本文作者和译者在宝鸡“中国青铜器博物馆”

Shaanxi Through Dr. Robin’s Eyes           

罗宾博士看陕西（5）

Qingming in Baoji

     清明在宝鸡

          （英） 罗宾·吉尔班克     

                          胡宗锋   译

        In the half-razed alleys between the temple and the nunnery we dodged tat and rubble. All the way Liz made me rueful for having not accompanied her here twelve months earlier when she and the two exchange students from Bordeaux whom she befriended had filled whole memory cards with images of the old terraces. Condemned buildings bore the freshly-stenciled character chai (“tear down”) as impassively as rows of refrigerated carcasses sport butcher’s dye marks. 

        在庙与庵中间那条被拆了一半的小巷里，我们绕着碎石和瓦块。一路上，白丽诗一直在抱怨我，嫌我没有在一年前就陪她和两个从波尔多来的交换生朋友到这里来，她们的记忆里充满了对这个古塬的印象。被封了的楼上都有一个新喷涂的 “拆”字，那字冷漠得如同动物被宰杀后，冰冻起来时身上的标记。

         A moot point was that I had not been there to witness the residents queuing to extract water from the communal pumps, each carrying designated plastic (formerly ivory) tokens. This was one of those touchstones which helped outsiders to gauge the unequal pace of development between East and West. My maternal grandmother, born in 1913, had grown up believing that her family was somewhat upper-crust because they did not have to rely upon public sanitation. Her mother was not compelled to amble down with the other housewives to fill pails at “Jerry Lane” (named, one can suppose, after the jerry cans they carried) or stand in line at the creamery pump. This may have saved Gran’s life, thus vouchsafing my own. In the hiatus between the Boer War and the Great War our home village in the East Riding experienced a disturbing spike in infant mortality. The cause, which went unacknowledged at the time, was the suspected contamination of the water table with seepage from the neighbourhood privies. 

一个悬而未决的问题是，我还没有看见这儿的人排着队，每个人都拿着塑料牌子（以前是象牙的）到公共水房去打水。这是外人判断东部和西部发展不平衡的试金石之一。我外婆出生于1913年，她长大的时候相信自己家是上流阶层，因为家里人不用公共卫生设施。她的妈妈用不着和其它的家庭主妇一样，到“杰里巷”用桶去提水（大家可以猜出叫“杰里巷”是因为她们手里的桶名），或是排着队等着领牛奶。这也许救了我爷爷的命，于是我也就跟着沾光了。在“布尔战争”和第一次世界大战之间的那段日子里，我老家东赖丁村（东赖丁East Riding英国英格兰东北部约克郡的旧地区，现为亨伯赛德郡的一部分——译者注）的婴儿死亡率很高，其原因（当时还不知道）人们怀疑就是因为附近的厕所渗水，污染了地下水源。

       How much pestilence had of late lurked beneath the streets of eastern Xi’an is anybody’s guess. I am reliably informed that as recently as the 1980s, it was a daily event to see crowds of cross-legged householders waiting to use the over-burdened and almost always blocked, public latrines. Husbands would stand in proxy for their wives and vice versa with breakfast or dinner often being rustled up in the time it took to for their turn to come around. 

      西安东边街道下的藏污纳垢超出人们的猜测，根据我的可靠消息，直到二十世纪八十年代，每天的一道街景就是成群的当地居民夹着腿，等着使用已经超负荷，而且几乎是被堵塞了的公共厕所。有丈夫给妻子排队的，也有妻子给丈夫排队的，常常是该大家一起吃早饭和晚饭时才轮到自己。

          Longer-engrained traditions are still palpable in the vicinity of the East Gate. The proximity of the Taoist Temple and Buddhist Nunnery mean that a slew of religious paraphernalia is on sale. Notwithstanding her own secular inclinations, Liz had managed to accrue a sizeable collection of votive papers during her trips around rural France and the Mediterranean. Now in China, she turned her attentions to so-called “hell money” and other replica items which were burnt for the sake of the dead. Faux banknotes are a convenient take on an age-old custom. In the past, people would laboriously pat coins against plain joss paper to leave behind the impress of the money. Once set alight, the value of the original currency would be supernaturally transferred to the pockets of loved ones who might be facing costly penalties in the underground court or difu. This explains why “hell notes” closely resemble authentic notes save for the fact that they display astronomical denominations such as 250 000 or 1 million yuan. Chairman Mao’s portrait features on some, as on the genuine article. Otherwise, they bear the image and signature of the Jade Emperor, believed in Taoism to preside over the underworld.

       在西安东门附近，一些根深蒂固的传统显然依旧在延续。道教寺院和佛寺的红火意味着大量的宗教物品热销。虽然白丽诗不信教，但她却在法国和地中海周围的乡下旅游时收集了好多祈愿信。到了中国，她的兴趣转向了所谓的“冥币” 和其它一些为逝者焚烧的仿制品。焚烧携带方便的“冥币”是一个古老的习俗，以前人们会费力的用硬币压在祭祀的纸上留下钱印。这些“钱”被烧了以后，就会被转给自己逝去的亲人，从而使其好面对“阴曹地府”昂贵的费用。 故“冥币”  特别像真钱，只是面值乃天文数字，有二十五万和百万大钞。有的“冥币”  和真钱一样有毛主席的头像，有的则印的是在道教里主宰地府的“玉皇大帝”的头像和签名。

        In the present instance, the ancient injunction to observe filial duty to one’s ancestors was suffused with twenty-first century consumerist values. The Xi’an stalls stocked currency as well as clothes and accoutrements with which to kit out the dead. Liz fawned over several dainty pairs of slippers which were so neatly-proportioned that the cardboard may well have been cut according to a shoemaker’s templates. On taking them back to her apartment and performing a more detailed inspection with tweezers, she discovered that the uppers were crafted from cigarette cartons. The gaudy metallic burgundy and gold exteriors just peeped through the tiniest cracks in the lining. 

      在今天，对祖先的孝敬带有二十一世纪浓厚的消费观念。西安的小摊上不仅有“冥币”，而且有仿造的衣服和其它准备孝敬给逝者的东西。白丽诗看好的是几双精美的拖鞋，做工很精巧，肯定是根据鞋匠的模型做成的。等回到住的地方，用镊子夹着仔细一看，她发现鞋帮是用烟盒做的，透过那些华丽的金属红和黄色外饰，还能看到小小的缝隙。

        My own eyes were taken by two objects. The first was a kind of selection box sealed in cellophane, which included imitation personal effects from Fendi sunglasses to credit cards and an Emporio Armani wallet. Foreign newspapers had been awash of late with stories about the high demand for combustible cardboard I-phones, with shoppers in the south of China apparently being willing to part with hundreds of reminbi in order to endow their forbears with the latest smart technology. This box only contained a common or garden Nokia – not so bad given that it cost ten yuan (equivalent to £ 1). The best prize was yet to come as the shopkeeper waved a big silver oblong under my nose. Behold, an Apple Notebook precisely captured in three dimensions. The box was exactly to scale and, delight beyond delights, once an adhesive tab was removed it fell open to reveal a monitor and keyboard.

     有两样东西吸引住了我的目光，一个是用玻璃纸封着的礼品盒，里面包括假的“芬迪”太阳镜，信用卡和“阿玛尼” 钱包。外国的媒体报道说近来用硬纸盒做的“苹果”手机很抢手，这显然是因为南方的一些人愿意花几百元人民币让自己的先人领略最新的智能科技。另一个盒子里有一个普通的“诺基亚” 手机，只卖十元（相当于一英镑）很不错。好东西还在后面，店家在我的鼻子下摇晃着一个长方形的银色盒子。看啊！那可是一模一样的立体“苹果平板电脑”，让人更惊喜的是，打开胶带，里面还有显示屏和键盘。

       Our talk thereafter was full of cynical banter along the lines of “if granny got confused about how to use the landline at home would her spirit really feel blessed to be sent a bluetooth?” We concluded that as with so many other modernized rituals, ostentatious show had come to override the original motive of filial piety. Unbeknown to us, such sarcasm was already part and parcel of the debate over the adulteration of this custom. When I shared our jokes with a colleague, his response was: “Sure, granny can have a Bluetooth, and an I-phone and an Apple Mac, if she wants one. Now that Steve Jobs has passed over to the other side he’s busier than ever demonstrating how to use these technologies to dead Chinese grandparents!” 

  我们的谈话随之充满了嘲讽的玩笑，涉及的话题有“要是老奶奶不会用屋里的固定电话，送个‘蓝牙’她的魂真的会开心吗？”大家最后的结论是，这么多的现代化玩意和扎眼的排场反而是失去了孝道的原本动机。我们不知道，对风俗中这种赝品的风凉话早就有了。当我把这个笑话讲给我的一个同事后，他的反应是：“要是想要，老奶奶当然可以有‘蓝牙’、‘苹果’手机和电脑了，现在乔布斯已经去了彼岸，他更忙了，忙着给中国故去的老爷爷和老奶奶演示怎样使用这些高科技”。

         The purchased paper items sat around in our homes. Not long afterwards, fell the annual Qingming Festival, the spring holiday when it is customary to show reverence to one’s ancestors. The title can be translated as “bright and clear” or “perfect brightness,” though the powers that be prefer the more descriptive name of “Tomb-sweeping Day.” Qingming perhaps dates back more than two millennia and was elevated in importance by the Tang Emperor Xuanzong (reigned 712-56 AD). Discomfited by the extravagant year-round festivities with which the wealthy of Chang’an saluted the deeds of their forebears, he issued an edict requesting that citizens restrict the commemoration of the long-since departed to the fifteenth day after the Spring Equinox. To reinforce his point, Xuanzong turned to Confucius whose Classic of Filial Piety (Xiaojing) had already served for almost one thousand years as the main source for validating reverence to one’s elders. After consulting his leading scholars about the correct interpretation of the sage’s words, the emperor penned a new preface in which he condemned “presumptuous and fallacious” memorials. He, moreover, stressed how he hoped to “administer the country with the principle of universal respect and love” – a plea to take his commands as being in the best interest for maintaining civil order. Xuanzong personally inscribed the preface into a slab so that future generations could take heed of these teachings. At present, the stele stands in Forest of Stone Tablets on the site of the former Confucian temple inside the South Gate of Xi’an. His sentiments have had a far more virile afterlife than he could have ever envisaged. Rubbings of the Classic of Filial Piety stele are a hugely popular tourist souvenir in the adjacent market at Shuyuanmen.

       买回来的纸制品就堆在我们的屋子里，不久就是每年一度的“清明节” 了。

    这个春天的假日习俗是祭奠祖先。“清明”的意思就是“清洁而明净”或“特别敞亮”，而更为形象的叫法应为“扫墓日”。 “清明节”已有两千多年的历史，而得到重视则是在唐玄宗的时候。当时每年的节假日很多，长安的富贵人家为祭奠祖先而发愁，唐玄宗颁布政令，将民众对已故先祖的祭奠定在“春分” 后的第十五天。为了使自己的政令更有说服力，唐玄宗依据的是孔子的思想，儒家的《孝经》当时作为孝敬长者的主要法则已经有近千年的历史。唐玄宗诏令对圣人所言“宜令诸儒并访后进达解者，质定奏闻”，并亲做《孝经序》，在序中谴责“异端起而大义乖”，强调“庶几广爱刑于四海”，呼吁“以孝理天下”。 玄宗还亲自隶书，刻序于碑，以便“庶几有补于将来”。现在，“石台孝经”依旧屹立在西安南门里边的碑林博物馆里，该博物馆的原址是孔庙。玄宗的思想对后人的影响比他在世时大得多，“石台孝经”的拓片在附近的书院门市场是特受人青睐的旅游纪念品。

                        汉语原文刊登在《美文》2016年第5期  （未完待续）

     黑夜孩魂

        寇 挥

 In the depth of night, a child’s soul

 By Kou Hui

                                                         Translated by Hu Zongfeng and Robin Gilbank

胡宗锋  罗宾·吉尔班克 译 

我已经七个多月大了。我在我娘的肚子里。我还不知道外面的世界是什么样子。我是个女孩。我知道这很不好，意味着更多的不幸。我要是个男孩，也就不会有这么多的忧怨了。我将随着我的母亲一起嫁出去。母亲把我带在肚子里一起出嫁。这很叫人难为情。太羞人了。我要是个男孩就不会有这样的感觉。我是不是人？我这种样子是不是能称做人，我的心里还没有底。我将跟着我母亲一起嫁出去，那种糊涂虫会以为我也出嫁了。我还没有来到人世就跟随母亲一起出嫁了。这是什么样的命运呢？为什么这样的命运会摊到我头上？

I am already more than seven months old. I am within my mother’s belly. I don’t know what the outside world is like. I am a girl. I know that this is not good for it means that greater misfortune will lie ahead. If I were a boy I would not have such worries. I am to follow my mother and get married together with her. My mother will be married with me inside her belly. This is very embarrassing; a great shame. If I were a boy I would not have this kind of feeling. Am I a human being? Can I be referred to as a human being in such a state as this? I don’t have any idea in my heart. I will follow my mother and get married together with her. The silly guys will think that I am married too. I will have gotten married together with my mother before I came into the world. What is this fate? Why has it befallen me?  

我看不见外面的世界。我也听不见。也没有别的什么感觉，比如说触摸呀、嗅呀什么的。可我就是知道。我知道肚子外面发生着些什么。我朦朦胧胧知道。我就像沉睡在远方天边的神，即便我没有耳朵眼睛，没有七窍五官，可我就是能够知道世间的事。我感觉到我仿佛不是躺在母亲的肚子里，而是躺在天边的云霞里。我俯瞰着世间万物。那只是我的感觉。我的感觉的游离。即使这种感觉也是可疑的。我说不清它到底是什么。我就是知道，就是知道。这就够了。

I cannot see the outside world, nor can I hear it. I have no other feelings, for instance the senses of touch and smell, but I do know what is happening outside this belly. I am in an obscure state, I know. I am like a god fast asleep at the distant end of the sky. Although I have no ears and eyes, nor any other bodily organs, I do know the things of the world. I feel as if I am not lying in my mother’s belly, but in the distant clouds at the end of the sky. I can have a bird’s eye view of all the things in the world. These are my feelings only. My feelings are drifting. Even the feelings are dubious. I cannot tell what they are. Anyhow, I know. I know about all this. That is sufficient.

我知道我的母亲还不到十六岁。她十五岁零八个月。按照当地的风俗习惯，他们会说我母亲虚岁十六岁，实岁十五。这儿是渭河平原。平原上生活着千千万万秦人的后代，腔调厚重的关中农民。我母亲生活在那个名叫黄堡的小镇上。这就是大作家柳青的《创业史》中所描写的那个镇子。我的母亲名叫素芳。柳青写了我的母亲，可他却忽略了她肚子里的我。看来，这个大作家没有把我当人看待。在他的意识里，我不是《创业史》里的人物。我居然不幸到了这种地步？我依旧在渭河平原上游荡。我的冤魂是不会散去的。

I know that my mother is not yet sixteen years old. She is fifteen and eight months. According to the local custom they may say that her nominal age is sixteen, though she is fifteen in fact. This place is on the plateau of the River Wei. Thousands and thousands of descendents of the State of Qin have dwelt here. They are the peasants of the Guanzhong Plain, with their strong local accent. My mother lives in a small town named Yellow Fortress. This was the town described by the famous author Liu Qing in his novel The Builders. My mother is called Su Fang. Liu Qing wrote something about my mother, though he ignored me inside my mother’s belly. It seems that the great writer did not regard me as being human. I am not a character in The Builders. How could I have sunk into such an unfortunate state? I am still wandering about the plateau of the River Wei. My wronged soul refuses to vanish. 

 我的母亲请求她的母亲不要把她嫁给几十里外的蛤蟆滩的那个憨拴拴，她说他的年龄太大了。我的外婆说，傻女子，你不懂。咱们现在脸黑了，就得说脸黑了的话。拴拴虽然年龄大，可他憨呀。咱要的就是憨。灵光的人，咱可斗不过。拴拴的爹是个瞎子，这就更好了，到时候还不是你说了算？乖女子，你就不会吃亏了。我能理解我外婆的话。她不管我母亲肚子里的我是怎么来的。她不管。她不想追查这件事。她大概不想把事情弄得太大。我的外公是个瘾君子，整个家产都给他吸得变成灰了。他不会有什么话好说的。他巴不得我母亲嫁出去。家里少了一个人吃饭，省出来的饭钱，外公可以把它直接卷成卷儿冒烟儿。我是从哪儿来的呢？我的另外一半是谁的？《创业史》里有过详细的交代。我宁愿当瞎子，也不想把那样的交代告诉你们。你们要是有兴趣，就翻翻柳青的书。那本书至少因为写到了我的出身——就因为这一点也是应该读一读的。里面没有写我的母亲是如何嫁到贫穷的蛤蟆滩的。那是个村子吗？既然是人居住的村落，为什么要起个蛤蟆滩呢？敢自那儿是蛤蟆的天地吧。我母亲是脸黑了的人，可想而知，她的婚礼是什么样的。她不可能像其他的姑娘那样结婚，操办酒席，请客邀友，呼朋引类，好不热闹，好不张扬。我母亲是悄悄来到蛤蟆滩的。就像世界上什么事都没有发生那样，我的母亲来到了蛤蟆滩。我的母亲的脸既然黑了，那么我呢？等待着我的是什么样的命运呀？多么难听的词呀：脸黑了！白白净净的十六岁姑娘的脸怎么会黑呢？我的母亲素芳长得满漂亮的。可她的脸黑了。一张白净的脸全让黑灰给抹黑了。不是上台唱戏，可她的脸就是黑了。那是谁都看不见的黑。那种黑在每个人的心里。特别是在瞎子老汉的心里。瞎子老汉虽然看不见什么，可他能看见他的心。他的心里的世界是明亮的。在他的心里的世界里，我的母亲的脸一定是黑得没法再要了。他把那种对黑的感觉传导给他的儿子拴拴。这是两个光棍汉，一个老光棍和一个半老的光棍。拴拴虽然还没有结过婚，年龄也只有他爹的少一半，可他看起来也像个老汉了。长年的光棍生涯把他折磨得过于苍老了。他三十多岁的人，看起来好像有五十岁。拴拴的娘死了。什么时候死的，我不太清楚。我的母亲和我就这样嫁到两个光棍汉的家里。他们是穷人。穷倒也没什么，有个地方住，有饭吃，不饿肚子，能活下去，也就不挑剔什么了。这不是问题。我外婆家也不富，外公把那么多家产都吸成烟和灰了，我外婆也没有把他赶出家门。穷不是问题。穷并不要命。我的十六岁的小母亲呵，你为什么要带着我出嫁呢？你难道不能把我生到娘家以后再出嫁？我抱怨我的母亲，可我的母亲又向谁抱怨呢？我的母亲的脸黑了，我的脸就更不用提了。

My mother has begged her mother to not marry her off to Silly Shanshan in Toad Flats dozen of miles away. She said that he was too old, yet my maternal grandma said “Daft girl. You don’t understand. Our faces have now been blackened. When our faces are black we have to say whatever we should. Even though Shanshan is too old, he is silly. That’s the type of chap we want. If he were clever we would be no match for him. Shanshan’s father is blind. That is even better. In that set-up won’t you be the one to wear the trousers? My good daughter, you won’t suffer.” I could understand my maternal grandma’s words. She doesn’t care where I, inside my mother’s belly, have come from. She doesn’t care about that. She doesn’t want to investigate the matter. Maybe she doesn’t want to cause a stir. My maternal grandpa is a drug addict. The entire family estate has been reduced to ashes in his opium pipe. He doesn’t have a fig to say about this. He is eager to marry off my mother. In this way there will be one fewer mouth to feed at home and the money saved can be used as tapers. Where did I come from? Who supplied the other half of me? There is a detailed description of this in The Builders. I would rather be struck blind than tell you about this. If it interests you, you may read Liu Qing’s novel. The novel at least describes my birth – for this reason you should read the book, though it does not report how my mother came to be married off into the poverty-stricken Toad Flats. Is that a village? Since it is a village deemed fit for human habitation, why does it have the name Toad Flats? Could it be that the place is the domain of toads? My mother’s face has been blackened. You may imagine what her wedding will be like. She could never marry as other ordinary girls do, holding a ceremony, inviting over friends and relatives, and creating a boisterous atmosphere. My mother comes to Toad Flats in secret as if nothing in the world has happened. My mother arrives at Toad Flats. My mother’s face has been blackened. What about me, then? What fate awaits me? What ugly-sounding words - “her face has been blackened.” How could the clean white face of a sixteen year old girl become black? My mother, Su Fang, is beautiful. Yet her face has been blackened. A clean white face has been blackened by black dust. She is not going onto the stage to sing opera. Nonetheless, her face has been painted black. That black is invisible to everyone and still is sensed in everybody’s hearts, especially in the heart of the blind old man. Even though the blind old man can see nothing he can perceive his own heart. The world of his heart is bright. In the world of his heart, my mother’s face must be blacker than black. He has passed on his apprehension of that blackness to his son Shanshan. These are two single men; an old single man and one who is halfway to becoming old. Although Shanshan has never been married and he has attained half the age of his father, he too resembles an elderly man. That long life of bachelorhood has tortured him into the semblance of old age. He is in his early thirties, but looks as though he is in his fifties. Shanshan’s mother is dead. I am unclear about when exactly she passed away. It was in this way that my mother and I have come to enter the household of this pair of single men. They are paupers. Poverty is not an issue so long as we have a dwelling place, food to devour, and are not afflicted with hunger. Just as long as we can carry on with our lives we do not care about this. There is no problem. My maternal grandma’s home is also poor. Despite the fact that my maternal grandpa has smoked away the household assets, my grandma has never driven him out. Poverty is not a problem. Poverty itself cannot kill a person. My little sixteen year-old mother - why did you bring me into this marriage? Couldn’t you have given birth in your own home and have gotten married later on? I complain about my mother, but to whom should my mother complain? My mother’s face has been blackened. There is no need to mention about mine.

