亚里士多德的美学 Aristotle’s Aesthetics

拉斐尔的名画‘雅典学院’里，柏拉图与亚里士多德并立。柏拉图指向天，那是理想世界的理念。我们所见的亚里士多德的手指指向地上。这幅画精确地描述了柏拉图与亚里士多德的不同。这个不同也显示在他们的艺术道路。

亚里士多德比柏拉图更加同情地关心艺术。亚里士多德相信普世理念形式只存在于个别物体，认为艺术家在研究物体并把它们转换为艺术形式时，艺术家是直接的与宇宙接触。因为这个理由，亚里士多德肯定艺术的认知价值；他说艺术既然是模仿自然，所以它与自然的信息沟通。

在认知价值以外，艺术在亚里士多德观念中还有相当的心理学意义。首先，艺术反映人本质的深刻一面，人类由此与动物有别；模仿是他们的植入本能。事实上，儿时最早的学习是由模仿而来。

除了本能，人们在面对艺术时，还会感到欢愉。所以，人们之所以享受观看肖像是因为当他们凝视它时，他们发现他们在学习或在推理，同时叹道，‘啊，我想到了。’

以艺术而言，亚里士多德的观点比柏拉图有极大的进步。他明确地意识到艺术的目的只不过是给人一时的痛快，所以它不需要寻求工匠技艺的那种功能。作为一种活动，不像柏拉图那样艺术当作无价值的把戏，亚里士多德在模仿中找到知识与真相。

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In The School of Athens, the fresco by Raphael, Plato and Aristotle stand side by side. Plato points to the heavens, to the ideal world of the Forms. Aristotle is shown with his hand open toward the earth. The painting accurately portrays the difference between Plato and Aristotle. It's a difference that shows up in their approaches to the arts.

Aristotle had a more sympathetic interest in art then did Plato. Aristotle, believing that the Universal Forms exist only in particular things, felt that the artists are dealing directly with the universal when they study things and translate them into art forms. For this reason, Aristotle affirmed the cognitive value of art, saying that since art does imitate nature, it therefore communicates information about nature.

In addition to cognitive value, art has in Aristotle’s view considerable psychological significance. For one thing, art reflects a deep facet of human nature by which people are differentiated from animals, this being their implanted instinct for imitation. Indeed, from earliest childhood learning takes place through imitation.

In addition to this instinct, there is also the pleasure that people feel upon confronting art. Thus, the reason people enjoy seeing a likeness is, that in contemplating it they find themselves learning or inferring, and saying perhaps, ‘Ah, that is he.’

With respect to art, Aristotle views are an immense advance on those of Plato. He distinctly recognized that its aim is simply to give immediate pleasure, and so it does not need to seek the useful like the mechanical arts. The essence of art, considered as an activity, Aristotle found in imitation, which, unlike Plato, he considers not as an unworthy trick, but as including knowledge and discovery.

书法：中国文化符号 Chinese Calligraphy: The Chinese Cultural Symbol

中国一份“文化符号调查”报告指出，最具代表性的前10项分别是：汉语（汉字）、孔子、书法、长城、五星红旗、中医、毛泽东、故宫、邓小平、兵马俑。

所谓“中国文化符号”，就是能代表中国文化的突出而具高度影响力的象征形式系统。文化软实力正是通过文化符号表现出来。

在艺术的领域中，只有书法被入选为十首之一，而与书法最有密切关系的汉字也入选并排在首位。这样的结果，是应该令人深思的。

一位旅法学者熊秉明（1922-2002）就曾经说过：“中国文化的核心是哲学，而处于这个哲学的中心正是书法。”这就是有名的“书法是中国文化核心之核心”。熊先生去世后，有位书法大师在刊登于《中国书法》的文章中对这句话提出了质疑，认为书法还无法担当如此重任。另一位书法理论教育家很快的跟着响应。

书法在中国文化中的地位肯定是特别的，就因为它特别，我们不能以西方的思维来看待它、解释它，而应该以完全是中国本土的思想思维来肯定与注释它。西方学者从来不把艺术放在哲学的核心。西方美学中的一些理论，如模仿论、造型艺术、抽象艺术、本质论，等等，依我看，可供参考，要以此来探索书法创作与创新之路，那 是舍本取末的作法。

无独有偶，河北景县一位学者韩玉涛在他的《书法十讲》中提倡书法为写意艺术，他说：“书法又是哲学的，又是写意的。它是写意的哲学艺术。”

好个哲学艺术。

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A survey on Chinese cultural symbols has identified the followings as the top 10 symbols: Chinese characters, Confucius, Chinese calligraphy, the Great Wall, the Chinese national flag, the traditional Chinese medicine, Mao Zedong, the Forbidden City, Deng Xiaoping, and the Terracotta warriors.

