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The Spirit of Chinese History Series: Qian Mu on Chinese History and Culture Publishing House: Guizhou People's Publishing House
The Spirit of Chinese History Series: Qian Mu on Chinese History and Culture Publishing House: Guizhou People's Publishing House
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Description
About the Author · · · · · ·
Qian Mu (1895-1990), courtesy name Binsi, was born in Wuxi, Jiangsu. He entered a private school at the age of nine. After dropping out in 1912, he taught himself and taught in primary and secondary schools in his hometown. In 1930, he was recommended by Gu Jiegang to be a Chinese lecturer at Yenching University. Later, he served as a professor at Peking University, Tsinghua University, Southwest Associated University, Qilu University, Wuhan University, West China University, Sichuan University, Jiangnan University and other schools. In 1949, he went to Hong Kong and founded New Asia College. In 1967, he settled in Taiwan. He has written more than 60 academic works.
The book "The Spirit of Chinese History (New Edition)" compiled by Qian Mu tells the story: China's history is long, with changes in order and chaos, and twists and turns, which often makes historians feel helpless and have no idea where to start. And those who read history for the first time often suffer from the difficulty of grasping the key points, so they are discouraged. With his profound historical knowledge and keen analytical ability, Mr. Qian describes the seven major contents of historical spirit and historical methods, governance, economy, national defense, education, geography and characters, and moral spirit in "The Spirit of Chinese History (New Edition)", allowing readers to glimpse the mysteries of Chinese history and culture, and deeply understand the historical spirit of the past 5,000 years, so as to recognize the historical mission and direction of efforts of this generation of Chinese people.
What is the meaning of life?
Mr. Qian Mu gave his answer in his book "The Spirit of Chinese History". His point of view is that a person's life does not just refer to the decades from birth to death. A person's life should be considered in the framework of history, that is, your life does not actually start on the day you are born. Because the specific thinking mode you have as an individual is not created by you out of thin air, but is actually the result of thousands of years of history before you. The thoughts of the predecessors have influenced you through the family and school education you have experienced, the books you have read, and even the words and deeds of the people around you, and finally shaped you as an individual. Similarly, your life should not end on the day you die. When you are alive, your words and deeds will inevitably affect the people around you, thus becoming a part of history, and ultimately affecting future generations. So even if you die, your life still exists in people's hearts more or less. Therefore, a person's individual and the history of a society are always intertwined.
This view obviously brings a path to "immortality" for individuals. Qian Mu believes that the difference between Chinese and Western culture is that Western culture usually introduces a God. Then the key to an individual's "immortality" is to "listen to God's words", so that he can eventually ascend to heaven and achieve "immortality of the soul". Therefore, Western culture is mainly about the relationship between individuals and God. Chinese culture is more important in the relationship between people, or the relationship between people and history. Therefore, Chinese culture does not need a god that transcends human society, nor does it exist in the dualism of soul and body. The only way for a person to achieve "immortality" is to make a positive impact on Chinese history (that is, "establishing virtue") so that he can live in the hearts of others. Therefore, Qian Mu's point of view is that Chinese culture points out a different path to people's "immortality" from the West, that is, you can achieve "immortality" in history by inspiring the hearts of others.
Qian Mu even reinterpreted the story of Jesus in Christianity from his point of view. He believed that the story of Jesus being crucified and finally resurrected because of his love for the world in the Christian tradition can be understood as that after Jesus' death, his spirit of love will always remain in the hearts of future generations, so Jesus will live forever in people's hearts. His "resurrection" is not the resurrection of his personal body, but his resurrection in people's hearts. So from then on, Jesus became "immortal" in human history. This understanding is obviously different from the traditional Christian argument, but it is also logically self-consistent. I think it is a very good explanation of Qian's point of view in this book.
