辜鴻銘：中国人的心灵与毛笔 Gu Hongming: The Chinese Mind and the Soft Brush

辜鴻銘 (1857 - 1928) 马来西亚的华人学者。作为一个王室和儒学价值的拥护者，在清朝被拖翻后，他还继续保留他的辫子。晚年对文化感兴趣。十岁时到苏格兰读书。获得爱丁堡大学的文学士与莱克锡大学的土木工程专科。在欧洲念完书后才学华文，听说华文字写得不好看。
他写了几本英文书，包括‘中国人的精神’。虽然我们可能不完全同意他所说的，这本书还是反映了一个被称为‘文化异数’的华人学者的思想。
下面从这本书录了一段关于中国人缺乏精确的特征：
‘那么在中国人的生活方式中缺乏精确的原因是什么呢？我还是要说，原因就是因为中国人过着一种心灵生活。心灵是精细和敏感的微妙平衡。它不像是坚硬、僵化、严格的仪器的头脑或者理智。你不可能像用头脑或者理性一样，用心灵也作如此稳定、如此严格的思考。至少要做到这一点，是非常困难的。事实上，中国毛笔，这种柔软的刷子，可以作为中国心灵的符号。它非常难于书写和作画，而一旦你掌握它的用法，你可以用它以一种硬钢笔无法做到的优美和雅致来书写和作画。’
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Gu Hongming (Ku Hungming 1857 - 1928) was a Malaysian Chinese scholar. As an advocate of monarchy and Confucian values, he preserved his plait even after the overthrow of Qing Dynasty. Gu has become a kind of cultural curiosity late in his life. He was sent to Scotland to study when the boy was 10. He earned a degree in Literature at the University of Edinburgh, and earned a diploma in Civil Engineering at the University of Leipzig. Subsequently, he went to Paris to study law. He acquired Chinese only after his studies in Europe, and was said to have a bad Chinese hand-writing.
He had written a number of English books, including The Spirit of the Chinese People. Although we may not agree all what he had said, it is a book worth reading as it reflects the mind set of an old Chinese scholar who has been treated as a ‘cultural oddity’.
Below is a paragraph from his book on Chinese want of exactness:
‘Now what is the reason for this want of exactness in the ways of the Chinese people? The reason, I say again, is because the Chinese live a life of the heart. The heart is a very delicate and sensitive balance. It is not like the head or intellect, a hard, stiff, rigid instrument. You cannot with the heart think with the same steadiness, with the same rigid exactness as you can with the head or intellect. At least, it is extremely difficult to do so. In fact, the Chinese pen or pencil which is a soft brush, may be taken as a symbol of the Chinese mind. It is very difficult to write or draw with it, but when you have once mastered the use of it, you will, with it, write and draw with a beauty and grace which you cannot with a nard steel pen.’

二元论：现代科学之诞生 Dualism: Modern Science Made Possible

我们可以说，笛卡儿(1596 – 1650)强调宇宙之双重本质时，他是强调心物二元论的思想。把这两种物质完全独立分开，他让自然科学自由地以机械来解释自然。
科学界可以忙着研究自然现象而不必管心灵之事了。科学也可以完全只管机械方面，而不必去想目的，目标或其他有关心和灵方面的特征了。它可以专注于探索所有有关身体行为与行动的规律。这样，现代科学就可能产生了。
伽利略(1564 – 1642)严厉地把物理与形而上学分开来。伽利略是现代动力学的发明者。他认为形而上学与物理是两种完全分开，不能互相转移的学说，而他只对物理有兴趣。因此，他可能是第一个专业科学家。
笛卡儿与伽利略对世界的看法，采取了不同的理性方式，但都导致了现代科学的诞生。和伽利略不同的是，笛卡儿对形而上学想得很深，以致他被看做是现代哲学之父。由于形而上学被认为是信仰天主的理性解释，难怪伽利略会有不少强势的敌人，尤其是不少的传教士。
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We may speak of the thought of Descartes (1596 – 1650) as emphasizing the dualism of mind and matter, which is, stressing the two-fold nature of the universe. By making these two substances entirely independent, he left nature free from the mechanical explanation of natural science.
The sciences could busy themselves with a study of nature without having to worry about mind. Science could develop along purely mechanical lines without having to make room for purposes, goals, and other characteristics of mind and spirit. It could busy itself with the discovery of the laws by which all bodies act and moves. Indeed, in this way modern science was made possible.
Galileo (1564 – 1642) also sharply separated physics from metaphysics. Galileo was the founder of modern kinematics. He thought that metaphysics and physics were two separate, untranslatable discourses, and he was only interested in physics. This probably makes him the first professional scientist.
Descartes and Galileo adopted two different rational ways of thinking about the world and both led to the birth of modern science. For, contrary to Galileo, Descartes did think hard about metaphysics, so much so that he is considered the father of modern philosophy. Since metaphysics was the rational ground for believing in God, it is not difficult to understand why Galileo had made some powerful enemies, especially among the Jesuits.

