2015-4-21 今天从图书馆里借到一本书,是民国达人陈友仁(Eugene Chen)的儿媳妇陈元珍(Yuan-Tsung Chen)写的《Return to the Middle Kingdom - One Family, Three Revolutionaries, and the Birth of Modern China》。据说已经有中译本,叫做《民国外交强人陈友仁:一个家族的传奇》。 说实在话,这本历史传记文笔很美,比海外华人张戎和谭爱美写的书,可读性都更高,也有一些名人轶事,是正史中所看不到的。例如伍连德(Dr. Wu Lienteh)和陈友仁的奇遇(英文版34-36页)、施肇基(Alfred Shi)的广东俱乐部(38-39页)、和顾维钧(Wellington Koo)的美国联系(50-53页)等等 ,给人印象很深 。另外在该书英文版第150页,以及后面很多页,作者多次提及汪精卫是中国的诗人拜伦:Among Sun's traveling retinue, there was a man with a round, smooth, beardless face and black, pomaded hair, nicknamed the "Chinese Byron," the ever-omnipotent editor of the Guomintang....Despite his talent for editing,he was more proud of his poetry, and in his own eyes he was the Chinese Byron. 还有哈佛毕业的超级帅哥宋子文,四大家族的正当家,中华民国的两任国舅爷,先后两次求婚,竟然都被人给拒绝了,第一次是盛宣怀的千金(125页),第二次是张静江的三女儿,真的是有眼不识金镶玉,英雄也有落难时。 该书语言的出彩之处,在于对历史人物的描写入木三分,栩栩如生,例如说宋庆龄颚骨突出,并不是传统意义上的美人,可是有一种宋霭龄和宋美龄 都不具备的内在的气质美。说二十多岁的老处女宋美龄 浓妆艳抹, 活泼更胜于美丽。而宋霭龄的脖子以上长了一张马脸, 脖子以下长得像一个鼓鼓的钱包。讲到霭龄的夫君孔祥熙,则是下面极为精彩的一段(124页): She was married to Kong Xiangxi, a banker and the future minister of finance. His wife addressed him as Daddy to remind their children to speak English like Americans, thus his nick name "Daddy Kong" stuck. 译成中文则是:她(宋霭龄)的老公,是一个银行家,也是后来的民国财政部长。霭龄坚持和美国人一样,每天随孩子们一起喊自己的老公为大大,因此孔祥熙的外号“孔大大”,就在朝廷上下,变得妇孺皆知,家喻户晓。 看起来咱这中华民族的大大文化,并不只在西门庆和潘金莲的时代有,民国的时候也颇为流行,发扬光大到今天,可谓是博大精深,传承有序的了。