In the Field of Dutch Sinology, Lloyd Haft was not only a well-written scholar, but also an active poet. He has studied Chinese for more than half a century, and is fond of modern Chinese poetry, he writes poems with one hand and translates poems with the other, and travels back and forth to the works of different Chinese poets such as Bian Zhilin, Zhou Mengdi, Zheng Min, Luo Fu, Yang Lingye and other poets in his multiple identities as poets, translators, readers and literary researchers.
His most well-known academic achievement is the in-depth study of Bian Zhilin and Zhou Mengdi. As the first person in the West to comprehensively study Bian Zhilin's life and poetry, his monograph "Discovering Bian Zhilin: A Journey of Exploration by a Western Scholar" has been read and cited to this day. In this classic work, he carefully reads the textual meaning of Bian's poetry, resonating with his poetry, and the style is quintessential and fascinating.
Hanleyi is a language wizard, proficient in Dutch, German, Chinese, familiar with French and Russian, and has demonstrated a talent for language since childhood. At preschool, the conversation between his grandmother and his great-grandmother was often used in German, and although he could not understand it, he was also interested in it, and gradually developed a contemplative temperament. When he was first exposed to Oriental languages at the age of six, his neighbor was an expert in Japanese studies and his wife was Japanese, and he was amazed by the Japanese they spoke and the Chinese calligraphy scrolls hanging in the house.
In the summer of 1967, the 20-year-old Han Leyi ushered in a turning point in his life. At that time, he was studying at Harvard University, and met a beautiful Chinese woman from Hong Kong, speaking Cantonese, and the meeting between the two was short, but Han Leyi was fascinated by her language. He immediately borrowed Mr. Zhao Yuanren's "Introduction to Cantonese" from the Harvard Yenching Library: "This book is very suitable for my appetite, I have never read such a wonderful work on Chinese." ”
In the era of hippie culture, Han Leyi, like many young Western students at that time, became interested in Zen Buddhism. It was also that summer that he stumbled upon Alan Watts' book The Way of Zen, which sparked his passion for learning Eastern culture.
"The Hong Kong woman expanded my experience of 'beauty' and Aaron Watts expanded my understanding of 'truth'. These two encounters set new standards or ideals for my life, one is true and the other is beautiful. In my opinion, learning Chinese is both beauty and truth- ”
With the vision of deep learning Chinese, Hanleyi went to Leiden University in the Netherlands in 1968 to study Chinese master's degree, which he called a personal "root-tracing" action. At that time, Chinese was still an unpopular major in the Netherlands, and Han Leyi confessed that he did not like to "catch the fashion", he was like living in the "old world". Rather than blending into a noisy circle, he was more interested in delving into one or two of his favorite poets, focusing on his inner spiritual life, and his unworldly personality made him a confidant when reading Lao Tzu's Tao Te Ching.
One day in 1970, Han Leyi picked up an English edition of Xu Mustard's Twentieth Century Chinese Poetry: An Anthology, and read Bian Zhilin, as if hearing his dream being told by Bian Zhilin, "For me, beauty and truth suddenly merged into those poems and in that book." He immediately developed the determination to study Bian poetry.
In the process of exchanging emails with reporters, he was humble and gentle, but also funny, and he could not help but "jump out" a few Chinese words in english replies. His wife, Su Guizhi, is a Taiwanese theater expert who once served as the director of the music hall and the head of the Yu Opera Troupe in Taiwan. In an interview with reporters, Han Leyi recalled the love history of the two and generously talked about how to talk to each other in that year; He enthusiastically shares his collection of books and photographs, and feels guilty for the complexity of the material. He joked: "You're just interviewing me, not writing a monograph about me!" ”
After retirement, Han Leyi was busy with more hobbies and fields that were "far away from modern things", such as tai chi, chinese medicine, Song Ming philosophy, early Chinese translation of the Bible, and medieval Catholic mysticism. In his seventies, he has recently begun to devote himself to the study of ancient Chinese philosophy. He told reporters that he had been working on the Dutch translation of the Tao Te Ching a few years ago and had achieved considerable results. Turning his head, he told reporters a joke in sinology circles, in order to laugh at himself: "How to judge whether your sinology colleagues are old?" See if he starts to study Lao Zhuang. ”
The famous Dutch sinologist Han Leyi
Nandu interviewed Han Leyi
Receive different styles of Chinese education in Europe and the United States
Nandu: After graduating from Harvard, you came to Leiden University, an important european sinology research center. What was the state of the Department of Sinology at leiden University in the 1960s?
