Miscellaneous “primitive” and “savagery”/ “原始”与“野蛮“种种

[T]his great reservoir of moral, social, and physical pollution which is constantly extending its area and threatens to engulf with its filthiness and immorality the fairest portion of our city.

Depiction of San Francisco Chinatown (San Francisco Chronicle February 24, 1880).
***********************************

It was so easy to imitate these people. I learned to spit in the very first days. We used to spit in each other’s faces; the only difference was that I licked my face clean afterwards and they did not.

Franz Kafka, “A Report to an Academy” in The Penal Colony: Stories and Short Pieces (New York: Schocken books, 1948), 180.

Ah, one learns when one has to; one learns when one needs a way out; one learns at all costs.

Ibid, 183.
**********************************

All complacency over his handiwork had vanished; never could he bring himself to exhibit to mortal eye these repulsive creatures. His only thought was the unanswerable question: what should he do with them? On this he brooded continually, reaching no conclusion because he could no more contemplate destroying creatures possessing human intelligence, however distorted and degraded, than he could have taken the life of a born idiot or one insane.

Louise J. Strong, “An Unscientific Story” The Cosmopolitan 34, no 4 (February, 1903), 414.

They were small, oblique, set closely together, of a heady black, their only lids being a whitish membrane that swept them at intervals—but they sparkled and glowed with passion, dimmed with tears, and widened with thought. Those eyes, more than a score of them, were fixed upon him now with entreaty, menace, fear, revolt, and, most of all, judgment burning in their depths. Even the smaller ones, of which there were many in various sizes, eyed him with resentment and hate, while scurrying, like frightened rats, from corner to corner as he moved about.

Ibid, 416.
*********************************

The conquest of the earth, which mostly means the taking it away from those who have a different complexion or slightly flatter noses than ourselves, is not a pretty thing when you look into it too much. What redeems it is the idea only. An idea at the back of it; not a sentimental pretense but an idea; and an unselfish belief in the idea--something you can set up, and bow down before, and offer a sacrifice to.

Joseph Conrad, Heart of Darkness (New York: Norton, 1988), 10. Quoted from Theodore Huters, Bringing the World Home: Appropriating the West in Late Qing and Early Republican China (Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press), 266.

William Schaefer, "Shanghai Savage" Positions: East Asia Cultures Critique 11.1 (2003) 91-133.
http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/positions/v011/11.1schaefer.html

不加按语了。相互关联当然是有。现在只是先列一个感兴趣的单子。当然，我的同情不是站在十九世纪和二十世纪初西方所自诩的“文明人”一边。我所同情的是被“文明人”所诋毁的“原始”、“野蛮”群体，以及他们是怎样被诋毁的。

© by Dun Wang (王敦). All rights reserved. 著作权拥有者：Dun Wang (王敦)。

读丰子恺的画（一）: "A Late Home Return"

题目叫《晚归》，与画意十分贴切。墙上的钟告诉我们已经很“晚”了，稚子的亲昵告诉我们这是归家的一幕。不仅如此。“晚归”可能有更深的意思。“晚”让人不禁想到时间的流逝，晚者，老也。“归”呢，意味着返回到时间的初始——孩提时代。人伦的延续与孩子的等候，引导归航的主人公回到了家园。他蹲了下来，眼睛与孩子的视线在同一个高度交织。时钟的满脸笑意便是对“晚归”这一幕的称许。

说到那个时钟，画得也很有意思。它高高居于父子三人的上方，画面上大片的空白使得背景里应有的一面白墙完全是虚空的，需要由观者的想象力来补充。在想象一片空无的白墙时，也自然有可能联想：时间就是这般地了无痕迹。

还说那个钟。我发现它的形状与电视剧《围城》里方鸿渐的爸爸、无锡方老先生的那口著名的钟简直完全一样。《围城》里方老先生的钟每天都要晚个把小时。方鸿渐和孙柔嘉结婚以后，这口钟又传给了方鸿渐。丰子恺先生是浙江人。如果我们相信电视剧《围城》对道具的细节很讲究的话，大概会觉得，民国时候浙江的钟都是这个样子罢。

