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“The Art of Living” in China mainly instructs us on various techniques and secrets of how to enjoy living including some philosophies of life. The books about the art of living written by Lin Godō (Lin Yutang) and Ryō Jitsushū (Liang Shih-chiu) were based on Shū Sakujin’s views of “The Art of Living”. Before he advocated “The Art of Living”, Shū Sakujin carefully examined the concepts of “Art”, “Living”, “Beauty”, “Nature”, “Modern Times” and “Decadence”. “Art”is not equal to the fine arts and it is not just a mere skill. “Living” is living which is based on the biological view of life. Concerning “Nature”, “Modern Times” and “Decadence” as well, Shū Sakujin chose the ideas which were worth advocating among diverse constructions. It is worth studying the origin of thought on “The Art of Living”.

Concerning this serial lectures’ theme “Ie (house, family)”, it is clear that the private event in the Shū family whereby Sakujin parted ways with his elder brother Rojin (Lu Xun, Shū Jujin), affected his proposition of “The Art of Living”.

[Instructor]

ITO, Noriya

My core area of specialty is modern to contemporary Chinese literature, focused particularly on Zhou Zuoren, Lin Yutang, Zhang Jingsheng and Lu Xun. I aim toward analyzing various forms of modernity in contemporary (pre-war to present) China attending to the style of decadence in each of them. I lived in Beijing for a year and half (1987 - 89) as a graduate student and a year in 2006. This is my first visit to Nanjing since 1983.