1、 英語專業(yè)組 說課文本Backgrounds of the Chinese PeopleFung Yu-Lan （馮友蘭）1948Geographic Background of the Chinese PeopleChina is a continental country. To the ancient Chinese their land was the world. There are two expressions in the Chinese language which can both be translated as the world. One is “all beneat

2、h the sky” and the other is “all within the four seas.” To the people of a maritime country such as the Greeks, it would be inconceivable that expressions such as these could be synonymous. But that is what happens in the Chinese language, and it is not without reason.From the time of Confucius unti

3、l the end of the last century, no Chinese thinkers had the experience of venturing out upon the high seas. Confucius and Mencius lived not far from the sea, if we think in modern terms of distance, yet in the Analects, Confucius mentions the sea only once. He is recorded as saying: “If my way is not

4、 to prevail, I shall get upon a raft and float out to the sea. He who will go with me will be Chung Yu.” Menciuss reference to the sea is likewise brief. How different were Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle, who lived in a maritime country and wandered from island to island!Economic Background of the C

5、hinese PeopleThe ancient Chinese and Greek philosophers not only lived under different geographic conditions, but different economic ones as well. Since China is a continental country, the Chinese people have to make their living by agriculture. In an agrarian country land is the primary basis of we

6、alth. Hence, throughout Chinese history, social and economic thinking and policy have centered around the utilization and distribution of land.In the social and economic thinking of Chinese philosophers, there is a distinction between what they call “the root” and “the branch.” “The root” refers to

7、agriculture and “the branch” to commerce. The reason for this is that agriculture is concerned with production, while commerce is merely concerned with exchange. One must have production before one can have exchange. In an agrarian country, agriculture is the major form of production, and therefore

8、throughout Chinese history, social and economic theories and policies have all attempted “to emphasize the root and slight the branch.”Idealization of NatureThe farmers are always in contact with nature, so they admire and love nature. This admiration and love were developed by the Taoists to the fu

9、llest extent. They made a sharp distinction between what is of nature and what is of man, the natural and the artificial. According to them, what is of nature is the source of human happiness and what is of man is the root of all human suffering. As the final development of this trend of thinking, t

10、he Taoists maintained that the highest achievement in the spiritual cultivation of a sage lies in the identification of himself with the whole of nature, i.e., the universe.Family SystemThe farmers have to live on their land, which is immovable, and the same is true of the scholar landlords. Unless

11、one has special talent, or is especially lucky, one has to live where ones father or grandfather lived, and where ones children will continue to live. That is to say, the family in the wider sense must live together for economic reasons. Thus there developed the Chinese family system, which was no d

12、oubt one of the most complex and well-organized in the world. A great deal of Confucianism is the rational justification or theoretical expression of this social system.For the same reason, ancestor worship developed. In a family living in a particular place, the ancestor worshiped was usually the f

13、irst of the family who had established himself and his descendants there on the land. He thus became the symbol of the unity of the family, and such a symbol was indispensable for a large and complex organization.Maritime Countries and Continental CountriesThe Greeks lived in a maritime country and

14、maintained their prosperity through commerce. They were primarily merchants. And what merchants have to deal with first are the abstract numbers used in their commercial accounts. Hence Greek philosophers took the concept by postulation as their starting point. They developed mathematics and mathema

15、tical reasoning. Merchants are also townsmen. Their activities demand that they live together in towns. Hence they have a form of social organization not based on the common interest of the family so much as on that of the town. This is the reason why the Greeks organized their society around the city state, in contrast with the Chinese social system, which may be called that of the family state, because under it the state is conceived of in terms of the family. In a city state the social organization is not autocratic, because among the same class of townsmen, there is no mor