Chapter 81 epilogue

Epilogues are not conclusions, and no real trip has conclusions.However, after telling relatives and friends all kinds of experiences on the road, there will be a soft smile. Careful friends will ask: What else do you want to say? I replied: There must be too many mistakes in talking about so many places in a row, but even if you add up all the mistakes, it is still not worth the fact that we know far more about Europe than Europe knows about China. Friends nodded and added a lot of examples they knew. One of my friends is Mr. Deng from Xi'an.He said that a Chinese student was studying in a certain European country. One day, the new professor scanned the students from all over the world in the classroom and asked him a series of cross-examinations about Chinese people.The student struggled to answer half of the questions that were clearly widely misunderstood, and then said: Other problems are not misunderstandings, and will gradually be resolved as China becomes richer and stronger.

So, what is the symbol of your prosperity?The professor is in hot pursuit. The student suddenly felt a little sad and said: I am not a government official, so I cannot answer such a big question. I only thought of a minimum sign. By then, Chinese students studying abroad will not be singled out in the classroom and subjected to so many interrogations. The professor stepped off the podium, patted the student on the shoulder and said: Sorry, I just don't understand.Today I learned about a Chinese's attitude towards his own race, and I salute you. Among the friends is Mr. Wu from Shanghai. He once visited Paris with a young engineer.Once, I asked an old lady for directions on the street. The old lady showed them the way politely, but then led them to a world map hanging on the street and said, "I also have a question to ask."She squinted her eyes to find the location of China, then clicked on the location of France, and said: This is your China, this is our France, they are so far apart, and we are also unemployed. Why are you all flocking here?

This question is very impolite, and Mr. Wu replied: Madam, we are engineers, we accept the employment of a multinational company, and we will go back after a week's inspection.Both of us lived in the former French Concession in Shanghai. At that time, China and France were so far away, and the transportation was not as convenient as it is now. Why did so many French people flock there? Today, after the Cold War has long ended, if we think calmly, we will find that the root of this phenomenon lies in cultural barriers. However, many Europeans disagree with this view, and they think that they know a lot about Chinese culture.There are many evidences, such as the translations of ancient Chinese classics by Marco Polo, Matteo Ricci, and Jesuit missionaries, especially the French thought giant Volt who successfully introduced Chinese civilization to Europe with great enthusiasm and his own reputation in modern times. Tai and the German intellectual giant Leibniz (Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz), and perhaps the modern British historian of science Joseph Needham.In addition, they will also prove that the research level of Europeans in ancient Chinese ceramics, silk, and sculpture, and even the degree of mastery of various social data in China, are not far behind.

So, what's the problem? I hope to answer from the cultural level, so I have been in distress for a long time. At last he was rescued by Goethe.I read his conversation with the secretary that day, and found something that surprised me.He had long been fascinated by the Confucianism translated by those Jesuit missionaries, and was even dubbed Weimar's Confucius by others, which at least shows that he is not completely unfamiliar with Chinese culture.However, when he occasionally read a Chinese legendary work, he was so excited that he talked a lot with his secretary that night, saying that he finally understood that the emotional structure of Chinese people is similar to that of Europeans.He even put forward the idea of ​​world literature, which has become an important topic for researchers of comparative literature in later generations.

When I learned from Mr. Zhu Guangqian's notes that the Chinese legendary work he read was actually "The Legend of Fengyue Haoyu", my surprise turned into shock.It should be noted that this is a third-rate work in China, and he is Goethe!It’s not that Goethe lost his eyes, but it just shows that no matter what kind of ancient theory is just a generalized abstract proposition, Goethe is powerful after all, and he grasped a little bit of perceptual light from a third-rate work and immediately understood it. Then I also understand where the dead center of the cultural barrier lies.

It is not in the translation and introduction of classical theories, not in the preferences of ceramics and silk, nor in the grasp of social data.Of course, these can help Europeans understand Chinese culture, but they have missed the living soul of Chinese culture, which is the individual daily emotional behavior derived from the Chinese group psychological structure.This is not only the historical accumulation of Chinese culture, but also the creative base of Chinese culture.It brought blood to Chinese culture, and therefore shame and dignity. In order for Europeans to understand Chinese people and Chinese culture at this level, it is imperative to create literature and art. Goethe's reading experience is sufficient to illustrate this point.

