Counter-claiming the Western Journey for Scriptures - The series of Baoyang's Great Civilization Integration - Selected Essays Collection

Author: Bei Yang
Publisher:
Publishing Date: 2006-05-01
Features: The cultural sediment accumulated over millennia obstructs the veins of our nation. Only the overwhelming flood of Western civilization can wash away these vices. has a five-thousand-year tradition, of course, with its excellent aspects, but what we face now is a transformation unseen in five thousand years. A new Western civilization, like a razor-sharp blade, cuts through our society. If we refuse to accept and digest it, we will be split in two and die of bloodlessness. Bei Yang is a legendary figure whose life has witnessed the turbulent social changes in modern China. In his early years, Bei Yang was a fervent "patriot" who once admired Chiang Kai-shek. After the "Lugou Bridge Incident" of 1937, he joined the Three Principles of the People's Party and underwent training in the Youth Cadre Class, taking an oath to "live and die for the leader." After moving to Taiwan, he experienced setbacks but also served as the general secretary of the "Youth Writers Association," a branch of Chiang Jing-kuo's cultural unit. These political experiences undoubtedly reveal Bei Yang's strong sense of political identity. Later, the Nationalist authorities imprisoned Bei Yang, citing his cartoons in the family edition of the China Daily as "insulting the leader." After his release, he was arrested again, this time on numerous fabricated political charges: "self-incrimination," "left-leaning thoughts," "cultural work for the communists," and "obvious intent to subvert the government" with illegal means. He was sentenced to twelve years in prison (serving over nine years) on June 27, 1968. According to the Nationalist Party's original charges, Bei Yang had long been suspected of secretly collaborating with the communists. From the perspective of China's united front strategy at that time, Bei Yang's struggle against the Nationalists was no less intense than that of an underground party cell. This clearly reflects the overreaction of the ruling Nationalist Party, as Bei Yang had no political ambitions. The vast sea separated mainland China and Taiwan—how could he collude with the enemy? In reality, Bei Yang was simply a cultural figure, a folk writer, whose critiques were fundamentally cultural. He believed that any political system was suspect unless the cultural foundation was corrected and improved. For a long time, Bei Yang was known as Taiwan's "living Lu Xun," sharing similarities with the latter in his sharp and incisive critiques of social reality and his use of essays as a primary weapon. However, their essence differed significantly. Lu Xun, during the modern period of China, coexisted with the construction of modernity, serving as both a founder and an ongoing innovator. His fate was intertwined with the history of national awakening and liberation, as well as the history of Chinese literature and culture. Thus, Lu Xun was completely historicized and symbolized by history. In comparison, Lu Xun still belonged to the historically marginalized elite intellectuals of modern China, always interpreted and understood within the discourse of national liberation and historical awakening. Bei Yang's historical context was vastly different. He carried no such heavy historical connotations, being more straightforward, personalized, folkloric, and secular. His cultural critiques in essays were also secular critiques, focusing on irrational phenomena in daily society, exposing social ills mercilessly. No one observed the secular society as deeply as Bei Yang himself. He was a secularized intellectual, even more like a traditional Chinese scholar, living among the people, neither teaching in universities nor serving in government positions. He was a freelance writer, earning a living by selling his writings. Such individuals were quite common in China during the 1930s and 1940s, but after 1949, mainland China no longer saw such intellectuals or scholars. Shen Congwen, for instance, nearly lost his mind when he was not invited to the session of the Writers' Congress. Not being institutionalized meant the end of intellectuals in the 1950s, 1960s, and 1980s, until the 1990s, when figures like Wang Shuo and Wang Xiaobo emerged as freelance writers. Bei Yang was also a freelance writer, standing on the side of the people and embodying the style of a free intellectual. His mode of expression was clearly different from the discourse of intellectuals long institutionalized by the system. In contemporary mainland China, as non-professional and non-institutional writers become more numerous, reading Bei Yang's writings—this "living fossil" of Chinese freelance writers—brings a sense of