10-10-CL-0002 by Chinabooklink.eu

Lin Yutang demonstrated how to use the "Chinese Fast Typewriter" in NewYork, rg48. (Original size: rJocmxpcm)

york, about i rin yutang in his study in New sizez rr.{crnxrScm) Original London; I-ra., i

.william rg45 @hotographer:

Heinemann

The Lin couple in Thiwan, rg58 (original size: J./cmx5.6cm)

The Lin couple received a friend's gift of a piece of calligraphy which read "Is it not a delight after all to have friends come from attending the 37th ^fffi",when International PEN in t97 o. (Original sizez r6.8cm*rr. 9cm)

i ffre Lin couple arrived in T채iwan in ry66. (Original size: rzcmxr1.rcm)

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Pfl5FACE .i{ääE Jurymer One THE AIIIAI(ENING i*r'#'ü I. APPROACH TO LIFE itrrta;ä i i

;

II. III. ]mn+'1sr

A PSEUDO-SCIENTIFIC FORMULA THE SCAMP AS IDEAL iuil"ür-i i

Two VIEWS OF MANKIND

iI;II}.{I

i#.{4}

iti:'iiä'i

I. CHRISTIAN, GREEK AND CHINtrSE II. EARTH-BOUND i*;ätir III. A BIOLOGICAL VItrW i tt':nrii IV. HUMAN LIFE A POEMi i

r-'t*r:?; i

üh.apter Three OUR

ANIMAL HERITAGE

*::t::t:#'i

I. THE MONKEY EPIC i+;+;tlr II. IN THE IMAGE OF THE MONKEY i III. CN BEING MORTAL i*r$'l IV. ON HAVING A STOMACH I

r.F:s:{r:i i

i,i.ra.r,s, i

V. o.'.

ON HAVING STRONG MUSCLES ON HAVING A MIND

jf.s$äl i

a3+${i! i

Chapter Four ON BEING HUMAN i #rii{it i I. ON HUMAN DIGNITY i {F'}.# i II. ON PLAYFUL CURIOSITY THE RISE OF HUMAN

CIVILIZNIION

i srt'*

III. ON DREAMS i IV. ON THE SENSE OF HUMOUR i*$,1i V. ON BEING \MAYWARD AND INCALCULABLE i iil;ii{Ii VI. THE DOCTRINE OF THE INDIVIDUAL i +:t;":i"

r":ii'"l'! i

Chapter Five WHO CAN BEST ENJOY LIFE? i'i;iii:l':io: I. FIND THYStrLF: CHUANGTSE:t:i'ii'+ti+; II. PASSION, WISDOM AND COURAGE: MtrNCIUS i'it:i:;'i III. CYNICISM, FOLLY AND CAMOUFLAGE: LAOTStr i't{iiii IV. "PHILOSOPHY OF HALF-AND.HALF": TSESStr i 'E'ii?' V. A LOVER OF Lltrtr: T,AO YÜANMING I Iii:tT'} i

Chapter Six THE FEAST OF LIFEI$.€ä i I. THE PROBLEM OF HAPPINtrSS i'*ä*

Ten THE ENJOYMENT OF NATUREi:i1.:+rn I. PARADISE IOST? i ,-t:s"':i

II. HUMAN HAPPINESS IS SENSUOUS i ^e:$:F" i IV. MISUNDERSTANDINGS OF MATERIALISM

Ho\M ABOUT MENTAL PLEASURES?

ON BIGNESS l:tr;r* I ITI. T\MO CHINESE LADIES ii_-p+4""ä i IV. ON ROCKS AND TREES::*r'* i V. ON FLO\MERS AND FLOIVtrR ARRANGEMENTS i iii.:iä':t IT.

III. CHIN'S THIRTY-THREtr HAPPY MOMENTS V.

i'd'l}f 't*A"g

i i

l+gn.}"i

THE'VASE FLO'WERS" OF YÜAN CHUNGLANG

VII. THE EPIGRAMS OF CHANG

Chapter Seven THE IMPORTANCE OF LOAFINGi*s:'?i I. MAN THE ONLY WORKING ANIMAL i*s+ II. THE CHINESE, THEORY OF LEISURE i-$*$äS i III. THE CULT OF TFIE IDLE LIFE i€s"*

