Chapter 11 National Character--Chinese National Character

China has always been known as the oldest empire.The word "boss" has a deep meaning, that is, old and big.Old characters are easy to understand, but big characters are difficult to understand.The so-called first righteousness of the old is old age.Today's elementary school students all know that China has a history of 5,000 years, which we can really be proud of.No matter how confusing the law during these five thousand years, we have indeed been confused for five thousand years.A country can survive for five thousand years, no matter what, it is worthy of admiration.Countries, like people, are always greedy for life and want to live. It is better to be confused and live longer than to be smart and die early.China has always advocated the way of respecting the elderly. What respect do the elderly have?It is to respect his physical success and his strong resistance; others are dead, but he is still alive.In the past hundred years, his peers have already died, either by water, or by fire, or by disease, or by bandits. Disasters, droughts, cold and heat attack him, and happiness, anger, worry, and joy invade them, but he can preserve his life, Always a winner.This is the true meaning of respecting the elderly.The true meaning of respecting the elderly is not that he is highly respected, blessed, and has many descendants. If you meet an old beggar by the roadside and see that he is poor, has no descendants, does not have high morals and does not respect him, and disrespects him, this cannot be regarded as true respect for the elderly. Spirit.So respecting the elderly is just respecting his longevity test.The same is true for a country.China has a continuous history of 5,000 years. During these 5,000 years, many countries have risen and fallen one after another, but it still exists. During these 5,000 years, how many droughts and floods, the invasion of foreign enemies, the ravages of soldiers and bandits, and even more terrible If the virus of civilization in our country originated from a more sensitive foreign race, it might have perished long ago, but China still exists today, which cannot but amaze us.This kind of place can only be felt, not expressed in words.At the same time, the old characters have side meanings.It is "old-fashioned", "old-skinned" old.The older a person is, the thicker his skin is.China is a country that is always older and thicker than others.When one gets older, one will rely on one's elders to prosper one's old age, disregarding honor, disgrace, misfortune and fortune, and not paying much attention to it.Zhang Shan said it well: "A young man must have the insight of an old man, and an old man must have the heart of a young man;" that is, the young man's knowledge is not as good as that of the old generation, and the old man's mind is not as good as the young man's.A young man with lofty aspirations and lofty aspirations, who can travel thousands of miles, is not as good as an old horse.So Confucius was very opposed to the condition of the elderly.One said, "I don't know that old age is coming", another said, "It is a thief to be old and not die", and the third said, "If you are old, you must guard against it."The precept is to scold the old people for being greedy for money, and it is easy to suffer from the fault of losing morals in old age.As the saying goes, "A bustard loves banknotes, and a sister loves beauty", which is what Confucius meant.The sister is an idealist, and the bustard is a realist.

Bigness is the meaning of greatness.Who among the Chinese people thinks that China is really great!In fact, calling people great means not understanding.In the past, a black man went in to listen to the teacher's sermon, and when people asked him what he thought, he said, "It's great."People asked him how great he was, and he said, "I can't understand a single word."When you don't understand, you are great, and at the same time, you are great when you don't understand.If you look at a compatriot on the road, or a laundryman, or a tailor, or a rickshaw driver, the description is not very awe-inspiring.However, just imagine that his country has a history of five thousand years, Greece and Rome have long since perished, but he survived majestically.Although the China he represents is a bit sleepy and old, and the country is in a weak state, it has a long history, an ancient culture, a philosophy of life, literature, art, calligraphy and painting, and architecture that is comparable to the West.Other races, after hundreds of years of civilization, are always corrupt, and the Chinese nation can still attract and assimilate the Henan Jewish nation.This is something that Western nations have never done before.China's history has a longer and continuous history than other countries, and Chinese culture can spread to a larger area than other countries.According to the standard of pragmatism, he is the winner on the battlefield where the superior wins the inferior and the inferior loses. Therefore, although this culture has many weaknesses, it also has the effect of competing for survival.So the more you think about it, the less you understand it, and because you don’t understand it, the more you think about it, the greater China will become.

two To be honest, after five thousand years of civilization, the Chinese nation has also become quite corrupt physically, and a civilized life is always not conducive to the nation.After 5,000 years of kowtowing and kneeling, the Chinese said "Yes, yes," so the chin has shrunk and the face has become smoother.A nation with a 5,000-year technical secondary school said, "Ah! Yes, yes, good, good," and the face must be rounded.Jiangnan is a cultural area, so there are many bad faces in Jiangnan.The easiest to see is the hair and skin.Everyone admits that Chinese women have softer skin, finer pores, and less underarm odor than Western women.

