The Importance of Living

A Book Review

Each time I read any of author, philosopher and inventor Lin Yutang's books I delight anew. The way he connects words to tell a story or express a thought is magical. One of my favorite books, first published in 1937, is "The Importance of Living”. Born in Fujian Province, Lin Yutang was the second to the last of twelve children. His family held education in high esteem, which shows in all of his work.

This book is a personal testimony of his own experiences in a matter-of-fact style prose. I like his statement in the work's preface, "I am not deep and well-read. If one is too well-read, then one does not know when right is right and wrong is wrong." He once stated his philosophical sources of knowledge came from "his family's amah, a Mrs. Huang; from a Soochow boat woman, a Shanghai streetcar conductor, the cook's wife, a lion cub in a zoo; a squirrel in New York, a deck steward, and all news in boxes."

He also was fond to quote various sources such as Sun Tungpo, ChuangTse, Mencious, Confucious and his grandson Tse Sse, Lao Tse and others, such as Rousseau, Voltaire, Plato, Shakespeare, Kaiser Wilhelm of the Hohenzollern, Hegel, Emerson and many more. 

“The Importance of Living” covers views on human awakening, worldviews, human dignity and the enjoyment of life, including occasional idleness, culture, and man's relationship to the Creator. Lin once stated, "I am only interested to present 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 literatures." This comment is also an insight into this great author's psyche: "The Chinese philosopher is one who dreams with one eye open, who views life with compassion and sweet irony, who mixes his cynicism with kind tolerance, who wakes up from life's dream and then nods (off) again, feeling more alive when he is dreaming than when he is awake, thereby investing his life with a dream-world quality." According to Lin, mankind seems to be divided into idealists and realists, the two great forces molding human progress; he emphasizes the need for a sense of humor as being necessary to critique man's dreams.

He wrote effectively with some of his later works having been influenced by his education at Harvard University (M.A.) and while earning his Ph.D. at Leipzig University in Germany. Having briefly joined the Nationalist Government in 1927, he commented that he liked the revolution but grew tired of the revolutionists.

Though he died in Taiwan in 1976, his works endure. His English language works explaining China, translated by others into Chinese, endure a steady interest to this day. I am living testimony to this, because I enjoy all of his works, the prose, the philosophy and his many inventions. His literature will endure forever, like that of so many worldwide classical writers.