HanLeyi: I came to Leiden University in the fall semester of 1968. Previously, in my final year at Harvard, I attended the intensive Chinese course taught by Zhao Yuanren's daughter, Bian Zhao Rulan, and my Chinese was already better than most students in Leiden. At the time, leiden University's focus was still on classics and philology, and the whole learning atmosphere was completely different from what I was used to in the United States. First, Dutch students are required to be able to read English, German and French with ease, and of course Dutch. I quickly learned Dutch and had to teach myself French.
In Leiden at that time, there were only a few students studying Chinese. I guess there are only four people in the "same grade" or "peers" besides me. In addition to Chinese, we were also asked to learn Japanese. On the other hand, the teaching of modern spoken Chinese is not very systematic, lagging behind the normal level in the United States. When I arrived at Leiden University, there were two professors in Chinese studies, and neither of them were engaged in modern research. One is A.F.P. Hulsewé, known for his study of Han Dynasty law, and the other is Erik Zürcher, a world-renowned Buddhist historian.
By American standards, leiden's tuition is very cheap, and I've been working part-time in the library since my sophomore year, so I don't have financial problems. In my fifth year, I was about to get my master's degree when one of my teachers suddenly had a heart attack and died. To my surprise, the next day I got a full-time job at Leiden University. I was born to be a very "born" person, and even tended not to think about "worldly" things like money, and before that, I had never really thought about how to make a living after graduation.
Nandu: Harvard University and Leiden University, both schools have a pivotal position in the field of sinology, what is the difference between the Chinese learning atmosphere behind them in the United States and Europe?
Han Leyi: In these two countries, the background of "China Studies" as a discipline is different. Leiden University is the only university in the Netherlands that offers Chinese training. At the time, Chinese was considered a subject with no "job prospects" in the Netherlands, and when I came to Leiden University in the late 1960s, the atmosphere was like a small community of scholars who got together to do "quirky" and difficult research that might or may not have practical applications outside of academia. The scholarship itself is admirable and respectable.
At the same time, Leiden University has incredible personal freedom, classes here are not mandatory, you can study at home until you feel fully prepared to book an exam. At that time, Leiden University, like many European universities, did not require students to attend activities such as seminars. If you find a professor who is willing to mentor you on the topic of your choice, the only thing you need to do other than write a thesis is to discuss it with him/her.
In the United States, the whole context of Chinese studies is different. During World War II, there was a huge "boom" in the study of Chinese and Japanese due to the need for people who could master Asian languages in the military. Since then, many universities have expanded these disciplines, and the government offers attractive scholarships for students who wish to study Chinese. So when I told Americans I was studying Chinese, they said I had wisely chosen a "promising field."
Although Harvard and Leiden have many differences, they have an important similarity: in these two well-known "elite" universities, students are considered to have a certain level of excellence, but in fact may never be verified in practice. Sometimes our teachers think we've studied certain works, but in fact we've never read them, and probably haven't even heard of them! Our predecessors, such as the world-famous Harvard professors Edwin O. Reischauer and John King Fairbank, acknowledged in their autobiographies that they were largely self-taught at graduate school.
Passionate about poetry, he wrote "Discovery of Bian Zhilin" in 1983
Nandu: Chinese history has always been the mainstream of overseas sinology research, and even literary researchers mostly start with ancient classics, but you are doing new poetry research, specializing in poets who were still alive at that time.
