吸引我进入汉学世界的五个原因

文/吴漠汀（Martin Woesler，德国） 译/张佳艺

当德国的汉学家访问中国时，我相信他们会像中国的德语专家访问德国一样感到宾至如归。

I believe that when German sinolog ists visit China,they should feel at home as Chinese Germanists do when they visit Germany.

汉学世界深深吸引了我

外国汉学家最常被问到的一个问题就是为什么愿意投身于汉学研究。吸引我进入汉学世界的原因有五点。

原因之一是学校。几位高中老师认为我毕业后会攻读他们专业的学位，比如数学或德语，但其实我一直试图从各所大学里搜寻哪些科目最难学，结果听到的回答总是“汉学”。后来我找到一所大学，即德国最好的汉学家马汉茂教授所在的波鸿鲁尔大学。我在那里开启学习之旅后，很快就成为Konrad Wegmann教授口中的“得力助手”。我的原则一直是“向最优秀的人学习”，这句话我想送给所有初学者。因此，我选择了马汉茂教授作为我的首位博士生导师，顾彬教授作为我的第二位博士生导师。之后我在北京大学中文系学习，又受邀到哈佛大学学习了一年，先是师从李欧梵教授，而后是王德威教授。

原因之二是源于一件真实发生的事情。作为一个17岁的高中生，汉学让我揭开了中国的神秘面纱。1987年，我的家乡明斯特举办了一场“诗会”。中国是那一年的嘉宾国，当时有一个来自中国的诗人代表团到访。一位老先生在那里用颇有异国情调但直击人心的声音朗诵了一首长诗。朗诵时，一滴热泪顺着他的脸颊流了下来。明斯特大学礼堂里的500多名听众全神贯注，全场安静到即使一根针掉在地上也听得见。在这位老先生朗诵后，诗歌的德译本便送到了。这首诗的作者名叫绿原，来自北京。他的诗讲述了他漫长人生中的悲惨经历，跌宕起伏。他的演讲打动了他自己，也打动了500多名跨越文化鸿沟的听众。

诗会结束后，我得以和绿原交谈，得知他前半生从一个著名诗人变成了一个“坏人”典型，不过后来得到了平反。他将自己加入诗人代表团当作一种对“缺失”的补偿。他一直坚持自己对德国语言和文学的热爱。他解释说，许多中国人过去都有过类似遭遇，但坚持梦想很重要。作为一个17岁的德国青年，我听罢这一席话后十分震惊。因为我是在天主教的明斯特地区长大的，我的童年是在一个受保护的、近乎天堂般的环境中度过的，周围都是野马，每时每刻都可以和大自然相拥。他的经历与我自己的生活形成了鲜明的对比。我很受触动。

Chinese Studies attracts me deeply

One of the most frequently asked questions of foreign sinologists is why they chose to devote their lives to Chinese Studies.There are five reasons that drew me into Chinese Studies.

The first was school.Several high school teachers assumed that I would pursue a degree in their subject after graduation,such as maths or German.But I was looking for a test.So I looked around at various universities to see which subjects were the most difficult to learn.“Chinese” was heard everywhere.Then I looked for a university that was home to the best German Chinese scholar.It was Ruhr-Universität Bochum at the time,with Prof.Dr.Helmut Martin.I started studying there and quickly became his “righthand assistant”,as another esteemed colleague,Prof.Dr.Konrad Wegmann,put it.My guiding principle has always been to learn “from the best”,and I recommend this to junior scholars as well.As a result,I later chose Prof.Martin as my first doctoral supervisor and Prof.Wolfgang Kubin as my second.So I studied at the Chinese Department of Peking University,and later in life,I was invited to Harvard University for one year,first by Prof.Leo Ou-fan Lee and then by Prof.David Der-Wei Wang.

The second reason I chose Chinese Studies was a practical one: as a 17-year-old high school student,it brought me into contact with China.In 1987,there was a “poetry meeting” in Münster,my hometown.China was the honored guest that year.A poet delegation from China visited us.An elderly gentleman recited a long poem in an exotic but touching singsong there.As he did so,a tear streamed down his cheek.The 500 or so listeners in Wilhelm University’s auditorium were so engrossed that they thought they could hear a pin drop.The German translation arrived after the elderly gentleman had finished.The poet’s name is Lü Yuan,and he is from Beijing.In his poem,he processed his tragic experiences throughout his long life,which were full of ups and downs.His speech moved not only himself but the 500 Audimax listeners across cultural divides.