CH'AO:$".?{ir

Eleven THEENJOYMENT OF TRA\IELi,:'ti:**+

I. II.

IV. THIS EARTH THE ONLY HEAVEN i s** i/. WHAT IS LUCK? i t"** i VI. THREE AMERICAN VICES i$?"t i

ON GOING ABOUT AND SEE,ING TI{INGS:r?'i.{,$äl i 'THE TRAVELS OF MINGLIAOTSE" iiq'{i;äl i

Ghapter Twelve THE ENJOYMENT OF CULTURE I. GOOD TASTE IN KNO'WLEDGE i::i:irliäTi II. ART AS PLAY AND PERSONALITY i;I;I,I':;TI i III. THE ART OF READING .+'ss;? i WRITING OF i ART W. THtr

;itr"i;? i

Chapter Eight THE ENJOYMENT OF THE HOMEI I. ON GETTING BIOLOGICALI{?r3 TII.

ON SEX APPEAL

I+XN

$"$*$

Chapt"r Thirteen RELATIONSHIP TO GOD i'"$;+::rl i I. THE RESTORÄTION OF RELIGION . 4;!irr4' II. WHY I AM A PAGAN i-ii,ririir i

ON GROIVING OLD GRACEFULLY iär-t* i

Chapter Nine THE ENJOYMBNT OF LWING I xt* I. ON LYING IN BED iä'$$ i

II. ON SITTING IN CHAIRS

III. ON CONVERSATION

i.,:?"q:i;Lt

w. THE CHINESE EAMILY IDEALi V.

II. CELIBACY A FREAK OF CIULIZNTTON i *r*s

-{ffi*

i"as*

Chapter Fourteen THE ART OF THINKING i I. THE NEED OF HUMANIZED THINKING '/4;13r+

II. III.

i"i,*.€s i

IV. ON TEA AND FRIENDSHIP iä#e i V. ON SMOKE AND INCENSE iHd&s i VI. ON DRINK AND WINE GAMES ismq i

VII. ON FOOD AND MEDICINE

iffiffitr

VIII. SOME CURIOUS WESTERN CUSTOMS i R?$ IX. THE INHUMANITY OF WESTERN DRESS iä'äO$ X. ON HOUSE AND INTERIORS i### i i

THE RETURN TO COMMON SENSE BE REASONABLE i.$"#t

i''+'$.si i

ir++sr

i;-e-;.q:$:l i

FOREV/ORD

1"_,

n-rT Ling in r9o5, or the 3rth

of the reign of Emperor Guangxu of

],,nmasw. rwo brothers set out by boat from their hometown Boa-ah, a

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ilnrm

yeau_

harnlet in Fuiian Province on the southern coast of China, for the

::.r of Xiamen, some sixty miles

away.

The boys were full of excitement

one. Yutang waS ten years old, and today, he =;rmer. especially the younger m,w nr:ng leave of his hometo\Mn and going with his brother to study in Xiamen.

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Eere sons of Pastor Lin Zhicheng, who was born in the poor village of

W"rrlshä- Pastor Lin was sending his sons to free missionary schools in Xiamen.

The Pastor was not a follower of convention, so the boys did not wear

little #y, deeply tanned, with a prominent forehe ad, a :tx'of sparkling eyes, and a narrow chin. Six miles lateq when the skiff came -: \r.aoxi, the boys changed to a five-sail junk, and sailed toward Zhangzhou :,: \fest River. There were paddy fields and farmhouses on either side of nrc*r€s. Yutang was a

::€ river, and tall mountains stood behind them, clad in grey-purplish .--ues. z-es

Yutang thought

it inexpressibly beautiful. After a dat's journeY, the junk

tied up against the bank under some bamboo trees. Yutang was told to lie

Jown, cover himself with a blanket and go to sleep.

But sleep was the last thing on the bo/s mind. The boatman sitting at the iunk's stern was suckin g at his pipe, and bet'ween gulps of bitter tea, telling stories about the Empress Dowager Cixi, who ruled the court today, having

put the Emperor Guangxu under house arrest for supporting the reformers ar rhe palace. Another junk was tied up on the opposite bank, brightly lit by lanterns. A soft breeze wafted sounds of merrymaking and music from a lute across the water. Oh, what a beautiful scene! Yutang thought, I must remember

lI . / 1z J%r^/ao-

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,l relf-taught man, communicated to his children a passionate zest thrt was new and modern from the \(/est, and decided that his sons 'Western educations. \7ith the help of one 9f hun English and receive

this eveningwell, so that the sights and sounds will always be fresh in my mind

I recall this nig[rt, however old I might be. At the thought of going to school in Xiamen, his heart leapt with anticipation. He often went to watch the sunset behind the tall mountains when

ers and a loan, Yutang attended St. John's University in Shanghai, emphasis was on English. Yutang also studied theolo 5Y, because he

which completely surrounded the hamlet. The mountain peaks were always shrouded in clouds. How did a person get out of this deep vallen he wondered.

