idealism is, I had better leave it to the Americans to find out; but they are always



enthusiastic about something or other. A great deal of this idealism is noble, in



the sense that the Americans are easily appealed to by noble ideals or noble words;



but some of it is mere gullibility. The American sense of humor again means a different



thing from the Continental sense of humor, but really I think that, such as it is



(the love of fun and an innate, broad common sense), it is the greatest asset of the



American nation. In the coming years of critical change, they will have great need



of that broad common sense referred to by James Bryce, which I hope will tide them



over these critical times. I give American sensitivity a low figure because of my



impression that they can stand so many things. There is no use quarreling about this,



because we will be quarreling about words. . . . The English seem to be on the whole



the soundest race: contrast their "RsDz" with the French "R^D-i. " I am all for '^Dz."



It bespeaks stability. The ideal formula for me would seem to be R3D; I-^Sz, for too



much idealism or too much sensitivity is not a good thing, either. And if I give "Si"



for English sensitivity, and if that is too low, who is to blame for it except the



English themselves ? How can I tell whether the English ever feel anything joy,



happiness, anger, satisfaction when they are determined to look so glum on all



occasions?



We might apply the same formula to writers and poets. To take a few well-known types:



Shakespeare = R4D4H3S4



Heine = R3D3H4S.-,



Shelley = R^H^



Poe = R3D4HiS4



Li Po = RiD3HzS4



Tu Fu = R3D3HzS4



Su Tungp'o = R3D^H4S3 These are no more than a few impromptu suggestions. But



it is clear that all poets have a high sensitivity, or they wouldn't be poets at all.



Poe, I feel, is a very sound genius, in spite of his weird imaginative gift. Doesn't



he love "ratiocination"?



So my formula for the Chinese national mind is:



R4D.H3S3



There we start with an "S}", standing for high sensitivity, which guarantees a proper



artistic approach to life and answers for the Chinese affirmation that this earthly



life is beautiful and the consequentintense love of this life. But it signifies more



than that; actually it



I have hesitated a long time between giving Shakespeare "84" and "83". Finally



his "Sonnets" decided it. No school teacher has experienced greater fear and trembling



in grading a pupil than I in trying to grade Shakespeare. Stands for the artistic



approach even to philosophy. It accounts for the fact that the Chinese philosopher's



view of life is essentially the poet's view of life, and that, in China, philosophy



is married to poetry rather than to science as it is in the West. It will become amply



clear from what follows that this high sensitivity to the pleasures and pains and



flux and change of the colors of life is the very basis that makes a light philosophy



possible. Man's sense of the tragedy of life comes from his sensitiveperception of



the tragedy of a departing spring, and a delicate tenderness toward life comes from



a tenderness toward the withered blossoms that bloomed yesterday. First the sadness



and sense of defeat, then the awakening and the laughter of the old rogue-philosopher.



On the other hand, we have "R^" standing for intenserealism, which means an attitude



of accepting life as it is and of regarding a bird in the hand as better than two



in the bush. This realism, therefore, both reinforces and supplements the artist's



affirmation that this life is transiently beautiful, and it all but saves the artist



and poet from escaping from life altogether. The Dreamer says "Life is but a dream,



" and the Realist replies, "Quite correct. And let us live this dream as beautifully



as we can. " But the realism of one awakened is the poet's realism and not that of



the business man, and the laughter of the old rogue is no longer the laughter of the



young go-getter singing his way to success with his head up and his chin out, but



that of an old man running his finger through his flowing beard, and speaking in a



soothingly low voice. Such a dreamer loves peace, for no one can fight hard for a



dream. He will be more intent to live reasonably and well with his fellow dreamers.



Thus is the high tension of life lowered.



But the chief function of this sense of realism is the elimination of all non-



essentials in the philosophy of life, holding life down by the neck, as it were, for



fear that the wings of imagination may carry it away to an imaginary and possibly



beautiful, but unreal, world. And after all, the wisdom of life consists in the



elimination of non-essentials, in reducing the problems of philosophy to just a



few the enjoyment of the home (the relationship between man and woman and child),



of living, of Nature and of culture and in showing all the other irrelevant scientific



disciplines and futile chases after knowledge to the door. The problems of life for



the Chinese philosopher then become amazingly few and simple. It means also an



impatience with metaphysics and with the pursuit of knowledge that does not lead to



any practical bearing on life itself. And it also means that every human activity,



whether the acquiring of knowledge or the acquiring of things, has to be submitted



immediately to the test of life itself and of its subserviency to the end of living.



Again, and here is a significant result, the end of living is not some metaphysical



entity but just living itself.



Gifted with this realism, and with a profounddistrust of logic and of the intellect



itself, philosophy for the Chinese becomes a matter of direct and intimate feeling



of life itself, and refuses to be encased in any system. For there is a robust sense



of reality, a sheer animal sense, a spirit of reasonableness which crushes reason



itself and makes the rise of any hard and fast philosophic system impossible. There



are the three religions of China, Confucianism, Taoism and Buddhism, all magnificent



systems in themselves, and yet robust common sense dilutes them all and reduces them



all into the common problem of the pursuit of a happy human life. The mature Chinese



is always a person who refuses to think too hard or to believe in any single idea



or faith or school of philosophy whole-heartedly. When a friend of Confucius told



him that he always thought three times before he acted, Confucius wittily replied,



"To think twice is quite enough. " A follower of a school of philosophy is but a student



of philosophy, but a man is a student, or perhaps a master, of life.



