Unit 1 Chinese Humanism

1. To understand the Chinese ideal of life one must try to understand Chinese humanism. The term 'humanism' is ambiguous. Chinese humanism, however, has a very definite meaning. It implies, first a just conception of the ends of human life; secondly, a complete devotion to these ends; and the thirdly, the attainment of these ends by the spirit of human reasonableness or the Doctrine of the Golden Mean, Which may also be called the Religion of common sense.

要了解中国人的人生理想，就必须先了解中国的人文主义。“人文主义”这个词含义模糊含混，然而中国的人文主义却有它明确的界说。它的意思是：第一，对人生目的的确切认识；第二，为实现这一目的而行动；第三，实现的方式是心平气和，即中庸之道，也可称作“庸见的崇拜”。

2.The question of the meaning of life has perplexed Western philosophers, and it has never been solved- naturally, when one starts out from the technological point of view, according to which all things, including mosquitoes and typhoid germs, are created for the good of this cocksure humanity. As there is usually too much pain and misery in this life to allow a perfect answer to satisfy man's pride, teleology is therefore carried over to the next life, and this earthly life is then looked upon as a preparation for the life hereafter, in conformity with the logic of Socrates, which looked upon a ferocious wife as a natural provision for the training of the husband's character. This way of dodging the homes of the dilemma sometimes gives peace of mind for a moment, but then the eternal question, “what is the meaning of life?” comes back. Others, like Nietzsche, take the bull by the horns and refuse to assume that life must have a meaning and believe that progress is in a circle, and human achievements are a savage dance, instead of a trip to the market, but still the question comes back eternally, like the sea waves lapping upon the shore: “what is the meaning of the life?”

人生的意义是什么，这个问题一直使西方哲学家备受困惑。他们从目的论出发，认为包括蚊子乃至伤寒菌在内的万事万物，都是为这个自负的人类的利益而存在的。如此这般，人生的意义就从来没有揭示出来过。今生今世自有百般磨难，因而自傲的人类始终无法事事如意。于是目的论又转向来生来世，把今生的世俗生活看作为来世所进行的准备。这与苏格拉底的逻辑恰好符合，即认为一个凶悍的妻子对她丈夫的性格锤炼来说，是一种天然的恩赐。以此躲避人生的难题固然可以使人暂时心平气和，但问题仍旧没有答案：“人生的意义何在？”另外有一些人，像尼采那样知难而上，否认人生“必须”有什么意义，认为人类的进步不过是一种循环，一种野蛮人的舞蹈，而不是去市场采购，所以没有什么特殊的含义。然而问题还是没能解决，它就像海浪一样不断冲击着堤岸：“人生的意义究竟何在？”

3. The Chinese humanists believe they have found the true end of life and are conscious of it. For the Chinese the end of life lies not in life after death, for the idea that we live in order to die, as taught by Christianity, is incomprehensible; nor in Nirvana, for that is too vainglorious; nor yet in progress for progress’s sake, for that is meaningless. The true end, the Chinese have decided in a singularly clear manner, lies in the enjoyment of a simple life especially the family life, and in harmonious social relationships. The first poem that a children learns in school runs:

While soft clouds by warm breezes are wafted in the moon,

Lured by flowers, past the river I roam on and on.

They’ll say “look at the old man in the spree!”

And know not that my sprit’s on happiness borne.

中国的人文主义者认为自己找到了人生的真谛，并时时意识到这一点。在中国人看来，人生在世并非为了死后的来生，对于基督教所谓此生为来世的观点，他们大惑不解，他们进而认为：佛教所谓升入涅槃境界，过于玄虚；为了获得成功的欢乐而奋斗，纯属虚荣；为了进步而去进步，则是毫无意义。

中国人明确认为：人生的真谛在于享受淳朴的生活，尤其是家庭生活的欢乐和社会诸关系的和睦，儿童入学伊始，第一首诗便是：云淡风轻近午天，傍花随柳过前川。时人不识余心乐，将谓偷闲学少年。