to be a pastor like his father. But after extensive reading in science' to have doubts about Christian do gma, and changed his major to

'What was the world like outside? Tq the north there was a crack in one of the peaks, left there, it was said, when a fairy stubbed his toe on a rock. The wodd

hy.

was so big that it boggled his mind. Two years ago, his father told him the fust airplane had a successful test fight. "IVe read everything I could W hands on about the airplane," his father said, "but

he graduated from St. John's

1916,

Yutang accepted a teaching

by einghua College in Beijlrg. Here, he found himself surrounded history, and he realized how small the confines of his Christian

^y I've never seen one, and I the best

tlon had been. He knew that Joshua's, trumpet blew down the walls of

univer$ities in the wodd w.gre the University of Berlin in Germann and Oxford

but did not know the folktale of MengJiangnü, whose tears f,or her lost at the Great Watl caused a section of the wall to collapse and expose

dont knowvrhether

should believe it."

llis father also told him that

University in England. llYou tnust study hard, young man," his father often said, sittine beside the boy's bed at night, turning up the oil lamp and smoking his

body. Determined ro make up for his inadequ "cf t Yutang haunted tores, asking shopkeepers what were the most important books to read,

pipe. "Study hard, so that you can go to one ofthose universities. Acquire an

he was too ashamed to ask others.

education and become a famous man."

than 5o books and becarne a world-renowned author- The NeuTorkTimes sud at the time of his death, "Lin Yutang had no peer as an interpreter to'Western

When he was not reading, Yut aug tried to devise a better method for up characters in a Chinese diction ary than the prevailing Kangxi the bane of scholars and studönts alike. At the age of 23, he published of {ndex Systern fo, Cbinese Cbaracters for which Cai Yuanpei, chancellor Universiry of Pekirg (Beida), wrote a preface. The work attracted

minds of the customs, aspirations, fears and thought of his people." Father was a novelist, essayist, philosopher, philologist and lexicographer. He also

attention of scholars and was a catalyst for change. But Yutang was akeady &la*sfied with his method, and he continued throughout his life to work on

invented a Chinese typewriter' "But he was more'?'wrote Prof' Nelson I"w'u of 'W'ashington University in St. Lo-qis, Missouri. "FIe was a total man, stubbornly

Chineselnrprovements. These were finally incorporated in his monumental üqtistr diction ary published when he was 77 years old'

going his own way through the criticism of lesser minds to become a universal

for three years, then qualified to study in tmerica. He received a half-scholarship to maior in modern languages at llervard Graduate School of Arts & Sciences. In r9r9, he married Liao Cuifeng from Xiamen, and took his bride with him to Cambridge, Massachusetts- At

My father often repeated this story to me. As

sat in his study, surrounded

by bookshelves of his works, I,knew that Grandfather's words \ilere the inspiration of his !ife. In his 8o years, my father wrote and translated more

genius.t'

Father was born in 1895, the

fifth of six sons of Lin Zlicheng.The Presbyterian

u,,, Yutang taught at Qinghua

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the end of the year, his stipend stopped coming and he had not enough money to get his Master:s degree at Harvard.

'World W'ar I'was now over, China had sent some r5o'ooo laborers to France, and Yutang accepted a job at the American YMCA [Young Mert's Christian Associationl to teach the laborers to read and write, The couple moved to Le Creusot, a small town in France:'When they had saved some rnoneyi Yutang had taught himself Ger.man, and they went to the University ofJena in Germany because the living standard there was lower. Yutang took courses and transferred credit to receive his Master's from Flarvard. To the

in r9zo, "I do not wish to plead for any special leniency in giving me the degree. Nor am I going to be intellectually arrested myself after I should get the degree. It is for the reason of great pfactical utility that I wish to have this certificate. I believe that the Har%rd dean of Harvard Graduate School he wrote

will make my progress through the German University much quicker and easier." lnt9z3, he received his Ph.D. in Philologr ftomI*ipzigUniversity'

degree

and returned to China

The country was in turmoil. Politically, China was in the grip of feudal warlords whofought one :urother incessantly. Yutang,

professor in the English

Department of Beida, wrote articles and criticized the cofrupt and ineffective government. The feuding warlords fo"ght on. Duan Qirui ordered the arrest

of some io professors and newspapermen who criticized the government. Yutangts name was on the list. Two editors who were arrested were shot in the sarne night.

