During my spare time at work, I read a book titled “The Character of the Chinese.” If it weren’t for the mention of “strongly recommended by Lu Xun before his death” in the recommendation, I might not have noticed this book.

The original English version can be read on Google Books (the copyright of the original work is now open). If I have time, I plan to read an English original book, not necessarily this one, but I need to find one to practice my English comprehension. Otherwise, I really don’t know what my level of English understanding is. Previously, I only bought an English translation of Plato’s work: “The Republic,” but the ancient English words were too abstract, and I couldn’t understand it.

This book completely changed my view of our ancestors. I used to think that the people of the Chinese Empire were kind and simple, and although they didn’t have much knowledge, their virtues of diligence and bravery were eternal. The beautiful impressions I had were mostly descriptions of our own nation by our own people, which inevitably had a biased perspective. I had also paid attention to descriptions of China in works like Bertrand Russell’s “The Problem of China” or Montesquieu’s “The Spirit of the Laws,” but those books mostly analyzed the Chinese people from a macro level. This book, written by an American missionary 120 years ago, focuses on the details in most places, using numerous real-life examples to almost completely depict the character of the Chinese people.

While reading this book, I took many notes. Here are some of the passages I recorded:

A Latin poet once said, “Happy is he who knows the causes of things”; if he lived in China, he would modify his maxim to: “He who tries to find the causes of things is asking for trouble.”

Whenever we need to delve into the essence of a problem under “national conditions,” we are asking for trouble, which is clearly contrary to the inquisitive mindset we were taught since childhood. This predicament was first discovered by foreigners.

Chinese conversation is like a witness testifying in an English court, describing a fight with the following sentences: “He took a stick, he also took a stick, he hit him, he also hit him, if he hit him as hard as he hit him, he would have killed him, not he killed him.”

Due to the misuse of pronouns in Chinese, the above passage easily happens in our daily lives. I personally experienced this when my mother frequently used the word “that” to describe objects. There were so many “thats” in one sentence that by the end, I still didn’t know which “that” she was referring to.

There was also a patient who received daily treatment for a deep ulcer on his neck. On the 18th day of treatment, he said his leg hurt so much that he couldn’t sleep. Upon examination, it was found that he had an ulcer on his leg as big and deep as a teacup! He wanted to wait until his neck was healed before mentioning his leg!

Treating the head when the head hurts and the foot when the foot hurts is a common characteristic of the Chinese. We often think that a series of things should be done in a certain order, but in reality, that’s not the case.

I remember that in 1860, when the British army attacked Beijing, they used mules bought from Shandong, China. Tianjin and Tongzhou, for their own interests, signed a surrender treaty, agreeing to provide everything needed as long as the British and French forces did not invade these two cities. Most of the laborers working for the foreign army were hired from Hong Kong. When these laborers were captured by the Chinese army, their queues were cut off, and they were sent back to the British army. It’s not hard to see that if the Chinese really had patriotism or public spirit, the meaning of these words would be different from what Anglo-Saxons mean when they use them.

Chinese patriotism often exists only in words or under special circumstances. There have been many traitors in every dynasty! Plus, the indifferent bystanders during foreign invasions make it hard to imagine where the word “patriotism” stands in the hearts of the Chinese. Another example is the statistical data on Weibo showing that during the period from 1958 to 1961, when the most people died of starvation nationwide, why were the people so stable? The reason is that in Anhui Province alone, 170,000 “unstable elements” were arrested.

There was a story about a craftsman building a stone wall; the wall was 6 feet thick and 4 feet high. When asked why, he replied that if such a wall were blown down by the wind, it would become even higher! The Chinese political system cannot be overthrown because it is a cube; when it falls, it just changes its face; both in appearance and essence, it remains the same.

The description of Chinese society as a cube is very accurate. No matter how you push it over, it just changes its face; there is no substantial change. As long as there is no general improvement in the character of the Chinese, social reform will always be an empty phrase.

The Chinese seem not to feel any serious discomfort with a large group of dogs barking lawlessly, nor do they worry about being bitten by a mad dog and the resulting harm, even though such incidents often occur. Even if bitten by a mad dog, the treatment is often just applying some dog hair to the wound; this practice is strikingly similar to our proverb: “Use the hair of the dog that bit you to treat the bite.”

Continuing the days of treating the head when the head hurts and the foot when the foot hurts, the Chinese generally have a high tolerance. We can endure oppression and injustice from those stronger than us for a long time, but we cannot tolerate the slightest mistake from those at the same level or weaker than us. Power—this is the greatest enemy of the Chinese.

The only effective and lasting way to stop the rapid growth of the Chinese population is to use means such as opium, war, famine, and plague that lead to the extinction of the nation. The strong reproductive ability of the Chinese and the existing population far exceeding that of any other country is an indisputable fact. Even at the lowest estimate, the current population of China has reached about 250 million. This number is certain; the problem is not just the number of people, but the rate of growth.