蛤蟆滩，蛤蟆滩，只有蛤蟆没有人。人不如蛤蟆啊！

我是注定不能活着降生人世上的。我与瞎子老汉、拴拴一家没有任何血缘关系。我永远不会叫拴拴爹的，也不会叫瞎子老汉一声爷爷。本来就不是嘛。况且，他们把我看作他们的耻辱，根本不允许我见到一线阳光。他们把我妈妈娶过去后，首先要解决掉的就是我。我的母亲有什么能力保护我呢？她连她自己都保护不了。谁来救我呀！

Toad Flats, Toad Flats, only toads with no people. The people are lower than the toads!

I am destined not to be born into this world alive. I have no blood ties with the blind old man and Shanshan. I will never call Shanshan “Daddy,” nor will I call the blind old man “Grandpa.” Actually they don’t deserve these titles. What is more, they refer to me as their “shame.” They don’t allow me to glimpse a single ray of light. After they bring my mother over, the first matter they wish to resolve is me. How can my mother be strong enough to protect me? She cannot even protect herself. Who will come and save me!

我到了魔窟一样的地方。我母亲带着我出嫁，蛤蟆滩就变成了魔窟。我的生命的魔窟。这个世界上没有人能够救我。黄堡镇上的我的外婆一家对我也爱莫能助。她早早把我母亲嫁出去，目的只有一个。蛤蟆滩是我的葬身之地。这座贫穷的村庄，人们像蛤蟆一样繁衍生息。人们把这样的年月叫做五十年代。我影影忽忽地对蛤蟆滩有了一种画面感。我能感觉出村庄里的房子是什么样的，人是什么样的。有一个老汉每天早晨都在村道上拾牛粪。人们把他叫做梁三老汉，他的儿子就是梁生宝。实际上，梁生宝不是他的亲儿子。梁生宝的妈妈是在他还没长成大小伙子的时候带着他一起嫁到梁三老汉家的。生宝母子讨饭，流浪到了蛤蟆滩。生宝是多么幸运……

I have come into this place which is like a den of demons. My mother brought me with her to get married. Toad Flats has been transformed into a den of demons. The den of demons in my life. In this world no one can save me. My maternal grandma’s home at Yellow Fortress Town is also impotent. They only had one purpose in marrying off my mother at such an early age. Toad Flats will be my burial ground. In such a poor village people procreate like toads. People call this era “the 1950s.” I have formed a vague picture of how Toad Flats must appear. I have some inkling about what the houses and the people are like in the village. There is an old man collects cowpats from the village lane each morning. People call him “Old Man Liang the Third.” His son is Liang Shengbao. Actually Liang Shengbao is not his biological son. When he was not yet fully grown his mother fetched him over and she married Liang the Third. Shengbao and his mother wandered into Toad Flats as beggars. How fortunate Shengbao was ….  

                                                                 （未完待续）

作家阿莹

玉华宫之路

阿 莹

A Journey to the Yuhua Palace

By A Ying

Translated by Hu Zongfeng and Robin Gilbank

                                                                  胡宗锋 罗宾·吉尔班克 译

我是小时候从西游记的神话里知道玄奘这个名字的。那时只知道他一念咒语就能把孙悟空拿捏住，知道妖怪想吃他的肉长生不老。长大后磕磕绊绊地读了大雁塔的碑碣，才知道史上还真有个西天取经的高僧，不但率领马队从印度驮回几十箧佛经，还将梵文翻译成了老百姓能懂的汉语。近来丝绸之路热络起来，使得玄奘愈发地引人关注了，那最后的归寂玉华宫便不断地勾起我拜谒的念头。

While still only a child, I got to know the name of Xuanzang from the myth of Journey to the West. At that time I only knew that whenever he chanted a charm the Monkey King would be brought under his control and all of the monsters would want to devour his flesh so as to become immortal. When I reached adulthood I read the stone tablets at the Big Wild Goose Pagoda. I thereby realized that in history there genuinely was a Holy Master who went to the West to collect Sutras. He not only carried back dozens of baskets of Sutras from India together with his caravan, but translated Sanskrit into vernacular Chinese as well. Recently, the Silk Road has become popular again, a phenomenon which has also caused more people to take an interest in Xuanzang. I have frequently longed to visit and offer homage at Yuhua Palace, the place where he finally passed away.

  但我没想到那佛风绵厚的玉华宫会深隐在桥山老林里，曲折颠簸的路途很快便失去了闲逸，似乎成了玄奘法师艰难行程的诠释。终于驶上一个高巅，我回望泛着枯黄的山峦，似能依稀分辨出密林丛中的小路，似有古衫负笈人在影影绰绰地迈步。是的，那年玄奘孤身从玉门关“偷渡”出境的时候，只是个年仅二十八岁的年青僧人，是凭着超人的意志踏上茫茫旅程的。听说宋人创作的那幅“负笈图”是玄奘留存于世的唯一形象，而今藏在日本哪个博物馆里被奉为至宝。的确，以前我以为玄奘所以要历千难去“西天”取经，是东土大唐佛经稀缺，后来才知晓当时的佛教势力已经蔚为可观，西域人鸠摩罗什译著的三藏经卷已遍布寺庙塔垣，而且高僧辈出，各领风韵，全社会弥漫着礼佛氛围。唐初诗人杜牧就曾发感慨：“南朝四百八十寺，多少楼台烟雨中”。陪同的玉华人坦言告诉我，玄奘当时认为眼前释盛，已然丢掉了佛陀本真的教旨，是为佛界之乱象矣。所以他期望通过取经弘法能“重树”佛教“正统”，至今想想大法师当年的抉择依然钦佩不已。

However, I never expected that the palace, so heady with the atmosphere of Buddhism, would be concealed among the ancient forests of Mount Qiao. The undulating terrain of the zigzagging road soon saps away people’s leisurely and pleasurable feelings. It seems to be evoking the hard journey of Master Xuanzang. At last we drove to the top of a high hill. I turned around and gazed at the withered and yellow mountains as if I could discern the small components in the midst of the dense forest. People wearing ancient robes and carrying baskets were moving along the distantly indistinct path. Yes, that year when Xuanzang departed alone from the Yumen Pass and “smuggled himself” abroad he was a young monk of only twenty-eight. He stepped out onto the far-flung journey with a supernatural will. It is said that the portrait of him in which he is carrying a basket, executed by a person in the Song Dynasty, was the only image of Xuanzang in the world. The painting has been obtained by a museum in Japan and is now revered as an artifact of immense value. Before, I had thought that Xuanzang endured various hardships to travel to the West because the Great Tang Dynasty was in want of Sutras. Later on, I learnt that Buddhism had already presented itself as a magnificent spectacle. The Sutras, translated by Kumārajīva who came from the Western Regions, had already been broadcast widely among every one of the temples and pagodas. So many Holy Masters also appeared and each had their own domains of doctrine. The whole society was permeated with the atmosphere of Buddhist rites. Du Mu, the Tang Dynasty poet, once sighed with emotion: “Four hundred and eighty temples in the Southern Dynasty/ How many towers and balconies are rinsed in rain.” The escort at Yuhua told me frankly that Xuanzang thought that although Buddhism prospered they had lost the authentic doctrines of Buddhism. Hence, a mess was created in the Buddhist world. Thus he hoped that through his search for Sutras and his spreading of the authentic Buddhism, the authorities of Buddhism might be rebuilt. Even now when I think of that Master’s resolve and decision I am still filled with admiration.

 似乎轮下的道路平坦起来，两边的树木旌旗般向后快速倒去，刚刚的摇摆似乎在衬托现在的舒适。我想，玄奘的壮举相当成功，待他从印度归来的时候，正逢中国历史上辉煌的贞观盛世，大唐皇帝唐太宗知悉他历经十七年磨难，从西域取回佛典和舍利不由地大为感动，派出丞相与大臣出城远迎为唐争光的一代高僧，还举行了声震朝野的欢迎仪式。尽管此时玄奘的袈裟还沾着异域风霜，但他内心志得神定，依旧延续着印度曲女法会上的儒雅。可谓：华盖当蔽日，信众四海来。万人空巷跪，玄奘携经归。那惜才如命的唐太宗见到玄奘如获至宝，随即遣人将长安城内的慈恩寺改造成皇家译场，这个浩大的寺院占地五百余亩，大概是今日大雁塔的七倍了，且不知那时城里的地价与城外是否可以等而论之。

The road beneath the wheels seemed to become more even. The trees on both sides flashed back like banners. The bumping we experienced just then appeared to have been foreshadowing our present comfort. I thought that Xuanzang’s grand behavior was rather successful. When he came back from India it happened to be the Zhengguan Period of the Tang Dynasty, the most prosperous epoch in Chinese history. The Emperor Taizong of the Tang Dynasty knew that he had endured seventeen years of hardship and had come back with Sutras and the relic bones of Sakayamuni. The Emperor was deeply moved by his effort. He dispatched prime ministers and other Royal officials to go out of the city to meet the one who had won glory for the Tang Dynasty. A nationwide ceremony was held. Even though Xuanzang’s patchwork outer vestment still carried the wind and frost of a foreign country, he was in possession of a peaceful and holy mind. The grace and elegance of his disputation at Qunü yet remained upon him. It is said that: “His glory outshone the sun/ His disciples came from the Four Seas/ Thousands of people knelt in the empty lanes/ Awaiting Xuanzang’s return with the Sutras.” The Emperor Taizong of the Tang Dynasty cherished talented people as much as he did his own life. He greeted Xuanzang as if he had encountered a treasure without price. He sent people to reshape the Great Temple of Good Will into a Royal Translation Workshop. The huge temple covered an area of more than 500 mu, which was almost seven times larger than the present site of the Big Wild Goose Pagoda complex. It is not known whether at that time the cost of land outside the city was the same as that inside.

后来，玄奘在慈恩寺度过了十二个春秋，那应该是玄奘一生中最为惬意的时光。白天他手持特别“通行证”，可以随意进出长安城里那片万众仰慕的宫苑，可以与圣皇纵论西域风情轶事，也可以对朝纲政要发表见解；晚上才召集弟子们围坐在译场，一句一句地解疑艰涩深奥的经文。而唐太宗对玄奘恭敬如国师，不仅应玄奘请求为译著亲撰了《大唐三藏圣教序》，还敕命官银刊印发往皇家寺庙。后来，还几劝玄奘还俗入朝为官，但玄奘面对这般盛情诱惑，表现了一代高僧的清高傲骨，坦言今生要把梵经译完，以匡正风靡社会的种种“歪理学说”，玄奘的德行感动了万千信众，以致满朝官吏和黎民以能眼见这样一位圣贤而感到三生有幸。由此可见，唐太宗对他的器重已到了令人嫉妒的程度。

Xuanzang spent twelve years in the temple, which ought to have been the coziest time of his life. During the daytime, with a special pass in his hand, he could go in and out of the Royal Palace in Chang’an City at will. Thousands and thousands of people wished they could gain admittance to that place. He could converse with the Emperor about the customs and anecdotes of the Western Regions. He could also offer his suggestions about the rules of the Court and about government policy. Only in the night could he gather his disciples and sit around in the Translation Workshop and translate the difficult and profound Sutras sentence-by-sentence. The Emperor Taizong of the Tang Dynasty respected Xuanzang as a Royal teacher. He not only wrote the Preface for Xuanzang’s translated works****. He also established an official fund to have copies printed and distributed to the temples. Later, he even persuaded Xuanzang to resume secular life and become a Court official. However, when faced with the allure of this grand invitation Xuanzang showed that his proud bones were aloof from politics and material pursuits. He candidly confessed that he should finish the translation of the Sutras during his lifetime so as to restore the “various heretic sayings” which are popular in society. Xuanzang’s virtue moved thousands and thousands of disciples. Court officials and ordinary people alike regarded it as a great fortune to observe the Holy Master with their own eyes. From this we can see that the Emperor Taizong of the Tang Dynasty cherished Xuanzang so much that it caused others to be overcome with jealousy.

 但是，当我们慢慢驶近玉华宫高阔的门阙，心情还是不由地沉重起来。现今的门阙修得斜山挑檐华彩绚烂，似乎想唤起人们对当年皇家避暑胜地的辉煌记忆。然而，玄奘当年一定是乘着御车慢腾腾走进这道门阙的，当时的心情也一定郁闷难耐。这位庄严博学的大德，在唐太宗给他营造的曼妙般的氛围里，可能编织过一个藏于心底的天大秘密，就是通过佛养滋润将唐太宗渡为中国的阿育王，至少可以通过皇权来推动弘法崇佛，否则他何必天天不厌其烦地伴驾左右呢？然而，玄奘法师毕竟是一位出家僧人，他显然高估了自己与皇室的关系，竟然试图改变佛教的社会地位。文献记载他曾几次向唐高宗表奏，把佛教奉于道教和儒教之上，僧侣免受刑律的管辖。可想执着坚韧的玄奘，之前也一定给更欣赏他的唐太宗有过类似流露。谁都知晓李唐王朝一直将道教祖师李耳奉为祖先，这些懵懂的提议显然使圣皇感到了难堪。但唐太宗毕竟是个雄才大略的政治家，他后来下旨让玄奘将《道德经》译成梵文，就是对大法师一个委婉的提醒。

Nonetheless, as we drew slowly towards the broad and tall gateways of the Yuhua Palace our hearts became somewhat gloomy. The restored gate of the present day was glorious and colorful as if it wished to recall people’s memories of the grandeur of the Royal summer resort of the past. Nevertheless, Xuanzang must have gone through this gateway slowly in the Royal carriage. His heart must have been gloomy too at that time. In the great atmosphere created for him by the Emperor this solemn, learned and virtuous Master may have woven a great secret in his heart. Namely, that through nourishment of Buddhist doctrines he wished to cultivate Emperor Taizong into being a Chinese Asoka or, at least, he could push forward the spread of Buddhist doctrines and laws through Royal power. Otherwise there was no need for him to take great pains to accompany the Emperor day-after-day. Master Xuanzang was after all a monk. He obviously esteemed his relationship with the Royal Court highly. He even sought to elevate the social position of Buddhism. According to documents, several times he advised the Emperor Gaozong of the Tang Dynasty to place Buddhism above Taoism and Confucianism and to allow Buddhist monks to not be bound by the word of the secular laws. We may imagine that the determined Xuanzang had also previously revealed this thought to his admirer the Emperor Taizong. Everybody knows that the Tang Dynasty, governed as it was by the Li family, worshiped Laozi (whose personal name was Li Er), the founder of Taoism as their ancestor. Xuanzang’s unworldly suggestion made the Emperor feel awkward, but when all is said and done the Emperor was a politician with an acute strategic sense. He later issued a Royal edict that Xuanzang should translate theDao De Jing into Sanskrit. This action was actually a veiled warning to the great Master.

忽然山路颠簸起来，一个凹坑使得车子弹起来，身子东倒西歪，头也碰到了顶棚，却又不好抱怨道路的坎坷。估计玄奘接旨后没有警惕，依然固执己见，时不时还会露出不屑。那唐太宗心里一定恼怒了得，却又不好无端发作。终于，他遇到了狠狠敲打大法师的机会了，玄奘的得意门生辩机竟然收藏了公主一只宝枕，被人举报发现了。传说这位高徒一表人才，那部不朽的《大唐西域记》，就是由玄奘口述，由辩机整理成书的，至今这部巨著的署名还是他们两个。玄奘当然知道此乃佛门大忌，而这可是难得的弟子啊，若能潜心修炼必成高僧的，他当时可能想恳求皇上刀下留人，但唐太宗却没有丝毫犹豫，敕命腰斩辩机于午门，声声哀号，越墙破垣。尽管这桩情案本与玄奘无关，但公开施刑透露了对大法师的轻蔑，其中的意味让人不寒而栗，也一定让玄奘久久难以释怀，只能悄悄把爱徒骨灰放在译场金台，示意弟子在天之灵依旧伴随着弘法伟业。

Suddenly, the mountain road became bumpy again. A pothole in the road made the car bounce up. Our bodies swayed left and right and my head knocked against the ceiling of the car, but we could not complain about the poor condition of the road. Maybe Xuanzang did not sense the warning when he received the Royal order. He still stubbornly persisted in his own suggestion and, from time-to-time, it appeared that he was a victim of others’ condescension. The Emperor Taizong of the Tang Dynasty must have felt annoyed, though found no way in which he could lose his composure. Eventually, the Emperor found an opportunity to prod the great Master. Xuanzang’s favorite disciple Bian Ji stole the jade pillow belonging to the princess. Someone reported this and it was exposed. It is said that this learned disciple was very handsome. The immortal Annals of the Tang Monk in the Western Regions was narrated by Xuanzang but compiled by Bian Ji. To this day, that masterpiece still bears their two names as the authors. Xuanzang, of course, knew that this was a taboo for a Buddhist disciple, yet Bian Ji was his choice disciple. If he kept on meditating he was sure to become a Holy Master. Xuanzang might have asked the Emperor to spare Bian Ji’s life, but the Emperor did not hesitate at all. He issued the order and Bian Ji was cut in two at the waist. The sound of mourning spread far and wide, echoing through the city walls and towers. Although this love affair had nothing whatsoever to do with Xuanzang, the public execution showed the Emperor’s disdain towards the great Master. That implication made the people shiver all over even though they were not cold. It also made Xuanzang dismiss the thought from his mind. He could only deposit the ashes of his beloved disciple atop the golden tower in his Translation Workshop. This manifested how his soul which was in the heavens still accompanied him as he spread Buddhist virtues and law.

后来的新皇唐高宗似乎更对玄奘戒备有加，有位朝臣大概摸到皇脉，竟然一口气向法师提出佛学四十疑，想不到皇上竟然下令设坛论辩，你来我往，唇枪舌剑，尽管最后的结局似乎玄奘占了上风，但对一代高僧尊严的挑战是复杂无比的，可谓虽胜犹败。此时此刻，此情此景，出家为僧的玄奘当然明白激流勇退的道理，于是再次恳请唐高宗恩准到河南少林寺修行，那里毕竟远离皇室，也与家乡亲人近了许多，但是高宗只允诺他往玉华宫译经，还在表奏上御题了“切复陈情”，四个冰冷的小字浓缩了皇室对他的全部感情。后来，已经六十多岁的大法师只好对外界宣称，为避烦扰去深山老林弘法译经去了，而内心的纠结应该是他挥之不去的郁闷啊！

Later, the new Emperor Gaozong seemed to be even more vigilant towards Xuanzang. One of the Royal ministers felt the pulse of the Emperor. He raised forty doubting questions about Buddhism before the great Master. Unexpectedly, the Emperor issued an order that a debating forum should be established. The debate caused verbal swords to be crossed. This ended with Xuanzang assuming the upper hand. Even so, the challenge to the dignity of the Holy Master was exceedingly complicated. Xuanzang won a Phyrric victory. At this moment, faced with all the things that had happened, Xuanzang as a monk of course knew the truth of withdrawing from the torrent in his prime. He again made a pledge to the Emperor Gaozong and sought to be allowed the chance to cultivate himself in the Shaolin Temple in Henan. That place was far from the Royal Palace and also close to his hometown and kinsmen. But, the Emperor Gaozong only permitted him to go to the Yuhua Palace and translate the Sutras there. The Emperor also added a supplementary note to the Royal document stating “never repeat same request.” Condensed into those four small, cold words were all of the feelings of the Royal Palace towards the Holy Master. Later, although aged more than sixty, the Holy Master had to declare to the outside that in order to avoid worldly troubles he would go to the deep mountains and ancient forests to translate the Sutras. But what remained in his mind was that gloominess which he could not drive away.