© by Dun Wang (王敦). All rights reserved. 著作权拥有者：Dun Wang (王敦)。

William Strunk Jr., E. B. White, and Chuang-tzu

William Strunk Jr. 和 E. B. White 是两位文体专家，提倡简洁干净的文风。他们认为，成功的写作过程是从错综复杂的想绪里抽出最有效的语句呈现给读者。好语言的标准是应该使读者念起来不觉得有累赘和障碍。

下面是从他们合著的小书《风格的要素》 (The Elements of Style, 3rd Edition) 里挑出的两段话：

Vigorous writing is concise. A sentence should contain no unnecessary words, a paragraph no unnecessary sentences, for the same reason that a drawing should have no unnecessary lines and a machine no unnecessary parts. (William Strunk Jr.)

If one is to write, one must believe—in the truth and worth of the scrawl, in the ability of the reader to receive and decode the message. No one can write decently who is distrustful of the reader’s intelligence, or whose attitude is patronizing. (E. B. White)

第一段是说要力求没有废话。就象一台机器不应该有多余的零件一样，每个多余的字都是对读者阅读的干扰。我再添一句：就好象好的音乐里不应该有多余的音符。第二段是说要把读者放在第一位。读者才是真正的裁判。任何的华而不实、故弄玄虚，都是皇帝的新衣，不会被读者买帐。（我也插一句：反常的情况也有，比如读者预先被“忽悠”了。）

两位的忠告让我联想到了《庄子》里的解牛高手庖丁。解牛和提炼准确的语句一样，都是剖析和剔除的工作。解牛要找准骨节和关键。同样，写作也是化繁为简，不是化简为繁，更不是无中生有。写作不精心，就有可能把“血肉相连”的思路弄成“血肉模糊”的文字，最终吃苦的是无辜的读者。

在庄子的这则寓言里，庖丁已经十九年没有换过一把刀，技艺早就出神入化了。但是每次干活时，他还是认真对待。每次完成了活计以后，那份痛快的感觉也不会改变。这里是一小段原文：

每至於族，吾見其難為 。怵然為戒，視為止，行為遲，動刀甚微。謋然已解，如土委地。提刀而立，為之而四顧，為之躊躇滿志。善刀而藏之。(莊子 養生主 C.3)

Burton Watson 是翻译中国古代典籍的大师级“庖丁”。且看他的翻译：

“However, whenever I come to a complicated place, I size up the difficulties, tell myself to watch out, and be careful, keep my eyes on what I’m doing, work very slowly, and move the knife with the greatest subtlety, until—flop! the whole thing comes apart like a clod of earth crumbling to the ground. I stand there holding the knife and look all around me, completely satisfied and reluctant to move on, and then I wipe off the knife and put it away.”

翻译如同写作。这段翻译，准确、简洁、生动，将原文里的关键和脉络一一化解，达到了 William Strunk Jr. 和 E. B. White 的要求。

© by Dun Wang (王敦). All rights reserved. 著作权拥有者：Dun Wang (王敦)。

Y. R. Chao and Bertrand Russell (sent to me by a friend)

From B. Russell's Autobiography: "We had an official interpreter assigned to look after us. His English was very good and he was especially proud of his ability to make puns in English. His name was Mr. Chao and, when I showed him an article I had written called "Causes of the Present Chaos," he remarked, "Well, I suppose, the causes of the present Chaos are the previous Chaos."

Cheers!

Ruan Muhua

我的回信：
Dear Mr Ruan,
Chao's wife, Yang Buwei (杨步伟), also wrote an autobiography, Autobiography of a Chinese Woman, which was translated into English by her husband, Chao Yuanren, (赵元任) one of the former chairs of my department. The book is a combination of a strong female character and Chao's terrific English style.

