The Importance of Living & The Importance of Understanding by Lin Yutang
"First read The Importance of Living and then read The Importance of Understanding. And I’m sure you will see your life from a different perspective. "
REVIEWS
The Importance of Living by Lin Yutang
Mark Cyzyk finds out how to be a loafing scamp.
A beloved literature professor gave me a nice hardbound 1937 edition of this book during my undergraduate days in the spring of 1985. I read it that summer. The following spring I found myself studying in China, traveling around the north, climbing the Taoist holy mountains Hua Shan and Tai Shan, visiting the tomb and family mansions of Confucius, and thinking quite a bit about this book. Here, in essay form, were simple lessons for living. Here was a genteel, mandarin manner of approaching the world – one that surely was swept away in the violent storms of the Cultural Revolution twenty years earlier? And yet, amid the vandalized Buddhist temples, the crumbling hutongs of back Beijing alleyways, and the concrete midrise apartment complexes in whose shadow they cowered – amid prominent Party proclamations that citizens must strive for more production and efficiency, amid the surge for modernization and industrialization – amid all of this, I captured glimpses of what came before. In Chufu, outside the K’ung family compound, an old scholar pleaded with my companion and I to return and study calligraphy under his tutelage. Atop Tai Shan, small shrubs with large rocks crammed into their branches and crannies were evidence of a centuries-long folk belief that good luck and enhanced fertility for this soon-to-be-siblingless society would surely follow. High in the monasteries of Hua Shan, robed Taoist monks performed their quotidian duties, some of them not having bothered to descend into the valley for thirty years or more, ignoring the Revolution below. Lin Yutang and his The Importance of Living belong to this time before. And the relevance persists.
How should one live one’s life? Surely a perennial philosophical concern. How should I live my life? And why would I now reread this book, twenty years later, forty pounds heavier – a husband, a divorced and remarried father and stepfather, a busy professional with a career to attend to, a monotonous and sometimes soul-crushing daily and weekly schedule, a house, cars, lawn, retirement investments to maintain, PTA meetings, community association functions, and no time for much of anything?
Precisely.
Lin Yutang’s ideal is the ‘scamp’ – an amiable loafer who wanders through life, learning, loving, living. He is a good-natured Renaissance Man, dabbling here and there, connoisseur of nothing, dilettante extraordinaire. He is earthbound, a man of his biology and of his senses. (For Lin, happiness is “largely a matter of digestion.” He favorably quotes a college president who admonished his freshmen that “There are only two things I want you to keep in mind: read the Bible, and keep your bowels open.”) Lin’s loafing scamp is a profoundly embodied mind, not a brain on a stick. And most of all, he’s eminently ‘reasonable’ – a trait Lin mentions throughout, and points to as the very foundation of the Chinese character.
So much in this book is charmingly anachronistic. Lin is a product of his time (1895-1976) and place. His eulogies on the smoking life point to the quiet, meditative nature of this particular vice. His views on women are condescending and sexist, although his obvious intent is always to be appreciative and respectful. He notes the ‘mental house-cleaning’ that occurs while simply lying in bed, and points to this as being one of life’s greatest pleasures: a pleasure lost to those of us who must leap out of bed to keep to our daily schedules.
In the end, what we find here is an insightful mélange of life observations – an essayistic miscellany which addresses the grand philosophical topics of human happiness and the meaning of life, but also such idiosyncratic issues as:
On Having a Stomach
On Having Strong Muscles
On Playful Curiosity: The Rise of Human Civilization
On Dreams
On Being Wayward and Incalculable
Man the Only Working Animal
This Earth the Only Heaven
What is Luck?
Celibacy a Freak of Civilization
On Sex Appeal
On Lying in Bed
On Sitting in Chairs
On Smoke and Incense
The Inhumanity of Western Dress
On House and Interiors
On Rocks and Trees
On Going About and Seeing Things
Good Taste in Knowledge
Why I Am a Pagan
The Importance of Living belongs on the same shelf as The Enchiridion of Epictetus, The Meditations of Marcus Aurelius, Thoreau’s Walden, the essays of Emerson and the aphorisms of Baltasar Gracian, not because it agrees with any one of them to a great degree (with the exception of Walden), but because, in the same non-systematic way as these other great classics, it illustrates a life, and how to live one.