4. That represents to Chinese, not just a pleasant poetic mood but the summer bonum of life. The Chinese ideal of life is drunk through with this sentiment. It is an ideal of life that is neither particularly ambitious nor metaphysical, but nevertheless immensely real. It is, I must say, a brilliantly simple idea, so brilliantly simple that only the mater-of-fact Chinese mind could have conceived it, and yet one often wonders how the West could have failed to see that the meaning of lies in the sane and healthy enjoyment of it. The difference between China and West seems to be that the westerners have a greater capacity for getting and making more things and a lesser ability to enjoy them, while the Chinese have a greater determination and capacity to enjoy the few things they have. This trait, our concentration on earthy happiness, is much as a result as a cause of the absence of religion. For if one can not believe in the life hereafter as the consummation of the present life, one is forced to make the most of this life before the farce is over. The absence of religion makes this concentration possible.

在中国人看来，这不仅代表片刻的诗意般的快乐心境，并且是追求人生幸福的目标。中国人就是陶醉在这样一种人生理想之中，它既不暧昧，又不玄虚，而是十分实在。我必须说，这是一种异常简单的理想，简单到非中国人老实巴交的头脑想不出来。

我们时常纳闷，西方人何以竟想不到人生的意义在于纯净平安地享受生活。中国与欧洲的不同，似乎在于西方人有更大的能力去获取和创造，享受事物的能力则较小，而中国人享受仅有一点东西的决心和能力都比较大。把精力集中在世俗的幸福，这一特性是我们缺乏宗教的原因，也是它的结果。

因为如果一个人不相信有一个紧接着今生今世的来生来世，他就会在今生的一切消逝之前尽情享受，而宗教的缺乏又使这种想法变成可能。

5. From this a humanism is developed which frankly proclaims a man-centered universe, and lays down the rule that the end of all knowledge is to serve human happiness. The humanizing of knowledge is not an easy thing, for the moment man swerves, he is carried away by his logic and becomes a tool of his own knowledge. Only by a sharp and steadfast holding to the true end of human life as one sees it can humanism maintain itself. Humanism occupies, for instance, a mean position between the other-worldliness of religion and the materialism of the modern world. Buddhism may have captured popular fancy in China, but against its influence the true Confucianist was always inwardly resentful, for it was, in the eyes of humanism, only an escape from life, or a negation of truly human life.

由此生发出一个人文主义，它坦白地宣告了人类是宇宙的主义，并规定一切知识都是为人类的幸福服务。知识同人类的结合并非易事，因为人类一旦动摇起来，就会被自己的逻辑所左右，成为知识的工具。人文主义只有坚定地把握住人生的真谛才能保佑自己。比方说，人文主义只是在宗教信仰的来生来世与现代世界的实利主义之间，占据一个中间位置。佛教也许在中国引起了人们的普遍兴趣，然而与之相对的真正的儒家，对它的影响总感到忿然不平，因为在人文主义看来它只是一种对生活的逃避和对真正人生的否定。

6. On the other hand, the modern world, with it’s over-development of machinery, has not taken time to ensure that man enjoys what he makes. The glorification of the plumber in America has made man forget that one can live a very happy life without hot and cold running water, and that in France and Germany many men have lived to comfortable old age and made important scientific discoveries and written masterpieces with their water jug and old-fashioned basin. There needs to be a religion which will transcribe Jesus’ famous dictum about the Sabbath and constantly preach that the machine is made for man and not man made for the machine. For after all, the sum of all human wisdom and the problem of all human knowledge is how man shall remain a man and how he shall best enjoy his life.

另一方面，当今世界由于机器的迅猛发展，人类无暇享受自己创造的一切。美国营道工人的荣耀使人们忘记了没有冷热自来水我们也能过上幸福的生活。在法国和德国，许多人伴随着自己的水壶和老式脸盆也照样在他们安逸而漫长的一生中，做出了重大的科学发明，写出了不少宏篇巨著。需要有一种宗教来宣扬耶稣关于安息日的著名教义，并时常告诫人们：造机器为人，而非造人为机器。因为无论如何，人类的一切智慧和知识所要解决的问题都是：人类如何保养自己，如何最大程度地享受生活。

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