preface

Recently, I read Fukuzawa Yityoshi’s essay on Persuasion. Although the author wrote the article in the 1880s in Japan, the content of the article was mainly focused on the ideological enlightenment of the current “Meiji Restoration”. I think many of the contents are biased to the present and have been criticized by many people.

But some of the content of the point of view is still has a very profound significance, for the thinker Fukuzawa Yoshi more than a hundred years ago, there are such advanced ideas and thinking, can not be denied a classic work of ideological enlightenment.

The individual carries on the intensive reading to the article, takes its essence to steal its dross, extracts the personal learning.

The space

• The first exhortation book
• Chapter II Equality of man
• The third is on the equality of nations
• The fourth chapter discusses the duties of scholars
• The fifth Meiji seven New Year’s Day speech
• Chapter vi On the value of national law
• Chapter seven on the duties of citizens
• Do not restrict others by your own will
• The ninth chapter is divided into two kinds of learning purport
• Chapter 10: To the old friends of China and Tianjin
• Canto XI on the creation of hypocrites by title
• The twelfth on encouraging speech/on the noble character of man
• Canto XIII on the evils of human resentment
• Chapter 14 on inner self-examination/on the meaning of care
• Chapter 15 is about not questioning things and making choices
• Thoughts and actions should be consistent
• Chapter XVII on popularity

The first: exhortation

excerpts

• “Heaven does not give birth to men above, nor does it give birth to men below,” which means that all human beings are born equal, and are not born with distinction between high and low.
• People are born with no distinction between wealth and poverty. Only those who are diligent in learning and rich in knowledge can become rich. Those without learning become poor and cheap.
  • Those who do the difficult work are called high people, and those who do the easy work are called low people. It is difficult to do the work of care and risk; it is easy to do the work of labor with hands and feet.
• We should regard the impractical learning as secondary, and concentrate on the practical learning close to the common day of the world.
  • If all of us, regardless of rank or rank, are interested in these studies and have an understanding of them, then the scholars, farmers, businessmen and businessmen will do their part and each will manage his own business, then an individual and a family will be independent, and so will the country.
• The key to scholarly study is to know how to keep one’s duty.
  • The line between liberty and wanton profligacy is the obstruction of others.
• Freedom and independence are not limited to individuals, but also to states.
  • All countries in the same between heaven and earth, by the same sun shining, see the same moon, have a common sea and air, if you have an affinity for the people, will be extra supplies exchange each other, and cultural exchanges, the feeling of shame and will happen and decoration, with convenient, seek happiness, and BenZhu them human and friendly to each other.
  • If the nation is insulted, all the people should fight with their lives not to lose its prestige. Only in this way can it be said that the country is free and independent.
• Everyone has his corresponding status, and according to the status and have the corresponding virtue, to have virtue to understand, to understand the need to study, this is why learning is the first task.

Personal summary

The first part focuses on the importance of learning, which can be divided into the following parts:

Knowledge or not is from the “all men are created equal”, in the public view to do difficult work people often have status and wealth. But here, you need to be diligent in learning and rich in knowledge to master its difficult work.

When it comes to learning, it is important to focus on practical learning that is close to the everyday world, rather than on non-intellectual learning that is far away from reality and not suitable for everyday needs. ** personally think are very important, just the primary and secondary points, adhere to the moral cultivation of the truth.

By focusing on useful studies, we can become independent of ourselves, then of our families, and finally of our country.

With knowledge we also need to understand the role of our own identity, influence others, is also a role.

Learning can really make us understand freedom and independence, and gain freedom and independence.

I think identity can be broken through, and the breakthrough to the corresponding identity needs to have the corresponding virtue, to have the virtue must understand the reason, to understand the reason must study, this is the importance of learning.

Second: Equality of people

excerpts

• Broadly speaking, there are both intangible and tangible aspects of learning, such as psychology, theology and neo-confucianism, while astronomy, geography, physics and chemistry are tangible. They can enable people to expand the field of knowledge and knowledge, to discern the truth of things and understand the duty of life.

