Chinese virtue

Chapter 40 Reality and Demand (1)
The whole of China is like a big ship slowly moving forward, and the classics of Confucianism are the most accurate navigation charts in the hands of the captain.Dr. Wei Sanwei, an American sinologist, Dr. James Legge, a British sinologist, and other scholars who have studied China deeply believe that Confucianism is to some extent guided and inspired by gods.Perhaps they are right, and the question that confronts us today is, how did the great ship of China manage to steer it?Where is the destination of this big ship?Where is it currently located?These issues are very important, because China has already established close relations with many Western countries, and these issues are likely to have a huge impact on the future.

It is said that to judge whether a society’s moral life is qualified, there are six important indicators, which are the indispensable basis for studying social characteristics.These indicators are:

[-]. Industrial level;
[-]. Social customs;
[-]. The characteristics of the family and the status of women in society;

[-]. The quality of the rulers and the form of government;
[-]. The state of public education;

[-]. The relationship between real life and religious belief.

When discussing the characteristics of the Chinese people, we have already explained the above-mentioned indicators, although the description is not comprehensive, and the proportion is not so precise.In the study of Chinese character there are many aspects which require special attention, and others which must sometimes be omitted.In the previous article, we only talked about the general situation of Chinese characteristics, and did not explain it carefully and completely, because that would require consideration of too many aspects.

When explaining the characteristics of the Chinese people, we have cited many examples. These examples are very convincing, just like the bones on the skeleton. Only when they are placed in the right position can the outline of the skeleton be seen clearly.Therefore, these bones are essential and cannot be ignored, unless it is a plaster cast and not a real bone.Of course, there will also be objections that we don't have important bones in place, and some bones are completely in the wrong place.This kind of objection is very normal. For such a rigorous attitude, we will admit our mistakes frankly, and add that the characteristics we have chosen cannot make people have a very complete understanding of the Chinese people, just like the five senses alone. It is impossible to understand that the body structure of the whole person is the same.But we also remind readers that these judgments are the conclusions drawn after repeated research, and the facts we have actually seen are far more than those quoted in the book.There are many points of view that we are not sure of, and can be well-argued.Anyone who has been to northern China knows that the windy and sandy weather in that place is very bad. People’s heads, ears, nostrils and clothes are covered with dust. You have to turn on the lights at noon to see clearly.

Although people do not know what caused this natural phenomenon, the description of this phenomenon is not wrong.There is, of course, a difference between observing natural phenomena, which attract everyone's attention, and observing moral phenomena, which are observed only by chance, by those who are good at observing.

There are many contradictions in Chinese life. If we only look at one aspect, there will be errors in the analysis, and we still don't know where the mistakes are.While it is very difficult to combine two conflicting perspectives, sometimes it has to be because it is very difficult in China to figure out one aspect of things, let alone grasp two different aspects.

As we said in the previous chapter, Confucianism puts a lot of emphasis on moral character, and Confucian scholars believe that Confucian theories can make many people noble, so many people have high expectations for the Confucian theoretical system.But how can the Confucian theory make people's morals noble?A person's true character can be understood through three questions: first, what is his relationship with himself; second, what is his relationship with others; third, what is his attitude towards faith.If you want to judge the quality of a person's character, it is enough to pass these three aspects.Maybe after reading this, the readers also roughly know the answer, they lack integrity and credit, whether it is to themselves or to others.They are selfish and never think about others.For beliefs, they advocate "polytheism", "pantheism" and "agnosticism".

Chinese people are very wise, they are also very patient, they are practical, they know how to be content, these aspects are the advantages of Chinese people.But the Chinese do not have a good character and conscience. Some Chinese officials did wrong things in order to get some bribes. He thought that no one would find out in his life, because the situation at that time was only "God knows, Earth knows, you know, I know".Many Chinese people would recommend their relatives to be officials, but these relatives are not qualified.So it is not surprising that the Chinese are afraid of the consequences of facing this "internal decision".Faced with such a situation, what is the use of even having a moral theory?How would the Chinese feel about this?Every organization in China has nepotism and parasitism.So it is not surprising that the police and guards in China are not doing their job properly.

The truest state of Chinese morality can be observed through the Chinese helping others.

Although the Chinese always try to cover up the shortcomings of themselves and their friends, they are very frank in admitting the shortcomings of their national nature.Chinese descriptions of fellow countrymen recall the conversation described by Carlyle in The Life of Frederick the Great of Prussia.One of the king's subordinates had a school inspector who was very popular, and the emperor liked to talk to him very much. Once the emperor asked the inspector: "Mr. Sulzer, how are your schools doing recently? Is your education going well?" Yes, Your Majesty, it’s okay, it’s much better recently.” “Recently? How do you say that?” “Your Majesty, the school’s rules and regulations used to be very strict, because it was always believed that human nature is evil, but now we know that human nature is inherently good, so we have relaxed it. Management system." "Kindness?" The emperor shook his white-haired head, and then said with a smile: "Dear Sulzer, you still don't understand this group of hateful humans!"

