El espíritu de china ( the chinese spirit)

中国人的精神
辜鸿铭 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 beadmitted, 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 properlyregulated 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 _ Aren't 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 honestand 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 beeneffective 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

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Europe have had again to employ physical force to keep civil order. As Car-lyletruly 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 destroytheir 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, asGod 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...