• In terms of uniformity among men, we cannot but say that all men are equal. But this equality is not equality in reality, but equality in basic rights.

  • Basic rights are those in which everyone values his life, his property and his reputation.
  • Hatred of pain and love of delicious food are human passions. It is man’s right to achieve these passions within the limits that do not interfere with others.

• It turns out that the relationship between the people and the government is one and functional division, and is based on the close constraint that the government carries out the laws on behalf of the people, and that the people observe the laws.

  • The farmer produces rice to feed the people, and the merchant buys and sells goods for the convenience of the people. It is the duty of government to make laws to subdue the wicked and protect the good.

• One must always remember the principle of mutual equality, which is the most important thing in the human world.

• Determined to study, improve their own virtues, in order to achieve and the government equal status.

Personal summary

Personally, I think the second chapter emphasizes a truth ** “People are not equal in reality, but in basic rights.” Before that, there were only differences in basic rights based on one’s own identity.

And we learn to master the knowledge, to understand the principle of mutual equality of fundamental rights, to achieve both sides of the equal status. The government enforces the law on behalf of the people, and the people must obey the law. Mutual equality, rather than who favours who.

On the Equality of Nations

excerpts

• There is no difference in rights among people, whether rich or poor, strong or weak, whether people or governments. States are made up of people, so there is no reason to interfere with each other’s rights. As far as the rights of states are concerned, there is no difference. If you are bullied for no reason, you will not be afraid even if you are against the world.
• As long as everyone is independent, the country can be independent. The so-called independence, is not dependent on the psychology of others, to be able to control their own. But if the people do not have the spirit of independence, the right to national independence can not be upheld.
  • A man without an independent spirit will not care deeply about state affairs.
  • A person who does not have independence within the country cannot retain the right to independence in contact with outsiders.
  • People who have no independent spirit will use their power to do bad things.
• No independent spirit of people, must rely on others; He who depends on others must be afraid of others; He who fears people must flatter and flatter. If he is always afraid of people and flatter people, gradually become accustomed to, his face as thick as iron. For shameful things also do not have shame, should be reasonable with people do not dare to reason, see people only know to yield. The so-called habit, nature refers to this matter, become a habit is not easy to change.

Personal summary

Only when people are independent can countries be independent, and only when countries are independent can they be equal.

Independent spirit is very important, the awakening of individual independent consciousness depends on knowledge, so we must continue to learn, in order to be truly independent.

The fourth, On the duties of scholars, deals with the relationship between scholars and the government.

The fifth “Meiji seven years New Year’s Day dedication”, tells the importance of the people’s independent spirit and national independence, and the civilization of a country is the need for the people and the government to complement each other.

The sixth chapter, “On Respecting national Laws”, tells the importance of national laws and the relationship between the people, and the need to respect national laws.

The seventh chapter, “On the Duties of the People”, tells the story of the people and the government on the basis of the tasks and duties of the people, do their part and work together for a common cause.

For my own meaning is not big, do not do summary study, it is good to understand.

Do not impose your will on others

excerpts

• A person’s body is an independent individual separated from others. Everyone should master his own body, use his mind and think, and control himself to do what he can.
  • Since people have their own bodies, they should use this body to contact the outside world and obtain materials to meet their needs.
  • Since people have wisdom, they should use wisdom to clarify the truth of things, so as not to lose the way to achieve the goal.
  • People have their own desires, which should be used to stimulate physical and mental activities, so as to satisfy this desire, and to create personal happiness.
  • Each person has a pious heart, we should use pious will to suppress the desire, correct the direction, so as to decide to stop.
  • People have their own thoughts, should be based on this thought to set the purpose of doing things.
• The so-called independence does not mean living in isolation and isolation like a perverse person.

Personal summary

Personal independence, mastery and control of oneself are relevant and important. We should have the courage to explore and contact with the outside world, and have certain thinking and wisdom to avoid being lost. Moreover, we need desire to motivate ourselves to obtain happiness, and we need pious heart to control and correct ourselves in desire. Finally, we need thinking to clarify our ambition.

Personal independence and personal independence is spiritual independence.

