Synopsis
The Importance of Living is a wry, witty antidote to the dizzying pace of the modern world. Lin Yutang's prescription is the classic Chinese philosophy of life: Revere inaction as much as action, invoke humor to maintain a healthy attitude, and never forget that there will always be plenty of fools around who are willing-indeed, eager-to be busy, to make themselves useful, and to exercise power while you bask in the simple joy of existence.At a time when we're overwhelmed with wake-up calls, here is a refreshing, playful reminder to savor life's simple pleasures.
Review
Is it really a philosophy book if it has a section entitled "The Importance of Loafing"? Harvard scholar, Taoist, and modernist Lin Yutang wrote The Importance of Living to express his highly subjective, personal feelings after years of studying ancient Chinese texts, and created a wonderfully slow-going yet radiantly clear guide to the simple life. Taking walks, drinking tea, long talks with friends are all important to Lin, whose stories and retellings of Taoist classics meander away from his points, find new ones, and remind us to enjoy the life that's all around us without needless worry.
Lin's prose is gentle, like the conversation of a favorite lazy uncle who is more at home sipping lemonade on the back porch than gulping lattes between meetings. The sincerity of his humility is surprising to a reader used to postmodern writers who seem to pride themselves on their self-abasement. Though Lin deliberately avoided fame and notoriety, correctly observing that it only leads to troubles, one can only hope that his wisdom, timelier than ever, finds a wider audience among today's too-busy-to-breathe global culture. His philosophy, more practical and enjoyable than the usual Western writings on the subject, reminds us all of the vital importance of simply living. --Rob Lightner
LIN YUTANG was born in 1895 to a mission family and became one of the best-known Chinese scholars and writers.
The Importance Of Living
The Importance of Living is a wry, witty antidote to the dizzying pace of the modern world. Lin Yutang's prescription is the classic Chinese philosophy of life: Revere inaction as much as action, invoke humor to maintain a healthy attitude, and never forget that there will always be plenty of fools around who are willing-indeed, eager-to be busy, to make themselves useful, and to exercise power while you bask in the simple joy of existence.At a time when we're overwhelmed with wake-up calls, here is a refreshing, playful reminder to savor life's simple pleasures.
Lin Yutang's prescription is the classic Chinese philosophy of life: Revere inaction as much as action, invoke humor to maintain a healthy attitude, and never forget that there will always be plenty of fools around who are willing-indeed, ..."
Importance of Living
The timeless bestseller on the noble art of leaving things undone. The Importance of Living is a wry, witty antidote to the dizzying pace of the modern world. Lin Yutang's prescription is a classic Chinese philosophy of life: Revere inaction as much as action, invoke humor to maintain a healthy attitude, and never forget that there will always be plenty of fools around who are willing - indeed, eager - to be busy, to make themselves useful, and to exercise power while you bask in the simple joy of existence. At a time when we're overwhelmed with wake-up calls, here is a refreshing, playful reminder to savor life's simple pleasures. AUTHOR: Lin Yutang was born in 1895 to a mission family and became one of the best-known Chinese scholars and writers. SELLING POINTS: * A timeless classic, that has changed the lives of millions * Brand new design, as part of Prelude Psychology Classics series
A tremendous bestseller when it was first published in 1937, The Importance of Living has been a classic for over sixty years."
The Importance of Living
The Importance of Living is a wry, witty antidote to the dizzying pace of the modern world. Lin Yutang's prescription is the classic Chinese philosophy of life: Revere inaction as much as action, invoke humor to maintain a healthy attitude, and never forget that there will always be plenty of fools around who are willing-indeed, eager-to be busy, to make themselves useful, and to exercise power while you bask in the simple joy of existence.At a time when we're overwhelmed with wake-up calls, here is a refreshing, playful reminder to savor life's simple pleasures.
Lin Yutang's prescription is the classic Chinese philosophy of life: Revere inaction as much as action, invoke humor to maintain a healthy attitude, and never forget that there will always be plenty of fools around who are willing-indeed, ..."
Lin Yutang - the Importance of Living
Many of the earliest books, particularly those dating back to the 1900s and before, are now extremely scarce and increasingly expensive. We are republishing these classic works in affordable, high quality, modern editions, using the original text and artwork.
We are republishing these classic works in affordable, high quality, modern editions, using the original text and artwork."