Following the reading,I had the opportunity to speak with Lü Yuan.He reported that he had gone from being a celebrated poet to an example for a “bad person” half a lifetime before.Only later had he been rehabilitated,and he also understood his inclusion in the delegation as a kind of reparation.He had stuck to his love of the German language and literature all the time.He explained that many people in China had suffered a similar fate in the past,and it is important to stick to your dream.As a German youth of 17,this was very shocking to me.After all,I had grown up in the Catholic Münsterland.I had spent my childhood in a sheltered,almost paradisiacal environment,surrounded by wild horses and spending every free moment in nature.As a result,this was a stark contrast to my own life.I felt moved.

I received a gift box containing a bamboo brush and an ink rubbing stone.According to Lü Yuan,“China appears to pique your interest.Why not learn Chinese the way I learned German and then write me a letter in it using this writing set?” I eagerly accepted the writing set and began studying Chinese.First in language courses at the Sinicum in Bochum.Later on,I wrote Lü Yuan several letters,but never with the writing set.This has a special place shelf and I Visited Lü Yuan in Beijing.Two years later,a piece of the Berlin Wall was added to the writing set.This was also given special consideration because I knocked it out of the Berlin Wall while standing on top of it on the night it fell.I was in East Berlin at the time and swam to the border with the crowds who were crossing the border for the first time.I was one of the first people to walk through the Brandenburg Gate and climb the Berlin Wall.As a result,I was also witnessing some life-altering events unfold in my life.

However,going back to the first item on my shelf,the writing set: why did I never use the bamboo brush? When I started learning Chinese writing,I unintentionally gained knowledge of Chinese culture.To a great poet of the older generation,writing my letters with the gifted brush would have been presumptuous,as it would have implied that I had mastered Chinese.A Chinese learner of German would hardly be able to claim to have mastered German in Chinese culture.Rather than that,I believe that I was learning Chinese at the time,that I am still learning Chinese at the age of 53,and that I will continue to learn Chinese for the remainder of my life.

后来，我收到了一个礼盒，里面有一支竹制毛笔和一块砚台。绿原说：“中国似乎引发了你的兴趣，那你为什么不像我学习德语那样学习汉语，再用这套笔砚用汉语给我写一封信呢？”我迫不及待地收下了这套笔砚，然后开始学习汉语。首先是通过波鸿中央研究院的语言课程学习汉语，然后又给绿原写了几封信，但都没有用到被我放在书架上特殊位置的这套笔砚。之后，我也在北京拜访了绿原老先生。两年后，柏林墙的一片残垣破瓦也被特意放在了这套笔砚旁边。这是柏林墙倒塌当晚，我站在墙顶撞出的一块破瓦。当时我在东柏林，和第一次穿越边境的人群一起过境。我是第一批走过勃兰登堡门并登上柏林墙的人之一。因此，我也见证了一些重大转折事件在我生命中展开。

说回到我书架上的第一套笔砚。为什么我从未使用过这支竹制毛笔呢？当我开始学习汉语写作时，我也顺其自然地学到了一些中国文化。用这份礼物——毛笔致信诗坛前辈是略显冒昧的，这似乎意味着我已经完全能驾驭汉语了。然而，在中国文化中一个学习德语的中国人也很难称自己掌握了德语。与其如此，不如说我当时是在学习汉语，我53岁时仍在学习汉语，我也将在余生的岁月中继续学习汉语。

原因之三是我在读书时就已经对中国文学钦佩不已，并在学习期间了解到歌德对中国文学的崇拜，以及他对中德人民之间心意相通的坚信不疑。

原因之四是德国是一个出口导向型的繁荣经济体。正如拿破仑之前所说，中国在20世纪80年代仍是一个发展中国家，是一条沉睡的巨龙。80年代末，我有种强烈的预感：这条巨龙正在苏醒。尽管当时几乎所有亲朋好友都劝我不要研究这朵“幽兰奇葩”，毕竟以后不可能靠它谋生，但我还是希望能见证这条巨龙历史性的苏醒。而今天，我终于站在了这个被称为“永远的东方巨龙”的体系中工作。

因此，即使在我2/3的大一同学放弃汉学研究时，我也从未质疑过我的决定。1989年10月，我开始在波鸿学习中文，后来前往北京大学中文系学习中国现当代文学，这段本科学习经历持续了一年半。

原因之五是文化让我着迷。遥远的文化更加迷人，因为它们就像我们的一面镜子，揭示了沉浸在自己文化中的我们所认为理所当然的事情是多么随意与荒谬。文化研究存在一个系统性缺陷，即你是文化的一部分，因此永远不能跳出其中看待这一文化。而观察另一种文化则可以在一定程度上弥补这一系统性缺陷。

多年以后，我获得了汉学研究的博士学位，并在哈佛大学和德国各大学的汉学系继续深造。而后，我在南京大学教准备参加德国维藤/黑尔德克大学和南京大学合作硕士项目的学生学德语。大使馆给了我一套德语教材《德国概况》，供上课使用。当全班同学看到关于德国统一一章的大幅照片时，我十分震惊：照片中十几岁的我站在柏林墙上，刺猬般的头发被吹得笔直，身着黑色皮装。我当时甚至没有意识到自己被拍了下来。

The third reason I chose China as a subject of study was that I had already developed an admiration for literature in school and had learned about Goethe’s admiration for Chinese literature and his presumption of a soul affinity between Germans and Chinese during my studies.

