The Impact of Religion on East Asian Culture

Religion in the Life of Lin Yutang R. Joy Ricci, PhD Candidate, Centre for Asian Studies, University of Adelaide

Introduction/AbstractLin Yutang (Lín Y t ngǔ ā , 林语堂 ), 1895-1976, was a renowned Chinese philosopher, philologist, translator, political spokesperson, inventor, novelist and interpreter of Chinese culture for Western readers.

His struggle to accommodate his cultural heritage of Confucianism, Taoism and Chinese folklore with his Christian properly basic beliefs lasted almost a half-a-century.

Ironically, during this period, while he became the darling of American readers, his writing suffered condemnation in China for his anti-communist stance.

Following the demise of Deng Xiaoping’s influence in the mid-1990s, Lin has once again become popular in China including the production of a 44 episode television series in Hong Kong based on his novel Moment in Peking.

Lin’s books, The Importance of Living and From Pagan to Christian bear witness to his faith dilemma whilst his speeches on ‘The Chinese Cultural Heritage’, ‘Materialism As a Faith’ and ‘Chinese Humanism and the Modern World’ impart a wisdom forgotten by both Eastern and Western cultures in their race to embrace materialist values.

This paper focuses on these three speeches to give insight into the impact of religion on one prominent East Asian person without making assumptions about the effect of religion on East Asia as a whole.

Aim

My aim is to show that religion was writ large in the life of Lin Yutang and that through his writing he provided us with insight into thought processes that challenge faith development for individuals living in a global society.

I encourage you to draw your own conclusions about theextent to which specific insights for one person might holdtrue for global society as a whole.

A succinct timeline of the religious journey of Lin Yutang‘The Chinese Cultural Heritage’, 1961, lecture at Salon de Actos, Mar del Plata, Argentina‘Materialism As a Faith’, 2 May, 1960, lecture at Royal Canadian Club, Montreal‘Chinese Humanism and the Modern World’, 24 October, 1961, lecture at Westminster College, MissouriConclusions: drawing together the threads of Lin’s thoughts based on these three papers.

Overview

Chronological Journey

1985 1912 1957 1976

I______I_____________________________I_______IBirth Rejection Taoism/Confucianism Return DeathChristianity Christianity

Born into a Christian family

Father: Presbyterian Minister

Sister/mentor diedEntered university

Rejected Christianity

Rejection of ChristianityVoid filled by reflection onConfucianist/Taoist thought

Humanism

1954/55 Singapore affairwife’s illness

Return to Christianity1959 From Pagan to Christian

Adet’s suicideStrokesDeath

ChildhoodChristian

RejectionReturn

BirthDeath

‘The Chinese Cultural Heritage’*• ‘There are two main streams of thought that

have gone into the making of the Chinese national character – Confucianism and Taoism. … their realism, their common sense, their patience, their toleration, their emphasis on human relations, and a certain soft mellowness in their character.’*

• ‘The Chinese character was formed by the strength of Confucianism [yang], happily softened by the grace of Taoism [yin].’*

* Lin, Yutang, 1962, The Pleasures of a Nonconformist, Cleveland: The World Publishing Company, pp. 67-81.

‘Confucius concerned himself with man,

Laotse with the secrets of the universe.’ *

Confucianist: rationalist, realist, positivist

‘Confucianism believes in progress, in government, and education, and continuous self-improvement.’*

*Lin, The Pleasures of a Nonconformist, p. 70

CULTURE NATURE

Kong Fu Zi (孔夫子 )551 B.C. – 479 B.C

Laozi (老子 )4th C BCE

Taoist: mystical, romantic, and a tad cynical*

‘Taoism denies and derides progress and civilization, and, like Rousseau, believes in going back to nature. In education it teaches laissez-faire in leaving the people alone.’

* Lin, 1962, p. 71

‘In education it believes in keeping the innocence of the heart. The child’s big round eyes are a symbol of that purity of heart.’*

Confucianism

YangProse

Mundane

TaoismYin

PoetryImaginativ

e

Confucianism/Taoism‘Thus the contrast is almost perfect.’