For a long time, we believed that the reason Europe and America launched wars against the Qing Dynasty was solely to plunder resources and economy. But this book tells us another perspective: foreigners have long been afraid of China, which has the largest population in the world, because their relative numbers are too small. If the Chinese population were allowed to grow unchecked, it would pose a great threat to their survival and development (according to their colonial mindset). Therefore, opium, war, famine, etc., became means to curb the growth of the Chinese population. Of course, this is just their side of the story, but I think this passage does reflect some issues.

During the Kangxi period, a Chinese patriotic general known as “Koxinga” caused great destruction along the coasts of Guangdong and Fujian provinces, to the point where even government warships couldn’t deal with him. In this situation, Kangxi came up with a temporary solution: he ordered all military and civilians along the coast to retreat 30 li (about 9 miles) inland, where the old dynasty’s defenders could no longer attack. This strange imperial decree was surprisingly successful. “Koxinga” retreated, stopped his harassment, and instead went to Taiwan, driving out the Dutch, and was subsequently enfeoffed as the “Marquis of Jinghai” and pacified.

A very bizarre incident, and I believe such examples often appear in the propaganda works of various Chinese dynasties, all to instill the foolish idea that “suffering a loss is a blessing” in the people. A similar example is the following:

In the “Twenty-Four Filial Exemplars,” there is a typical example. A man from the Han Dynasty was very poor and didn’t have enough food to support his elderly mother and a three-year-old son. He said to his wife: “We are so poor that we can’t even support our mother. But the child will compete with the mother for food. Why not bury the child? If we bury the child, we can have another one later; but if the mother dies, we can’t have another one.”

In fact, even the Chinese find it hard to understand Emperor Kangxi’s strategy of retreating. If he had the strength to relocate so many people, how could he not defeat a rebel general?

The “filial piety” that the Chinese always emphasize is, in the eyes of foreigners, nothing more than a fear of the future! In ancient China, young people were a group with no status; they always had to live under the words and deeds of their elders, without the slightest deviation. Since young people have gone through so much inhumane treatment, when they become elders, they will desperately exert pressure on the next generation. Thus, generation after generation, the word “filial piety” has been naturally regarded as a “virtue” by the Chinese.

A hundred years ago, a missionary living in inland China was asked by some local gentry to help a blind beggar by treating his eyes, which actually had only minor cataracts. Later, the beggar’s eyes were healed, and he regained his sight. However, when the gentry found out, they said the missionary had ruined the beggar’s livelihood because he could no longer beg. Therefore, the missionary should support him and hire him as a gatekeeper.

The ancient Chinese were not only dull but also ignorant and lacked proper guidance, which was in line with the harsh social environment of China. Most people lived on the edge of death, and the entire country revolved around two things: money and food. Once these two collapsed, society would be in turmoil, and a change of dynasty would occur. The beginning of a new dynasty was the redistribution of money and food. As for systems and the like, they were just minor issues centered around money and food.

A few years ago, a foreign steamer caught fire on the Yangtze River, and the shore was crowded with onlooking Chinese, but no one rescued the passengers and crew who fell into the water. In the end, many of those who desperately swam to the shore were robbed, even stripped of their clothes, and some were killed on the spot.

The Chinese of the late Qing Dynasty, in the eyes of contemporary people, might be thought to have a deep hatred for colonizers and imperialists. However, in the scenes depicted in this book, we can easily find that even laborers sold abroad looked down on foreigners. Almost all Chinese believed they were still in the Celestial Empire, and the actions of foreign barbarians were just the behavior of barbarians. Their burning, killing, and looting only proved their barbaric nature. Although they lost the war, the disdain continued. The most typical saying is that any Chinese would proudly look down on foreigners who spoke fluent Chinese. No matter how well a foreigner spoke Chinese, they would say to the foreigner, “What are you saying? I don’t understand,” and then turn to their companions and say, “Look at that foreign idiot, he doesn’t even know how to speak Chinese!”

There were two brothers who heard that the government was going to conduct a new population survey and concluded that it was a prelude to forced migration. According to custom, during migration, one brother would stay at home to guard the ancestral graves. The younger brother thought he would likely be conscripted, so to avoid the torment of a long journey, he immediately committed suicide. This move checkmated the government.

Suspicion and conjecture are what the Chinese are best at. We often throw out various guesses at the first sign of something, and some even go as far as the above example. It’s hard to imagine how Lu Xun and others managed to “heal” the people under such widespread circumstances. My admiration for them has risen sharply!

This nation is not ruled by elites; on the contrary, the most despicable and shameless individuals hold all the power. A wise circuit intendant once told a foreigner: “All officials below the emperor are scoundrels and should be killed, but killing us is useless; the next ones will be just as bad.”

This is the reality! The basic reality of the entire China!!!

During outbreaks of cholera and other plagues, the Chinese often celebrate the New Year in June and July, a custom prevalent in most parts of the empire. People believe that doing so can deceive the plague god, who will be surprised to find that he has miscalculated the calendar and then leave.

I really didn’t know that the ancient Chinese celebrated the New Year in June and July. It seems that the Chinese are very good at self-deception, a problem left over from history!