       沿着曲折的石阶走进一处林深草密的山坳，眼前豁然出现一面泛着褐红的崖壁，一条掏凿的石廊起伏着伸向山峦深处。玉华人指出这就是当年玄奘的译场肃成院，那地上还依旧痕修了三圈基柱，揭示大殿的规模和形制，但我看那些石柱围成的面积绝不算宽敞，唯有峭壁上深深浅浅的凹槽与之遥遥相应，似在顽强地发散着大唐王朝曾经的巍峨。那后面的过洞曲径通幽，还沿壁拥挤着一个一个的龛窟，里面的佛像已了无踪影，只在龛外隐约可见护法神的轮廓。玉华人信誓旦旦告诉我，玄奘当时每天斋后会沿石廊散步，侧身可观大千天象，回眸可见佛窟的肃穆。而我想那时玄奘追随者众多，也许这里是僧众们打坐修炼的地方。

We walked along a winding set of stone stairs and onto a hillside covered in thick grass and deep forests. In front of us appeared a brick red cliff face with a corridor hewn into it. This stretched far into the mountains. The local Yuhua people pointed out that this was where Xuanzang’s translation workshop, the Sucheng School, was to be found. On the ground the bases of three concentric rings of pillars had been rebuilt on the remaining traces of the former ones. These indicated the shape and scale of the one-time palace. Despite this, I found that the area encircled by those stone pillars was not so spacious. Only the deep or shallow grooves upon the cliff coordinated with them from a distance as if still radiating the grandeur of the once-great Tang Dynasty. The cave passages behind it formed a winding path that led us to quiet seclusion. Shrines were jammed-in one-after-another across the surface of the cave walls, but the statues of the Buddha which had been inside them were all gone. From the exterior of those shrines people could merely perceive the outlines of the guardian gods. Local Yuhua people swore oaths and told us that every day after his meal Xuanzang would take a walk along the stone corridor. To one side he could observe the natural phenomena of the heavens. When he turned back he could see the solemn cave of the Buddha. I am of the opinion that at that time Xuanzang had so many followers that perhaps here was the place where all of the disciples sat in meditation.

出得洞口有一条漏水石槽，上面还煞有介事地覆有一块钢化玻璃，以示玄奘当年就是在这儿小腿摔伤，久卧不起驾鹤西去的。众人听罢围在一圈不禁唏嘘起来，想那时玄奘骨伤在床，精力不济，法相日衰，知道自己将不久于凡尘，不由地抚摸着未译的经卷，不禁感慨岁月的沧桑和蹉跎，少年志向，至今未了，心里涌满了深深的悔意，千不该万不该，历经千难万险回到长安，却把黄金时间耗在与皇室的纠缠上了，以致多少岁月白白流逝了，尽管皇恩浩荡尽享荣华，但从那烂陀寺带回的佛典还有些没有打开。

当想释怀：前朝多少事，回首错错错！

Outside the entrance of the cave there was a stone trough from which water was leaking out. People had placed a glass cover over it so as to make a show of treating the artifact earnestly. It was, after all, on this spot that Xuanzang broke his small leg and was thereafter left bedridden until he passed away. After hearing that story the audience pressed around in a circle and could not help but sigh. At that time Xuanzang lay in bed with his bones aching. His energy was diminished and his understandings of the Sutras gradually became more tenuous. He may have realized that he was soon to leave the mortal world. He stroked those un-translated Sutras, regretting how time flies and how time had slipped away through his fingers without him having achieved a thing. He had not fulfilled the goal after which he had been striving from when he was young. His heart was swamped with deep regret. He really should not have come back to Chang’an on the back of various hardships and then have wasted his golden time rubbing shoulders with royalty. How much time had been frittered away in vain? Although the Emperor’s gratitude furnished him with grandeur and comfort those Sutras he had brought back from the Indian temples still remained unopened. When recalling this he brought to mind the couplet: “How many things happened in previous reigns/ When I look back all is wrong, wrong, wrong!”

当然玉华宫这最后四年，凝心聚力，废寝忘食，翻译的经典超过了长安十五年的总和，但距离法师的志向仍然还有遗憾，那可是他在佛主塔前许下的宏愿啊！玄奘仰望大殿里释迦牟尼法像，不由地喟然长叹，喃喃念诵弥勒佛经，声若呜咽，气如游丝，慢慢地闭上了疲惫的眼睛。而当那唐高宗知悉病情，急遣御医快马赶到玉华宫，大法师已经圆寂升天多时了。

For the last four years in the Yuhua Palace, Xuanzang focused his strength, forgetting to eat and sleep. The Sutra he translated was equal in size to all that he had completed in fifteen years in Chang’an. Still he was a long way from the will of the Master. He had taken his oath in front of the Master’s Pagoda. Raising his head Xuanzang had gazed at the image of Sakayamuni in the grand palace. He could do nothing but heave a long sigh. He then murmured, chanting the Sutra of Maitreya, his voice being full of sobs, his breath thin and short. He then slowly closed his fatigued eyes. By the time that the Emperor Gaozong heard about his infirmity and sent the Royal doctor to dash on horseback to the Yuhua Palace the Holy Master had been deceased for quite a while.

  离那肃成院遗址不远是玄奘法师纪念馆，青砖红梁，古典优雅，然而顺着玉华人的讲解我惊诧地看到，橱窗里竟然绘有一张玄奘创立的佛门“法相宗传承表”。我定定地凝视良久，不禁悲从中来，想不到大法师圆寂之后，众弟子竟然一个个都默默散去了；想不到玄奘的衣钵只在我国传承三代就了无踪影了。仔细寻问才明白，那玄奘一生专注于佛学的印度化，被他奉为要旨的“五姓论”，就是要将修行慧果与种姓挂钩，末等人即使毕生苦修也难抵佛界，这就与执意吸纳儒道文化，宣扬人人可以修身成佛的其它佛宗产生了对峙，广大信众也就当然对其敬而远之了。由此看来那句著名的“放下屠刀，立地成佛”，是绝不会出自法相宗的；由此看来佛论也是要不断吸纳创新，才能接上地气流行开的。

Not far away from the relics of the Sucheng Courtyard is the Memorial to Master Xuanzang. It is classical and elegant with grey bricks and red beams. Following the guide’s explanations I found that there was a genealogical table tracing the Faxiang School that was founded by Xuanzang. I stood there quietly and stared for a long time. I felt sad because I had not expected that after the death of the Master all of his disciples would leave silently one-by-one. Xuanzang’s inheritance only remained in China for three generations and then disappeared. After having made detailed enquiries I learnt that in all of his life Xuanzang concentrated on the Indianization of Buddhism. The essence of his Five Ranks Theory actually served to connect his meditation with the castes of India. Members of the lowest caste, no matter how hard they meditate, may never reach Nirvana. This is in conflict with other Buddhist doctrines which absorbed the culture of Confucianism and declared that everybody could cultivate himself and become a Buddha. Hence, his followers were certain to keep a distance from him while simultaneously showing respect. From this we can observe that the famous saying “drop one’s cleaver and become a Buddha” did not derive from the Faxiang School. In addition, we can see that Buddhist theory ought to continuously absorb more material in order that it develops a connection with the locality and grows in popularity.

  又有山风忽然刮过，更掺着丝丝凉意，我仰望层层叠叠的枯棕山林，看着那崖畔上一排排白花花的冰挂，胸中忽然升腾起无限感慨，感觉崎岖的山路一直伸向低垂的云头，真像有披着袈裟的僧人，在缓缓走进西天的妙境，也把国人的气魄和智慧永远镌刻在西行途中了……

Another gust of mountain wind blew over with a chill. I raised my head and looked at the layers of mountains and forests. I saw a row of white icicles hanging from the cliff. A surge of infinite emotion suddenly arose in my heart. I sensed that the winding mountain path was stretching up to the low-hanging clouds. It genuinely did resemble a monk in a vestment walking towards the wonderland in the West, a man who carved indelibly the grandeur and the wisdom of the Chinese people on his road to the West ….

录一首杨绛先生翻译的诗歌：

  I strove with none

Walter Savage Landor

我和谁都不争

（英）瓦尔特·兰德 　　

I strove with none,

for none was worth my strife;

Nature I lov’d, and next to Nature, Art;

I warm’d both hands before the fire of life;

It sinks, and I am ready to depart. 　　　　　　

我和谁都不争，

和谁争我都不屑；

我爱大自然，

其次就是艺术；

我双手烤着生命之火取暖；

火萎了，

我也准备走了

                    ——杨绛 译

在“陈忠实散文翻译研讨会”上陈忠实先生为罗宾博士签名

Chen Zhongshi Remembered: Crossing the Ba

 灞陵伤别——忆陈忠实 

                             （英）罗宾·吉尔班克

                     胡宗锋  译

        The idea of a foreigner commemorating Chen Zhongshi perhaps sounds like a little of a misnomer. Owing largely to copyright issues, the only major European language into which White Deer Plain has been translated is French. Having ceased my study of that language in 1997 and grown rather rusty, I am reliably informed by close friends better placed than me to comment on the translation by Shao Baoqing and Solange Cruveillé that it is “riveting and, for a country tale, refreshingly free of superstition and cant. The cover illustration of a pigtailed girl seems more Malaysian or Philippino than Shaanxi, but the novel itself is impossible to put down.” Moreover, English versions of his short stories and essays have had a limited circulation outside of China. The fact that translations of his work are few and far between is in no ways tantamount to saying that his writings are devoid of interest to non-Chinese readers, nor does it vitiate their value as literature.

一个外国人怀念陈忠实也许听来有点怪，这主要是因为版权问题。翻译成欧洲语言的《白鹿原》只有法语版，在1997年停止学习这门语言后，我的法语就有些迟钝了。法语比我好的朋友对邵宝庆和索兰格·克鲁威利（Solange Cruveillé）的译本评论是：“引人入胜，令人感到清爽的是没有迷信和假话。小说封面梳着辫子的姑娘似乎不像陕西人，倒是更像马来西亚人和菲律宾人，但小说本身让人舍不得放下。”而他的短篇小说和散文的英文在国外的发行也是有限的，不过作品被翻译的少并不等于外国读者对他的作品没有兴趣，这也不能埋没其作品的文学价值。

      My discovery of Chen Zhongshi ran in parallel with my deepening appreciation of Shaanxi culture. The two are now virtually inseparable. Save for a few obscurer snatches of dialect (from him I now know what jiaotuan  means) and poetic allusions, Chen’s shorter essays on Guanzhong are remarkably accessible to learners of Mandarin. Several years ago, a friend of mine loaned me a volume of personal recollections by many renowned contemporary Chinese writers entitled Hometown. The editorial praxis rather than the authors themselves (no naming names) may have been to blame, but I ended up throwing down the volume in revulsion at its flaccid sentimentality. Turning instead to Chen Zhongshi’s My Guanzhong, My Plain (Wode Guanzhong Wode Yuan) persuaded me that it is better by far to place one’s trust in a writer’s ability to select his or her own work and that it should be studied, should skill allow, in the original language. From his depictions of the land around Baqiao and the White Deer Plain several images of searing realism became branded on my mind. In ‘Turtledoves at Home’ he recalls how the government campaign against sparrows in the 1950s, though being largely ineffectual, seems to have instilled in local birds of every species a persistent suspicion of humankind. Whether that is strictly true or imagined, Chen would seldom stoop into sentimentalism, preferring instead to draw out what is baleful or superstitious about his environs. ‘Fire Crystal Persimmons’  recollects his father’s fear of having persimmon trees planted in the yard, owing to “persimmon”  and “trouble”  being homophones. Only seldom did he allow his shorter prose to be suffused with romanticism, one case in point being ‘Everyday Work on the Plain.’ In that, the riverside fields bristle with both poetry and the dint of agricultural labour.

          我是在钻研陕西文化的时候发现陈忠实的，实际上陕西文化和陈忠实是形影不离的。除了一些难懂的方言和文学典故（从他的作品里我知道了搅团是什么意思），学习汉语的人都可以读懂陈忠实描写关中的小说。几年前，我的一个朋友借给了我一本当代中国著名作家的个人回忆录，书名叫《故乡》。这可能是怪编辑，而不是怪作家（我就不指名道姓了），书中做作的情感让我反感没法读完。然而读陈忠实的《我的关中我的原》，使我意识到我们要相信作家有选择自己作品的能力，另外，如果语言过关，要用原作的语言来研究作品。从陈忠实对灞桥周围以及白鹿原的描述，刻在我心里的是一个个鲜活的现实主义形象。在《家有斑鸠》中，他回顾了二十世纪五十年代政府对麻雀发动的全民战争，虽然收效不大，倒是让当地的各色鸟儿把对人的怀疑传递给了子子孙孙。不论这是真的还是演绎的，陈忠实不会矫情，而是更倾向于从身边的阴暗和迷信中挖掘教训。在《火晶柿子》中他说父亲不在院里栽柿树， 因为担心 “柿”即“事”也。他的短篇中偶尔也有浪漫情怀，在《白鹿原上》，河畔的田野既充满诗意，又带着浓郁的农耕痕迹。

      Even though his writings have undoubtedly proved a catalyst for tourism on the White Deer Plain, nobody could accuse him of disingenuous exploitation. With typically self-deprecating humour, he would time and again recount how the months and years he spent composing his single novel back in his home village opened his eyes to the irremediably hard life of the countryside. There he endured one fortnight in which the temperature never rose above fourteen degrees centigrade and he for the first time believed in the story of the devastating freeze at the end of the Qing Dynasty.     

          虽然他的作品已经毫无疑问的被证实是白鹿原旅游的催化剂，但没有人说他是别有用心。他用自己一贯的自嘲式幽默，常常提起在家乡创作惟一的长篇小说时的日日夜夜，这让他见识了乡村生活的艰辛。在那里，曾经有两个礼拜的时间气温都在摄氏十四度一下，使他第一次体会到了小说中清末年间的寒冷。

      Sojourning in the Shaanxi countryside a quarter of a century ago was, Chen would have us believe, an act which emulated his literary hero Liu Qing’s live-in research at Huangpucun, Chang’an County, in the 1950s. Although the resultant epic The Builders was hailed domestically for its grassroots observation of how collectivism could improve the lot of a community, the branding of its author as a counterrevolutionary meant that  Liu’s influence over subsequent Shaanxi literature was neglected. In his essays The Warning of Liu Qing and others Chen, as never before, stuck his neck out to defend the integrity of Liu Qing’s literary creation and insinuated that his persecution during the Cultural Revolution was wholly unjust. This was not the only time I was privy to his retrospective sense of rectitude. In early 2012, I visited the home of Yang Hucheng’s mother in Pucheng and, to my embarrassment, found myself embraced by the museum curator who was astonished to learn that I had read Chen’s essay comparing Marshal Yang with his fellow county-man Wang Ding, the teacher of Lin Zexu who committed suicide over his student’s dismissal by the emperor.

陈忠实让人们相信，二十几年前在陕西乡下的日子，有点像自己崇拜的文学大师柳青二十世纪五十年代在长安县皇甫村的体验。柳青的《创业史》虽然被誉为是国内歌颂走集体主义道路的史诗，但作者被打成反革命则意味着柳青对后来陕西文学的影响被忽视了。在《柳青的警示》等文章中，陈忠实前所未有的挺身而出，捍卫柳青的文学成就，并暗示“文化大革命”中对柳青的迫害是完全不公平的。这并非我第一次听说他的正义感，2012年初，我去参观杨虎城母亲在蒲城的老家。我没有想到博物馆的馆长会拥抱我，因为让他惊讶的是他听到我读过陈忠实写的一篇文章，把杨虎城将军和他的同乡，林则徐的老师王鼎相提并论，王鼎在自己的学生被皇帝免职后自杀了。

       When it comes to Chen Zhongshi’s handful of novellas and dozens of short stories, we observe another facet of his literary achievement. It would not be unfair to state that many of his stories are underpowered in terms of dramatic content or tend towards realistic rather than rhetorical portraits of the countryside. Taking as an example ‘Licking the Bowl’ (translated by Hu Zongfeng and myself and first published in Translators Digest, Winter 2015/6), the tale portrays how a landowner enjoins his employee to eat every last morsel in his bowl since avoiding waste over several generations was the cornerstone of his family’s affluence. It ends not with a bang but a whimper as the hired hand opts to throw in his cards rather than persist in trying to overcome his habit of vomiting following overeating. I had a similar response to ‘Be a Little Shy Please’ (a story of some thirty years ago translated by my good friend He Longping from Hunan). In that, the ageing teacher Mr. Wang, who has played dutifully by the rules of post-1949 China, longs for his impending retirement and the chance to retire sedately back to his home village. Nevertheless, he finds himself disgusted, and almost erupts into violence, when he sees how in the field of selling ice-lollies his students adopt the attitude of competitiveness associated with the emergent free market economy.

提起陈忠实不多的中篇小说和几十篇短篇小说，我们会看到他在文学成就上的另一面。如果说他的好多短篇对农村生活的描述过于现实，欠火候那是不公平的。就拿《舔碗》（这是我和胡宗锋教授翻译的，刊登在2015年第四期的《译苑》）来说，故事中的地主要求长工要把碗舔干净，因为他家就是经过几代人这样的努力才有了今天。故事的结尾是反抗而不是顺从，因为被雇的长工没有坚持克服自己一舔碗就吐的习惯，而是选择了向地主摊牌。读他的《害羞》我亦有同感（这是他三十年前的短篇，英文是我湖南的好朋友贺龙平翻译的），小说中上了年纪的王老师，解放后一直尽职尽责，盼望着退休后很体面的回到村里。然而他发觉自己让人厌恶，几乎与别人动粗。因为他发现在卖冰棍的时候，班里的学生受自由经济市场的影响在搞竞争。

      Collectively Chen Zhongshi’s stories are perhaps of greater worth than the less compelling individual components. So closely tied are they to the changes in government policy and its impact upon the populace that the most responsible way to disseminate them abroad would be to translate the pieces in their entirety and publish a chronological multi-volume collection replete with notes. That would be a project of scholarly dedication rather than commercial gain, a collective enterprise instead of an egotistical hobby-horse. Absolutely worthwhile, of course.

陈忠实的小说放在一起也许比单个的篇章更有价值。这些作品在对政府的政策变化以及对民众的影响方面互有关联，向海外传播最负责任的方法是翻译所有的短篇，出版一个按时间顺序排列、并有详序的多卷本。这将会是一个学术项目，而非商业盈利，是一个集体事业，而非任性的个人爱好，而且当然完全值得付出。

       Many are still hopeful that the English language rights to White Deer Plain may yet become available to a qualified translator. In the meantime, we must hope that the new television series might render with greater authenticity the detail of the novel than the previously-released movie directed by Wang Quan’an did.

很多人依旧盼望资深翻译家可以拿到 《白鹿原》的英文版权，同时我们也希望新电视剧能比以前王全安导演的电影更加充分的考虑 到小说中的细节。

        On a personal level, I shall miss Chen Zhongshi’s avuncular presence. Whenever our paths crossed at weddings, awards ceremonies, or literary events I would mouth pleasantries to “Teacher Chen,” our friendship having first being cemented at a literary meeting when he asked me if I shared his love of football. I answered in the negative – an astounding admission, he thought, for an Englishman - and surreptitiously slipped to him a novelty badge bearing the motto liao za lie. He joked that he wouldn’t ever wear it himself, but would slip it to his grandchild should he please him by excelling at goal-kicking practice.

就我个人来讲，我将再也见不到陈忠实慈祥的面孔了。 以前不论是在婚礼、颁奖仪式或是文学活动中， 我都会亲切的叫他“陈老师”。 我们的友谊源于一次他的作品翻译研讨会，当时他问我是否和他一样爱足球。我的回答是否定的，做为一个英国人我的话让他觉得惊讶。我给了他一个很新颖的“嫽咋咧”（陕西方言“特别好”的意思——译者注）的徽章，他开玩笑说他自己不会戴这个，要是他的孙子练习足球射门时踢中了，会把这个奖励给他。

       The actual day of Mr. Chen’s passing I was scheduled to teach the poetry of Alfred Lord Tennyson to my undergraduates. I had known of his illness for several months, though fully respected his right to privacy. In a way his dignity was befitting of my fellow countryman, our longest serving Poet Laureate. Tennyson’s swansong (not the final poem he wrote, but his chosen epitaph) stuck with me a new poignancy. ‘Crossing the Bar’ refers to a ship’s passenger drawing by a sandbar in the English Channel, though the words may as well be applied to the River Ba alongside which our late Teacher grew up:-

陈忠实先生去世的当天，按照课程进度我将给本科生讲英国桂冠诗人阿尔弗雷德·丁尼生的诗歌（阿尔弗雷德·丁尼生Alfred Tennyson，英国19世纪的著名诗人，在世时就获得了极高的声誉。其131首的组诗《悼念》被视为英国文学史上最优秀的哀歌之一，因而获桂冠诗人称号。其重要诗作有《尤利西斯》、《渡沙洲》河《悼念集》等 ，于1850年获得了桂冠诗人的称号——译者注）。虽然我尊重他的隐私权，但我知道他已经病了好几个月了。从某种程度上说，他的尊严和我的同胞，英国历史上在位时间最长的这位桂冠诗人如出一辙。丁尼生的绝唱（此诗并非他的最后作品，却被选成了他的墓志铭）带给我的是新的悲伤。《渡沙洲》（Crossing the Bar）说的是一个船上的乘客被英吉利海峡中的沙洲吸引，其文字完全可以运用到去世的陈老师生长的灞河（汉语拼音的灞Ba 和“渡沙洲”中的沙洲Bar发音一模一样，“渡沙洲”是个比喻，暗指诗人在经历了人生的风霜后，平静地迎接死亡的来临，毫无恐惧和哀伤。而在中国古代早就有灞陵伤别一说——译者注）。

And may there be no sadness of farewell,

when I embark;

For though from out our bourne of Time and Place

the flood may Pilot face to face

when I have crossed the bar.