Han Leyi: My personal interest has long been attracted to modern Chinese poetry. In 1970, I discovered a book that had a profound impact on my life, Chinese Poetry of the Twentieth Century, translated and edited by Xu Jieyu. The book devotes more than 400 pages to about 40 poets from the May Fourth period to the mid-twentieth century. Xu Jieyu is passionate about poetry, and his English translation is also very good, not only faithful to the original, but also has an elusive charm. I met Bian Zhilin for the first time in that book. Xu Jieyu called Bian Zhilin a "metaphysical" metaphysical poet or philosophical poet.
Han Leyi talked with Xu Jiayu and Bian Zhilin
At the same time, I also became interested in Western poetry, especially the philosophical poet Wallace Stevens. Since then, whether it is Chinese poetry or Western poetry, most of the people who attract me are modern writers.
I think the difference between studying classical poetry and new poetry is that when you want to think well or write modern poetry, you have to have something to know about European and American poetry centuries ago. But this is not the case with classical Chinese poetry, and you have to think of it as a separate world, with no "non-Chinese" alternative to which there is actually no substitute for it.
Nandu: You came to Chinese mainland once in the late 1970s, what was your impression of China at that time? Who did you meet?
Han Leyi: It was the autumn of 1979, when China's material situation (such as infrastructure, commodity supply, etc.) lagged behind what I saw in other parts of East Asia. While sometimes I'm a little shocked by what I see, in a way it's good for me to be able to see an atmosphere that is closer to the "old" I read about in my early years in Chinese literature. At that time, many of the poets I studied were still alive, including Bian Zhilin. I not only met him in person, but also discussed his poems with him! I also met Ai Qing, Yuan Kejia and others, and also met Zheng Min for the first time. Later, at the International Poetry Festival in Rotterdam, I worked as her translator several times and formed a personal relationship with her. Her sonnets inspired me to write my own sonnets.
At that time, our discussions about literature were often complicated by the very different standards adopted by the East and the West. Dickens and Shakespeare, for example, are hailed in China as early writers of depictions of the injustices of capitalist society, while in the West they are more recognized for creating memorable characters.
Nandu: "Discovering Bian Zhilin" is a landmark work, this book was born out of the world's earliest doctoral dissertation on Bian Zhilin's artistic achievements, all by your hand. Why did Bian Zhilin choose Bian Zhilin as the research topic at that time?
Han Leyi: Mainly because I personally have a strong interest in his poetry. But at the same time, when choosing the topic of your phD thesis, it's ideal to find something that no one else has studied extensively. At that time, there was really very little serious academic literature about him, so I had room to try to contribute.
Han Leyi's Discovery of Bian Zhilin: A Western Scholar's Journey of Discovery
As for what really sparked my interest in Bian's poetry, I think it was its "metaphysical" or "contemplative" temperament, which Xu Jieyu describes in his book, and I found a similar quality in Wallace Stevens's poetry, which I have always tried to express in my own poetry.
Nandu: Among the foreign scholars who followed Bian Zhilin, Professor Cheung Man Yee of the University of Chinese in Hong Kong was also one of the earlier, and she published the book "Research on the Translation of Bian Zhilin". In your interactions with other scholars, which scholars have influenced you?
Han Leyi: Yes, I have known about Zhang Manyi's excellent works for a long time and have referred to her works in my writing. Later, when she visited the Netherlands, I had the privilege of meeting her. Her translations of Bian Zhilin's poems are particularly useful because she provides many explanatory footnotes.
Another scholar I admire is Bonnie S. McDougall, who published an anthology of poems and essays by He Qifang, who was also a friend and colleague of Bian Zhilin.
But my favorite translation of Bian Zhilin is still Xu Jieyu's, and I really hope he can publish more. I also really like Bian Zhilin's English translation of her own poetry. The English translation may sound odd, but it's more poetic.