By now my parents had two daughters, my older sister and myself-

\端7e

left

for Xiamen, where Father joined the faculty of Xiamen University as dean of the College of Arts and Letters. But, university politics made it impossible for him to stay on, and ayear later, he joined the Ministry of ForeignAffairs in the Wtrhan Government, because he admired Foreign Minister ChenYuren, whom he had known in Beijing. When the Wuhan Government was toppled in Father quit his job, and we moved to Shanghai.

1927,

ry o/.t / a7. 'Y

Englisb Books, , he began to write the enormously successful Kaiming t was adopted as textbooks for middle schools. Ifith his founding icer bi-monrhly in rg3z in Shanghai, Father made his reputation

The magazine specialized in humor and satire, but it was Father's ions that most captured the readers.' Pokitg fun at'government fu once said, "Although you Lf,- '.lr,official, )rou still look like a man'" s lacerating wit earned him the reputation of enfant tertible and"the ,{}vlaster of Humor." In 1934 and 1935, he started two,more magazines, ;

V'orld and The CosrnicVind. Also at this time, Father'was writing column called "The Little Critic" which appeared in Cbina Critic

of the Concise , as well as editirrg a Chinese diction ary in the style Dhtiondry. At the same time, he was translating English works into such as the biography of Henrik Ibsen and George Bernard Shaw's .

And he was translating Chinese into English,,the most notable

ef which was Qirg Dynasry author Shen Fu's Six Chapters of a FloatingLife, wgs published in,bilingual form in Shanghai in rgi5. The author wrote Jthe idyllic life he led

with his wife'Yun, whom Father described in

h,s,'one of the loveliest of wornen in Chinese literature." The story and

tion received wide attention.

"Little Critic" essays caught the attention of Pearl S" Buck, who in Chi rta, at:rd whose nov el The Good Earth had won the Pulitzer Sne evening the rwo writers met. They had been speaking of foreigt in China, when Farher suddenly said , "I should like to write a book 's

cxactly what

I feel about China."

are the one to do it," Mrs. Buck replied enthusiastically.

tfier finished the book in ry35, and it was called My Counffy dnd W In the book, Father surveyed the mental and moral constitution and vrell as socieV,literature and the aft o;{ living. is too big a countA, and her national life has too many facets for her rbe open to the most diverse interpretations," he wrote. "I can lay bate

the Chinese people,

W. 7-/' Jry^-/aoo'

her troubles because

I have not lost hope."

The politic ally motivated writers lost no time in tearing the book apart, but Father was not bothered. "If a man must be

a writer," he said, "he should

have some courage and speak his mind." He had nothirg but contempt for

literury prostitutes who owed their living to political bosses.

"The book burst like a shell over the S7estern world:' accordirg to the New Tork Times. "My Country and

I[y People is the clearest and most interesting

dissection and synthesis of China past and present that

I have read," wrote

in the Chicago Daily Ti,ibune. "One of the most important and satisfactory books yet written in English on the character, life and philosophy of the Chinese people," wrote \)f. L. Langer in Foreign Affairs. "No one who wants to know either old or new China need go beyond the covers of My Fann)r Butcher

Country and A[y People... The whole gamut of matters Chinese is here treated

with a deftness, a frankness, an intelligenc e , L subtlety seldom matched in 'work," wrote

T F. Opie in Churcbman.

arry

"I am still a child, looking at this extraordinary world with round eyes," he said. "There is so much I must learn; every1fuing arouses my curiosity. I have only one interest, and that is to Father was 4r. Success did not change him.

know more about life, past and present, and to write about it. I would not like

if it gets in the way." In ry36, our fan:dy, which now included three

fame

daughters, went to America,

intending to stay only a year. But when the XTar of Resistance Against Japanese broke out the next year, we had to delay our return. Father was horrified to learn the

jz manuscript volumes of the Chinese dictionaryr he was editing,

which he had not brought to the States, had been destroyed.

In New York, Father began to write The Irnportance of Living, one of his most famous books and a grand synthesis of his philosophy. It became the best-selling book in America in 1938, was translated into a dozen languages, and secured for him the position'of a leading inte{preter of China to the Xfest.