但愿我出发时，
没有告别的悲伤。

潮水会送我到远处，
超出时间和空间的边境。
但我渡过沙洲后，
就会见到我的领路人。

——引自阿尔弗雷德·丁尼生 《渡沙洲》丰华瞻 译

       Chen Zhongshi never achieved fame as a poet, and yet some lines of his evoke a similar sentiment, imbued with typical local colour，after finished White Deer Plain, he wrote a ci poem :

陈忠实不是诗人，但他的一些诗句和他的小说一样，具有地域特色和情感，在写完《白鹿原》后，他填写了一首词：

Flowing out of the stone gate where there’s no return,

Yet flows west and rewinds backwards.

Willows wave goodbye on the banks and the wind carries fragrances.

The Deer Plain stands on the left and Mt. Li looms large on the right

With a narrow land between.

涌出石门归无路，

反向西，倒着流。

杨柳列岸风香透。

鹿原峙左，骊山踞右，

夹得一线瘦。  

Walking backward is walking backward

It is romantic to run a separate stream

Green mountains cannot shelter it since ancient time

Crossing the River Ba

Raise your head and turn around

Walk to the east with a wisp of sleeve

倒着走便倒着走，

独开水道也风流。

自古青山遮不住。

过了灞桥，

昂然掉头，东去一拂袖。

The willows of the Ba have bid him adieu one last time. Chen Zhongshi with his griffon-esque hair and intelligently-pensive smile may be gone from this world, but his name and spirit will never be absent from the world of men of letters.

灞柳风絮告别了陈忠实。他那狂乱的头发、睿智而忧郁的笑容也许会从这个世界消失，但他的英名和灵魂却会在文化界永生。

                    汉语原文刊登在《美文》2016年第6期

Shaanxi Through Dr. Robin’s Eyes          

  罗宾博士看陕西（6）

Guanzhong’s friendliest village

Fuyincun – June 2012

关中的睦邻之帮——福音村

                                 （英）罗宾•吉尔班克

                                     胡宗锋  译

    Mr. Zhao loved his goats. As well as monopolizing the greater part of his retired life, he by now habitually introduced himself to strangers as “the goat-keeper” or “the goats’ human friend”. At first, this created not a little confusion for me. While struggling to accustom my ears to his voice - the tones being more redolent of his ancestral Shandong than his native Shaanxi - I for a time believed that his name was actually Yang Shan, the two Mandarin characters which form the word “goat”.

赵先生爱羊，养羊是他退休后的主要生活，以至于现在他一见人就介绍自己是“羊倌”和羊的人类朋友。起初，我对此还有点小小的纳闷，他的口音不是陕西当地人的口音，而更像其山东老家的口音。随着我对他口音的熟悉，我才明白他的名字“杨山”这两个汉语词，也是“山羊”这两个字的同音字。

In his sixty-eight years Zhao had seldom left Fuyincun (“Gospel Village”). He had no need, for the upheavals and venalities of modern China came coruscating down one-after-another upon his doorstep. Potbellied and shaded by a stiff Frisbee-like coolie hat, the old man delighted in acting as the curator to the trio of sites which meant the most to him. Here was the Chapel where as a toddler he had mooned around with the white-faced children of missionaries. There was the school where he was taught the “truth”. Although Chairman Mao only made the odd foray into the Soviet Union he still understood the deceitful nature of the foreign devil better than anyone else. Finally over there was the back lane, where he and his wife whiled away the summer days with their pampered animals.

六十七年来，赵先生几乎没有离开过福音村。也没有这个必要，他家的门前演绎着一个又一个现代中国动荡和唯利是图的画面。他大腹便便，头戴一顶下苦人用来遮阳、飞碟似的帽子。老头特高兴像博物馆馆长那样给人们讲对他来说意义非凡的三处地方。这里是教堂，小时候他就和传教士小白娃在这里玩。那儿是学校，他就是在那儿学的“真经”。虽然毛主席一头倒向了苏联，但他依旧觉得洋鬼子蒙蔽人的天性比任何人都强。最后，就是这后巷，他和自己的老伴就是在这里和他们喜爱的动物消磨夏天时光的。

Fuyincun was never an idyll. The settlement was cast in the crucible of adversity. As the Qing Dynasty tottered in the later nineteenth-century, the rural population of northern China found itself ever more estranged from the main seat of authority in Beijing. The de facto ruler of the nation, the Dowager Empress Cixi (1835-1908), was an enigma. If the country poor knew of her at all, it was as a reptilian creature which haunted the corridors of the Forbidden City, mercilessly ordering the elimination of rivals and stubbornly refusing to consent to political reform. Whereas she could taste and cast aside dozens of the most sumptuous dishes, famine ravaged the land. Whereas she stockpiled currency and relics within her gilded wooden labyrinth, any material wealth accrued by the peasantry was apt to be seized by bandits or rapacious landlords.

福音村不是桃花源，这里也曾历经磨难。当清王朝在十九世纪后期摇摇欲坠时，中国北方的农村人觉得自己与北京的天子更疏远了。当时实际上的掌权者慈禧太后是一个谜，要是说人们还知道她的话，就只知道她是紫禁城走廊里一位蛇蝎似的女人，无情的镇压异己，顽固的拒绝政治改革。当她在享受山珍美味，倒掉吃不完的美食时，整个国家却在忍饥挨饿。当她在金碧辉煌的迷宫里收敛钱财和金银珠宝时，所有的民间的财富不是被劫匪掠夺，就是被贪婪的地主霸占。

One foreign mission worker summed up the extent to which Shaanxi back then was assailed by local forces of chaos:-

The province (Shaanxi) has been the victim of what the inhabitants term “four rebellions”. First of these was the Taiping Rebellion; then, about 1874, the great Mohammedan rebellion, when the province suffered severely. During this rebellion practically all the Mohammedans who had taken part were put to death, which measure it is estimated to have swept away about half of the people. Then followed the “Rebellion of Nature,” in the shape of the famine of 1877-78; and finally the rebellion of wolves, which were brought down from their mountain haunts by stress of hunger. This desolation thus led the Government to encourage immigration […]. [1]  

一位外国传教士描写过陕西当时各种地方势力的混乱局面：

        该省（陕西省）被当地人称之为是“四大灾”的受害者。第一是“太平天国”，接着是1874年的回民起义，是该省受重创，在这次事件中，几乎所有参与起义的回民都被处死，据估计让该省的人口丧失过半。随之而来的是“天之怨”，即1877-1878年的饥荒。最后是狼害，狼饿的不行了就跑下山来。这些灾难导致政府鼓励人们移民。

                                 ——引自海思波 著《中华帝国》

Many missionary accounts of the northwestern situation frame it as a crisis of Old Testament proportions. These display a decidedly non-politically correct attitude towards the grievances of the Muslims. Writers cast their uprising not as an armed protest against an apathetic government spun out of control, but as a rampage every bit as bloodthirsty and unthinking as that of the mountain wolves.

    许多传教士将西北的境遇看作是《圣经·旧约》中的危机。对穆斯林的苦难给予的是一种与政治无关的态度。作家认为穆斯林的武装起义不是针对没有悲悯之心、失控的政府，而是一场像下山的狼一样，血腥、没有理智的暴乱。

Foreign charity donations – perhaps in excess of $120 000 by the turn of the century - eventually trickled into Shaanxi courtesy of newspaper appeals syndicated through the US Christian Herald. The aid-givers trumped this as “magnificent relief for the starving millions of the remote provinces of China made possible by the generosity of the American people”. [2] For local Shaanxi folk, however, Guanzhong’s yellow earth was still soiled red. Nothing could induce them to return to the killing fields, and transplanting refugees from other provinces offered the best prospect of preventing the land from falling fallow or coming into the hands of rogue elements.

由于美国《基督教先驱论坛报》的呼吁，国外的善款，大约有12万美元在上个世纪末最终交到了陕西，捐款者吹嘘说“美国人民的慷慨可能会为遥远的中国省份成天上万忍饥挨饿的人带来巨大的安慰”。对于陕西的当地人来说，关中的黄土依旧血迹斑斑，人们说什么也不愿回到要命的田野去，为了不让土地荒芜或成为藏污纳垢的场所，最后的办法就是从外省移民。

Into this desert entered the ancestors of Mr. Zhao. As the old man’s accent still betrays, the founders of Fuyincun were incomers. Dozens of families trekked halfway across China, bearing their few possessions on shoulder poles and pushing the elderly in wooden barrows. These refugees were also victims of famine. However, their home region of Shandong had an even more turbulent history than Shaanxi.

赵先生的祖上就是这样来到这里的不毛之地的。正如其口音所显示的那样，福音村的人都是外来户。几十户人家肩挑家当，用独轮车推着老人，跋涉了大半个中国来到了这里。这些难民也是饥荒的受害者，不过，他们在山东老家的遭遇比陕西有过之而无不及。

A thick snout of land protruding out in the direction of the Korean peninsular, Shandong Province is renowned in the present day as the home of kites and dinosaur skeletons, as well as the new Nobel Laureate Mo Yan. Young Xianese still feel proud if they can “go east” for the summer holiday and gain their first experience of the ocean in resorts such as Qingdao and Rizhao. By the 1890s, the overpopulation of the area placed enormous strain upon its natural resources. Added to that, foreign powers thirsted after the strategic and commercial influence of the seaports, with Germany gaining leasehold of Qingdao in 1897 and Britain Weihai in 1898. German control of the railroads in effect squeezed the lifeblood out of the provincial economy.

山东像一个凸向朝鲜半岛的大鼻子，如今以其风筝、恐龙化石和最新的诺贝尔文学奖得主莫言而蜚声海内外。年轻一代的西安人依旧为能在夏日“去东边”，在诸如青岛和日照这样的地方第一次感受大海而自豪。但在十九世纪九十年代，这些地方的人口过剩给当地的自然资源带来了巨大的经济压力，除此之外，外国列强也寻找战略港口和商机。1897年，青岛被德国租赁；1898年，威海被英国租赁。而德国人对铁路的掌控实际上榨干了这个省的血汗。

Trite as it would be to describe Fuyincun as a “Promised Land” for the migrants, they were at pains to keep this image fixed in their hearts. The cheap, unoccupied land held out the hope of fresh beginnings. Almost all in the exodus had been converted to Christianity by Baptist evangelists back east and for the next half century overseas missionaries would be a constant presence in the village. The one reminder of these founding days is the large wood-framed church which could seat as many as six hundred worshippers. The building might look unremarkable were one to come across it in a small town networked with picket-fences in the American Midwest or even in the backwoods of Sweden. In the Chinese countryside it was all too conspicuous.

如果说福音村是这些移民的“乐土” 未免有些俗套，移民们心中有此印象也是痛苦的。这里无人居住的廉价土地给了他们重整旗鼓的希望。《圣经·出埃及记》中福音传教士让人们皈依基督教的一切都来到了东方，在随后的半个世纪里，这个村子里一直有国外的传教士。勾起人们记忆的是那座宽敞的木结构教堂，最多可以容纳600人。要是在美国的中西部，或是在瑞典的森林地带，遇见到这样一个到处是尖桩栅栏的小镇，人也许觉得不显眼。但在中国的乡下，那就有些耀眼了。

By the time we were shown in through the great door, word had reached Mrs. Zhao that a party including at least one foreigner was touring the village. A compact, energetic woman, she was disposed to express her excitement through swaying and shuffling on the spot. I grinned to myself as upon first spying her out on the path, she had the mien of a bird shaking up a dust-bath. The old lady also had the tendency to communicate through truisms. “Friendship is so vital in life. In Fuyincun we never forget past kindness”. I pointed to a row of photographs tacked to the notice-board, most of them featuring Caucasian visitors, and was given to believe that the older ones were classmates from the 1940s or at least the surviving relatives of missionaries. “Continued generosity. Always appreciated.” She indicated that a stack of mint condition Bibles had been donated from overseas in the recent past.

等我们去参观的时候，赵先生已经知道有一批人，包括至少有一位外国人要到村里来。一位结实、干练的妇人高兴的在地上手舞足蹈，从一在路上看见她我就笑了，她就像只要抖掉身上灰尘的鸟。她也想通过众所周知的方式和我们沟通。“友谊在人生中很重要，福音村的人永远不会忘记以前的恩惠”。她指着告示牌上的一排照片，这些人大都是来访的白人，给人感觉那些年长的是她上个世纪的同学，或至少是传教士的亲戚。“当然继续慷慨，我们也高兴”，她指的是最近海外捐赠的一批崭新的《圣经》。

With Mrs. Zhao in tow, I studied the characters of a contemporary hymn chalked onto both sides of a blackboard at the front. I then trod gingerly past the harmonium and across the stage fronted by the pulpit. The woman had another secret which she could not contain. She ascended the platform after me and repeated her frenetic leg motions upon the boards, which creaked and shook. “You see, empty underneath. Space for water”. “Yes”, I responded with a smile, “you are Baptists. The priest immerses you, you make a promise to God, and you are given your name”.  “Indeed”, came her reply, “the foreign ladies were so comfortable here. A lot of them even chose to have babies.”

跟着赵先生，我仔细看了看前面黑板两边用粉笔写的现代赞美诗；然后，我小心翼翼的走过风琴来到祭坛前的台子上。女人还有一个秘密要讲，她随着我走上台，又一次在台上手舞足蹈，台子在嘎子嘎子的响，“你知道了吧，台子底下是空的，是用来存水的。”“是的， 我知道。”我笑着说：“你是浸礼会教友。牧师用水浸你，你对上帝祷告，然后就给你一个名号。”

As his wife bounced around, Mr. Zhao cherished the cool patch beneath one of the fans in the nave. He removed his hat for a while and balanced it upturned upon the pew next to him. “The British may have designed this place, but Chinese workers built it”, he proclaimed, raising a hand in the direction of the timbered roof. “Doubtless, this is the sturdiest building in the whole of Shaanxi. I’m not sure of the exact date – 1898 or thereabouts”. The design for the structure was certainly European and its erection was overseen by a Scotsman, Moir Duncan, and a Lancastrian, Arthur Gostick Shorrock. The latter was to spend around thirty-five years in the vicinity of Xi’an and spearheaded the drive to stamp out the cultivation of opium in the province.

老伴四处活动时，赵先生在大厅的风扇下乘凉，他摘下帽子，反过来放在教堂的长椅上。“这个地方也许是英国人设计的，但是中国人盖的。”他说着用手指着屋顶的木板，“毫无疑问，这是全陕西最结实的建筑。具体日期我不知道，大约在1898年左右。” 教堂的结构设计当然是欧式的，负责修建的是一位叫敦崇礼（英文原名Moir Duncan莫尔·邓肯）的苏格兰人和一位名叫邵涤源（英文原名Arthur Gostick Shorrock亚瑟·格斯特克·肖诺克）的兰开斯特人。肖诺克在西安附近呆了大约三十五年，曾带头发起反对在该省种植鸦片的运动。

Shorrock’s crusade against drug abuse drew him into alliance with fellow Christian leaders across China and caused him to lock horns with native officials. His interference was especially resented by Lu Chien Chang, the military governor of Shaanxi (1913-16), whose own opium habit was voracious. One estimate claimed that he smoked two ounces of the substance every day and gratefully received a gift of 20 000 ounces from a colleague. [3] The Baptists recruited former addicts to their crusade, including one Mr. Zhou who had hitherto inhaled opium as freely as his compatriots imbibe tea. [4] Owing in part to the pressure exerted by the foreigners and their allies, the drug trade was slowly pushed away from the centre of the province. The amount of land given over to growing opium poppies in Shaanxi fell within a few years from 530 000 mu to 372 695 mu in 1909. [5]

邵涤源发起的反鸦片活动使他与中国的基督教领袖们结为同盟，也是他与当地官员结下了仇。特别是陕西当时的军事首领，威武将军陆建章就很反感他。陆的烟瘾很大，有人估计他每天要抽近50克，有幕僚曾送给他1000多斤鸦片。教会招募以前吸鸦片的人参加，其中包括一位每天像别人喝茶一样要吸鸦片的周姓男子。迫于外国人和其同盟的压力，陕西的鸦片贸易渐渐逐出了中心，陕西的鸦片种植从53万亩在1909年降到了37万多亩。

Shorrock quit Shaanxi in the late 1920s, and returned to parish ministry in England. In 1926, his wife Maude had succumbed to typhoid as the couple endured the eight-month long Siege of Xi’an. He would be spared the ordeal of witnessing much of Fuyincun, except for the church, being razed to the ground as one renegade phalanx of the Guominjun cut a vicious swathe through the countryside. For a time all foreigners retreated from the place, leaving the mission in the hands of the celebrated Pastor Sun.

邵涤源在二十世纪二十年代离开陕西，回到了他在英格兰的教区。1926年，他的妻子死于伤寒，因为他们夫妻经历了八个月的西安围城。很庆幸他没有看到福音村被毁，一群变节的国民军穿过乡下时，把福音村除了教堂夷为了平地。所有的外国人都走了，把使命交给了一位姓孙的牧师。

     
                                          本文作者和译者

Shaanxi Through Dr. Robin’s Eyes          

   罗宾博士看陕西（6） 

         Guanzhong’s friendliest village Fuyincun  

               关中的睦邻之帮——福音村                                  

                                              （英）罗宾•吉尔班克                                

                                               胡宗锋  译

Neither Mr. nor Mrs. Zhao was old enough to recall Shorrock or his contemporaries, but both were capable of reeling off the Sinicized names adopted by British teachers and ministers. “Yang” I presumed was a substitute for “Young” and “Zhang” represented “Johnson” or “Jones”. Their affection for their old school was obvious, and made all the more pronounced by the presence in our party of Mrs. He, one of the long-serving former teachers from the 1950s and 1960s.  Each of the older residents addressed her as He Laoshi or “Teacher He” as though no further identification were necessary.

赵先生和他的老伴不记得肖诺克和他那个时代的人了，但却能如数家珍的说出那些英国老师和传教士的中国名字。姓杨的可能取自英文中的“杨”Young，姓张的可能取自英文中的“约翰逊”或“琼斯”（汉语张字的发音Zhang和英文中“约翰逊”Johnson和 “琼斯”Jones接近——译者注）。他们显然对原来的学校很有感情，再加上我们几个人里有一位姓何的老师，曾在上个世纪的五六十年代在此长期服务过，这就显得更不同凡响了，这里上了年纪的人都叫她“何老师”，似乎没有必要多介绍。

As was the case with the church, the village school presented an odd admixture of European and Asian features. The hybrid tea roses which clung fast to the yellow earth of the courtyard could so easily have been uprooted from a British stately home. Further botanical clues raised my suspicion that the missionaries had been sneaking seeds into China in their luggage. Mr. Zhao insisted that we all sample the fruit of the three fig trees to the rear of the main complex. In Chinese the fig is known very descriptively as a wu-hua-guo or “no flower fruit”, owing to it being the only plant not to bear blossom before its fruit. The stalks of the severed figs oozed a milky sap, and Zhao rotated one of them within his palm to draw our attention to its colour. “You see how funny this is? Normally one of these ought to have deep purple skin. How come they always stay green even after they’ve ripened?” I interjected with my theory that it was covertly imported, perhaps because of its religious significance, the fig being mentioned in two of the parables. “We have a couple of old wives’ tales about the fig back in England”, I went on. “They need restricted root growth in order to flourish. One solution is to sit the plant inside an old leather Gladstone bag and then bury that in the earth”. I refrained from mentioning the second gardening hint as it involved laying a donkey’s carcass in the pit into which the fig tree was meant to establish its roots. This might, I feared, elicit a response along the lines of “why waste quality meat?”

