This is a book full of wisdom. The crystal wisdom contained in this is not only derived from the study of knowledge, but also from the experience of life.
Reading this book is like sailing in the torrent of time, a series of peaks over peaks of the world are passing through our national and personal life. Moreover, this period of time is the new prelude to a remarkable era in history, in which the conflicts of various groups in the human race, even the grinding of Eastern and Western cultures, are concentrated in this storm.
The faster the times change, the more historical facts are ignored. If the people at that time did not write it down, then the people who came after would have no way to know, no way to understand. This neglect and forgetting are a great loss to mankind, because in the course of continuous history, the experience of the past is the lesson of the future.
Only by understanding this significance can we understand the value contained in Mr. Jiang Menglin's book. Seventy years have passed since he was born and raised in these extraordinary times. From the private school of Chinese scholars to the Western liberal university, from the ancient rural society to the modern urban civilization, from the autocratic imperial dynasty of the Qing Dynasty to the baptism of revolutionary ideas, he lived for many years in the vast number of foreign people, and constantly lived in the vast number of Chinese people, especially the educated young people. He was in the whirlpool of the exchange of ideas between Chinese and Western cultures, and at the same time, he saw all the vicissitudes of the world. After seventy years, it is the time for his wisdom to crystallize, and at this time to write his rich philosophical connotation and interesting memories of life, which reflect not his life, but the times he lived through.
Every fragment in the book Tides from the West contains a perspective on society and life. The ancient people called "small see big" can be sought in this. The parallels between Eastern and Western cultures are particularly thought-provoking. The author likes to tell ordinary stories, mixed with subtle but not hurtful irony, which really make us feel a kind of sincere and simple flavor. This flavor is not easy to taste nowadays. As for its wonderful words and metaphors, they continue to pour out, just as the spring of the Pearl Spring, each pearl sprays up in a series.
The most difficult state to achieve in this book is that the author talks about the facts of this extraordinary era and writes it in a very approachable tone, which is just like Mr. Jiang's attitude toward life. If you do not have a high cultural accomplishment, it is really out of reach. How dare I preface Mr. Jiang's great works? I can only quote two poems from Wang Anshi to describe his writing and life.
Seemingly ordinary but unique, easy but hard.
Luo Jialun
December 6th, 1959
Tides from the West..........................................................................................................1
Preface.................................................................................................................................1
Preface to the English Edition....................................................................................... 3
Preface by Danish Translator.........................................................................................5
Introduction Kunming on the Frontier............................................................................. 6
Volume One, The End of Qing Dynasty............................................................................. 8
Chapter One, The East Learning from the West...................................................... 8
Chapter Two, Country Life.................................................................................... 10
Chapter Three, Childhood Education..................................................................21
Chapter Four, Family Influence............................................................................28
Chapter Five, Trouble Brewing................................................................................ 31
Chapter Six, Further Education................................................................................ 41
Chapter Seven, Imperial Civil Examination at County Level............................... 47
Chapter Eight, Westernization..................................................................................51
Volume Two, Years in the US.......................................................................................... 58
Chapter Nine, Further Westernization..........................................................................58
Chapter Ten, Chinatown in the United States.........................................................68
Chapter Eleven, Life in New York...........................................................................73
Volume Three, Early Years of the Republic of China.......................................................78
Chapter Twelve, Rapid Changes.................................................................................. 78
Chapter Thirteen, Secession by Warlords............................................................... 88
Chapter Fourteen, Awakening of Intellectual......................................................... 91
Chapter Fifteen, Peking University and Student Movement................................. 95
Chapter Sixteen, Troubled Years........................................................................... 106
Volume Four, Unification of the Nation......................................................................... 113
Chapter Seventeen, An Attempt on Constitutionalism............................................... 113
Chapter Eighteen, Death of Dr. Sun Yat-sen........................................................ 116
Chapter Nineteen, Anti-Warlord Movement.........................................................118
Chapter Twenty, The Kuomintang Coming to Power.......................................... 124
Volume Five, Aspects of Life in China...........................................................................131
Chapter Twenty-one, Leakage Systems......................................................................131
Chapter Twenty-two, Social Organization and Social Progress......................... 137
Chapter Twenty-three, Amazing City of Beijing..................................................140
Chapter Twenty-four, Hangzhou, Nanjing, Shanghai, Beijing........................... 146
Volume Six, Sino-Japanese War..................................................................................... 153
Chapter Twenty-five, Northeast China and Korea......................................................153
Chapter Twenty-six, Deepened War Clouds......................................................... 159
Chapter Twenty-seven, Early Days of the Anti-Japanese War........................... 166
Chapter Twenty-eight, Changsha at War...............................................................170
Chapter Twenty-nine, Vietnam and Bruma Before the Japanese Invasion.................174
Chapter Thirty, Universities Fleeing from the War............................................. 176
Chapter Thirty-one, Kunming at War.................................................................... 179
Volume Seven, China in the Modern World................................................................... 184
Chapter Thirty-two, The Comparison Between China and Japan...............................184
Chapter Thirty-three, Chinese Culture in face of Enemy Air Raids...................191
Chapter Thirty-four, Modern Civilization During World War II........................209
The New Tide Introduction..........................................................................................219
Introduction..................................................................................................................... 219
Chapter One, The Sweeping Land Reforms..........................................................220
Chapter Two, Implementation of Reform Plan.....................................................226
Chapter Three, Land Issue...................................................................................... 230
Chapter Four, Life of the People in the Rear Areas............................................. 235
Chapter Five, Chinese Culture................................................................................241
Extra Stories.................................................................................................................... 247
A Brief Biography of Mr. Cai.....................................................................................247
Immortality of Mr. Cai............................................................................................ 248
In memory of Dr. Sun Yat-sen............................................................................... 249
In Memory of Mengzhen.........................................................................................252
On the New Literary and Art Movement in China............................................... 255
Appendix......................................................................................................................... 267
Tides from the West and The New Tide.......................................................................267
Comment on Tides from the West..........................................................................269
Recommendation......................................................................................................277
Bibliography.............................................................................................................281
Wang Xiaoyan
Associate Professor, Master Supervisor at Northeast Forestry University. Research interests: British and American Literature
Professional experience: Visiting scholar, University of Roehampton, 2016 Research Articles：
A study of teacher discourse in college English class, Foreign Language Research, 2013
Gender ethics of D.H. Lawrence, Hubei Social Sciences, 2013
Tragic spirit of Eugene O’Neill, Academic Exchange,2013