Chapter 4 Section 4: Empathy

I said that the overall impression that the Chinese human nature gives you is his elegance, which is an indescribable elegance.When you analyze this indescribable refinement in the real Chinese, you find that it is a combination of empathy and understanding.I have compared the Chinese type of human nature to domesticated animals.So what makes domesticated animals so different from wild animals?In domesticated animals we can find something unique to humans.What is this human characteristic that distinguishes us from animals?It's reasonable.Common sense in domesticated animals is not intellectual intelligence.Nor is it sanity by reasoning.Nor is it an innate intelligence, like the cleverness of a fox, the cunning of a fox knowing where to go and find chickens to eat.The natural intelligence of the fox is that of all, even wild animals.But what may be called human intellect in domesticated animals is very different from fox cunning or animal intelligence.Reasonableness in domesticated animals does not come from reasoning, nor is it innate, but from compassion, from a sense of love and attachment.The thoroughbred Arabian horse understands its English master, not because he has learned English grammar or because he understands English naturally, but because he loves and is attached to his master.This is what I call human intelligence, which is clearly distinguished from the sheer cunning of the fox or the intelligence of animals.Possession of this human quality is the difference between a domesticated animal and a wild animal.In the same way, I would say that it is empathy and understanding that endow the Chinese type of humanity, the true Chinese, with an indescribable refinement.

I read somewhere a comment from a foreign friend who lived in both countries that as a foreigner, the longer you live in Japan, the more you hate the Japanese, and the longer you live in China , I like the Chinese more and more.I don't know if this assessment of the Japanese is true.But I think anyone who has lived in China will agree with the evaluation of the Chinese people as I do.It is well known that the longer a foreigner lives in China, the more you can call it Chinese tendencies.Notwithstanding their slovenliness of hygiene and delicacy, despite their many faults of mind and character, there is something indescribable about the Chinese which wins the favor of foreigners more than any other.This indescribable thing, which I call refinement, dilutes and lightens, if not remedies, the physical and moral defects of the Chinese in the eyes of foreigners.This refinement, as I have tried to show you, is the product of what I call empathy, or true human intelligence, which is neither reasoned nor born, but The power of will.So what is the secret of the Chinese power of empathy?

Here I venture to give an answer, a hypothesis if you will, to the secret of the Chinese power of empathy, and here is my explanation.The reason why the Chinese have this power, this great power of empathy, is that they live entirely, or almost entirely, a life of the soul.The life of the Chinese is entirely a life of sensations, not in the sensory sense of the bodily organs, nor in the passionate sense of the nervous system as you would think, but in the deepest part of our nature—the soul or Soul - the emotion or feeling in the sense of human love.In fact I would say that the real Chinese lives a life of emotion or human love, a life of the soul, which may make him appear more detached, even detached from the reality of living alone in this world of matter and soul. required condition.This well explains the Chinese's indifference to material inconveniences such as unclean environment and lack of refinement.Of course this is off topic. (z-84)

I say that the Chinese have the power of empathy because they live entirely a life of the heart, a life of emotion or human love.Here, let me first give you two examples to explain what I mean by living a spiritual life.My first example looks like this.Some of you may know Mr. Liang Dunyan (19), an old friend and colleague of mine in Wuchang. He used to be Minister of Foreign Affairs in Beijing. He longed for and pursued the position of a high official in the Qing Dynasty and Dingdaihualing, and what made him happy to accept this appointment was not because he cared about Dingdaihualing, not because it would make him rich and powerful—we were all poor in Wuchang— It's that his promotion and promotion can make his old mother in Guangdong happy.This is what I mean when I say that the Chinese live a life of the heart—a life of emotion or human love.

Another example of mine is as follows.A Scottish friend of mine at customs told me that he once had a Chinese servant who was a true rogue who lied, exploited, and gambled a lot, but when my friend fell ill with typhoid fever at a deserted ferry, there was no one around him. The care of a foreign friend, and it is this Chinese servant, the bad rogue, who takes care of him more attentively than the closest confidants and close relatives can think of.In fact, I think what the Bible says about a woman can also be used to describe this Chinese servant, and Chinese people in general: "Forgive them more, because they love more." Foreigners in China see and understand China But his heart is touched by them, because the Chinese love, or, as I say, live a life of the heart, a life of emotion and human love.