Nandu: In the book, you describe Bian Zhilin as "one of the most influential and unique Chinese poets of the 20th century", but Bian Zhilin herself once said that she could not be called a major poet, but only a minor poet. In China, has Bian Zhilin endured snubs that did not match her poetic achievements?
Han Leyi: I must admit that I have not paid attention to this issue in the past few years. If that's the case, I can imagine three reasons for it. First of all, the total amount of Bian Zhilin's original poetry is not very large, and in the minds of some people, pure "productivity" is an important indicator; Second, almost all of his truly impressive poems were written in the space of 8 years or so, when he was not yet 30 years old, which may make his poetic career seem too "short"; Third, he is modest and not too extroverted, and he is not the kind of person who "brags" loudly and tries to get attention.
Nandu: During the defense of your doctoral dissertation, Mr. Bian Zhilin went to the Netherlands and personally went to the scene, did he evaluate this paper at that time? What was discussed between you?
Han Leyi: His visit to Leiden was a godsend for me. My thesis was based on written material and a long conversation with him in Beijing in 1979. In Layton, he read the whole paper, and apart from the small factual errors he was able to correct, he approved of what I had written.
In 1981, Han Leyi completed the defense of his doctorate and accepted the certificate ceremony
I didn't know he was coming beforehand, and the friends who arranged for him to come kept it a secret from me. When it was my turn to reply, we entered the oldest building of Leiden University very solemnly and formally, and suddenly I saw Bian Zhilin sitting across the table. I can't imagine how this is possible! But I'm a good "actor" and I'm also good at keeping a straight face, so I didn't say a word to him, just greeted him with a look in my eyes. But then, my friends told me that my face had turned completely white!
For the next few days, Bian Zhilin stayed in Leiden. Like me, he was not interested in sightseeing, we spent a few days discussing my paper in detail, and he was able to give me more background information about his poetry, especially in terms of poetry techniques such as rhythm, structure, etc. Thanks to his corrections, I have also made some important improvements to the revised edition of my book. The book was published in 1983 and later translated into Chinese edition of Discovery Bian Zhilin, published in China in 2010 and is still being read as an e-book. I think the success of Chinese edition may be due in part to Li Yongyi's excellent translation. Perhaps in terms of style, his Chinese read better than my original English book.
Care about some kind of great "continuity thread"
Nandu: The Buddhist and Taoist worldviews are important to our understanding of Bian Zhilin, who frequently uses some of the common imagery of these two traditions in his poems. In "Discovering Bian Zhilin" you analyzed in detail the connotations of some of these images. You seem to have a very deep study of Chinese philosophy as well.
Han Leyi: Maybe the first book that really piqued my interest was Aaron Watts' The Way of Zen, which I mentioned above, and the first chapter of the book introduces Taoist philosophy. Another important early inspiration was the Translation of the I Ching by Richard Wilhelm. Watts and Wei Lixian were enthusiastic and positive about their subjects, and many Western students read them when we were young, whether we were "hippies" or not. But I soon discovered that in the mainstream of academia, there was much less enthusiasm for these ancient Chinese philosophical works. They are seen as a legacy of past cultural stages, and in any case they have long been translated and no longer need to be studied.
I remember when I was still teaching at Leiden University, an American colleague sent us an email with a joke that he thought was very funny. The joke goes like this: There are three signs to tell if your sinologist is aging—
1) He or she invented a new spelling system for chinese;
2. He or she made a new translation of Lao Tzu;
3) He or she is busy studying the I Ching.
This should have been very interesting. I told this joke to a few well-educated Chinese friends, and none of them found it funny. Chinese seems to feel that being interested in these ancient texts shows that you have finally come to realize the true essence and true value of Chinese culture.
