Abstract
Lin Yutang advocated the thought of “It ought to be order” of Taoism of Moment in Peking, with Confucianism as foil. The overall structure of the whole book was the philosophy of Chuangtse. It indicated the particular opinions how Taoists think of property ,pleasure-seeking, life and death, love and marriage. It illustrated clearly Taoists‘ philosophy ideas of their optimistic and magnanimous attitudes towards life What’s more, the author’s characteristic in introducing traditional Chinese culture to the west is using the form of novel, by which he created a variety of typical and lively characters.
Key words: Lin Yutang; Moment in Peking; Taoism 中文摘要
林语堂在京华烟云中以儒家思想为陪衬，弘扬了“顺应天道”的道家思想。全书以“庄周哲学”为笼络，透露出了道家对待财富、享乐、生死及婚恋的独特观点，法语毕业论文，阐明并推崇了道家思想达观豁然、心胸宽广的哲学理念。本书采用小说的艺术表现措施，塑造了形象鲜明、性格不一的人物是作者向西方人介绍中国传统文化的独到之处。
关键词：林语堂；京华烟云； 道 Introduction Lin Yutang, born in Long Xi, Zhang Zhou, south of Fujian in 1895, was the son of Pastor Lin Zhicheng He first studied in free missionary schools in Xiamen, and then went to Shanghai St.John‘s University where he learned English by heart and read a lot of western books. When he graduated from St.John‘s University in 1916, Yutang accepted a teaching post at QingHua College in Beijing. There he found himself surrounded by Chinese history and realized how small the confines of his Christian education had been. Determined to make up to his inadequacy, he began to study traditional Chinese culture and became interested in philosophy of Chuangtse particularly.
In the literary world, Lin Yutang was one of the well-known writers, who was listed as one of the ‘wisdom Figure‘ in 20th century in American Literature Area. In 1975, in the 41st International association of Poets, Editors, Essayists, and Novelists (PEN), he was selected as General assistant President of the association. And what‘s more, he was nominated for the candidate of Nobel Literature Prize. One of Yutang‘ s friends said that, the strong point of Yutan was to introduce Chinese culture to the foreigners and in return, to introduce foreign culture to the Chinese. Lin Yutang himself agreed to this completely. He used his own words: "two feet to cross over the eastern and western culture; One heart to comment the global articles." before 1936, he devoted most of his time and energy to bringing Chinese culture to the world. Many of his great works written in English such as My Country and My People. The Art of Living, Moment in Peking enjoyed great popularity in the west .He did contribute a lot to the exchange of eastern and western culture.
In the late 19th century and the first 50years of the 20th century, the eastern and western cultures experienced a great historic conflict. Chen Ping Yuan pointed out in his book Aesthetic Standards of Lin Yutang and Eastern and Western Cultures that:" To the Chinese intellectuals of the 20th century, there is no doubt that how to balance the eastern and western cultures is a very serious problem. One is the strong western concept; the other is the strong patriotic feeling of their nation. The struggle drives them to roaming between the eastern and western cultures.” During this big hit, apart from Western learning, there is also Eastern learning, which is more important for the Chinese to spread our civilization. Lin Yutang owned a special way of thinking that resulted from his own special life experience and culture environment, which made him experience the different psychological process as the writers of his day. His thoughts about human culture had been divided into 3periods in his ‘cultural novels‘: First, after he did the research of the traditional Chinese culture, through comparing the two thoughts Confucianism and “Tao”, he advocated “Tao”. Second, after the comparison of eastern and western culture, Lin Yutang’s balance of feeling was inclined to the Chinese culture. Third, from the view of human beings, he found out that the eastern and western culture had their own weak points and strong points when he observed the world culture from the global prospect, and finally he proposed the culture conception in the future----A good combination of Chinese and Western elements.In this article of Moment in Peking, the emphasis will be placed on the first period----“Tao”, or say philosophy of Chuangtse. Chapter1. Correlative Introduction of
Moment in Peking
Moment in Peking was written in 1938, when the Sino-Japanese war broke out. Mr. Lin‘s daughter Lin Rusi recalled:" In the spring of 1938, an idea to translate the Red chamber Dream dawned on my father after careful consideration, he found that The Red Chamber Dream was written long ago from now, so he changed his mind to write a novel which reflect the mordent life of China.” The westerners could understand this novel more easily because the time and the background this novel set on was close to the author’s day. In March of 1938, Lin Yutang began to design the characters and plot of the novel. After five-month fermentation, he started to write on 8th, August of 1939. It cost Lin a whole year totally. This great work that Lin Yutang shed his heart’s blood on was the most beautiful and most fresh flower in the garden of Lin’s novels.
This shining flower was rooted in the soil of national spirit and patriotism. It was written at the beginning of Sino-Japanese War, which decided the importance of patriotism. Lin Yutang revealed his motive of production of this novel in the letter to Yu Dafu , that is , to remember the brave soldiers in the front who died for our nation. Lin Yutang believed that an intellects of China, during the vital moment, he should connect his own fate to that of his motherland. He also believed that as a writer, the sharpest weapon was the pen and the works. In this book the author intended to tell the west how china the big and old nation, experienced the great pains, suffering and still made the progress bit by bit in a certain particular time (from early to mid of the 20th century). So in this novel, we can read many Chinese history stories such as Boxer Rebellion, The May 4th Movement of 1919, etc. The author showed us an especial life attitude of “Tao” through the description of different life attitudes and experience of different characters from different families in a certain time. The author believed that thought of Tao school was a very particular kind thought in that time because it was in a sense superior to Confucianism which had been playing a predominant role in China over a long time especially the feudal Confucian ethical code which constrains and stifles human nature. What’s more, some of its views embodied democracy, freedom, independence of personality, all of which the west pursue. In this sense, thoughts of Tao School and the western culture have something in common while they have their own characteristics. In a word, Moment in Peking is the vehicle of thoughts of Lin Yutan. That‘s to say; this novel indicates the author’s thinking. Lin Yutang’s daughter Lin Rusi said in her book On Moment In Peking: “Life is like a dream” was the gist of Moment In Peking. But as a matter of fact, the opinion of Lin Yutang’s own was not completely similar to that of his daughter. He became greatly aware of the changeable nature of things and human beings on the basis of the objectives of Taoism, aware of the brevity of life, and of ultimate nihility, without negating the relative meaning of life. Meanwhile, on the basis of the view of taking things philosophically and naturalism, on the condition of looking into the real side of life, he advocated to follow the big Way, to liberate spirit, and to live a happy life, which should be pointed out as an important thought of Lin Yutang’s philosophy of life. The actor, Yao Si‘an, the Taoist and his elder daughter, Yao Milan are of Lin Yutang ‘ s favorite. The author once said:" If I were a woman, I would be MuLan."Yao Mulan therefore becomes the perfect woman image in his eyes. And this kind of perfection is not only due to her appearance. The more important factor is her character of magnanimity, open mind, optimism, humor sense, innocence and full of imagination, which form under the influence of his father’s Taoist thought. These thoughts and personalities are greater and more glamorous in the society in which the Confucianism predominates. Chapter2. The embodiment of “Tao” in
Moment In Peking |
