Chapter 5 Section 5: Courtesy of the Heart

Now, I think, we have a clue to the secret of Chinese empathy--it is the power of empathy which endows the real Chinese with sympathetic understanding or true human wisdom, which makes him so unspeakably gentle.Let's test this clue or hypothesis.Let's see if the thread that the Chinese live a life of the mind can explain the facts of the two examples I gave above, and at the same time explain the general features we see in the real life of the Chinese. First, let's look at the Chinese language.Since the Chinese live a spiritual life, I say that the Chinese language is also a spiritual language.It is a well-known fact that among foreigners in China, children and uneducated people learn Chinese very easily, much easier than adults and educated people.what is the reason?I think the reason is because children and uneducated people think and speak in the language of the heart, while educated people, especially those educated in modern European knowledge, think and speak in the language of the mind or knowledge.In fact, educated foreigners find it difficult to learn Chinese because they have too much education, too much intellectual and scientific education.As with the description of the Kingdom of Heaven, we can also use it to describe the Chinese language: "Unless you become a child, you cannot understand".

Next, let's look at another well-known fact of Chinese life.It is well known that the Chinese have an amazing memory.what is the secretThe secret is this: the Chinese remember things with their hearts, not their heads.The heart has empathetic powers, like glue, it holds things better than a hard and dry mind or intellect.For the same reason, all of us, for example, are far better at remembering things in our studies when we are children than when we are adults.Like the Chinese, as children we remember things with our hearts, not our heads. Next, let us examine another widely recognized fact of Chinese life—their politeness.People often comment that the Chinese are extremely polite people.So what is the essence of true politeness?It's about considering other people's feelings.Chinese people are polite because they live a spiritual life, they know how they feel, so they are easy to consider other people's feelings.Chinese politeness, though not as thorough as Japanese politeness, is comforting because it is, as the French perfectly express it, politeness of the heart (lapolitesseducoeur).Conversely, Japanese politeness, though thoughtful, is less comfortable, and I've heard some foreign friends hate it because it's a sort of rehearsed politeness -- akin to the learned manners in a theater production.This is different from spontaneous politeness that comes directly from the heart.In fact, Japanese manners do not seem to have fragrant flowers, whereas the manners of the truly polite Chinese have a fragrance, the fragrance of precious ointment from the soul (instarungurentifragrantis)(20).

Finally, let us examine another characteristic of the Chinese—the lack of precision, which Arthur Smith is famous for bringing to light.So what is the reason for this lack of precision in the Chinese way of life?I would also say that the reason is because the Chinese live a spiritual life.The mind is a delicate balance of finesse and sensitivity.It is not like the mind or intellect of a hard, rigid, rigid instrument.You cannot think with the heart as steadily and rigorously as you can with the head or reason.It is very difficult to do at least this.In fact, the Chinese brush, this soft brush, can serve as a symbol of the Chinese heart.It is very difficult to write and draw with, but once you get the hang of it, you can write and draw with it with a grace and grace that a hard pen cannot. (s-1)

The above are some simple facts related to the life of the Chinese people. Anyone, even if they don't know the Chinese people, can observe and understand these facts by investigating them. I think that what I said is that the Chinese people live a kind of spiritual life. is correct. It is precisely because the Chinese live a life of the heart, the life of children, that they are very primitive in many respects of their way of life.In fact, as a big country that has existed for such a long time, the Chinese way of life is still primitive in many ways, which is a very noteworthy fact.This fact makes many superficial foreign students in China think that Chinese civilization has not progressed and Chinese civilization is stagnant.It should be admitted, however, that, as far as purely intellectual life is concerned, the Chinese are to some extent stunted.You know that the Chinese have made little or no progress not only in natural sciences but also in purely abstract sciences such as mathematics, logic and metaphysics.In fact, the words "science" and "logic" in European languages ​​do not have completely precise equivalents in Chinese.Like children who live the life of the mind, the Chinese have no interest in abstract sciences, because the mind and feelings do not participate in these realms.In fact, anything that has nothing to do with heart and feelings, such as statistical reports, is disgusting to many Chinese.However, if statistical reports and purely abstract science make the Chinese feel disgusted, then the natural science being studied in Europe requires you to chop up and mutilate live animals to verify scientific theories, which makes the Chinese repel and fear.

I would say that the Chinese are somewhat stunted as far as purely intellectual life is concerned.To this day, the Chinese are still living the life of a child, a life of the soul.In this respect, the Chinese as a nation are ancient, but to this day they are still a nation of children.But it is important that you remember that this nation of children who lived a life of the heart, although very primitive in many respects of their way of life, had powers of mind and reason not found in primitive man, such The powers of mind and reason enabled them to deal successfully with the complex and difficult problems of social life, government, and civilization, and I would venture here to say that the states of Europe, ancient and modern, have failed so evidently to achieve a success which is so evident in the So prominent that in practice and reality the vast majority of the population of the Asian continent maintained peace and order in one vast empire.