In comparing East and $7est, he found no difference so sha{p

the attitude

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am still continually shocked by the ITestern attitude," he

lirrlr "I lrr.:rrrl an old lady remark that she had several gfandchildren,'but it r9r tlrr. lrrst onc that hurt.'Even with the knowledge that Americans hate to tri. rlr'rrp,lrt 1l'as old, one still doesn't quite e4pect to have it put thatway." ( lrr rlrr. ilrportance of the hOme, he wrote, "It has seemed to me that the [1al tr.rt ol'uny civilization is, what type of husbands and wives and fathers

it turn out. Besides the austere simplicity of such a question' and Fvtst y otlrt.r' achievement of civilization-art, philosophy, literature 111 nrot lu'r's docs

ltul

r ra

ng"-pales into insignificance."

)r l,irr has performed the inestimable service of distilling the philosophy rr, gr.il(.rirli1;ns of Chinese sages and Pfesenting it against a modern... ,,1

[er Lgr,rrrrrrl, which makes

easily readable and understandable," said the

\etmJ,ty llruicw of Literature. in Pehing, published

rg4o, was a novel of broad canvas which

^l,,rt(rtt I the Boxer Rebellion in rgor and ended with the beginning of the \l'irr rrl l{t.sistance AganistJapanese. Like Tlte Inryortance of Living, it became

lll.g,rrr wit

rr.h.r I l,,rr

of the Book-of-the-Month Club.

lrrr, Lp,trrtttt<l novel

"may well become the classic

of modern China", sudTime magazifie'

into Chinese and well-received, although Irr wrr rrot always pleased with the translations. 'My regret is that I did not, tlrrlrrglr nurst of my works, meet my readefs face to face," he said toward the l,.rtlrt.r.'s books were translated

Ilrlol lrislife,referringtothefactthatmostofhisworks'Chinesetranslations wr-rr rkrttc lly others.

llrrr lrc was too busy creatively to translate. After the war ended, Father ,.rrrlr,rrlit.rl upon an adventure that was to wipe out all his assets and get him

r.1lly irr rlcbt. He decided to build a chinese typewfiter that anyone could use

wttll,ut prcvious training. rr r ,.rvr.rl lxr<rks,

Because he had written and edited a string of well-

including Thevisdonof chinaandlndiain rg4z,he felt he could

,rlllr r I r lris project. In fact, he had been trying to invent a typewriter ever since of tens of Irr= wrrrl to Peking in the r9zos. Never mind that Chinese consisted

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thousands of ideographs while English had only z6 letters of the alphabet, he

thought it could be done.

His solution lay in finding

-a"./ ,7 oY" 7-a7' 'lX

lFar East Languages, Yale University,.said that "the finding system is yer devised, md it may well be extended to dictionaries and

Gffcienr a better way

to classiry Chinese characters than

system. He thought he had the problem solved back in r93r, when

yueh, manager of the Bank of china in New York, said, "I was not

he tried to have a model of his invention made in London. But he had run out

,for anything so compact and at the same time comprehensive' so eafY Yuen end yet so adequate." And Father's good friend, the philologist

the

K*g.i

of funds and returned home with only 30 cents in his pocket. Now, working like a man possessed, Father was up at dawn'and did not go

to bed until after midnight. He drew sketches, rearranged characters and redesigned his keyboard. In New York's Chinatown, he found a printer who could mold the characters. Then,. he located, a small engineering firm to help him with the mechanics and a workshop to produce the parts. Problem after problem had to be overcoffiâ&#x201A;Ź, and the bills mounted. Each of the thousand

T, I think this is it! ;,Blther was deeply in debt. one day r came home from columbia where I was attending classes, and found Mother in tears. Although in touch with many rype\Mriter companies, we could not hope for ts. China was in the midst of.civil war, and the largest potential aimply said, "Y.

uncertain.

parts was made by hand. But he had sunk so much money into the machine

later,when we were riding in a taxi'Ă¤rd Father was playrng with

that he could not give up. As their savings vanished, Mother was horrified. But she knew her husband well. He was easygoitg about many things, but

mockup of the keyboard, he said, "The crux of the invention is mechanical problems were not hard'"

obstinated about some things, and inventing a typewriter was one of them.

Fortunately, Father had a friend in antique dealerrl-oo.Chin-tsai, who loaned him tens of thousands of dollars to finish the model. Finally, in M*y 1947, we brought his invention home.

