First of all, the answer, Fujian.
Last week I went to Fuzhou, the capital of Fujian, to interview, the rongcheng in the middle of summer, permeated with the fresh elegance of the southern country.
The clouds of the coastal area, the water vapor condensed particularly porcelain, hung low, as if rising from the sea. The trees on the sidewalk are covered with yellow mangoes, gently swaying with the wind blowing from the Taiwan Strait, and the fruit ripens and falls to the ground, and there is no pedestrian to pick it up.
The city's quaint old banyan trees tell the story of the city's 2,700-year history. The quiet aroma of jasmine tea cellars fills the alleys, and Fuzhou is the earliest area in China to grow jasmine.
The ocean is the soul of Mindi culture.
The 3,700-kilometer-long coastline has become a window for gathering Chinese and Western civilizations, and the human settlement environment where mountains, rivers and seas blend together has formed a complex personality of introverted and open, heavy tradition and enterprising.
Benefiting from its long coastline of 3700km, Fujian has long been a crossing point of different cultures. The intermingling of mountains, rivers and sea has contributed to the complex character of the Min people, who are introverted yet open, traditional and enterprising.
Photo by Li Xueqing on the banks of the Minjiang River in Fuzhou
One side of the water and soil to support the other side, Fujian more learning through the Chinese and Western people.
Fujian’s unique features nurture its people who have learned from both the east and the west.
Gu Hongming, Lin Yutang, Yan Fu, Lin Shu, Bing Xin, Lin Huiyin... Of course, it is no accident that these cultures have sprung up in Fujian. The cultural genes of Fujian are hidden in the stories they spread in the streets and alleys of Fujian.
Gu | Hong | Ming
Ku Hung-ming
In "The Age of Awakening", Gu Hongming took Hu Shi and others to punch in the "Eight Buildings in Beijing" restaurant, and Gu Hongming's ancestral home was actually in Hui'an County, Quanzhou Province, Fujian Province.
Gu Hongming was the first to translate the Chinese Analects and the Zhongyong to the West, and Chinese his books such as The Spirit of the Chinese People had a major impact in the West.
In China at that time, there was no precedent for selling tickets for speeches.
It is Mei Lanfang's play, the highest ticket price is only one piece of two, but Gu Hongming's speech tickets are priced at two pieces and one ticket is difficult to find.
These foreigners, knowing that Gu Hongming's sharp words, will be scolded, but they are still crazy to pursue...
They said, "When you go to China, you can't go to China without looking at the Three Great Halls, and you can't go without looking at Gu Hongming." Tagore, Ryunosuke Wasagawa, Maugham and other literary scholars have visited him.
His impact is so significant that there was a saying in the west which goes, “You can ignore the Three Great Halls when you come to China, but you have to meet Ku Hung-ming.”
However, this legendary figure who introduced traditional Chinese culture to the world dragged his braids and often defended and promoted traditional culture in a fierce way, known as a cultural monster.
Zhou Zuoren described Gu Hongming in the "Old Record of Peking University Feeling":
Born with a deep-eyed and high-nosed foreigner's appearance, a pinch of yellow hair on his head, but braided into a small braid. In winter, she wears a large-sleeved square coat with jujube red silk and a small hat with melon skin.
In this way, "The Age of Awakening" is still very detailed.
Some people use the phrase "born in Nanyang, studied in the West, married in the Orient, and shi in beiyang" to describe Gu Hongming's life.
His ancestors moved to Nanyang in the early years, accumulating rich wealth and prestige.
His father, Gu Ziyun, was the head of a rubber plantation run by the British at the time, fluent in Hokkien and able to speak English and Malay. Her mother was blonde And spoke English and Portuguese.
Ku Hung-ming whose ancestral hometown was Fujian was born in the Malay Archipelago. His family accumulated wealth and prestige. His father was the head of a rubber plantation run by the British and spoke fluent southern Min as well as English and Malay. His mother was a western blonde who spoke English and Portuguese.
