第1个回答 2022-06-02
简谈大师辜鸿铭的“啰嗦”
大家知道，大师辜鸿铭先生的英文是无可挑剔的。连语言大师林语堂先生也对辜鸿铭先生的英文深表钦佩：“在我国人中，辜鸿铭的英文文字确乎超越出众，凡二百年未见出其右者，不论遣词用字功夫，皆属上乘而无疑问”。
但是，最近在网上的一些评论中，却看到一些人觉得辜鸿铭先生的英文有些啰嗦。愕然之余，细想之后，也多少理解了这些说法的依据。因为辜鸿铭先生在其文章，譬如《中国人的精神》“The Spirit of the Chinese People”（他自译为《春秋大义》）一文中，不断地重复使用一些词语，这难免给人留下啰嗦的印象。
不过，正如那句名言“一千人眼中就有一千个哈姆雷特”一样(There are a thousand Hamlets in a thousand people's eyes. 或If there are a thousand readers, there must be a thousand Hamlets.等 )。即使同一篇文章，不同的读者会从不同的侧面读出其不同味道，并产生不同感受。我个人读辜鸿铭先生的文章，刚开始时，也曾短暂地有过啰嗦的感觉。但细读细思之后，不但不觉得啰嗦，反而认为这只不过是一种写作手法。这种遣词造句手法，与其说是啰嗦，倒不如说是一种强调和引导。后来，读的越多，越觉得后一种看法更为贴切。
那么，或许有朋友会问：“为什么能这样说呢？依据在哪里呢？道理又在哪里呢？”
至于说依据和道理，由于我不是专业的研究者，一时的确拿不出令人信服的论据。这里，我只是粗浅地谈谈自己的感受，供大家参考。
首先，我们不妨先设想一下辜鸿铭先生所处的时代。众所周知，那是上世纪的初期。那时的中国，可以说是落后的代名词，是受人欺辱的时代。那时的西方国家，不仅对中华文化无知，而且还充满了对中华文化的误解与偏见。要想对这些人，深入浅出地讲明讲透中华文化的精深与博大，而且是在短短的几篇文章，或一个演讲中，其实是一件很难的事。从常理上讲，对你面对一些无知而且充满偏见和误解的人时，要想说明问题，一些重复和强调，不仅需要，而且是必不可少的。
如果你能细读辜鸿铭先生的文章，你可能会发现，他的重复，绝对不是拖沓和冗长，而是层层推进，层层上升。如同盘山公路，虽说是一圈圈循环，但却是一圈圈上升。往往，不知不觉间，在这些不断的循环往复中，在你不断领略沿途风光的过程中，慢慢地把你带到了山顶。打开了你的视野，扩展了你的心胸，如同唐代诗人杜甫的《望岳》中诗句，“会当凌绝顶，一览众山小”。从这个角度看，只有当你站在中华文化的顶峰时，你才能会发现西方文化的不足和瑕疵之处。正是辜鸿铭先生的文章，起到了这种效果。因此，他的文章在当时西方社会所引起的震惊和轰动，其实也是不难理解的。
也正是这种写作手法和功力，也就是说，在不断的重复与强调中，如剥丝抽茧，层层展开，慢慢上升，最后直至顶峰核心。才能使得辜鸿铭先生把中华文化这一庞大课题，在几篇不长的文章中，面对大量对东方文化无知的西方人，引经据典，博古论今，把中华文化讲述得这么全面完整，清晰透彻，浅显易懂。从整体效果上看，这哪里是啰嗦，这其实可以说是简洁与精炼，是全面而深刻。
为了更好的说明这一写作风格，我们不妨多看看其所写的一些文章，进一步体会其精髓。譬如，在《中国人的精神》一文的序言中，辜鸿铭先生在谈到美国人，英国人，法国人和中国人的区别时，他说：
“The American people, I may be permitted to say here, find it difficult to understand the real Chinaman and the Chinese civilisation, because the American people, as a rule, are broad, simple, but not deep. The English cannot understand the real Chinaman and Chinese civilisation because the English, as a rule, are deep, simple, but not broad. The Germans again cannot understand the real Chinaman and the Chinese civilisation because the Germans, especially the educated Germans, as a rule, are deep, broad, but not simple. The French, well,—the French are the people, it seems to me, who can understand and has understood the real Chinaman and the Chinese civilisation best. The French, it is true, have not the depth of nature of the Germans nor the broadness of mind of the Americans nor the simplicity of mind of the English,—but the French, the French people have to a preeminent degree a quality of mind such as all the people I have mentioned above as a rule, have not,—a quality of mind which, above all things, is necessary in order to understand the real Chinaman and the Chinese civilisation ; a quality of mind viz: delicacy, For, in addition to the three characteristics of the real Chinaman and Chinese civilisation which I have already mentioned, I must here add one more, and that the chief characteristic, namely delicacy; delicacy to a preeminent degree such as you will find nowhere else except perhaps among the ancient Greeks and their civilisation”.