The Dutch works of the Tao Te Ching are exhibited, with the middle being the version of Han Leyi
What about myself? I never invented a new spelling system, but I wrote a Dutch book called Lao Tzu's Many Ways of New Silk. The book was published when I was 70 years old, and it was a very unusual and radical interpretation. As for the I Ching, I have never studied it, but only consulted it around 1980 when I was looking for imagery in order to write poetry. The group of poems, published in a magazine, impressed a Dutch publisher and invited me to publish a book with them. It was my first book of poems, Images in the Daylight. It must have been influenced not only by the I Ching, but also by Bian Zhilin's poetry.
Nandu: You have lived in Taiwan for many years, what is your impression of Taiwan's contemporary poetry scene?
Han Leyi: I haven't really had significant personal contact with many Taiwanese poets, and since my retirement in 2004, I haven't "kept up with the pace of Taiwanese poetry." My attention was mainly drawn to Zhou Mengdi and another "contemplative" poet, Yang Lingye, who had translated Yang Lingye's poems but had not yet published them into a book. That's my "style", I'm not a very gregarious or extrovert by nature, and I'd rather study a poet or two more closely than "keep up with the circle" in general and vague ways.
In 1990, Han Leyi gathered with Zhang Mo, Xin Yu, Luo Fu, Xiang Ming and other poets of the "Genesis" Poetry Association
There is a poet I have indeed come into contact with and know personally, and he is Love. In 1992, I worked as his translator for the International Poetry Society. He lived at my house, we traveled together, and kept in touch all the time, but I had no incentive to translate his poems because John Balcom had already translated them. But when I got married in Taipei in 1999, Love attended and addressed as my brother.
Nandu: From Bian Zhilin to Zhou Mengdi, what is consistent in your poetry research?
Han Leyi: There is no doubt that in my interest in the study of "metaphysics", I have always been aware of some kind of great "continuity thread", that is, poetry implicitly hints at a transcendent dimension in our lives, which is also reflected in my translations and my original poems. So I had to accept that my poems could never become bestsellers. But with one exception, the best selling of my original poetry publications is my Biblical Psalms rewritten in Dutch, which remain in reprint to this day. I hope to one day translate it into Chinese published.
Nandu: You say in the book that "a considerable part of human beings do not idealize the concept of 'I' and do not worship what the 'I' represents in Western languages, which is often covered up or ignored by Western Chinese researchers." From how to treat the concept of "self", we can understand traditional Chinese literature and Western literature.
Han: Of course, one of the core teachings of Buddhism is "no-self," which doesn't talk about the eternal "self" or "soul," which is the exact opposite of what my grandparents as Christians believed, even in the generation when my parents were "secularized." Although there are various schools of psychology and different doctrines in the West, they all seem to believe that all individuals hold their unique selves (egos).
I grew up in the United States, which was a very individualistic society with a strong emphasis on independence and self-reliance. Speaking of my family legacy, my father was a psychology professor and my mother often reads books on psychology, so I naturally accept that the motivation for life is intrinsic or subjective, and you are being "driven internally" and not just reacting to your environment.
In the Far Eastern tradition, the "I" is more like a "participant" in a vast social field than a completely independent subject, and the inner spiritual life of the subject is no more important than its visible interaction with others. Much of Western literature (starting with the Romantic movement centuries ago) is about the individual's inner consciousness or inner spiritual life. This really goes back to our Christian tradition, where the life of the individual soul is paramount and it is eternal. I think that this is where the sense of identity of Westerners comes from. In most traditional Chinese literature, we do not see a strong concern for inner life, where the actions and words of the characters, their visible interactions with the environment, are more important than their thoughts.
I still remember writing a paper about Lin's translation of Dickens's David Copperfield when I was a graduate student in Leiden. Lin Shu translated Western novels into texts with a traditional Chinese storytelling style, and in the original work, Dickens often used the entire paragraph to describe the inner activities of the characters at a specific time, and Lin Shu directly deleted most of the paragraphs! For Western readers, they are a vital part of the story, but for Lin, the passages may just be a "waste of time."