In such a growing environment, Gu Hongming has had a surprising understanding and memory of language since childhood.
Gu Hongming's ancestral home, Quanzhou, was known as the "largest port in the East" as early as the Song and Yuan Dynasties, and was the starting point of the "Maritime Silk Road", with convenient maritime transportation.
Min land is not suitable for the development of farming, many locals take the waterway to Southeast Asia to do business or work, today's Southeast Asia, you can still see the traces of the interaction between immigrant culture and local culture.
Fujian people have a strong sense of locality and region, and many people still have family trees in their homes even today, and they attach great importance to their cultural roots, which is what Gu Hongming's father has always warned him. Therefore, Gu Hongming has never given up his exploration and thinking about traditional Chinese culture.
He wrote in The Spirit of the Chinese:
The ultimate question to measure the value of a civilization, it seems to me, is not whether it has been built and how great the city it can build, how luxurious the building is, how beautiful the roads are; nor how beautiful and comfortable the homes it already has and can produce, how ingenious and useful the equipment, tools, and instruments are; no, not even by what kind of research institutions it has created, what kind of art and science it has created. In order to truly measure the value of a civilization, we must ask the main question: what kind of human nature it can produce, that is, what kind of men and women.
The secret of the immortality of the Chinese nation's spirit is the perfect harmony between the Chinese mind and reason. It is they who show the soul of a civilization.
Strict |
Yen Fuh
Many people know that Yan Fu translated the "Theory of Heavenly Speech", but they do not know that he is the first president of Peking University and the second president of Fudan. He also proposed the standard of "faith, da, and ya", which is almost unknown to everyone in the translation community.
Yan Fu was born into a family of traditional Chinese medicine in Fuzhou, whose ancestors were the Central Plains Wangs who migrated south to Fujian.
Yangqi Village, Gaishan Town, Cangshan District, Fuzhou City, Former Residence of Yan Fu. Image source: Visual China
Who did he learn English with, and how did he come into contact with Western learning?
This has to start with a special school in Fujian.
In the last years of the Qing Dynasty, the Qing government, which had suffered so much in the Opium War, decided to revitalize coastal defense, and they chose The port of Mawei in Fuzhou. In 1866, the streets of Fuzhou were plastered with advertisements for admissions to the School of Shipping Administration overnight.
During the late years of the Qing Dynasty, reflecting on the disastrous defeat in the Opium War, the Qing government decided to make a big push for sea defense. They chose Mawei Port in Fuzhou. In 1866, the streets of Fuzhou were plastered overnight with advertisements for enrollment in the Fujian Shipping and Polity School.
In that year, Yan Fu's father died of a cholera patient, and the family was cut off from financial resources, and Yan Fu could no longer study in private school. The Ship Economics Academy not only has free accommodation, but also pays four or two silver every month. Forced to make a living, Yan Fu decided to apply for the examination.
The courses are taught in the original English, and the courses are the natural sciences of the West: advanced mathematics, algebra, geometry, spherical triangles, nautical geography...
After five years of theoretical study and six years of sailing practice, Yan Fu embarked on a completely different path from traditional Sinology.
The students were taught by foreign teachers, using original English textbooks, and the curriculum was western natural sciences. With five years of theoretical study and six years of sailing practice, Yen Fuh embarked on a very different path from traditional Chinese studies.
In 1877, at the age of 23, Yan Fu was selected as one of the first batch of naval students to study in Britain.
Britain was in the golden age of Victoria, and Darwinism influenced all areas of society. There, Yan Fu was deeply influenced by Western culture.
Back then, the UK was in the midst of the Victorian era, where Darwinian doctrine influenced all areas of society. There, Yen Fuh was deeply imbued with Western culture.
Yan Fu (middle of the first row), who was selected by the School of Ship Politics to attend the Royal Naval College in Greenwich, England, took a group photo with his classmates and teachers.