familiarity. From any perspective, Bei Yang was a highly unconventional intellectual, a "non-aristocratic" scholar, in my view, an advocate for the secular society. The key issue lies in Bei Yang's consistent stance from the perspective of the secular society—he does not seek to tame it but to construct a genuine secular society, with modern nation-states as its natural extension. To reiterate, what sets Bei Yang apart is that he does not elevate the secular society to the level of the elite but first constructs a genuine secular society and then brings the elite society to its level. Therefore, he sees relentless critiques of society as his responsibility to promote the self-reliance and self-respect of the Chinese nation. Bei Yang was very clear about his cultural stance, often deliberately making his writing ordinary, or "peasant-like." He never described his writings as carrying the burden of leading the nation-state toward modernity but intentionally emphasized his secular, folk, and peasant-like position. He once wrote, "The reason Mr. Bei Yang's essays were published was entirely due to the readers' love and support. Otherwise, who would dare to risk losing both principal and interest to print the works of an obscure old man like me? In the early days, I wrote with the same passion as now, just to make a living, with no grand ambitions. Later, as I wrote more, I occasionally received encouraging letters, which slightly lifted my spirits. With more encouragement, I finally felt I was something special." Of course, this was a clear understatement, but it also illustrates Bei Yang's conscious approach to making his writing accessible to the common people. This ensured that his writings always remained within the discourse space of the secular society, addressing the people directly. Bei Yang's essays were always imbued with a passion for advocating justice for the underprivileged. He paid close attention to any unequal phenomenon in society and expressed his views mercilessly. This was also the source of the immense appeal of his essays—he defended the wronged and oppressed, offering solace to the common people. In Bei Yang's narrative, "Bei Yang" always positioned himself as a member of the underprivileged, a portrayal free of pretense, appearing sincere, down-to-earth, and relatable. His calls for equality and justice were deeply tied to his life experiences. In his memoirs and numerous essays, Bei Yang often mentioned his orphaned childhood and the hardships of his life, which gave him a deep understanding of the struggles of the lower classes. Whenever he witnessed inequalities, he could not help but feel indignant. Bei Yang's discussions on equality and justice were not about lofty theories, academic legal debates, or revolutionary uprisings, but about common phenomena in secular society, the daily news of the media. His critiques of social equality and justice had no revolutionary intentions; he had no profound revolutionary truths or grand revolutionary goals. He simply stood as a common person, advocating for the basic rights and respect that every individual should receive. In his later collected works, We Must Live with Dignity, Bei Yang included essays reflecting on his experiences. Despite the passage of time, the old man remained the same—criticizing the ugly and advocating for equality and dignity. It can be said that Bei Yang's later political essays became more pronounced, yet he never lost his essence as a folk intellectual. This series organizes Bei Yang's major essays into three themed volumes: the first volume—Crazy Beauties, the second—A Critical Reflection on Tradition. This is the third volume, which we have titled A Great Integration of Civilization. The critique of "cang culture" is a central theme in Bei Yang's essays. As mentioned earlier, Bei Yang was renowned for his fierce critique of traditional Chinese culture. His reflections were direct, sharp, thorough, and incisive. His anti-traditional discourse reached its peak. "Cang" (a vinegar jar) was Bei Yang's most pointed and vivid metaphor for traditional Chinese culture, a jar that had fermented for two thousand years, filled with foul-smelling and strange substances. Yet, since modern times, some restless individuals have stirred it, allowing its smell to spread and forcing people to confront its dross and ugliness. From Lu Xun to Bei Yang, they were undoubtedly the most intense stirrers. Bei Yang pointed out that the fundamental problem with Chinese culture lay in its flaws in daily life, and the political culture derived from it was even more absurd. The critique Bei Yang sought to launch targeted the everyday culture of secular life itself. While Bei Yang did not directly critique political culture, his depth lay in his secular perspective on its shortcomings. Only by