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生活的艺术
作者：林语堂

Chapter One THE AWAKENING
　　　　 Chapter Two VIEWS OF MANKIND
　　　　 Chapter Three OUR ANIMAL HERITAGE
　　　　 Chapter Four ON BEING HUMAN
　　　　 Chapter Five WHO CAN BEST ENJOY
LIFE ?
　　　　 Chapter Six THE FEAST OF LIFE
　　　　 Chapter Seven THE IMPORTANCE
OF LOAFING
　　　　 Chapter Eight THE ENJOYMENT OF
THE HOME
　　　　 Chapter Nine THE ENJOYMENT OF
LIVING
　　　　 Chapter Ten THE ENJOYMENT OF
NATURE
　　　　 Chapter Eleven THE ENJOYMENT
OF TRAVEL
　　　　 Chapter Twelve THE ENJOYMENT
OF CULTURE
　　　　 Chapter Thirteen RELATIONSHIP
TO GOD
　　　　 Chapter Fourteen THE ART OF THINKING

Chapter One THE AWAKENING
I APPROACH TO LIFE
IN what follows I am presenting the Chinese point of view, because I cannot help
myself.
I am interested only in presenting a view of life and of things as the best and wisest
Chinese minds have seen it and expressed it in their folk wisdom and their literature.
It is an idle philosophy born of an idle life, evolved in a different age, I am quite
aware. But I cannot help feeling that this view of life is essentially true, and since
we are alike under the skin, what touches the human heart in one country touches all.
I shall have to present a view of life as Chinese poets and scholars evaluated it
with their common sense, their realism and their sense of poetry. I shall attempt
to reveal some of the beauty of the pagan world, a sense of the pathos and beauty
and terror and comedy of life, viewed by a people who have a strong feeling of the
limitations of our existence, and yet somehow retain a sense of the dignity of human
life.
The Chinese philosopher is one who dreams with one eye open, who views life with love
and sweet irony, who mixes his cynicism with a kindly tolerance, and who alternately
wakes up from life s dream and then nods again, feeling more alive when he is dreaming
than when he is awake, thereby investing his waking life with a dream-world quality.
He sees with one eye closed and with one eye opened the futility of much that goes
on around him and of his own endeavors, but barely retains enough sense of reality
to determine to go through with it. He is seldom disillusioned because he has no
illusions, and seldom disappointed because he never had extravagant hopes. In this◢◢網◢文◢檔◢下◢載◢與◢在◢線◢閱◢讀◢
way his spirit is emancipated.
For, after surveying the field of Chinese literature and philosophy, I come to the
conclusion that the highest ideal of Chinese culture has always been a man with a
sense of detachment (tukuan ) toward life based on a sense of wise disenchantment.
From this detachment comes high-mindedness ( k'uunghuui ), a high-mindedness which
enables one to go through life with tolerant irony and escape the temptations of fame
and wealth and achievement, and eventually makes him take what comes. And from this
detachment arise also his sense of freedom, his love of vagabondage and his pride
and nonchalance. It is only with this sense of freedom and nonchalance that one
eventually arrives at the keen and intense joy of living.
It is useless for me to say whether my philosophy is valid or not for the Westerner.
To understand Western life, one would have to look at it as a Westerner born, with
his own temperament, his bodily attitudes and his own set of nerves. I have no doubt
that American nerves can stand a good many things that Chinese nerves cannot stand,
and vice versa. It is good that it should be so that we should all be born different.
And yet it is all a question of relativity. I am quite sure that amidst the hustle
and bustle of American life, there is a great deal of wistfulness, of the divine desire
to lie on a plot of grass under tall beautiful trees of an idle afternoon and just
do nothing. The necessity for such common cries as "Wake up and live" is to me a good
sign that a wise portion of American humanity prefer to dr