和教堂一样，村里的学校也是欧洲和亚洲的混合结构，学校院子里匍匐在黄土地上的杂交茶玫瑰很有可能就是从英国的一所豪宅里拔来的。其它的一些植物也使我怀疑传教士一直在偷偷的把种子夹在行李里带到中国来。赵先生再三让我们都尝一尝主楼后面那三棵无花果树的果子。中国人很形象的把这种树叫“无花果树”，是因为只有这种树在结果前不开花。拨开的无花果滴着乳白色的果汁。赵先生把一颗放在掌心里让我们看它的颜色。“你看奇怪不？通常这皮是深紫色的，但在成熟了以后，它却一直是绿的。”我插话说这显然是来自国外，也许是有宗教意义。有两则寓言提到过无花果。“在英国，有几个民间故事是讲无花果的，”我接着说：“要想让它长的好，就要限制根的生长。一种办法是种的时候把它装在一个旧皮包里。”我忍住没有说第二个秘诀，因为这要把一头死驴埋进树坑，无花果就在驴的体内扎根。我害怕会让人说“为什么要浪费上等的好肉”。

Having briefly extricated myself from the others in the group, I headed towards the outlying classrooms – soulless bungalow-type buildings which must have long postdated the rest of the institution. The glass of each window pane in the first one was uniformly grubby and the desks strewn with open exercise books bearing half-done equations and incomplete compositions. Save for the presence of 2011-12 academic schedules on the wall, one would have been forgiven for believing that the room had been evacuated in haste. 

我从随行的大伙身边走开，来到了偏僻的教室，教室是平房，里面空无一人。这些教室肯定比其它的建筑晚，第一间教室的窗玻璃都脏乎乎的，课桌上还摆放着翻开的练习簿、练习簿上有的是没验算的公式，有的是没写完的作文。除了墙上的2011-2012年的课表，人有理由相信教室是在紧急状况下腾空的。

Chairman Mao’s portrait – the same one as adorns Tiananmen Square stared impassively down from the position on the wall where a clock really should have hung. In the meantime, Teacher He’s eight-year old grandson had slipped in unnoticed and was enthusiastically completing all the sums he found on the nearest table. I squatted down in front of him and asked what he felt about this classroom. His eyes remained motionless, but then he glanced up as if to say “it’s a schoolroom, what more do you expect?”

在应当挂着闹钟的地方，悬挂着一幅毛主席像，像天安门广场上的那张一样，毫无表情的盯着下面。这时，何老师八岁的小孙子无声无息的遛了进来，且很有兴致的做起了离他最近的一张课桌上的算术题。我在他面前蹲下来问他觉得这个教室咋样。他的眼睛一动不动，但随之向上一翻，似乎在说“就是个教室，还能有什么？”

Upon leaving the school and heading for lunch at the Zhao residence, it dawned upon me why Fuyincun suddenly felt slightly eerie. Except for the grandchild, the only youngsters I had caught sight of all morning were the boy and girl luridly painted on the playground mural. Swathed in the red scarves of the Young Pioneer movement, the pair looked confidently on to the bright dawn of the Socialist era. As they ambled down the lane, Mr. Zhao and Teacher He muttered the odd comment about there being so little now to keep young people in the countryside. Since their day, the school had been downsized and pupils over the age of eight were now bused off to Sanyuan.

离开学校到赵先生家去吃午饭时，我才反应过来为什么福音村让人觉得有点怪兮兮的，除了何老师的孙子，整个上午我所见到的孩子就只有操场上耀眼的宣传画里的一个男孩和女孩，这两个孩子带着少先队的红领巾，满怀信心的注视着社会主义阶段的光明前景。沿着小巷往下走时，赵先生与何老师感叹说，现在很难把年轻人留在乡下了，学校也在缩小，现在八岁以上的小学生都被用车接到三原县城去读书了。

The longstanding bond between the three senior citizens would be carefully elaborated over the meal. Teacher He’s daughter Ms. Shi and Mrs. Zhao volunteered to be the cooks, while the old man gave an impromptu tour of his walled yard. As expected, the pair of goats took pride of place. Their udders swelled beneath them like pink watermelons. Although tethered loosely to the ground they still managed to swivel and crane around so that on-comers were never out of eyeshot. The scuffling of their hooves provoked the adjacent pen of ducks into motion and Zhao plucked out a few eggs to accompany the homegrown tomatoes, garlic, aubergine and potatoes.

午饭精心演绎着三位老人长久以来的纽带，赵夫人与何老师的女儿施女士自告奋勇当起了大厨，而赵先生则即兴带我们参观他家的院子。如我所料，那两头山羊神气的亮相了，羊肚下的奶子涨得像粉红的西瓜。虽然被栓在地上，但两只羊仰着头，打转转，眼睛不放过任何人。羊蹄的响声惊动了旁边鸭舍的鸭子。赵先生从鸭舍掏出几只鸭蛋，准备和自家种的西红柿、大葱、茄子和土豆一起享用。

      Once seated on the low couch of the sitting room opposite me, Teacher He shared her account of how she came to “Gospel Village”. Originally from Lanzhou in Gansu Province, she and her late husband became instructors at Peking University. At first the couple thrived in the “New China” of Mao Zedong. Young love and the optimism of a fresh era proved a heady blend for both. Before very long she found herself the target of accusation and was fingered as a counterrevolutionary. The allegations initially centered on the pride she took in her attire. Even as an octogenarian her appearance has remained immaculately composed. In contrast to the padded jackets and woolens favored by many a Chinese grandma, she sat before me bolt upright in a thin black two piece silk suit. The pearls around her neck were plainly of superior quality and her glasses consisted of a single visor-like lens encrusted with diamante trim.

      在客厅里，何老师坐在我对面的低板凳上，给我讲起了她与福音村的故事。她和现已故去的丈夫祖籍是甘肃省的兰州，在北京大学当老师。起初，两口子在毛泽东的“新中国”活得挺滋润，年轻人的爱情和新时代的乐观的确让人兴奋。但不久，她就发现自己成了被指控的靶子，被指认为是反革命。一开始主要是针对她的打扮。现在已年过耄耋的她依然丰韵犹在。与那些爱穿棉袄和毛料衣服的老奶奶相比，她身着两件套的丝绸外衣，笔挺的坐在我的面前。她脖子上的珍珠项链明显很有品味，她的眼镜像是遮阳镜，镶着人造钻石。

“You know they called me a tepid Communist, a capitalist, and a bad big sister. The Party came to believe that if I were exposed to students, they would automatically be led astray”. Her punishment was to be “re-educated” by being sent far away from the bourgeois dangers of the capital. At first she taught in Sanyuan, but then it was determined that living among the farmers of Fuyincun would be more effective in making her see the error of her behavior.

“你知道不，他们说我不是彻底的共产主义者，是资产阶级，是一个坏姐姐，党相信要是我在学生跟前露面，学生就会被误入歧途。”对她的惩罚是发配，让她远离首都的资产阶级染缸，去接受“再教育”。刚开始她在三原教书，但后来觉得与福音村的农民一起生活，可以让她更加清楚的认识自己的错误。

“People were kind to me here, though not everyone. That was the way things went. The mentality of the mob was so quickly stirred up.” She lowered her head a degree and continued. “I suppose even as a foreigner you realize what they did in those days. A couple of times I was made to wear a dunce’s hat and was paraded through the streets. The villagers were encouraged to shout oaths and pelt me with stones or any kind of projectile that was to hand. You know how I survived?” At this point Teacher He paused and sliced a small sweet melon into sections. She would insert one into her mouth in between each of the sentences that were to follow. “My former students – they clubbed together and saved me. Had it not been for them, well ….”    

    “这儿的人对我很好，虽然不是人人如此，世事就是这样。不久人们的暴徒心态就被煽动了起来。”她稍微低了一下头，接着说道：“我想，就是一个外国人，你也能意识到那个年月人们的举动，有几次我被戴着高帽游街，村里的人被人鼓动着骂我，用石头或任何能拿到手的东西打我。你知道我是怎样活过来的吗？”说到这里，何老师停了停，把一个小甜瓜切开，接下来每讲一句话，就往嘴里塞一小片甜瓜，“我以前的学生，他们凑在一起保护我，要是没有他们，唉………”

In the subsequent silence, I thought to ask if she was counting the Zhaos among the “former students”. To have done so, however, would have been crass. My distracted eyes briefly hovered over the cover of a magazine that had been left on the chair arm. The lead article had as its topic “The Mystery of Mao Zedong”. The Great Helmsman wore the same smile – impassive, always impassive - as on the wall of the village classroom. Teacher He interrupted the quiet. It was to offer me a second melon and to ask when lunch would be ready.

在接下来的沉默中，我本来想问她把赵先生算不算在她“以前的学生”中，要是我真的问了，那就会很傻。我的目光落到了椅子左边扶手一本杂志的封面上，打头的文章题目是“毛泽东的秘密”，这位伟大的舵手面带同样的微笑——毫无表情的——他一直是这样，和在村里的教室里一模一样。何老师打破了沉默，又给了我一块甜瓜，并问饭好了没有。

At this moment Mrs. Zhao crossed the lounge to remove a chunk of processed meat from the refrigerator which stood to the older woman’s side. On registering, the topic of our conversation she confirmed that her family too had been victims of the Cultural Revolution. Her father bore the twin stain of being a landowner and of having known connections with the Evangelical movement. He met a pitiful end in prison. Seemingly, they and almost every other family in Fuyincun had some relative who was forced to flee Mainland China. A number found refuge in Hong Kong. Others went to Taiwan in 1949 as the new Communist government started to expel all foreign missionaries from the country. “Oh yes,” said Mrs. Zhao, “there were pockets of Nationalism in this area. You know the General Hu Zongnan? Great military leader. One of his cousins had a house just up the road here”.

正在这时，赵女士走过来，到何老师旁边的冰箱取加工好的一块肉，听到我们的话题后，她说自己一家也是“文化大革命”的受害者。当时她父亲有两大污点，一是地主，二是与传教活动有关。在监狱里的下场很惨。他们和福音村里的其它人家一样，都有亲戚被迫逃离大陆，很多人去了香港。1949年，在新的共产党政府开始驱逐外国传教士时，其它的一些人去了台湾。“当然了，”赵女士说，“这里也有一些爱国的人，你知道胡宗南将军吗？他是个了不起的军事领袖。他的一个堂兄就住在路上面那一块儿。”

Teacher He resumed her narrative. “I didn’t mention before that my husband was “sent down” to Shaanxi as well. He worked in Xi’an, so the two of us met up fairly regularly. Can you imagine that – a young woman of thirty-something having to pour out her heart to her spouse, telling him of all that persecution from your neighbours and of the suicidal despair? Anyhow, we got through it in the end”.

何老师接着讲她的事，“我前面没有说我丈夫也被‘发配’到了陕西，他在西安工作。所以我们俩经常见面。你能想象吗，一个三十多岁的年轻女人，对自己的丈夫吐露心声，告诉他人们怎样迫害她，自己绝望的想自杀吗？但不管怎样，我们还是熬了过来。”

As the dishes were laid out on the table, Mr. Zhao was keen to elevate the mood once again. He produced a one litre bottle bearing the label of a proprietary brand of supermarket wine and was flushed with joy to inform his guests that it did in fact contain home-brew, fermented from the fruit of the twenty-year old vine out back. It tasted sweet yet full-bodied and the nodded approval of a foreigner appeared to be the highest compliment he could have ever hoped to garner.

饭菜上桌后，赵先生为了再一次活跃气氛，他拿出来一瓶标签是从超市买来的名酒，高兴地对客人们说，里面其实装的是家里自己酿的酒，是用后院里长了二十年的的果树上的果子发酵的。酒有些甜，但很醇厚。我这个外国人赞许的点头似乎是他渴望得到的最高赞扬。

After all the plates were cleared, Teacher He retired to the bedroom and un-strung the tissue paper parcels she had clutched under her arm all morning. From watching her silver head bob around behind the mosquito gauze it was clear that she intended each of her former students to receive some item of knitwear brought over from the malls of Xi’an.

吃过饭后，何老师来到卧室，取下一个上午都夹在她胳膊下的纸袋，看着她银白色的头在蚊帐后面转动，很明显，她是要给自己以前的学生每人一件从西安商场买来的针织品。

Mr. Zhao now reclining in his slatted bamboo chair sought to find common ground with me over our shared Christian heritage. I expressed admiration for his dusty artificial Christmas tree which even now in June was standing in the corner next to their pristine fridge, and thumbed through a few Biblically-themed calendars. “This place is so different from Xi’an, yes?” he asked, to which I agreed. “My children both studied in the city – my son at Jiaotong University and my daughter at the Music Conservatory”. “Haven’t they asked you to live with them?” I inquired. “You know, care for you in your later years”. “Of course they have, but I said to them. Our village is unique. As time goes on we become part of its history. Somebody needs to be here to keep the community alive and to keep on preaching the Gospel. Besides, those two goats would really make one heck of a stink in a carpeted apartment!”

赵先生坐在竹条做的椅子上，就我们相同的基督教信仰，想和我谈一些共识。我说很欣赏他家落满灰尘的的假圣诞树，六月了还放在冰箱的旁边。我翻了翻他家以《圣经》为主题的日历。他问我：“这里是不是和西安大不相同？”我同意他的看法，他接着说：“我的两个孩子都在城市，儿子在交通大学，女儿在音乐学院。”“他（她）没有叫你和他们住在一起吗？”我问：“你们知道，他们可以关照你的晚年生活。”“他（她）们当然叫了，但我说咱们的村子是独一无二的，随着岁月的过去，我们会成为历史的一部分。得有人留下来让村里有人气，继续传福音。另外，这两头羊在铺着地毯的房子里，那可真会臭的要命。”

              汉语原文刊发《美文》2016年第6期 （未完待续）

Shaanxi Through Dr. Robin’s Eyes          

 罗宾博士看陕西（6） 

  Guanzhong’s friendliest village Fuyincun  

                          关中的睦邻之帮——福音村                                  

                                    （英）罗宾•吉尔班克                                

胡宗锋  译

Scorpion Wine and Yoghurt

蝎子酒与酸奶： 袁家村

Yuanjiacun - March 2012

        As deep and as sincere as the hospitality extended by the Gospel Villagers undoubtedly is, the community to the northeast of Sanyuan lies outside the orbit of most Xianese day-trippers. Its gentle piety has not adapted well to the modern world in which the Renminbi is all powerful and the creation of a single speciality product can spell the difference between rural prosperity and rural penury. Ask locals to name a “honey-pot” under the administration of the Xianyang prefecture and they are far more likely to be acquainted with Yuanjiacun. 

      福音村体现出的热情毫无疑问是深厚而真挚的，这个位于三原东北的村子在大多数西安人一日游的范围内。村里的醇厚民风还不大适应“人民币” 大显神通的现代社会，村里只有一种特产足以显出乡下的贫富差异。要是问当地人咸阳最吸引人的地方，大家更为熟悉的就是袁家村了。

Highlighted on standard Chinese tourist maps, this village sits in the middle of the hood-shaped Liquan (The original word for Li means Sweet wine or spring) County, which is bordered to the northwest by the Jing River, a tributary of the mighty Wei. Legend has it that this particular waterway was ruled over by a Dragon King, who also governed rainfall, and was drawn into an odd disputation with the Taizong Emperor of the Tang Dynasty (627-49 AD). Taizong’s Prime Minister, Wei Zheng, alleged that the dragon was manipulating the rain to ill-effect and lobbied for his execution. The Emperor was reluctant to carry out this sentence and so, by means of engaging him in a marathon chess session, ensured that the politician would be fast asleep at the allotted hour of death. What Taizong did not know was that in his dreams Wei had flown to the Jing River and decapitated his adversary anyway. Within his palace in Chang’an, the ruler was now nightly assailed by the apparition of the headless creature. His problem was seemingly resolved when two generals, Qin Shubao and Weichi Jingde, agreed to keep watch at the chamber door. The dragon was never seen again and some believe that it came to inhabit Taizong’s soul, thereby perpetuating his reign for a further twenty years and providing a premise for the monarch’s demotic behaviour.

在中国标准的旅游地图上，袁家村很“耀眼”。这个村子位于帽子型的礼泉县（原来的醴就是指甜酒和甜美的泉水）中部，西北是渭河的支流泾河。据说泾河龙王也是司雨的神，曾卷入与唐太宗奇特争端。唐太宗的大臣魏因龙王私改时辰，克扣雨量要斩龙王。唐太宗不愿诛龙，便与魏征下围棋纹枰论道，意在拖延时辰，使魏征酣睡而错过斩龙的时间。但唐太宗没想到，魏征在梦中却还是把泾河龙王给斩了。在长安的宫中，无头的泾河龙王鬼魂夜夜都在梦中来惊扰扰唐太宗，在秦叔宝和尉迟敬德两位将军在宫门外把守后，唐王才安寝无事。龙王再也没有来，有人相信泾河龙王附体在唐太宗身上，因而太宗的统治又延长了二十年，这也为君主的小民行为提供了一个很好的注解。

Whether this story is to be believed or not, Taizong had his final resting place, the Zhaoling Mausoleum, constructed in Liquan County. The mounds are open to the public and prior to the rise of the nearby tourist village provided the main draw to the district.

不论这个传说是否可信， 太宗把自己的最后栖息地——昭陵建在了礼泉县。墓冢现在对外开放了，在附近的旅游村兴起前，是这里很吸引人的地方。

On the surface, Yuanjiacun looks like another magnificent hangover from the nineteenth century. Less ornate and more workaday than Dangjiacun, the main street sweeps gently down a hill towards many mu of orchards. As visitors pass the terraces housing Qing-style workshops and small restaurant units, they tread along adobe tiles replete with character-ful scuffs and pits. This in itself is a marked change from being in the metropolis where concrete or waxy-textured red and white paving squares form the perpetual terrain. Absent too is any kind of molded plastic, neon or cellophane frippery. Shops advertise their wares and signature dishes through hand-painted flags which flap from the awnings. Buying a simple bowl of noodles is an invitation to watch artistry at work. The dough is mixed, kneaded and pulled manually, and the resultant strands – all of equal length – hung from the rafters of the kitchen.

从表面上看，袁家村和另外一个从十九世纪遗留下来的宏伟村庄看上去很相似，但却没有党家村那么富丽堂皇，更加百姓化。村里的主街缓缓的沿着山坡通向很大的果园，游人走过鳞次栉比的明清仿古作坊和小吃店时，脚下踩得是坑坑洼洼仿古青石板。这一点本身就和大城市里用一成不变的水泥或蜡一样的红白地砖砌成的方格不同。这里也没有任何塑料模型、霓虹灯或玻璃纸制作的俗气装饰。店家的商品和招牌菜广告都是手工绘制的旗子飘扬在自家的屋檐下。简单的吃一碗面见识的也是艺术性的操作，和面、揉面与拉面都是手工活，最后的成品长短均匀，整齐的挂在厨房里的椽子上。

The thoroughfare reaches a bottleneck before expanding into a square complete with a public stage. This performs a range of functions, from housing a superannuated band which reels off airs from Shaanxi Opera to serving as the platform for a manic, bald-pated gentleman who chants esoterically and spins bowls as he doles out tea from a dragon-crested copper kettle. Neither of these activities rouses much of a twitter from the press of tourists below. A few of the gamer ones pay for head-massages, with the optional extra of having their ears scraped out with a horn rod. Once inserted, the implement is waggled and twisted to the most irksome of angles.

   主街尽头的瓶颈处乃扩展为一个带有公共戏台的大广场。戏台的作用很多，有传统的自乐班在上面吼秦腔，还有一位秃顶的先生，用难懂的话吆喝着把碗摆好，再用龙头铜壶倒上茶。下面的游人对这些活动反应不大，有几个爱玩的人花钱去按摩头，附带让人家用牛角勺采耳，耳勺插进去后，扭动的各种角度最让人揪心。

Around the corner, a lone donkey operates a grindstone reducing dried chillis into powder. Its eyes are blinkered, so it can have no distraction from its solitary task. This put me in mind of the beasts of burden witnessed a century ago by the novelist Pearl S. Buck. Those pitiable mules in Jiangsu had their nostrils slit to help them pant more frequently. The Shaanxi specimen was not so unfortunate, yet its retirement prospects probably leant towards the knacker’s yard rather than the pasture. Back on the main street was a stall selling chunks of dun lurou (“braised donkey meat”).

在广场的角落，有头孤独的毛驴在拉磨，磨出的是辣椒面。毛驴的眼睛被蒙着，所以不会因为乏味的拉磨而分神。 这使我想起了一个世纪前小说家赛珍珠眼中负重的驮兽（赛珍珠Pearl S. Buck直译珀尔·巴克，美国作家、人权和女权活动家，美国历史上第二位诺贝尔奖获得者，主要作品有描写中国农民生活的长篇小说《大地》 等——译者注）。江苏那些可怜的骡子为了出气顺畅，鼻子被人给割开了，而陕西的驴也不怎么幸运，其结局是屠宰场而不是草原。 在大街上，有家铺子在卖大块的炖驴肉。

Scratch away the Qing veneer and this is clearly no Dangjiacun. The present village was designed in the later twentieth-century as the most endearing, not to say bankable, of deceptions. Yuanjiacun bills itself with the slogan “Ecosystem Life Experience”, placing special emphasis upon how all of the products on sale, not least the “Eight Specialities”, are made from ingredients grown within the village boundaries and processed by using traditional methods. British tourists, however, may think of the place as being a “living heritage museum”, something along the lines of York’s Castle Museum or the Beamish Museum in the North East of England.

