簡談大師辜鴻銘的“啰嗦”
大家知道，大師辜鴻銘先生的英文是無可挑剔的。連語言大師林語堂先生也對辜鴻銘先生的英文深表欽佩：“在我國人中，辜鴻銘的英文文字確乎超越出眾，凡二百年未見出其右者，不論遣詞用字功夫，皆屬上乘而無疑問”。
但是，最近在網上的一些評論中，卻看到一些人覺得辜鴻銘先生的英文有些啰嗦。愕然之余，細想之后，也多少理解了這些說法的依據。因為辜鴻銘先生在其文章，譬如《中國人的精神》“The Spirit of the Chinese People”（他自譯為《春秋大義》）一文中，不斷地重復使用一些詞語，這難免給人留下啰嗦的印象。
不過，正如那句名言“一千人眼中就有一千個哈姆雷特”一樣(There are a thousand Hamlets in a thousand people's eyes. 或If there are a thousand readers, there must be a thousand Hamlets.等 )。即使同一篇文章，不同的讀者會從不同的側面讀出其不同味道，并產生不同感受。我個人讀辜鴻銘先生的文章，剛開始時，也曾短暫地有過啰嗦的感覺。但細讀細思之后，不但不覺得啰嗦，反而認為這只不過是一種寫作手法。這種遣詞造句手法，與其說是啰嗦，倒不如說是一種強調和引導。后來，讀的越多，越覺得后一種看法更為貼切。
那么，或許有朋友會問：“為什么能這樣說呢？依據在哪里呢？道理又在哪里呢？”
至于說依據和道理，由于我不是專業的研究者，一時的確拿不出令人信服的論據。這里，我只是粗淺地談談自己的感受，供大家參考。
首先，我們不妨先設想一下辜鴻銘先生所處的時代。眾所周知，那是上世紀的初期。那時的中國，可以說是落后的代名詞，是受人欺辱的時代。那時的西方國家，不僅對中華文化無知，而且還充滿了對中華文化的誤解與偏見。要想對這些人，深入淺出地講明講透中華文化的精深與博大，而且是在短短的幾篇文章，或一個演講中，其實是一件很難的事。從常理上講，對你面對一些無知而且充滿偏見和誤解的人時，要想說明問題，一些重復和強調，不僅需要，而且是必不可少的。
如果你能細讀辜鴻銘先生的文章，你可能會發現，他的重復，絕對不是拖沓和冗長，而是層層推進，層層上升。如同盤山公路，雖說是一圈圈循環，但卻是一圈圈上升。往往，不知不覺間，在這些不斷的循環往復中，在你不斷領略沿途風光的過程中，慢慢地把你帶到了山頂。打開了你的視野，擴展了你的心胸，如同唐代詩人杜甫的《望岳》中詩句，“會當凌絕頂，一覽眾山小”。從這個角度看，只有當你站在中華文化的頂峰時，你才能會發現西方文化的不足和瑕疵之處。正是辜鴻銘先生的文章，起到了這種效果。因此，他的文章在當時西方社會所引起的震驚和轟動，其實也是不難理解的。
也正是這種寫作手法和功力，也就是說，在不斷的重復與強調中，如剝絲抽繭，層層展開，慢慢上升，最后直至頂峰核心。才能使得辜鴻銘先生把中華文化這一龐大課題，在幾篇不長的文章中，面對大量對東方文化無知的西方人，引經據典，博古論今，把中華文化講述得這么全面完整，清晰透徹，淺顯易懂。從整體效果上看，這哪里是啰嗦，這其實可以說是簡潔與精煉，是全面而深刻。
為了更好的說明這一寫作風格，我們不妨多看看其所寫的一些文章，進一步體會其精髓。譬如，在《中國人的精神》一文的序言中，辜鴻銘先生在談到美國人，英國人，法國人和中國人的區別時，他說：
“The American people, I may be permitted to say here, find it difficult to understand the real Chinaman and the Chinese civilisation, because the American people, as a rule, are broad, simple, but not deep. The English cannot understand the real Chinaman and Chinese civilisation because the English, as a rule, are deep, simple, but not broad. The Germans again cannot understand the real Chinaman and the Chinese civilisation because the Germans, especially the educated Germans, as a rule, are deep, broad, but not simple. The French, well,—the French are the people, it seems to me, who can understand and has understood the real Chinaman and the Chinese civilisation best. The French, it is true, have not the depth of nature of the Germans nor the broadness of mind of the Americans nor the simplicity of mind of the English,—but the French, the French people have to a preeminent degree a quality of mind such as all the people I have mentioned above as a rule, have not,—a quality of mind which, above all things, is necessary in order to understand the real Chinaman and the Chinese civilisation ; a quality of mind viz: delicacy, For, in addition to the three characteristics of the real Chinaman and Chinese civilisation which I have already mentioned, I must here add one more, and that the chief characteristic, namely delicacy; delicacy to a preeminent degree such as you will find nowhere else except perhaps among the ancient Greeks and their civilisation”.
