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“我打扮成一个中国教书先生,穿着厚棉袍,还有裤子、袜子和麻鞋,戴中国帽子,拖着辫子。这身装束使我显得有分量。”这是百年前英国人莫理循在他所著的《1894中国纪行》中的自述。
1840年鸦片战争之后,中国的大门被巨舰大炮强行打开,林则徐、魏源等人提出了“睁眼看世界”的主张。而实际上,世界也在睁眼看中国。那时,很多外国人涌入中国,对中国的自然风貌、民俗民情、历史文化等作了详尽的记录和精彩的描述。就浙江而言,较早的有英国植物学家福琼,他多次来舟山进行茶叶调查,并将自己在中国的经历写成《中国茶乡之行》等四种书。之后有日本作家芥川龙之介受大阪每日新闻社的委派,来中国采访,他对杭州情有独钟,著成《江南游记》。甚至,再后来还有任职之江大学校长的美国人费佩德的《杭州——浙江游记》。
1894年,毕业于爱丁堡大学医科的莫理循,不会说中文,没有同伴和翻译,自上海沿长江到重庆,然后徒步前往缅甸的仰光。可以说这是一场人生地不熟、外加语言不通的裸游,单此一点,足见莫理循的胆量和智慧。
旅游是什么?旅游是用自己的双脚,认认真真地把地图上的江河湖海、草原沙漠走上一遍,于是,这里那里的土地才是自己的,并且成为一部私人的百科全书,比如对浙闽某座廊桥的内部结构的详细解析,又比如对赣皖某个乡村鸡毛小店里的色香味组合的由衷赞美。
我们读游记,则应当在书中的每个页码里品味闪烁的山水、文化、情趣、哲理。在外国人看中国的诸多游记之中,莫理循的《1894中国纪行》乃是极为真实而生动的一种,因为它又一次诠释了旅游的更为宽广、丰厚、深远的意义。
当然,这一场旅游也给莫理循带来丰厚的回报。1895年,他被聘为《泰晤士报》驻远东特约通讯记者,他作为近代中国多事之秋的见证人,亲历戊戌变法、义和团运动、八国联军入侵、日俄战争、辛亥革命、袁世凯复辟等重大历史事件,甚至他还做了北洋政府的政治顾问,并因其对中国的权威报道,以“北京的莫理循”而闻名西方世界。现如今的北京王府井大街,在那时被叫做莫理循大街。
所以说,书比人走得远,活得久。黑白照片上看起来温文而帅气的莫理循已然作古,而他写下的文字成了研究中国近代史的重要史料。他把历史留在了详细而生动的记录里。留在他沿途所经的峡江险滩、驿路客栈、马帮铃声、罂粟花海里,留在他所统计和描述的每个城市的吸食鸦片的情况、传教士的人数、医疗设施和黄金价格里。留在他对种种中国问题的绝不逢迎、毫不客气的评论上。诸如,论中国的杀婴罪、卖女童为奴、中国的酷刑以及中国人的痛感迟钝、中国殴妻现象等。
他对于摧残中国女性的三寸金莲、贞节牌坊,是极其厌恶、反感的,但对中国女性则赞美有加:“作为日本和中国都到过的不偏心的旁观者,我得说,中国女人在任何外貌特征上都优于她们的日本姐妹,我从未做出过比这更坚决的决断。她们比日本女人优秀得多;她们更有才智,或者说,更有发展才智的潜力;她们不可比拟地更加纯真和含蓄。中国女人更优雅、更甜美、更值得信赖。”
当然,对于中国国民的劣根性,他也极尽讽刺之能事。“当地生活的乐趣在于期待再次暴乱,这是唯一令人兴奋的事。”“没有什么人所受的刑罚比中国人所受的更残酷,原因显然是华人的知觉神经变得迟钝或进化受阻。”“他是个爱打听事情的人,他接着问我们是否在山坡上发现什么宝石——华人一概认为洋人用他们的蓝眼睛可以看穿地下四英尺。”
莫理循此书在史学价值之外颇具文学价值。或者可以这么说,正因为他行文的简明生动、随意自如,使得此书所呈现的历史场景更为鲜活、可信。要不,鲁迅为什么盛赞《史记》为“史家之绝唱,无韵之《离骚》”呢?可见,用文学的手法去记录历史,才是更为高明的历史记录者。当然,记录历史,不是写小说,过分的发挥也不是史家所为。
“一个路边小摊在卖上乘的雪糕,那可是真正的雪糕,把雪在碗里压紧,再加上蜜糖,一文钱一块,相當于一便士可以买三打。”我真不敢相信莫理循写的是真的!这么说,下雪天大家都抢着去吃雪了?雪有这么好吃?然而,《译者序》说,那“真正的雪糕”,即苍山顶上掘来的雪,紧压成碗状,浇上糖稀,也是小时候吃过的。我这才信了!古老中国的地大物博、新奇玩意儿,要一个百多年前的老外来告诉我。使我大开眼界的还有,当时有一个云南巨人,他的身高是普通成人的两倍。有图有真相。本书的信息量之大、知识面之广,也令人惊叹。
此书的文学价值还体现在作者对中国底层百姓所流露出的赞美、关爱、惋惜、同情的人文情怀中。作者行程中所雇用的中国苦力,他都给他们远高于同行的报酬。他还赞他们“一副好脾气,快活,不知疲倦”,并且反思道:“我们这些人,生活在西方文明的种种优越性之中,很难见识到这些人类的牛马,我们在中国的兄弟,背负的重荷多么巨大”。他对于沿途所见的乞丐、弃婴,也都给予深深的同情。
