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The Wisdom of China and India
A very extensive collection of exerpts from Indian and Chinese Buddhist texts such as Rigveda, Upanishads, Ramayana, Panchatantra, Dhammapada, Tao, Confucius, and much more. Includes glossary of Hindu terms, pronunciation of Chinese names, and table of Chinese dynasties.
1104 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1942
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About the author
Lin Yutang
267 books343 followersProlific writer of a wide variety of works in Chinese 林语堂 and English; in the 1930s he founded several Chinese magazines specializing in social satire and Western-style journalism.
Lin, the son of a Chinese Presbyterian minister, was educated for the ministry but renounced Christianity in his early 20s and became a professor of English. He traveled to the United States and Europe for advanced study; on his return to China, he taught, edited several English-language journals, and contributed essays to Chinese literary magazines.
In 1932 Lin established the Lunyu banyuekan (“Analects Fortnightly”), a type of Western-style satirical magazine totally new to China at that time. It was highly successful, and he soon introduced two more publications. In 1935 Lin published the first of his many English-language books, My Country and My People. It was widely translated and for years was regarded as a standard text on China. The following year he moved to New York City to meet the popular demand for his historical accounts and novels. In 1939 he published his renowned English novel Moment in Peking. The Wisdom of China and India appeared in 1942.
Although he returned to China briefly in 1943 and again in 1954, Lin both times became involved in disputes stemming from his stand in favour of literature as self-expression rather than as propaganda and social education. In addition to writing books on Chinese history and philosophy, he made highly acclaimed English translations of Chinese literary masterpieces, such as Famous Chinese Short Stories Retold (1952).
Lin, the son of a Chinese Presbyterian minister, was educated for the ministry but renounced Christianity in his early 20s and became a professor of English. He traveled to the United States and Europe for advanced study; on his return to China, he taught, edited several English-language journals, and contributed essays to Chinese literary magazines.
In 1932 Lin established the Lunyu banyuekan (“Analects Fortnightly”), a type of Western-style satirical magazine totally new to China at that time. It was highly successful, and he soon introduced two more publications. In 1935 Lin published the first of his many English-language books, My Country and My People. It was widely translated and for years was regarded as a standard text on China. The following year he moved to New York City to meet the popular demand for his historical accounts and novels. In 1939 he published his renowned English novel Moment in Peking. The Wisdom of China and India appeared in 1942.
Although he returned to China briefly in 1943 and again in 1954, Lin both times became involved in disputes stemming from his stand in favour of literature as self-expression rather than as propaganda and social education. In addition to writing books on Chinese history and philosophy, he made highly acclaimed English translations of Chinese literary masterpieces, such as Famous Chinese Short Stories Retold (1952).
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April 12, 2023
“The Wisdom of China and India” is a fascinating anthology of Eastern religion and philosophy edited by Lin Yutang.
The section on Hinduism begins with the Rigveda. This resembles the Psalms of the Jewish and Christian Bible. The Upanishads concerns creation, and consequently is equivalent to the first eleven chapters of Genesis.
The Bhagavad-gita is taken from the Hindu epic the Mahabharta. It preaches an Indian kind of stoicism, and recommends that people perform their duty as best they can, without considering the rewards.
The Ramayana is the second great Hindu epic. I have loved it ever since I read an abridgment many years ago. The outline of the Ramayana is that many men compete for the hand in marriage of Sita. Prince Rama wins by winning a contest of strength.
Rama is the heir apparent to the throne. However, through palace intrigue he and Sita are sentenced to fourteen years of banishment. During this banishment Sita is kidnapped, although she is not raped and she honors her marriage vows.
With the help of a kingdom of monkeys Rama rescues Sita, and kills those who kidnapped her.
With the end of the fourteen years, Rama and Sita return home, and are coroneted king and queen
At this point the Ramayana ends happily. Several centuries later a book is added that has Sita tragically dying. This adds nothing to the story. It is not required by what happened earlier. It should have been omitted.
The section on Buddhism begins with the Dhammapada. This may not have been written by the Buddha, but it is believed to convey his thinking. The Dhammapada advocates that one avoid hatred and lust.
The Light of Asia was first published in London in 1879. For the English speaking world it was the introduction to the life of the Buddha and Buddhism.