The Chinese cultural symbol refers to the symbolic sign or system that is highly influential in and that can represent the Chinese culture. The cultural soft power is said to be expressed through the cultural symbols.

The Chinese calligraphy has the honour of being the only fine art to be included in the top ten symbols. It is interesting to note that the Chinese writing system (the Chinese characters) which is closely associated with the Chinese calligraphy is placed at top position. The fact that both are being selected provides food for though.

Xiong Binming (1922-2002), a Chinese who lived in France once said, “The core of Chinese culture is philosophy, and at the centre of the core is Chinese calligraphy.” After his death, a famous Chinese calligrapher questioned this observation in an article published in the “Chinese Calligraphy” magazine, and this was responded almost immediately by another famous calligraphy theorist and educationist.

The Chinese calligraphy is indeed uniquely Chinese, and it occupies a special position in Chinese culture. Because it is special, it cannot be viewed and explained by using the Western yardstick. Instead, one should view it with a Chinese mindset. In the West, fine art is never placed at the core of its philosophy. The western aesthetic theories of such as art as imitation (mimesis), formative art, ontology etc may be good references for study, but they cannot be used as basis in developing the creative works of Chinese fine arts. By doing so, one loses the substance by grasping the shadow.

Coincidentally, a scholar from Hebei Province of China promotes Chinese calligraphy as an art of freehand expression in his book “Ten Lectures on Chinese Calligraphy”. He said, “Chinese calligraphy is philosophical, it is also a freehand expression. It is a philosophical art of freehand expression.”

Well said, indeed.

禅诗：菩提本无树 Chan Poems: Originally, There is no Bodhi Tree

慧能（638-713）是中国佛教传统里最重要的任务之一。传统上，他被认为是禅宗六祖，也是禅宗的最后宗师。据说，他认为提倡佛教实践方式应该是即时与直接的；从这个角度来看，他可以说是南禅‘顿悟’派的创立者。

据说五祖弘忍大师（601-674）决定竞选六祖。弟子只要以一首诗来阐述他们对般若（智慧）的深刻了解就行了。大弟子神秀写了以下一首诗在墙上：


身是菩提树，心为明镜台；

时时勤拂拭，勿使惹尘埃。

五祖论述神秀的诗时认为它不能深入地进入世间有情众生的佛性‘空’及宇宙多样性的核心。这是因为在讲到现象的生灭、静垢，与戒定慧三学的增减时，还是含有二元观。

轮到慧能时，由于他不识字，所以一位师弟替他写在墙上：

菩提本无树，明镜亦非台；

本来无一物，何处惹尘埃。

虽然五祖认为慧能的是也没触到物性要点，但是从他把法衣长袍与化缘钵传给慧能就表示他的赞许。

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Huineng (638–713) is one of the most important figures in the Chinese Buddhism tradition. He has been traditionally viewed as the Sixth and Last Patriarch of Chan Buddhism. He is said to have advocated an immediate and direct approach to Buddhist practice and enlightenment, and in this regard, is considered the founder of the ‘Sudden Enlightenment’ southern Chan school of Buddhism. 

It is said that the fifth Patriarch Hong Ren (601-674) decided that he would choose the next Patriarch by means of a competition. Monks could write a poem about developing Prajna (wisdom) to show their depth of understanding. The most senior monk Shen Xiu wrote the following poem on the wall.

The body is the Bodhi tree;

The mind like the bright mirror.

Diligently wiping out the dust;

Let no dust alight.

The Patriarch commented that Shen Xiu’s work was not profound enough to penetrate utmost into the Emptiness of the Buddha-nature of sentient beings and the multiplicity of the cosmos. This is because it still involves the dualistic view of phenomena in terms of arising and ceasing, impurity and purity or increasing and decreasing in terms of three-fold training of morality, concentration and wisdom.

Next Huineng got a junior monk to write poetic reply on the wall for him since he was illiterate:

Originally, there is no Bodhi tree;

Neither is there the stand of the bright mirror.

Originally, everything is empty;

Where could the dust alight?