而更多的文学性还体现在行文中无处不见的对中国山川景物的描摹里。“它的风帆就像蝴蝶张翼,由竹制的一排横条支撑;船艉则形如‘飞燕敛翅’”,“一个美丽的乡间小镇,满目是红色的山丘和富饶的绿色操场,还有竹林和柏树林,还有屋檐低垂的小农舍和树木茂密的幽谷里如画的殿宇。”“塔的四周有一组寺庙,屋檐下挂着音调悦耳的风铃,微风一起,丁冬作响,发出的声音被中国人诗意地描绘为‘天籁之音在颂扬佛法无边’。”当然,这么些优美流畅如一串水漂的句子,非得一个文学修养颇高且英语通透的学者才能翻译得出来,更不用说文中随处可见的“有钱无子不为富,有子无钱不为穷”此类中国谚语了。
使我对此书及莫理循更为信服的一点,除了他是一位不折不扣的中国通之外,更因为他不但是一位历史的见证者,还是一位历史的反思者。虽然,他也有对于中国一些问题在现在看来有失公允的评判,但总的来说,说得公正、在理。他也时常拿中国与英国相比,对于当时英国社会存在的弊端,做出了不留情面的批判。 “我總是愉快地回忆起这次旅行,其间我横穿中国数省,范围广于欧洲诸国,沿途体验到始终如一的友善、殷勤和最迷人的礼貌。”看完莫理循的《1894中国纪行》,我坚信历史绝不是随时空散去的一团模糊,相反它总是能够异常清晰地一次次卷土重来。看似远去的,却愈加鲜活。是的,它一直在那儿,一步都没有走开过。它不是枯燥乏味的史书,它是更真切、更鲜明,兼具史学价值和文学价值的书。因此,我真诚地向1894年的那一场伟大而生动的旅游和记录下这些真实而鲜活的文字的作者,以及把它翻译得可信、通达、优雅的译者李磊致敬。
(本文图片由作者提供)
George Ernest Morrison (1862-1920) traveled through China in 1894 on his way from Shanghai to Rangoon. The journey went from the east to the west. He went partly by boat up the Yangtze River and rode and walked the remainder of the 4,800 km. He completed the journey in 100 days. In 1895, he published his account of the journey titled “An Australian in China”. The travelogue has been translated into Chinese by Li Lei and published by China Book Company in 2017.
China opened its door to the outside world in 1840 as the result of the first opium war. Chinese began to open their eyes to the outside world and the outside world began to look at China. Many foreigners wrote accounts of their travels in the oriental country. As for Zhejiang, Robert Fortune (1812-1880), visited Zhoushan Archipelago in an inquiry of tea and wrote four books on his Chinese experience. Japanese writer Akutagawa Ryūnosuke (1892-1927), commissioned by a Japanese news agency, visited China and took special interest in Hangzhou. He wrote an account of his experience of Jiangnan. Robert Ferris Fitch (1873-1954) served as president of Zhijiang University and wrote a travelogue of his travels through Zhejiang and around Hangzhou.
