On Lin Yutang's Daoism Thought

Lin Yutang was a disputing character in Chinese modern literature history. His thoughts and actions in all his life showed us a contradiction. In his earlier life, he stood in Lu Xun's side, worked for the New Culture Movement, in the guise of a brave. After the Great Revolution failed, Lin began to keep silent and chose Daoism to protect himself as a living way in the force of various social environment.Actually, it was not a coincidence for him to do this choice, it has a deep relationship with his owns experience and education, and from which, we found Lin was not a true Revolutionist. Therefore, he advanced Humor, essay in his later life, just understandable. But it's so different from his earlier actions and opposite from the age's calling, he became unaccepted to his contemporaries.In fact, Daoism to Lin, was not a adorned religious belief as Religion, but a living wisdom, a way of how to make a better life and was more popular after Lin's a series of works published in home and abroad. Then, we can understand why the main characters in Lin's novels, though they suffered so much in their life, can have a chance to got a satisfied ending finally; and there's a breathe of leisure and enjoying life In the all prose.The Gay Genius : The Life and Times of Su Tangpo, it showed us Lin's own lifemood. In this book, Su Tangpo was a ideal image to Lin. Su represented Lin's esthetic ideal and life pursue. Su was named A Gay Genius. Why? In Lin's eyes, the gay deeply rooted from the way of how to make a happy life, so Su can enjoy himself in the world even if he had suffered a lot.With the analysis of Lin's Taoism, we hope the text can be helpful for showing the generation of intellectual's life choice (Lin, as a representative of them). Lin's Taoism, was abandoned at that age, thus, nowadays, Lin's life philosophy, maybe can enlighten us when all the people that are busy with their daily life.