valuing secular culture and everyday culture so highly could he make such critiques. Because everyday culture had inherent problems, the political culture that grew from it and sought to transcend it could not be. This was merely a consequence based on his critical premise. For Bei Yang, "cang" was the root, everything. By stirring it, he aimed to remove impurities and refine Chinese culture and society, restoring them to a purer nature. Bei Yang was deeply troubled by the cultural burden on the Chinese people. Gentle and refined attitudes could not change the ugliness of the Chinese; instead, strong measures were needed—relentless and merciless critiques, even if exaggerated or absolute, to bring about change, similar to the radical reforms Lu Xun advocated. This was also the resolute attitude of a "wild intellectual." Bei Yang's critiques of social civilization and traditions were consistent, with no fundamental difference between them. They were divided into two sections for editing and reading convenience, each selecting three volumes. "A Critical Reflection on Tradition" focuses more on critiquing traditional social systems and cultural roots, while "A Great Integration of Civilization" leans toward reflections on human ethics, daily attitudes, and the education system. These reflections also embodied Bei Yang's consistent style: seeing the big in the small, exposing social ills, and employing humor and satire. In "A Great Integration of Civilization," Bei Yang gave sharp critiques of the Chinese people's tendency to admire foreign cultures. As a fierce critic of tradition, Bei Yang naturally rejected narrow Orientalism. Instead, he saw theity of the Chinese people's admiration for the West, where the excellent aspects of Western civilization were not learned but rather the external, negative trends were imitated. Regarding Western culture, systems, and civilization, Bei Yang consistently upheld the stance of "admiring the West but not flattering it," advocating the absorption of Western essence, which aligned with Lu Xun's "gathering policy" in deeper meaning. However, Bei Yang's essays did not discuss Western political systems but used subtle daily details in Western countries as standards, seeing the spirit in the small to measure whether China had reached the level of a modern, developed civilization. This reflected the characteristic of Bei Yang's "cultural critique." Bei Yang believed, "To judge whether a country is civilized or barbaric, one only needs to see how much respect its vehicles show for zebra crossings and traffic lights." He praised the United States as a civilized nation that made the Chinese feel ashamed, mainly because its citizens obeyed traffic rules. He criticized the Chinese lack of traffic awareness, causing chaos and frequent accidents. Bei Yang not only pointed out the root cause of traffic chaos—the Chinese tradition of not adhering to rules and the government's lenient enforcement—but also proposed a "cure": "Only severe penalties—just and fair ones—can effectively address traffic chaos." This was a conclusion based on the traffic rules of Western countries. Such critiques were direct and sharp, though not without simplification or extremism, yet they showed Bei Yang's decisiveness and charm. While advocating for "Westernization," Bei Yang wasly aware that Western influences entering China would "change," becoming something of a "hybrid." The reasons were complex but undoubtedly related to the "cang culture" of traditional Chinese culture. The politics of "Western servitude" was a product of this "Westernization", a result of his critique of the "flattery of the West," embodied in figures like "Western lackeys." They spoke fluent English, displayed a "second-rate gentleman" demeanor, and everything about them was "Western." This was the consequence of excessive self-esteem resulting from. As mentioned earlier, only a spirit and attitude of "admiring the West but not flattering it" could prevent such "Western servitude" phenomena. Bei Yang was clearly a liberalist, not hiding his admiration for Western democratic and free systems. He also praised the individual value emphasized in Western civilization, especially its emphasis on self-discipline. These views were published decades ago and may seem debatable today. In the current era, post-colonial theories are popular, ethnic identity politics has taken root, and cultural nationalism is on the rise, making it difficult for people to resonate with Bei Yang's perspectives, with many even opposing them. On the other hand, no one today sees things as Bei Yang did, nor is there anyone bold enough to express such a degree of affirmation toward Western civilization. Rediscovering Bei Yang is not just a historical exercise but also a wake-up call to the present. In "A Great Integration