The encyclopedic account gives a great number of details that makes Morrison’s travelogue unique. In other words, many details that have long since vanished into the past are vividly preserved in his account. In his account are perilous parts of the Yangtze River, hotels and roads, horse caravans carrying goods through the southwest of China and neighboring countries in the south, and opium poppies. The book gives numbers of opium addicts and foreign priests in cities he visited. The book also reports medical facilities he saw along the way. The book even keeps a record of gold prices back then. One also reads about social issues in the region he visited: some people kill their babies, some sold girls off as slaves, some government officials abused power by torturing, some had a blunt sense of pain, and wife-beating was a social problem he couldn’t pretend not to see. The book makes a modern reader feel curious about the past. He bought from a peddler ice cream made of snow and honey at an extremely low price: three dozens a pence. He also photographed a giant, who worked as a soldier. An excellent writer, Morrison paints vivid verbal pictures of what he saw: a bamboo raft, a rural town, a temple. The translation reads poetic.
The travel across this part of China in 1894 and his travelogue published 1895 established Morrison as a sharp-eyed observer and excellent reporter. Soon he was hired by The Times, a London-based newspaper, to be a Peking reporter. Morrison wrote a lot of reports with his coverage on all the important historic events in China in the following years before and after the fall of the Qing Dynasty and 1911 Revolution. He was famed as Morrison of Peking or Chinese Morrison in the west. Back then, the present-day Wangfujing Street in Beijing was called Morrison Street in honor of the reporter.
Translator Li Lei is an associate professor of the Philosophy Department of Zhejiang University. A native of Dali, Yunnan Province, he feels happily familiar with the traveler’s descriptions of Yunnan and Guizhou provinces. The feeling motivated him to translate the book into Chinese. He spent a lot of time doing thorough research and studying references in both Chinese and English. He provides a full range of footnotes so that Chinese readers of today can follow Morrison’s footsteps across time and space into a past so far away and so remote.
1840年鸦片战争之后,中国的大门被巨舰大炮强行打开,林则徐、魏源等人提出了“睁眼看世界”的主张。而实际上,世界也在睁眼看中国。那时,很多外国人涌入中国,对中国的自然风貌、民俗民情、历史文化等作了详尽的记录和精彩的描述。就浙江而言,较早的有英国植物学家福琼,他多次来舟山进行茶叶调查,并将自己在中国的经历写成《中国茶乡之行》等四种书。之后有日本作家芥川龙之介受大阪每日新闻社的委派,来中国采访,他对杭州情有独钟,著成《江南游记》。甚至,再后来还有任职之江大学校长的美国人费佩德的《杭州——浙江游记》。
1894年,毕业于爱丁堡大学医科的莫理循,不会说中文,没有同伴和翻译,自上海沿长江到重庆,然后徒步前往缅甸的仰光。可以说这是一场人生地不熟、外加语言不通的裸游,单此一点,足见莫理循的胆量和智慧。
旅游是什么?旅游是用自己的双脚,认认真真地把地图上的江河湖海、草原沙漠走上一遍,于是,这里那里的土地才是自己的,并且成为一部私人的百科全书,比如对浙闽某座廊桥的内部结构的详细解析,又比如对赣皖某个乡村鸡毛小店里的色香味组合的由衷赞美。
