Chapter 36 ten years in review

I feel that the academic memories of the past 10 years in Germany seem to be finished.However, when I think about it carefully, it seems that I haven't finished writing it, and there is still a lack of a summary review, so I added this paragraph.It's okay to have it as part of the memory, or to keep it separate from the memory. In the process of academic research for more than 60 years in my life, the 10 years in Germany are crucial and crucial 10 years.As I mentioned above, if my academic research has a start, the real start is not at Tsinghua University, but at the University of Göttingen in Germany.I also mentioned that my life would have been quite different if I had not come to Germany by a very accidental chance.Where I will be today, and whether I will still be alive, are unknown.

However, this 10 years is not a simple 10 years, it has its glorious success side, but also its dark and tragic side.All of this is written in my book in more detail, and readers can refer to it if they are interested.Because the "Self-Report" I am writing now focuses on academics; in terms of life, if it is not necessary, I will not involve it.I wrote above my 10 years of academic activities in Göttingen, mainly based on academic papers, and wrote about my experience and lessons.Now I want to take reading as the key link and write about my reading situation.Intellectuals of my generation have been with books all their lives, either writing books or reading books, the two go hand in hand, right and wrong go hand in hand.

I have lived for more than 8 and 10 years, and I have reached the ninth year of Wangwang.However, in terms of study conditions and study environment, no 10-year period can compare with the 10-year period in Göttingen.In terms of life, I am the most boring person. I can hardly know and have almost no interest in all the things I play.There are two kinds of people I envy most in my life: one is a painter and the other is a musician.And these two arts are the ones that need genius the most, and if you don't have talent, you can barely deal with it and you will never achieve anything.But Good Fortune just joked with me, only endowing me with this interest, but not with that aspect of talent. "Hanshu·Dong Zhongshu Biography" said: "The ancients said:'It is better to retreat and make a net when you are envious of fish in the abyss.'" I really want to "retreat and make a net." Can only be a fish envy.I myself am not satisfied with my personality.I often compare myself to a potted flower, with only branches but no green leaves, let alone any flowers.

During the 10 years in Göttingen, my eccentricity was on full display.Göttingen is a small town without any entertainment except a theater and a few cinemas.I am also a poor scholar, without money, in fact, I have no time to travel to the mountains and seashores in winter and summer.All I have is time and books.There are never any meetings at school.There are some students who occasionally hold parties and dances. After I go, I can only sit on the sidelines, dumbfounded.There are very few Chinese students here. For a while, I was the only Chinese in the whole city.This lonely and quiet environment just gave me an unprecedented opportunity to study.It's not that I haven't read books in China, but in terms of breadth and depth, it is never as good as in Göttingen.

There are two places where I read books, which are divided into two categories, one is books about Sanskrit, Pali, Tocharian, etc., and the other is books in Chinese.I seldom read books at home, because I have no money to buy professional books, and there are very few books in this area at home.At home, I only read some novels in German before going to bed at night, and Thomas Mann's famous novel "Buddenbrooks" is finished in this way.I eat breakfast at home when I get up in the morning, it is very simple, just two slices of bread and a little butter and sausage.Later, when the Second World War broke out, it was sausages that disappeared first, then butter, and finally a slice of fishy bread.At first there was still tea to drink, but later I could only drink plain water.After breakfast, I usually go to the Institute of Sanskrit, stay there for a whole day, eat lunch in the student cafeteria or restaurant, and return to the Institute after eating.For 10 years, I didn't know what a nap is, and the Germans didn't have the habit of taking a nap.

I read books in Sanskrit, Pali, and Tocharian, usually at the Institute of Sanskrit.Therefore, I would like to introduce the situation of the Sanskrit Institute's book collection first.Each institute of the University of Göttingen has its own library.When and by whom the Sanskrit library originated, I did not ask in detail at that time.Probably derived from Franz Kielhorn, who was the first professor of Sanskrit at the University of Göttingen.The rubbings of some extremely precious inscriptions he collected in India over the years are all stored in the university library opposite the institute.His successor, Hermann Oldenberg, sold or donated most of the collection to the Sanskrit Institute after his death.The most precious of them are not the published books, but zero papers.At that time, Oldenberg was a well-known master of Sanskrit in the world. He communicated with colleagues from all over the world and knew the situation of Sanskrit research all over the world.The practice of Guangtong voice is nothing more than inviting each other to give lectures, and the other is giving each other monographs and single papers.Monographs are easy to obtain, but single papers are difficult to collect due to too many countries and too many journals.Only a great scholar like Oldenberg can collect more complete. Oldenberg bound these single papers into volumes, which apparently were bound in the order of receipt, without classification.Dozens of huge volumes are neatly arranged on the bookshelves.In my opinion, these zero papers are the treasure of the Sanskrit Institute.In addition to these treasures, there are other commonly used books in Sanskrit and Pali.Among them are also rare editions, such as the original version of Rig Veda, India's oldest classic edited and published by Max Muller, and the original version of Atharva Veda edited by Whitney. The original and shortened versions of Boehtlingk's and Roth's "St. Petersburg Vatican Dictionary", which is regarded as a model dictionary, are also rare books.As for other dictionaries and reference books, there are all kinds of them.

Every day, I sit in the book city alone, "hiding in a small building to form a unified system". I am the partner and master of these treasures, and they are at my disposal.The entire Gauss-Weber-Haus is usually very quiet, there are not many people inside, and the Germans are not used to speaking loudly, so they just do everything quietly.The road outside the gate between the research institute and the university library is the main traffic road leading to the station; but there are no cars in Göttingen, so the road that should be noisy is also like "the hut is in a human environment, but there is no traffic." Cars and horses make noise."This is really the most ideal place to study.

I come here every day except Sundays and holidays.The main work is to work hard with the Mahvastu of the three thick volumes.Once you feel tired, stand up, go to the bookshelf full of books, take out a book casually, or browse, or read it carefully.After accumulating for a long time, I have a general outline in my mind about the research situation of Sanskrit, Pali and Buddhism in the world at that time.Relevant works from all over the world are basically available here.Moreover, Germany also has a special book purchase system. In addition to the university library having sufficient book purchase funds, each research institute has its own independent book purchase funds. Professors can buy any books he thinks are useful, regardless of whether the university library has them or not. copy.When Waldschmidt was drafted into the army, the power to buy books passed to me.I will buy whatever book I want.After the books are bought back, the cataloging is not necessarily very scientific. It is enough to arrange books of the same or similar nature together.Borrowing books is absolutely free. There is a borrowing book, and you can write the title of the book and the date of lending; when you return it, just write a return date.No one has ever been in charge, but books have never been lost, no matter how precious editions.In addition to books, magazines about Indology and Orientalism from all over the world are also available here.In short, this is a very good professional library.

It is in this situation that I swim in the sea of ​​books.My reading can be roughly divided into two categories: one is close reading, and the other is browsing.The number of close reading cannot be too much.To learn Sanskrit, you must master the grammar proficiently.Although Stenzler's "Basic Sanskrit Reader" I mentioned above has many advantages, it is still too brief;At this time, I must be familiar with Kielhorn's "Sanskrit Grammar". I have worked hard on this book and read it countless times.Secondly, I have carefully read several books by Oldenberg, such as "Buddha" and so on.Some of his papers, such as the one analyzing the style of Mahāvastu, I also read carefully for the purpose of writing the paper. Whitney and Wackernagel's Sanskrit Grammar, Debruner's continuation of Wackernagel's book, and W. I have worked hard on Geiger's works on Pali.However, what I admire most is my grand teacher Heinrich Luders. As long as I can get his books, I must read them carefully.His collection of essays, Philologica Indica, is a huge book. I read it carefully from beginning to end, and some articles over and over again.Such studies of ancient Indian language, religion, literature, inscriptions, etc. are extremely boring and esoteric articles to ordinary people, and should be said to be the most boring things.I am afraid that there are very few people who like to read such articles, but I have a special liking; I love to read articles by two Chinese and foreign scholars, Mr. Chen Yinke in China, and Mr. Luders in the West.These two masters have similarities but the same results.Their writing is like peeling spring bamboo shoots, peeling off layer by layer, and the more they peel off, the thinner they are; they cover everything, every detail is exhaustive; their narration does not talk empty words, and their arguments must have a basis; they never cite uncommon books to show off, and most of them are common books ; What others turn a blind eye to, they can pay attention to; it is not difficult and mysterious on the surface, but it can be seen in the ordinary; The conclusion will make you suddenly feel enlightened and convinced.People generally read literary works to enjoy the aesthetic feeling and feel light and happy.However, the aesthetic enjoyment I get when I read the papers of the two masters is completely different from what I get when I read literary works, but it seems to be deeper and higher.Some people may think that this is my personal quirk; I think it is indeed a "crazy", but there is nothing "weird" at all. "There is true meaning in this, if you want to distinguish it, you forget the words", it is not enough for outsiders to understand.

What I have discussed above are some of my feelings about reading Sanskrit works.However, the books I read at that time were by no means limited to Sanskrit classics.As I mentioned above, the University of Göttingen has a Sinology Institute.There is a Chinese library that is many times larger than the Sanskrit Institute library.Why is it so much bigger than the Sanskrit library?The reason is that there is no collection of Chinese books in the university library. All Chinese books and the languages ​​of Chinese minorities, such as Tibetan, Mongolian, Xixia, and Jurchen, are collected in the Institute of Sinology.The library of this institute, due to the bleak management of Professor Gustav Haloun, bought a large number of Chinese classics from China and Japan, and it is quite famous in Europe.I have met many world-renowned sinologists there, such as Arthur Waley from the UK and so on.The building where the Institute of Sinology is located is much larger and grander than the Gauss-Weber-Haus; the house is extremely tall and enormous.The Institute of Sinology is on the second floor. I don't know how many floors there are.I have never figured out what the huge building is for. For 10 years, I don't remember seeing anyone here except an old woman who cleaned the house.The yard is huge, with several tall and thick ancient trees, all of which are five or six hundred years old, and the ground is green with grass.The inside and outside of the building are clean, quieter and more elegant than the Sanskrit Research Institute, it is really a good place to study.

I always come here several times a week, sometimes to attend classes, and more often to read books.The one I read the most is the "Taisho New Revised Tripitaka" published in Japan.For a while, I helped Waldschmidt look up Buddhist scriptures.He was writing his famous book on the narrative of Shakyamuni's procession before his parinirvana.The Sanskrit fragments of Buddhist scriptures found in Xinjiang, his school journal, also required materials from the Chinese translation of Buddhist scriptures, especially the extremely large number of "fundamentally speaking, all have divisions" translated by Tang Yijing.As for the books I read myself, they range widely.There are hundreds of thousands of Chinese books, and I am interested in all of them.Arriving here is like returning to the motherland.I remember that there are several Ming edition novels hidden here.Whether it is the only one in the universe, because I don't know how to do it, I can't tell.Even if they are, they are all buried in the deep "mine shaft", and they will never see the light of day.Since Professor Gustav Haloun left the University of Göttingen in 1937 to take the post of Chair Professor of Sinology at the University of Cambridge, UK, for a long time, the Institute of Sinology was managed by me alone.Every time I come here, I am the only one in the six or seven big empty rooms, and everything is so quiet that I can hear the sound of my own heartbeat.In absolute silence, I wandered among the rows of large bookshelves, on which were the crystallization of the wisdom of the Chinese people, and my heart was filled with pride.I read a lot of books; but the one I read the most is a large set of hundreds of volumes of China Notes Series, the specific title of which has been forgotten.Notes are a unique style of writing in China. The content covers everything from the universe to birds, beasts, insects and fish, as well as trivial things around me, sporadic thoughts, and some historical and technological records. If used well, they are all very useful materials .I finished reading the entire set of books, but unfortunately I had no idea of ​​studying the history of sugar at that time, and a lot of useful information was lost in vain.And thinking about it now, it's too late to regret. I read Sanskrit and Chinese classics in Göttingen, and the situation is roughly the same. 1997