Geographic Background of the Chinese People
中华民族的地理环境
In the Confucian Analects Confucius said: "The wise man delights in water; the good man delights in mountains.The wise move; the good stay still. The wise are happy; the good endure." (VI, 21.)
在《论语》里,孔子说:“知者乐水,仁者乐山。知者动,仁者静。知者乐,仁者寿。”(《雍也》第二十一节)
寿,指待的时间长,非长寿
In reading this saying, I feel there is in it something which suggests a difference between the people of ancient China and those of ancient Greece.
读孔子的这段话,使我想到古代中国人和古代希腊人思想不同的由来。
China is a continental country.
中国是一个大陆国家。
To the ancient Chinese their land was the world.
在古代中国人心目中,世界就是他们生活的这片土地。
There are two expressions in the Chinese language which can both be translated as the world.
在中文里,有两个词语常常被用来表达“世界”,
One is "all beneath the sky" and the other is "all within the four seas."
一个是“普天之下”,一个是“四海之内”。
To the people of a maritime country such as the Greeks, it would be inconceivable that expressions such as these could be synonymous.
住在海洋国家的人民,如希腊人,会不明白,居住在“四海之内”(比如说,住在克里特岛上),怎么就是住在“普天之下”。
But that is what happens in the Chinese language, and it is not without reason.
而在中文里,它就是如此,而且是有理由的。
From the time of Confucius until the end of the last century, no Chinese thinkers had the experience of venturing out upon the high seas.
从孔子的时代直到十九世纪末,中国的思想家们从来没有到海上冒险的经历。
Confucius and Mencius lived not far from the sea, if we think in modern terms of distance, yet in the Analects, Confucius mentions the sea only once.
在现代人看来,孔子和孟子所住的地方都离海不远。
He is recorded as saying: "If my way is not to prevail, I shall get upon a raft and float out to the sea. He who will go with me will be [Chung] Yu." (V, 6.) Chung Yu was a disciple of Confucius known for his courage and bravery.
但是在《论语》里,孔子只有一次提到海:“道不行,乘桴浮于海。从我者,其由与?”(《公冶长》第六节)仲由即子路,在孔子的学生中,以勇敢著名。
It is said in the same work that when Chung Yu heard this statement, he was much pleased.
据说,仲由听到孔子的这句话,非常高兴。
Confucius, however, was not so pleased by Chung Yu's overenthusiasm, and remarked: "Yu is more brave than myself. I do not know what to do with him." (Ibid.)
孔子却并没有因仲由的过分热心而高兴,他说:“由也,好勇过我,无所取材。”(意思说,仲由虽然勇敢,可惜不能裁度事理。同上)
Mencius's reference to the sea is likewise brief.
孟子提到海的话也同样简短。
"He who has seen the sea," he says, "finds it difficult to think anything about other waters; and he who has wandered to the gate of the sage, finds it difficult to think anything about the words of others." (VIIa, 24.) Mencius is no better than Confucius, who thought only of "floating out to sea."
他说:“观于海者难为水,游于圣人之门者难为言。”(《孟子·尽心章句上》)孔子只想,泛舟浮于海,孟子也只是望海惊叹,并不比孔子好多少。
How different were Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle, who lived in a maritime country and wandered from island to island!
对比之下,苏格拉底、柏拉图和亚里士多德,出生在海洋国家,漫游列岛,又是多么不同啊!
From YLYK《中国哲学的故事》专辑S02E01