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with the breath of new life?
Was the content of the old classics
of fundamental importance in the social life, or was it the laborio
road that had to be trodden, that was the chief factor in forming
the character and intellect of the scholar?
Can the moral code be
effectively impressed by a less arduous process?
Was there within
the language some intrinsic beauty that revealed itself only to
those who devoted a whole life time to the study?
as it mere accident that made the post and the artist one
and the same person or was it the training involved in ecquiring
the language that gave mastery of the technique of the brush as well
es control over language for poetic composition? For Giles in his
Gy
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history of Chinese literature tells us that the two artistic powers
were usually combined. Did the early memorising of the classics
without understanding bear fruit in after life, when the meaning
began to dawn on the individual? On the answer to these questions
will depend the attitude that will finally be adopted towards the
old classics.
In whatever part of the country one goes, among the university
people whether it be in Pelin, Foochov, Amoy, or Yunnan, there
is always the same view that there will be a rediscovery of the
classics and this will come about by the application of the method
of western scientific criticism to the ir contents. It is not the
elimination of the classics that is demanded so much as a revision
of the me thous of study, and the abandonment of that feeling of
religious awe with which they have hitherto been approached.
The disfavour into which they have fallen is due to the
refusal of those in authority to share the throne of culture with
any competitor, and the consequent backwardness of the national
educational standards as revealed by comparisons with the west,
Which divided its loyalties many years ago between the humane
studies and the mundane, and so advanced rapidly along the road
to material prosperity.
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