It was called the Mingkwai ("clear and

quick') Tlpewriter. The machine had 7z keys. To tlpe a character, one pressed the keys corresponding to the top and bottom parts 'of a character, and those

in the center of the machine. The typist then pressed one of eight printing keys according to the position of the correct character on the screen, At a time when computers had not yet become popular, his invention of a scanning screen was remarkable. The typefaces were molded around six hexagonal rollers. No larger than a standard typewriter, the Mingkwai typed 7,ooo whole characters and by

with similar tops and bottoms

appeared on a screen

combinations a theoretical total of 9o,ooo.

The typewriter was presented at.a press conference held at home, and received great write-ups in the press. Dr. George A. Kennedy, director,

could you have just used this mockup to sell your invention?'Was

rny need to build the model?" I asked' boked at me for afew seconds. "I suppose I could have," he whispered, ,coulddt help myself.

I had to make a real qpewriter. I

never dreamed

sost so much."

Mingkwai is never manufactured, because it was too costly to coming of the computer age' , ffid China was in turmoil. But with the ical problems of a Chinese typewriter were eliminated. In 1985, tac Autornation Company cif Taiwan bought Father's "Instant Index " as his character classification is called, and made it the input system ,computers. ,,It is my leg acy to the chinese peopke," Father said. was invited in 1948 to be the head of the Arts and Letters Division

flnited Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization ) in paris. My parenrs sold their apartment in New York to pay some debts, and sailed for France.

X. 7-1' J%^^/ao*

,t-on-.^a,L

At UNESCo; Father wrote mernos, prepared reports and attended it frustrating and exhausting. "There are two kinds of

oY'. 7-a7. . XI

Dictiondr! t which Father called the crownirg achievement of his ryas published

in October rgTz with great fanfare. It was the first

English dictionary ever compiled by a Chinese scholar. The New hrk

thinking men. The latter are carnivordus, like hawks, tigers and men of action. I have often admired my colleagues for their administrative ability. I have

,r.o", beJr interested in that." He quit his job and moved to the south of France. He loved the simple life-sitting at a caf6, and watching the fishermen's boats rerurn with their

ical change.

meetings. He found

animals on earth," he once rierote. "one kind minds his own business, the other minds other people's business. The former are vegetarians, like cows, sheep and

as "a milestone

in communication bet'ween the world's largest

groups."

his 8oth birthday, October ro, r97j, friends in Hong Kong organized tion. An even b€ger celebration was organi zed in Täipei. S7hen parents at the Hong Kong airport upon their return, Father's eyes

catch, and going to market to shop for food. Life was more reasonable here than in NewYork. He grabbed Mother,s hand and s4id, ,Never mind, we,ll start

with gladness. His cup was full. The only honor that he wanted and had

all over again. This pen of mine is still capable of earning a couple of dollars,,,, tro tgi4, Father became the first chanceflor of the newly founded Nanyang

ler" he once said. "'W'e must have an attitude of expecting neither

was the Nobel Pfize. But he was his philosophical self about ir. "Let

nor too little from life."

university in Singapore. But, politics forced him to resign in a few months, and he and Mother returned to Rance. Ire was 6o, but not feeling his age a bit. .!I do not long for spring nor am

sad

in the autumn," he said, "because my wife

doesnt find me old."

tributes he received was one by the . Wallace published a memorial hsGd

They lived so simply that they were like children.

lle was urriting again,

and she was growing potatoes on the balcony. They took delight in the simple joys of fresh food and long walks. Later, they returned to New york to be near

my sisters. lnr965, Father turned 7o, ar..d decided it was time to retirrn to the East. A house was built for him on yangminshan in the outskifts of räipei, which he designed himself. He wrote a syndicated column in chinese called 'vhatever's on My Mind" (wu suo BuThn) whic,h was read by five million readers around the world.

passed away in Hong Kong on March z6 the followingyear.Among

1969, Father was made president

of the Täipei

chinese center, International P. E. N. He was nominated for the Nobel prize for Literature in rgTz and ryry. At the tirne, he was working on the LinTutang cbinese-Englisb Diaionary of Modzm usage wrth a small editorial staff

in Thipei.

