APPROACH TO LIFE

IN what follows I am presenting the Chinese point of view, because I cannot help myself. I am interested only in presenting a view of life and of things as the best and wisest Chinese minds have seen it and expressed it in their folk wisdom and their literature.

在下面的文章里我不過(guò)是表現(xiàn)中國(guó)人的觀點(diǎn)。我只表現(xiàn)一種中國(guó)最優(yōu)越最聰慧的哲人們所見(jiàn)到而在他們的文字中發(fā)揮過(guò)的人生觀和事物觀。

It is an idle philosophy born of an idle life, evolved in a different age, I am quite aware. But I cannot help feeling that this view of life is essentially true, and since we are alike under the skin, what touches the human heart in one country touches all.

我知道這是一種閑適哲學(xué)，是在異于現(xiàn)今時(shí)代里的閑適生活中所產(chǎn)生。我總覺(jué)得這種人生觀是絕對(duì)真實(shí)的。人類心性既然相同，則在這個(gè)國(guó)家里能感動(dòng)人的東西，自然也會(huì)感動(dòng)別的國(guó)家的人類。

I shall have to present a view of life as Chinese poets and scholars evaluated it with their common sense, their realism and their sense of poetry. I shall attempt to reveal some of the beauty of the pagan world, a sense of the pathos and beauty and terror and comedy of life, viewed by a people who have a strong feeling of the limitations of our existence, and yet somehow retain a sense of the dignity of human life.

我將要表現(xiàn)中國(guó)詩(shī)人和學(xué)者們的人生觀，這種人生觀是經(jīng)過(guò)他們的常識(shí)和他們的詩(shī)意情緒而估定的。我想顯示一些異教徒世界的美，顯示一個(gè)明知此生有涯，但是短短的生命未始沒(méi)有它的尊嚴(yán)的民族所看到的人生悲哀、美麗、恐懼和喜樂(lè)。

The Chinese philosopher is one who dreams with one eye open, who views life with love and sweet irony, who mixes his cynicism with a kindly tolerance, and who alternately wakes up from life s dream and then nods again, feeling more alive when he is dreaming than when he is awake, thereby investing his waking life with a dream-world quality.

中國(guó)的哲學(xué)家是睜著一只眼做夢(mèng)的人，是一個(gè)用愛(ài)和譏評(píng)心理來(lái)觀察人生的人，是一個(gè)自私主義和仁愛(ài)的寬容心混合起來(lái)的人，是一個(gè)有時(shí)從夢(mèng)中醒來(lái)，有時(shí)又睡了過(guò)去，在夢(mèng)中比在醒時(shí)更覺(jué)得富有生氣，因而在他清醒時(shí)的生活中也含著夢(mèng)意的人。

He sees with one eye closed and with one eye opened the futility of much that goes on around him and of his own endeavors, but barely retains enough sense of reality to determine to go through with it. He is seldom disillusioned because he has no illusions, and seldom disappointed because he never had extravagant hopes. In this way his spirit is emancipated.

他把一只眼睜著，一只眼閉著，看透了他四周所發(fā)生的事物和他自己的徒勞，而不過(guò)僅僅保留著充分的現(xiàn)實(shí)感去走完人生應(yīng)走的道路。

因此，他并沒(méi)有虛幻的憧憬，所以無(wú)所謂醒悟；他從來(lái)沒(méi)有懷著過(guò)度的奢望，所以無(wú)所謂失望。他的精神就是如此得了解放。

For, after surveying the field of Chinese literature and philosophy, I come to the conclusion that the highest ideal of Chinese culture has always been a man with a sense of detachment, toward life based on a sense of wise disenchantment.

觀測(cè)了中國(guó)的文學(xué)和哲學(xué)之后，我得到一個(gè)結(jié)論：中國(guó)文化的最高理想人物，是一個(gè)對(duì)人生有一種建于明慧悟性上的達(dá)觀者。這種達(dá)觀產(chǎn)生寬宏的懷抱，能使人帶著溫和的譏評(píng)心理度過(guò)一生，丟開功名利祿，樂(lè)天知命地過(guò)生活。

From this detachment comes high-mindedness, a high-mindedness which enables one to go through life with tolerant irony and escape the temptations of fame and wealth and achievement, and eventually makes him take what comes. And from this detachment arise also his sense of freedom, his love of vagabondage and his pride and nonchalance. It is only with this sense of freedom and nonchalance that one eventually arrives at the keen and intense joy of living.