Lin, The Pleasures of a Nonconformist, p. 71

STRENGTHGood governmentContinuous self-

improvementRealism

Common senseEmphasis on human

relationshipsPositivist

RationalistPRACTICAL

GRACEPatience

ToleranceSoft mellowness

Laissez-faireMystic

RomanticistMild cynic

re. world affairsAESTHETIC

Balance of these two is the key to Chinese character.

‘Materialism As a Faith’*

• Lin claims that: ‘Everyone operates on one form of faith or another.’*

• He defines faith as: ‘belief in something on inadequate evidence.’*

• ‘In life, faith is again taking some things for granted based on what we believe to be true, though it may never be conclusively proved.’*

• Post WWII is ‘a materialist age’.*

*Lin, The Pleasures of a Nonconformist, pp. 90-98

A materialist ‘has a set of material values [and] these count more than spiritual values.’‘All life ultimately can be explained by psycho-chemical forces; that human life can be explained as rocks and minerals can be explained.’‘In the field of national welfare there is a belief in economic witchcraft – that the dollar will solve every problem.’‘We seem to have lost something, the freshness, the tintinnabulations and ultimations of immortality – of a Wordsworth.’We ‘have gone very far, far beyond beauty and harmony, and the gift of seeing life deep and complete and whole.’ (Can we blame Darwin and Marx?)

Lin, The Pleasures of a Nonconformist, pp. 92-95.

Marxism is ‘materialist method carried to extreme demanding that [humans] be considered as animals and, by adopting a scientific approach to society one must be objectively amoral.’

‘Everybody believes in something, nobody can believe in nothing. When the communists declare their disbelief in God, they promptly set about to create gods for their own use, demanding the same unthinking worship of these gods, the parade of their gods’ portraits, the same use of Trinity (Marx the Father, Lenin the son, and Stalin the Holy Ghost), the same litany, the same orthodoxy, the same persecution of difference of opinion.’

Lin, 1962, pp. 96-98.

‘Chinese Humanism and the Modern World’*Lin calls post-WWII ‘an age of confusion, of unsettled values and shaken beliefs …We do not know what we want and where we stand. We understand more and more and believe less and less. We do not know how to differentiate between essentials and non-essentials.’Lin wrote that our underlying fear and confusion stemmed from a lack of a ‘philosophy of living …[a] rather horrifying spectacle of specialized knowledge without a tolerably deep and satisfactory sensitized philosophy of living.’For Lin, philosophy in the past was the ‘unifying of all knowledge’ whereas now the philosophy of modernity is ‘fragmentizing knowledge’, ‘atomizing knowledge.’

Lin, 1962, pp. 99-106

‘Chinese humanism means a just conception of the ends of life, a sharp focus on the true end of living and the weeding out of non-essentials. There are usually too many side issues of no importance.’For Lin, Chinese humanism is ‘We have this life here and now. We accept it and see what we can do with it.’Confucian teaching was all about ‘human relationships’, however, the ‘absence of religion makes it a little sad … makes it what I call a sensitized philosophy of living.’‘Human life is vastly complex, and the problem of all problems is the moral relationships between men … of man’s life, his home, family, and garden.’

Lin, 1962, pp. 101-105

The House of Lin Yutang

The Importance of Living is best expressed by Su Tung-po (Su Shi), (1037 - 1101):

O sweep thy yard, but spare the mossy spots!

Let petals bedeck thy steps with purple dots

As in a painting. What’s more wonderful:

Some pine trees – Some bamboos –And apricots!

Lin, 1962, p. 106.

When a friend arrives that thou hast so admired,As by some idle nothing in common aspired,Ask him to stay for a carefree half-day:And drink when happy –Sing when drunk –Sleep when tired.

ConclusionsThe amount of time, thought and effort that he invested in explaining his shifts in belief demonstrates the importance he placed on religion.Lin Yutang undertook a circular faith journey: starting with Christianity and ended with Christianity albeit a deepened faith form that evolved during his adult life.Taoism and Confucianism – balanced and complimentary – tempered his Christian faith.Chinese cultural heritage drew Lin towards a practical mysticism that rejected the atheism of communism.Lin’s story reflects the complexity of faith development for an individual living in a global environment.

Thank you to my Supervisors

• Dr Gerry Groot• Dr Songping Jin