Then this paper discusses the independence of the individual and the government, the independence of the individual and the family, the independence of the gender, and the independence of the individual and the children. These contents can be understood and studied by ourselves at the present stage, without deep thinking.

Chapter NINE: The main thrust of two kinds of learning

excerpts

• A close examination of the physical and mental activities of men may be divided into two categories: first, those of the individual himself; Secondly, action relating to communication among social partners.
• To solve the problem of clothing, food and shelter with physical and mental activities, so that one can live a happy life, this can be said to belong to the individual’s own labor. But everything in the world is good for people.
  • Man merely ADAPTS the goods of nature to serve him. Therefore, the nature has provided 99% of the necessities of human life, such as food, clothing and shelter, and only one point of human resources, so it can not be said that everything is caused by human resources, in fact, people just like to pick up the roadside ready-made things.
  • People live only to meet the needs of food, clothing and shelter, then life in the world is only life and death, death and life in the situation is no difference.
• Human nature is gregarious and cannot be left alone. It is not enough to live together with a father and son or a husband and wife. The more extensive communication, the more happiness, this is the cause of human society.
• A man should not be satisfied only with the food and clothing of his own household. For man is born with a higher obligation than this, that is, to invest in the human community and, as a member, to endeavour to serve it.

Personal summary

People’s physical and mental activities are summed up as individual independent activities and social activities.

In this case, personal activities are taken for granted, should be such a thing, and social activities can make the progress of The Times. In my opinion, the value of social communication is needed in order to take personal food, clothing, shelter and transportation for granted. And when it comes to living only with food, clothing and shelter, it is only life and death. I don’t agree with you. Everything around me is hard-won and should be cherished, but life and death are a little too “long-term”.

Then there is the status quo of the society, the country and even the world, which is inherited and developed by the value generated by economic and social activities. Therefore, scholars all over the world should work for the welfare of the society, not just personal needs. Content is far away, do not summarize.

The tenth chapter, “Gifts to Old Friends in China and Tianjin (continuation)”, tells the story of the scholar’s aspiration to study knowledge is not profit-seeking, but requires hard patience. And to have hope for the future with their own intelligence to learn and progress.

• Scholars should not be cozily well-off, but should not be afraid of the hardships of subsistence, cold and heat, and the labor of grinding rice and collecting wages. People can study while milling rice. People’s food is not limited to western food, such as wheat rice and bean paste soup, but also can learn things of civilization.

The eleventh, “On titles producing Hypocrites”, describes the possible bias of titles and the mixing of pretentious titles (superior and inferior) in posts, forgetting titles and losing them.

I don’t go into it personally

Article XII: On advocating speech

excerpts

• Speech, or “Speech” in English, is a method of gathering a large number of people to speak and impromptu communicating one’s ideas to them. Whenever there are more than ten people gathered together, some one is bound to explain the main idea of the meeting, or to express his personal opinions on life, or to narrate his feelings at that time.
• Never mind whether something is important or not, just point out that an oral narrative is naturally interesting.
• To learn is not limited to reading, this is a well-known thing, and there is no need to repeat it. The secret of learning is to use it flexibly. If learning cannot be used flexibly, it means not learning at all.
• The essence of learning is not limited to reading, but in the activity of the spirit. If you want to be flexible in this kind of activity and put it into practice, you have to put in a lot of effort.
• He does not know that he must be as deep as an abyss, as lively as a bird when dealing with others, as strict with himself, and as open-minded to others, in order to be worthy of being a true scholar.
  • You can’t just work on the inside and not know much about the outside.

Personal summary

This essay advocates the importance of public speaking, but also the need to put personal knowledge to use and practice. As a real scholar, he must be strict with himself both internally and externally. In the end, when he is mapped to the country, he can survive in the long run only when he is confronted with internal and external problems. We should not be complacent with our own situation and delude ourselves by comparing some of its advanced conditions with those of other countries. Need to strive for the future of the country, endowed with practical truth.