Chinese society is like those famous mountains and great rivers. It looks picturesque from a distance, but if you walk in, you will find that it is actually dilapidated, and there is an indescribable unpleasant smell in the air.Photos cannot reflect the real situation. People say that photos are a kind of "ruthless justice", but this sentence cannot be used in China, because photos will omit those dirty things and bad smells.

Only China has the word "Fu" plastered everywhere, which symbolizes peace and auspiciousness.

But careful people can find that Chinese people's "happiness" is only superficial.We believe this statement to be as true as someone who says true family life is impossible in Asia.

Whenever we start to study and analyze China and discuss how to combine theory with reality, we will think of the stone monument beside the main road across the river.These steles are engraved with the names of the workers who built the bridge back then. The purpose of erecting the steles is also to remember their achievements for future generations.You will see this kind of stele every few steps, but there are varying degrees of damage on the stele.We were very interested in these age-old things, so we asked the locals about bridges and steles.As a result, the locals replied: "Ah, those things have been gone for generations, and almost no one knows when it happened."

A few years ago, I was forced to stay there when I encountered headwinds while traveling on the Grand Canal.We walked aimlessly on the shore, seeing farmers working in the fields along the way.It was May, and the fields were beautiful.At this time, I am afraid that any tourist will admire these tireless farmers. It is the hard work and sweat of the farmers that make the fields as beautiful as the gardens.But speaking to these farmers, they had a very difficult winter last year.Because of the drought and floods that broke out in summer, they had almost no crops, and many people in the village were starving to death.From their words, we can know that these farmers are still starving.Although the government has disaster relief funds, each person can only receive a little, and even this has to go through layers of exploitation.These farmers couldn't compete with the officials, so they could only swallow their anger, but none of these situations could be seen from their faces.In that year, the local grain harvest was bumper, and the lives of the people finally became better.However, neither the "Beijing News" nor foreign magazines published in China reported this matter, but whether the newspapers reported it or not, the facts cannot be changed.Just like when these people were starving, even if they pretended not to know, they were still starving.Denying the facts does not mean that effective measures have been taken, because the disaster has not been alleviated.No matter what the inferences of previous studies on Chinese people are, this does not affect the real life of Chinese people. Only after careful investigation and research can we understand what their actual life is like.

The shortcomings of Chinese society that we point out in this book can also be found in Western countries.

Those countries are all "fake" Christian countries.Some readers may feel very disappointed after reading this, because we have not provided specific examples to prove this matter, nor have we compared it carefully.Once we also wanted to come up with some specific examples to prove the existence of these situations, but in the end we had to give up.Because I'm not very familiar with most western countries.I hope that every reader can make a fair comparison and not be affected by the so-called "patriotic sentiment".If we can make a fair comparison, we might as well make an assumption: the future of Western countries is full of hope, but the Chinese are living in a long dark night at this time.It would be intriguing if this assumption came to pass.We can't help but wonder, why did this happen?

Although it has been mentioned before, I have to repeat it again. China needs very little at present, only character and conscience.Or the Chinese lack only one thing, for in a way conscience and character themselves mean the same thing.Someone once commented on a piano maker, saying that his character is "just like the piano he made, upright, generous and noble".In China, I'm afraid you can't meet such a person.

There is a British writer who died a few years ago. His wife wrote at the end of her husband's autobiography: "The outside world has always called him a writer, a pastor, and a social activist, but only I who lived with him knew that he What kind of a man he was. People would think he was a very romantic man, he would receive a lot of beautiful personal letters, and his life seemed to be shrouded in a veil of mystery. But I can tell these people for sure, If there is still "love that never dies" in this world, if there is anyone in this world who can sublimate love to a sacred height, then this person must be him. His love is pure and passionate. For 36 years, no matter In health or sickness, in sunshine or in cloud, his love has never changed. He has never shown me any impatience, nor has he ever acted selfishly. If we say, transform this love into a knight In terms of spirit, as the happiest person guarded by a knight, I would say that the British writer Charles Kingsley is the 'most perfect knight' in reality."

The most successful product of Christian civilization is that it created a perfect life.Such lives are not uncommon, there are hundreds of known contemporary records, and there are many more examples that we do not know.Every reader knows at least one example of someone wholeheartedly helping others, and perhaps some lucky readers have encountered more.We don't know how to explain such lives, and we don't know what their motivations are, because we don't want to speculate wildly.However, after our careful research, we have confirmed one thing: if there is a force that can turn China into this, and can also create a person like Kingsley in China, it will be the greatest in the world. Miracles are greater than the miracles described in the fables in the Taoist classics.No human system can escape the ruthless law. There is a saying in the "Bible": "I will know them when I see their fruits." Confucianism has enough time to obtain the products of its civilization.But we are convinced that Confucianism has already done what it can and should do, and it will never have any new products derived from it.It has developed to the limit certain abilities of the Chinese, in which the Chinese have surpassed the human race of any other nation.After careful observation and research, even the most friendly people to China will admit that everything in China is ultimately caused by Confucianism.

(End of this chapter)