My Country and My People
In this classic book, Yutang Lin does a fantastic job of describing Chinese people, customs and culture in an understandable way for the Western reader. This book was the first of it's kind, Lin being a rarity as he was fluent in both English and Chinese, having been born in China but growing up in America. This extremely popular book will prove to be a fascinating read, and is highly recommended on the bookshelf of anyone with an interest in different non-Western cultures and societies.
In this classic book, Yutang Lin does a fantastic job of describing Chinese people, customs and culture in an understandable way for the Western reader."
Lin Yutang on the Wisdom of America
LIN YUTANG On THE WISDOM OF AMERICA THE JOHN DAY COMPANY NEW YORK 1950, BY THE JOHN DAY COMPANY reserved. This book., or parts thereof, must not be reproduced in any form without permission. This boof is published on the same day in the Dominion of Canada by Longmans, Green Company, Toronto. Acknowledgments of quoted passages, in the various forms required by copyright owners, appear in most cases in direct connection with the ex cerpts. Material by David Grayson is copyright as follows Adventures in Contentment, copyright, 1907, Doubleday Company, Inc. Adventures in Friendship, copyright, 1910, Doubleday Company, Inc. Adventures in Solitude, copyright, 1931, Doubleday Company, Inc. Adventures in Understanding, copyright, 1925, Doubleday Company, Inc. The Friendly Road, copyright, 1913, Doubleday Company, Inc. Great Possessions, copyright, 1917, Doubleday Company, Inc. Material from George San tayana, Little Essays, The Sense of Beauty, and Soliloquies in England and Later Soliloquies is quoted by permission of the publisher, Charles Scribner s Sons. Manufactured in the United States of America To HONG who taught me insight and wisdom CONTENTS Preface on a Sunday Morning xi I. THE WISDOM OF LIVING 1. The Scope of Wisdom i 2. The Philosophers Blindman s Buff 7 3. The American Sense o Fact 14 4. The Demand for Faith 16 II. COUNSEL FOR LIVING 1. All Is Riddle 21 2. Heed Thy Private Dream 24 3. Who Is the Dreamer 28 4. When Laughter Is Wiser Than Tears 34 m. OUR ANIMAL HERITAGE 1. Modern Man Psychoanalyzed 37 2. Adam and Eve 43 3. We Simians 53 4. What Are We Making o Ourselves 62 IV. THE RHYTHM OF LIFE 1. Where Is Woman 67 2. The Race of Life 73 3. Old Age 79 4. Death and Immortality 84 V.MAN AS SENTIMENT 1. Inadequacy of the Materialistic View 95 2. The Stuff of Human Experience 106 3. The Right to Romance in 4. When the Practical Man Becomes a Lover 115 5. The Soul s Vital Raptures 118 vii viii CONTENTS VI. NEW ENGLAND INTERLUDE 121 VIL LIFE 1. Thoreau and Confucius 137 2. No Apology for Living 139 3. The Joys of Common Life 144 4. The Heroism of Common Toil 155 5. Thoreau and the Values of Life 161 VIII. LIBERTY 1. Why Liberty 169 2. quot Democracy quot versus quot Democratsky quot 173 3. The Common Man 177 4. The State and the Individual 187 5. Jeffersonian Democracy 194 IX. THE PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS 1. The Blue Bird 209 2. Physiological Peace 214 3. The Tonic Effect of Work 219 4. The Secret of Contentment 225 5. How to Be Sweet though Sophisticated 229 X. THE ARTS OF LIVING 1. The Art of Doing Nothing 237 2. Friendship and Conversation 243 3. Food and Wine 254 4. Tea and Tobacco 262 5. Hobbies 267 XL NATURE 1. Society and Nature 271 2. This Sense-filled Earth 276 3. The Wonder of It All 287 4. The Power and the Glory 299 5. Pantheistic Revelry 303 CONTENTS ix XIL GOD 1. A Strictly Private Matter 309 2. Our Low Notions of God 312 3. Essay on Black 317 4. Three Great Religious Natures 327 5. The Spirit of Inquiry 338 XIII. LOVE 1. Marriage 345 2. Great Men in Trouble Franklin 353 3. Jefferson in Trouble 363 4. Lincoln in Trouble 367 5. Sex and Modesty 376 6. Whitman s Sex Democracy 381 XIV. LAUGHTER 1. Humor 397 2. Satire 414 XV. WAR AND PEACE 1. World Government 425 2. Woodrow Wilson 433 3. War and Peace 440 XVI. THE SUMMING UP - i. To Every Man His Own Philosophy 445 2. Justice Holmes s Credo 448 3. Einstein s Intimate Credo 451 4. A Toast to Moderation 455 Index459 PREFACE ON A SUNDAY MORNING I LIVED for over ten years in the United States without daring to write a book about the country. For that matter, even with my almost ten years in Manhattan, I wouldn t dare to write a book about New York, that dark, fathomless, mysterious city. I wouldn t dare to write even about Eighty-fourth Street. I don t know enough about it. It seems a much easier task to write about the spiritual journey through American writing from which I have just returned...