of Civilization," a significant portion of the essays revisit historical grievances. Calling Bei Yang a troublemaker is no exaggeration. History, deliberately concealed or glorified, was what Bei Yang insisted on exposing, revealing the many traces of historical truth. Bei Yang's knowledge of history and his insightful observations were so profound that even professional historians admired him. In prison, he wrote A History of the Chinese People, a work rich in emotion and scholarship, exposing historical truths in a way no official history could. He revealed the violence, debauchery, and oppression that existed throughout history. In a sense, Bei Yang's historical perspective echoed Mao Zedong's words: "Wherever there is oppression, there is resistance." Yet, the result of resistance was often just a change of dynasty, with history repeating itself. Bei Yang's writing of history aimed to restore its original face, the "ghost stories of history." He drew on anecdotes effortlessly, found materials in casual flips of pages, and verified the authenticity of strange and interesting tales. In his view, the twenty-six histories of China, the so-called "official histories," were like flying pigs and a series of ghost stories. Bei Yang said, "To call them ghost stories is still being polite; they are nothing but a giant cang." In The Jade Emperor Sits in the Clouds, he wrote, "The Chinese are truly strange. Once they achieve some prominence, they must display extraordinary talents or unusual signs. The Westerners don't understand this. Have you heard anyone say that Mr. Washington was a crawling creature—dragon? Or that Mr. Lincoln was born with a room full of red light, red light filling the room? Only the leaders of the Chinese political arena, whether they are the ancestors of a unified empire or the pitiful offspring of small regimes; whether they rule for centuries or for only a few years; all display extraordinary qualities in the same way." He wrote about the emperors of ancient China, who, after ascending the throne, were portrayed as deities in both official and unofficial histories. The greater the power, the more spectacular the strangeness. Bei Yang studied the founding emperors of each dynasty in the order of the "official histories," only to find that they were either born as insects, snakes, white tiger spirits, or with rooms full of red light, all signs of predestination. It was all an act of mystification. Through his analysis of the origins of ancient Chinese emperors, Bei Yang exposed how the "official histories" fabricated lies to justify the legitimacy and rationality of feudal emperors, claiming they were born under heaven's design, extraordinary by nature, and the "dragon's blood" of the earth. He pointed out, "This is what China calls its 'official history,' and it is also the 'good history' praised by the sages. It contains everything, except the truth" (And See the "Good History") The root of this absurdity and distortion lay in the traditional Chinese culture of "might makes right," which created such a ridiculous and untrue history. This was Bei Yang's heavy blow against the "ghost stories" of Chinese history and culture, a thorough demystification of history. In this series, Bei Yang made sharp critiques of education. He had nothing but criticism for any unsatisfactory status quo, and education was one of the "traps" he believed to be full of problems. He saw the "saving the next generation of children" as part of modern education reform, analyzing the causes of the education system's flaws and proposing specific reforms to build a strong, democratic modern nation of healthy, physically and mentally strong citizens. He aimed to clear this trap single-handedly. Of course, this was impossible. But Bei Yang's spirit was valuable, and his sense of responsibility was significant. Even today, his critiques remain pertinent. Bei Yang's critiques of the education system in Taiwan during the 1960s and 1970s (with some articles covering the 1980s) revealed that the Nationalist government in Taiwan also hoped to revitalize society through education. Taiwan's education system underwent a rapid development in the 1960s and 1970s. However, access to high-quality educational resources was extremely limited, making competition for good schools and overseas study opportunities fierce, overwhelming students. Bei Yang criticized the joint examination system, urging, "The joint examination system must change," primarily because the immense pressure from it led to vicious tutoring, which was a murder of students' physical and mental health and a destruction of the "tutors" themselves. He pointed out that the failure of official efforts to curb tutoring was mainly due to intense student competition. He further discovered that a large population produced