wisdom of life

Chapter 1 Translator's Preface
The Wisdom of Life is the work of the German philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer (Arthur Schopenhauer, 1788-1860) in his later years.Schopenhauer has been loosely labeled a "pessimistic philosopher".He had no ambitions all his life, and has been living a life of seclusion.It was only a few years before his death that he gained the fame he deserved.Prior to this, almost all philosophers of his time had tacitly kept silent on his philosophy.According to Schopenhauer, this is a trick that his colleagues came up with out of fear and jealousy of his unique and profound philosophy.According to the current buzzword, it is "blocking".After Schopenhauer's reputation has risen, it does not mean that his philosophy has been deeply rooted in the hearts of the people.In addition to the reasons for Schopenhauer's luck, the sudden popularity of the phenomenon more or less includes the elements of popular pursuit of fashion.Schopenhauer's philosophy, like everything in the world, returns to relative silence after passing through the peak of popularity.This is of course related to the general superficial understanding of the world-people would rather accept once and for all a comfortable optimistic world view; Putting absurd and misleading labels, such as negative world-weariness, pessimism and despair, etc., and ordinary people think Schopenhauer's philosophy like this out of laziness without consideration and research.After all, Schopenhauer's philosophy "truth is the only thing" (Schopenhauer).He penetrates the profoundness, coldness and uncompromise of the essence of things, which is incompatible with the superficial, inverted and illusory worldview of ordinary people.Profound philosophy must permeate the pessimistic meaning that ordinary people think, because "the world is not benevolent, and everything is a humble dog", it does not depend on people's will.Ordinary people are just wishful thinking and subjective whitewashing and beautifying life and its purpose out of personal preference.After the two world wars, people had to re-examine serious and profound philosophy, especially Schopenhauer's philosophy.In the pre-World War I West there was a pervasive shallow optimism.People believed deeply in the perfection of man and the progress of science.World War II shattered those empty good wishes and intoxicating optimisms more completely.Except for the extraordinary period when blind thoughts are clearly shattered by ruthless facts, people's eyes are still short-sighted and their minds are still slack.They are unwilling and unable to think deeply.Therefore, Schopenhauer's philosophy is doomed to be high-spirited and few in ordinary times. It only takes root and spreads in the minds of a few far-reaching people.

During the 60 years of unrecognized silence before Schopenhauer established his reputation, Schopenhauer never doubted his natural mission.Since his early years, he has been working hard, recording his thoughts at any time, and organizing them into works.In the preface to the book "The World as Will and Appearance", he said: "Truth is my only guiding star." He only wrote what he believed to be the truth, and everything else was completely ignored.In his eyes, people's incomprehension and rejection are the most normal things, as the saying goes, "If you don't laugh, you can't take it seriously" (Lao Tzu).Schopenhauer is a master of language. His thoughts are expressed in cold, concise and fluent words. Every word is precise and elegant, but still natural; brand.When Schopenhauer was making ideological inferences, the link can be described as meticulous, without the slightest far-fetched.The subtleties all show his deep thinking and meticulousness as a philosopher.Such condensed and calm writing, coupled with sharp humor and irony, as well as the essence of thought of ancient writers (especially in this book), make Schopenhauer's expressions rigorous but not boring, calm but not lacking. Imagination, twists and turns and yet exhilarating, simplicity and elegance—nature and art come together in Schopenhauer.All mannerisms, obscurities, falsehoods—these most common afflictions in philosophical writings, governed by language—are completely insulated from him.Even the metaphors that Schopenhauer likes to use also show the plainness of his thinking, because these metaphors are all taken from the concrete things that people come into contact with every day.Of course, his contempt for empty abstraction and fancy falsehood must have something to do with his deep and rich thinking.And this, in turn, is directly attributable to his innate, gifted perception.Besides, he doesn't have to write for money or fame.His lack of recognition relieved him of the burden of fame.Schopenhauer's Latin title "dedicated his whole life to the truth" quoted in his great book "Appendices and Supplements" is indeed a true portrayal of his life as a philosopher.Nietzsche, a profound and critical philosopher, once highly praised his philosophy, and once wrote a praise article "Schopenhauer as an Educator".Music master Wagner dedicated his famous musical play "The Ring of the Nibelungen" to him.The modernist writer Franz Kafka said: "Schopenhauer is a language artist, just because of his language, we should read his works unconditionally."

Schopenhauer published his "On the Fourfold Roots of the Principle of Sufficient Reason" when he was 25 years old.This work is still a masterpiece of epistemology.In 1818, he completed his major work, The World as Will and Representation, at the age of 30.This work forms the core of Schopenhauer's philosophy.The work discusses epistemology, natural philosophy, aesthetics, and ethics.The whole work, as the German writer Thomas Mann said, is like a symphony.Focusing on the core issue that intention constitutes the core of the world, the content of this book covers various phenomena in the physical world of nature and human spiritual phenomena. into one.Everything in the world and life is in it.It's hard to imagine that this book came from the hands of a 30-year-old man!No wonder Schopenhauer was described by Tolstoy as a "remarkable genius".It can be said that Schopenhauer's philosophy was fully mature when he was 30 years old.The other works that follow are his development and supplementary elaboration of the philosophical views put forward in this work.Schopenhauer is different from Nietzsche. The latter is an eternal wanderer and drifter of spiritual thought. He will never stay on the conclusions he has obtained, and will always change and revise his own ideas drastically and drastically. View.In contrast, Schopenhauer had already laid down his philosophical building very early, and in the following time, he was only doing decoration and partial expansion.But when the first edition of the book was published, there was little interest.Most of the 500 copies printed are placed in warehouses.