Cheers!
Dun

朋友的回信：

More from Russell's Autobiography:

"I became a close friend of his in the course of our journeys. He was engaged to a Chinese girl and I was able to remove some difficulties that had impeded his marriage. I still hear from him occasionally and once or twice he and his wife have come to see me in England."

So Russell did more than merely help a friend resolve some difficulties--he also ensured the writing of a book. I'll look it up, and thanks for telling me of it.

© by Dun Wang (王敦). All rights reserved. 著作权拥有者：Dun Wang (王敦)。

庄子 山木 木石姻缘/ Chuang-tzu (Zhuangzi)

庄子行于山中，见大木枝叶盛茂，伐木者止其旁而不取也。问其故，曰：“无所可用。”庄子曰：“此木以不材得终其天年。”夫子出于山，舍于故人之家 。故人喜，命竖子杀雁而烹之。竖子请曰：“其一能鸣，其一不能鸣，请奚杀？”主人曰：“杀不能鸣者。”明日，弟子问于庄子曰：“昨日山中之木，以不材得终其天年，今主人之雁，以不材死；先生将何处？”庄子笑曰：“周将处乎材与不材之间。材与不材之间，似之而非也，故未免乎累。若夫乘道德而浮游则不然，无誉无訾，一龙一蛇，与时俱化，而无肯专为；一上一下，以和为量，浮游乎万物之祖，物物而不物于物，则胡可得而累邪！此神农、黄帝之法则也。若夫万物之情，人伦之传，则不然。合则离，成则毁；廉则挫，尊则议，有为则亏，贤则谋，不肖则欺，胡可得而必乎哉！悲夫！弟子志之，其唯道德之乡乎！”

孟子说，“物之不齐，物之情也”。这里的“情”不是指情感，而是状况、命运、自然等。庄子讲“万物之情，人伦之传”，也是在讲物性人性都在“道”里面。让我 想起了红楼梦里的石兄。石头兄“自怨自叹、日夜悲号惭愧”，是因为“但见众石俱得补天，独自己无材不堪入选”，落在“无材”二字上。这让人又回到庄子，山中大木“以不材得终其天年”。这“无材”和“不材”不尽相同，细微之处耐人寻味。

由木及林，又想到林黛玉和木石姻缘。显然，林妹妹没有“终其天年”就不幸夭亡了。这个悲剧又让人回过头来注意庄子前文里面的“杀”字和“处”字。正如庄子的学生问的，“先生将何处？”

庄子说的“一龙一蛇，与时俱化”十分潇洒，用庄子自己的话叫逍遥、神、浮游等等，now a dragon, now a snake。 又让我联想到石与玉的转化了。“佛祖说法、顽石点头”的“顽石”与鲜明莹洁的“美玉”竟然也可以是一体，难怪石兄得以终其天年。

没时间写成一篇文章了，就到这里，算是读书笔记吧。

© by Dun Wang (王敦). All rights reserved. 著作权拥有者：Dun Wang (王敦)。

从儿童看历史/ Children as History

Figure 1 (Page 697)

A drawing by a seven-year-old girl. From Huang Yi, The Psychology of Children's Drawings (Shanghai: Commercial Press, 1937), fig. 18

Figure 2 (Page 698)

“Developmental order”: A drawing by an eleven-year-old girl. From Huang Yi,The Psychology of Children's Drawings (Shanghai: Commercial Press, 1937), fig. 26

Figure 3 (Page 721)

“Educational Toys” from the Commercial Press. From Eastern Miscellany 15, no. 12 (December 1918)

Andrew F. Jones, "The Child As History in Republican China: A Discourse on Development" Positions: East Asia Cultures Critique 10.3 (2002) 695-727.

The whole article in the Journal may be retrievable from the following link:

http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/positions/v010/10.3jones.html