LIN YUTANG On THE WISDOM OF AMERICA THE JOHN DAY COMPANY NEW YORK 1950, BY THE JOHN DAY COMPANY reserved. This book., or parts thereof, must not be reproduced in any form without permission."
Looking Beyond
WITH HUMOR AND COMMON SENSE A MODERN PHILOSOPHER SHOWS MANKIND A WAY TO THE GREATER ENJOYMENT OF LIVING... In the year 2004 the heroine, an anthropologist, lands on an unknown and isolated Pacific island. Her plane is destroyed, so the renamed Eurydice finds herself compelled to join the Ruined Earth Utopian islanders. In this gripping novel, which was first published in 1955, Chinese-U.S. author, essayist and academic Dr. Lin Yutang’s appears to formulate his conception of a world beyond the muddling of today in a world that has survived two more world wars, and inaugurated a new Democratic World Commonwealth, outside the limitations of national sovereignty. He makes the contact between this groping old world and an island community, dedicated to peace, isolation and immunity from world ills, exalting the virtues of culture, and surviving in a state of suspended animation with little or no government.
In this gripping novel, which was first published in 1955, Chinese-U.S. author, essayist and academic Dr. Lin Yutang’s appears to formulate his conception of a world beyond the muddling of today in a world that has survived two more world ..."
Lin Yutang and China’s Search for Modern Rebirth
This book provides a comprehensive examination of the socio-cultural and political context of modern China in terms of its interaction with America and the West, focusing on the influence of the well-known Chinese writer and intellectual Lin Yutang (1895-1976). Offering a unique study of the life and works of Lin Yutang, it highlights his intellectual legacy in modern China and considers how his cross-cultural life and ideas embodied the modern Chinese cultural experience. It notably focuses on Lin’s reputation as an outspoken critic of the infringement of human rights during the rise of the Communist regime in China, but also on his rediscovery of Chinese cultural resources. At a time when China’s cultural contributions are increasingly relevant worldwide, this book contributes to ongoing critical reflections of Chinese modernity, particularly in terms of its intellectual legacies, but also to a renewed understanding of the cross-cultural interactions between China and America and a re-opening the dialogue and search for a new cultural understanding.
On October 6, 1936, Lin gave a speech entitled “Democracy in China” for the China Society of America at the famous ... But it was his second book— The Importance of Living —that made Lin Yutang a household name in the America as the ..."
台灣光華雜誌2017年1月號中英文版
前人已遠，留予行誼在人間源遠流傳。 他們在自己的故事裡傾力建構城堡，鑄成與土地、情感、命運、時代緊緊串聯的生命長城。百年身後的這座城堡，是故居、是紀念館，經歷歲月淘洗而穿透歷史，直與榮辱成敗相互呼應詮釋，都是時代最具代表、且最鮮明的歷史圖騰。 這裡，曾輝煌燦爛；這裡，曾冠蓋雲集；這裡，曾風起雲湧；這裡，曾運籌帷幄於家國大計；這裡，曾揮灑藝文於風花雪月；這裡，曾臨終伴陪於畢生精粹。 時過境未遷，現在這裡草木扶疏、這裡人文薈萃、這裡肅穆恬靜、這裡幽遠暢寄。在斜影映入的某一瞬間，置身靜謐氛圍裡細細追想，前人鋪陳在歷史底層的生命光景、壯志宏願與情感細節，都歷歷重現而仿見婆娑身影。 踱步其間，凝視故居舊景久久，彷彿在光陰中逆流溯行，在每一座門扉開啟上，尋索曾經的絕代風華、在每一扇窗櫺敞閉中，追憶過往的叱吒風雲、在每一處隔鄰轉角間，緬憶當年的顛沛流離。巡覽屋內展示的每一張泛黃照片、每一件斑駁擺設、每一本嘔心巨著、每一幅彩繪畫作、每一座展姿雕塑，都讓人想要撫觸歲時光影的履跡、刻痕⋯⋯
(林語堂故居提供) Lin Yutang and his wife Liao Tsui-feng, who were always savoring refined pleasures in daily life, ... Moment in Peking and The Importance of Living are two of the over 80 books Lin wrote that made him famous around the ..."