The man who was to become the Buddha was the son of an Indian king who decided that his son was to grow up with no knowledge of sickness, old age, and death.
Siddhartha, which was the name of the man who became the Buddha, got married and had a child. Then by chance he saw an elderly and sick beggar. This traumatized him, so he left the palace he grew up in and went to ponder the meaning of life.
What I noticed was that he did nothing to help the beggar. I thought he should have brought the beggar into his palace, given him food, and medical treatment, and made his remaining years less painful. He did not even give the beggar alms. Jesus would have cured the beggar of his affirmatives and fed him.
Siddhartha also left his wife and son. He rejoined them after becoming Enlightened, but not before causing them much grief.
There is a misconception among many in the West that Buddhism is somehow an atheistic religion. In the sections in this anthology gods are mentioned, including several Hindu gods, and reincarnation is taught as what happens to the soul after death.
Lin Yutang begins his collection of Chinese wisdom with the classics of Taoism. These are the Tao Te Ching, which Lin Yutang calls “the Book of Tao” by Lao Tsu, and selections from the writings of Chuang Tsu. Lao Tsu was born about 570 BC. Chuang Tsu died about three centuries later.
Taoism is the philosophy of how to adapt to circumstances. I see it as the art of how at least to survive, and at best to prosper in situations where you cannot force your way to victory by an obvious superiority.
From Lao Tsu we get sayings like, “The sage puts himself last, and finds himself in the foremost place,”
And, “In his actions he chooses the right time. It is because he does not contend that he is above approach.”
From Chuangtse we get a statement that Epiticus, the Roman stoic philosopher could have made, “The man of perfect virtue…is happy under prosperous and adverse circumstances alike, and cautious in his choice of action, so that none can harm him.”
I think the writings of Taoism would have appealed to Chinese young men who did not pass the Imperial Exams. The teaching of Taoism is that one does not need to win to be a valuable human being.
Lao Tsu and Chuangtse are the writers of philosophical Taoism. There is also religious Taoism. This interacts with philosophical Taoism. It includes the indigenous deities of China. Unfortunately, Lin Yutang does not mention religious Taoism in his anthology.
Lin Yutang begins his anthology on classical Chinese political thinkers with a section entitled “Chinese Democracy.” After decades of totalitarian dictatorships calling themselves “The People’s Democratic Republic of” this country or that one, I have an exacting definition of what deserves to be called democracy.
I believe a democracy can only be said to exist in a country when the inhabitants of the country have access to many different opinions, and there are regular contested elections. The mainland of China has never had this, although the success of such a political situation on Taiwan convinces me that it would work well on the mainland.
What Lin Yutang means by this is that the philosophers he discusses, such as Confucius, Mencius and Motse, and the excerpts he includes from The Book of History maintain that governments have the obligation to advance the interests of their subjects, and that governments that do not do this violate the mandate of Heaven, and deserve to be overthrown.
That is all very nice. I still insist on freedom of political expression and meaningful choices in elections.
Lin Yutang also considers the advocacy by some Chinese philosophers of what we call “laissez faire” to be a form of democracy. Where most productive wealth is owned by a small oligarchy, laissez faire is a form of tyranny by the rich.
Lin Yutang calls his re arrangement of The Analects of Confucius “The Aphorisms of Confucius.”
Many people in the West see Confucius as the founder of a religion. He can more accurately be seen as a philosopher who discussed religion, politics, and morality. Confucius believed that one should worship the traditional deities of China in the traditional manner, but that one should avoid asserting doctrines about them. When we consider the history of religion in the West it is easy to agree.
Confucius took inequality for granted, but he believed that those in positions of authority had obligations to consider the well being of those over whom they had authority.
After his arrangement of the Analects of Confucius, Lin Yutang includes several poems from The Book of Songs. This is a collection of 305 folk songs selected and edited by Confucius. These were written from 1121 BC to 605 BC. Although the songs concerned mundane topics, philosophers like Confucius projected profound meanings into them.
Lin Yutang’s lacks an explanation of the Four Books and the Five Classics. Together these formed the Confucian cannon. For nearly two thousand years the Imperial Exams were based on these. Men who passed the exams were elevated to the Scholar Gentry, which was the Chinese civil service.
The Four Books include The Great Learning, the Doctrine of the Mean, the Analects of Confucius, and Mencius.