  即便是没有清朝建筑特色的外表，这里显然也不是党家村。袁家村今天的大好局面发端于二十世纪后期，提出的口号是“生态生活体验”，特别注重所有出售的产品（而不只是“八大特产” ）的原料都是村里自产，并用传统方法加工制作的。英国的游客也许会把这里看成是个“活生生的遗产博物馆”，有点像英国东北约克的城堡博物馆或比米什博物馆（英国最大的露天博物馆）。

The speed and manner in which Yuanjiacun rose to become a renowned attraction is startling. The environs of the village were once grindingly poor, even by the standards of Guanzhong. At the beginning of the Communist era, a few dozen families crammed into low, mud-walled cottages, barely gleaning enough food to survive. Their existence has been described as being more akin to beggars or hunter-gatherers than farmers of the Central Plain. In the local dialect it was known as a “rotten pole village” or “rotten handle village” (langancun), literally signifying that the place was good for nothing. Between 1958 and 1970, the malaise in agricultural production meant that the government waived the community’s obligation to submit a quota of grain. 

  袁家村引人注目的崛起速度和方式令人吃惊。即便是根据关中的标准来看，该村曾经也是一个很穷的。在建国的初期，几十户人家还都蜷缩在低矮的土坯房里，日子过得是刚能糊口。状况与其说是关中的农民，倒不如说是叫花子或居无定所的难民，用当地的话说就是个“烂杆村” ， 说白了就是这个地方一无是处。从1958年到1970年，农业一直欠收，政府都免去了该村向国家交公粮的义务。

Reform began in earnest in 1971, with the election of Guo Yulu, who was then aged just twenty-five, to the position of village leader. Realizing that Dazhai-style abundance could only be a pipe dream, he at first concentrated his energies upon soil improvement and irrigation. Household urine had long been the staple source of fertilizer. Well-rotted manure from mountain sheep was obtainable, but only if the malnourished villagers were prepared to trek several kilometres into the hills and scale altitudes of 1000 metres and more. They amassed an estimated 10 million kilos of dung during the first wave of collections. Meanwhile, the sinking of five deep wells with motor pump technology kick-started the drive to irrigate the fields and orchards.

  真正的改革始于1971年，随着当时只有二十五岁的郭裕禄当选为村长，他认识到大寨式的富裕只是一个空想，于是便首先将精力放在了土地和水利改造上。人粪尿原来一直是主要的肥料，山里也有发酵好的羊粪，但需要营养不良的村民有力气走好几公里，到海拔1000多米高的山上去捡。在第一次积肥的热潮中，他们大约收集到了十几万斤的羊粪，同时他们还打了五口深井，开始用机动泵来灌溉庄稼和果园。

Breaking through the subsistence barrier elevated Yuanjiacun into becoming a viable community with a tangible infrastructure. By the 1980s, the problem of food shortages had been met and the village was prepped to experience its own small-scale Industrial Revolution. Mr. Guo, who before the decade was out would be hailed as a National Model Worker, now turned his sights to the four large lime-pits which lay un-utilized in the hills. With an initial investment of 70，0000 RMB in 1983, Yuanjiacun established itself as a prime site for manufacturing cement. The appetite for this substance is palpable throughout post-Reform China. Take a stroll around the backstreets of Xi’an or Xianyang and virtually every third business unit displays a sign for shui ni with hessian sacks ready to be loaded. Notwithstanding the millions of tons of concrete which are invisibly pumped into new skyscraper foundations, scarcely a day goes by without seeing the spectacle of workmen or women mixing homemade filler. Brandishing their shovels they pelt alternating scoops of dry sand and cement against a fine-meshed screen. The sieved particles, once thoroughly saturated, either provide adhesion for paving flags of or are slathered about for some other repair job.

    突破了生存障碍后，袁家村变成了一个拥有基本生活设施的村庄。到了二十世纪八十年代，缺吃少喝的问题得到了解决，村民们开始体验小型工业革命带来的成果了。郭裕禄先生（后来成了“全国”劳模）把自己的眼光转向了山里四座没有被利用起来的石灰窑。1983年，袁家村投资70万元人民币，建起了村里的支柱产业水泥厂。改革开放后的中国到处需要水泥，在西安或咸阳的背街随便转转，几乎三分之一的商家都有出售水泥的招牌和随时可以装车运走的袋装水泥。尽管有千百万吨的水泥被无形的注进了新摩天大楼的地基，但每天人们都能看到干活的男男女女在土法搅拌，他（她）们挥着铁锨，把干沙和水泥一锨一锨的扔到很细的筛子上，筛好后的沙子和水泥加上水搅匀，就可以用来铺石板或做其它的修补。

Cement production in Yuanjiacun spiked at 50 000 tons per annum in 1990 and by then it accounted for just over half of the revenue generated by the community. A second industrial output emerged in the form of ferrosilicon, raising for the first time the prospect that this could become an “advanced village” (xianjincun). With a strong economic base in situ, Guo Yulu and key supporters, such as the local Party Secretary Zhang Wenxi, were free to explore other enterprises which would improve more than just the GDP in villager’s pockets.

袁家村的水泥生产在1990年的时候，年产量最高为五万吨，当时的收入是村里的半壁江山。袁家村的第二个工业产品是硅铁，这让村子第一次有了成为“先进村”的底子。在强大的经济基础上，郭裕禄和他的主力干将，如张文西等开始放手大干，而这些企事业增加的就不仅仅是村民口袋里的钱了。

A tour of West Germany in 1987 convinced the leaders that the next phase of development should endeavour to bridge the gap between the quality of life of native country folk and their Western counterparts. Hence, signs of the chemical industry were pushed neatly out of ordinary view to be replaced with a rustic diorama. A few years down the line, this coalesced around the familiar “Ecosystem Life Experience” theme which gave shape and a public face to the project. This is not the rural China of collective struggle and pinching directives, but a much fresher, more manicured society in which each person practices their own wholesome trade.

1987年访问德国后，村里的领导明确了他们下一步的发展，那就是在生活水平上缩短当地农民和西方农民之间的差距。因此，化工生产的东西从人们的视线中完全消失了，代之而来的是一幅乡村立体风景。几年下来，围绕人们熟悉的“生态生活体验”主题，形成了一个面向大众的新工程。这不是中国农村令人讨厌的指令性集体奋斗，而是一个更为新鲜、但却更为有序的社区，在这里人人各尽其能。

The high street is quite distinct from the roomy, concrete villas where many families choose to live. Its purpose is to showcase Yuanjiacun’s “Eight Specialities”. Most products, through their mass produced incarnations, are familiar from the supermarket shelf or deli. Few urban residents, however, are clued-up as to the basic methods by which they are made.

袁家村的主街和大多数家庭居住的宽敞水泥别墅不同，其目的是为了展示袁家村的“八大特产” 。大多数产品由于批量生产都是超市货架和熟食店里的常见物，但没有多少市民知道基本的制作方法。

Taking first of all the bean curd or tofu, yellow beans (huang dou) the size of garden peas are soaked, then crushed and boiled to extract the so-called “milk”. The resulting pulp, which resembles overdone sago or wallpaper paste, is skimmed of all its solids so the remainder can be left to coagulate into curds. The process remains essentially the same as that detailed in Compendium of Materia Medica by the apothecary Li Shizhen (1518-93) in the Ming Dynasty. Li attributes the discovery of soybean milk to the Han Prince Liu An in the second century BC. A filial son, he was purported to have experimented with extracting this fluid for his elderly mother whose teeth had become too weak to chew the beans in their natural forms.

以豆腐为例，先是泡黄豆，接着磨豆滤浆，再煮浆点浆，剩下的东西有点像煮老的西米或浆糊，把里面的固体除掉，就可以凝结成块。制作过程和明代药王李时珍在《本草纲目》中的所述基本一样，李时珍认为“豆腐之法，始於汉淮南王刘安” ，刘安是个孝子，传说他发明豆腐是为了老母亲，他母亲年纪大了，牙齿不好，嚼不了豆子。

The rural tofu factory is scarcely palatial. Little more than a large kitchen, the constant scurrying of the hands from one work station to another makes it a little difficult to observe each step in linear fashion. Added to that, the wafts of steam mar one’s visibility and leaves photographs haloed in condensation.

农村的豆腐房一点儿都不奢华，比厨房稍大一点，干活的人手不停的跑来跑去，让人很难看到流线型的生产步骤，加上漂浮的蒸汽遮挡视线，照的像上都有凝结了的光环。

Across the way, a flour mill – one rare instance of mechanization in the heritage zone - chugs steady streams of powder into sacks bearing the one self-descriptive character mian.

   街对面，有一家磨坊——这是遗产区罕见的机械化设备，轧轧的响着把稳稳流出的面粉装进袋里，袋子上面有一个“面”字。

The other “special” products offer greater entertainment value if not necessarily olfactory savour. Chunliang vinegar is distilled from massive earthenware demijohns in a neighbouring unit. The proprietors of the factory have arranged the resultant terracotta jars of condiment with all the care and attention that might be bestowed upon whiskey or vintage claret.

 另一个特产是纯粮醋，除了必要的味道感觉，还有更大的消遣意义。纯粮醋是从附近醋坊的大缸里酿造出来的，醋坊的老板把装满原料的醋缸小心翼翼的摆成几排，那阵势有点像是酿造威士忌和红葡萄酒。

At the other end of the taste spectrum, sweetness is to be found in Yuanjiacun honey, yoghurt, or fruit alcohol (lao zao). The latter has a cavernous bar dedicated to its honour. Curiously and incongruously where one might expect to find replica prints of calligraphy by Yu Youren or Shi Li, the walls are bedecked with memorabilia from the Hong Kong and Taiwan pop industries. I could pick out the late Teresa Teng - said to rule the airwaves by night while Deng Xiaoping ruled the country by day - and Mei Yanfang, the torch-singer and best friend of Leslie Cheung. A few Western artistes (vide a monochrome print of the recently deceased Elizabeth Taylor) were also creeping into the frame. 

最后的鲜味是甜品，那就是袁家村的蜂蜜、酸奶和稃子（醪糟）。稃子有一个打柜台， 让人感到惊讶与不合拍的是有于右任书法的仿制品，以及花花绿绿的台湾和香港演艺明星的图片。我能认出的有已经去世的邓丽君、（据说曾经是白天看邓小平，晚上听邓丽君） 梅艳芳和其挚友张国荣 ，其中也有几张西方艺人（如最近去世的伊丽莎白· 泰勒的黑白照）的图片夹杂在里面。

                           汉语原文刊发《美文》2016年第6期 （未完待续）

Shaanxi Through Dr. Robin’s Eyes            

 罗宾博士看陕西（6）     

               Guanzhong’s friendliest village Fuyincun                              

                   关中的睦邻之帮——福音村                                                                                                  （英）罗宾•吉尔班克                                                                           胡宗锋  译

On request, the bar staff will break off one of the waxen seals from the jars on the counter and decant a portion of the hawthorn or jujube-flavoured liquor into a bowl. A local Shaanxi custom holds that lao zao is to be best appreciated when a fresh egg is whisked into the beverage and it is downed in one go. The establishment does not as yet promote the “nog” serving suggestion. This would perhaps be one rustic touch beyond the pale.  

根据需要，柜台里的服务员会打开柜台上一个用蜡封着的坛子，从中倒出一碗山楂或红枣味道的果酒。当地的习俗是在稃子里打上新鲜的鸡蛋，一口饮进。这里还没有推出类似的促销，也许这种乡俗不在推广范围内。

The workshop with by far the most labour intensive activity proves to be the one tasked with extracting pure rapeseed oil. Two men toil around the clock to keep the burners and Heath-Robinson style press in operation. Rape is one of the crops widely seen as totemic of the explosion in agricultural productivity across China. From a nationwide yield of only 1.1 million metric tons in 1965 the harvest skyrocketed to 13.5 million tons in 2009. In spite of being regarded as garish and unsightly by many Europeans, some Shaanxi folk actually plan early summer tours of the countryside to photograph the vast fields of yellow in much the same way as the British visit bluebell woods or take abulb cruise to Rotterdam.

 劳动力强度最大的是用油菜籽榨油的油坊。 有两个人在很卖力的操作烧锅和一个像希思•罗宾逊描绘的怪异器械（希思•罗宾逊Heath Robinson (1872 –1944)是英国插图师,出生在绘画世家,以绘画诡异的机械闻名——译者注）。油菜籽是中国图腾般遍地开花的农作物，其产量从1965年的一百一十万吨飙升到了2009年的一千三百五十万吨。虽然在很多欧洲人的眼里油菜花有些不好看，有点过分鲜艳，但有些陕西人往往是在初夏就计划着去乡下拍照大片金黄色的油菜花了，那个架势和英国人去看蓝铃花或到鹿特丹去观赏球根花卉如出一辙。

To begin with, the gathered seeds are steamed in a wooden vat to an extremely high temperature. The pulp is then tipped into a rope-lined mold, somewhat wider in diameter than a car tire, and pulverized with a wooden mallet until all the air is expelled. This tightly-bound package is lugged across the workshop and lowered into the press and secured. A whole tree trunk is suspended at an angle of around fifty degrees within the press rig. Should there be any mishap with this behemoth one feels that the consequences would inevitably be fatal. The climax of the process comes when one operative clambers inside the contraption and pedals around a rimless wheel with his feet. The full heft of the trunk having been unleashed by this action, oil is extruded from the package below. In due course, the reservoir below overflows with juice and the contents of the press retain a waste crud which can be recycled as cattle cake.

榨油开始，首先是把油菜籽磨烂放到高温木桶里蒸，然后是把蒸好的原料装进一个像汽车轮胎大一点，盘着绳子的模子里，用木锤击打，除尽里面的空气。打紧的包被拖过作坊，下到压榨的地方，榨床的上面五十度角吊着一根用大树干做成的大梁。操作这种巨大的猛兽装置，稍有闪失，后果肯定是致命的。榨油的高潮是一个人爬到精巧的设计中，用脚蹬轮子，整个大梁随之渐渐下沉，油就从打紧的包里被挤出来。慢慢的，底下的油罐了装满了油，榨过油的油渣可以用来当饲料。

The eighth and final speciality of Yuanjiacun elicits a few cringes. Two working units have given over their space to distilling alcohol, which is given extra body by the addition of live scorpions. According to Chinese Traditional Medicine, the creature should be regarded with caution owing to its toxicity, though this very property may aid a patient who is suffering from arthritis or periodontal disease. A variety of positive effects upon the liver are also reputed.

袁家村的第“八大特产”让人有些害怕，有两个作坊在酿酒，酒里面有蝎子。根据传统中医理论，蝎子对关节炎和牙周炎病人有益，人们也普遍认为其对肝有保护作用，但由于其毒性，还是谨慎为好。

My lengthiest conversation at Yuanjiacun turned out to be the exchange I had with Old Liu, the self-appointed advocate for scorpion health products. His barn-like premises a stone’s throw from the lake had the air of a Qing patriarch’s house, latticed windows, square-seated chairs and all. Terracotta jardinières were dotted about the floor, though they served a purpose other than being merely decorative. Each housed his wild specimens. With even the slightest hint of an interest in his business enterprise, Liu would gamely stick his hands into one of the pots and fish out a section of modular egg-tray from the bottom. The fact that these teamed with venomous insects which were only centimetres away from his bare digits left him unfazed. He waved the scraps of cardboard with devil-may-care abandon rather like one of those ancient country apiarists who eschew the use of protective gloves. 

和我在袁家村谈话最多的是老刘，他自封为是蝎子保健品的创始人。他那像谷仓一样的作坊离湖不远，有点清朝老宅的感觉，格子窗户，靠背椅等。地上到处是陶罐，不是为了装饰，而是都有用处，里面装的是他的蝎种。只要对他的生意有点意思，他便会把手伸进罐里，掏出一个模具盘子，上面爬满了毒蝎，离他的手只有几厘米，他却一点也不在乎。他漫不经心的摆弄着蝎子，像古时候不戴手套的养蜂人。

Liu asked each of his visitors their ages as a none-to-subtle lever to make people inquire about his own. Before a gaggle of female students he announced his age as seventy. Not quite a Methuselah, then, but his daily intake of a level-cup of scorpion jiu did not appear to have detracted from his longevity. For around 60 yuan he sold me a one pint bottle of the stuff, complete with around fifty minute corpses swilling around the bottom as sediment. When I said it was a “gag gift” meant for a colleague with a famously waspish tongue he came across as crestfallen. His second herbal remedy, he told me, was earmarked for “people of your strong build”. Liu’s own blend tea billed itself as a failsafe method for losing weight within a brief matter of weeks. The supporting literature was rather less than compelling. A line of gilt-edged doctor’s testimonials, mostly with indistinct signatures and seals crept along the wall behind the counter as far as a sequence of before and after photographs. The woman who was purported to have lost around one third of her body mass was pictured in a motley array of outfits and poses with her hairstyle changed so often that it was hard to gauge the actual timeframe for this miraculous cure. On one image, indeed, she wielded a canoe paddle whilst standing by a waterfall clad in an inflatable life-preserver.

刘先生会好不忌讳的问来客的年龄，以便让人家再反过来问他的年龄。他对一群嬉笑的女学生说他已经七十岁了，寿数不高，但每天一杯蝎子酒还是蛮有用的。花了六十多块钱，他卖给了我一大瓶酒，瓶底有五十多只小蝎子。当我说这是准备送给我的一位“毒嘴”同事的礼物使，他显得有些灰心。他给我说他的第二个草药秘方是专门针对“我这种体型”的人，那是他自己配制的茶叶，没有副作用、几周就可以减肥。秘方的文字介绍不怎么吸引人，在柜台后面的墙上，有一排名医的评价和一溜照片，大多数人的签名和印章都不是很清楚。有位据说是减掉了三分之一体重的女人也在其中，她全副武装，发型多样，让人看不出减肥的奇迹。在一幅照片里，她站在瀑布下，挥舞着船桨，穿的是充气的救生衣。

I bought a plastic packet of the tea, in part through a sense of obligation at having purchased the wine for less than honorable motives. Ever the voice of sceptical reason, Liz ran her finger along the label to the point where it said in English “Do not leave the house on the first day you drink the tea”. “It’s a diuretic, obviously. It won’t get rid of body fat, only cause you to pee out pints of water and damage your kidneys”. Upon reaching home the wad was consigned to a drawer in kitchen dresser where it soon assumed the appearance of desiccated bay leaves. 

    出于礼貌我买了一盒茶，因为我觉得自己买蝎子酒的动机不纯。白丽诗总有怀疑的理由，她指着商标上的一行字用英语说：“第一天饮用后，切忌离开房间。很显然，这就是利尿的，不能减掉脂肪，只会让你多尿，毁了你的肾。” 回到家里后，我就把它塞进了厨房的抽屉里，不久它就变得像干了的树叶。

After crossing the threshold of Liu’s house and heading down the hill, the theme-park aspect of Yuanjiacun loomed larger than ever before. Sure enough, on the other side of the pond was the rough rocky outcrop which Liu said held the richest pickings for hunters of scorpions. Beyond that, though, the children of the tourists gave rip to their hyperactive tendencies through the various means of amusement on offer: a gigantic scramble net, quad bikes and ponies. The whole scene was framed in the distance by the mounds of the Zhaoling Mausoleum and the sun dipping behind them. Fourteen hundred years of history, sixteen dynasties, around one hundred and eighty Emperors and two republics had passed by since Taizong’s tussle with the River Dragon. When one looks on permanence of this kind, our lives seems so short, our leisure time a passing blink. We are but rakers in the yellow dust. 

跨国刘家的门槛朝山坡下走去，袁家村的主题公园显得更大了。 在池塘的另一边，是裸露的山崖，刘先生说那里是捉蝎子人的好去处。再往前走，就成了来这里的孩子们的娱乐场所了，那里有各种各样好玩的东西，如有巨大的攀登网、四轮摩托车和小马等。所有的一切都笼罩在远处昭陵的墓冢里，夕阳正在徐徐落下。在唐太宗与龙王的争斗过去后，一千四百年的历史，六个朝代，一百八十位皇帝，两个共和国相继而来。回首这一切，人生苦短，欢愉只在一瞬间，人不过是黄尘中的过客。

Postscript: Dawn by the Spirit Lake

侍郎湖的黎明

      I did not ultimately succumb to the temptation to rent overnight an upstairs garret in one of the converted tenements in Yuanjiacun. For as sorely as I wanted to watch the sun descend to the clack of Mahjong tiles and the smell of wild ceps stir frying, responsibility once more ensnared us in its mundane net, dragging we three back to the city.