If he hadn't attended the School of Shipping Administration, his famous translation of The Evolution of Heaven might not have been published in the future.
This school is the first systematic Western-style educational institution in China, and it has produced outstanding intellectuals such as Deng Shichang, Liu Butou, Sa Zhenbing, and Zhan Tianyou. Many of them were martyred in the Battle of Jia-Wu.
Today, many remnants of the ship administration can still be seen on the minjiang river.
On August 17, 2020, Fuzhou Mawei Shipping Culture Site overlooked the Shipbuilding Catholic Church complex. Image source: Visual China
In 1921, Yan Fu died in his hometown of Fuzhou, Sanfang Qixiang. He advocated Western learning all his life, but in the first article of his will he warned future generations:
"We must know that China will not perish, and the old school can gain and lose, but it must not be betrayed."
It is important to know that China will not be destroyed, and that the traditional values can be sublated, but must not be totally denied.
Profit or loss: increase or decrease
Lin |
Lin Shu
Regarding Lin Shu, there is a widely circulated stem. It is said that because "Hu Jianren" does not distinguish between "h" and "f", Holmes was translated by him as "Sherlock Holmes".
Although this statement is unfounded, it is enough to see the influence of Lin Yi.
Lin Shu and Wei Yi translated the cover of "The Opening of the Sherlockge Case"
Lin Shu and Yan Fu were old friends from Fuzhou, and during the Republic of China, they often tasted tea and wrote poems together in Beijing. Kang Youwei said that "translating talents and counting Yan Lin" refers to Yan Fu and Lin Shu.
Unlike Yan Fu, who was born into a famous family, Lin Shuzu was a poor peasant for 9 generations in a row, he devoted himself to studying, and at the age of 31, he was lifted up, changing the fate of the cold door.
In the chaotic situation of the late Qing Dynasty, Lin Shu echoed the study of the West and advocated Western learning. This also prompted him to embark on the path of translation. In 1899, Lin Shu translated Dumas's novel "The Testament of the Traviata in Paris", which was the first Chinese translation of Western novels, and Lin Shu was also well-known in the literary world.
In the chaos of the late years of the Qing Dynasty, Lin Shu called for studying the west and advocated western learning. In 1899, Lin Shu translated the novel the Lady with the Camelliasby Alexandre Dumas fils, which was the first Chinese translation of a western novel, and Lin Shu became famous in the literary world.
Lin Shu's former residence, hidden in a residential area in downtown Fuzhou, looks inconspicuous, but brick by brick and wood are well preserved.
He did not know foreign languages, but he was proficient in ancient Chinese, and his poetry was well versed, translating more than 180 works from 11 countries in the way he described them.
He didn’t understand foreign languages, but was proficient in classical Chinese and possessed very high poetry attainments. He translated more than 180 works from 11 countries after hearing others’ explanations.
He claimed that when he translated his writings, his pen was like flowing water, and often "the dictators did not finish their words, but the books were on paper, and they could translate a thousand words at a time, without a word."
Since semantics were left to the interpreter, some criticized the flaws in Lin's translations. He himself said: "The contemptible people do not judge the Western language, but they can write it down, that is, they are false, they are not known." ”
However, his translation idea emphasizes that the translated novels should be faithful to the original work, and must not "carry private goods":
The translator is not a book, a house of writings, he can express what I see, take advantage of the void, and do not do it; if he translates the book, he will tell the deeds that he has accomplished, and can he refer to his own opinion?
The process of translation is not free creation. If it is free creation then you as an author, can write anything you like. But if it is a translation of something that has already been written, then it is helping someone else to tell something that already exists, how can it be mixed with the translator's own opinion?
In the streets of Mawei District, Fuzhou, among the biographies of ship politicians hanging on the wall, there is a person named Wang Shouchang, a native of Fuzhou, who was admitted to the School of Ship Administration in 1878, went to France to study in 1885, and specialized in French for 6 years... The point is that the "Testament of the Lady of Paris La Traviata" written and translated by Lin Shu was dictated by him.