Zhuangzi and Modern Chinese Literature
This is a powerful account of how the ruin and resurrection of Zhuangzi in modern China's literary history correspond to the rise and fall of modern Chinese individuality. The book highlights two central philosophical themes of Zhuangzi: the absolute spiritual freedom and the rejection of absolute and fixed views on right and wrong. It argues that the twentieth-century reinterpretation and appropriation of these two important philosophical themes best testify to the dilemma and inner struggle of modern Chinese intellectuals.
20. Lin Yutang, The Autobiography of Lin Yutang ( Lin Yutang zizhuan) (Nanjing: Jiangsu wenyi chubanshe, 1995), 34. 21. Lin Yutang, The Wisdom of Laotse (New York: Modern Library, 1976), 15. 22. Lin Yutang, The Importance of Living (New ..."
The Rotarian
Established in 1911, The Rotarian is the official magazine of Rotary International and is circulated worldwide. Each issue contains feature articles, columns, and departments about, or of interest to, Rotarians. Seventeen Nobel Prize winners and 19 Pulitzer Prize winners – from Mahatma Ghandi to Kurt Vonnegut Jr. – have written for the magazine.
The Importance of Living , by Lin Yutang , is filled with the wisdom of this Lin Yutang world, and is cleverly and amusingly well written. Like many philosophers from Europe and Asia, he feels called upon to tell Americans how to be happy ..."
Chinatown Family
Lin Yutang (1895-1976), author of more than thirty-five books, was arguably the most distinguished Chinese American writer of the twentieth century. In Chinatown Family, he brings humor and wisdom to issues of culture, race, and religion as he tells the engrossing and heart-warming story of an immigrant, working-class Chinese American family that settled in New York City during the 1930s and 1940s. Tracing their sometimes troubled and sometimes rewarding journey, Lin paints a vivid portrait of the wonder and the woe of settling into a new land. In an era when interracial marriages were frowned upon and it was forbidden for working-class Chinese men to bring their families to America, this story shows how one family struggled to become new Americans by applying their Taoist philosophy to resist peacefully the discriminatory laws and racism they encountered. Beyond the quest for acceptance and economic success, Chinatown Family also probes deep into the heart of the immigration experience by presenting the perils of assimilation. The burgeoning tensionbetween the desire for material wealth and the traditional Chinese belief in the primary importance of family poses the question: Is it possible to attain the American dream without damaging these primary ties? For each family member, the answer to this question turns out to be different. Through the varied paths that each character takes, the novel dramatizes the ways that Chinese immigrants have negotiated between the competing interests of economic opportunity and traditional values.
In an era when interracial marriages were frowned upon and it was forbidden for working-class Chinese men to bring their families to America, this story shows how one family struggled to become new Americans by applying their Taoist ..."
The Wisdom of China and India
Here, translated "are the best of the sacred books of Hinduism, Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism. Lin Yutang has used the best translations whereverpossible and, in many cases, has made new translations of his own. His new introduction, his collection of parables and sayings, and his glossary of Hindu and Chinese terms are important features of the book."
Here, translated "are the best of the sacred books of Hinduism, Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism. Lin Yutang has used the best translations whereverpossible and, in many cases, has made new translations of his own."
Salt and Light, Volume 3
In this centennial year of China's 1911 Revolution, Volume 3 in the Salt and Light series includes the life stories of influential Chinese who played a political or military role in the new Republic that emerged. Recovering this precious legacy of faith in action shows the deep roots of the revival of Christian faith in China today.
Lin's use of the term “pagan” was common at the time, though today it has a negative connotation. 22. Lin , From Pagan to Christian, 35. 23. Ibid., 41. 24. Ibid. 25 Lin Yutang , The Importance of Living (London: Heinemann, 1960), 338. 26."