On the Harm of complaint

excerpts

• Although there are many immoral things in the world, there is only complaint which is very harmful to the intercourse of people. Such things as covetousness, extravagance, and libel are obviously immorality. On reflection, however, the nature of these acts is not entirely bad, and sometimes, by reason of the occasion, degree, and Angle in which they are used, they can escape the charge of immorality.
• It is not easy to distinguish slander from rebuttal. Calumny is calumny; It is called refutation to proclaim one’s own truth in order to dispel the doubts of others.
  • In a period of uncertainty, the public opinion can be regarded as just, but it is not easy to understand where the public opinion lies. So you can’t see people who slander others and immediately say he is immoral. In order to distinguish between a slander and a true rebuttal, we must first seek justice in the world.
• Besides, pride and courage, rudeness and frankness, clumsiness and steadfastness, lightness and acumen are all relative, and virtue and unvirtue are distinguished by the occasion of application, degree of strength and perspective.
• This is how resentment is harmful to relationships. Now try to trace its root, it is just a “poor” word. But this does not mean impoverishment, impoverishment, impoverishment; it means obstruction of speech, obstruction of action, and impoverishment of human instinct.
  • If we understand the cause of our own poverty, as if the cause of our own is in ourselves, we will never blindly resent others.
• Resentment is not produced by poverty, but people’s instinctive activities are bound, in the accidental position of misfortune and happiness can not be independent of the talent is apt to happen.
• The greatest evil in the world is to complain, and the root of complaint is “poor”, therefore, we must not not speak widely, nor interfere with people’s activities.
• Therefore, speech should be at his disposal, activities should be at his disposal, wealth and poverty can only be obtained by oneself, not allow others to interfere with it.

Personal summary

It tells the story of how resentment is a pernicious aspect of human interaction. Among the other acknowledged faults, the individual seeks the truth of the world to prove morality, because of the occasion, degree, and Angle of his application.

The root cause of complaint is to block people’s way of speaking, to hinder people’s activities of that kind of behavior, so that human instinct activities into the “poverty” of poverty. Furthermore, the government and the individual are discussed in depth. Only by listening to their freedom in speech and activities can they develop.

The fourteenth, “The Examination of the Heart”, tells the importance of personal planning, the success or failure of his career (life, wisdom and morality) as a calculation. Furthermore, there are two meanings of care, “protection” and “command”, which should coexist and not be confused.

On Doubt and Decision

excerpts

• Credulity is easily deceived, but doubt is truth.
• The progress of world civilization is due to the discovery of the truth of both the tangible and the intangible human dynamics between heaven and earth. It can be said that the origin of the civilization that the western peoples have reached today is suspicion.
• Although we should not believe in things, but if it is true, we should not doubt lightly, that is, between doubts, we must be good at distinguishing between choices, and the essence of learning is to distinguish between this.
• Believe its credible, suspect its suspicious, take its desirable, give up its can give up. Although the choice is not easy, and our scholars duty-bound, but not to encourage themselves. We believe that fantasy is better than learning. We should read more books and periodicals, receive more things, be calm, open our horizon, and seek the truth. We will naturally know who should believe and who should doubt. What was believed yesterday may be doubted today; what is suspected today may be dispelled tomorrow. Duty-bound, but not to encourage themselves.

Personal summary

It is necessary to have the heart of an apprentice to keep doubt, to make decisions on their own judgment, and to continue to learn and progress. And the premise of self-judgment can not be utopian, to learn to pursue the truth, to achieve the progress of driving value.

On Maintaining one’s own independence

excerpts

• There are two kinds of independence, tangible and intangible. Briefly speaking, one is material independence and the other is spiritual independence.

  • Material independence means not asking for material help.
  • The intangibles of spiritual independence are profound and extensive, even in matters which seem to have little to do with it.

• When you lose your independent spirit, you lose what you really want. The heart should not lose the master, the use of money should be right, I hope that people can control money and not be controlled by money, not the slightest damage to the independence of the spirit.

• Although discussion and practice are two things, they must be consistent. This is a common saying, but it is only a kind of discussion, and few of them can really be carried out.

