【双语】辜鸿铭论中国人的礼仪

Let us next take another generally-admitted fact in the life of the Chinese people—their politeness.

接下来，让我们探讨中国人生活中的另一个公认的事实——中国人的礼仪。

The Chinese are, it has often been remarked, a peculiarly polite people. Now what is the essence of true politeness? It is consideration for the feelings of others.

人们经常说，中国人是特别注重礼仪的民族。那真正的礼仪的本质是什么呢？这就是对他人感受的体谅。

The Chinese are polite because, living a life of the heart, they know their own feelings and that makes it easy for them to show consideration for the feelings of others.

中国人有礼貌是因为他们过着一种精神的生活，他们知道自己的感受，这使他们很容易对他人的感受表示体谅。

The politeness of the Chinese, although not elaborate like the politeness of the Japanese, is pleasing because it is, as the French beautifully express it, la politesse ducoeur, the politeness of the heart.

中国人的彬彬有礼，尽管不像日本人的礼仪那样经过了精心的准备，却令人愉悦，用法国人优美的语言来说，因为它是la politesse du coeur，即一种心灵的礼仪。

The politeness of the Japanese, on the other hand, although elaborate, is not so pleasing, and I have heard some foreigners express their dislike of it, because it is what may be called a rehearsal politeness—a politeness learnt by heart as in a theatrical piece. It is not a spontaneous politeness which comes direct from the heart.

另一方面，日本人的礼仪虽然精致周全，却无法让人如此愉悦，而且我已经听到有一些外国人说讨厌日式礼仪，因为它可以被称为一种排演过的礼仪——像在戏剧中刻意学会的礼仪一样。这与直接发自内心的自然而然的礼仪不同。

In fact the politeness of the Japanese is like a flower without fragrance, whereas the politeness of a really polite Chinese has a perfume like the aroma of a precious ointment—instar unguenti fragrantis—which comes from the heart.

事实上，日本的礼仪就像一朵没有芬芳的花，而真正有礼貌的中国人的礼仪有一种芳香——instar unguenti fragrantis（意为名贵油膏的香味）——由心而发。

推荐阅读

篇篇有干货，天天有惊喜

长按二维码关注我们

微信@我：563730218