"Customs and Morals - Middle Volume"

Author: Voltaire
Publisher:
Publication Date: 2000-03-01
Features: This monumental and extensive work focuses on religious issues while also delving into various aspects of culture, highlighting the arduous journey of humanity from ignorance to civilization. The book uses numerous facts to expose the darkness and corruption of the Church, opposing religious fanaticism, persecution, and sectarian strife. With sharp prose and grandeur, it spans thousands of years and traverses several continents, presenting a magnificent panorama of the spirit and customs of important nations around the world. The book narrates complex historical events, capturing their essence and extracting their essence; it portrays characters vividly and skillfully uses concise brushstrokes to depict social dynamics and historical landscapes. It is not only a work of value to historians but also a scholarly classic worth reading for any general reader interested in world history. Essai sur les m?urs focuses on the customs of different peoples while also examining the underlying national spirit and mentality behind these customs. Therefore, this historical work is not merely a chronicle of dynasties, politics, or events. In a sense, it can even be considered a precursor to the contemporary French Annales School, where the seeds of later social science methods can be found. Voltaire explicitly states in the book: "My main idea is to understand as much as possible the customs of different peoples and to study the human spirit. I regard the succession of kings as a guiding thread rather than the purpose of writing history." Law, art, and customs are the main subjects of this book. Thus, it is not a strict chronicle or genealogy. As a more personalized teaching method, he did not even deliberately consult a large number of books to clarify details but instead attempted to provide the world with an outline of understanding. The author of Essai sur les m?urs also shows a strong interest in and equal attitude toward non-Western civilizations. He devotes considerable space to discussing the culture of non-Western worlds, often with a tone of admiration, especially when introducing China, where he shows great enthusiasm. He mentions that in other countries, law is used to punish, while in China, it plays a greater role in rewarding good deeds. He points out that in ancient times, the Chinese were already quite advanced, but he also raises the question: Why did China remain at this stage for so long? Why, despite its ancient astronomy, did its achievements remain so limited? Why did they still not know about semitones in music? In his view, these people, so different from the Westerners, seemed to be endowed by nature with organs that could easily discover what they needed but could not progress further. We, on the other hand, acquired knowledge late but quickly brought everything to perfection. He speculates that there might be two reasons: one is the Chinese people's inexplicable reverence for what their ancestors left behind, believing that everything ancient is perfect, and the other lies in the nature of their language. Regarding later academic criticism of Essai sur les m?urs, Morraia considers it "a mixture of praise and blame." There are still many factual errors in the book, some of which the author is hard-pressed to escape blame for, while others are unavoidable, as the truth was not yet clear at the time. Montesquieu said that Voltaire's purpose in writing history was to glorify his own sect, that is, to promote his secular religion. Voltaire wanted to prove that Boussuet's explanation of world history in the name of God's will was wrong, believing that history should not be explained by original causes but by the blind play of many small causes. He denied all supernatural phenomena, and it should be said that drawing this line is very meaningful for the independent development of historiography. However, he sometimes believed that human history in the past was a continuous series of sins and sufferings, and that chaos could soon be clarified by reason, which was perhaps too pessimistic about the past and too optimistic about the future. Nevertheless, whatever the case may be, we can quote one sentence from the book to describe it: "A person who thinks with the heart will always inspire others to think."