Chapter 2 Chinese version preface

In the Western world, the United States is a country with more sinologists.There, many sinologists graduated from the Far East Center of Harvard University, and most of them came from Fairbank's disciples. Fairbank mentioned in his book "My Years in China" that he began to learn Chinese in China in 1932, and his whole life's work was related to China. In the 1940s, he presided over the work of the US Press Office in China in Chongqing, and had extensive contacts with the Chinese cultural circles at that time. When I saw him in Washington in 1945, he was in charge of China affairs at the US Information Agency.After the war, he founded the "Center for Far Eastern Studies" at Harvard University.After his retirement, the center was renamed "Fairbank Center for Far East Studies".It is the gathering place of "China Hands" in the United States, and it is an important place to observe China. In the 1980s, at the appointment of Cambridge University Press, he edited the 15-volume "Cambridge History of China".Among American Sinologists, he must be the most authoritative one.

In 1945, Yang Gang and I reunited in San Francisco.At that time, I was preparing to take a detour to travel to the East Coast after covering the "United Nations General Assembly". Of course, I had to visit Washington, the capital of the United States.Yang Gang told me that it was difficult to book a hotel room in Washington, so he wrote a letter to Fairbank, introducing me to rent a room.After arriving in Washington, I went to the Information Administration to find him.He told me that rats were being killed in the apartment where he lived, and he had to find another place to live temporarily.But he found me a hotel room anyway.That's when we first met.

When I revisited the United States in 1979, I went to his apartment in Boston for a drink, and found some information about Yang Gang and Lin Huiyin from him. When I visited the United States for the third time in 1983, he entrusted someone to give me a copy of his memoir "My Years in China".Among them, what aroused my interest most was the profound friendship between him and Liang Sicheng and Lin Huiyin.He called the couple his best friends for life.During the Anti-Japanese War, Liang and Lin lived in seclusion in a small village called Lizhuang in Sichuan.In the case of extremely difficult transportation, Fairbank also went to visit and stayed for a week.It is written in the book: "Huiyin is extremely thin, but she is still so energetic, and she is doing housework, because she thinks of everything before others. Serve all the meals. Then, we chatted. Five o'clock in the evening At half past eight, you have to live by a candle or an oil lamp. You have to go to bed at 8:30. No telephone, just a gramophone and a few records of Beethoven and Mozart. There is a thermos, but no coffee. Sweaters Quite a few, but nothing that fits. Sheets, but no washing soap. Pens, but no paper. Newspapers, but they're a few days old."

Fairbank spent a lot of ink to describe the poor life of this academically accomplished couple.Finally, he sighed: "Under such difficult conditions, they still continue to study. If they were Americans, I believe they would have thrown away their books and focused their energy on improving their living conditions." In 1984, after I finished reading his "My Years in China", I wrote him a letter, pointing out some minor flaws in the book.When talking about Yang Gang, Zhi said that "gang" is the "steel" of steel.On August 20 of the same year, he wrote back to me. In addition to expressing his gratitude, he also said some indignant words about the situation in the United States at that time.Then, he talked about a chapter in the 13th volume of "Cambridge History of China" edited by him, "The Boom of Chinese Academia".

The year before last, Fei Weimei, wife of Fairbank, came to see me at my apartment in Beijing and told me happily that she had finally finished finishing Liang Sicheng's Illustrated History of Chinese Architecture and published it in the United States.I was deeply moved by how much this couple valued their friendship. I have read Fairbank's great book "America and China".In the American Sinology circle, it is almost a must-read. It is a collection of papers on China published by Fairbank in American newspapers and periodicals in the past 15 years, recording his observations and comments on the situation in modern China.Unlike ordinary foreigners who comment on Chinese works, he has always analyzed and commented on everything that is happening now through the evolution of China over thousands of years from the perspective of a historian.This is the work of an upstanding American scholar with the deepest affection for our country and the least opinion.In any case, it is worthy of our attention.