Speaking of Chinese translators, Yan Fu, who translated the "Treatise on the Evolution of Heaven", is absolutely second to none, advocating that the translation should reach the "Xindaya", which is still the supreme realm of translation, but it is such a translator who praises an unknown person, saying that his translation of the "Relics of the Traviata Girl" is "destroying the soul of the prodigal son of China" (at that time, "Indochina" was not a derogatory name). Who is this person?
This person is the famous translator Lin Shu, who has translated more than 200 kinds of foreign novels and is praised as the "king of the translation industry", but the amazing thing is that such a genius knows nothing about foreign languages. Finally, on "New Youth", being pointed at the nose and scolded as a "Tongcheng fallacy", ended up in a name.
<h1 class="pgc-h-decimal" data-index="01" data-track="39" > has been a bookworm since childhood</h1>
Leaving aside for the moment that Lin Shu was scolded by people pointing at his nose on "New Youth", his love for reading and his love for literature is really admirable. When Lin Shu was a child, his family was very poor, and he was young and orphaned, but he never gave up studying, when he was five years old, he finally fulfilled his wish to read, and became an auditor in the private school, the teacher of the private school, Xue Zeke, saw him diligent and loved to read, took good care of him, and he also deeply liked traditional Chinese literature and formed an indissoluble relationship with literature. Even if he later ran for his livelihood and ran in a difficult life in a chaotic world, he still insisted on reading and proofreading ancient books, according to statistics: between the ages of 13 and 20, there were no less than 2,000 volumes of broken ancient books. Such a person, who has both talent and diligence, naturally still has to become talented.
Fast forward to 1882, which was a turning point in Lin Shu's fate: from a poor showman to a well-known person in Jiangnan. Zhongju made him finally get rid of poverty, but also he began to make friends, more diligent study, read books that he could not touch before, and had a warm heart for the country, seven times into Beijing to participate in the ceremonial examination, after "seven spring officials, repeatedly failed", he finally gave up the heart of being an official to build the motherland, and concentrated on starting his own literary creation. Sure enough, God closes a door for you and will open a window for you.
In 1897, the forty-five-year-old Lin Shu finally ushered in a window of his own. That year, his mother died, unfortunately his wife also died of illness, the successive deaths of his closest relatives gave him a heavy blow, his friends Wei Han and Wang Shouchang invited him to translate foreign novels together in order to get him out of depression, originally Lin Shu was unwilling, after all, the death of his closest relatives hit him very hard, he had no intention of doing anything else, but the repeated sincere invitations of his close friends, he did not accept it without knowing good villains.
However, Lin Shu was a traditional scholar in ancient China, who had read the sage books since he was a child, read the Eight Strands of Literature, and did not know how to translate them in foreign languages. The solution was soon solved: a person who knew a foreign language would say the original meaning, and then Lin Shu would organize it into a text. It sounds like a very simple thing, but at that time, there were not a few people who were familiar with consultants and had profound knowledge of traditional literature, and how many people could do it?
What's more, Lin Shu can be said to be a blockbuster if he doesn't make a sound. His first translation of "The Testament of the Lady of the Traviata in Paris", once it came out, became a hit, which shows the quality of his translation and his translation talent, everyone's recognition and enthusiasm, and gave Lin Shu the courage and determination to continue. After that, he collaborated with Wei Han, Chen Jialin and other talents who had studied abroad to translate more than 180 Western novels, including many famous works, such as Dickens's "David Copperfield", Defoe's "Robinson Crusoe", russia's Tolstoy's "Hate Strands".
The advent of these novels, the great Chinese people showed the rich Western culture, broadened people's horizons, and also isolated countless later literary figures, from Lu Xun to Qian Zhongshu, countless modern novelists through his "Lin translation novels" to understand the world, for china's twentieth century novel creation to cultivate countless writers, can be said to be indispensable. At this point, Lin Shu was recognized as the founding master of modern Chinese literature and the titan of the translation industry, and left behind the good story of "translation talent and the number of Yan Lin".
However, his exquisite breeding skills and profound ancient literary literacy have made Lin Shu famous in the translation industry and flourished. At the same time, his persistence and love for the ancients also caused him a reputation.
<h1 class="pgc-h-decimal" data-index="02" data-track="21" > from conservative to anti-May Fourth new literary movement</h1>
In 1915, Chen Duxiu founded the "New Youth" magazine, after which Hu Shi published "Discussion on literary improvement", Lu Xun published "Diary of a Madman", and for a while the new cultural movement was in full swing, so some people began to put forward non-literary and vernacular, and even some people proposed to abolish Chinese characters and pinyinize Chinese characters. And Lin Shu, as the ancient culture of the time, was really intolerable to see this. Lin Shu wrote to Cai Yuanpei, president of Peking University:
"If all the ancient books are abolished and the local language is used as writing, then all the words used by the people who sell pulp in the car will have grammar according to it", "All the barnyard sellers in Beijing and Tianjin can be used as professors." ”
Since then, Lin Shu's original wait-and-see conservative attitude toward the New Culture Movement has completely shifted to opposing the "May Fourth" New Literary Movement.
At that time, there were not a small number of people who defended the ancient text, such as the translator Yan Fu mentioned above, but only Lin Shu insisted on maintaining it most carefully, and successively issued articles to maintain it, and put the "Black Slave Calling Heavenly Record". Associated with the abuse of Chinese workers in the United States, the warning that "the yellow species will die" actually has a certain truth.
Therefore, the editor of the "New Youth" magazine did not want to show weakness, published his novel "Jingsheng" that opposed the new culture, refuted and opposed him word by word, and also called him a "metaphysical demon And Tongcheng fallacy", and for a while all parts of the country began to criticize Lin Shu. Since Lin Shu was demoted from a great god of translators to an old stubborn, even a demon, a fallacy, and even lost his position in the pulpit of Peking University, his reputation and economy have plummeted since then.
<h1 class="pgc-h-decimal" data-index="03" data-track="33" > different concepts, patriotism, and sincere heart for education</h1>
However, after the passage of time, looking at Lin Shu's views at that time, the reason why he had a conservative attitude toward the new culture at that time from a wait-and-see attitude to a fierce opposition was that some people proposed the complete abolition of wen yan wen, or even the abolition of Chinese characters. From the perspective of modern cultural concepts, Wen yan wen has a certain value of its existence, and Chinese characters are the key to the transmission of Chinese culture, both of which cannot be abolished at all, but the abolition of the two will cause Lin Shu to "the yellow species will die" view.
Lin Shu just hopes that while the new culture is developing, the chinese language and Chinese characters can continue to develop, and the views are actually not wrong and understandable. Probably his love for traditional Chinese literature is his only insistence, so he will still ask his son to study ancient Chinese before he dies. However, the scolding war of the literati will be insincere once it begins, and the development of things will not be completely obedient to the heart, Lin Shu, while maintaining the ancient texts and Chinese characters, also has a heart to safeguard the Three Principles and Five Constants, and also said that the advocates of the new cultural movement are beasts, and the words are indeed ugly.
However, we can criticize his views and outdated ideas, but we cannot question his character, because he is really a rare good person. Lin Shule was charitable, and in the years when his translations were best-selling in Hainei, his monthly income was nearly 10,000, and most of his salary was used to support students from poor families. He himself does not know foreign languages, but he has sponsored many students to study abroad. Those students who had been received by him later returned to China after completing their studies to serve the motherland.
Therefore, even if he is conservative, his sincere patriotism is touching, and his character of charity is also worthy of recognition.