這種達(dá)觀也產(chǎn)生了自由意識(shí)，放蕩不羈的愛(ài)好，傲骨和漠然的態(tài)度。一個(gè)人有了這種自由的意識(shí)及淡漠的態(tài)度，才能深切熱烈地享受快樂(lè)的人生。

It is useless for me to say whether my philosophy is valid or not for the Westerner.

我不用說(shuō)我的哲學(xué)思想是否適用于西方人。

To understand Western life, one would have to look at it as a Westerner born, with his own temperament, his bodily attitudes and his own set of nerves. I have no doubt that American nerves can stand a good many things that Chinese nerves cannot stand, and vice versa. It is good that it should be so that we should all be born different.

我們要了解西方人的生活，就得用西方的眼光，用他們自己的性情，他們自己的物質(zhì)觀念，和他們自己的頭腦去觀察。無(wú)疑美國(guó)人能忍受中國(guó)人所不能忍受的事物，同樣中國(guó)人也能忍受美國(guó)人所不能忍受的事物。我們生下來(lái)就不同樣，這已有顯著的區(qū)別。

And yet it is all a question of relativity. I am quite sure that amidst the hustle and bustle of American life, there is a great deal of wistfulness, of the divine desire to lie on a plot of grass under tall beautiful trees of an idle afternoon and just do nothing.

然而這也不過(guò)是比較的看法。我相信在美國(guó)的繁忙生活中，他們也一定有一種企望，想躺在一片綠草地上，在美麗的樹陰下什么事也不做，只想悠閑自在地去享受一個(gè)下午。

The necessity for such common cries as "Wake up and live" is to me a good sign that a wise portion of American humanity prefer to dream the hours away. The American is after all not as bad as all that.

“醒轉(zhuǎn)來(lái)生活吧”這種普遍的呼聲，在我看來(lái)很足以證明有一部分美國(guó)人寧愿過(guò)夢(mèng)中的光陰，但是美國(guó)人終還不至于那么頹喪。

 It is only a question whether he will have more or less of that sort of thing, and how he will arrange to make it possible.

問(wèn)題只是他對(duì)這種閑適生活，要想享受的多少之間和他要怎樣使這種生活實(shí)現(xiàn)而已。

Perhaps the American is merely ashamed of the word "loafing" in a world where everybody is doing something, but somehow, as sure as I know he is also an animal, he likes sometimes to have his muscles relaxed, to stretch on the sand, or to lie still with one leg comfortably curled up and one arm placed below his head as his pillow. If so, he cannot be very different from Yen Huei, who had exactly that virtue and whom

Confucius desperately admired among all his disciples. 

也許美國(guó)人只是在這個(gè)忙碌的世界上，對(duì)于“閑蕩”一詞有些感到慚愧；可是我確切知道，一如知道他們也是動(dòng)物一樣，他們有時(shí)也喜歡松松肌肉，在沙灘上伸伸懶腰，或是靜靜地躺著，把一條腿舒服地蹺起來(lái)，把手臂擱在頭下當(dāng)枕頭。如果這樣，便跟顏回差不多；顏回也有這種美德，孔子在眾弟子中，也最器重他。

The only thing I desire to see is that he be honest about it, and that he proclaim to the world that he likes it when he likes it, that it is not when he is working in the office but when he is lying idly on the sand that his soul utters, "Life is beautiful. "

我希望看到的，就是他能對(duì)這件事抱誠(chéng)實(shí)的態(tài)度；譬如他喜歡這件事，便應(yīng)向全世界實(shí)說(shuō)他喜歡這件事；應(yīng)在他閑逸自適地躺在沙灘上，而不是在辦公室里時(shí)，他的靈魂喊著：“人生真美妙啊！”

We are, therefore, about to see a philosophy and art of living as the mind of the Chinese people as a whole has understood it. I am inclined to think that, in a good or bad sense, there is nothing like it in the world.

所以現(xiàn)在我們將要看到中國(guó)整個(gè)民族思想所理解的那種哲學(xué)和生活藝術(shù)。我認(rèn)為不論是在好的或壞的方面，世界上沒(méi)有一樣?xùn)|西是如它想象的。

For here we come to an entirely new way of looking at life by an entirely different type of mind. It is a truism to say that the culture of any nation is the product of its mind.

