“The shortcomings of Chinese style can be traced out in eight characters, starting with hypocrisy and ending with shamelessness” is Yan Fu’s political article “The Decision of National Salvation”, which was published in Tianjin’s “Zhibao” in 1895.

Full text:

"Yesterday, a friend met me and said with emotion: 'The failure of Hua Feng can be summed up in eight characters: it starts with hypocrisy and ends with shamelessness.' Wow! Don't you believe it? ! Don’t you believe it!”

It means that the disadvantages of China’s national style can be described in eight words, that is: starting with falsehood, ending with shame, and finally being unable to play because of shamelessness. Went down.

In just a few words, we grasp the root of the problem. If a person loses his inner moral code and is dishonest, he will externally turn into a fraud and deceiver, and eventually become a scoundrel; if a nation, a country, or a political party does not promote truth-seeking and does not have sincere beliefs in its actions, Deviation is undoubtedly very dangerous.

Extended information:

Decision to save the nation, title. An important paper on the debates between schools and imperial examinations, and between Western learning and middle schools in the late Qing Dynasty. Yan Fu wrote it in the 21st year of the reign of Emperor Guangxu of the Qing Dynasty (1895). Those who denounced those selected by the imperial examination were actually "absurd and confused" people.

Revealing the three major scourges of stereotyped writing: "imprisoning wisdom" refers to ideological restraint; "bad intentions" refers to ideological corruption; "nurturing idle hands" refers to nourishing uneducated vagrants . He believes that the most urgent reason for reform is to abolish stereotyped writing, which is harmful to the world without talents.

Criticize the traditional Chinese "old learning" ("Hanology", "Song Dynasty"), imperial examination poems, epigraphy and calligraphy, etc., and believe that these are unsubstantiated, useless, high-minded and divorced from reality. Only by replacing "middle school" with "Western learning" and seriously learning from Western countries is the only way to "save the nation and survive." Included in "Yan Fu Collection".

Reference: Baidu Encyclopedia-Decision to Save the Nation