Table Of ContentIn the last five the
are
Enghshi titles,
(gxzgjpt following published
in the Commercial
Shanghai" by Press)
LETTLRS OF A CHINESE AMAZON
READINGS IN MODLRN PROSE
JOURNALISTIC
THE LIITLE CRITIC: FIRST SHUIS
(^30-1932)
THE LITTLE CRITIC: SKCOND Sunr.s
(i<>33-i93))
CONMTCIUS SAW NANCY
Dsama) AND K&SAYS ABOUT NOTHING
(A
A NVN oi TAISHAN AND OTHER TRANSLATIONS
KAIMING ENGLISH BOOKS
KAIMING ENGUSIZ GRAMMAR KASLD ON NOTIONAL CATE
GORIES
A HISTORY op THE PRESS AND PUBLIC OHKION IN CHIN
A
{
of Chicago
Ptess)
MY COUNTRY AND MY Prt>!>x,K
(John Day)
THE IMPORTANCE OF LIVING
(John Day)
In Chinese
PHILOLOGICAL ESSAYS
(Yttycnhsiieft Luntf'ung)
SKIRMISHES
(Chicnfuchi)
Tmi LONE WAYFARER
(Tahuangcht)
IT SEEM* TO ME Woti 2 vols.
( Huu),
T
DAY book
JOHN
REYNAL & HITCHCOCK : NEW YORK
// is not truth that
man but man
makes
great,
that truth
makes
great.
CONFUCIUS
those who what the
take
Only leisurely people of
the world are about can be about what
busy busy
the the world
people of take leisurely.
CHANG CH'AO
PREFACE
THIS is a
a o
f own o
personal
testimony, testimony
my experience
and life. It is not
intended to be
and makes no
thought
objective
claim to establish
eternal truths. In
fact I rather claims to
despise
in
the of view is the
I should
objectivity
philosophy; point
thing.
have liked to call
it "A
the word
Lyrical
Philosophy," using "lyri-
cal" in the sense of
a and i
ndividual oudook.
being highly personal
But that would
be too
beautiful a name and I must for fear
forego it,
of too and
the reader to too and
aiming high leading
expect much,
because the main of
is matter-of-fact a
ingredient my thought p
rose,
level easier to
maintain because more natural. much con-
Very
tented am I to lie to to the
to be of kin to the sod.
low, soil,
cling
soul in the
soil and sand and is
My squirms comforta
bly happy.
Sometimes when one is drunk with this one's seems so
earth,
spirit
that he thinks he is in heaven. But he seldom rises six
light actually
feet above the
ground.
I should have liked also to write the entire book in the form of
a like Plato's. It is such a convenient form for
dialogue personal,
inadvertent for in the trivialities of
disclosures, b
ringing significant
our above all for idle about the of
sweet,
daily life, rambling pastures
silent But somehow I have not done so. I do not know
thought.
A that this form of literature so little in
why. fear, perhaps, being
no one would read and a writer after all
it,
vogue today, probably
wants to be read* And when I I do not mean answers
say dialogue,
and like or those leaders
interviews, chopped
questions newspaper
dis-
I mean
into short
really good, long, leisurely
up paragraphs;
courses several at a stretch, with
many detours,
extending pages
and back to the of discussion a short cut
by
original point
coming
at the most like a man home
by climbing
unexpected spot, returning
how
over & to the of his
walking companion. Oh,
hedge, surprise
vii
viii PREFACE
I love to reach home over the back and to travel
fence,
by climbing
on At least will that I am familiar
bypaths! my companion grant
with the home and with the . , . But I
way surrounding countryside
dare not.
I am not The ideas here have been
original. expressed thought
thinkers of the East and West over and
and
expressed by many
over those I borrow from the East are truths
again; hackneyed
have become a
there*
They are, nevertheless, my ideas; they part
of If have taken root in it is because
my being. they my being, they
in and when I first encountered
me,
express something original
heart an instinctive assent. I like them as ideas and
them,
my gave
not because the who them is of account. In
person expressed any
I have traveled the in as well as in
fact,
bypaths my reading my
of the authors are names obscure and
writing. Many quoted may
baffle a Chinese of literature. If some to be well-
professor happen
I their ideas as intuitive
known,
accept only they compel my ap-
and not because the authors are well-known. It is habit
proval my
to editions of obscure books and see what I can dis-
old,
buy cheap
cover there. If the of literature knew the sources of
professors my
would be astounded at the Philistine. But there is a
ideas,
they
in a small in an ash-can than in
greater pleasure picking up pearl
at a one in a window,
looking large jeweler's
I am not and not well-read. If one is too then one
well-read,
deep
does not know is and is I have not read
right right wrong wrong.
Locke or Hume or and have not taken a course
Berkeley, college
in method and
philosophy. Technically speaking, my my training
are all because I do not read but read life
wrong, philosophy, only
at first hand. That is an unconventional of
way studying philosophy
the incorrect Some of sources arc: Mrs* an amah
way. my Huang,
in who has all the ideas that into the of
$
my family go
breeding
woman in a Soochow boat-woman with her
China;
good profuse
use of a street car
cook's
expletives; Shanghai conductor; my wife;
a lion cub in the a in Central
Park in New a
zoo; York;
squirrel
deck steward who made one that
writer of a column
remark;
good
on for some ten all
news in
astronomy (dead years now) ; boxes;