The Five Classics include The Book of Songs, The Book of Documents, The Book of Rites – which explained how to perform religious ceremonies – I Ching, or the Book of Changes, and The Spring and Autumn Annuals.
The Wisdom of China and India is already 1,103 pages long. Unfortunately Lin Yutang included some poems and a short novel that are not of great importance, when he should have included a chapter explaining the Four Books and the Five Classics, and describing each one that is not included in this anthology.
The section on Hinduism begins with the Rigveda. This resembles the Psalms of the Jewish and Christian Bible. The Upanishads concerns creation, and consequently is equivalent to the first eleven chapters of Genesis.
The Bhagavad-gita is taken from the Hindu epic the Mahabharta. It preaches an Indian kind of stoicism, and recommends that people perform their duty as best they can, without considering the rewards.
The Ramayana is the second great Hindu epic. I have loved it ever since I read an abridgment many years ago. The outline of the Ramayana is that many men compete for the hand in marriage of Sita. Prince Rama wins by winning a contest of strength.
Rama is the heir apparent to the throne. However, through palace intrigue he and Sita are sentenced to fourteen years of banishment. During this banishment Sita is kidnapped, although she is not raped and she honors her marriage vows.
With the help of a kingdom of monkeys Rama rescues Sita, and kills those who kidnapped her.
With the end of the fourteen years, Rama and Sita return home, and are coroneted king and queen
At this point the Ramayana ends happily. Several centuries later a book is added that has Sita tragically dying. This adds nothing to the story. It is not required by what happened earlier. It should have been omitted.
The section on Buddhism begins with the Dhammapada. This may not have been written by the Buddha, but it is believed to convey his thinking. The Dhammapada advocates that one avoid hatred and lust.
The Light of Asia was first published in London in 1879. For the English speaking world it was the introduction to the life of the Buddha and Buddhism.
The man who was to become the Buddha was the son of an Indian king who decided that his son was to grow up with no knowledge of sickness, old age, and death.
Siddhartha, which was the name of the man who became the Buddha, got married and had a child. Then by chance he saw an elderly and sick beggar. This traumatized him, so he left the palace he grew up in and went to ponder the meaning of life.
What I noticed was that he did nothing to help the beggar. I thought he should have brought the beggar into his palace, given him food, and medical treatment, and made his remaining years less painful. He did not even give the beggar alms. Jesus would have cured the beggar of his affirmatives and fed him.
Siddhartha also left his wife and son. He rejoined them after becoming Enlightened, but not before causing them much grief.
There is a misconception among many in the West that Buddhism is somehow an atheistic religion. In the sections in this anthology gods are mentioned, including several Hindu gods, and reincarnation is taught as what happens to the soul after death.
Lin Yutang begins his collection of Chinese wisdom with the classics of Taoism. These are the Tao Te Ching, which Lin Yutang calls “the Book of Tao” by Lao Tsu, and selections from the writings of Chuang Tsu. Lao Tsu was born about 570 BC. Chuang Tsu died about three centuries later.
Taoism is the philosophy of how to adapt to circumstances. I see it as the art of how at least to survive, and at best to prosper in situations where you cannot force your way to victory by an obvious superiority.
From Lao Tsu we get sayings like, “The sage puts himself last, and finds himself in the foremost place,”
And, “In his actions he chooses the right time. It is because he does not contend that he is above approach.”
From Chuangtse we get a statement that Epiticus, the Roman stoic philosopher could have made, “The man of perfect virtue…is happy under prosperous and adverse circumstances alike, and cautious in his choice of action, so that none can harm him.”
I think the writings of Taoism would have appealed to Chinese young men who did not pass the Imperial Exams. The teaching of Taoism is that one does not need to win to be a valuable human being.
Lao Tsu and Chuangtse are the writers of philosophical Taoism. There is also religious Taoism. This interacts with philosophical Taoism. It includes the indigenous deities of China. Unfortunately, Lin Yutang does not mention religious Taoism in his anthology.
Lin Yutang begins his anthology on classical Chinese political thinkers with a section entitled “Chinese Democracy.” After decades of totalitarian dictatorships calling themselves “The People’s Democratic Republic of” this country or that one, I have an exacting definition of what deserves to be called democracy.