The project was sponsored by the Chinese University of Hong Kong. A new chinese-English dictionarywas urgently needed to meet the demands of social

Reader's Digesl's

founder, De$Vitt

booklet of Father's wriring that had

over the years in the magazine. It was dedicated to the memory of "an

spirit of vast range and accomplishment-this man for all cultures Gnriched our lives. He considered his dictionary to be the 'crown' of :

To anyone who reads his works, it will be apparent that Lin Yutang's

hed many jewels in it." United Daily Neus of Täiwan compared Farher's achievements in ing Chinese culture to the'West with that ofJesuit missionary Matteo

In an editorial, the Cbina

"Dr. Lin is the scholar ter who possibly made the greatest contribution in promoting Chinese internationally in the recent roo years. For some in the 'West who Tirnes of Täiwan said,

iiltot well-informed, they heard about Lin Yutang before they heard about

end heard about China before they heard about the glory of Chinese on."

took his body to Taipei to be buried in the garden of his home. It

has

XIII.

7-t' Jryo^lao* tl

now been turned into the Lin Yutang Memo rraJ,Library, and is open to visitors.

Mother

passe

away

PREFACE

in ry87 at the age of 9o.

I am very pleased that the Foreign LanguageTeaching

and Research Press

is now pubtishi^g in English his most distinguished works, A/Iy Country and My

People, Tbe Importance of

Living Mornent in Peking,

Six Chapters of a Floating

Life, etc. lg a persond

testimo{,

a testimony

of myr own e4perience of thought

It is not intended to be objective and makes no claim to establish 'tnrths. In fact I rather despise claims to objectivity in philosophy; the of view is the thing. I should have liked to call it "A Lyrical Philosophyi'

Lin Thiyi August, rg98

the word "lyrical" in the sense of being a highly personal and individual . But that would be too beautiful a name and I must forgo it, for fear

Arlington, Vrginia, USA

too high and leading the reader to expect too much, and because ingredient of my thought is matter-of-fact prose, a level easier to because more natural. Very much contented am

I to lie low, to cling

loil, to be of kin to the sod. My soul squirms comfortably in the soil and -ind is happy. Sometimes when one is drunk with this earth, one's spirit so

light that he thinks he is in heaven. But actually he seldom rises

above the ground. ,

I ghould have liked also to write the entire book in the form of a dialogue It is such a convenient form for personal inadvertent disclosures, 'Plato's.

cbringing in the significant trivialities of our dally life, above all for idle

bling about the pastures of sweet, silent thought. But somehow I have done so. I do not know why. A fear, perhaps, that this form of literature so

little in vogue to-day, ro

all wants to be read. And when

one probably would read

say dialogue,

it,

and a writer

do not mean answers and

tions like newspaper interviews, or those leaders chopped up into short phs;

mean really good, long, leisurely discourses extenditg several

at a stretch, with many detours, and coming back to the original point tlf'dlscussion by a short cut at the most unexpected spot, like a man returning

XN'7-/z Jryo*/".r* /

f-22"o-z . K,l

on astronomy (dead for some ten years now); all news in

home by climbing over a hedge, to the surprise of his walking companion. Oh, how

I love to reach home

by climbing over the back fence, and to travel

on bypaths! At least my companion will grant that home and with the surrounding countryside... But

writer who does not kill our sense of curiosity in life or who has

I am familiar with the way

;br himself .. how can

tand, and finally that

literature. If some happen to be well-known, I

intuitive approval and not because the authors are well-known. It is my habit to bry cheap editions of old, obscure books and see what I can discover there. If the professors of literature knew the sources of my ideas, they would be astounded at the Philistine. But there is a greater pleasure in

compel

hrvn

o\Mn ideas

and forming a

hrpudence, and, sure enough, some kindred souls in another corner

will

with you. A person forrning his ideas in this manner will Fgtounded to discover how another writer said exactly the same things agree

lctly the same weft but perhaps expressed the ideas more easily and .

It is then that he discovers the ancient

author and the ancient

him witness, and they become for ever friends in spirit.

window.