My beloved literature professor died several years ago, at a venerable age. I think of him often. I recently learned that an equally-beloved philosophy professor, who introduced me to Chinese philosophy, died last year. He was only 54. I think of the significant and important lives they both led. I think of China and my time there. I think of Lin Yutang and the life he led; learning, loving, living, just like my professors.
It’s funny how mere reverie and rereading a cherished book can revive enthusiasm, exuberance, zest. Suddenly, the weight of twenty years lifts. I don’t feel so middle-aged and graying anymore. I feel something else: like a college senior studying abroad, silently standing atop a holy mountain in China, looking down on the clouds.
Amazon.com 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.
These reviews are from: The Importance Of Living
i) Lin Yutang is endlessly fascinating, and his book of personal philosophy, "The Importance of Living," is a classic, especially his listing of the three American vices (gee, I thought they were virtues!), his unique perspective on loafing, smoking, vacationing, and women in conversation. I've read it several times and have spoken on Lin, and have even appeared as Lin Yutang one time.
ii) First off, allow me to say that I'm shocked this book hasn't had more reviews. This book was a major turning point in my Life.
iii) I bought a copy of this book (the original 1937 edition) in a secondhand book store in the 1970s for the princely sum of $1.00. Through countless moves since then I have somehow managed to retain this book, which is surprising since I have lost or given away so many books, almost all of which cost me much more money than this one did. I can honestly say it was the most profitable dollar I ever spent. This is a wonderful book -- rambling at times, it is true -- but it contains many gems. Yutang is a superb writer and his quote of Chuangtse (as he spells the name of the famous Chinese philosopher) is classic: "Spit forth intelligence." This, along with William Strunk's famous dictum "Omit needless words," is a phrase every writer should live by.
The Importance of Understanding
A RELAXING BOOK by VIKRAM KARVE
Whenever I want to unwind and relax, I pick out one of my favorite books from my bookcase, settle down in my easy-chair, put my feet up, and open the book to any random page, or thumb through the pages, and dip into whatever arrests my attention, and as I begin reading I experience a soothing feeling and a calm tranquil sensation of absolute and perfect relaxation. From time to time, I let myself drift off into sweet slumber, and when I come around I begin my relaxed reading again. So the cycle continues till my mind recaptures the harmony it has lost during the hustle and bustle of daily life, and my inner self feels soothingly nourished.
The book is called THE IMPORTANCE OF UNDERSTANDING and is compiled by Lin Yutang, the is more famous for his magnum opus THE IMPORTANCE OF LIVING, the classic seminal philosophical masterpiece on The Art of Living.
I’ve got a hardcover copy of the book, published by Heinemann London in 1961, which I obtained, by a stroke of luck, from a raddiwala a few years ago. The book comprises translations from the Chinese. There are essays, reflections, poems, ancient wit and wisdom, literature, writings on The Art of Living, Enjoyment of Life and Zen, parables, epigrams and proverbs. The writings focus on the simple joys of living and distinction between the practical and the poetic vision of life.
There is wit and subtle humor throughout the book. Here is a story titled “Prohibition” from the chapter on Ancient Wit and Wisdom.
In the time of the ruler of Shu, Shienchu (third century AD) there was prohibition on wine on account of a drought…There were people who were arrested for having vats and distillery apparatus in their houses, punishable in the same terms as those actually caught making illegal liquor. Chien Yung was driving in the country with the ruler when they saw a young man.
“Have that man arrested,’ cried Chien Yung.
“What has he done?” asked the ruler in puzzlement.
“He is going to commit adultery.”
“How do you know?”
“He has the organs of adultery, just as those people have their vats.”
The ruler broke out into a loud laugh and ordered that the people arrested for mere possession of vats released.
The meat of the book is the section on “Home and Daily Living” which encompasses a wide range of facets of the art of living and enjoyment of daily life.
I’ll end with an epigram of Yuan Chunglang – Beware of the man who has no hobbies. If he is not sincere in loving what he loves, he is also probably not sincere in hating what he professes to hate.
First read The Importance of Living and then read The Importance of Understanding. And I’m sure you will see your life from a different perspective.
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