我们读游记,则应当在书中的每个页码里品味闪烁的山水、文化、情趣、哲理。在外国人看中国的诸多游记之中,莫理循的《1894中国纪行》乃是极为真实而生动的一种,因为它又一次诠释了旅游的更为宽广、丰厚、深远的意义。
当然,这一场旅游也给莫理循带来丰厚的回报。1895年,他被聘为《泰晤士报》驻远东特约通讯记者,他作为近代中国多事之秋的见证人,亲历戊戌变法、义和团运动、八国联军入侵、日俄战争、辛亥革命、袁世凯复辟等重大历史事件,甚至他还做了北洋政府的政治顾问,并因其对中国的权威报道,以“北京的莫理循”而闻名西方世界。现如今的北京王府井大街,在那时被叫做莫理循大街。
所以说,书比人走得远,活得久。黑白照片上看起来温文而帅气的莫理循已然作古,而他写下的文字成了研究中国近代史的重要史料。他把历史留在了详细而生动的记录里。留在他沿途所经的峡江险滩、驿路客栈、马帮铃声、罂粟花海里,留在他所统计和描述的每个城市的吸食鸦片的情况、传教士的人数、医疗设施和黄金价格里。留在他对种种中国问题的绝不逢迎、毫不客气的评论上。诸如,论中国的杀婴罪、卖女童为奴、中国的酷刑以及中国人的痛感迟钝、中国殴妻现象等。
他对于摧残中国女性的三寸金莲、贞节牌坊,是极其厌恶、反感的,但对中国女性则赞美有加:“作为日本和中国都到过的不偏心的旁观者,我得说,中国女人在任何外貌特征上都优于她们的日本姐妹,我从未做出过比这更坚决的决断。她们比日本女人优秀得多;她们更有才智,或者说,更有发展才智的潜力;她们不可比拟地更加纯真和含蓄。中国女人更优雅、更甜美、更值得信赖。”
当然,对于中国国民的劣根性,他也极尽讽刺之能事。“当地生活的乐趣在于期待再次暴乱,这是唯一令人兴奋的事。”“没有什么人所受的刑罚比中国人所受的更残酷,原因显然是华人的知觉神经变得迟钝或进化受阻。”“他是个爱打听事情的人,他接着问我们是否在山坡上发现什么宝石——华人一概认为洋人用他们的蓝眼睛可以看穿地下四英尺。”
莫理循此书在史学价值之外颇具文学价值。或者可以这么说,正因为他行文的简明生动、随意自如,使得此书所呈现的历史场景更为鲜活、可信。要不,鲁迅为什么盛赞《史记》为“史家之绝唱,无韵之《离骚》”呢?可见,用文学的手法去记录历史,才是更为高明的历史记录者。当然,记录历史,不是写小说,过分的发挥也不是史家所为。
“一个路边小摊在卖上乘的雪糕,那可是真正的雪糕,把雪在碗里压紧,再加上蜜糖,一文钱一块,相當于一便士可以买三打。”我真不敢相信莫理循写的是真的!这么说,下雪天大家都抢着去吃雪了?雪有这么好吃?然而,《译者序》说,那“真正的雪糕”,即苍山顶上掘来的雪,紧压成碗状,浇上糖稀,也是小时候吃过的。我这才信了!古老中国的地大物博、新奇玩意儿,要一个百多年前的老外来告诉我。使我大开眼界的还有,当时有一个云南巨人,他的身高是普通成人的两倍。有图有真相。本书的信息量之大、知识面之广,也令人惊叹。
此书的文学价值还体现在作者对中国底层百姓所流露出的赞美、关爱、惋惜、同情的人文情怀中。作者行程中所雇用的中国苦力,他都给他们远高于同行的报酬。他还赞他们“一副好脾气,快活,不知疲倦”,并且反思道:“我们这些人,生活在西方文明的种种优越性之中,很难见识到这些人类的牛马,我们在中国的兄弟,背负的重荷多么巨大”。他对于沿途所见的乞丐、弃婴,也都给予深深的同情。
而更多的文学性还体现在行文中无处不见的对中国山川景物的描摹里。“它的风帆就像蝴蝶张翼,由竹制的一排横条支撑;船艉则形如‘飞燕敛翅’”,“一个美丽的乡间小镇,满目是红色的山丘和富饶的绿色操场,还有竹林和柏树林,还有屋檐低垂的小农舍和树木茂密的幽谷里如画的殿宇。”“塔的四周有一组寺庙,屋檐下挂着音调悦耳的风铃,微风一起,丁冬作响,发出的声音被中国人诗意地描绘为‘天籁之音在颂扬佛法无边’。”当然,这么些优美流畅如一串水漂的句子,非得一个文学修养颇高且英语通透的学者才能翻译得出来,更不用说文中随处可见的“有钱无子不为富,有子无钱不为穷”此类中国谚语了。
使我对此书及莫理循更为信服的一点,除了他是一位不折不扣的中国通之外,更因为他不但是一位历史的见证者,还是一位历史的反思者。虽然,他也有对于中国一些问题在现在看来有失公允的评判,但总的来说,说得公正、在理。他也时常拿中国与英国相比,对于当时英国社会存在的弊端,做出了不留情面的批判。 “我總是愉快地回忆起这次旅行,其间我横穿中国数省,范围广于欧洲诸国,沿途体验到始终如一的友善、殷勤和最迷人的礼貌。”看完莫理循的《1894中国纪行》,我坚信历史绝不是随时空散去的一团模糊,相反它总是能够异常清晰地一次次卷土重来。看似远去的,却愈加鲜活。是的,它一直在那儿,一步都没有走开过。它不是枯燥乏味的史书,它是更真切、更鲜明,兼具史学价值和文学价值的书。因此,我真诚地向1894年的那一场伟大而生动的旅游和记录下这些真实而鲜活的文字的作者,以及把它翻译得可信、通达、优雅的译者李磊致敬。
(本文图片由作者提供)
George Ernest Morrison (1862-1920) traveled through China in 1894 on his way from Shanghai to Rangoon. The journey went from the east to the west. He went partly by boat up the Yangtze River and rode and walked the remainder of the 4,800 km. He completed the journey in 100 days. In 1895, he published his account of the journey titled “An Australian in China”. The travelogue has been translated into Chinese by Li Lei and published by China Book Company in 2017.