我最终还是没有向想在袁家村阁楼上的公寓里过夜的诱惑屈服，我不想在麻将和炒菜声中看夕阳归去，责任和义务再一次用世俗的大网罩住我们，把我们拖回了城市。

      A couple of years thereafter, Liquan sneaked its way back into my consciousness. One sunrise, if watched at length and intently enough, kindles the memory or imagined memory of another. How would the sun rear its countenance over a mausoleum like the Emperor Taizong's, I wondered? Did the Tang designers position their contours in some special alignment so that there would be a daily solar spectacle like that seen at Stonehenge? A riddle to vex onlookers for countless generations in perpetuity.

         一两年后，礼泉潜回了我的意识。在太阳升起的时候，从远处仔细看，激起了我的记忆和不同的想象。太阳怎么会从皇帝唐太宗的陵墓后落下去呢？我有点纳闷。难道唐朝的设计者也选择了特殊的等高线，所以每天都可以像在巨石阵里一样看到太阳的壮观？（巨石阵Stonehenge巨石阵由巨大的石头组成，每块约重50吨。它的主轴线、通往石柱的古道和夏至日早晨初升的太阳，在同一条线上；另外，其中还有两块石头的连线指向冬至日落的方向。约建于公元前4000～2000年，是欧洲著名的史前时代文化神庙遗址，位于英格兰威尔特郡索尔兹伯里平原——译者注）。这个谜将永远使无数的后代感到困惑。

      The present scene at Spirit Lake ought to rank as peerless. I am in the habit of sitting up in bed rather than lying prostrate, for quite apart from allowing me to alternate between dozing and reading this posture seems to somehow assist in the retention of rational thought and in preventing the mind from degenerating into dream and whimsy. Propped up in my hotel bed, the May dawn broached the hillside at first as a dab of molten ore, then licked the outline of the landscape like an acetylene torch until a full orb was formed.

        今日的侍郎湖应该说是无以伦比的。我的习惯是坐在床上，而不是躺着，除了打盹和看书，这个姿势似乎可以让我保持理性的思维，让我的思绪不进入梦乡或闪现杂念。从宾馆的床上坐起，五月的黎明起初像熔化了的矿石撒在山坡上，然后又像一把火红的焊枪，舔着周围的风景，直到天大亮。

This was not a view that was available to Taizong. Had it been so, he would surely have made it the imperial prerogative to sojourn there in the warmer months, pitching marquees on the banks and directing palanquin processions. The Spirit Lake only came into being during the early Ming Dynasty when the Shaanxi Earthquake shifted mountains and rent the ground asunder, creating gaping gullies. Topographically the waterway is a work of wonder, bounded on all four sides by verdant hills. The waters which do not at any point surpass eighteen metres in depth are said to be unsullied. Neither autumn leaves appear inclined to fall on the surface nor does frost form even in the harshest of winters. Spirit Lake is purportedly immune also to trial by flood and drought, for the water level remains seasonally as constant as a plumb-line. I cannot be sure whether the brochures are repeating hyperbole, for these claims inevitably bring to mindHenry David Thoreau's mid-nineteenth century meditations on the properties of the waters in Walden Pond:-

唐太宗时代没有这一景，要是有，他肯定会将这里作为夏季的皇家庄园，在湖岸建华盖，通令仪仗。侍郎湖形成于明代，是陕西地震后，山体滑坡堵塞水路形成的天然湖泊。从地理构造上看，侍郎湖乃鬼斧神工，其四面环山，水深约13米最深处18米。湖面冬春不结冰，夏秋无落叶，湖的水位涝不升，旱不降，一年四季无变化。我不知道旅游手册是否在不停的夸张，但这让我不由自主的想起了十九世纪中期亨利·梭罗在瓦尔登湖畔的遐思。（亨利·戴维·梭罗Henry David Thoreau（1817-1862），美国作家、哲学家，超验主义代表人物，其名著为《瓦尔登湖》——译者注）

       White Pond and Walden Pond are great crystals on the surface of the earth, Lakes of Light. If they were permanently congealed, and small enough to be clutched, they would, perchance, be carried off by slaves, like precious stones, to adorn the heads of emperors, but being liquid, and ample, and secured to us and our successors forever, we disregard them, and run after the diamond of Kohinoor. They are too pure to have a market value; they contain no muck. How much more beautiful than our lives, how much more transparent than our characters, are they!

(From Chapter 9: 'Ponds' in Thoreau, Walden).

白湖和瓦尔登湖是大地表面上两块巨大的水晶，它们是光耀的湖，如果它们是永远地冻结了的，而且又小巧玲珑，可以拿取的，也许它们已经给奴隶们拿了去，像宝石 一样，点缀在国王的王冠上了；可是，它的液体也很广大，所以永远保留给我们和我们 的子孙了，我们却抛弃了它们，去追求可希诺大钻石了，它们真太纯洁，不能有市场价格，它们没被污染。它们比起我们的生命来，不知美了多少，比起我们的性格来，不知透明了多少！

                     ——亨利·梭罗 著 《瓦尔登湖》第9章

       My students either screw their faces or laugh when they catch his Transcendentalist speculations in mid-flow. Were I able to return to the luxury Spirit Lake Hotel in October, or in more Thoreau-esque fashion, rent out one of its lakeside cabins, the truth of the matter would be told.

提到梭罗的超验主义思想，我的学生要么笑，要么就是一脸茫然。我在十月能回到奢华的侍郎湖宾馆，像梭罗那样在湖边租个小木屋，以穷事理吗？

       Bin County has but one nationally-noted tourist attraction, the Great Buddha from the early Tang Dynasty which inhabits a cavernous hillside shrine，about 40 kilometers northwest of Spirit Lake. His russet and pea-green surplice tumbles in life-like folds down much of the length of his twenty-metre frame. Visitors are moved to gasp at both the upturned fingers, which are as tall and lank as a phalanx of NBA players, and the bright blue thatch which curves above his kidney-shaped earlobes.

      彬县有一处全国闻名的旅游景点，那就是位于侍郎湖西北40公里处、建于唐初依崖凿窟的大佛寺。大佛的褐色和浅绿色袈裟，栩栩如生的披挂在他那20米高的身躯上。游人惊讶的看到，大佛翘起的手指犹如一排NBA的篮球队员，高大灵巧，大佛的宝石蓝螺髻护顶下是像人的肾脏形状的耳垂。

      To local avers, Spirit Lake is barely less of a sacred a site. Scaling the hillside (being mindful of wild boars, tigers and other beasts said to dwell in the bush), the place yields up its final mystery. Surveyed on a northwest-to-southeast axis, the outline of the crystal deeps distinctly resembles a fish plashing its way through the mountains. It is as though in the wake of a natural disaster all those centuries ago the heavens through down a celestial gift, a symbol and beacon of hospitality to reside forever in the depths of this remote rural county.

       当地人说，侍郎湖是一个神湖，纵观四周的山坡（当心野猪、老虎和其它的野兽，据说丛林中有），最后的谜底才会出现。从西北往东南看，晶莹的湖面形似一条大鱼。这仿佛是大灾之后，上天赐予的礼物，是好客的象征和灯塔，永世镶嵌在遥远的乡村深处。

                              汉语原文刊发《美文》2016年第6期 （本文完）

本文作者和译者在第八届亚太翻译论坛的分论坛：对话：“陕西文学的特色与国际传播”      左起：罗宾博士、胡宗锋、贾平凹老师、南京大学许钧教授、旅法华侨诗人陈旭英先生、南开大学王宏印教授

Shaanxi Through Dr. Robin’s Eyes            

 罗宾博士看陕西（7） 

                                      Commencing the Silk Road

              “丝绸之路”的起点

  （英）罗宾•吉尔班克

       胡宗锋  译

       Regrettably, and in some senses this is an indelible mark of regret, I am neither the first nor even the second member of my family to have set foot in Shaanxi. Back in the mid-1990s, after watching an episode of The Ruth Rendell Mysteries called The Speaker of Mandarin, my Auntie Brenda and Uncle Albert from Driffield, decided to celebrate their impending retirements with a package tour across China [note: The Ruth Rendell Mysteries was a weekly series of detective stories broadcast on ITV from 1987-2000. The stories were adapted from the novels of the bestselling Ruth Rendell (1930-2015) and featured the amiable older policeman Inspector Reginald Wexford solving crimes in and around a country town in the south of England, but some plotlines saw the character travelling abroad with homicide never being far away]. Providing they did not ask any politically insensitive questions in Tiananmen Square, stayed away from shady men encountered on the Yangtze steamer and avoided the green tea that had hallucinogenic effects on the police detective Inspector Wexford, they deemed it “safe enough” to traverse the Middle Kingdom in among a troupe of similarly-aged compatriots.

          遗憾啊！此乃无法弥补的遗憾，我既不是第一个，也不是第二个我们家族来陕西的人。二十世纪九十年代中期，在看了《露丝·伦德尔悬疑剧场》的《讲中文的人》后，我在德里菲尔德婶婶布伦达和叔叔阿尔伯特为了庆祝即将到来的退休生涯，决定随旅行团去中国。 （《露丝·伦德尔悬疑剧场》是英国独立电视台从1987年到2000年推出的系列侦探剧，剧本改编自畅销书作家露丝•伦德尔（1930-2015）的小说。露丝•伦德尔在欧美文坛是一位家喻户晓的人物，也是一位出色的多产作家，有七十多部作品问世。她尤其擅长创作犯罪心理小说，其中很多作品都在国际上获得了很高声誉，被誉为“犯罪小说女王”。该剧中的主要人物是一个名为韦克斯·福德的老督察，在英国南部的一个乡镇周围办案。虽然所办的案件都在附近，但剧中有主人公出国旅游的情节）只要不过问诸如天安门广场的敏感政治问题，躲开长江蒸汽船上的不法分子，回避让侦探韦克斯·福德产生幻觉的绿茶，他（她）们觉得和自己年龄相仿的同胞在中国旅行是“很安全”的。

At Xi’an, they found a cityscape now largely vanished. Trams skirted the grey main streets and the air was aloud with bicycle bells and the trills of caged birds rather than piped pop music and spewing exhaust pipes. The couple derived great amusement from their companions’ culinary conservatism. Many winced at the focal point of the main banquet – an elaborately sliced and pleated “squirrel fish,” the eyes of which glistered enticingly at those who were about to gore it with their chopsticks. Several diners – the same ones who stuck to the dumplings, the blandest dish of the lot – covertly loaded handbags and camera cases with steamed bread buns (mantou) only to discover that by the next day’s outing they had hardened into white cobblestones. On the minibus to the Muslim Quarter, the guide tried to whip up some enthusiasm by telling his party they had reached the historical starting point of the Silk Road (then known as Daxing or Chang’an). Brenda’s reaction was typically atypical. Instead of swooning over extortionately-priced scarves at Hui Min Jie and being railroaded into filleting her purse, she demanded to know “in that case where are all the little caterpillars?” No answer was forthcoming. Faced with her persistence the group leader managed to locate an elderly resident whose living room housed a bell jar in which chubby translucent grubs crawled about mulberry twigs. The old Muslim offered them tea (fortified with rock sugar and dates), which was refused, and so returned to his wooden couch to take some more slow drags from a brass water-pipe. She peered at the creatures as they cast out cables of thread from branch to branch and then doubled back on themselves to work still more of their self-made fibre into thimble-sized cocoons. Those which had a head-start had already burrowed through the outer layers of the globules, knowing by instinct if not by observing others which had gone before that a metamorphosis was impending. “Hardly a way to start an industry,” Brenda exclaimed.

     在西安，他（她）们看到的是一幅现在已几乎消失了的城市风景：电车形势在灰色的马路上，空气中弥漫着是自行车的铃声和笼中的鸟鸣，而非是流行音乐和汽车排气管的突突声。旅行团里其他人在饮食上的保守让这老两口觉得特别有趣，团里的多数人一看到宴会上的主菜——被灵巧的切开并打褶的“松鼠鱼”——就皱眉头，因为鱼眼亮亮的盯着那些要对它动筷子的人。还有几位特别着迷很柔软的饺子，便偷偷的把馒头也塞进了手提包与照相机的盒子，但等第二天出门再拿出来时，才发现馒头已硬的像白色的鹅卵石了。在去回民坊的面包车上，导游为了煽情，告诉旅游团里的人说大家已经来到了具有历史意义的“丝绸之路”的起点（以前叫长安或大兴）。布伦达的反应很平常但却不一般，她对回民街那些价格宰人的围巾没有兴趣，也不情愿让人哄着掏钱包。她就问“既然如此，那些小小的毛毛虫在哪里呢？”但没有人接她的话。面对她的固执，领队便想法安排去了当地一位老人的家里，老人家里的客厅里有一个钟型的玻璃罩，里面的桑树枝上爬着胖乎乎、半透明的蚕。那位老回民给大家上了茶（茶里加了冰糖和大枣），但没有人喝。于是他便回到了木躺椅上，慢悠悠的抽起了他的铜水烟。布伦达凝视着那些蚕，看它们一点一点的吐丝，直到把自己包在自产的纤维中，形成一个顶针大小的蚕茧。那些起步早的蚕已经完成了茧的外围，不用看以前的同伴，本能让它们知道变形即将到来。“这行业的起步真难啊！”布伦达感叹说。

          Much of the commercial silk production actually migrated south of the Yangtze River following the fall of Chang’an to An Lushan in 756 AD. Raising short-lived silkworms is now a kind of rite of passage for the young. They are the Chinese answer to the hamster in the UK. They look attractive for days or weeks, though will never be a companion for life. Upon learning that in all these years in the Middle Kingdom I had never kept any myself, my friend Shangnan Piglet collared a retired teacher and his granddaughter who were snapping away boughs from a white mulberry tree in the “lovers’ grove” below my balcony. The following day he returned to my apartment with a box of un-hatched eggs and foliage. I did not realize what had become of the leaves until the next morning when they turned up in the salad crisper at the bottom of the fridge. My head of lettuce lay pressed flat underneath. As for the experiment in home “sericulture” not all went to plan. A few of the fluffy balls came out in surreal colours – sugar mouse pink and linctus yellow. Piglet denied having sabotaged them with dye and blamed it on “those weird chemicals the weather people use to make rain nowadays.” With the wisdom of one reared in the mountains on his hard-grafting mother’s homegrown produce, he added “Who knows what lands out of the sky on the food that we chi?”

      公元756年，在长安落入安禄山的手中后，大多数的商业丝绸产品都被移到了长江以南。  养短命的蚕现在成了年轻人的种娱乐，就像在英国人们养仓鼠。这些小东西虽然不会成为终身伙伴，但在几天或几周内还是很吸引人的。得知我在中国这么多年从来没有自己养过蚕，我朋友商南的小朱看见了一位退休的教师和他的孙女在我阳台下面的“情侣园”里折桑树枝。第二天他到我房间来的时候，带了一盒未孵化的蚕卵和桑叶。我没有意识到那些桑叶去了哪里，直到第二天它们出现在冰箱底层的保鲜盒里，我的莴笋都被给压扁了。这个在家里的“养蚕”实验没有按计划实现，结果是几个蓬松的茧球颜色很离奇，有的像粉红色的糖老鼠，有的像黄色的止咳糖浆。小朱否认自己给它们上过色，并将这归罪于“现在的气象人员用怪异的化工产品人工降雨” 。带着山里人吃家乡饭长大的智慧，他又加了一句：“谁知道天上会有什么东西掉到我们吃的东西上呢？”

        Silk was to be coveted throughout history and the failure of silkworms to become acclimatized to Western countries was no small factor in China becoming open to trade with the outside world. Pliny wrote of them in his Natural Histories that “they weave webs, like spiders, which become a luxurious clothing material for women, called silk.” In ancient Rome, no fashion-conscious female of standing was to be without a garment crafted from that material. The ancient discovery of the secret of silk is attributed to a woman by the name of Leizu who was alive in around the 27^th century BC. The legend is a little imprecise. One version maintains that as a fourteen-year old bride she was sitting outdoors sipping afternoon tea. An alien object plopped into her drink and gingerly the girl lifted it out. The soggy blob had begun to unravel in the hot brew, yet the constituent strands did not disintegrate. Squeezing this caused a tiny worm to poke out and Leizu recognized that rather than being a husk or a casing cast from one of the bushes which waved overhead here was a cocoon spun by its occupant. She proceeded to wind the silk around her fingers in a sort of cat’s cradle and witnessed how this material possessed a tensile strength. Flexing her digits she struck upon the idea of constructing a loom for producing textiles.

     丝绸在历史上一直是人们垂涎的物品，而桑蚕不服西方的水土在中国的对外贸易上可不是件小事。普林尼在其《博物志》中说：“蚕像蜘蛛一样结网，这种网是女人奢华的衣服面料，称之为丝。”（盖乌斯·普林尼·塞孔都斯Gaius Plinius Secundus，生于公元23（一说24年），卒于公元79年，世称老普林尼（与其养子小普林尼相区别），是古罗马百科全书式的作家，以其所著《博物志》（又译《自然史》）而留名后世——译者注）。在古罗马，有身份的时髦女人都会有一件精致的丝绸衣服。古代发现丝绸奥秘的是一个女人，名叫嫘祖，大约生活在公园前27世纪。传说不是很正确，有一种说法是十四岁的新娘嫘祖有天下午在户外饮茶，有个奇怪的东西掉进了茶里，嫘祖小心的把那东西捞了出来，浸湿的那团东西被热水一泡化开了，但那一束束的丝线却没有断。嫘祖把那东西一挤，挤出了一只小毛毛虫，她看那东西既不是黄蜂，也不是周围树丛里的虫壳，而是一个蚕结的茧。她接着像玩翻线游戏一样把那些丝缠在手指上，发现这种东西的拉伸强度很大。绕动的手指使她联想到了造一台织布机来织布。

       Variant tellings cast Leizu as a proto-scientist with far greater gumption. After having observed the activities of the worms on the mulberries she may just as plausibly have soaked the cocoon as a prelude to dissecting it. Once the threads parted, she spooled them about the twigs of the nearest hedge. She thereby ascertained that the silkworm’s cladding could be amenable to the task of furnishing fabric for human clothing.

       不同版本的传说都把嫘祖看成是一个先古时代有抱负的科学家，在观察到蚕在桑树上的活动后，她可能是为了解剖而把蚕茧泡在了水里。把那些丝线分开后，她就把丝线缠绕在跟前的树桩上，由此她肯定蚕茧可以为人做衣服的面料。

        Shrines dedicated to Leizu, which employ the monicker “The Mother of Silk” (Nai Nai Can in Chinese) in their titles and inscriptions are still a feature of a number of Chinese provinces, including Jiangsu in the east. Whether she is to be hailed as a lady of leisure who experienced a single moment of sheer serendipity or as a sharp-witted investigator an air of contrivance pervades the above tales. Leizu was one of the wives of the Yellow Emperor (Huangdi in Chinese), the mythical or semi-mythical ruler who purportedly reigned for one hundred years and from whom the entire Han Chinese race claims descent. Revered to this day at a Mausoleum in Huangling County, Yan’an, he is credited with an eye-bulging list of pioneering works upon which the prosperity and order of every subsequent dynasty was to depend. A curious, all-too-convenient symmetry must be noted between the Yellow Emperor’s achievements - establishing the first canon of Traditional Medicine and creating wheeled vehicles, to name but two - and his spouse’s discovery. The Empire’s longstanding monopoly over silk production, after all, promoted the image of China as being a land of sumptuary elegance, even glamour. To render his wife as a complimentary national figurehead now appears faintly amusing. The archaeological evidence does not stack up in Leizu’s favour either. Excavations of tombs belonging to the Neolithic Yangshao people in Shanxi Province have uncovered the remnants of cocoons, which could date the domestication of silkworms to at least two thousand years prior to her lifetime.