Nandu: In the field of Chinese literature studies, what are the differences in the paths and concerns taken by Chinese and Western scholars when dealing with the same object?
Han Leyi: This is a bit difficult to summarize, but perhaps we can say that in the past, Chinese scholars were more inclined to portray the author as a representative of a group or "school" or "movement", trying to determine a "mainstream" in a specific historical period, rather than seeing people as "lone stars in the sky".
In the past, when scholars like me approached modern Chinese literature, it was easy to pay one-sided attention to the so-called May Fourth literature, the vernacular literature movement, and so on... Probably because those literary forms are more like our own literature and therefore easier for us to understand. In fact, those are based, in part, on translations or imitations of Western literary works. We underestimate how marginalized many of the "new" things were in the actual context of 20th-century China, and the vitality of traditional literary forms. There were many poets who wrote old-style poetry during this period, and their works were more widely circulated and undoubtedly much more famous than any new poetic writer.
Nandu: Your work does not seem to be influenced by much of the theory of literary criticism, and you explain that you are "not interested in incorporating literary studies into the analysis of trends in society, history, or even demographics," expressing an "attitude that highlights the experience of the subject and emphasizes the value of non-utilitarian factors." How did this style of writing come about? How do you see the use of interdisciplinary perspectives outside of literature in literary studies?
Han Leyi: I would like to say that I am just born to be a partial individualist and concerned about the "self"; On the other hand, unlike many Americans who are very concerned about real social issues, I am completely resigned to such things.
Looking back on my childhood, as a young boy, I was deeply influenced by my grandparents, who were very devout Protestants. Today I no longer believe in my grandparents' theology, but I still believe that everyone is unique, that his or her thoughts, subjectivity, or soul are supreme.
In general, I'm less in favor of using literature as an example or a source of citations to discuss things other than literature. When we introduce other "disciplines" to interpret literature, we should still focus on literature itself, and the "external" disciplines are only auxiliary. It seems to me that the ideal state of approaching poetry is to enjoy it as if we were "drinking" a glass of wine, and when we want to taste a glass of Ducan, we should not add Coke and ice cubes to it. But in my own writing about Chow, I did apply Freud's psychology of "dreams" and Husserl's phenomenology. I did this to show that Zhou Mengdi's poems could be interpreted in other ways, rather than merely as a metaphor for Buddhist concepts. Does this mean that my attitude towards this matter is contradictory? Maybe this is what Zhuangzi called "two lines", and the two can go hand in hand.
From 1999 to 2000, during his visiting scholar at the National Normal University, he repeatedly asked the poet Zhou Mengdi for advice
Nandu: Tu An commented on your essay "taking the text as the scripture and the historical facts as the weft, and neither is biased", from this point of view, "Discovery of Bian Zhilin" is both a poetry research monograph and a fascinating character commentary. How do you deal with the relationship between historical material and text during the writing process?
Han Leyi: I think it depends on what we choose to emphasize in a particular situation. There are poets, like Mandelstam or Gu Cheng, whose lives are decisively shaped by tragic objective facts, and it is almost impossible for us to read their poems without ignoring the context, although I do try, such as reading some of mandelstam's wonderful poems in Voronezh's Notebooks. There are also poets, I would say Bian Zhilin, whose fate and life are not so "bumpy", but they have a very rich inner or subjective life and manage to project it into their poetry. Of course, I personally always prefer the subjective side, but I know that this is also one-sided, try not to get too carried away.
Learn Chinese "The biggest gain is my wife"
Nandu: In addition to being a scholar, you also have the identity of a poet. When did you start writing your own poetry?
Han Leyi: In the summer of 1978, I stayed in Taiwan for three months. This was my first exposure to life and Chinese culture in the "Far East", and it was also the first time I saw something like potted plants. Inspired by this, I wrote several poems about bonsai, which were published in a Dutch literary magazine.
