Day 7 The Gay Genius C7

Words and expressions

1. Wang Anshih was a curious man, extraordinary in mind and character. He was an industrious student, a good scholar except in his abominable philology, and certainly a major poet.

abominable: extremely unpleasant or of very bad quality

仿写: He was so sad for the abominabe behavior in the interview.

2. The next two years were to see an exodus of all the old ministers from the court, the purging of the imperial censorate and the packing of it with Wang Anshih's own underlings.

exodus: a lot of people leave a particular place at the same time

仿写: The exodus from the countryside to the towns in the 19th century.

3. In the end it was the scandal connected with the trade bureau at the capital and the excise tax that reached the ears of the imperial household and caused the Emperor to put a stop to the most unpopular features o£ the reform.

scandal: an event caused by someone important, behaves in a bad way that shocks people

仿写: It caused quite a scandal when he left his wife.

4. Standing at the gate, this official, Cheng Shia, saw the hordes of refugees who had fled from the northeast and were swarming the streets of the capital.

horde of:  a crowd of people who are frightened or unpleasant.

仿写: There were hordes of people inside the station.

Sentences

1. Using the nation，power to produce the nation's wealth, and using the nation's wealth to provide for the nation's expenditure.

2. A man who does not act according to common human nature must be a great hypocrite and a scheming intriguer.

3. Then as now, whether a people love a regime or not can be judged only when a despotic regime is no longer in power.

Reflection

  林语堂作为苏东坡的超级粉丝，从前面几章的描述中，我们不难看出林语堂对苏东坡给予了极好的赞扬。王安石，在这本书中就充当了“丑角”，林语堂对王安石变法持否定态度。他认为王安石及其变法导致宋朝国力日渐衰退、百姓食不果腹，民不聊生，北宋王朝也自此走上亡国之路。但是，实际上，王安石发动的变法初衷是好的，目的是为了改变北宋建国以来国库空虚，积贫积弱的局面。针对王安石及其变法古往今来也有很多学者、历史学家对其做出了评论，褒贬不一。出发点是发展生产、富国强兵、挽救宋朝政治危机，变法也在一定程度上缓解了北宋经济虚弱的局面，兴修水利，巩固国防，增加财政。当然，由于过于急功近利，变法用力过猛，触犯了地主阶级的根本利益，导致其遭到强烈排挤，部分变法措施不够完善和成熟，实施过程中被贪官污吏的专了空子，欺上瞒下，使得百姓利益受到了极大的损害。但这也不能因此否认新法中某些合理的措施与王安石的初衷。那么，林语堂对王安石的评价是否完全正确？