daily". In the conflict between revolutionary ideals and reality, his original thought of being born out of the world rose, so he devoted himself to studying Buddhist scriptures at home, and turned from being obsessed with socialism to leaning towards being born out of the world.Under this kind of thinking, in 1916, I wrote and published "Juyuan Casuistry".Then I asked Mr. Cai Yuanpei face-to-face for advice on this article, and then introduced him to Peking University to teach. Since 1917, I have taught courses such as "Introduction to Indian Philosophy" and "Confucian Philosophy" in the Department of Philosophy of Peking University.At this time, just before and after the "May 4th" Movement, new thoughts were on the rise, and the atmosphere was invisible to those who taught oriental ancient studies like me.Under such circumstances, I started a comparative study of Eastern and Western cultures, and later produced the book "Eastern and Western Cultures and Their Philosophy" compiled from lecture records.In the book, I put forward the view that the basic way of human life can be divided into three directions, and at the same time attribute it to Chinese Confucian life in terms of life thought, and pointed out that the near future of the world will be the revival of Chinese culture.Reflecting these views on my own family, I gave up the idea of ​​becoming a monk and got married in 1921 when this book was published. As the teaching time at Peking University went on, I became increasingly dissatisfied with the school's tendency to teach only a little knowledge and skills. In 1924, I finally resigned from my teaching position at Peking University. I first went to Caozhou, Shandong to run a school, and then returned to Beijing to gather and study with a group of young friends, in order to realize the ideal of "being friends with young people" and "education should take care of people". In 1927, at the persuasion of my friends, I went south to Guangzhou not long after the Northern Expedition.Here, on the one hand, I feel that the south is full of revolutionary vigor, which brings a ray of hope for the improvement of the overall situation of the country. At this time, what he considered more was his own "rural governance" proposition.In my opinion, due to the fundamental differences between Chinese and Western cultures, the Western political system can be implemented in China only by first implementing rural governance in the vast rural areas and gradually cultivating farmers' new political living habits. In 1929, after I inspected Tao Xingzhi’s Xiaozhuang School in Nanjing, Mr. Huang Yanpei’s Kunshan Rural Improvement Association in Jiangsu, and Mr. Yan Yangchu’s Dingxian Pingjiao Experimental Area in Hebei and Shanxi Village Administration, it happened that Peng Yuting and Liang Zhonghua founded the Henan Village Governance College. I was invited Served as the dean of the college.This was the beginning of my involvement in social transformation activities.However, due to the war between the warlords Jiang Yan and Feng in the Central Plains, the school was closed for less than a year.In 1931, he and his colleagues went to Zouping, Shandong to establish the Shandong Rural Construction Research Institute.The institute set up a research department and a training department for rural service personnel, and designated Zouping County as an experimental area (later expanded to more than ten counties).The experimental area has a teacher's school, an experimental primary school, an experimental farm, a health center, and a financial circulation office.There are township schools and village schools under the county.Township studies and village studies are political-educational organizations. They target all villagers or villagers, cultivate farmers' group living habits and organizational skills, popularize culture, change customs, and introduce science and technology through group organizations to improve production and develop rural areas. The economy, fundamentally builds the nation.After seven years of experimentation, the experiment was finally stopped by the Japanese invasion in 1937. The Anti-Japanese War broke out, and it was necessary to mobilize the people and the country to unite in the Anti-Japanese War, so I began to follow the people of the country and run for it. In August 1937, he was invited to participate in the Senate of the Supreme National Defense Council, and had some suggestions on mobilizing the people. In 1938 I visited Yan'an.This was the beginning of my campaign for national unity.The purpose of the visit is to investigate the re-cooperation between the Kuomintang and the Communist Party, a major turning point in the destiny of the nation, and whether the Communist Party can give up the internal struggle for a long time.For this reason, he met with Chairman Mao eight times, including two late-night talks.Regarding the understanding of old China, there are different opinions and many disputes.However, he started with the analysis of the comparison of forces between the enemy and our own, the transformation of strength and weakness, and the nature of the war, and explained that China must win and Japan must lose, which I admire very much. In 1939, I felt that there was nothing I could do to stay in the rear of the Southwest University, so I decided to go to the guerrilla areas behind the enemy lines in North China and East China. During the inspection, I was assisted by both the KMT and the Communist Party.Passing through the six provinces of Anhui, Jiangsu, Shandong, Hebei, Henan, and Shanxi, mobilizing the masses to fight against the war along the way, it took eight months and experienced hardships and dangers.Witnessing the increasing friction between the armies of the two parties on the battlefield, I deeply felt that if I let it develop, it would