too many students, which was the fundamental reason for the popularity of tutoring. Bei Yang also saw Taiwan's education system as a "colony" under the influence of the examination system, creating a new "imperial examination trap" in addition to the original imperial examination system (Gathering the World's Strongest Flavor). This was a new imperial examination trap with tutoring as its only tool. Therefore, Bei Yang detested tutoring and strongly advocated for "family planning" and contraception, believing them to be the "only way to eliminate tutoring" (Family Planning! Family Planning! Family Planning!). He argued that reducing the population through family planning would, in turn, improve people's living standards and education quality, changing the education system. The problems Taiwan faced at the time still exist in mainland China today, and in some cases, they are even worse. Bei Yang's sharp critiques remain relevant today, offering lessons for how to educate the next generation and addressing the myriad problems and dilemmas of contemporary education. In this series, Bei Yang continued to critique the Chinese people's outdated customs and various. Lu Xun had long criticized the coldness, numbness, jealousy, and spectator mentality of the Chinese. Despite some changes in society, these weaknesses remained astonishingly similar to the past. Jealousy led to terrible consequences, including internal struggles, disunity, and even tragic deaths, representing the extreme manifestation of national, which Bei Yang called the "source of all evils" and fiercely critiqued. Bei Yang also focused on human weaknesses, exposing them mercilessly in numerous essays, showing how long-standing habits had shaped various social psychology. As a Chinese, Bei Yang's sharp critiques of the Chinese left many Chinese puzzled. National pride and confidence were a constant refrain and scripture for a nation. People were happy to take on the role of upholding the spirit of national tradition, with no one willing to reveal its flaws. Especially overseas Chinese, were happy to portray the Chinese nation as hardworking, intelligent, and mutually supportive. But Bei Yang felt deeply about the many vices, negative traits, and narrow-mindedness of the Chinese, pointing them out directly, urging the Chinese to face them with courage. As a fierce critic of the secular society, Bei Yang was not a pessimist. He harbored a profound ideal, a sincere desire to elevate Chinese civilization, and was indignant and merciless in his fight against evil. All of this stemmed from his honesty and thoroughness. "The Chinese have so many ugly aspects, only the Chinese can reform the Chinese. The suffering of the Chinese is multifaceted, and everyone must awaken. If we all become good critics, we can appreciate ourselves, our friends, and our leaders. This is the path the Chinese should take now, and the only path." In the conclusion of The Ugly Chinese, Bei Yang wrote as such. The issue, of course, is not that Bei Yang's critiques were sharp and direct but whether he was telling the truth. Unfortunately, any honest and clear-eyed Chinese must admit that Bei Yang's blunt statements were true and that his sharp observations and analyses were convincing. Even today, his words still resonate deeply. Since writing his first column in the Independent Daily in May 1960, nearly half a century has passed. Looking back at the immense changes in history, the cultural ailments Bei Yang pointed out have not vanished. Some have become more stubborn, and others have worsened. If so, opposing Bei Yang is meaningless—it would be like covering one's own eyes again. Bei Yang merely wanted to open people's eyes to the facts; he was not wrong. He had the courage, the pain, the responsibility, and the truth. In today's 21st century, with China's strong economic growth in mainland China, the rise of China in the 21st century seems imminent. The Chinese are immersed in their dreams of a glorious future. At such a time, reading Bei Yang's essays and truly removing our own vices and, adopting a more pragmatic attitude to absorb the excellent achievements of human civilization, and paying attention to the reform and renewal of our education system, will undoubtedly have profound and far-reaching significance for creating a healthy, strong, broad, and vibrant Chinese civilization. I was honored to be recommended by Mr. Bei Yang and Ms. Zhang Xianghua to serve as the general editor of this essay series. I deeply feel my lack of knowledge and talent, unable to. Yet, out of respect, I accepted the task. I am grateful for their trust. Due to the urgency of time and my limited abilities, errors and omissions are inevitable. I hope the will criticize and correct them. This is the preface. Chen Xiaoming, November 9, 2005, Beijing