因?yàn)槲覀冊(cè)谶@里看見(jiàn)一種完全不同的思想典型，由這種思想典型產(chǎn)生了一種簇新的人生觀念，任何一個(gè)民族的文化都是他的思想產(chǎn)物，這話絕無(wú)疑義。

Consequently, where there is a national mind so racially different and historically isolated from the Western cultural world, we have the right to expect new answers to the problems of life, or what is better, new methods of approach, or, still better, a new posing of the problems themselves.

中國(guó)民族思想在種族性上和西方文化是那么不同，在歷史上又和西方文化那么隔離著；因此我們自然能從這種地方，找到一些人生問(wèn)題的新答案，或者好一些，找到一些探討人生問(wèn)題的新方法。或者更好些，找到一些人生問(wèn)題的新論據(jù)。

We know some of the virtues and deficiencies of that mind, at least as revealed to us in the historical past. It has a glorious an and a contemptible science, a magnificent common sense and an infantile logic, a fine womanish chatter about life and no scholastic philosophy.

我們要知道這種思想的美點(diǎn)和缺點(diǎn)，至少可以由它過(guò)去的歷史看出。它有光輝燦爛的藝術(shù)，也有微不足道的科學(xué)，有博大的常識(shí)，也有幼稚的邏輯，有精雅溫柔的關(guān)于人生的閑談，卻沒(méi)有學(xué)者風(fēng)味的哲學(xué)。

It is generally known that the Chinese mind is an intensely practical, hard-headed one, and it is also known to some lovers of Chinese art that it is a profoundly sensitive mind; by a still smaller proportion of people, it is accepted as also a profoundly poetic and philosophical mind.  At least the Chinese are noted for taking things philosophically, which is saying more than the statement that the Chinese have a great philosophy or have a few great philosophers.

很多人本來(lái)都知道中國(guó)人的思想非常實(shí)際而精明，愛(ài)好中國(guó)藝術(shù)的人也都知道中國(guó)人的思想是極靈敏的；一部分的人則承認(rèn)中國(guó)人的思想也是富有詩(shī)意和哲理的。至少大家都知道中國(guó)人善于利用哲理的眼光去觀察事物，這比之中國(guó)有偉大的哲學(xué)或有幾個(gè)大哲學(xué)家的那種說(shuō)法，更有意義。

For a nation to have a few philosophers is not so unusual, but for a nation to take things philosophically is terrific. It is evident anyway that the Chinese as a nation are more philosophic than efficient, and that if it were otherwise, no nation could have survived the high blood pressure of an efficient life for four thousand years. Four thousand years of efficient living would ruin any nation.

一個(gè)民族產(chǎn)生過(guò)幾個(gè)大哲學(xué)家沒(méi)什么稀罕，但一個(gè)民族能以哲理的眼光去觀察事物，那是難能可貴的。無(wú)論怎樣，中國(guó)這個(gè)民族顯然是比較富于哲理性，而少實(shí)效性，假如不是這樣的話，一個(gè)民族經(jīng)過(guò)了四千年專講效率生活的高血壓，那是早已不能繼續(xù)生存了。四千年專重效能的生活能毀滅任何一個(gè)民族。

An important consequence is that, while in the West, the insane are so many then they are put in an asylum, in China the insane are so unusual that we worship them, as any body who has knowledge of Chinese literature will testify. And that, after all, is what I am driving at. Yes, the Chinese have a light, an almost gay, philosophy, and the basal proof of their philosophic temper is to be found in this wise and merry of living.

一個(gè)重要的結(jié)果就是：在西方狂人太多了，只好把他們關(guān)在瘋?cè)嗽豪铮欢谥袊?guó)狂人太罕有了，所以崇拜他們；凡具有中國(guó)文學(xué)知識(shí)的人，都會(huì)證實(shí)這一句話。我所要說(shuō)明的就在乎此。是的，中國(guó)有一種輕逸的，一種近乎愉快的哲學(xué)，他們的哲學(xué)氣質(zhì)，可以在他們那種智慧而快樂(lè)的生活哲學(xué)里找到最好的論據(jù)。