The Spirit of the Chinese People 精彩片段：
INTRODUCTION
INTRODUCTION
The Religion of Good-citizenship
Sage, thun ivir nicht rechtl Wir mussen den Pobel betrugen,
Scih nur, ivie ungeschickt, sich nur ivie wild er sich zeigt Ungeschick und wild sind alle rohen Betrogenen ;
Seid nur redlich und fiihrt ihn zum Menschlichen an.
Goethe
THE great war at the present moment is absorbing all the attention of the world exclusive of everything else. But then I think this war itself must make serious thinking people turn their attention to the great problem of civilisation. All civilisation begins by the conquest of Nature, i.e. by subduing and controlling the terrific physical forces in Nature so that they can do no harm to men. The modern civilisation of Europe to-day has succeeded in the conquest of Nature with a success, it must be admitted, hitherto not attained by any other civilisation. But there is in this world a force more terrible even than the terrific physical forces in Nature and that is the passions in the heart of man. The harm which the physical forces of Nature can do to mankind, is nothing compared with the harm which human passions can do. Until therefore this terrible force,_the human passions_is properly regulated and controlled, there can be, it is evident, not only no civilisation, but even no life possible for human beings.
In the first early and rude stage of society, mankind had to use
_ Arent we just doing the right thing? the mob we must befool them;
See, now, how shiftless! and look now how wild! {or such is the mob-Shiftless and wild all sons of Adam are when you befool them;
Be but honest and true, and thus make human, them all.
physical force to subdue and subjugate human passions. Thus hordes of savages had to be subjugated by sheer physical force. But as civilisation advances, mankind discovers a force more potent and more effective for subduing and controlling human passions than physical force and this force is called moral force. The moral force which in the past has been effective in subduing and controlling the human passions in the population of Europe, is Christianity. But now this war with the armament preceding it, seems to show that Christianity has become ineffective as a moral force. Without an effective moral force to control and restrain human passions, the people of Europe have had again to employ physical force to keep civil order. As Car-lyle truly says, " Europe is Anarchy plus a constable. " The use of physical force to maintain civil order leads to militarism. In fact militarism is necessary in Europe to-day because of the want of an effective moral force. But militarism leads to war and war means destruction and waste. Thus the people of Europe are on the horns of a dilemma. If they do away with militarism, anarchy will destroy their civilisation, but if they keep up militarism, their civilisation will collapse through the waste and destruction of war. But Englishmen say that they are determined to put down Prussian militarism and Lord Kitchner believes that he will be able to stamp out Prussian militarism with three million drilled and armed Englishmen. But then it seems to me when Prussian militarism is thus stamped out, there will then arise another militarism, _the British militarism which again will have to be stamped out. Thus there seems to be no way of escape out of this vicious circle.
But is there really no way of escape? Yes, I believe there is. The American Emerson long ago said, "I can easily see the bankruptcy of the vulgar musket worship, _though great men be musket worshippers; and tis certain, as God liveth, the gun that does need another gun, the law of love and justice alone can effect a clean revolution." Now if the people of Europe really want to put down militarism, there is only one way of doing it and that is, to use what E-merson calls the gun that does not need another gun, the law of love and justice, _in fact, moral force, With an effective moral force, militarism will become unnecesary and disappear of itself. But now, that Christianity has become ineffective as a moral force the problem is where are the people of Europe to find this new effective moral force which will make militarism unnecessary?
I believe the people of Europe will find this new moral force in China, _in the Chinese civilisation. The moral force in the Chinese civilisation which can make militarism unnecessary is the Religion of good citizenship. But people will say to me, "There have also been wars in China. " It is true there have been wars in China; but, since the time of Confucius ,years ago, we Chinese have had no militarism such as that we see in Europe to-day. In China war is an accident, whereas in Europe war has become a necessity. We Chinese are liable to have wars, but we do not live in constant expectation of war. In fact the one thing intolerable in the state of Europe, it seems to me, is not so much war as the fact that every body is constantly afraid that his neighbour as soon as he gets strong enough to be able to do it, will come to rob and murder him and he has therefore to arm himself or pay for an armed policeman to protect him. Thus what weighs upon the people of Europe is not so much the accident of War, but the constant necessity to arm themselves, the absolute nec-cessity to use physical force to protect themselves.