The following year, in 1979, I went to Beijing, Hangzhou and Sichuan for the first time. This experience inspired me to write six poems in Dutch. In retrospect, it is not difficult to see that they were influenced by Bian Zhilin. The poems were published in a literary magazine, the origin of my first collection, Images in the Daylight.
Nandu: Which other poets have influenced you more? What role has poetry played in your life?
Han Leyi: This can be seen from two aspects, one is the work of reading poetry and writing poetry, and the other is living in a "poet" way, which is more important to me. I have wanted to be a poet since I was a student, and in the modern Western definition of a poet, a poet is a person who lives an unusually free life, who has the freedom or "permission" to disregard certain social customs, and strives to understand and exchange certain truths and opinions that have nothing to do with daily life. Of course, that's my definition, and not all poets will agree, especially the latter part.
In 1994, Hanleyi received the Jan Campert Prize for Poetry, and the Mayor of The Hague presented the award
T.S. Elliot is my hero because, like me, he grew up in the United States, but actually lived most of his life in the "Old World." In the long run, he cared about religion and wrote about religion. Wallace Stevens and William Carlos Williams were also my role models, as neither of them was a full-time writer, and like me, wrote poetry while pursuing another profession. Williams is not usually considered a "philosophical" poet, but he also writes that the important thing is to strive to "push the light, and mentions Confucius as an example.
Nandu: Looking back on the decades of friendship with Chinese, what is your biggest gain?
Han Leyi: For me, the real and most important gain is neither academics nor literary creation, but personal life. If I hadn't studied Chinese, I wouldn't have met my wife and spent the rest of my life with her.
In November 1999, Han Leyi and Su Guizhi became connected
Subjectively, I have benefited greatly from my in-depth exposure to Chinese culture and thought. I wouldn't say that I have fundamentally "converted" to the philosophy of Taoism or Wang Yangming, but their ideas have really broadened my horizons. Husserl said that our consciousness is always an interplay between the three perspectives of "me", "us" and "world". I would like to say that in my "American life", I study the "world"; In my "European life", I understand the spiritual depth of the concept of "self"; In my "Chinese life," I at least began to understand the word "we."
Of course, objectively speaking, my career has been wonderful and I am grateful for that. Some of my students became my best friends and learned a lot from them. Considering how difficult it is to learn Chinese, how much time a person spends in the dictionary from beginning to end, I have done my best to do so.
Looking back on all this, I am reminded of a conversation I had with my colleagues in Stockholm many years ago. One editor asked my Polish colleague Zbigniew Slupski: "Realistically, how long does it take to write a good article about Dream of the Red Chamber?" Shi Luofu looked into the distance, thought for a moment, and replied: "Well, it will take about three lifetimes, one to learn Chinese, one to read and understand every word of "Dream of the Red Chamber", and one to write something meaningful." ”
Well, it was a very humorous answer, and everyone who heard it laughed. But I think that Shrop is a little too optimistic that a person can learn to Chinese in a lifetime.
Scholar Profile:
Lloyd Haft is a world-famous sinologist and poet. Born in Wisconsin in 1946, he graduated from Harvard University in 1968 and went to leiden University in the Netherlands to study Chinese, receiving a master's degree in 1973 and a doctorate in 1981. From 1973 to 2004 he Chinese speech and literature among professors at the University of Leiden.
His sinology books include Pien Chih-lin: A Study in Modern Chinese Poetry (1983 English edition, 2010 Chinese translation), A Guide to Chinese Literature (co-authored with renowned Dutch scholar Professor Yvide Wilt Idema, 1997), zhou mengdi and the poetry of consciousness (zhou mengdi and the poetry of consciousness) Zhou Mengdie’s Poetry of Consciousness，2006)。 In recent years, sinology publications have been published in the modern Dutch language of "Lao Tzu's Tao Te Ching", "Lao Tzu's Many Ways and New Threads".
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