Although the Patriarch commented that Hui Neng’s poem also hadn’t seen the essential nature, he apparently felt that Hui Neng could make the grade when he passed the robe and begging bowl to Hui Neng.

无为：道家的审美秩序之路 Non-action: The Way to Daoist Aesthetic Order

西方的理性秩序是指有一个支配性的原理（不管它是指理性或上帝）在强制实行世界秩序。相对而言，华人的审美秩序的观念对这种原理或其目的论并不感兴趣。恰恰相反，审美秩序关心的是个体自我更新的观念，这就是‘混沌’的本意。

审美秩序就是‘道’的秩序，而道的观念是基于这样的一种理解：宇宙的唯一永恒就是改变，我们应该去理解和尝试去与这种改变取得和谐。这个观念在《易经》中就有提到：‘一阴一阳谓之道。’

道家担心人类的欲望会使宇宙的自然运作变成反常。老子在《道德经》里就说：‘取天下常以无事，及其有事，不足以取天下。’这就形成了‘无为’的思想，描述个人意志与环境的自然和谐与正道。

相同的，它表示这种行为会取得无限的正面成绩，因为它允许所有万物发展它们的全部的不受限制的潜力：

‘道常无为而无不为。候王若能守之，万物将自化。化而欲作，吾将镇之以无名之朴，镇之以无名之朴，夫将不欲。不欲以静，天下将自定。’

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The Western rational order refers to the idea that there is one overarching external principle, whether it be Reason or God, imposes the order on the world. In comparison, the Chinese sense of aesthetic order is not keen on this external principle or its twin of teleology. Rather, it is concerned with the idea of self-renewal of particulars, which is what ‘Hun Dun’ (Choas) means.

The aesthetic order is the order of the Dao, a concept that is based on the understanding that the only constant in the universe is change and that we must understand and attempt to harmonize ourselves with this change. This idea is suggested in Yijing which states that ‘the successive movement of the inactive Yin and active Yang operations constitutes what is called the Dao.’

The Daoists are concerned that the natural operations of the cosmos are perverted by the desires of human beings. Laozi says in Daode Jing that ‘the world is ruled by letting things takes their natural course. It cannot be ruled by going against nature or arrogance.’ This led to the formation of the doctrine of ‘non-action’ which describes the harmonization of one’s personal will with natural harmony and justice of Nature.

Likewise, it suggests that this mode of action yields ubiquitously positive results, as it allows everything to develop to its full, untrammelled potential:

Dao abides in non-action yet nothing is left undone. If kings and lords observed this, the ten thousand things would develop naturally. If they still desired to act they would return to the simplicity of formless substance. Without form there is no desire. Without desire there is tranquillity. And in this way all things would be at peace.

子曰：人能弘道 Confucius Said: Human Beings Extend Order in the World

华人思想家通过艺术性地处置事物来理解秩序的含义，所以就叫做‘审美秩序’。他们的秩序观念专注于具体个体，是显现的，并在成员内部成长与演变。就是说，审美式的秩序是指秩序主要是由内部之间的联系形成，每个成员相互依赖。

在审美秩序里，自然事物可以有无数秩序，因为自然肯定是动态的、自我造化的、自我组织的与有活力的。所有存在的事物都在和谐状态中、被相反的力所平衡。两种基本的与互相对抗的阴阳原理组成了所有行动后面的驱动力，负责事物的审美秩序的自然的演变。阳一直是负责改革的积极与创造元素，而阴则是消极与反应性原理。他们互相补助并杂乱地联系在一起；就是它们共同合作与互相排斥而产生了我们生命中逐渐得到的经验的所有事物，并在宇宙中显现。

和谐的概念在华人思维中十分重要；指导性的原理是不要其干涉生命的和谐。可以说，华人文化向来是要维持人与自然的平衡，在生活的每一方面都与自然配合，而不是违背自然。

宇宙的秩序也被称为‘道’；如果每个人能依着道的价值与德行来行动，一个和平与和谐的社会就会长久存在。

孔子把道德概念转化为道德实践原理，指导人与人之间的行为与应该如何建设一个和谐社会。在儒家传统里，真善美都不是‘给定’的，也没有所谓的原本与决定性的起源，或者终极的、目的论的终止。基于这个理由，孔子说：‘人能弘道，非道弘人。’

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The Chinese thinkers understand the meaning of order through the artful disposition of things and thus it is known as Aesthetic Order. Their view of order focuses on the concrete individuals and is emergent, and growing and transforming within things themselves. That means that something aesthetic is ordered primarily in terms of internal relations, the basic elements being dependent on one another.

