Chapter 28 Talking about "Learning Chinese and Western"

On March 26 this year, at the 1978 National Excellent Short Story Selection and Awarding Ceremony held by the editorial department of "People's Literature", Comrade Mao Dun spoke to the award-winning writers—most of them young people. He once encouraged them to learn from Lu Xun and Guo Moruo, "read widely and learn both Chinese and Western".He said: "We now want to reflect the four modernizations. I am afraid that we cannot do without some scientific knowledge. Therefore, if we learn from Lu Xun and Guo Moruo, we must master more scientific knowledge like them." Because he is right Those "future successors of our literature" made speeches, so he specifically mentioned "scientific knowledge", and then he emphasized, as Chairman Mao said, "We will never refuse to inherit and learn from the ancients and foreigners, even if it is The feudal class and the bourgeoisie" and so on, also mentioned "we haven't translated all the famous foreign books that should be translated." These words aroused my deep thinking.

That is, last year, several comrades from the Friendship Association with Foreign Countries and I had a discussion with the delegation of the British publishing industry. When talking about the work of translation and publication in my country in the early years, I mentioned that my initial understanding of Western culture came from seeing foreign translation started. At that time, I was only about ten years old. On my grandfather’s bookshelf, I saw Lin Shu (Qin Nan)’s translation of “La Traviata” written by the famous French writer Dumas. Later, I went to find him to translate it. "A Piece of Meat for the Rest of Life" written by the famous British writer Charles Dickens and others.On my father's desk, I saw the translation of Yan Fu (Youling)'s "Group Learning" written by the famous British writer Spencer, and "Theory of the Group's Self-Power Boundary" written by Muller, etc.Mr. Yan’s translations were all social science books. Of course I couldn’t understand them at that time, and I didn’t read them again when I grew up, but my friends who study social science still spoke highly of those books.As for Lin Yi's novels, I have read a lot, and I really like his writing style.Mr. Lin himself does not understand foreign languages, but he can translate famous English and French works, which are all dictated by others, and he does the translation, but I think his translation is very "expressive". When I can read the original works myself, such as Dickens' " "A Piece of Meat for the Rest of Life", I feel that Mr. Lin can vividly describe the very vivid and vivid characters in the original work, which is due to his deep cultivation and attainment of Chinese language!

Mr. Yan's translation is almost equal to free translation. After the translation, he adds notes.Because I don't study social science, I didn't read the original work either. The two old gentlemen used classical Chinese, which young people today may not understand after reading it. Moreover, almost all of these famous Western social science works have modern translations, so there is no need to read them all.What I want to talk about is that 60 to 70 years ago, when the Chinese people felt that the country was in danger, as Chairman Mao said, "After untold hardships, they sought the truth from Western countries." Mr. Yan went to England to study the navy. Military science, but he studied philosophy and social science by himself.In order to introduce Western literature and culture, Mr. Lin did not understand foreign languages, so he had to ask someone to narrate and write the pen himself.At that time, these two old gentlemen played the role of enlightenment and communication between Chinese and Western cultures.

From now on, those of us young people will not have no complaints about the evening festival of these two old gentlemen.In his later years, Mr. Yan became one of the six gentlemen who supported Yuan Shikai to proclaim himself emperor.During the "May 4th" era, Mr. Lin once wrote a letter to Mr. Cai Yuanpei, the president of Peking University, cursing the vernacular.But just as Comrade Mao Dun said when he talked about some translators in his speech, "However, for translated works, people should not talk nonsense." I mentioned the two old gentlemen Yan and Lin, not only because they have to "read a lot of books and learn both Chinese and Western" like them, not only because they want to do translation work, but they must learn foreign languages ​​well, and their own languages ​​must also be learned well, otherwise they will not be able to communicate. The role of Chinese and foreign scientific culture.Our four modernizations need to learn from the science and technology of many advanced industrial countries, and we have a population of more than 900 million. It is impossible for everyone to understand foreign language books and periodicals. At this time, the translation work that acts as a bridge is Much needed.

I mentioned the old gentlemen Yan and Lin not only because their translations of Western social science and literature were the first I came into contact with when I was a teenager, but also because they happened to be from Fujian (Mr. Both are friends of my grandfather, and Mr. Yan is also my father's teacher).I left my hometown when I was very young, and I am already a person from east to west, from north to south, and I don’t have too much local concept. However, in the early 1960s, when I heard that middle school students in Fujian had good academic performance, and the education circle in Beijing also proposed to learn from Fujian. , I couldn't help sending out pride and joy.I hope this ethos and tradition of "study hard and make progress every day" can continue.

I hope that young people in Fujian can also "read widely and learn both Chinese and Western cultures", and do a good job in the modern work of communicating Chinese and Western cultures. The translation methods of "faithfulness", "expression" and "elegance" were proposed by Mr. Yan, but to meet these three standards, one must have a thorough knowledge of both Chinese and foreign languages. I would also like to remind young people that "reading books extensively" does not mean "studying behind closed doors". We must care about national affairs.

If we don’t link our studies with major national events and our country’s four modernizations, our studies and efforts will have no purpose, and we ourselves will become empty-headed scholars.In addition, physical health is also extremely important. Without a healthy mind and body, one cannot study healthily.Morality, intelligence, and physique should complement each other and bring out the best in each other, rather than opposing each other and preventing and restraining each other.August 4, 1979