Lin Yutang & the New China
Is One Man's Legacy a Reason to Hope for the Nation's Future?
by David Marshall
As we move into what might one day be called the "Chinese Century," those of us who have had the chance to watch the newest version of this ancient civilization incubate see both troubling and hopeful portents of the character Chinese power might take.
A troubling sign comes from a survey I have conducted over several years, in which I have asked Chinese intellectuals which rulers they most respect. So far, more than half the votes have gone to bloody tyrants, including Qin Shihuang, who built the Great Wall and interred thousands of workmen in his tomb with him; Zhu Yuanzhang, the cruel founder of the Ming dynasty; Mao Zedong; and even Genghis Khan. Young Chinese intellectuals like these men for their success: they "united China," "expanded the nation's boundaries," and "made the world respect China." Revolution, after all, is not a dinner party.
But there are also those who prefer kinder rulers. And I take special encouragement when I see someone on a train in Henan or at a Starbucks in Shanghai reading a book by Lin Yutang. No civilization that prints and reads his books need be permanently wed to tyrannical ideas.
Affinity with Chesterton
Philosopher, inventor, novelist, and one of China's leading men of letters, Lin Yutang (1895–1976) jointly explored Chinese tradition and his own soul through four decades of literary output that include translations of Confucius, Mencius, Lao Zi, and Zhuang Zi; a biography of the Song dynasty poet Su Dongpo; topical and often whimsical essays; a dictionary; an anthology of Chinese and Indian philosophy; historical novels; and a celebration of the art and traditions of Peking just as Mao assaulted both.
Lin also invented a Chinese typewriter, which is displayed in the little home he and his wife lived in (which he designed) in their later years, on Yang Ming Mountain, above Taipei. The house is a fitting monument to the man: it features Spanish columns, a study laden with books in many languages, and a pond for carp, where the old writer sat, like a sage of old, and pretended to fish. This home, which also became his burial place when he died, overlooks leafy suburbs crisscrossed by trains, with Mt. Guan Yin, named for the goddess of mercy, in view across the valley.
While calling himself a "pagan" in the 1930s, Lin nominated G. K. Chesterton to a whimsical conference of humorists to solve the international crisis of the time. Lin later paid Chesterton an extravagant compliment:
The most beautiful face among Western authors, so far as I have seen them in pictures, was that of G. K. Chesterton. There was such a diabolical conglomeration of mustache, glasses, fairly bushy eyebrows and knitted lines where the eyebrows met! One felt there were a vast number of ideas playing about inside that forehead, ready at any time to burst out from those quizzically penetrating eyes.
Photos of Lin himself give a subtler impression: slight figure, nicely dressed, often with pipe in hand or mouth, sometimes pensive, a less volcanic humor than Chesterton's lending joy or mirth (one is not quite sure which) to the eyes. Lin resembled Chesterton in literary versatility, paradox (or irony, as he called it, writing mainly in English), and an ultimately Christian humanism.
David Marshall is the author of several books, including most recently, How Jesus Passes the Outsider Test: The Inside Story (Kuai Mu Press, 2015). He blogs at christthetao.blogspot.com.
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