Nationalism and Architecture
Unlike regionalism in architecture, which has been widely discussed in recent years, nationalism in architecture has not been so well explored and understood. However, the most powerful collective representation of a nation is through its architecture and how that architecture engages the global arena by expressing, defining and sometimes negating a sense of nation in order to participate in the international world. Bringing together case studies from Europe, North and South America, the Middle East, Africa, Asia and Australia, this book provides a truly global exploration of the relationship between architecture and nationalism, via the themes of regionalism and representation, various national building projects, ethnic and trans-national expression, national identities and histories of nationalist architecture and the philosophies and sociological studies of nationalism. It argues that nationalism needs to be trans-national as a notion to be critically understood and the geographical scope of the proposed volume reflects the continuing relevance of the topic within current architectural scholarship as an overarching notion. The interdisciplinary essays are coherently grouped together in three thematic sections: Revisiting Nationalism, Interpreting Nationalism and Questioning Nationalism. These chapters, offer vignettes of the protean appearances of nationalism across nations, and offer a basis of developing wider knowledge and critically situated understanding of the question, beyond a singular nation's limited bounds.
Later, Lin earned a PhD in linguistics in 1923 at University of Leipzig, Germany. ... In 1931 he wrote My Country and My People and The Importance of Living at the behest of Pearl S. Buck, ... 23 Lin Yutang , My Country and ..."
Between Tears and Laughter
Now sorrowful, now joking, but always in deadly earnest, the Chinese philosopher faces the grim facts of war and the grimmer prospects of peace. Dismayed by the materialism of the West, he offers not a “blueprint” for the postwar world, but an approach to thinking about it, that is new to us but not new at all to the Orient, wise in the ways of Man. This book is a positive contribution from the store of Chinese political philosophy to the vexed question of world peace. More important than the Four Freedoms, says Lin, is Freedom from Humbug. The changes in our thinking must be basic if we are to be saved from utter disaster. We cannot be saved by science, by mathematics, by modern mechanism. We need deep draughts of the wine of wisdom, matured through four thousand years by Asiatic thought and experience in learning how man must deal with man. Confucius and Lao-tse, the ancient Greeks and the Hindus, join forces with Lin Yutang in his thrusts at such topics as: The White Man’s Burden, American Isolationism, British Imperialism, Nazi Geopolitics, the Crimes of Europe, The Future of Asia, and The Crux of the Modern Age. No citizen of the Western world can ignore this wisdom and this warning except at his own peril. “A powerful and relentless warning.”—Boston Herald “If you think a gentle, well-mannered philosopher can’t deliver a punch, you’d better read this book. It’s out-and-out sensational, no less, enormously, provocative.”—San Francisco Chronicle “He gives us, mixed with the tolerance and humor of the philosopher, some of the plainest speaking we have had in a long time on the issue of the war and the peace.”—The New Yorker
This book is a positive contribution from the store of Chinese political philosophy to the vexed question of world peace. More important than the Four Freedoms, says Lin, is Freedom from Humbug."
Don't Just Do Something, Sit There: A Manifesto for Living the Slow Life
Popular TV and radio personality Wallace Chapman is on a mission. A mission to chill us all out. He's thought a lot about the syndrome of modern life and thinks he has a few answers. Ranging over such subjects as careers, technology, health and well-being,food,sex and relationships, and employing a captivating mix of pop psychology,science, philosophy and humour, Chapman distils the many mixed messages we receive on a daily basis into a self-help book that's not actually a self-help book. For fans of Daniel Kahneman's bestselling Thinking, Fast and Slow, and anyone else feeling the ravages of time-poorness, Don't Just Do Something, Sit There is a profound yet populisttake on considering life as we live it. A balanced life won't happen overnight and if it does, seek help. Because slow living takes time.
Yutang , Lin , The Importance of Living , HarperCollins, New York, 1998. Zeestraten, J., 'Strolling to the beat of another drum: living the “Slow Life”', Master's thesis, Lincoln University, 2008. Acknowledgements This book wouldn't have ..."
Chen Jiru (1558-1639)
Focussing on Chen Jiru's writings, this study explores the various ways that Chen advertised himself to prospective readers, and the way that commercial and political interests used his personae for their own ends, from the seventeenth century to the present.
Lin asked himself, rhetorically, where the leaders for a modern China could be found, and answered: I am reminded that the good men in China have always hidden ... 7 Lin Yutang , The Importance of Living (Taipei: Meiya, 1975), pp. 383–4."
Mapping Modern Beijing
Annotation 'Mapping Modern Beijing' investigates various modes of representing Beijing by writers travelling across mainland China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and overseas Sinophone and non-Chinese communities.
In a diary entry, Zhong expresses strong opposition to Lin Yutang's performance of pleasure: “I've read Lin Yutang's My Country and My People, Between Tears and Laughter and am currently reading The Importance of Living for the second ..."
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