(注：Chinaman 是那個年代對中國人的稱呼方式?還是因有歧視含義，作者有意反用之以譏諷？本人不得而知，有研究的朋友不妨指點）
再如，同樣在《中國人的精神》一文序言中，辜鴻銘先生在談到文明時，他說：
“Now in order to estimate the value of a civilisation, it seems to me, the question we must finally ask is not what great cities, what magnificent houses, what fine roads it has built and is able to build; what beautiful and comfortable furniture, what clever and useful implements, tools and instruments it has made and is able to make; no, not even what imstitutions, what arts and sciences it has invented: the question we must ask, in order to estimate the value of a civilisation,—is, what type of humanity, what kind of men and women it has been able to produce. In fact, the man and woman,—the type of human beings—which a civilisation produces, it is this which shows the essence, the personality, so to speak, the soul of that civilisation”.
看完這些，不知道你是覺得他啰嗦呢？還是覺得他在層層展開呢？我想，當你剛讀一點時，你也許會感到他啰嗦，而當你越讀越多時，你可能會越來越感到他是在引導，在強調，在層層展開，在步步推進。
如果你能贊同這些，我們不妨繼續，當辜鴻銘先生談到中國人的缺點時，他是這樣說的：
“ The real Chinaman may be coarse, but there is no grossness in his coarseness. The real Chinaman may be ugly, but there is no hideousness in his ugliness. The real Chinaman may be vulgar, but there is no aggressiveness, no blatancy in his vulgarity. The real Chinaman may be stupid, but there is no absurdity in his stupidity. The real Chinaman may be cunning, but there is no deep malignity in his cunning. In fact what I want to say is, that even in the faults and blemishes of body, mind and character of the real Chinaman, there is nothing which revolts you. It is seldom that you will find a real Chinaman of the old school, even of the lowest type, who is positively repulsive”.
看到這里，你嘴角會不會自然浮出微笑呢？當一個人文采斐然時，即使他的詭辯，或者，他的強詞奪理，都會顯得那么地可愛并且符合邏輯。
另外，辜鴻銘的另一個寫作特點，就是在他的文章中，不斷地，大量地引經據典，大量引用名人名言，而且通常是拉丁文，德文，法文等多種文字的原文引用。這些引用，不僅顯示了他的博學，而且恰到好處。常常，這些引用，不但增強了他的文章的可讀性與說服力，而且這些引用本身就能發人深省，令人回味無窮。譬如，他在《中國人的精神》一文的序言中，所引用歌德的一段話：
Goethe says: "What a long way mankind must have travelled before they came to know how to deal gently even with sinners, to be merciful to law-breakers, and to be human even to the inhuman. Truly they were men of Divine nature who first taught this and who gave their lives for it in order to make the realisation of this possible and to hasten the practice of it. "
當你看到這里，你是否能想起電影“阿甘正傳”中的那首歌呢？那首美國五、六十年代的流行男歌手Bob Dylan唱的歌— “Blowing In the Wind”。這里，請允許我將原歌詞貼出：
How many roads must a man walk down
Before you call him a man ?
How many seas must a white dove sail
Before she sleeps in the sand ?
Yes, how many times must the cannon balls fly
Before they're forever banned ?
The answer my friend is blowin' in the wind
The answer is blowin' in the wind.
Yes, how many years can a mountain exist
Before it's washed to the sea ?
Yes, how many years can some people exist
Before they're allowed to be free ?
Yes, how many times can a man turn his head
Pretending he just doesn't see ?
The answer my friend is blowin' in the wind
The answer is blowin' in the wind.
Yes, how many times must a man look up
Before he can see the sky ?
Yes, how many ears must one man have
Before he can hear people cry ?
Yes, how many deaths will it take till he knows
That too many people have died ?
The answer my friend is blowin' in the wind
The answer is blowin' in the wind.
我們不知道這首歌詞的作者是否受到歌德的影響或啟發，但是，我們不難發現這里的意義相通之處，特別是當我們讀其第一小節時。由此，我們也不難能得知，所有文明的相通之處，其根本不過是人性而已。這也許是辜鴻銘先生或所有賢能之士想告訴我們的：文明來自人心。
總之，如果你能從整體上去體會辜鴻銘先生的文章，而不是在具體的字句上挑剔，你可能會發現，辜鴻銘先生的文章，其實并不啰嗦。因為他需要論述的內容過于龐大與精深，而他的讀者又對他論述的主題過于無知和誤解。所以，他只好使用簡單，清晰而且深刻的話語來引導，來強調。這其實是一種寫作風格，而正是這種寫作風格，才使得他在他的不長的文章中，把他的論述主題講述得如此地清晰透徹，從而獲得了讀者的認同并取得了成功。當時一位西方主教鄂方智，談及辜鴻銘的英文造詣，曾經說過：“他用英文所寫的文章，以英國人看來，可以和維多利亞時代任何大文豪相比，且毫無遜色之感”。如果我們能從整體效果上來看，這句評價其實是很中肯的，并不過分。