In the Aesthetic Order, the things of nature may be ordered in any number of ways as it is resolutely dynamic, auto-generative, self-organising and alive. All things that exist are in harmony, balanced by opposing forces. The two fundamental and antagonistic principles of Yin and Yang constitute the driving force behind all movements and accountable for the natural evolution of Aesthetic Order of things. Yang is always the proactive and creative element accountable for change, whereas Yin is the passive and reactive principle. They complement each other and are intricately interconnected; and it is their working together and against each other that produce everything that we experience progressively in life and manifests in the cosmos.

The concept of harmony is very important to the Chinese thoughts and the guiding principle is not to disturb the harmony of life. It may therefore be said that Chinese culture has always maintained a balance with and attempt to work with Nature in all aspects of the living, rather than against it.

The order in the universe is also referred to as Dao and a peaceful and harmonious society can exist for a long period of time if the values and virtues are exercised among its members in tune with the Dao. Dao is what the world is and how it is.

It was Confucius that translated the concepts of Dao into practical ethical guidelines as to how one should behave towards each other and to create a harmonious society. In the Confucian tradition, truth, beauty, and goodness as standards of order are not ‘given’ and there is no initial, determinative beginning or ultimate, teleological end. It is for this reason that Confucius declared: ‘It is human beings who extend order in the world (dao), not order that extends human beings.’

华人的审美秩序The Chinese Aesthetic order

在西方，再解释宇宙秩序时，他们设想有存在者的存在或普世原理之类的一般特性，这些特性告示我们事务是如何形成秩序的。这些设想的依据是那些有关混乱如何被秩序克服的神话。

在另一方面，中国传统文化很少受到以非理性的混乱与有秩序的宇宙相对比的神话的影响。他们对以理性推理来解释混乱如何被宇宙秩序克服的兴趣不大。反而，中国思想家通过艺术性地处置事务来了解秩序，这是一种参与式的过程，并不假设具有重要特色、事先决定好的原理来当作秩序的超越来源。

传统的中国思想家在自然世界中寻找转化与变动的气之所在，发现周围个体成员差不多是和谐地联系在一起，由此而成为事务的自然状态，因而不需要借助于一个秩序原理或代理人来解释秩序。宇宙被当成是是自发性自我生成的生命过程。

所以事务的秩序并不是神灵安排，也不是一个依据自然科学规律来安排好了的关联性模式。恰恰相反，它是由各自成员自我组织而成的审美秩序。审美秩序并不是事先决定好的，而是由独特与自发性的成员在自然形成的复杂模式中协作。

自然（万物）与社会都是审美产物，它们的秩序是成员们在其境域中的创造物。审美感悟意味着人类犹如艺术家，在不断的演变中的新奇环境的内外有创意地构筑我们的生命。

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In the West, in interpreting the order of the cosmos, it is supposed that there are general characteristics – the being of beings, or universal principles – which tell us how things are ordered. They are grounded upon cosmogonic myths that celebrate the victory of an ordered cosmos over chaos.

The classical Chinese culture, on the other hand, was little influenced by myths which contrasted an irrational Chaos with an ordered Cosmos. There is therefore lack of interest in using rational reasoning to explain how the Chaos was overcome by ordered Cosmos. Instead, the Chinese thinkers sought the understanding of order through the artful disposition of things, a participatory process which does not presume that there are essential features, or antecedent-determining principles, serving as transcendent sources of order.

Classical Chinese thinkers located the energy of transformation and change within a world that is ziran, literally ‘so-of-itself’, and found the more or less harmonious interrelations among the particular things around them to be the natural condition of things, requiring no appeal to an ordering principle or agency for explanation. The universe is seen as a spontaneously self generating life process.

So the order of things is not a rational order based on a divine plan or on scientific laws of nature, a ‘pre-assigned pattern of relatedness’. Rather it is an aesthetic order arising from the self-organization of particular elements. An aesthetic order is in no way predetermined but arises from the uniqueness and spontaneity of particulars in collaboration in an emergent complex pattern.

Nature (‘the ten thousand things’) and society are both aesthetic products whose order is a creation of the elements of the contexts. An aesthetic sensibility implies that human beings, like artists, creatively construct our lives both within and out of always evolving novel situations.