This idea led me to invest in a long-term research, part of which was presented in Singapore at a lecture on Chinese culture in the 21st century, entitled "The Fourth Bridge", which is the hope that Chinese culture will be accessible in the future. In the great cause of the world, in addition to the three bridges that have already been erected: the bridge of classic theory, the bridge of folk skills and the bridge of media information, we will jointly build a bridge of artistic creation to deeply show the hearts and emotions of the Chinese people .I also affirmed some figures who contributed to this construction process in the 20th century, and analyzed the distance and expectations of Chinese people from the Nobel Prize in Literature and the Academy Awards in this regard.

Speeches with me include Professor Tu Weiming from Harvard University, Taiwan economist Professor Gao Xijun, and Singaporean art master Mr. Chen Ruixian.Everyone discovered the opportunities and problems facing Chinese civilization from different angles.The speakers were all overseas Chinese who came from all over the world. The grand gathering of black hair and yellow skin was very moving. Several years have passed, and this time in Europe has deepened my thinking.Many of my previous hopes have been quickly realized, which is really encouraging.But then I saw a lot of frustrating phenomena, one side is eliminating the diaphragm, and the other is increasing the diaphragm.

In any case, however, we have further work to do to clear the diaphragm.No matter how many historical and realistic troubles to cross.It is now clear that this kind of elimination and leapfrogging involves the renewal of Chinese culture and the Chinese people, just like joining the WTO is a transformation of the domestic economic structure.It's just that culture doesn't have a clear gate like the WTO, and the entry and exit depend on two spiritual inductions.Can the Europeans feel our good intentions through the obstacles?This is a question that I am reluctant to ask but pay attention to all the time.

I have many students, friends and readers who have settled in various European countries for a long time, and I will speak to them.Unexpectedly, they usually think about the same question most of the time, including two female students who have married to a remote corner of Europe and had several children. After reading the relevant reports in the newspaper, they called me. Based on what they heard and heard, they asked about my situation in China on the phone. I said that no matter what the domestic situation is, what makes me feel most uneasy is that Chinese people and Chinese culture are not understood and difficult to understand in other cultural groups.Sometimes, like being angry, I want to say something to those overly arrogant Europeans: We Chinese have done many things to our own people, but almost never to foreigners.

Listen to me, a female student choked up on the phone. I don't know what she thought of, but in order to ease the atmosphere, she told a joke that she just met. A few days ago, we went to the United Nations European Headquarters in Geneva, and we stood at the window of the corridor on the second floor looking for Mont Blanc.An elderly official passed by behind him, seeing us pointing fingers, he stopped kindly, pointed to a silvery white mountain peak on the fork in the distance, and said: This is Mont Blanc, how beautiful it is, I am delighted when I see it . We thanked him and took turns taking pictures. During the excitement, a woman in black came over and said coldly: Maybe you are mistaken, this is not Mont Blanc, Mont Blanc is close behind it, and now it is covered by clouds.After speaking, he floated away. We were dubious, but after a few minutes we knew that the woman in black was right, because the clouds cleared.There is no need to doubt that the wonders of the world have their own charm, and the original silver-white mountain peak is just its personal maid. So, how to explain the elderly official?He actually misunderstood for decades, and admired for decades.This is not too surprising, since almost all of us live with a great deal of misunderstanding.The strange thing is, he must have seen the real Mont Blanc after the clouds cleared, why did he turn a blind eye to it? My answer is: Preconceived prejudices made him regard the real master as a slave standing behind. Moreover, there are too many clouds and mists that cover the real peak. The female student smiled on the other end of the phone and said: What do you mean, China is the real Mont Blanc? I said: What I am interested in is whether this elderly official in the European headquarters may have misread something in his official duties?This is true for officials dealing with international affairs, but what about ordinary Europeans? But at the end of the day, we are not afraid of being misunderstood.Human beings are different from mountains and have their own vision, so they have a visual relationship with the outside world.As far as a civilization is concerned, only when it loses its life and becomes ruins, will it unilaterally let others judge and judge, and the Chinese civilization is still alive. There are times when we are alive and sleeping, as long as we wake up and take active actions, we have no time to pay attention to the gossip around us.If you are lucky enough to enter a smooth creative period such as the prosperous Han and Tang Dynasties, then even if it is misunderstood by the whole world for a while, you will not care.I'm just afraid that my actions are not beautiful, and I misunderstand others.