The stories of Fujian's literati and regions are strung together.
Lin | |
Lin Yutang
How good is Lin Yutang's English?
In 1941, Lin Yutang participated in an NBC interview and talked with the host in English about current affairs, fluent in language and clear points of view.
In the meantime, the host threw out a question with a knife hidden in the cotton: "Do young people who stay abroad and return to China have the responsibility to 'develop Chinese democracy'?" ”
I have to say that asking democracy is really the traditional art of some foreign media people...
But Lin Yutang did not hesitate to throw out the traditional Chinese idea of "the people are noble and the king is light" and taught the host a good lesson.
His answer, put to this day, is also textbook-level:
China is... the oldest self-governing nation in the world.
China is the oldest autonomous state in the world.
Mencius long ago said that all men are created equal and any man is capable of development to the moral stature of the saint emperors. And that is about 2500 years ago.
As early as 2500 years ago, Mencius put forward the concept of equality in all men, "saints, people of my kind.".
Mencius further said that in a state, the people are the most important factor and the king is the least important… Mencius is as modern as Thomas Jefferson.
Mencius also pointed out that the people are noble and gentle. Mencius was as advanced as Thomas Jefferson.
Only those who are familiar with Western culture and traditional Chinese culture and are truly proficient in English can give such an answer.
His famous book, My Country and My People, was released in the United States in 1935 and republished seven times within a few months, introducing China to foreigners in a flat and macroscopic manner.
Lin Yutang's learning is also inextricably linked to the region of Fujian.
Lin Yutang was born in 1895 in a small mountain village in Zhangzhou, Fujian Province. Due to the developed sea traffic in Fujian, ships from Various Countries in China and the West have gathered here, creating a diverse culture and religious belief.
A corner of Xichan Temple, one of the five major Zen forests in Fuzhou. Photo by Li Xueqing
Lin Yutang's father was a village priest.
Fathers also attach great importance to teaching their children to learn Chinese studies. On one side of the house hung a Christian pair, on the other side hung a Confucian couplet. In the Qing Dynasty, when everyone wore pigtails, the children of the Lin family cut their hair short early.
Lin's father paid attention to teaching his children traditional Chinese studies. Christian and Confucian couplings were hung in their home. In the Qing Dynasty, when everyone wore braids, the Lin children cut their hair short at an early age.
Childhood Lin Yutang
The combination of Chinese and Western tutors has laid the cultural genes of Lin Yutang.
Like Yan Fu, Lin Yutang's growth story also has a boat. At the age of 10, Lin Yutang went to the church school in Xiamen to study, and he was excited to see the steamship for the first time, which also stimulated his admiration and interest in science, which has not changed in his life.
Although Lin Yutang's life has gone to many places, Minnan will always be in the deepest recesses of his memory. In the novel "Jinghua Smoke And Clouds", which won him four Nobel Prize nominations for literature, it is clear that it tells the story of Beijing, but it reveals the plot of southern Fujian everywhere.
For example, Mulan's saying that "sometimes a bad bamboo tree grows good bamboo shoots" is actually the Hokkien language "bad bamboo makes good bamboo shoots". "A dead duck still has a stiff beak" is the Hokkien proverb "dead duck with a hard mouth". In addition, there are Fujian porcelain, Fujian fireworks, Afei who learned Hokkien in Nanyang...
This is not Zhang Guan Li Dai who does not pay attention to common sense, but the nostalgia that Lin Yutang cannot hide.
The maritime culture of Mindi has deeply shaped and influenced the people, and under the deep and diverse atmosphere, a group of literati and inkers who have studied chinese and Western culture have been nurtured. They have traveled to various countries, but they do not worship the foreign world, they are proficient in Western studies, but they always have the motherland in mind.
What other Fujian cultural celebrities do you know? Share it in the comments section.
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