理性秩序：客观的理论基础 Rational Order: The Theoretical Basis for Objectivity

在西方传统里，理性秩序基于世界是一个整体的秩序的这样假设；同时，为了要达到他们四周环境的社会稳定，西方人崇尚和谐、秩序及统一性，而不是不调和、混乱与无主宰。

对西方人来说，事物的秩序的思考始于这类的问题：‘那是什么样的东西？’‘这些东西的本质是什么？’为提供对这些事物的解释提供途径时，罗各斯，就是说理性解释，开始扮演重要角色。在理性思维中，罗各斯所要寻找的是事物中的永恒真理。

只要认为事物的本性是流动的是对的，那么世上所有事物应被自然法规所指导也是对的。只要认为法规是客观的、永恒的与不变的，理论本身就应当被看成是超越的。这里，古典希腊的两个世界观给传统西方的客观主义一个理论依据，那就是我们可以置身事外并谈事务的整个外观。

对古典希腊哲学家而言，知识就是对不断变化的现象后面的本质、形式与功能的发掘与掌握。所以知识的语言包括‘概念’、‘意想’及‘理解’。永恒才是实在，实在的常态是惰性。知识的范式是数学，或者更具体地说是几何学。柏拉图学院的门口就贴了‘没有学过几何学者不得进入’这几个字。一般倾向于以表象词汇来理解知识，而这些表象词汇是同构与清晰的，把外面客观的事物真实地反映于心中。

但是，对永恒而不是流动的崇尚却产生了各种各样的二元论来理解他们对世界的体验：实在/现象、知识/意见、真理/虚假、存在/非存在、造物者/万物、灵魂/肉体，等等。

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In the Western tradition, rational order lies in the assumption of the world as ‘a single-ordered whole’ and in order to achieve social stability in their surroundings, the Westerners favour harmony, cosmos (order) and unity rather the discord, chaos and anarchy.

For them, thinking about the order of things begins with questions such as ‘What kinds of things are there?’ and ‘What is the nature of things?’ In providing the means of explaining the way things are, logos meaning rational account begin to play a significant role. In rational way of thinking, logos seeks permanent truth in the way things are.

As far as it is true that the nature of things is in flux, it is also true that all events in the world must be guided by necessary laws. And as far as the laws can be said to be objective, permanent and unchanging, reason itself should be regarded as transcendent. Here, it is the two-world worldview of classical Greece that gives the Western tradition a theoretical basis for objectivity – the possibility of standing outside and talking a wholly external view of things.

For the classical Greece philosophers, knowledge entails the discovery and grasping of defining essence, forms, or functions behind elusively changing appearance. Hence the language of knowing includes ‘concept’, ‘conceive’, and ‘comprehend’. Reality is what is permanent, and hence its natural state is inertia. The paradigm for knowledge, then, is mathematics, and more specifically, geometry. Over the door of Plato’s Academy was written: ‘Let none who have studied geometry entered here.’ Knowledge tends to be understood in representational terms that are isomorphic and unambiguous – a true impressed on the mind of that which exists externally and objectively.

However, the preference for permanence over flux has produced many kinds of dualism in order to organise their experience of the world: reality/appearance, knowledge/opinion, truth/falsity, Being/Non-being, Creator/creature, soul/body, and so on.

理性秩序与审美秩序 The Rational and Aesthetic Orders

东西以不同眼光来看世界，他们对秩序的概念也是不同的。西方称理性或逻辑性秩序，而东方则是审美秩序。

西方的两个世界学说区分实在世界与变化世界，这个区分就促进以二元思维来看世界。他们寻找永恒与不变的第一原理来克服最初的混乱，欲把变化世界达成统一、有序与设计的世界。他们寻找变化背后的‘实在’建构；这个‘实在’一经理解后，生命就会变得可预测与安全了。

为了要在他们的四周围达到社会和谐，西方人钟情于和谐、秩序、统一，而不喜欢不一致、混乱、无主宰（无政府状态）。所以，西方对秩序的理解所最熟悉是与统一性、模式规则性相联系的。这些所谓理性或逻辑性秩序牵涉到宇宙的设想；这个设想以由因果定律及形式模式形成的宇宙的罗各斯为特征。它也同时反映了一个假设，那就是这个秩序有一个原初及独立的源头；这个秩序源头一经被发掘与理解，就能够对人类经验给予一个贯通性的解释。