Another layer is that the survival of the Chinese nation up to the present is also half dependent on the importation of foreign blood, otherwise, today's decadence may not be the same.Today, if you look at the physiques of northerners and southerners, you will know the difference. (Southers need not be happy, and northerners need not panic, because the so-called "pure race" recognizes "myth" in anthropology, and no one in China today can point out who is a "pure Chinese".) Chinese history, every 800 years There must be a king, not because of the king, but because of the new blood.There is no country in the world that has not remained in chaos for more than five hundred years; the source of the chaos is that after four or five hundred years of peace, the nation will become corrupt, the household registration will be dense, the economy will be poor, and once poor, thieves and plagues will come one after another. No.Therefore, in every 800-year cycle, the first 400-500 years are peaceful, and the next 200-300 years are civil strife and bandits. From the soldiers and bandits, the dynasty perishes, and then it splits, then moves the capital, separates the north and the south, and finally becomes a foreign tribe. What has been overcome, after being overcome, there is a new bloodline and then unified, and the culture prospers again.This was the case for eight hundred years in the Zhou Dynasty.First unified and then divided, then Chu merged with the princes and the south became independent, and then it was destroyed by Qin.From Qin to Sui is also a period of about 800 years. The Han and Jin Dynasties were relatively unified. In the Eastern Jin Dynasty, it was chaotic, and it was only in the Sui Dynasty that it was unified again.From the Sui Dynasty to the Ming Dynasty, it was about 800 years. At the beginning, it was peaceful and the country flourished. It gradually declined in the Southern Song Dynasty, and it was destroyed in the Yuan Dynasty.From Ming to Qing is also a period. Five hundred years of peace have passed. We can only hope that the next three hundred years of chaos will not start. Someone has made very detailed statistics.All in all, the northern race is mostly mixed by foreign races, so they have the strengths of the north, which the southerners do not have.You can see that all the emperors who built dynasties in the past came from the north of the Yangtze River, and none of them came from the south of the Yangtze River.So the Chinese have a saying, that is, whoever eats noodles can be an emperor, but whoever eats rice cannot be an emperor.Unfortunately, Zeng Guofan was born in the south of the Yangtze River, which is also a rice-producing area in Hunan. If he ate too much rice, he would have been an emperor long ago.After careful consideration, except Zhou Wuwang Qinshihuang and Tang Taizu who were born in Longxi in the northwest, the founding emperors of all dynasties were all near Longhai Road, east of Anhui, west of Shandong, north of Jiangsu, and south of Hebei.Emperor Gaozu of the Han Dynasty was born in Jiangbei, Emperor Wu of the Jin Dynasty was born in Henan, Song Taizu came from Hebei, and Ming Taizu came from Henan.Therefore, the thieves of the Jianghuai River are the birthplace of the emperor.If any of you have a daughter, if you want a son-in-law or if you want to learn from Lu Buwei and ask Handan Ji to give birth to an emperor, you can ask for it in the third-class car on Longhai Road.In recent days, Wu Peifu, Zhang Zongchang, Sun Chuanfang, and Lu Yongxiang came out of Shandong.Hebei produced Qi Xieyuan, Li Jinglin, Qiang Zhijiang, and Lu Zhonglin.Yuan Shikai came out of Henan, and he almost ascended to the dragon seat, and Feng Yuxiang and Duan Qirui also came out of Anhui.Jiangnan has never produced famous generals, only a few good teahouses.

three However, despite this division between the north and the south, the Chinese nation still has a common and special personality in opposition to foreign nations.Some of the origins of this national character are due to race, some are due to culture, and some are due to economic environment.The Chinese nation also has advantages and disadvantages, such as frugality, love of nature, diligence and thrift, and humor. Let’s not talk about the good ones, let’s talk about the bad ones.Being a country is the same as being a person, you should think about the disadvantages, and don't talk about your own strengths, so that you can cheer up.It is fine if someone wants to talk about national literature, but exaggeration and frivolity, without self-examination, will eventually perish.The most important thing is to study where our weaknesses are and where they come from.

Let us first study these three weaknesses: patience, laxity, and cunning, and examine their sources.I believe that these are the result of a special culture and a special environment. Either God was born Chinese, or he endured humiliation, was unable to unite, and was so old and treacherous.There is a way to prove this, that is, everyone can experience it in his own experience.Originally, I objected when people talked nonsense; now when people talk nonsense, I nodded and said, "Yes, it's not bad."From the perspective of others, it is said that my self-cultivation has improved.Not only for me, but for everyone.People who have reached middle age, if they are willing to reflect honestly, will have such self-cultivation progress.Twenty-year-old youths are all enthusiastic about state affairs, and thirty-year-old people are all "state affairs".We have to ask, why does Chinese society make people develop patience, refrain from talking about state affairs, and have a slick attitude?I think forbearance comes from the family system, laziness is due to the lack of protection of human rights, and cunning and perfunctory are due to Taoist thought.Naturally, each disease has more than one source, and each of them is related to each other; but for the sake of clarity and convenience of explanation, we can temporarily divide the sources in this way.

