Gu Hongming ,studying abroad for many years from the year of ten, but was actually recognized as a master of sinology. It is so strange for a oversea student to show a strong interest in sinology ,especially for a man who had left China since his childhood. Finishing reading this book, The Spirit of the Chinese People, although I can’t understand every point he wrote, I still saw an intelligent old man, who had a better command of sinology than most Chinese people, even if they finished their education all in China. From this point of view, Mr.Gu was a real Chinese, for he loved and understood Chinese culture and history so deeply.

    For modern Chinese, there are many feudal problems in it, such as Three Obediences and For Virtues, taking concubines, and so on. But if we can take history factors into consideration, a more beautiful picture will be presented to us. It is not denied that today’s education of China always ignore the cultivation of traditional cultural qualities. As a most apparent result, modern Chinese often don’t have a most basic knowledge of sinology. By reading this book, on the one hand, we can skim our own history and cultural very quickly; on the other hand, it will make you see the cultural genes that we don't see, but that still flow through our veins.

    There are many interesting views in The Spirit of the Chinese People. For example, Mr.Gu stated that “ the real Chinaman is a person with the head of a grown-up man and the heart of a child”. It is known that head(or intelligence) is separated to heart. And it is also the first time for me to know such a description of a Chinaman. However, such kind of “real Chinaman” seems to exist in the past. They are traditional Chinese literati, who had read a mountain of books. Mr.Gu also agreed that it is the reason for the probability of China becoming an ancient civilization. “The wonderful peculiarity of the Chinese is that for a people, who have lived so long as a grown-up nation, as a nation of adult reason, they are yet able to this day to live the life of a child—a life of the heart.”

    In his words, I can see a vivid image of a real Chinaman, who had only lived in obscure classical texts. “It is consideration for the feelings of others. The Chinese are polite because, living a life of the heart, they know their own feelings and that makes it easy for them to show consideration for the feelings of others.” “The Chinese remember things with the heart and not with the head. The heart with its power of sympathy, acting as glue, can retain things much better than the head or intellect which is hard and dry.” I am shocked to find the fact that we can hardly find such real Chinaman these days, which we must find back as soon as possible.

    Given his historical circumstances, the value of this book is much higher. Not only we read about the spirits of Chinese, but also the book itself is The Spirit of the Chinese People.