穆涛散文选译（二）

                     2013年本文作者和本文的两位译者与美国的罗素教授在古城西安

                              立场与观念

     Positions and Ideas

 By Mu Tao

                                                        Translated by Hu Zongfeng and Robin Gilbank

　　用吹蜡烛的方式去吹灭一盏电灯是荒唐的，荒谬之处不是使用的方法，问题出在观念上。拉登是个危险人物，他的存在就是潜在的威胁，但在基地组织内部，他是个受尊重的领导者，其中巨大的差异是因为所处的立场不同。

　　先说立场。

　　看一个喝水的杯子，角度不重要，杯子规模太小，可以一眼看穿。看一个独立的房子，角度的重要就显示出来了。从前边看，和从后边看是两回事，爬到房前的树上看又是另一回事。站在哪里看，那个位置，就是立场。

　　看山和看河是不同的。山是静的，但四季有变化。河是每一刻都流动着，但四季变化不大。北方的河冬季要结冰，但这只是表面现象。看山，在山脚看，和在山顶看不一样。山里人和山外的游客对山的态度也不一样。鱼是水里的游客，却是河的家人，对河的态度与岸上人家不一样。大的河流，横看和竖看不一样，顺流看和上溯逆流看更不一样。子在川上曰的，虽然只是一句话，却沉淀着历史的高远和苍凉。

　　再说观念。

　　观念是活的，是随时事变化的。僵死的叫概念。观念是先进着好，掉在队伍后边的叫落伍。在队伍前面的是引导着变，在后面的是跟着变，好听一点叫应变。

　　以土地观念的变化为例：

　　以前的土地，是人的立锥之本。土地是判断一户人家，或一个人价值的基本参照物。大户人家，殷实人家，破落人家的区分，就是以土地为标准。将军大臣，皇上要赐土地，自己也仗势圈地。做商贾大买卖的，要在乡下置地。有土地的人叫地主，在别人土地上干活的叫农民，农民不是职业，是身份的代称。如同以前的公务员叫老爷一样。土地所属的不平均，是造成社会不稳定，乃至动乱的根本因素，“揭竿而起”的主要原因是农民没有了活路和出路。

　　农本思想和田园经济是以前的核心价值观。

　　有一个老对联，“一等人忠臣孝子，两件事读书耕田”，以前的中国人，无论贵贱，人生理想就是这两件事，读书和耕田。当朝重臣求隐，叫“告老还乡”。一个将军赫赫战功之后，要“解甲归田”。如今观念变了，将军或部长退休，国家给退休金，不给土地。如今，农民有了自己的土地，人均有份，除了超生的。如果一种东西是平分的，这种东西的内在魔力就会下降，直至消失。从大趋势上讲，今天的农民是职业了，农民一词的内涵发生着变化，只是这变化还有待于被清晰，被认识。“新农村建设”，“小城镇建设”，以及农村户籍改革，是政府在应变。

　　土地观念发生了变化，以前的诗或文章，写田园乐，炊烟情，是写“主旋律”，是呈现那时的核心价值。游子一词是针对故土说的，游子思乡也是主旋律的一种。但今天的作家再这么写，就叫落伍，或叫不合时宜。

　　贾平凹的写作，以土地和农民为主要观测目标。他瞄准的正是中国土地上正在发生着的一系列根本变化。《浮躁》写于1988年，之后他连续写出了《废都》、《白夜》、《土门》、《病相报告》、《高老庄》、《怀念狼》、《秦腔》、《高兴》。《浮躁》是站在农民立场的，这是这部小说的局限之一，但也是那个时期里中国作家共有的局限。那时候流行“代言”这个词，作家是“代言人”，写农业题材，是为农民代言，写工业题材，军事题材，教育题材，是为不同的行业代言，也就是说，小说的题材不同，作家的立场也不同。如今的时代讲“发言人”，代言人和发言人，一字之差，变化是大的。教育部发言人，外交部发言人，台湾事务公室发言人，讲的虽然也是“局部利益”，但立场变了，视野和视角变了，牵涉面宽了，是整体环境下的“局部利益”。《浮躁》之后，再经过《废都》的脱胎之痛，贾平凹的“立场”变了，由农民视角“位移”到中国文化层面上，审视中国当下农村的剧痛和巨变，《土门》写城乡结合地带农民的心态，是土地观念变化的最前沿，是焦灼区域。《怀念狼》臆想变化了的土地上狼的变迁史，狼是生存能力超强的人的喻指，在生存困境中如何艰难挣扎。《病相报告》是一段传奇，是贾平凹有意改变叙事的路数，着眼于人的自然属性被非客观之后，缺陷是怎样产生的。《高老庄》是《秦腔》的前奏，是一场大戏前的彩排，更是足球赛前的热身赛。贾平凹是导演，是教练，在热身赛中试验着战术的多种可能，在正赛开始的时候，他才敲定了上场人员名单，以及各自的位置。在“正赛”结束之后，观众看的是结果，但教练更偏爱那场热身赛，因为那里面闪烁着自己更多的足球智慧和战术初衷。《高兴》代表着贾平凹写作的一种转变，他开始替遭受生活困境的农民安排出路了，这部有着“明天”色彩的小说，人物是以变形的姿态存在的，或者叫冷幽默。冷幽默是幽默大王或完全没有幽默感的人制造的，贾平凹的幽默是骨子里的，他没有看明白现阶段中国农民的出路，他自己也深陷困扰之中。