老子：道法自然 Laozi: Dao Follows the Way of Spontaneity

我们注意到天道、地道和人道是形而下道。它们与形而上道有什么关系呢?
老子在道德经中说：‘故道大，天大，地大，人亦大。域中有四大，而人居其一焉。人法地，地法天，天法道，道法自然。’
所以道就是天、地、人道所遵守的最后之法。道法什么呢？道法自然。
这个自然需要解释。
在先秦，‘自然’二字几乎毫无例外是指‘自然而然’。自就是自己，然就是如此，自然就是自己如此。
后来，这个词的意思延伸指天然，物质世界，或自然的。这样，有些学者就把‘道法自然’错解为‘道师法自然界的规律’。
可以总结说，道不可名，无声，无形和无限。它就是自己如此而已。
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We noted that Dao of Heaven, Earth and Man are within-form Dao. What is their relationship with the Above-form Dao?
Laozi said in Daode Jing: ‘Therefore the Dao is a great; Heaven is great; Earth is great; and Man is also great. The four are great things in the universe, and Man is one of them. Man follows the way of Earth. Earth follows the way of Heaven. Heaven follows the way of the Dao. And the Dao follows the way of spontaneity.’
Dao is therefore the ultimate rule to be followed by Heaven, Earth and Man. But what rule does Dao follow? It follows the way of spontaneity.
The Chinese term ‘zi ran’ needs clarification.
During and before Qin dynasty (221-206 BC), the word ‘zi ran’ was used almost without exception to mean spontaneity or as-it-is. The word ‘zi’ means itself or on its own, and ‘ran’ means as it is. When the two words are put together, it means ‘as-it-is-ness’, or ‘as it is’.
However, the meaning of the term was later extended to mean also natural world, physical world, or naturally. As such, some scholars misinterpret the last sentence to mean ‘And the Dao follows the way of the Nature’.

One can therefore conclude that the Above-form Dao is unnamable, soundless, formless and boundless. It is itself and is ‘as-it-is’.

预兆即将成为事实：写在墙壁上的字 The Writing on the Wall

好像越来越多西方人关心亚洲人缺乏创造力。韩纳斯先生就是其中的一个。
韩纳斯会说十二这语言。他说东亚与西方国家比较，在科学与技术重要突破方面是失败的。他归罪于中国、日本、韩国的书写系统。
他写了‘汉字困境’、‘写在墙壁上的字’*之类的书。据一个网站说是‘依据认知科学和语言学识，及作者的东亚语文深刻经验’，‘为环球化中，现代亚洲所面对的一个重要问题，提供一个平衡和深思熟虑的解释。’
在中国书写系统中，每一个字对应一个音符。它是音节系统。
相比之下，西方的字母系统依赖完全抽象的字母，而单一字母并不代表一个音符。
因为东亚书写系统缺少字母的抽象特征，它们限制了科学创新所必具的分析和抽象思维。韩纳斯关注的是，沉浸于字体文化里的孩童会居于劣势，因为这些书写系统没有训练抽象思考能力。
他注意到西方的亚洲移民，在字母系统中工作，吸取和应用西方花费大量资源所创造的科学成果，来进行创意工作和赚取财源。
我们有理由相信他当他坚持他不是在批评亚洲人和说他们缺乏智力。
他本身写在墙壁上的字响亮和明显：东亚应该改用字母系统。
*注：英语The Writing on the Wall 直译是‘写在墙壁上的字’，真正的意思是指很明显的预兆（多指不祥的预兆）即将成为事实。一语双关的意图明显。
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More and more westerners seem to be quite concerned with Asians’ lack of creativity. One of them is Mr William C. Hannas.
Hannas who speaks 12 languages, blames the writing systems of China, Japan and Korea for what he says is the East Asia’s failure to make significant scientific and technological breakthroughs compared to the Western nations.
He has written books, such as ‘Asia’s Orthographic Dilemma’, ‘Writing On The Wall’, which, according to one Internet Website, are ‘based on the scholarship in cognitive science and linguistics, and the author's intimate experience with East Asian languages’, and provide ‘a balanced and thoughtful account of one of the important problems facing modern Asia in the age of globalization.’
In the Chinese writing system, each character corresponds to a syllable of sound. It is a system of ‘syllabaries’.
In comparison, the western alphabetic systems rely on letters that by themselves are pure abstractions since a single letter does not represent a syllable of sound.
Because the Eastern Asian writing systems lack the abstract features of alphabets, they hamper the kind of analytical and abstract thought necessary for scientific creativity. He is also concerned that children who are immersed in a character-based culture are at a huge disadvantage because such writing systems do not cultivate the ability for abstract thought.
He noted that Asian immigrants to the West, who work in an alphabetic system, do innovative work and make money by taking and applying the fruits of science that the West creates at great expenses.
One has good reason to believe him when he insists that he is not criticizing Asians and claiming that they lack intellect.
His own writing on the wall is also loud and clear: East Asians should switch to the alphabetic system.

语言与形象 Word and Image

在西方，自古以来，语言就很重要。咒语并非空言，而是有力量实现所表达的事件的语言。
就此而言，世界就是经上帝的语言而创造的。

圣经约翰福音1.1：‘太初有道，道与上帝同在，道就是上帝。这道太初与上帝同在。万物是借着他造的；凡被造的，没一样不是借着他造的。生命在他里头，这生命就是人的光。光照在黑暗里，黑暗却不接受光。’
中文读者要注意，这个‘道’不是中国哲学中的道，而是指语言。就意译而言，这个翻译确实神来之笔。圣经本意就是把语言当上帝的代理。当然，这个道是西方之道，和中国之道是完全不同的。
我们注意到逻各斯，希腊语意指‘说’，在希腊与基督教哲学中居重要地位。
相比之下，中国哲学习惯以阴阳，龙图象或其他奥秘符号来表达。这是因为华人相信‘书不尽言，言不尽意。’华人重象轻言。
王弼(226-249)在‘周易略例’把意、象、言的关系这样解释：
‘夫象者，出意者也；言者，明象者也。尽意莫若象，尽象莫若言。….. 故言者所以观象，得象而忘言；象者，所以存意，得意而忘象。’
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In the West, words are powerful since ancient times. A curse is not idle words, but words with power to carry out the thing expressed.
In this sense the world came into being through God's word.

Gen. 1:3; John 1:1. 'In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came to be through him, and without him nothing came to be. What came to be through him was life, and this life was the light of the human race; the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. '
Word is therefore treated as the agent of God in the creation of the world. It is noted that logos, a word derived from the Greek verb lego, ‘to say’, figures prominently in a number of Greek and Christian philosophical doctrines.
In contrast, the Chinese philosophy often features images of yin, yang, dragons and other esoteric symbols. This is because the Chinese believe that ‘writing cannot fully express spoken words, and spoken words cannot fully express ideas.’ The Chinese prefer symbols and images, not words.
Wang Bi (226-249) in his Zhou Yi Lueli explains the relationship between ideas, symbols and words:
'Symbols serve to express ideas. Words serve to explain symbols. For the complete expression of ideas, there is nothing like symbols, and for the complete explanation of symbols there is nothing like words… Therefore the purpose of words is to explain the symbols, but once the symbols have been grasped, the words may be forgotten. The purpose of symbols is to preserve ideas, but once the ideas have been grasped the symbols may be forgotten….'

王维：空山不见人 Wang Wei: Empty Mountain, No Man is Seen

王维是盛世唐朝重要诗人。他的诗主要描述自由、简单、平静、自然悠闲的人生，包含意味深长的美学思想。王维信佛，特别是禅学。他的美学思想受佛学影响很大，特别是南禅思想。
他的诗以简单悠闲景物和静山与河流为美的对象，展现它追求简单、出世、自由与自然人生，和外物与自身的理想和谐。
让我们看他这首杰作：鹿柴
空山不见人，但闻人语响。
返景入深林，复照青苔上。
树长深林加上日照青苔的景象应把自然之超逸具体化。至于为何如此，这就期望读者把隐藏在景象后的作者意向加以解码了。
这首诗有几组心像并排组成：空山与回音、复照与深山、青苔光与青苔、语声与青苔。这些并列心像互动而唤起源源不绝的象外之象和境外之境。
你可以想象王维坐在鹿柴中整日冥想，默察空与形（山）、无知（影）与智慧（光）、天与山、光线、青苔成长、人之现与隐之间的互动。
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Wang Wei (699-761) is a famous poet in the most prosperous age of Tang Dynasty whose poems mainly describe the free, simple, placid, and natural idyllic life, which contain profound aesthetic thoughts. Wang Wei believes in Buddhism and Chan philosophy in particular. His aesthetic thoughts have been influenced by Buddhism, especially by the South Chan philosophy.
His poetry, regarding the simple idyllic scenery and the quiet mountains and rivers as aesthetic objects, exhibits his pursuit of a simple, detached, free and natural life as well as an ideal harmony between the outside world and himself.
Let’s look at his master piece ‘Deer Park’:
Empty mountain, no man is seen,
Only heard are men's voices echoing;
The sunlight re-enters the deep wood,
Shining again on the green moss.
The scene of trees growing amidst hills with the sunlight shining on the moss is supposed to reify the notion of natural gracefulness. As to why this is so, readers are expected to decode the authorial intention lurking behind the scene by themselves.
This poem is built upon a number of imagery juxtapositions: the empty mountain and the echoing voices, the re-entering sunlight and the deep wood, the moss-shining sunlight and the green moss, and the voices and the moss. These imagery juxtapositions may interact to evoke unceasingly ‘image beyond image’ and ‘scene beyond scene.’
You can imagine Wang Wei sitting in day-long meditation in Deer Park observing the interplay between emptiness and form (the mountain), ignorance (shadows) and wisdom (light), sky and mountain, lights, the lowest mosses glowing, human presence and absence.

孔子与苏格拉底: 述者与作者 Confucius and Socrates: Transmitter and Maker

孔子 (551-479BC) 和苏格拉底 (469-399BC) 是历史上两个著名的思想家。他们对中西文化各自有重大影响。人们常把苏格拉底说成是西方的孔子。
可是我们知道这两个思想家是不同的，主要因为它们生活在不同的社会、文化、政治环境里。
我们注意到孔子所生活的周朝已达到高度成熟的政治文化、交易系统、社会结构。孔子幸运地承继了纪录得很好的古典书籍，如诗、尚书、易经、礼、乐、春秋。孔子用它们来做教育子弟学生的基本教科书。所以孔子自豪的说他‘述而不作，信而好古’。
苏格拉底就没有那么好运，他没有已被接受的参考书来开展他的哲学理念。我们可以说他并没有选择，只能成为作者。
孔子作为中国古代传统的一个述者，对他的古代著作阐述的接受，他并没有面对重大阻力。据说他有学生三千名，其中著名弟子七十二名。这些弟子对他很敬畏，以日月来比喻他的德行。他死后被葬于故土附近，不少弟子为他守墓三年，还植树来怀念他。据说他死后的第二年，鲁哀公将其故宅隔改建为庙，还为他奉祀。这是儒学漫长历史的开端。
作为新理念的哲学作者，苏格拉底的努力事实上引起疑虑，被看成是民主的反对者。公元前399年的一天，苏格拉底站在500名雅典陪审员前，被指控‘拒绝承认国家所承认的神’和‘败坏年轻人’。在聆听了苏格拉底和控方的陈词后，陪审员对他的罪名投票，而以280对220的票数判他有罪。他被判死刑。
很明显的，述者和作者的命运是不同的。
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Confucius (551-479BC) and Socrates (469-399BC) are two of the most important thinkers in History. They have a huge impact on eastern and western culture respectively. People tend to say that Socrates is the Confucius of the western world and vice versa.
But we all know that these two thinkers are very different, and this is so mainly because they lived in very different social, cultural and political environments.
We have noted that Confucius lived during the Chinese Zhou dynasty which had already achieved a highly sophisticated political culture, educational system and social structure. Confucius had the good fortune of inheriting many well documented classical texts, such as the Books of Odes (Poetry), History, Changes, Rites, Music and The Annals of Spring and Autumn. Confucius took them as the basic textbooks to educate his disciples and students. Confucius had therefore proudly declared that he is ‘a transmitter and not a maker, believing in and loving the ancients’.
Socrates was not so lucky to have well accepted texts as his reference in developing his philosophical ideas. One can therefore say that he had no choice but to be a maker.
Confucius as a transmitter of ancient Chinese traditions did not face major resistances in getting his interpretation of ancient works accepted. It is said that he had three thousand students, of whom seventy-two were well-known disciples. His disciples respected or revered him and compared his virtue to the sun and moon. After his death, he was buried near his native town, and many of his disciples stayed there for three years mourning for him, where they planted trees in memory of him. It is believed that the second year after his death, the Duke of Lu took his house as the temple, where the duke made sacrifice to him. This was the beginning of the long history of the Confucianism.
As a maker of new ideas and philosophy, Socrates’ effort had actually raised suspicions about him and he was seen as a critic of democracy. On a day in 399 BC Socrates stood before a jury of 500 of his fellow Athenians accused of ‘refusing to recognize the gods recognized by the state’ and ‘of corrupting the youth.’ After hearing the arguments of both Socrates and his accusers, the jury was asked to vote on his guilt and he was found guilty by a vote of 280 to 220. He was sentenced to death.
The fates of a transmitter and maker are obviously different.

中国艺术意境: 象外之境 Chinese Artistic Vision: Scene beyond Images

艺术意境是另一个重要的中国美学概念，为二十世纪的美学家所热烈讨论与阐述。
意境经常与境界交替使用。然而，境界有较广的意义。学者如王国维、宗白华、冯友兰等都说人生有不同境界。宗白华认为人生有五种境界，艺术境界就是其中的一种。
艺术境界其实就是意境。
意境不单是情感与景色的完全交融。
意境就是意与境。
意就是情感。所谓写情则沁人心脾，写景则在人耳目，述事则如其口出是也。
境就是指我们的心神遨游古、今以至未来的时间之中，由无数形象形成图像。这些形象由虚与实之空间所形成。众所周知，中国美学认为虚更重要，因为虚比实更能提示性的表达。要引出意境，我们要现象处身于无限时空之中，同时艺术品需能传达‘象外之象’和‘境外之境’并引出我们的世界感、宇宙感、人生感。
就是说，意境代表一种抽象形象美，它的大部分藏于形式内或超越形式，所以只会显现于行家或灵目之中。
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Artistic vision (yijing) is another important Chinese aesthetic concept that was very much discussed and elaborated by aestheticians during the 20th century. The western readers should not confuse the Chinese term artistic vision (yijing) with the Book of Changes (yijing). Although the pinyin for these two terms is exactly the same, but the actual Chinese words for them are totally different.
Artistic Vision (Yijing) is often used interchangeably with the term Horizon (jingjie). However, the term Horizon has a broader meaning. Scholars such as Wang Guowei, Zong Baihua and Fong You-lan talked about various types of Horizon of life. Zong Baihua said that there were five types of horizon of life and artistic horizon was one of them.
The artistic horizon actually refers to the artistic vision (yijing).
Artistic vision is more than a perfect aesthetic fusion of artistic feeling or idea with scenic images.

The Chinese term yijing consists of two words: yi and jing.
Yi means feelings. One scholar once said, ‘it is in the expression of feelings that is heart-stirring and mind-freshening, in the description of scenes that is vivid and engaging, and also in the narrative of events that is lucid and authentic as though coming straight from the mouth of a good story teller. ’
The words jing refers to the land of countless images that form a picture in one’s mind that moves along the time line from past to present and towards future. The images are formed by spaces that are unoccupied (xu) and occupied (shi). It is well known in Chinese aesthetics that the unoccupied is more important as it can be more suggestively telling than the occupied. Therefore, to achieve artistic vision, one must imagine he is in the land of infinite time and space and that the art work should convey ‘images beyond images’ and ‘scenes beyond scenes’ which will bring out one’s sense of world, universe and life views.
In other words, artistic vision represents a kind of abstract beauty of images in which more than half conceals itself within or beyond Form and is revealed only to the ‘informed’ and searching eye.

中国官员：天何言哉 Chinese Officials: Does Heaven Speak?

联合早报11月21日报道，中国前驻法大使、外交学院前院长吴建民昨天在官方《人民日报》上发表文章，批评一些中国高官不懂得如何同外国人交流，把大量时间浪费在充满套话、废话和空话的无效交流上，指出交流力缺失是中国社会的一大浪费。
他说一些人就好像茶壶里装饺子，倒不出来。这个比喻可说是神妙极了，饺子借用外力进壶颈倒不太难，可要它自己显出，可是不易呀。
吴建民认为，造成这种现象，既有历史原因，也有现实原因。自古中国人的哲学是‘敏于行，讷于言’，‘能说会道’的人容易被批评为夸夸其谈，而不善表达的人倒是人们表扬的对象。
看来是孔老夫子教导错误了。
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It was reported on 21 Nov in the Zaobao that Wu Jianmin, the former Chinese Ambassador to France and former Dean of the China Foreign Affairs University wrote in the official ‘People’s Daily’ and criticized certain Chinese officials who did not know to communicate properly with foreigners, wasted much time in using polite, nonsensical and empty words for ineffective communication. He pointed out that the loss of power of communication is a great waste for the Chinese society.
He said that certain people are like the dumplings in tea pots – just could not be poured out. This is an interesting analogy. While it is not too difficult for the dumplings to be pressed into a tea pot with a little help by external forces, it is rather difficult to them to get out of it on their own.
Wu felt that there are both historical and practical reasons that can be used to account for such phenomenon. The ancient Chinese philosophers teach that one should be hesitant to speak, fearing that their actions would not do justice to their words. A person with a ready and eloquent tongue may be seen to be an empty talker, while people who are not good in expressing themselves may be praised.
Looks like Confucius should be blamed for his wrong teachings.

理性主义：二元论 Rationalism: Dualism

西方理性主义的理论中，对真理的决定是基于知性和推理而不是感官。它崇尚永恒多过变动，这就产生了各种的二元论。
它产生了本体二元论。就是说，存在被认为比变易优异。
它也产生了心体二元论，意味着与这个变动世界关联的身体，被当作比与永恒世界联系的灵魂来得低下。
二元论还有其它一系列的分体：理念世界-知觉世界，本质-现象，唯心-唯物，主体-客体，等等。
二元分开，这边无法通到另一边。这就成为至今还困扰西方哲学家的最大难题：如何解释二元间的关系？也就是说，如何统一双方？
注：华人的阴阳学说不是二元论，因为阴与阳不是二个个体：所谓阴中有阳，阳中有阴是也。
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The western Rationalism is based on a theory in which the criterion of the truth is not sensory but intellectual and reasoning. It prefers permanence over flux and this has produced many kinds of dualism.
It has produced ontological dualism. That is to say, being has always been seen as superior to becoming.
It also produces the dualism of soul and body which implies that the value of body associated with the world of flux has been construed as inferior to that of the soul associated with the unchanging world of permanence.
The dualism further displays in a serial of separations: idea world - perceivable world, noumenon - phenomenon, idealism - materialism, subject - object, etc.
The two sides in each pair separate from each other and they cannot pass from one side to the other side. This has become the most difficult problem that has haunted philosophers even to the present: how to explain the relationship between the two sides? Or put it another way, how to unify the two sides?
Note: The Chinese yin-yang theory is not a dualism, as yin and yang are not separated – as the saying goes, yin is always contained in yang and yang in yin.