Chapter 35 Chapter 35: Giving up one's life for righteousness

Another peculiar criticism of Chinese literature is that it is profoundly immoral.This actually means that the Chinese are immoral. At the same time, the vast majority of foreigners also say that China is a nation that does not keep promises.but it is not the truth.Except for the above-mentioned very general translated novels, the translations of foreigners who studied China before all excluded Confucian classics.In addition to morality, these Confucian classics of course also include other things.With respect to Mr. Balfour, we consider the "admirable teaching" in these works, not the "utility and sophistication" he commented on.Here, I will just cite two sentences to ask Mr. Balfour whether they are really "utilitarian and sophisticated".When Confucius replied to a minister, he said: "Sins are taken from heaven, and there is nothing to pray for." In addition, Mencius said: "Life is what I want; righteousness is what I want. You can't have both. Takers also." (s-7)

We feel it is necessary to digress a bit in protest of Mr Balfour's comments.Because we believe that in China, such harsh words as "ancient slave" and "veteran sophistry" are never used to comment on a philosophical work, let alone to judge those sages.Mr Balfour may have been led astray by his admiration for the "Nanhua" prophets.Moreover, he expected that Taoism should be superior to other traditional schools, so he went astray in expressing it.We are convinced that his calm judgments should be rebuked. Let's get down to business.We have already said that Chinese literature must be studied as a whole.Moreover, we have already pointed out that Europeans were in the habit of forming their judgments only from those works associated with the name of Confucius.But in fact, the work of Confucius only means that Chinese literature has just started. Since then, it has experienced 18 dynasties and more than 2,000 years of development.In the time of Confucius, the understanding of the literary form of writing was not very perfect.

Here, let us talk about an important point that must be paid attention to in the study of literature, which has been neglected by Chinese studies researchers so far, that is, the form of literary works.The poet Wordsworth said: "To be sure, the content is very important, but the content must always be expressed in form." Indeed, those literary works related to the name of Confucius, in terms of form, do not pretend to have been to perfection.They are recognized as classics or authoritative works because of the value of their content, not because of their style or perfection of literary form.The father of Su Dongpo, a Song Dynasty man, once commented that the earliest form of prose can be traced back to the dialogues of Mencius.However, Chinese literature, including prose and poetry, has since developed a variety of issues and styles.For example, the prose of the Western Han Dynasty is different from the prose of the Song Dynasty, which is exactly the same as the difference between the prose of Bacon and the prose of Edison and Godemis.In the poems of the Six Dynasties, the rough exaggeration and rough diction are completely different from the purity, vitality and splendor of Tang poetry, just as the roughness and immaturity of Keats's early poems are different from the vigor, clarity and color of Tennyson's poems Appropriately the same.

As mentioned earlier, a researcher can only set his research goal as the social relations of this people only if he is armed with the basic principles and ideas of the people.Afterwards, observe how these principles are applied and enforced.However, the social system and the etiquette and customs of the nation were not formed overnight like mushrooms. They became what they are today after several centuries of development.Therefore, it is necessary to study the history of the people of this nation.However, European scholars today still know nothing about the history of the Chinese nation.The so-called "History of China" in Dr. Pulger's new book may be the worst history written by civilized people like China.Such a kind of history, if it was written by the Hottentots of Southwest Africa, it might be tolerable.The fact that such works on Chinese history were published can only show how imperfect European knowledge of China was.Therefore, if you don't know Chinese history, how can you make a correct judgment on China's social system?Works based on this knowledge base, such as Dr. Wei Sanwei's "General Introduction to China" and other books on China, are not only worthless to scholars, but also mislead the general reader.Take the social etiquette of the nation as an example.China is undoubtedly a state of etiquette, and it is no mistake to attribute it to the enlightenment of Confucianism.Mr. Balfour could now speak freely of the hypocritical conventions of liturgical life.Yet even what Mr. Gilles calls "the bowing of outward etiquette" is deeply rooted in human nature, the human aspect of what we define as beauty.A disciple of Confucius once said: "For the purpose of propriety, harmony is the most important thing, and the way of the ancestors is the most beautiful." He also said elsewhere in the scriptures: "The propriety is respect." Now we can see that it is obvious that the respect for a nation is The evaluation of etiquette and customs should be based on knowledge of the moral principles of the nation.In addition, our study of a country's government and political system, that is, what we call the researcher's final work, should also be based on an understanding of their philosophical principles and historical knowledge. (z-68)