Patience and peace are originally one of the virtues.But too much is not enough; in China, it has become a gentleman's virtue to bear the humiliation and bear the dirt.This virtue of patience has become the specialty of the people.Therefore, when Westerners come to China to preach, there is nothing else to do. If the white people want to teach the yellow people to be patient and peaceful without resistance, this is simply too overwhelming and feverish.In China, resignation has become the most reasonable saying, and the law of the jungle is almost equal to the law of nature.Being bullied by the poor is also called patience. The people of Sichuan have paid taxes for 30 years in advance, but the result is still patience.Patience is therefore a characteristic of East Asian civilization.However, the more you "arrange to endure hardship", the more you will suffer.If the Chinese people are not willing to endure hardships like this, there will not be so many hardships.So in China, corrupt officials exploit small people, like big fish eating small fish, you can open your mouth and wait for the small fish to swim in by themselves. Not only is it effortless, but it is also very reasonable.There is a Russian fable that said that one day a small fish objected to the big fish’s annihilation of its own kind, so he rebelled against the big fish and said, “Why do you eat me?” The big fish said, “Well, please try it. I will let you eat it, and you Can you eat it?" The view of this big fish is the philosophy of the Chinese people, which is called keeping one's own law and order.Small fish avoiding big fish is called "guarding oneself", and it is called "safety" when they are unable to retreat and swim into the belly of big fish.This is also what Mr. Wu Zhihui called "peace for the country". If you bear with me, I will bear with you, and the country will be peaceful.

This attitude of patience, I think, is learned from living in a big family.If a person wants to be patient, he must first cultivate his temper, and if he has a good temper, he will be patient.The big family life in China gives us the opportunity to practice patience, because in a big family, the son endures his father, the brother endures his brother, the sister endures his sister, the nephew endures his uncle, the wife endures his aunt, and the sister-in-law endures his sister-in-law. Naturally, it became a situation of reunion of five generations under one roof.The impact of this kind of daily training is so great that it cannot be ignored.It's not that I'm lying.In the past, Zhang Gongyi lived under the same roof for nine generations, and Emperor Gaozong of Tang came to his house to ask him the secret.Zhang Gongyi only asked for a piece of paper to write a hundred consecutive "forbearance" characters.This is Zhang Gongyi's humor and the most profound criticism of the extended family system.Later generations didn't notice it, but took Bairen as a family heirloom.Of course this also makes sense.The reason is that there are too many people, if they get together, if they are not compatible, they will have nowhere to turn around. The same reason is at home and in the country.Those who can tolerate each other as a family will naturally be able to live in peace as a country.

In history, we can also prove that it is not in nature for Chinese people to be wise and protect themselves and not talk about state affairs.The Wei and Jin Dynasties talked about it, and people called it wrong for the country.The literati at that time were either reclusive or flashy, or wrote poems about wine, or talked about alchemy, and the result was the Yongjia Rebellion. This was one of the most passive and indifferent periods for Chinese people. What about the wind?The facts of history can teach us clearly.At the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, Zi Dafu was not like this.The 30,000 Tai students often criticize current affairs, talking about state affairs, not without talking.However, because there is no legal guarantee, the authority of Qingyi cannot match the power of eunuchs, and finally there is a disaster of party imprisonment.The scholars of the Qing Dynasty were massacred, exiled or tortured, or their families were exiled, and they were killed again and again.As a result, the trend of clear discussion is broken, and the trend of clear talk is established. Smart people are either indulgent and exaggerated, or indulge in wine and sex, and reach the period of wine and virtue.Some hide in the mountains, live in seclusion in their houses, and pass food through the windows.Some turned into woodcutters, begging their relatives and friends not to visit, so as to avoid eyes and ears.The seven sages of the bamboo grove came out, and everyone lived on poetry and wine.Liu Ling went out to bring a jug of wine, asked each person to bring a shovel, and said to him, "I will bury me when I die", and everyone called him a virtuous person.Xian is smart, because he can feign madness and end well.People at that time admired him, just like a small turtle admires the solidity of a big turtle's shell.

Therefore, in order for the Chinese people to change their slackness into unity, and turn their negativity into a positive one, they must first change their attitude of being wise and self-protecting. To change this attitude of being wise and self-protecting, a few empty words will not help. It is to provide the Chinese people with the guarantee of justice and law, so that everyone can speak their own words, do their own things, display their talents, and pursue their own aspirations within the scope of the law.Not only snow, but also frost.In other words, if the Chinese people are not like a mess of loose sand, the fundamental thing is to provide constitutional protection of human rights.But today, there are very few people who can notice this truth, and truly understand the relationship between the protection of human rights and our attitude towards the world.