China opened its door to the outside world in 1840 as the result of the first opium war. Chinese began to open their eyes to the outside world and the outside world began to look at China. Many foreigners wrote accounts of their travels in the oriental country. As for Zhejiang, Robert Fortune (1812-1880), visited Zhoushan Archipelago in an inquiry of tea and wrote four books on his Chinese experience. Japanese writer Akutagawa Ryūnosuke (1892-1927), commissioned by a Japanese news agency, visited China and took special interest in Hangzhou. He wrote an account of his experience of Jiangnan. Robert Ferris Fitch (1873-1954) served as president of Zhijiang University and wrote a travelogue of his travels through Zhejiang and around Hangzhou.
The encyclopedic account gives a great number of details that makes Morrison’s travelogue unique. In other words, many details that have long since vanished into the past are vividly preserved in his account. In his account are perilous parts of the Yangtze River, hotels and roads, horse caravans carrying goods through the southwest of China and neighboring countries in the south, and opium poppies. The book gives numbers of opium addicts and foreign priests in cities he visited. The book also reports medical facilities he saw along the way. The book even keeps a record of gold prices back then. One also reads about social issues in the region he visited: some people kill their babies, some sold girls off as slaves, some government officials abused power by torturing, some had a blunt sense of pain, and wife-beating was a social problem he couldn’t pretend not to see. The book makes a modern reader feel curious about the past. He bought from a peddler ice cream made of snow and honey at an extremely low price: three dozens a pence. He also photographed a giant, who worked as a soldier. An excellent writer, Morrison paints vivid verbal pictures of what he saw: a bamboo raft, a rural town, a temple. The translation reads poetic.
The travel across this part of China in 1894 and his travelogue published 1895 established Morrison as a sharp-eyed observer and excellent reporter. Soon he was hired by The Times, a London-based newspaper, to be a Peking reporter. Morrison wrote a lot of reports with his coverage on all the important historic events in China in the following years before and after the fall of the Qing Dynasty and 1911 Revolution. He was famed as Morrison of Peking or Chinese Morrison in the west. Back then, the present-day Wangfujing Street in Beijing was called Morrison Street in honor of the reporter.
Translator Li Lei is an associate professor of the Philosophy Department of Zhejiang University. A native of Dali, Yunnan Province, he feels happily familiar with the traveler’s descriptions of Yunnan and Guizhou provinces. The feeling motivated him to translate the book into Chinese. He spent a lot of time doing thorough research and studying references in both Chinese and English. He provides a full range of footnotes so that Chinese readers of today can follow Morrison’s footsteps across time and space into a past so far away and so remote.