Turn to Baidu's evaluation of Yi Zhongtian, I don't know if it is true or false, please identify it

Some things I said directly today, some things that Yi Zhongtian did to lose the face of readers, these things cannot be ignored because of the passage of time.

Yi Zhongtian wrote a book ten years ago: "Philadelphia Storm: The Birth of the U.S. Constitution and Our Reflections."

What is written in this book is to re-express Mr. Yin Xuan's translation of "Debate: Minutes of the Us Constitutional Convention" in his own words.

Yi Zhongtian, the opening chapter of "Philadelphia Storm", wrote this passage:

In January 2003, Liaoning Education Publishing House published the book "Debates: Minutes of the American Constitutional Convention" by James Madison, the "Father of the Constitution" translated by Mr. Yin Xuan. Madison's "Debate", which records the whole process of the Constituent Assembly from May 25 to September 17, 1787, has not been lacking in a day from beginning to end; Mr. Yin Xuan's translation is good and the annotations are extremely detailed, so it is not only cheerful and fluent, but also thrilling and beneficial. So I can't resist telling this story again so that more people can share that feeling. The reason for re-talking is because Mr. Yin Xuan's translation of "Debate" is not only an important document for studying the US Constitution and history, but also a standard academic work, which is not without certain difficulty; and there are really not a few people like me who are concerned about constitutional issues, but they are not studying the Constitution, let alone specializing in the study of the history of the US Constitution. They may not have the time or patience to finish the 630,000-word tome. I have always believed that academia is a good thing, and that good things should be shared by more people; and that to let more people share, it can only be expressed in a different way. That's why I wrote this book. I wanted to write this process as beautifully as a detective novel or a TV series. Of course, in order to be faithful to history, I cannot but quote a large number of materials from the book "Debate", but it is limited to the style, and I cannot indicate them all, but I can only make a general note here, that is, all the speeches of the constitutional representatives are quoted from Yin's translation of "Debate". Moreover, in order to facilitate the reader's reading, many have been rewritten, but only to convey their meaning. If you are writing a research paper, please cite yin's translation, not rely on this book. I hope this does not infringe on Mr. Yin Xuan's copyright.

Unfortunately, Yi Zhongtian never told Mr. Yin Xuan about this directly. Mr. Yin Xuan first read this book when a friend put "The Birth of the U.S. Constitution and Our Reflections" on his desk in 2007. Mr. Yin Xuan wrote: "Madison's work is a classic, a fine product, when I translated it, I thought it was difficult to sell well, but it must be sold for a long time, as long as it can be gradually separated among the wise, even if it is a famous mountain, it will exist for a long time." What is worried about is that people with insufficient roots, random adaptation, do not make it good, popular is easy to flow into vulgarity, if you can not resist the temptation of sensationalism, engage in some inconsistent analogies, send some specious arguments, may degenerate into kitsch. Fine products can turn into fakes. The more I read, the more I felt that the words and phrases in the book were too familiar: the translations I had repeatedly deliberated, the notes I had written carefully, and the dots were transformed into Mr. Yi Zhongtian's 'works'. ”

Some people roughly estimate that the Birth of the United States Constitution is 60 to 70% of the time, copied from "Debate: Records of the United States Constitutional Convention". On January 17, 2009, Mr. Yin Xuan died of a heart attack, which cannot be mentioned by the parties, but we should not forget that I think it is not too much to scold Yi Zhongtian for deceiving the world and stealing his name!

Attached is an article written by Mr. Yin Xuan in the China Reading Newspaper that year: Mr. Yi Zhongtian, should such a "book" be written?

A friend put a book on my desk: Yi Zhongtian's The Birth of the U.S. Constitution and Our Reflections. Mr. Yi Zhongtian said in the "Afterword": "Happily, in January 2003, the Liaoning Education Publishing House published the book "Debate: Minutes of the Constitutional Convention" by James Madison, the 'Father of the Constitution' translated by Mr. Yin Xuan. Madison's "Debate" records the whole process of the Constituent Assembly from May 25 to September 17, 1787, from beginning to end, every day; Mr. Yin Xuan's translation is good, and the annotations are extremely detailed, so it is not only cheerful and fluent, but also thrilling and beneficial. ”

As early as 100 years ago, Turner wrote to his friend Farander, the editor of the English edition of The Debate, saying: "No one as well as I understand that a work like yours will forever associate your name with the most vital record in the history of world politics, and as time goes by, my explanation will fly away like a feather, and the book I have unique insight will enter the homes of ordinary people and become a topic of endless talk, and the content that I think I understand but do not really understand will be luckily scattered in the streets and alleys, and the scholars who line up in long lines will be lucky. I will appreciate your deep kindness. ”

On the English cover of "Debate", there is no word "author" after Madison's name; the content of the book is a "collection of group words" of the representatives of the Us Constitutional Convention, and Madison is a record. In the first edition of the Chinese translation of "Debate", only "Yin Xuan Translation" was signed, and when it was republished, it should be changed to "Yin Xuan Translation Notes": I wrote more than 600 annotations for this purpose, constituting the pattern of the first and lower books; the annotations are an important part of this book, occupying a considerable amount of space, and the explanations are used to show responsibility.

When I translated "Debate" and annotated it, I thought to myself: Duyun translators are stupid, who understands the taste? Now, Mr. Yi Zhongtian has at least solved two problems: the translation pen is fine, and the annotations are detailed. I think: Meet Zhiyin. The "Afterword" to The Birth of the U.S. Constitution and Our Reflections goes on to say, "I can't resist telling this story again so that more people can share this feeling." "In the past, many people have popularized the classics, but later, people find that many of them have castrated and distorted the original works. To this end, many sages have repeatedly advocated that the original book should be read.