(注：Chinaman 是那个年代对中国人的称呼方式?还是因有歧视含义，作者有意反用之以讥讽？本人不得而知，有研究的朋友不妨指点）
再如，同样在《中国人的精神》一文序言中，辜鸿铭先生在谈到文明时，他说：
“Now in order to estimate the value of a civilisation, it seems to me, the question we must finally ask is not what great cities, what magnificent houses, what fine roads it has built and is able to build; what beautiful and comfortable furniture, what clever and useful implements, tools and instruments it has made and is able to make; no, not even what imstitutions, what arts and sciences it has invented: the question we must ask, in order to estimate the value of a civilisation,—is, what type of humanity, what kind of men and women it has been able to produce. In fact, the man and woman,—the type of human beings—which a civilisation produces, it is this which shows the essence, the personality, so to speak, the soul of that civilisation”.
看完这些，不知道你是觉得他啰嗦呢？还是觉得他在层层展开呢？我想，当你刚读一点时，你也许会感到他啰嗦，而当你越读越多时，你可能会越来越感到他是在引导，在强调，在层层展开，在步步推进。
如果你能赞同这些，我们不妨继续，当辜鸿铭先生谈到中国人的缺点时，他是这样说的：
“ The real Chinaman may be coarse, but there is no grossness in his coarseness. The real Chinaman may be ugly, but there is no hideousness in his ugliness. The real Chinaman may be vulgar, but there is no aggressiveness, no blatancy in his vulgarity. The real Chinaman may be stupid, but there is no absurdity in his stupidity. The real Chinaman may be cunning, but there is no deep malignity in his cunning. In fact what I want to say is, that even in the faults and blemishes of body, mind and character of the real Chinaman, there is nothing which revolts you. It is seldom that you will find a real Chinaman of the old school, even of the lowest type, who is positively repulsive”.
看到这里，你嘴角会不会自然浮出微笑呢？当一个人文采斐然时，即使他的诡辩，或者，他的强词夺理，都会显得那么地可爱并且符合逻辑。
另外，辜鸿铭的另一个写作特点，就是在他的文章中，不断地，大量地引经据典，大量引用名人名言，而且通常是拉丁文，德文，法文等多种文字的原文引用。这些引用，不仅显示了他的博学，而且恰到好处。常常，这些引用，不但增强了他的文章的可读性与说服力，而且这些引用本身就能发人深省，令人回味无穷。譬如，他在《中国人的精神》一文的序言中，所引用歌德的一段话：
Goethe says: "What a long way mankind must have travelled before they came to know how to deal gently even with sinners, to be merciful to law-breakers, and to be human even to the inhuman. Truly they were men of Divine nature who first taught this and who gave their lives for it in order to make the realisation of this possible and to hasten the practice of it. "
当你看到这里，你是否能想起电影“阿甘正传”中的那首歌呢？那首美国五、六十年代的流行男歌手Bob Dylan唱的歌— “Blowing In the Wind”。这里，请允许我将原歌词贴出：
How many roads must a man walk down
Before you call him a man ?
How many seas must a white dove sail
Before she sleeps in the sand ?
Yes, how many times must the cannon balls fly
Before they're forever banned ?
The answer my friend is blowin' in the wind
The answer is blowin' in the wind.
Yes, how many years can a mountain exist
Before it's washed to the sea ?
Yes, how many years can some people exist
Before they're allowed to be free ?
Yes, how many times can a man turn his head
Pretending he just doesn't see ?
The answer my friend is blowin' in the wind
The answer is blowin' in the wind.
Yes, how many times must a man look up
Before he can see the sky ?
Yes, how many ears must one man have
Before he can hear people cry ?
Yes, how many deaths will it take till he knows
That too many people have died ?
The answer my friend is blowin' in the wind
The answer is blowin' in the wind.
我们不知道这首歌词的作者是否受到歌德的影响或启发，但是，我们不难发现这里的意义相通之处，特别是当我们读其第一小节时。由此，我们也不难能得知，所有文明的相通之处，其根本不过是人性而已。这也许是辜鸿铭先生或所有贤能之士想告诉我们的：文明来自人心。
总之，如果你能从整体上去体会辜鸿铭先生的文章，而不是在具体的字句上挑剔，你可能会发现，辜鸿铭先生的文章，其实并不啰嗦。因为他需要论述的内容过于庞大与精深，而他的读者又对他论述的主题过于无知和误解。所以，他只好使用简单，清晰而且深刻的话语来引导，来强调。这其实是一种写作风格，而正是这种写作风格，才使得他在他的不长的文章中，把他的论述主题讲述得如此地清晰透彻，从而获得了读者的认同并取得了成功。当时一位西方主教鄂方智，谈及辜鸿铭的英文造诣，曾经说过：“他用英文所写的文章，以英国人看来，可以和维多利亚时代任何大文豪相比，且毫无逊色之感”。如果我们能从整体效果上来看，这句评价其实是很中肯的，并不过分。