But Schopenhauer was a man conscious of his calling.To borrow a clichéd metaphor: if Hemingway is the representative figure of tough guy literature, then Schopenhauer is the representative figure of tough guy philosophy.He successively wrote "On the Will of Nature" (1836), "On the Freedom of Will" and "On the Foundations of Morals" (1840). The latter two books were published together in 1841 and were called "Ethics". The Two Fundamental Questions of .By 1844, Schopenhauer had written articles on a wide range of topics.He hoped that the publisher would reissue the expanded version of The World as Will and Appearance.But given the cold reception the work received when it was first published, the publisher was less than enthusiastic, and in the end only reluctantly published a two-volume expansion of The World as Will and Representation.But this time it still didn't elicit much response.After that, Schopenhauer spent six years working to sort out, add and delete the essays written for a long time, and combined them into two volumes, named "Appendices and Supplements".The first fourteen chapters of this work are Schopenhauer's supplementary elaboration of the basic philosophical viewpoints that he has already put forward and clarified in "The World as Will and Representation" from more detailed and different aspects; the content from Chapter 15 onwards is Covers broader topics such as reading, style, women, suicide, etc.Readers with little knowledge of the fundamentals of Schopenhauer's philosophy will still have no trouble understanding the essays.

By 1850, Schopenhauer's last great work "Appendices and Supplements" was finally completed.After much trouble, delays, and disappointments, Frauenstadt, Schopenhauer's close friend and admirer, finally succeeded in persuading a publisher in Berlin to publish the two volumes in a print run of only 750 copies. 10 copies, but no remuneration.Schopenhauer at this time, as he said in a poem at the end of this work, "I am standing at the end of the road at this moment, and my old head can no longer bear the laurel wreath." Schopenhauer's luck It was long overdue.Soon, this work attracted the attention of the British critic John Oxenford.He published a review article on Shu's essay-style work in the "Westminster and Foreign Literary Review" magazine.Otto Linner, a good friend of Schopenhauer, read the article and found someone to translate it into German and publish it in a German newspaper.Schopenhauer's philosophy blossoms inside and out of the wall, and thus became famous in one fell swoop.Schopenhauer went from obscurity to the highest peak of reputation almost overnight.Years of neglect and bitterness and resentment endured had at last some compensation.The childlike complacency of this old wise man after his fame actually shows how much injustice and resulting disappointment Schopenhauer has endured!However, to Schopenhauer's relief, his words were finally fulfilled: "The truth can wait patiently, because the truth is eternal."

The book "Wisdom for Life" is taken from "Appendices and Supplements", which is actually a separate book.The things discussed in this book are very close to our secular life, such as health, wealth, fame, honor, health preservation and the principles that should be followed in dealing with others.As Schopenhauer said, in this book he tries to consider issues from a secular and practical perspective.Therefore, this book is especially suitable for general public reading.Although Uncle tried his best to give up the perspective of viewing from a high position, the topic of secular human relations, which is complicated and therefore has different opinions, has become clear and concise after the thorough and profound discussions of this master of thought, and the topics have almost been exhausted. carry on.

For the convenience of readers, the translator here gives a simple explanation of Schopenhauer's most fundamental word "will" (wille) that appears repeatedly in this book.According to Schopenhauer's theory, will is the origin of this world, which transcends time, space and causality, has neither cause nor purpose; it strives blindly and recklessly for objectification.Our complex and diverse phenomenal world that exists in time and space and follows the law of causality is the product and expression of desire, and is the objectification of desire in time and space.Since the will follows the principle of individuation in the process of objectification, that is to say, the will of the concrete and individual components existing in the phenomenal world fights for survival and development; The process of the objectification of the will is an eternal, aimless struggle and development; it is inseparably linked with pain and disaster.The Chinese translation of Schopenhauer's will is "will".However, the author believes that the word "will" in Chinese is related to people's cognition, that is, the mental state related to man-made specific goals, decisions and plans. The phenomenon of "wille" in the concept is blind, purposeless desire, will, fear, etc., and has no direct relationship with cognition.Therefore, it is intended to be a more accurate and appropriate Chinese translation of the word "wille".

This book is not long, but it took the translator two years of spare time.The translator will be satisfied if he can let the predestined readers have a taste of the charm of Schopenhauer's thought.

Wei Qichang E-mail:[email protected]
Zhuhai in the summer of 2000
Happiness is not easy: she finds it hard for herself,

But it's impossible to get it elsewhere.

——Shangfort [1]

(End of this chapter)