If one is too well-read, then one does rlght is rieht and wrong is wrong. I have not read Locke or Hume

am not deep and not, well-read.

not know

innritive judgement, of thinking out one's

h independent judgernents, and confessing them in public with

picking up a small pearl in an ash-can than in looking at alarge one in a jeweller's

do not whisper

@t philosopher. But I have always wandered outside the precincts y and that gives me courage. There is a method of appealirg

any account.

accept their ideas only as they

I lack cautiousness, that I

with mincing steps in the sacred mansions of philosophy, looking as I ought to do. Courage seems to be the rarest of all virtues

like thern as ideas

In fact, I have travelled the bypaths in my reading as well as in my writing. Many of the authors quoted are names obscure and may bafle a Chinese professor of

I am less scared to

in the eyes of orthodox philosophy. I doubt it. I know there plaints that my words are not long enough, that I make things too

over and over again; those of the East and I borrow from the East are hackneyed truths there. They are, nevertheless, my ideas; therr have become a part ,of my being. If they have taken root in my being, it is because they express something original in me, and when I first and not because the person who expressed them is

about it. Everything seems clearer and simpler for it, if that is any

'West

encountered them, my heart gave an instinctive assent. I

enurnerate them all?

rived of academic training in philosoph)r,

dare not.

am not original. The ideas expressed here have been thought and

expressed by many thinkers

or Berkeley, and have not taken a college course in philosoph)., Technically speaking, mI method and my ffaining are all wrong, because I do not read philosophy, but only read life at first hand. That is an unconventional way of studying philosophy-the incorrect way.Some of my sources are: Mrs. Hnang, an amah in my family who has all the ideas that go into the breeding of a good

woman in China; a Soochow boat-woman with her profuse use of expletives;

Shanghai street car conductor; my cook's wife; a lion cub in the zoo; a squirrel

in Central Park in New York;

a deck steward who made one good remark; that

is therefore the matter of my obligations to these authors, espe cially

I have for my collaborators in writing this book nny of genial souls, who I hope like me as much as I like them. For in friends in spirit.

sense, these spirits have been

u*ion that

with me, in the only form of spiritual

recognize as real-when two men separated by the

ages

thc,same thoughts and sense the same feelings and each perfectly ds the other. In the preparation of this book, a few of my friends n especially helpful with their contributions and advice: Po Ch端yi

'cighth centur/, Su T端ngpo of the eleventh, and that great company spirits of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries-the romantic

XVT

/ /2 Ja7aa'+-/ao* 2/

and voluble T'u Clt'ihshui, the playful, original Y端an Chunglang, the deep,

magnificent Li Chowu, the sensitive and sophisticated chang ch'ao, the epicure Li Liweng, the happy and gay old hedonist Y端an Tsets'ai; and the bubbling, joking, effervescent Chin Shengt'a11-gllsslvsntional souls all, men vrith too much independent judgement and too much feeling for things to be liked by the orthodox critics, men too good to be "moral" and too moral to be "good" for the Confucianists. The smallness of the select company has made the enjoyment of their presence all the more valued and sincere. Some of these may happen Rot to be quoted, but they are here with me in this book all the

Their coming back to their own in China is only a mattef of time.... There have been others, names less well known, but no less welcorne for their apt remarks, because they express my sentiments so well. I call them my same.

Chinese Amiels-people who don't talk much, but alwap talk sensibly, and

respect their good sense. There are others again who belong to the illustrious ,,Anons'r of all countries and ages, who in an inspired moment company of said something wiser than they knew, like the unknown fathers of great men'

Finally there are greater ones still, whom

I look up to more as masters than

of the spirit, whose serenity of trnderstanding is so human and yet so divine, and whose wisdom seems to have come entirely without effort as companions

because

has become completely natural. Such a one is Chuangtse' and such a

one is T'ao Y端anming, whose simplicity of spirit is the despair of smaller men. I have sometimes let these souls speak directly to the reader, making proper acknowledgment, and at other times I have spoken for them while I seem to be speaking for myself The older my friendship with them, the more likely is my indebtedness to their ideas to be of the familiar, elusive and invisible type,

like parental influence in a good family breeding. It is impossible to put one's finger on a definite point Of resemblance. I have also chosen to speak as a modern, sharing the modern life, and not only as a chinese; to give only what I have personally absorbed into my modern being, and not merely to act as a respectfirl translatof of the ancients. Such a procedure has its drawbacks, but

f^2Z"oz . /.]./II

one can do a more sincerâ&#x201A;Ź job of it. The selections are therefore as the rejections.

No complete presentation of

is attempted here, and 1'

any one poet

it is impossible to iudge them

through

on these pages. I must therefore conclude by salnng as usual that

this book, , while

if any, arc Largely due to the helpful suggestions of

for the inaccuracies, deficiencies and immaturities of

done am responsible.

owe my thanks to Mr. and Mrs. Richatd J. Walsh, first, for idea of the book, and secondly, for their useful and frank t

Fust also thank Mr. Hugh Wade for cooperating on preparing the the press and on the proofs.

LinYutang