　　贾平凹笔下的中国农村是现阶段的，他的这些小说构成着空前的乡土中国之变，他是一位特立独行的中国农村问题的观察者和思考者，他在尝试着寻找“规律”，但必须要说的是，截止到《高兴》为止，他和社会学家一样，都没有找到。或者换成那句流行的话，他在“摸着石头过河”。

          It is ridiculous to try and blow out an electric light-bulb as one would a candle. The absurdity lies not in the method, but in the underlying idea. Bin Laden is a dangerous individual. His existence was a hidden threat, yet within Al-Qaeda he was held as a respectable leader. The great difference is that we find ourselves in different positions.

First, let us talk about positions.

          Looking at a drinking cup, the angle is not significant. The size of the cup may be observed in one glance. Looking at an independent house, the angles are very significant. Looking at it from the front or from the back are two different matters. If one climbs the tree at the front of the house to take a look that is another story too. The place where one chooses to stand when taking a look represents one’s position.

Looking at the mountains is different from looking at the river. The mountains are stationary, changing only with the seasons. The river is in perpetual motion. There are only slight changes in it through the seasons. The rivers in the north freeze during the winter, but this is only a surface phenomenon. Looking at the mountains, there are differences between observing it from the summit and observing it from the base. Mountaineers and travellers from afar also have different attitudes towards the mountain. Fish are the travellers in the water, but they are the kinsmen of the river. Their attitude towards the river is different from the people on the riverbank. Great rivers are different when observed from a horizontal or a vertical angle. They are more different still when seen from their downstream and their backflow. What Confucius commented on the riverbank is just a common saying, but it enshrined the loftiness and barrenness of the accumulated sediments of history.

Next, let us talk about ideas.

       Ideas are alive. They change according to current events. Dead ideas are called “conceptions.” Advanced ideas are good ideas. Those ideas which fall behind the times are labelled as “outdated.” Those who take the lead at the front are at the vanguard of change. Those at the back follow these changes, or to use a better word, they respond to them.

Before, the land was the fundamental element of the people’s existence. Land is the basic frame of reference by which a family or the values of a people are judged. Distinctions between large families, rich families, and broken families were determined by the extent of their land ownership. Generals and ministers had lands granted to them by the Emperor.  They used their power to obtain further land and expand their circle of influence. Those who are great businessmen will buy land in the countryside. Those who have land are called “landlords.” Those who work on others’ lands are called “farmers.” Being a “farmer” is not a profession. Rather, it is the pronoun which forms that person’s identity, just as in ancient times we called government officials “lords.” The imbalance of land ownership is the basic factor which brings about social instability and turbulence. The main cause of the “rise in rebellion” is that farmers have no means by which to live.

      In former times, the core values were formed around agricultural thought and the farm economy.         