在审美秩序式的思维中，由个别个体所界定的世界秩序是独特的。这是因为在这个秩序中，个体成员的世界中并没有一个能够称为统一的超越原理。古代中国人相信我们所看到的世界秩序并不是来自一个独立的、激活的力量所给予的。世界与世界任何时刻的秩序都是自我造化，自发的自然。每样事务都是按每样事务之意。

所以，华人对秩序的意识以具体特殊性为特征，而这些特殊性对秩序本身很重要。在这个观点中，最后的统一是不可能的；因为如果是这样，整体的秩序会压倒各部分的秩序，取消了各个体成员的特殊性。因此，审美秩序最终是非秩序（非宇宙）的，因为没有一个压倒性的秩序。

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The West and East see the world differently, and they also have different concepts of order, which can be called rational or logical order and aesthetic order respectively.

The Western thinkers’ two-world theory distinguishes the world of reality from the world of change, a distinction that fosters a dualistic way of thinking about it. They seek that permanent and unchanging first principle that has overcome initial chaos to give unity, order and design to a changing world. They seek the ‘real’ structure behind change that, when understood, made life predictable and secure.

In order to achieve social stability in their surroundings, the Westerners favour harmony, order, unity rather than discord, chaos and anarchy. Therefore, the most familiar understanding of order in the West is associated with uniformity and pattern regularity. This ‘logical’ or ‘rational’ ordering is an implication of the cosmological assumptions which characterize the logos of a cosmos in terms of causal laws and formal patterns. It also reflects a presumption that there is some originative and independent source of order that, once discovered and understood, will provide a coherent explanation for human experience.

In the aesthetic way of thinking, the particular individuals defining the world order are said to be unique. This is because in this order, there is no transcendent principle by which its constituent particulars in the world can be called to be unified. The classical Chinese believe that the order this world evidences is not derived from or imposed upon it by some independent, activating power, but inheres in the world as a source of reconstrual. The world and its order at any particular time are self-causing – spontaneously ‘so-of-itself’ (ziren). Everything is what it is at the pleasure of everything else.

Therefore, the Chinese sense of order is characterized by concrete particularities whose uniqueness is essential to the order itself. No final unity is possible in this view since, were this so, the order of the whole would dominate the order of the parts, cancelling the uniqueness of its constituent particulars. Thus, ‘aesthetic’ order is ultimately acosmological in the sense that no single order dominates.

双语推迟痴呆病情的发作 Bilingualism: Delay the Onset of Alzheimer’s Symptoms

加拿大多伦多贝克列斯特老人护理中心罗特曼研究所，一所研究人类脑功能的国际中心，的一项研究显示讲两种语言可把老年老年痴呆症（学名为阿兹罕默症）发作时间推迟五年。研究员是检查了211名老年失智症患者的医疗报告后才得出这个结论的。目前，还没有药物可以推迟老年痴呆症的发作。

这项研究重新证明了2007年约克大学比亚韦斯托克教授所领导的一项研究。该项研究发现讲两者语言的痴呆病人比起只讲一种语言的病人，病情发作推迟。比起单语病人，双语病人的发作推迟了四年。

无论他们的语言能力如何，痴呆病人的脑还是会继续恶化；但是双语病人在遗失记忆、混淆、难以解决问题与计划事务等症状方面，看来推迟。

约克大学心理学教授兼罗特曼研究所科学家比亚韦斯托克教授说：‘所有参与这项研究的病人都被诊断为痴呆症病患者，所以很明显的，应有双语并不能避免痴呆病的发作。而是说，我们研究的结果显示，一生使用双语者累积了一种大脑认知贮备，帮助他们在病症发作之前，可以较长的时间来对抗病情。’

虽然双语病人的病情亦会恶化，研究员相信应用超过一种语言会为他们装备了补偿性能力，把遗失记忆、混淆等等病状控制。

这两项研究指明必须把双语使用当作是健康地老化的一种重要工具，和其他活动如运动、饮食、生活习惯等等一起应用。现在，我们有很好理由鼓励生活在多元文化社会里的人们继续讲母语，并传授给他们的孩子。

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A study conducted by researchers at the Toronto based Baycrest Centre for Geriatric Care’s Rotman Research Institute, a premier international centre for the study of human brain function, suggests that speaking two languages can help delay the onset of Alzheimer's symptoms by as long as five years. The researchers came to the conclusion after examined clinical records of 211 patients diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease. There are currently no drug treatments that can delay the symptoms of Alzheimer's.