The final product of this culture and philosophy is this: in China, as compared with



the West, man lives a life closer to nature and closer to childhood, a life in which



the instincts and the emotions are given free play and emphasized against the life



of the intellect, with a strange combination of devotion to the flesh and arrogance



of the spirit, of profound wisdom and foolish gaiety, of high sophistication and



childish naivete. I would say, therefore, that this philosophy is characterized by:



first, a gift for seeing life whole in art; secondly, a conscious return to simplicity



in philosophy; and thirdly, an ideal of reasonableness in living. The end product



is, strange to say, a worship of the poet, the peasant and the vagabond.







Ill. THE SCAMP AS IDEAL



To me, spiritually a child of the East and the West, man's dignity consists in the



following facts which distinguish man from animals. First, that he has a playful



curiosity and a natural genius for exploring knowledge; second, that he has dreams



and a lofty idealism (often vague, or confused, or cocky, it is true, but nevertheless



worthwhile) ; third, and still more important, that he is able to correct his dreams



by a sense of humor, and thus restrain his idealism by a more robust and healthy



realism;



and finally, that he does not react to surroundings mechanically and uniformly as



animals do, but possesses the ability and the freedom to determine his own reactions



and to change surroundings at his will. This last is the same as saying that human



personality is the last thing to be reduced to mechanical laws;



somehow the human mind is forever elusive, uncatchable and unpredictable, and manages



to wriggle out of mechanistic laws or a materialistic dialectic that crazy



psychologists and unmarried economists are trying to impose upon him. Man, therefore,



is a curious, dreamy, humorous and wayward creature.



In short, my faith in human dignity consists in the belief that man is the greatest



scamp on earth. Human dignity must be associated with the idea of a scamp and not



with that of an obedient, disciplined and regimented soldier. The scamp is probably



the most glorious type of human being, as the soldier is the lowest type, according



to this conception. It seems in my last book. My Country and My People, the net



impression of readers was that I was trying to glorify the "old rogue." It is my hope



that the net impression of the present one will be that I am doing my best to glorify



the scamp or vagabond. I hope I shall succeed. For things are not so simple as they



sometimes seem.



In this present age of threats to democracy and individual liberty, probably only



the scamp and the spirit of the scamp alone will save us from becoming lost as serially



numbered units in the masses of disciplined, obedient, regimented and uniformed



coolies. The scamp will be the last and most formidable enemy of dictatorships. He



will be (he champion of human dignity and individual freedom, and will be the last



to be conquered. All modern civilization depends entirely upon him.



Probably the Creator knew well that, when He created man upon this earth. He was



producing a scamp, a brilliant scamp, it is true, but a scamp nonetheless. The



scamp-like qualities of man are, after all, his most hopeful qualities. This scamp



that the Creator has produced is undoubtedly a brilliant chap. He is still a very



unruly and awkward adolescent, thinking himself greater and wiser than he really is,



still full of mischief and naughtiness and love of a free-for-all. Nevertheless, there



is so much good in him that the Creator might still be willing to pin on him His hopes,



as a father sometimes pins his hopes on a brilliant but somewhat erratic son of twenty.



Would He be willing some day to retire and turn over the management of this universe



to this erratic son of His? I wonder. . . .



Speaking as a Chinese, I do not think that any civilization can be called complete



until it has progressed from sophistication to unso-phistication, and made a



conscious return to simplicity of thinking and living, and I call no man wise until



he has made the progress from the wisdom of knowledge lo the wisdom of foolishness,



and become a laughing philosopher, feeling first life's tragedy and then life's



comedy.



For we must weep before we can laugh. Out of sadness comes the awakening and out of



the awakening comes the laughter of the philosopher, with kindliness and tolerance



to boot.



The world, I believe, is far too serious, and being far loo serious, it has need of



a wise and merry philosophy. The philosophy of the Chinese art of living can certainly



be called the "gay science, " if anything can be called by that phrase used by



Nietzsche.



After all, only a gay philosophy is profound philosophy; the serious philosophies



of the West haven't even begun to understand what life is. To me personally, the only



function of philosophy is to teach us to take life more lightly and gayly than the



average business man does, for no business man who does not retire at fifty, if he



can, is in my eyes a philosopher. This is not merely a casual thought, but is a



fundamental point of view with me. The world can be made a more peaceful and more



reasonable place to live in only when men have imbued themselves in the light gayety



of this spirit. The modern man takes life far too seriously, and because he is too



serious, the world is full of troubles. We ought, therefore, to take time to examine



the origin of that attitude which will make possible a whole-hearted enjoyment of



this life and a more reasonable, more peaceful and less hot-headed temperament.



I am perhaps entitled to call this the philosophy of the Chinese people rather than



of any one school. It is a philosophy that is greater than Confucius and greater than



Laotse, for it transcends these and other ancient philosophers; it draws from these



fountain springs of thought and harmonizes them into a whole, and from the abstract



outlines of their wisdom, it has created an art of living in the flesh, visible,



palpable and understandable by the common man. Surveying Chinese literature, art and



philosophy as a whole, it has become quite clear to me that the philosophy of a wise



disenchantment and a heartyenjoyment of life is their common message and teaching



the most constant, most characteristic and most persistentrefrain of Chinese



thought.

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