The book "Debate" has many clues and crisscrosses each other, and the constitutional representatives have erupted many sparks of inspiration in the four rounds of debate, big and small stories, anecdotes, and so on. To straighten it out and then synthesize the narrative, it takes skill. Many friends advised me to make an abbreviated version, condense the important contents of the translation and annotations, condense and smooth it, and tell a good story. I'm slow and like to think. Fortunately, it is protected by the Copyright Law of the People's Republic of China. Under Article 10, seventeen aspects of copyright protection are listed. Unexpectedly, Mr. Yi Zhongtian was a quick hand, did not greet and did not fight, and he was the first to board, so he wrote "The Birth of the US Constitution". In fact, Mr. Han Yu has long said: "There is a precedence in hearing the Tao, and there is a specialization in the art industry." "It's not easy to be popular. I read the English edition of the World Leaders series at the New York Library. The series of books was aimed primarily at American middle school students, and each book was about 100 pages long. I remember reading nearly twenty of the biographies of the President of the United States, plus the biography of Hamilton. The editor-in-chief of the series is Arthur Schlesinger Jr., a titan in the Field of American Historiography, who said in the "General Preface" that there are many books before each book: The authors are mostly specialized talents who study the masters. After they delve into a character and grasp too much information, they feel that a hundred pages are not enough, and many materials are reluctant to lose. Schlesinger has read many first drafts and believes that most of the problems are due to improper trade-offs, and sometimes they can't grasp the gist. It can be seen that the deeper it goes, the more difficult it is to get out.

Madison's work is a classic, a masterpiece, and when I translated it, I decided that it was difficult to sell well, but it must be sold for a long time, as long as it can be gradually separated among the wise, even if it is a famous mountain, it will exist for a long time. What is worried about is that people with insufficient roots, random adaptation, do not make it good, popular is easy to flow into vulgarity, if you can not resist the temptation of sensationalism, engage in some inconsistent analogies, send some specious arguments, may degenerate into kitsch. Fine products can turn into fakes.

It took two days to read The Birth of the U.S. Constitution and Our Reflections. Mr. Yi Zhongtian's method is to sandwich between narratives and discussions. The narrative part, the basic content, including plot advancement and character commentary, is roughly extracted from a book: Debate: Proceedings of the American Constitutional Convention, including translations and notes. The more I read, the more I felt that the words and phrases in the book were too familiar: the translations I had repeatedly deliberated, the notes I had written carefully, and the dots were transformed into Mr. Yi Zhongtian's "works".

Mr. Yi Zhongtian calls his book a "work", which raises a challenging question for the reading and book critics: What is a work? What is rewriting? Rewriting equals writing? Or is there a clear line between the two? If there are clear boundaries, how do they be demarcated? Perhaps legal professionals who study copyright law will give us some insights. In the discussion part, as soon as the mouth is opened, all kinds of fashionable new theories flow out of the mouth, which is breathtaking: such as "the theory of mother-in-law and daughter-in-law", "the theory of defending officials such as preventing thieves", as well as "killing a journey in the middle of the road to bite gold", "chain buckle and firewall". "My translation principle is to try to avoid using ready-made words in Chinese, especially Chinese idioms generated by allusions, so as to avoid unnecessary confusion of thoughts. It is hoped that readers will be able to catch and taste the original taste of the speech of the constitutional representative. (The Debate, "Examples of Translators", p. 12)

This raises the second question. If someone says: "Overlord Becky Kentucky", "Li Bai drunk on Disney", the reading and book critic circles will think that this is popular, vulgar, kitsch? Or is it not the same? Or is it whimsical?

In the book, Mr. Yi Zhongtian proposes that "the defense of officials is like the theory of anti-theft" ("The Birth of the US Constitution and Our Reflections", p. 103), which should be a metaphor for popularization. But, metaphor, be appropriate, be appropriate. Exaggeration, shrinking, and bending can all cause qualitative changes. Theoretical problems, in particular, are often "a millimeter of difference, a thousand miles of loss"; plausible, easy to produce misleading drawbacks.

In modern civilized society, we pay attention to the rule of law. Officials are controlled, mainly by the Constitution; the fight against thieves is mainly used by criminal law. These are two categories that should not be confused. An official is not the same as a thief. Even if an official "does nothing," he or she may endanger one party; if a thief "does nothing," one side will be at peace. The method of defending officials is different from the method of preventing thieves. ——China Reading Daily, January 31, 2007

Update: There is a lot of contention in the comment area, and of course how to evaluate it can be controversial, but I think there are a few facts that are not controversial.

"Philadelphia Storm" has a large number of quotations from the book "Debate", in which all the speeches of the constitutional representatives are quoted from Yin's translation of the book "Debate" (this is Yi Zhongtian's original words), and its essence is a popular adaptation of the book "Debate".

Yi Zhongtian mentioned Mr. Yin Xuan's "Debate" in the preface to "Philadelphia Storm", but he did not consult Mr. Yin Xuan before writing the book, nor did he notify Mr. Yin Xuan after publication.

Yi Zhongtian received fame and fortune from "Philadelphia Storm", but in addition to the preface in the book, he did not mention Mr. Yin Xuan to the public in other public occasions, nor did he take a part of the edition fee to thank Mr. Yin Xuan.