• Discussion and practice should not conflict at all, but should balance each other. The two should complement each other to benefit the world, and the disadvantages will occur when the two are out of balance are discussed as follows:

  • First, people’s actions are different in size and weight.
  • Second, people’s actions, no matter how difficult or easy, some of the greater utility, some of the smaller utility.
  • Third, people’s actions should be in accordance with the law, must recognize the place and time of action.
  • Fourth, action, if the thought is not thoughtful and meticulous, will happen.

• Those who have high ideals and lack of practical actions will sometimes be rejected and isolated. When we compare our own actions with those of others, we are originally ashamed of ourselves, but when we observe the actions of others with our own ideals, we feel dissatisfied and naturally have the idea of belitting others. To know that to despise others is not to be despised. Mutual resentment, mutual contempt, at last can not avoid the monster’s ridicule, the society despise.

• No matter how big or small, if you want to criticize someone else’s behavior, you should first put yourself in their shoes. For different occupations, the importance and difficulty of their actions should be considered. For different matters, we should also compare our own and others’ actions according to the actual situation, so as not to make great mistakes.

Personal summary

This article discusses the two forms of independence and the importance of arguing and practicing coherently.

Material independence is important, but spiritual independence can truly achieve the independence of the individual. Can not lose the inner master, be affected by others wanton mental independence.

Talk and practice also need to do what they say. And there is a complementary relationship between the two, we can not discuss too high understanding and lack of practical action. You need to be very careful when you talk about other people.

Chapter XVII: On popularity

excerpts

• A desirable person is a person who presuppositions his character and places the hope of the whole society on the basis of what ten persons regard as the meaning of a hundred persons.

• People in the social popularity, the size of the weight of the point. If people don’t trust you, you can’t do anything.

• Let the strength of one hundred catties to carry the weight of one hundred catties, the money of the daughter of the loan and the property of the daughter of the people, this is according to the strength of the act, and the invisible reputation has nothing to do with people. But the human affairs in the world are often not so simple and indifferent. Some people have no power, but they can shake the weight of thousands of pounds. There are also people who can use hundreds of thousands of yuan although they have no money.

• People’s popularity in society is not determined by their strength, nor by the amount of money, but by the accumulation of intellectual activities and integrity.

• There seems much to be said of a wise man who does not seek worldly glory. But before deciding whether to ask or not, we must first identify the nature of the honour sought.

• A man may not only seek renown, but should strive for it, and what matters most is that he should get the right thing.

• Now, if we want to correct bad habits, enter a lively realm, more things, a wide range of things to make friends, know oneself and the enemy, try to give play to one’s ability for the benefit of individuals, for the human society, we must have the following conditions:

  • First, you must learn the language. Text is a powerful tool for recording and expressing ideas, especially important for writing and communication. But to be close to others and express oneself directly, language is indispensable, so words must be fluent and lively.
  • Second, the appearance should be kind and bright, do not make people look and boring. Those who are responsible for it, those who are responsible for it, those who are responsible for it, those who are responsible for it, those who are responsible for it, those who are responsible for it, those who are responsible for it, those who are responsible for it, those who are responsible for it, and those who are responsible for it, are detestable. It should be noted that a lively and pleasant appearance is one of the qualities of a person.
  • Third, every time people misinterpret the phrase “different ways do not seek each other”, as long as the occupation is different, they are unable to communicate with each other. Although they have friendship with classmates, once they leave school and break up with each other, they forget about it. In fact, when people make friends, they should not only alienate old friends, but also seek new ones.

Personal summary

This article tells the importance of popularity lies in the society, and the premise of popularity is to obtain the trust of others.

In the social popularity is not the size of power or money, but by the activity of intelligence and wisdom and integrity of moral credibility accumulated.

And we must seek to be desirable, to be appropriate to our knowledge, our intelligence, our activity, and our reputation.

If we want to use our talents for the benefit of the individual and the community, we need to meet these three requirements.

After the speech

Read through, is indeed a modern thought enlightenment classic, deeply feel the importance of “knowledge” and “independence”.

For the period of some chapters for the present I still do not enjoy, then a brush with, may be the right time to savor some, can harvest more.

Since then, I have shared with my little friends.