林巍·《日本人的吸收方式》英译

“日本人见好就学”，而且以最简单和实用的方式，这是世人对日本人吸收外来文化和技术的基本态度和做法的评论。看看日本的文字和汽车，便会一目了然了。

日本的文字，由“汉字”、“平假名”、“片假名”组成，看上去是拼凑起来的，很不统一；日本的汽车，更是“八国联军”，各显其能。

有一个历史故事：德国人第一次把汽车卖给日本人时，曾得意地说，不久日本人会发现我们的质量有多好，从而会大量订购的。但在久等不来之后，发现日本人已“照猫画虎”，造出了更为新颖的汽车，根本不用订购了。

就地理位置而言，日本列岛是中国和朝鲜半岛的近邻，从未受到外来文化的侵略和征服，因而在吸取外来文化和科技时，具有很大自主性。

中国文化对于日本文化固然有着巨大影响，但是日本吸收了中国的汉子、法律制度、儒教，却拒绝了不符合日本国情的宦官制度、科举制度及以儒教基本法则为准的“同姓不婚”制度。同样的，在吸收日本的佛教文化时，亦允许僧人娶妻、吃荤，形成了一种更为宽容的佛教文化。

在家畜饲养方面，日本人也没有学习中国人的阉割牲畜的技术。对于西方的先进性技术，日本在模仿、改造的基础上，将其制造得更加精细和廉价。所以，日本人对于外部世界的吸收方式是值得借鉴的。

The Japanese Way of Taking In

Lin Wei

The statement that “Japanese will copy everything suitable to them” in a simplified and practical way may signify a popular view of Japanese attitude towards foreign cultures and technologies. Japanese writing characters and cares illustrate well this approach.

The Japanese writing system borrows Kanji from Chinese, and creates Hiragana, Katakana characters of its own, with an inconsistent outlook; similarly Japanese cars are made of multinational ideas and advantages with appropriate modifications.

Here is a historical story: when Germen sold their first car to the Japanese, they were pretty much convinced that their partner would come back to them very soon with a bulk order based on the car’s high quality. However, they were very disappointed to find out that the Japanese had replicated their car with a slightly improved model, and consequently they didn’t need any order anymore.

Geographically, Japan is located in between China and the Korean peninsula, a position immune from foreign invasion, capable of taking in foreign cultures and technologies with a high degree of autonomy.

The Japanese adopted Chinese writing, legal system and Confucianism, but left the eunuch system, the imperial examination system, and “same surname marriage prohibition” of Confucian doctrine, which were deemed to be contradictory to Japanese culture. Similarly, when embracing Buddhism, the Japanese made it more tolerant religion by allowing monks to marry and eat meat.

In breed livestock, Japanese didn’t learn the techniques of castration from the Chinese either. Western advanced technologies, once imported to Japan, would all be copied and modified to make them finer and cheaper. There is surely something to be learnt from the Japanese way of taking in things from the outside world.

（林巍 译）