Chapter 3 Section 3: Believe in the inherent goodness of human beings

But for now, let us summarize in a few clear words the great question of civilization that this war has raised.In my opinion, Europeans first wanted to maintain civil order with the help of priests.But it soon became apparent that pastors were too expensive and troublesome.So after the Thirty Years' War, the Europeans expelled the priests and called in the police and army to maintain civilized order.But now they find that the police and army cost and cause even more trouble than priests.What should Europeans do now?Are the priests recalled by the expulsion of the army?No, I don't believe Europeans would be willing to recall priests.Also, priests are now unhelpful.So what are the Europeans supposed to do?I saw an article by Professor Lowes Dickinson (16) of Cambridge in "The Atlantic Monthly" entitled "War and the Way Out", the article said: "Recall the People".I am afraid that once the people are called to replace the priests and the army, they will cause more trouble than the priests and the army.Priests and armies cause war in Europe, but the populace will bring revolution and anarchy, so Europe will be worse off than before.Now my advice to the Europeans is: Call not the priests, nor the people for good purposes, but only the Chinese; call the true Chinese of the religion of good citizens, who for many years have been able to live without priests, Know how to live in peace without an army. (z-76)

In fact, I truly believe that the Europeans will find the solution to the great problem of civilization here in China after the war.I repeat here again that the invaluable and still unquestioned wealth of civilization is the real Chinese.The real Chinese is an asset to civilization, for he possesses the secret of a new civilization which the Europeans need after this great war, which is what I call the religion of the good citizen.The first tenets of this religion of good citizenship are belief in the inherent goodness of man; belief in the power of goodness; belief in the force and utility of what American Emerson called the laws of love and justice.But what is the law of love?The religion of good citizenship teaches that the law of love is to love your parents.So what are the laws of justice?The religion of the good citizen teaches that the laws of justice are truth, faithfulness, and fidelity; that the woman of every nation must be unselfishly and absolutely faithful to her husband, and the man of every nation must be unselfishly and absolutely faithful to his sovereign, king, or emperor. Loyalty.Finally, what I actually want to say here is that the highest religious duty of the good citizen is the duty of loyalty, not only in deed but in spirit, or as expressed by Tennyson(17) :

fear the king like he's their conscience their king is their conscience Break Paganism and Follow Christ the Savior Chinese Spirit (18) A paper read before the Beijing Oriental Society With your permission, let me begin by stating what I intend to address this afternoon.The subject of my dissertation is "The Spirit of the Chinese," which does not mean merely the character or peculiarities of the Chinese.The characteristics of the Chinese have been described many times before, but I think you will agree with me that these descriptions or enumerations of the characteristics of the Chinese have not so far given us a picture of the inner nature of the Chinese.Besides, when we speak of the character or characteristic of the Chinese, it cannot be abstracted.As you know, the character of the northern Chinese is very different from that of the southern Chinese, just as the character of the Chinese is different from that of the Italian.

But by Chinese spirit, I mean the spirit with which Chinese people live as a consolation, something intrinsically unique in heart, temperament, and emotion, which distinguishes the Chinese from all others, especially to modern Europeans and Americans.Perhaps it is the Chinese type of humanity that I express best through the subject of our treatment, or, to put it more clearly and briefly, the real Chinese. So, what is a real Chinese?I'm sure you'll all agree that this is a very interesting subject, especially now, when we look at everything that's happening to us in China today, that the Chinese type of humanity, the real Chinese, is disappearing to replace it positional, we see a new type of humanity, the progressive or modern Chinese.In fact, I suggest that before the real Chinese, the old Chinese human type disappears from the world altogether, we should look at him one last time to see if we can find something organically different in him , is what makes the Chinese so different from all other people, and what makes the Chinese type of humanity so different from the new emerging types of humanity that we see in China today.

I think, now, the first thing that strikes you in the old Chinese human types is that there's nothing barbaric or cruel or brutal there.In a term applied to animals, we can say that the real Chinese are domesticated beings.Take a person at the lowest level in China as an example. I think you will agree with me that he is less animalistic than people of the same class in European society, and has less savage animal characteristics, that is, he has less of what the Germans call animal savagery. (Rohheit) In fact, in my opinion, the word that sums up your impression of the Chinese human type is "gentle" in your English.What I mean by gentleness is not natural weakness or weak submissiveness. "The obedience of the Chinese," said the late Dr. DJ Macgowan, "is not the obedience of the hopeless castrated man."And what I mean by "gentle" is that there's nothing harsh or rough or rough or brutal, which really means nothing that shocks you.It can be said that there is such a temperament in the real Chinese human type: calm, calm, and mature after being honed, like a piece of metal that has been tempered for thousands of years.Even, in a real Chinese, his physical or moral defects, if irreparable, are watered down by his gentle qualities.The real Chinese may be rough, but there is no roughness in roughness.The real Chinese may be ugly, but there is no ugliness in ugliness.A real Chinese may be vulgar, but there is no aggressiveness or arrogance in vulgarity.The real Chinese may be stupid, but there is no absurdity in stupidity.The real Chinese may be cunning, but there is nothing sinister in cunning.In fact, I want to say that even among the faults and defects of the body, mind and character of a real Chinese, there is nothing to disgust you.Even among the old school, even the lowest, real Chinese, you'd be hard-pressed to find a Chinese that you really dislike. (z-83)