英國歷史學家湯恩比博士文句精選 ★★★

英國歷史學家湯恩比博士文句精選

作者：佚名 文章来源：本站原创 点击数：319 更新时间：2009-12-3 10:02:54



Quotations of Dr. Arnold Toynbee

英國歷史學家湯恩比博士文句精選



China’s past achievement and historical experience have endowed it with the qualifications that the West so conspicuously lacks. On the strength of that achievement, China has a more promising chance of shepherding mankind into political unity than any other country.

中國過去的成就和歷史經驗，已使其具足統一世界的資格；這正是西方所顯著缺乏的。在這種成就的力量上，中國比任何其他國家都更有希望，帶領人類政治走向大一統的世界。

◎湯恩比博士簡介（Biography of Dr. Arnold J. Toynbee）:

阿羅德．約瑟．湯恩比（1889-1975）是英國著名歷史學家。他畢業于牛津大學，任倫敦大學的希臘語和歷史學教授。曾代表英國政府參加兩次世界大戰後的和平會議。他發表過約三千篇論文著作，主要學術貢獻是十二冊的巨著《歷史研究》（A Study of History），從社會文明發展的角度來研究歷史。他認為，社會文明的衰落源于無法勝任道德與宗教的挑戰，而非物質與環境的挑戰。



(1) The religions that can salvage mankind

拯救人類之宗教：

“… the founders of the less crude religions and philosophies have perceived that the nature of divinity is not power but love, benevolence, and humanity. The Buddha, the Bodhisattvas, and Christ stand not for the exercise of power but for self-abnegation and self-sacrifice. Confucianism and Shinto stand for a harmonious co-operation between man and nature; Taoism for letting nature takes her course, undisturbed by impertinent and clumsy human interference. Surely the Weltanschauung that follows from these more perceptive and less aggressive religious and philosophical

traditions is the one that now offers the most promising hope of salvaging mankind. The injunction to “subdue,” which modern man has taken as his directive, is immoral, impractical, and disastrous.”

Source: Toynbee, Arnold, 1973, The Genesis of Pollution, Horizon, Volume 15, No. 3, summer issue, pp.4-9.

譯文：

一些較為文明的宗教和哲學的創始人認為，神性的本質並非權威，而是愛、仁慈與人道。佛菩薩和基督並非權威施行者的象徵，而是代表克已奉獻和自我犧牲；儒家與神道教代表人與自然的和諧互助合作；道教則以自然為導歸，不為人類粗魯笨拙的行為所擾亂。誠然，在這些格外睿智而溫和的宗教及哲學傳統基礎上所建立的世界觀，才是現前拯救全人類最大的希望。現代人熱衷於「征服對方」，這種觀念不僅毫無道德、不切實際，而且禍害無窮。

出處：湯恩比， A. 1973, 《污染的起源》，文出自《地平線》雜誌，第15冊第3期，4-9頁。



（2）Who is the Inheritor of the Earth?

誰是地球的繼承者？

The course of Chinese history has been cyclical; yet China has been more successful than the west in solving two crucial problems: it as succeeded for centuries in holding together millions of people in relatively stable domestic peace and order, and it has also succeeded in assimilating a foreign ideology, Buddhism, in a way that enriched the indigenous civilization.

For more than five centuries China was split into a number of competing local states. But in 221 B.C. the country was unified politically, and since then ins political unity has never been more than temporarily disrupted, while its cultural unity has never been lost.

As early as the second century B.C., the emperor Han Wu-ti realized

that China's political unity must be buttressed by the creation of a professional civil service in which the qualification for entry would be merit, and the test of merit he chose was a proficiency in Confucian philosophy.

譯文:

中國歷史不斷地周而復始的改朝換代。然而，中國比西方更成功的解決了兩個主要問題。其一，數百年來，中國國內在和平而有規律，相對較安定的環境中，成功地維繫了數百萬人的團結一致。再者，中國成功的融合了一個外來的思想文化—佛教，佛教豐富了中國本土文明。

在歷史上。中國曾有超過五百年的分裂時期（春秋戰國的五百年中，中國分裂成許多小諸侯國），但是在公元前兩百二十一年，整個國家在政治上大一統了。之後，中國的政治始終是統一的局面，再沒有長期分裂過，且在文化上，從未喪失她的整體性。

早在公元前兩個世紀，漢武帝已經了解，要保持中國政治的一統，必須培訓一批專業優秀的政府官員來維繫，官員的合格標準，他則選擇對儒家哲學精通深入程度來考核。



In the twentieth century mankind is in much the same state of mind as the Chinese were in the third century B.C. We are the prisoners of an age-old habit of political disunity and of consequent warfare between competing local states. This habit has become so deeply ingrained that we are reluctant to be liberated from it; yet we now recognize that if we fail to unite politically on a global scale, the “annihilation of distance may result in the annihilation of life.

Dare we hope that China will meet the world's desperate need? Since the disintegration of the Roman Empire, Western statesmanship has been dedicated not to re-establishing political unity but to frustrating attempts to reattain it. The West has deliberately disqualified itself for unifying the world politically. China's past achievement and historical experience have endowed it with the qualifications that the West so conspicuously lacks. On the strength of that achievement, China has a more promising chance of shepherding mankind into political unity than any other country.

Source: Toynbee, Arnold, 1974, Inheritors of the Earth? Horizon, volume 16, No.3, summer, pp.18-19.

譯文：

……二十世紀的人類與公元前三世紀（戰國時代）的中國人，在心態上非常相同。我們已經成為政治分裂，以及由於政治分裂而導致的國與國之間的競逐與戰爭，這種古老習慣的囚奴。這種習氣已經根深蒂固的深植於我們心中，使我們不願意從這習氣牢籠中解放。然而，我們現在已經意識到，如果不能實行全球性的政治統一，這種毀滅性的疏離將導致所有生命的毀滅。

我們膽敢希望中國能滿足世界迫切的需求嗎？自從羅馬帝國解體以來，西方的政治並沒有致力於重建統一，而是破壞性的企圖阻止統一。西方已有意使自已不具有政治上統一世界的資格。中國過去的成就和歷史經驗，已使其具足統一世界的資格；這正是西方所顯著缺乏的。在這種成就的力量上，中國比任何其他國家都更有希望，帶領人類政治進入大一統的世界。



出處：湯恩比，A. 1973, 《地球的繼承人？》， 文出自《地平線》雜誌，第16冊第3期，18-19頁。