      敬奉嫘祖的神殿称其为“先蚕娘娘”，这在中国的好几个省，如在东部的江苏依旧盛行。不论嫘祖是一个碰巧有所发现的悠闲妇人，还是一位机智的能工巧匠，所有的传说都带有发明的痕迹。嫘祖乃轩辕黄帝的正妃，而黄帝乃是位神话式的半虚构人物，据说他在位一百年，整个汉民族都宣称是他的后裔。直到今天在延安的黄帝陵，还展示有一长串让人开眼的发明创造，后世的历朝历代就是靠这些发明创造而繁荣和立国的。举两个例子，比如他发明了车轮，编撰了第一部中医经典。值得一说的是，黄帝的丰功伟绩和其正妃的发现旗鼓相当。中国长期以来对丝绸产品的垄断，最终让中国的形象定位是：这是一块奢华和充满魅力的国土。将自己的妻子塑造为一个全国现在看来很有意思，考古证据不支持对嫘祖的传说。从陕西省新石器时代仰韶文化墓冢里出土的文物中就有蚕茧的痕迹，这就说明蚕的家养至少比嫘祖要早两千年。

                  汉语原文刊登在《美文》2016年第7期（未完待续）

            
                              本文作者和译者在一起 

罗宾博士看陕西（7） 

               Commencing the Silk Road

                   “丝绸之路”的起点                                                                                                                                                                    （英）罗宾•吉尔班克                                                  胡宗锋  译   

     The spirit of the heroic entrepreneur-benefactors lives on in some businesspeople of the twentieth- and twenty-first centuries. Having made her wealth through manufacturing mulberry beverages, and bringing prosperity to many farmers in southern Shaanxi in the process, Wei Wenli (also known by the courtesy name “Wei Ke” or to admirers as “the juice queen”) has taken to reviving the spirit of the Silk Road. Her shop at the retail centre in the Western Market is the launch base for a new range of skin-care cosmetics which synthesize natural products involved in the process of creating silk from mulberry leaves, mulberry bark, silk protein extract, and extract from silkworm chrysalis. The science is rooted in Traditional Chinese Medicine, drawing its rationale from the Compendium of Materia Medica (Bencao Gangmu) of Li Shizhen:

     企业家的公益精神至今闪现在二十一世纪的商人中。在经营桑椹饮料获得财富并让陕南的许多农民富裕起来以后，魏文利（笔名卫可，粉丝称其为“果汁皇后” ）便开始弘扬“丝路”精神。她在大唐西市的零售中心是其新开发的护肤化妆品启动基地，该产品综合的是天然物质，有桑叶、桑树皮、丝蛋白和蚕蛹中的提取物。其科学依据源于中医，原理来自李时珍的《本草纲目》 ：

桑椹、味酸、甘、单食，止消渴、利五脏关节，通血气，久服不饥，安魂定神，令人聪明，变白不老。

捣汁饮，解中酒毒，酿酒服，利水汽消肿”，并称“桑之精华尽在于此。

       So natural and non-toxic are the ingredients that the face and hand crèmes can be eaten without damage to the body.

            这种面霜和手霜的成分天然无毒，即便口服也对人体无害。

That trading place had a less than seemly underbelly, abutting as it did a business specializing in supplying exorcists and being home to a lone willow tree that marked an execution ground. Justin Hill’s re-imagining of the life of the female poet Yu Xuanji (844-68/9 AD) culminates with an official being led to his execution following the ritual throttling of all male members of his family. [note: Justin Hill (born 1971) is a British author who worked for seven years as a volunteer teacher in China and Eritrea, his books about China garnering him critical acclaim while still in his twenties. He later coordinated the Creative Writing course at the City University of Hong Kong]. It is chilling to say the least:

       这个市场曾经有一个似乎让人说三道四的地方，其附近有专门做招魂生意的，只有一棵柳树标志着那儿是个刑场。贾斯汀·希尔写女诗人鱼玄机传记的时候提到有位官员被弃市，并株连到了家里的所有男性（贾斯汀·希尔Justin Hill，英国著名作家，曾经作为志愿者在中国和厄立特里亚支教七年，二十出头时就有对中国颇有研究的作品。他后来曾在香港城市大学教授创意写作创作）。

        They wheeled him to the Western Market, where axes and saddles and cloth were bought and sold, and where the Persian bazaar overflowed with vendors of gruel and sweet congee. This morning it was also where the corpses of his brothers and sons and uncles lay in the dust. Around them gathered a confused audience of cows, on the way to their own slaughter.

        狱警把他用囚车拉倒了经营斧头、马鞍和衣服的西市，那里的波斯人“巴扎”也有很多买粥的小摊。这天早上，他兄弟和儿子们的尸体也将躺着这儿的灰尘里，旁边的观众是一群糊里糊涂走向屠厂的牛。

       When the cows had been moved away, they continued to the execution ground, just beyond the Pond for Releasing the Living where the religious and superstitious were queuing to buy live fish from the buckets of the fishmongers, then paying the priests to let them go into their pond. It gave them extra merit towards their next reincarnation.

     牛走后，狱警继续前行来到了刑场，就在不远处的放生池边，好对信奉宗教和迷信的人在排队从鱼贩子的手里买鱼，然后又掏钱给神父帮他们放生，以便为来生积德。

Secretary Yen was salivating uncontrollably. He tried to swallow but with the wooden ball in his mouth it was too difficult. He started drooling like a hungry dog, shook his head to detach the threads that hung from his mouth, but they stayed where they were.

      元大人禁不住流起了口水，他努力想把口水吞下去，但嘴里的木球太难了。 像个饿狗一样他的口水开始往下滴，他摇着头甩嘴里的绳子，但却甩不掉。

     Secretary Yen looked at the clear waters of the pool and wished he had eaten less fish in his day. Less fish and lamb and beef and mutton and shrimp and squid and pork. He wished he had never worn silk, that he had prayed more often. Now that he was about to die he felt the suffering he had caused in his lifetime. All the men he had driven from office. All the men he had insulted because he refused to be intimidated by their learning. Through it all he heard the mooing of the nearby cattle.

(Justin Hill, Passing Under Heaven [2004], pp. 412-3).

望着放生池里的清水，他多么期望自己这辈子没有吃那么多的鱼，那么多的牛羊肉、猪肉、虾和鱿鱼啊！他多么期望自己从未穿过绸缎，而是多祈祷几次。现在他要死了，他感受到了一生中的罪业，所有被他革职的人，所有他曾经侮辱过的人，因为他妒才嫉能。透过这一切，他听到的是附近的牛叫声。

   ——引自贾斯汀·希尔 著 《大唐才女鱼玄机》第412-413页

        Ms. Yu, whose crime was said to have been murdering a maid, met her end on the same spot, in Hill’s words the swing of the headsman’s sword coinciding with a sudden blizzard of snow.

        鱼玄机之罪据说是打死了一名女婢，也被处死在这儿。贾斯汀的描述是当刽子手的刀挥起来的时候，天上忽然下起了大雪。

For all the aforesaid munificence of the Western Market and the charisma of its traders, the greatest prize may yet remain hidden underground. Economically, it was deemed to be the inferior competitor to its Eastern counterpart, which written accounts located somewhere to the southwest of the XinQing Palace, where the Emperor Xuanzong’s birthday celebrations and polo tournaments spiced up the tone of that mansion-packed neighourhood. In March 2015, the Institute of Archaeology set in motion a survey and excavation that sought to establish the exact location of the marketplace. Assuming that its boundary must be approximately 300 metres from XinQing, the team estimated that it lay between the axes of Jingjiu Road and East Youyi Road and Anxi Street and West Xianning Street, in other words a total area of 900 000 square metres. Unearthed artifacts including a ceramic vessel incised with the name of the restaurant to which it belonged, and subterranean chambers which contain precisely the right conditions for cellarage suggest the scientists struck pay-dirt. Alas, the contemporary desirability of that district will hamper further discoveries. Even though the government reached an arrangement with the Zhengfang Real Estate Co. Ltd. (a subsidiary of the China Railway First Group Co. Ltd.) over the site, which they had purchased legitimately for housing development, around ninety per cent of the land on top of the old Eastern Market is occupied with pre-existing high-rises.

        大唐西市除了上述的慷慨和商人们的魅力，其最大的宝藏也许依旧还在地下。从经济效益上讲，西市竞争不过东市。据记载东市位于兴庆宫的西南，唐玄宗在此祝寿和举行马球比赛使周围大厦林立的地段别有情致。2015年3月，为了搞清东市的确切位置，中国社会科学院考古研究所在兴庆宫西南角以南约300米的地方进行了考古发掘，考古队估计大唐东市位于今天西安城外的东南方位，在经九路以西，友谊东路以北，安西街以东，咸宁西路以南。换句话说，其总占地面积为90万平方米。出土的文物有雕着酒家店名的瓷壶，而地窖中的条件则显示出了科学家的智慧。当代对这一地区的热衷也许会妨碍更大的发现，虽然政府和把块土地已经买走并准备开发房地产的“正方房地产公司”（该公司隶属于中铁一局）达成了协议，但百分之九十的区域如今已经是高楼林立了。

        A local saying asserts “kick a clod in Xi’an and you may chance upon some cultural relics.” That may hold true when we speak of the Eastern Market. It was in this vicinity that a vendor of pastries, nicknamed “Camel” on account of his hunched back, lost control of his wheeled cart during the Tang Dynasty. On colliding with a stack of piled bricks it exposed a hidden crock of gold and the salesman surreptitiously pocketed the booty. Concealed riches they may still be for the taking but not necessarily ones that are pecuniary in nature. From digging in the Han Jing Mausoleum we now have two thousand year old tea samples for analysis. What of the recipe for the colourfully-named Toad Tumulus Ale brewed a stone’s throw from the imperial palace at Xingping? Planning is at an early stage, though the foundations of the Eastern Market will be conserved beneath a museum for local historical artefacts. Once again those who seek out the starting-point of the Silk Road should be able to “buy east and west.”

        当地有句话，“在西安随便踢开一块土疙瘩，说不定就有文物 ” 。就大唐西市而言，这句话绝对是真的。就在这附近，在唐代曾经有个绰号叫“骆驼”的小贩，由于背驼，推车失控碰到了一堆砖上，结果是撞出了一罐金子，就偷偷的独吞了。藏起来的财富也许仍旧可以私吞，但都未必是金钱。发掘汉景帝陵墓，人们发现了两千多年前的茶叶，而距兴平很近的御茶膳房酿制、牌子胡里花哨的蟾蜍酒配方又会是怎样呢？计划还在初期，但东市的地基将会被保存在汇集当地文物的博物馆下面。那些寻找“丝绸之路”起点的人又可以“买东西”了。

                     汉语原文刊登在《美文》2016年第7期 （本文完）

罗宾博士看陕西（9）

Shaanxi Art: Folk Culture meets the Journey Westward

        民间文化西行漫记：陕西的艺术

      （英）罗宾•吉尔班克

         胡宗锋  译

       Shaanxi art is everywhere in China. This one can state without prevarication and without courting controversy. The most ubiquitous image in the nation is in all of our pockets and not one day goes by when the sane and the solvent do not catch sight of it. I am speaking, of course, of Liu Wenxi’s portrait of Mao Zedong which appears on the fifth and current series of Chinese banknotes. Born in Shengzhou City, Zhejiang Province, in 1933 Mr. Liu is an adopted Shaanxi citizen of more than five decades standing. We do not have to look much further afield, either, to find supplementary examples of works by Shaanxi artists in the public eye. Scarcely one week passes without one of the national newspapers featuring photographs of Li Keqiang or other national leaders delivering their addresses in the Great Hall of the People before a backdrop of tawny and white torrents. The wall painting may not always be in pin-sharp focus, but the palette alone is enough to identify this as ‘The Yellow River, the Mother River,’ the vast study in acrylics painted by the most celebrated living painter from Xi’an, Mr. Wang Xijing.

     陕西的艺术在中国无处不在，这一点清清楚楚毋庸质疑。 中国人最熟悉的形象就在每个人的衣服口袋里，只要是心智健全的人每天能都看到。我当然说的是第五套人民币和当下人们使用的钞票上刘文西画的毛泽东头像。刘文西1933年出生于浙江省的嵊州县，在陕西一直呆了五十多年。人们也无需进一步寻觅就能在公众的视野里看到陕西艺术家的其它作品。几乎不到一周，全国的报纸上就会有李克强或国家其它领导人在人民大会堂讲话的特写，其照片的背景就是黄白色奔腾的激流，那幅画也许并非总是引人注目的焦点，但从色彩上人们就可以认出那是当代西安著名画家王西京先生的大作“黄河，母亲河”。

     When we seek to write about Shaanxi art, what parameters, if any, should we impose on this topic? Briefly scrunch your eyes closed before stepping into a small gallery in Wuyuemao or one of the adjacent streets and the stock upon the walls will give you no cause to blink in disbelief. Behold a Liu Wenxi watercolour of a Tibetan maiden pictured from the bust upwards – the starting price one third of a million yuan, a peacock by the same artist plumed in ultramarine and black blotches, and a few Wang Xijing impressions of the Tang Dynasty, the courtesans being monochrome save for splashes of pigment on their hair grips, talons and other extremities. These “bankers” are what one needs, it seems, to launch a dealership. It doesn’t matter if the sheets of paper are creased or framed a little skew-whiff. Somebody with deep pockets will catch the bait sooner or later.

    提到陕西的艺术，要是有的话，我们能以什么为参数呢？在走进五岳庙和附近街道上的小画廊前，把眼睛闭上一会儿，墙上的展品会让你难以置信的眨眼。 你会看到刘文西的一副水彩画：“藏族少女”，起价是三十多万元。另外还有他的一副深蓝羽毛黑斑点的孔雀，以及王西京的几幅唐代侍女图，那些侍女除了发卡、手饰以及四肢着色外全是单色白描。开画廊的人需要这种像“银行”一样的画，纸皱框斜不要紧，口袋里有钱的人迟早会上钩。

      In all truthfulness, the above title should more precisely read “Contemporary Art in Shaanxi.” In my mind few images surpass in beauty the carved stone tiger and turtle designs from the Han Dynasty. These I never tire of collecting in the form of rubbings, even having bought a couple of reproduction clay tile ends and special ink to try and make some of my own at home. Who could fail to admire their simplicity and the power that a single appropriately incised line can add to a beast? Visiting an exhibition of pastiches of wall paintings from tombs by Tang Changdong at the Shaanxi Provincial Museum in 2013, I was just as moved by how Tang Dynasty draughtsman could achieve so much affect with minimal strokes. Mr. Tang has made it his life’s project to reproduce period images, so that aficionados can inspect the aesthetic style without the hassle of travel or the risk of jeopardizing the conservation of the originals in situ. The boisterous duck from Li Zhen’s (died 665 AD) burial chamber appears to genuinely be vexing its keeper. Similarly, the grandeur of royal entertainments is crystallized in the surging polo-players and huntsmen which adorn Prince Zhang Huai’s (died 706 AD?) resting place. As for calligraphy, I wish I had a spare 50 000 RMB or so to invest in a real scroll by Yu Youren (1879-1964) rather than the 100 yuan reproduction that hangs on my office wall. A Liu Gongquan would be better still.

     说真的，我文章的准确题目应该是“陕西当代艺术”。在我看来，没有几幅画能超越汉代石雕虎和玄武图的美。我一直热衷于收集这类拓片，甚至是买了几个复制的瓦当，用特制的印尼在家里试着自己拓。有谁能看不出恰如其分的雕琢赋予动物的那种简朴和力量呢？2013年，在陕西省博物馆参观唐昌东的仿唐壁画时，让我感动的是唐代的画师寥寥几笔，怎会有这样的效果呢？唐昌东先生终生致力于仿唐壁画，所以才让“粉丝”们有机会不用旅行，或冒着有损原作的危险到实地去欣赏唐代笔画的审美风格。李贞墓室壁画中热闹的鸭子仿佛是在打扰自己的主人，而章怀太子墓室里的“马球图”和“狩猎出行图”同样则彰显的是壮观的皇室娱乐。就书法而言，我多么期望自己有五万元闲钱，这样就可以买一副于右任的真迹，而不是花一百元买一副复制品挂在我的办公室，当然要是再有柳公权的就更好了。

      However, there is the need to temper the awestruck admiration of a layman with a dose of reality. This chapter cannot aspire to capture the sweep of artistic production in all of the thirteen dynasties which built their capitals in the Xi’an region. Instead, mindful of the press of history and the characteristics inherited by the rich folk culture of Guanzhong, I shall present a concise survey of some the critical advents and trends in post-1949 art in this area. As well as paying attention to the so-called “Chang’an School” and its inheritors, the essay will detail several younger artists whose contributions are garnering recognition within the local art scene. Since this series takes the persistence of minsu as one of its major concerns, the influence and reinvention of local craft forms will be studied too. 

       然而不管怎样，还是有必要用一定的事实来调和外行令人敬畏的热情。本文无胆扫描整个在西安建都的十三个王朝的艺术作品，而是想从历史的角度和关中民间文化传承下来的特色，简要的描述一下一九四九以来的陕西艺术。我将以“长安画派”和其成员为主，详论几位在当地艺术圈内成就获得广泛认可的年轻艺术家。既然涉及到了民俗的传承，那也就会对当地民间艺术的影响和再创造给予关注。

The Founding of the Chang’an School

The late Englishman Michael Sullivan (1916-2013) was unsurpassed in the connections he formed in over seven decades as a connoisseur of Chinese art. The Ashmolean Museum in Oxford scored a considerable coup when it was bequeathed his collection of around four hundred pieces largely accrued before the opening-up of the art market would have rendered such a gathering beyond monetary possibility. Even late in life, Sullivan could deliver a pithy opinion that, if not accepted by native artists, would be duly noted and respected. In his Art and Artists of Twentieth Century China (1996) he asserted that talk of a “distinct Shaanxi School of landscape painting based at the Xi’an Academy” was fallacious for any such local aesthetic movement fell into abeyance with the end of the Tang Dynasty (p. 250). Whilst celebrating the “deep attachment” that the Hebei native Jia Youfu had formed with the Taihang Mountains, he felt Zhao Wangyun’s work, for example, to be devoid of “regional character.”

“长安画派”的诞生

已故的英国人迈克尔﹒苏立文作为一名研究中国艺术的大家，七十多年来无人能与其媲美（迈克尔﹒苏立文Michael Sullivan，是最早向西方介绍中国现代美术的西方学者之一、西方研究中国现代美术史与批评的权威；中西艺术与学术交流的先驱和使者——译者注）。当他把在艺术市场开放前收集到的、无法用金钱来衡量的四百多件艺术品赠送给牛津大学的阿什莫尔博物馆时，该博物馆的确是上了一个档次。在迈克尔﹒苏立文的晚年，他的精辟言论即便是本土艺术家不接受，但却依旧引人注意并受人尊敬。在《二十世纪中国艺术与中国艺术家》一书中，他说到“以西安美术学院为源头、具有显著陕西特色的山水画”乃大谬也，因为相当的审美思潮随着唐朝的结束而一去不复返了”。 在赞扬河北人贾又福与太行山的“深厚情谊”时，他觉得赵望云的作品缺乏“地域特色”。

Expressing such views in this province would almost be tantamount to heresy. However, what comes across as an acerbic dismissal if taken out of context may be rationalized when we realize that Sullivan is citing Shaanxi by means of comparison with other locales like Nanjing in which one can trace a tradition of landscape painting that has run virtually uninterrupted across several dynasties. The concept of a “Chang’an School” of painting really entered popular parlance in the early 1960s when it started to be applied to summarize the artistic creation that had been practiced in and around Xi’an in the dozen or so years since the founding of the People’s Republic of China. An exhibition held at the China Art Gallery in Beijing showcased the work of six painters who it was felt had achieved fresh innovations in landscape art and portraiture. They were Shi Lu (1919-82) of the Xi’an Institute of Fine Art, Zhao Wangyun (1906-77), He Haixia (1908-98), Li Zisheng (1919-87), Kang Shiyao (1921-85) and Fang Jizong (1923-87). Interestingly, though they dedicated themselves to the depiction of the scenery of the loess plateau, the vast mountainsides of Shaanbei, and the lives of the peasantry only Li (from Yanchuan County, Yan’an) and Fang (from Mian County, Hanzhong) were actual natives of this province. The Sichuanese Shi Lu (originally named Feng Yaheng) had migrated to Xi’an via the Communist encampments of Yan’an and Zhao had savoured a rather peripatetic existence as a jobbing writer before aligning himself with the Red revolutionaries. I mention these snippets of background detail because they help to establish how the Chang’an School was in essence a new creation rather than being the revival of a dormant tradition. These pedagogues associated with the Xi’an Institute of Fine Art and the Shaanxi Provincial Association of Artists demonstrated how an aesthetic could be formed which responded both to the natural environment and the social conditions of the time. Their artistic motto is “one hand toward life and the other towards tradition”.

     在陕西讲这种话几乎会被认为是异端邪说。然而尖刻的评论如果是断章取义可能也是有道理的，因为我们知道迈克尔﹒苏立文是把陕西和其它地方如南京在做比较，而南京的山水画传统实际上是不间断的延续了好几个朝代。而 “长安画派”进入公众的视野是在二十世纪六十年代初，刚开始是为了对新中国建立十几年以来西安周围的艺术创造和实践给予总结。在北京的中国美术画廊举行巡展，展出了六位在山水和人物画上有革新成就的画家作品，其中有西安美术学院的石鲁和赵望云 、何海霞、 李梓盛、康师尧与方济众。有趣的是，虽然这些人都把自己投身到了展现黄土高原、陕北的山川和农民的生活，但却只有来自延安延川县的李梓盛和汉中勉县的方济众是陕西人。四川人石鲁（原名冯亚珩）是从中国共产党的大本营延安来到西安的，而赵望云在投身红色革命前则尝试过逍遥的记者经历。我说这些背景和细节是因为这与“长安画派”的诞生有关，“长安画派”实质上是一种创新，而非是隐匿了的传统的复活。这些与西安美术学院和陕西省美术家协会息息相关的艺术家向世人证明，他们是怎样面向自然环境和当代社会而发现美的，他们的艺术主张是“一手伸向传统，一手伸向生活”。

                                              汉语原文刊登在《美文》2016年第9期 （未完待续）