Compilation of wisdom literature collected by the Editor. Part One is "Wisdom of India. This includes Hymns from the Rigveda, including the song: "To Liberality" which rings with this truth that "the riches of the liberal never waste away, while he who will not give finds none to comfort him". [25] The Upanishads - "drunk with god", all 12 books of the Ramayana, some humorous Fables, and Buddhist works including the Dhammapada, sermons, parables, sutras, and small Glossary of Hindu words (Vivekananda)--Sanskrit and Pali (which is a "simplified" Sanskrit)[558].

Part Two is the "Wisdom of China". Yutang presents China with an idiosyncratic intensity, as a "culture which has a broad and deep spiritual basis" which is "in a sense mystical". [597] He repudiates the notion of Chinese civilization of Confucius as merely rationalistic. "If by non-mystical is meant the modern servile and shallow worship of mechanistic and materialistic facts, accurately observed and well-tabulated, seemingly sufficient unto themselves, which is the prevalent type of thinking today...". Yutang asserts "The fact is, any branch of knowledge, whether it be the study of rocks and minerals, or the study of cosmic rays, strikes mysticism as soon as it reaches any depth." Citing Dr Carrel and A.S. Eddington. Yutang leads what he believes is a parade toward a "new synthesis of the mechanical and the spiritual, of matter and spirit". [568] His selections reflect this effort.

China had no systematic epistemology or metaphysics; it had to import from India. Chinese philosophers use the language of market slang, and avoid the jargon of academia, usually surfacing parables to make their points. He compares them to Emerson. "China's peculiar contribution to philosophy is the distrust of systematic philosophy." [569] Alan Watts comes to mind.

Chinese Humanism, a Confucian "point of view" is concentrated on human relations (jenlun) with a view to behaving reasonably (tsuo jen). Politics is always subordinated to morals. Force is an invention for the immature. [571] "The thing is so to aim that there shall be no lawsuits" says Confucius.

The sense of morals can be brought about by education, culture, and the cultivation of rituals and music. Excerpts from the Book of History, documents of Chinese Democracy, works of Mencius, Motze, and aphorisms of Confucius.

Yutang suggests a study of the "invasion of the humanities" by scientific materialism. He decries the Comptian "Society is an organism" as having no meaning or use. The search or claims of "fundamental laws" in social sciences is derided.

Seeing the whole world shattered by WWII, Yutang offers this "wisdom" as a tool to rebuild a new world. This work includes "letters of a Chinese Poet", a minor commercial tradesman, which provide an autobiographical picture of family life.

Need to check on these translations. I've worked with "better" [more beautiful in English] for Chuangtze. Appreciate the conviction of Yutang but know little about his life.

This is one of the best books I own. It's certainly contains one of the best translations of the Surungama Sutra that I have read. ( )