hinder the Anti-Japanese War at least, and the civil war would repeat itself at worst. So I returned to the back of Sichuan. Huang and others jointly discussed and organized the "Unification and Founding Comrades Association" to strengthen the third party and work hard to mediate the disputes between the two parties. At the beginning of 1941, the southern Anhui incident broke out, and the domestic unity situation further deteriorated. Then, together with Huang Yanpei, Zhang Junmai, and Zuo Shunsheng, the "Comrades' Association" was reorganized into the "China Democratic Political Group League" (the predecessor of the Democratic League), and was pushed to Hong Kong to establish the Democratic Party. "Guangming Daily", the official publication of the NLD, publicly announced the establishment of the NLD at home and abroad.Unexpectedly, only three months after the first publication of the newspaper, it ceased publication due to the Japanese occupation of Hong Kong.I had to disguise myself and escape from Hong Kong by boat and came to Guilin.Here I am in charge of the work of the Democratic League in South China. I am engaged in the activities of fighting for democracy and propagating the anti-Japanese war, and at the same time I am engaged in writing. In August 1945, the Japanese army surrendered, and the Anti-Japanese War came to an end. The leaders of the two parties met again in Chongqing.Seeing that the enemy's foreign aggression is over and internal problems are expected to be resolved, I intend to withdraw from real political activities and devote myself to cultural work.When I participated in the (Chongqing) Political Consultative Conference and the agreement was concluded, I thought that China was on a smooth path, so I asked Mr. Zhou Enlai to send a letter to Chairman Mao, explaining his intention to withdraw from real politics, and at the same time published "Eight Years of Efforts Come to an End" and other articles , to show the heart to the society.Because I did not get the understanding of Mao Zhou, I visited Yan'an again in March 1946.But the situation deteriorated immediately, and I had no choice but to be promoted to the secretary-general of the Democratic League to participate in the peace talks between the Kuomintang and the Communist Party.By the end of 1946, because the Kuomintang was determined to start a civil war and the peace talks broke down, I resigned as Secretary-General and went to Beibei, Chongqing, to establish Mianren College of Literature, where I gave lectures and completed the writing of "The Essentials of Chinese Culture".The book summarizes my views on Chinese history and culture, and points out: "The greatness of Chinese culture is none other than the greatness of human rationality. The lack of Chinese culture is not a lack of rationality, but the early enlightenment of reason and the maturity of culture. Insufficient.” When the whole country was liberated, I came to Beijing from Sichuan in 1950, and I had to talk with Chairman Mao many times, expressing my willingness to serve the country outside the government, and suggested setting up a Chinese culture research institute or a world cultural comparison research institute, but for some reason, it failed can achieve. In 1952, he wrote a long article "My Efforts and Reflections" in order to review and preliminarily examine the ideological and political activities before liberation. In September 1953, he spoke at the enlarged meeting of the Central People's Government and was severely criticized by Chairman Mao. In 1955, the criticism was launched nationwide.Since then, I will devote most of my time and energy to writing.  In 1960, he started to write the book "People's Heart and Life".This is a work that has been brewing in my heart since the 1920s. I think it is the most important and must be completed in this life.Unexpectedly, due to the beginning of the "Cultural Revolution", all reference books were lost, and the writing work was forced to stop.So under the difficult situation of copying the house for less than a month, he wrote "On the Similarities and Differences of Confucianism and Buddhism" and "Overview of Oriental Academics" and so on.It was not until 1970 that he had to reorganize his old work and continued to write "Human Heart and Life", but soon there was a movement of "criticizing Lin and Confucius".Because I insisted on "only criticizing Lin, not Confucius", more time was taken up for large and small conferences, and my writing was almost at a standstill.By the middle of 1975, the book was finally completed.As it is said in the "Postscript" of this book, "The long-cherished wish of death is fulfilled in old age", and a matter of heart is settled, and my writing activities basically come to an end. Finally, I use a passage in the preface of "The Essentials of Chinese Culture" as the concluding remarks of this article: The boredom and perplexity of life problems led me to philosophy without knowing it, and I went in and out of hundreds of schools of thought.However, once you understand the principles of life, you will not ask for more.If philosophy is regarded as a bit of knowledge that everyone should know, then I know a little bit just like that.After death, I have my own views and thoughts on the problems of life, and I have the ability to act as a person today.In the same way, the urgency of China's problems for decades has forced me to take some action and indulge in politics, economics, history, social and cultural studies.However, once you see the future of China, you will no longer take learning as a matter.Exactly what counts as learning and what does not count as learning is left alone.After death, I have my own views and thoughts on China's issues, and I have today's advocacy and action.

Looking back, this is how I trekked on my own journey in life.