Finally,the fourth reason was that Germany was a prosperous economy with a strong export orientation.As Napoleon had previously stated,China was still a developing country in the 1980s,and she was a sleeping dragon.At the time,in the late 1980s,I had a sense that this dragon was reawakening.Even though almost all relatives,friends,and acquaintances advised me at the time not to study this exotic orchid subject as it would be impossible to earn a living from it later,I desired to witness this historical awakening of the dragon.Today,I work in a structure known as “The Rising Dragon.”

As a result,even when two-thirds of my freshman classmates dropped Chinese Studies,I never questioned the wisdom of my decision.So,in October 1989,I began studying Chinese in Bochum and later flew to Beijing to study Modern and Contemporary Chinese Literature.The study lasted for one and a half years of my undergraduate studies at the Chinese Department of Peking University.

The fifth reason is that culture fascinates me.Distant cultures are all the more fascinating because they serve as a mirror to us,revealing how arbitrary the things we take for granted in our own culture are.Cultural Studies suffer from the systemic flaw that you are a part of the culture and thus can never look at your civilization from the outside.Looking at another culture can help to compensate for this systemic error to some extent.

Years later,after earning a doctorate in Chinese studies and furthering my education at the Chinese Studies Departments of Harvard University and various German universities,I taught German to Nanjing University’s students in preparation for a cooperative Master’s program with the Universities of Witten/Herdecke and Nanjing.The embassy had given me a class set of the German textbookFacts about Germanyfor the lessons.How surprised I was when the entire class saw the large photo of the chapter on German unification: As a teenager,I stood on the Berlin Wall with my hedgehog hair blow-dried upright and dressed in black leather gear.I hadn’t even realized photographs had been taken at the time.

翻译及修订《红楼梦》德译本是我的主要任务之一

当在波鸿和北京大学学习汉学时，我又被《红楼梦》深深吸引了。翻译德译本及其修订成了我此后几十年的主要任务之一，未来几十年里仍然如此。

《红楼梦》展现了大约250年前的中国。对于今天的西方读者来说，当时的中国因其各方面的考究已经非常先进与完美了。它提供了一种更为轻松、更有教养的生活方式。至少对于作者来说，这种生活方式完全可以与今天的世界相媲美。作者曹雪芹将其晚年献给了年轻人、穷人和残疾人，他撰写了史无前例的中国绝佳小说，这也是世界文学的永恒之作。《红楼梦》向全世界展示了中国文化的方方面面。当然，这也是我在翻译时遇到的困难之一。如果不熟悉、不理解中国历史与传统，其间的文化元素是无法直译的。为解决这一翻译难题，我试着咨询过许多中国朋友和红学专家，包括中国艺术研究院红楼梦研究所的专家，并通过文本或脚注为读者提供补充解释。当我无法用另一种语言再现复杂的原文时，我便解释人名与地名的含义，有时甚至还是双重含义。此外，小说还描绘了一个年轻人的身外世界和内心世界。他长大成人，坠入爱河，对天堂般的童年感到幻灭。大观园的毁灭则是这种幻灭的象征，这让西方读者联想到被逐出伊甸园。无论来自哪种文化背景，读者们都要有成年后打开眼界的经历。我希望西方读者能够忘记时代和文化的差距，对小说中的主人公产生认同感。

我的翻译遵循目的论原则，追求翻译之信实，忠于原文。当然，翻译时并不能保证逐字对应，所以我用意译的方法在注释中为感兴趣的读者作释。就我个人而言，我提出了一种新的翻译策略，即“恰当性理论”。这意味着翻译时不仅要保证最好的功能对等性，还要争取做到最适当的功能对等性。这便为现有的翻译理论增设了伦理责任的维度，平衡了作者和其他文化行为者（如翻译发起者、出版社和读者）彼此之间偶尔冲突的利益。我认为，译本应被视作与原作一样有价值，因为几乎所有获得诺贝尔奖的文学作品都是通过译作而非原作而广为传阅的。

German translation and revisions of A Dream of Red Mansions has been one of the essential tasks for me

When I started to study Chinese at Bochum and Peking University,I was dragged intoA Dream of Red Mansions.German translation and its revisions would become one of the essential tasks for decades,and still,it is for decades to come.