     There is an ancient couplet: “First class citizens, faithful ministers and filial sons/ Two major concerns – reading books and ploughing the lands.” In former times, no matter whether they are noble or humble, the Chinese people had two aspects to their ideal for life. These were reading books and ploughing the fields. If a high-ranking minister retired to become a hermit this was labelled as an instance of “retire and return to one’s native place.” A great general, after having achieved notable success, would “take off his arms and return to the land.” Nowadays, ideas have changed. If a general or a minister retires, the country will reward them with a pension, but not land. These days, the farmers have their own land. Each of them possesses their own share, save for those whose birth violated the Family Planning regulations. If something is shared evenly, the inner magic of that entity will decrease and eventually disappear. Commenting on the larger trend, “the farmer” of today is professionalized. The connotation of the word farmer has changed. The changes are yet to seen clearly and fully understood. “The construction of the New Countryside,” “the construction of the New Township” and the reform of the household registration system means that the government is responding to change.

        The idea of the land has changed. In former times, poetry and prose described the joy of the land, the affection of the smoke rising from the kitchen, and the “principle melody,” which represented the core value of that time. The word “wanderer” refers to one who has gone away from his native place. The wanderer’s nostalgia is also a kind of “principle melody,” but if writers today carry on writing like this it is called out of date or out of keeping with the times.

         Jia Pingwa’s writing takes the land and the farmers as his main target for observation. What he is aiming at is the series of fundamental changes which has happened on the land in China. Turbulence was written in 1988. After that he wrote The Abandoned Capital, White Nights, Earthen Gate, Report of Symptoms, Return to Old Gao Village, Missing Wolves, Shaanxi Opera, and Happy. Turbulence was written from the position of farmers. This is one of the limitations of that novel, but also a limitation shared by all of the writers in China at that time. At that time, the term “mouthpiece” was very popular. Writers were mouthpieces. When they wrote about agricultural themes they became the mouthpieces for farmers. They became mouthpieces of a different kind when they wrote about industrial, military, and educational themes. That is to say, different themes in novels compel the writers to assume different positions. At this time, being a “spokesman” has become popular. Although there is a very slight difference between the two words, the change from one to the other has become significant. The spokesman for the Ministry of Education, the spokesman for the Ministry of Diplomacy, and the spokesman for the Bureau of Taiwan Affairs, although each speaking about “partial interests,” their position has changed. Their insights and angles of vision have changed. What they are talking about have a wider concern and they are talking about a “partial interest” from the perspective of the whole country. After Turbulence, following the great labour pains of The Abandoned Capital, Jia Pingwa’s “positions” changed. From assuming the perspective of the farmers he “transferred” his attention to the layers of Chinese culture. He was observing critically the great pains and changes in contemporary life in the Chinese countryside. Earthen Gate depicts the psyche of the farmers on the hinterland between the country and the city, which was the frontier where the changes to the idea of the land had been felt most. It was a region full of anxiety. Missing Wolves envisaged the history of the wolves which dwelt in this altering land. “Wolf” referred to a personal with very strong survival instincts. The novel told people how to survive a dilemma in which there was only a narrow scope for escape. Report of the Symptoms was a romance. In it, Jia Pingwa deliberately changed his mode of narration and focused on how the limits of human nature came about, after being put under the pressure of non-objective forces. Old Gao Village and Shaanxi Opera were the prelude, they are the rehearsals of a great play, and the warm-up activity before a football match. Jia Pingwa is a director and a coach. He attempted many strategic possibilities in warming up. When the real match began he chose the players for his side and the positions in which they should play. After the match, the audience paid attention to the result, but the coach had preferred the warm-up because more of his wisdom and preliminary tactics were allowed to sparkle therein. Happy represents a turning point in Jia Pingwa’s writing. He started to arrange a means of life for the farmers who found themselves in a dilemma of suffering. This novel bore the colour of “tomorrow.” The characters in it exist in a state of deformity. Cold humour was produced by the king of humour or else the people had no humour at all. Jia Pingwa’s humour is in the bones. He did not clearly envision a way out for the farmers of contemporary China. He himself was also in a state of deep worry and anxiety.

       Under Jia Pingwa’s pen, the Chinese countryside is of the minute. His novels have embodied the unprecedented changes to the countryside in China. When it has come to the problems facing the countryside in China, he has been an independent and single-handed observer and thinker. He has striven to look for the “rules,” but I must say that until Happy, like other sociologists, he had not yet discovered the rules. If we express this through a fashionable saying, he was still “crossing the river by fumbling through the stones.” 

                                                                          选译自穆涛《先前的风气》

                                                     Selected from Social and Cultural Customs of Bygone Days by Mu Tao

                                                             English translation by Hu Zongfeng and Robin Gilbank