The study replicated findings from a 2007 study led by Ellen Bialystok of York University that found bilingual dementia patients experienced a delayed onset of their symptoms compared to monolingual patients. It found that bilingual patients delayed the onset of their symptoms by four years compared to monolingual patients.

The subjects' brains still showed deterioration from Alzheimer's regardless of language skills, however bilingualism appeared to have delayed symptoms such as memory loss, confusion, and difficulties with problem-solving and planning.

Ellen Bialystok, professor of psychology in York’s Faculty of Health and associate scientist at the Rotman Research Institute, said, “All the patients in the study had been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s, so clearly bilingualism does not prevent the onset of dementia. Instead, our results show that people who have been lifelong bilinguals have built up a cognitive reserve that allows them to cope with the disease for a longer period of time before showing symptoms.”

While the brains of bilingual patients did show deterioration, researchers believe that the use of more than one language equips them with compensatory skills that keep symptoms like memory loss and confusion in check.

Both studies point to the need to treat bilingualism as an important tool for healthy aging, along with exercise, diet, and other lifestyle choices. Now, there is a good reason to encourage people in multicultural societies to keep speaking their native tongue and pass it along to their children.

台湾：枪杀与政治 Gunshot and Politics: The Taiwanese Style

Lien Sheng Wen

在民主制度中同时展示各种不同的面貌，台湾可能是世界上唯一的地方。正面与负面的趋势并存。台湾的选举活动，对于外人来说，可能会被其紧张气氛、杂声、参与者明显的热忱所震撼。

事实上，自二十世纪八十年代台湾从一党专政过渡到全面民主以来，在选举中的暴乱是少见的。台湾黑道的暴行也十分有限，虽然他们对台湾，尤其是对地方县市政府，有很大的政治影响。

可是，情况在去年的五都选举时好像转坏，当时发生了一宗令人窒息而神秘的企图谋杀事件。在11月26日选举前夕的造势大会上，一个抢手开枪，打死一人，还把台湾前副总统、现任中国国民党荣誉主席连战的儿子打成重伤。

一颗子弹从40岁的连胜文的左脸穿过右脸而伤了他，继续把一个在场者打死。

连胜文非常幸运，枪弹并没有被严重伤害到他的嘴巴与喉咙的肌肤。因此，经过医生鉴定他已经脱离危险，11月29日就从国立台湾大学医学院的重症监护病房转移到普通病房。

但是，他的快速的痊愈却引起谣言，有人就上网要求公开X光照片。反对党的支持者甚至质疑枪杀事件是不是自导自演。民进党立法委员叶宜津就在一个电视节目中公开提问：“各界大家都认为，连胜文的枪击案对‘五都’的选举有影响，那么这个枪击案是不是自导自演？”

把一个枪杀的悲剧政治化到这种地步，在台湾就可以发生。

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Perhaps Taiwan is the only place in the world whose democratic system exhibits multiple faces at the same time. Positive and negative trends coexist simultaneously. The observers of election campaigns in Taiwan will be struck by the excitement, the noise, and the obvious enthusiasm of the participants.

As a matter of fact, acts of violence are unusual in election campaigns in Taiwan, which began a gradual transition from one-party dictatorship to fully functioning democracy in the late 1980s. Violence carried out by Taiwan's gangs is also limited, though the gangs themselves exercise considerable political influence, particularly on Taiwanese county governments.

However, things seemed to have changed for the worst at last year’s five special municipal elections when an obligatory mysterious assassination was attempted. A gunman opened fire on a campaign rally on the eve of the elections on 26 November 2010, killing one man and critically wounding the son of Taiwan’s former vice president Lien Chan (Lian Zhan), now the honorary chairman of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT).

A bullet pierced through from left to the right side of the face of the 40 year old Sean Lien Sheng Wen, wounding him and killing a bystander.

Lien was extremely lucky that major tissue in his mouth and throat was not damaged by the bullet. As such, he was moved from an intensive care unit to a regular ward at National Taiwan University Hospital on 29 November after doctors determined that he was out of danger.

However, his speedy recovery has fanned rumours, with an online petition calling for the release of his X-rays. The opposition Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) supporters even question whether the shooting was staged. DPP Legislator Yeh Yi-chin (Ye Yijin) asked openly in a TV programme: ‘It is widely believed that the gunshot of Sean Lien has effect on the elections. Now, is the gunshot self staged?’

Such is the extent of politicization of a tragedy that can happen in Taiwan.