A Dream of Red Mansionsdepicts a Chinese world around 250 years ago that was already very advanced and perfectionism in its complexity for today’s Western readers.It allowed for a more relaxed and educated lifestyle,at least for people like the author,and this lifestyle was completely comparable to today’s world.Cao,the author,devoted his later life to the young,poor,and disabled.He wrote the best Chinese novel ever written and a timeless work of world literature.It is capable of displaying Chinese culture in all of its facets to people all over the world.This,of course,was one of the difficulties I encountered while translating: Culture elements that can only be understood if one is unfamiliar with China’s history and traditions cannot be directly translated.I attempted to solve this problem by consulting with many Chinese friends and Redology experts,including those at the Chinese National Academy of Arts’ Red Chamber Research Institute,and providing additional explanations in the text or footnotes.When I couldn’t recreate the complexity in the target text,I explained the meanings of names and places,sometimes with double meanings.Furthermore,the novel depicts the outer and inner worlds of a young man growing up,falling in love,and becoming disillusioned with his paradisiacal childhood,which is symbolized by the destruction of the garden,which reminds Western readers of the expulsion from paradise.Readers of all backgrounds share this experience of opening one’s eyes when coming of age.I hoped that Western readers would forget the gap in time and culture and identify with one of the protagonists.

My translation method is to reach a similar “skopos”with my target text as I understand the original author had intended with its original text.Of course,there are not always direct equivalencies,so I use the method to explain things in annotations for the interested reader.Personally,I have developed the “Appropriateness Theory” as a new translation strategy– striving not just for the best equivalent but for the most appropriate one.This adds dimensions of ethical responsibility to existing translation theories,balancing the sometimes conflicting interests of the author and other cultural actors such as the initiator of the translation,the publishing house,and the readers.I believe that a translation should be regarded as valuable as the original,as almost all of the Nobel Prize-winning literature has been read in translation,not in its original form.

我对中国文化的热爱越来越深

2020年我被授予中国政府友谊奖。这对我来说是一项崇高的荣誉，加深了我与中国人民的友谊和我对中国文化的热爱。我一直提倡沟通和交流，即使步履维艰时也是如此。

从宏观历史视角来看，中国文学在世界上的知名度仍然远低于外国文学在中国读者中的知名度。非德国文学占德国全部文学的12.5%，而中国文学只占德国全部文学的0.3%。在我从事翻译工作之前，我们每年有11部中国文学作品被翻译成德语；但是在我参与后，这一数据大约翻了一番。

我打算在华驻留得更久一些，帮助前途无限光明的、年轻的中国学术界达到国际标准。中国有许多有才华的年轻学者，我们应尽一切可能让他们为未来竞争激烈的全球化就业市场做好准备。中外学者应该在研究和教育方面更加紧密地合作，建立符合国际最高标准的中外联合专业学院。国际合作与交流越多，中国便越有机会向世界其他国家学习，同时世界其他国家也能向中国学习。

我打算在湖南师范大学建立一个“国际汉学研究中心”，并将用尽毕生精力翻译优秀的中国文学作品。目前，我正在翻译中国作家韩少功、徐则臣、张炜和韩寒的作品，也在撰写学术史和概览。我也希望能有更多的时间来撰写我自己的小说和短篇故事，适当地将我的中国生活经历融入其中。当我觉得自己变得越来越像一个地道的中国人时，满腔自豪感与责任感便油然而生。

My love for Chinese culture is growing

I was awarded the Chinese Government Friendship Award in 2020.It was an incredible honor for me,and it strengthened my friendship with the Chinese people and my love for their culture.I have always been an advocate for communication and exchange,even during trying times.

From a historical macro perspective,Chinese literature is still far less well-known in the world than foreign literature is to Chinese readers.Non-German literature accounts for 12.5% of all literature in Germany,but Chinese literature accounts for only 0.3%of all literature.However,prior to my involvement in translation,we had 11 Chinese literary works translated into German each year.This figure has roughly doubled as a result of my engagement.

I intend to spend more time in China and assist the country’s promising young academic community in attaining international standards.There are numerous talented young scholars in China,and we should do everything possible to prepare them for future’s highly competitive globalized job market.Chinese and foreign scholars should collaborate more closely on research and education.Additionally,we should establish joint foreign-Chinese specialized colleges that meet the highest international standards.The more international cooperation and exchange there is,the better China will be able to learn from the rest of the world,and the rest of the world will be able to learn from China.

I intend to establish an “International Chinese Studies Center” at Hunan Normal University and devote the rest of my life to translating outstanding Chinese literature.Currently,I am translating the works of Chinese authors Han Shaogong,Xu Zechen,Zhang Wei,and Han Han,as well as writing scholarly histories and overviews.I also hope to find more time to write my own novels and short stories,incorporating my Chinese life experience as appropriate.And when I feel like I’m becoming more Chinese,I’m filled with pride as well as responsibility.