I believe a democracy can only be said to exist in a country when the inhabitants of the country have access to many different opinions, and there are regular contested elections. The mainland of China has never had this, although the success of such a political situation on Taiwan convinces me that it would work well on the mainland.
What Lin Yutang means by this is that the philosophers he discusses, such as Confucius, Mencius and Motse, and the excerpts he includes from The Book of History maintain that governments have the obligation to advance the interests of their subjects, and that governments that do not do this violate the mandate of Heaven, and deserve to be overthrown.
That is all very nice. I still insist on freedom of political expression and meaningful choices in elections.
Lin Yutang also considers the advocacy by some Chinese philosophers of what we call “laissez faire” to be a form of democracy. Where most productive wealth is owned by a small oligarchy, laissez faire is a form of tyranny by the rich.
Lin Yutang calls his re arrangement of The Analects of Confucius “The Aphorisms of Confucius.”
Many people in the West see Confucius as the founder of a religion. He can more accurately be seen as a philosopher who discussed religion, politics, and morality. Confucius believed that one should worship the traditional deities of China in the traditional manner, but that one should avoid asserting doctrines about them. When we consider the history of religion in the West it is easy to agree.
Confucius took inequality for granted, but he believed that those in positions of authority had obligations to consider the well being of those over whom they had authority.
After his arrangement of the Analects of Confucius, Lin Yutang includes several poems from The Book of Songs. This is a collection of 305 folk songs selected and edited by Confucius. These were written from 1121 BC to 605 BC. Although the songs concerned mundane topics, philosophers like Confucius projected profound meanings into them.
Lin Yutang’s lacks an explanation of the Four Books and the Five Classics. Together these formed the Confucian cannon. For nearly two thousand years the Imperial Exams were based on these. Men who passed the exams were elevated to the Scholar Gentry, which was the Chinese civil service.
The Four Books include The Great Learning, the Doctrine of the Mean, the Analects of Confucius, and Mencius.
The Five Classics include The Book of Songs, The Book of Documents, The Book of Rites – which explained how to perform religious ceremonies – I Ching, or the Book of Changes, and The Spring and Autumn Annuals.
The Wisdom of China and India is already 1,103 pages long. Unfortunately Lin Yutang included some poems and a short novel that are not of great importance, when he should have included a chapter explaining the Four Books and the Five Classics, and describing each one that is not included in this anthology.
May 27, 2009
The best translation I've found of the Tao te Ching.
November 21, 2011
"IT'S GOOD TO BE HEADLESS" (From Luyichi, Ninth Century)
In the time of Han Wuti (B.C. 140-87), Chia Yung of Ts'angwu was serving as magistrate of Yuchang. One day he went out to fight bandits. He was wounded and lost his head. Yung mounted his horse and returned to the camp. The soldiers and people of the camp all came to look at him, and Yung spoke from his chest, "I was defeated by the bandits and they cut off my head. Tell me, in your opinion, does it look better to have a head or be without a head?" The officers wept and said, "It's better to have a head." And Yung replied, "I don't think so. It's just as good to be without a head."
In the time of Han Wuti (B.C. 140-87), Chia Yung of Ts'angwu was serving as magistrate of Yuchang. One day he went out to fight bandits. He was wounded and lost his head. Yung mounted his horse and returned to the camp. The soldiers and people of the camp all came to look at him, and Yung spoke from his chest, "I was defeated by the bandits and they cut off my head. Tell me, in your opinion, does it look better to have a head or be without a head?" The officers wept and said, "It's better to have a head." And Yung replied, "I don't think so. It's just as good to be without a head."
April 4, 2011
Read it last week, while I was in Nanjing amongst the Chinese. It was brilliant. Modern China is so far from its great tradition, however there are still many psychological and social threads which can be related to history of their tradition. A must read for any one who wants to have a peep into breadth of Chinese poetry, prose, spiritualism and life.
July 2, 2011
This very old book was on my parent's shelves, and I ignored it for years. Then picked it up when I became interested in eastern religions. It is fascinating! Descriptions and excerpts from the east's major religions.
March 3, 2023
It felt very similar to The Wisdom of China, not much to say, just an interesting read.
November 7, 2009
I feel I can hear the voice from the Hymna
October 17, 2011
Was interested in reading since I saw it in my father's hand in 1970. Finally read in 80's. All Hindu religious books nicely translated.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews