Chapter 10 Do you answer like that?

Do you answer like that? ──Belgian-American Father Si Liyi talks about "ugly Chinese" Zhang Xianghua When Jesus had said this, an officer stood by him, and he struck him with the palm of his hand and said, "Do you answer the high priest like this?" Jesus said, "If what I said is wrong, you can testify against it; if what I said is right, you Why did you hit me?" ──John 18:22 Getting along with Father Si often gives you amazing experiences. In the restaurant, when the expressionless waitress threw the menu in front of us, Father Si quietly asked me: "Do you know why she has such an attitude?" Before I could find out the appropriate answer, he said humorously: "She do not like me."

On the street, several young girls approached. Father Si looked at a T-shirt printed in foreign languages ​​and asked me to look at it. I said I didn't understand French.Father Si translated for me, those words mean: "Come and fuck me!" He shook his head and sighed: "She must not know what it means." Father Si lives near Wanda Road in Taipei City, where worship is very popular, and there are temples and private altars everywhere in the streets and alleys.Father Si told me: "Last night, there was a show of rewarding the gods here. Do you know what they are performing?" I replied: "Puppet show." I thought I must be right this time.Unexpectedly, Father Si's answer was: "They performed a striptease."

──Father Si, who is more than 70 years old this year, is a Belgian-American. He has lived in mainland China and Taiwan for more than ten years, so that he is very familiar with China. In addition, he is a scholar of the Academia Sinica Research Institute of Yin Ruins , he has studied Chinese language, characters, and folk customs for fifty years.From 1930, Father Si began to learn Chinese. He was a student of two linguists Zhao Yuanren and Chen Shixiang. In 1955, he received a Ph.D. Chinese, Russian, Greek, Latin, familiar with Chinese, Tibetan, Mongolian, Sanskrit, Japanese.In 1937, he went to the northern part of the mainland of China. While preaching, he also did research on Chinese folklore and collected songs. He published more than 30 academic treatises in English, French, German and other languages.

I told the priest that I was very surprised, because he always reminded me that as a Chinese, there are many phenomena around me that I am not aware of, or are not aware of.I thought to myself, why not ask him to give his opinion on the subject of "ugly Chinese".With his deep understanding of the Chinese people, his strong feelings for the Chinese people, coupled with his spirit from the Western civilized world, his rich knowledge and cultivation, he will definitely bring us transnational and transnational enlightenment. Father Si said, "You don't care that my words surprise you?"

I said, "I'm expecting the greatest surprise from you." Father Si's real name is Paul LM. Serruys, and Si Liyi is his Chinese name. From this name, it can be seen that he is influenced by Chinese culture.However, Father Si answered my question about etiquette and righteousness, but said: "Etiquette is a very good thing, and it is the norm of human behavior. However, the Chinese only pay attention to etiquette, not reason. Therefore, the benefits of etiquette have changed. Because Li should be guided by reason—the right reason.” "Isn't righteousness the right reason?" I said, "We Chinese have always been known as the 'state of propriety and righteousness'."

"The state of propriety and righteousness?" Father Si pondered for a while, "I've never heard of it. The English translation of the word '义' should be Right or there is another word Justice with a similar meaning. But I think what the Chinese lack the most is, It is the concept of social right and wrong (Social Justice). The righteousness taught by the Chinese is set up to demand others. Everyone thinks that he is an exception and does not have to abide by it. In other words, the Chinese people's righteousness is a double standard. " I asked, "From what incidents did you have such an impression of the Chinese people?"

"Traffic phenomenon is a picture of Chinese society," Father Si said. "Chinese people have no concept of what obligations should be fulfilled as a citizen. Traffic rules in China are only set for others to obey. Not only do they not obey them themselves." , Once I am criticized, I immediately feel ashamed. For example, if I criticize the Chinese people in this way today, the reaction of most Chinese people is probably angry with me. Usually, people often say that I am too proud, or come to persuade me that I cannot Use the standards of the Western civilized world to talk about Chinese people. In fact, I really don’t want to hurt Chinese people’s feelings.”

"Not everyone will be angry with you, but I won't," I said, "I'm not afraid of hurting my feelings. I just want to hear whether you hurt the hearts of the Chinese people and whether it makes sense." Father Si gave an example: Once, during the discussion of an academic conference, Father Si raised an opinion different from that of a certain Chinese scholar, but the other party ignored him from the beginning to the end.Even from the very beginning, when the scholar heard that Father Si had a different opinion, he was very unhappy, immediately turned sullen, and refused to discuss it with him.The next day, Priest Si went to the scholar's office and was going to try to communicate with him again.Who knew that the scholar was clearly in the office, but the secretary said, "Not here." Father Si had no choice but to retreat.

"So," Father Si said, "I think it's harder to reason with the Chinese. Sometimes, you really can't do anything. Because he treats you with an attitude of avoiding problems, which makes you helpless. In fact, The fundamental reason is that he doesn’t want to be reasonable, because reasoning will make him lose face. Think about it, even the academic world only cares about face and is not reasonable, resulting in authority and monopoly, so how can ordinary people be required to be reasonable?” Father Si continued. : "Of course, sometimes, when I discuss issues with Chinese scholars, I put forward different opinions, and some scholars will say: 'I disagree with you, but I can't make sense now, I will go back and think about it, and then I will discuss it with you. You discuss.’ However, there are very few people who can discuss issues with this attitude.”

I asked, "Do you think that Chinese people's etiquette hinders reasoning?" "In fact, etiquette and reasoning can be carried out at the same time," Father Si emphasized, "but it must be learned, and at the same time, there must be a minimum of mutual respect, and the ability must be commensurate before being able to reason. It is a saying that the Chinese attached later, and it should be called "a state of rites and music", because in Chinese history, it is said that Zhou Gong ruled rites and music." I was surprised by Father Si's deep knowledge of ancient Chinese books.

"In the era of Socrates in the fifth century BC, the Greeks claimed to be the 'state of music and reason'," Father Si wrote the Chinese character "Li" with a pen, showing that it was different from the word "Li". "They attached great importance to music and believed that music was the If the reason is separated from music, it is like life without beauty. The philosophy of life of the Greeks can be summed up in one sentence: kalos kagathos, the first word kalos means 'beauty', and the second word agathos means 'goodness' ', the middle k is the abbreviation of kai, which means 'and'. The Greeks believed that the highest state of life is to reach kalos kagathos, the unity of beauty and goodness. Goodness exists in reason, and beauty is expressed in music. Therefore, the Greeks call themselves 'the state of Li Le', and the Chinese call themselves 'the state of propriety and righteousness', which is a very interesting cultural comparison between East and West." I listened quietly. "However," said Father Si, "the Chinese people talk about 'rituals', but they are only empty rituals --- face, while 'reason' is suppressed and cannot be expressed. Moreover, the artistic function of music has always been unbearable throughout the development of Chinese culture." It was not until the Yuan Dynasty in the 13th century that the Mongolian rulers did not know how to extend the political pressure to Chinese folk art, and Chinese opera began to sprout.” The courtesy of the Chinese people is to save face, and Father Si's words were like a spring thunder. "In addition, Chinese poetry is very different from Greek poetry, which is related to music," said Father Si. "Chinese people don't have epics, and they don't have epics as magnificent as Homer. Chinese poems are often written only by themselves. , the feelings of a moment and a place. Poetry (image) is beautiful, but it only pays attention to the individual, not to the observation and description of nature. Even if it is written, it is only used to express personal feelings, let alone the observation of the entire nation. Epic. Another strange thing is that the Mongols are different from the Han in that the Mongols have epics.” "What's the reason?" I asked. "I don't know very clearly yet, I just discovered this phenomenon. Maybe you can tell me why the Chinese despise these things?" Hearing Father Si's question, however, my thoughts still lingered on the sentence he said earlier, "The etiquette of Chinese people is to save face" for a long time.I recalled the scene of dining with Father Si not long ago: in the second section of Zhongshan North Road in Taipei City, there is a restaurant with very elegant decoration, called Royal in foreign languages, which translates as "Master" in Chinese, Minggong Hall on the third floor Serves Chinese food.The day we went, it was very busy, and after a short wait, we finally got a table that had just vacated.After Father Si and I sat down, the waitress took away the leftover dishes from the guests in front of us, spread a small orange square on the white tablecloth stained with soy sauce, and immediately placed our bowls and chopsticks.Her movements are skillful and natural.After the waitress left, Father Si pointed to the white tablecloth with soy sauce stains on it, and said: "Look, this is face! Add a small red scarf, and you have 'face'. You don't need to worry about what's underneath, whether it's dirty or not." Usually, I often hear people say: "This is too embarrassing..." "If you don't give face, you just want to make things difficult for me!" "If it's a favor, please..." "It's a shame to do this..." Such words abound in our daily life!Under these "faces", have we Chinese neglected the "face"?In our life, how many soy sauce stains are hidden under the noble splendor of "classic restaurants", and how many people have noticed? When I got here, I realized that I couldn't answer Father Si's question, so I asked: "You are a linguist. In terms of language, what is the difference between the Chinese way of thinking and Westerners?" "The Chinese language is not different from the languages ​​of other countries," Father Si said succinctly, "Chinese people often like to say arrogantly that the Chinese language is unique. This attitude is the same as that of people in many countries in the world. , In fact, this is a superficial and naive statement." "Chinese verbs don't have tense changes," I said, "nouns don't have singular or plural, isn't it different from Western languages?" "It's just a different way of expression, not a difference in language system or thinking logic. For example, Chinese people use 'over' and 'le' to express tense, and use 'two' and 'three' to express quantity. The Chinese have no concept of tense or quantity. The Chinese can use language to express their thoughts very precisely. The key question is, do the Chinese want to express clearly? If he doesn’t want to express clearly, he can express very vaguely.” "Explain further, please?" I begged. "Grammatically, the Chinese language can omit the subject, but English absolutely can't. Therefore, if you want to speak clearly, you can use language to misunderstand others," said Father Si. "Chinese people are not special in language. I think what is really special is Chinese literature, which contains a unique Chinese spirit. However, Chinese people who study their own literature now choose to compare Chinese literature with Western literature, and use Westerners to study literature. 'Comparative literature', using this method to study Chinese literature, will not work." "You mean that language is just a tool to convey ideas, and that differences in ideas lead to differences in speech, right?" I asked. Father Si nodded in agreement. "What kind of concept do you think has the greatest impact on Chinese people's life?" I continued to ask. Fr Si directly addressed the subject I was looking forward to hearing, saying: "I think one of the reasons for the backwardness of Chinese society is that the Chinese are too much influenced by Confucianism. Mencius said: 'He who works with his mind governs others; he who labors with his strength governs others; , Eat from people.” This sentence dominates the thinking and behavior of Chinese intellectuals, making it impossible for Chinese people to experiment with knowledge and technology in daily life. Western scholars are often people with maces and axes .Before the west wind spread eastward, Chinese scholars did not use tools or work in laboratories. Western knowledge and technology were constantly revised and made breakthroughs in the process of practice. However, even though Chinese people have clever thinking He was good at arithmetic and invented gunpowder, compass, and bow and arrow very early, but he could not promote science and technology and develop mechanical civilization. Because, under the influence of Confucianism, the leadership of senior intellectuals despised manual work. The invention of machines The application and application are limited to the low-level civilian stage, which greatly hinders the development of knowledge." I admit that this is a characteristic of the Chinese scholar-bureaucrat class. "Intellectuals in leading positions are aloof and out of touch with the lives of the masses. The gap in knowledge separates Chinese thinking from behavior and seriously hinders the progress of Chinese society." Father Si mentioned a late Chinese archaeologist, Mr. Li Ji. He said, "Actually, the above opinion was made by Mr. Li. I just agree with his opinion." Mr. Li Ji personally participated in the excavation of ancient relics in Anyang, Henan Province, but was misunderstood as a rough laborer by others, which led him to say the above paragraph.When Father Si was doing research on folk customs, songs, and language in Datong, Shanxi, a beggar took him to go deep into the folk and search everywhere.He once used the method of exchanging a coin for a sentence of slang to exchange slang with the Chinese children around him.The local people regarded his behavior as weird, and even regarded him as a lunatic.Therefore, Father Si felt that Chinese learning was completely emptied by the traditional concepts of Confucian scholar-bureaucrats. "In addition, the reason that hinders China from becoming a modern country is the lack of the concept of the rule of law and democracy," Father Si continued. However, there is only one basic concept, which is the criminal law, that is, what kind of punishment a person should receive when he violates the law. There are basically two Roman laws: one is the civil law, which lets the people know what rights they are born with The other is the crime law, which lets the people know what punishment they will be subject to if they violate a criminal case. The two complement each other, protecting themselves and others. Therefore, the people have a mentality of paying attention to and obeying the law. On the other hand, in China, before Westernization, the people had no concept of their own rights, and even believed that their own lives were bestowed by the king, let alone others.In traditional Chinese society, power and power rule in the name of morality, and the leadership is called the parents of the people. The people only know how to obey authority, and there is no modern concept of the rule of law. This is basically a big mistake. Under this single-track rule of law, the Chinese do not know that law is a rule that can protect themselves.Therefore, there is only fear and evasion of the law, or even breaking the law and breaking the law, basically because they do not know how to respect the law. " Father Si made an assertion: "In modern society, the political theory of 'bettering the people with morality' in Confucius' era has no place at all." After a pause, Father Si saw that I remained silent, and continued: " A country has been governed by the above-mentioned single-track law for 5,000 years, and it cannot be changed in one or two generations, because the people cannot get rid of their deep-rooted thoughts at once. Therefore, the people cannot be blamed. This is really the accumulation of history and culture. results. For example, Chinese people today still have no concept of democracy.” "We have elections and a legislature," I said. "Democracy is the way of life of modern citizens. The people must know how to be a citizen. If you suffer, you must know how to fight and fight for it, not just sit and wait for the government to improve. I often hear the Chinese people's criticism of unreasonable The complaining of things is: 'No way!' This is true for air pollution, as it is for traffic disorder, there is 'no way' for everything!" Father Si said with emotion: "In the final analysis, the Chinese people don't really want to improve!" "Please tell me again," I said, "Chinese people have suffered so much. Autocracy, corruption, war, poverty, foreign aggression, and civil strife have emerged one after another. Are these hindering China's progress? Besides, other countries in the world are suffering. After that, it will be revived soon, why can't China?" Father Si's thoughts are flowing like a spring, and his emotions are surging, which shows his deep observation of China and his high hopes for the Chinese people.Hearing me raise this question, he put forward the following opinions in one breath. He believes that there are at least a few reasons for the slow recovery of China—— First, the Chinese only have the concept of family, not the concept of country. Chinese people's virtues, loyalty, love, and protective power all aim at home, and all efforts will stop here. Father Si said: "In the minds of Chinese people, the state is a machine for collecting taxes and exploiting the people. Because the person in power is the beneficiary of this machine, no matter how the people live; The people in the lower position are the exploited by this machine, they have no way to resist the exploitation, and it becomes a vicious circle (Vicious Circle).” "Are you being too pessimistic?" I asked, "Don't you think we're making progress?" "Maybe it's a bit pessimistic, but generally speaking, I think China's progress is too slow. At least, the Chinese people's concept of the country is still unchanged," Father Si said with a heavy heart. Characters are good people in themselves, but they just don’t understand how other people live. It’s sad that people from the upper and lower classes can’t communicate. There are also some people who come from poverty, but once they are in power, not only do they no longer put themselves in their shoes, Speaking from my own class, and even deliberately not mentioning my origin, I think the poor are lazy and deserve it.” Fr Si cited an example from himself, showing that the Chinese are very afraid of facing their own weaknesses.He took out a stack of materials from the bookshelf, dug out a poem by Yang Jun, a famous poet in Taipei, and showed it to me. "I know him. Yang Jun is his pen name for writing poems. His surname is Wang. He used to be at National Taiwan University..." I didn't finish. "This is the poem he wrote to me when he was at the University of Washington in Seattle in 1976: "To a Belgian Sinologist". Because he needed a teaching position at that time and asked me to introduce him to teach at the University of Washington, Originally, he respected and appreciated me very much. However, one time, when he was teaching poetry in class, his students had doubts about his teaching methods, so they turned to me for advice, but my teaching methods contradicted him. Since then, He stopped talking to me. Before I came to Taiwan this time, I wrote a letter to the poet Yang Jun who returned to Taiwan to teach before me. It’s a forged work.” Father Si said while stroking the poem written by Yang Jun, I took it and saw that the poem said—— You see every tree grow and flourish and wither and support each other I can feel that the Chinese poet Yang Jun, who was once recommended by Father Si, has withered in Father Si's heart. Father Si suddenly cheered up and said: "Let's talk about the country again." "Secondly, the development of Chinese civilization reached its peak in the early Qing Dynasty. It thought that within the world, I was the only one. The closed mentality made China unprepared to accept everything from the outside. The boss and rigidity blocked the Chinese from ability to learn outside. Third, the Chinese were persuaded by the fact that they had strong ships and guns, and found that when they had to absorb technology from the West, China was full of contradictions and conflicts in its internal affairs, and it lacked a unified policy for sending people to the West to learn technology.Compared with Japan, Japan has much more plans.Once they decide that this is the way to survive, they immediately select the best talents to go to the West for further study. " "I saw with my own eyes the Chinese students who were sent to Belgium at that time," said Father Si. "Some of them were not well-qualified, failed the exams, were eliminated by the school, but stayed here. The Chinese government did not find a way to replace them. Japan is not the same. When selecting and dispatching talents, Japan is very strict in selecting talents. Once they do not perform well abroad, they will immediately send another person to replace them. Moreover, after completing their studies, they must return to China to build. China’s study abroad education lacks such an effective method.” "Fourth, the Chinese nationality is not as strong as Israel. The Chinese are used to resigning themselves to fate, while the Israelis are very capable of fighting back. When encountering difficulties, they will struggle and ask the other party to pay the price. The Chinese are 'forget it, Forget it'. In a word, a write-off. Fifth, the Chinese do not know what the rule of law is, while the Germans have always followed the law, and their emphasis on discipline is unparalleled in the world.Therefore, it was only by chance that Hitler established his merits on the excellent Germans, not because of his own ability, but because of the well-trained people.Because of this, Germany after its defeat in World War II quickly found its own recovery track.The "no way" of the Chinese is exactly the opposite of the "law-abiding" of the Germans. Judging from the above five points, the reason why the Chinese revival is slow is indeed a cause. " Father Si ended the discussion and was speechless for a long time. "Do you know?" After a while of silence, Father Si said, "I came to China in 1937. Before I came to China, I had a good impression and curiosity about China. When I was fourteen years old, The first time I read the story of Matteo Ricci’s visit to China, it planted the seeds for me to go to China in the future. Another thing made me confused about the Chinese people, and it also contributed to my motivation to come to China in person.” Father Si once read an article reporting "Pearl Sydenstricker Buck in New York", which was invited to a banquet by Chinese students studying abroad.Pearl Buck announced on the spot during the banquet that she was going to translate Chinese classical novels into English and introduce Chinese literature to Westerners. Chinese students studying in New York immediately raised objections. , cannibalism and other cruel atrocities, it is undoubtedly a disgrace to the Chinese people to introduce them to foreign countries. They hope that Pearl Buck will translate a book describing the innocence of Chinese people.Father Si was very shocked by the opinions of these foreign students. He said: "They are high-level intellectuals, but they hold this view and think it is a disgrace to the Chinese. Don't they know that no matter where in the world people have lust and the dark side of human nature? Who would write evil because of Shakespeare? People, lewd women, will despise British culture? Therefore, these Chinese students give me the impression that they are delusional. This kind of "self-delusion" is really a good face for the Chinese people. Likes to deceive the root cause of all truth." "Are there any advantages of Chinese people?" I want to see this foreigner's evaluation of Chinese people from another angle. "Of course there is," Father Si first mentioned "loyalty." "When getting along with Chinese people, they are very suspicious at the beginning, but after a long time, they are very loyal to people." "What is 'loyalty'?" I asked. "For example, they will do everything they can to help you, serve you, and protect you. Once the Chinese become true friends with you—although it often takes a long time, they are willing to help you unconditionally Do many things without expecting anything in return. Second, the Chinese are very diplomatic.The Chinese are naturally eloquent, and they are all diplomats.Even the illiterate and illiterate, they all have strong persuasion, he has the ability to make people irresistible, so that you feel very embarrassed to say a 'no'. " "Is that an advantage?" I asked. "At least, it's a quality of character," Father Si said, "The Chinese people's endurance is astonishing and enormous." He has seen the poor life in rural China and experienced the turmoil of Chinese people in modern times. Fr. Si said, "I have never seen a nation that can endure hardships more than China." "Another point," Father Si continued, "Chinese people are full of admiration for knowledge and learning, and learning is regarded as a very important thing." "It is said that Chinese people like to go to school, but they don't like reading," I questioned, "What do you think?" "Chinese people do like to go to school, and are even moved by learning, but I don't know their motivation." Having studied linguistics and oracle bone inscriptions for decades, he has become one of the highest ranks in Chinese academia——Father Si of the Academia Sinica said, “In China, most of the time, I get along with middle and lower-class Chinese, and only by chance Dealing with upper-class Chinese people. I found that among the upper-class people, there are many decent, noble and kind people. However, one constant fact is that these upper-class people have nothing to do with the serious injustices in the traditional Chinese social system. Perception—this social system is still maintained. Although they are sometimes compassionate, as high-level intellectuals, they have no idea that they should be responsible for this injustice and should adopt changes. From the beginning to the end, Their consistent thinking is not to change anything." I think of Sima Guang who wrote about it, which is just such a typical example. "It is the spirit of Confucianism to maintain the existing and not seek to change," Father Si continued to speak high-spirited when he saw me lost in thought. However, their commitment to suffering, their spirit of endless hard work, and their inherent humility and diligence really broke my heart. Although their language was rude, in front of me, they never Sensitive and delicate." Father Si, who evaluates traditional Chinese culture from an objective standpoint, after he has made such rich remarks, I would like to hear him talk about Confucianism again. "Are you totally denying Confucianism?" I asked. "It should be said," Father Si added, "I have encountered strong opposition to the negative influence of Confucianism. I must admit that there are many different angles of view on this issue. But, in general, The later Confucian schools did not help Chinese society at all. Although, in the early Confucian writings, the idea of ​​"revolutionary rights against tyranny" occasionally had a flash of inspiration, but there was no successor, even if there was, There has never been an influence!" "I brought up so many shortcomings of the Chinese people, I think I must be finished, probably a lot of people will be angry because of this," Father Si reiterated his worries, he thinks it is a dangerous thing for a foreigner to criticize the Chinese people , because good advice is harsh after all, "However, my 'ugly words' do not mean to 'uglify' Chinese people at all. Some people have no way to understand, just like when I often can't find something, I will joke to the side Some people said: 'I really need a wife to help me!' Immediately, some people thought my words were shocking and regarded me as a priest who behaved badly, and you said it was bad!" "I can understand you," I told Father Si, and I said, "I understand exactly what you mean, because I often can't find things, and I need a wife more than you."