I. Summary
II. Thoughts
如果將林語堂的《蘇東坡傳》視為傳記題材的小說，那么對于喜愛蘇東坡卻又對他一知半解的人而言，無疑是一部精彩之極的作品。然而，對于缺少情趣并且有考據(jù)癖的研究者而言，閱讀的愉悅往往伴隨著焦慮。毋庸置疑，林語堂先生對英文的駕馭功力讓人嘆為觀止，優(yōu)美而簡潔的用詞將千載之前的的蘇東坡拉到了我們的生活之中，他筆下的蘇東坡比文獻中的更加活靈活現(xiàn)。但是，這恰是令人生疑之處，文章的“美”與“信”往往不可兼得，林語堂先生用書寫美文的筆觸為蘇東坡立傳，其真實性自然要打折扣。眾所周知，林語堂先生是蘇東坡的仰慕者，我絲毫不懷疑他對蘇東坡作品的熟悉程度，但不可輕信之處有二，一是“以情損實”，因仰慕東坡其人，文中不乏過于溢美之詞；二是在引經(jīng)據(jù)典之際對文獻缺乏考證，稗官野史、街談巷語不足取信卻可奪人耳目。前者不過是常人之情，而后者則是林語堂先生身為作家的性格所致。
在初讀序言之際，我認為林語堂筆下的蘇東坡是高度主觀化、個人化的蘇東坡。在閱讀了六章之后，我進一步認為，林語堂所寫的蘇東坡正是自己理想人格的化身，愈是往下讀，愈能發(fā)現(xiàn)林語堂與蘇東坡的相似之處。對蘇東坡婚姻的評論、為人處世的觀點，妙語如珠，更像是林語堂的肺腑之言。令我奇怪的是，林語堂仔細地向讀者介紹了蘇東坡家鄉(xiāng)的風俗、虛歲的傳統(tǒng)等等，但卻沒有提及蘇東坡兄弟的名字“軾”與“轍”的由來，在我看來，二人的名字正是有趣且能反映個性的，不過林語堂先生既然把書名命名為“蘇東坡傳”，應當是考慮到漢字意義的復雜性，難以讓外國讀者理解吧。
III. Biography
It's quite difficult to write a biography for a young person, because his life is changeable. However, as Adrian's friend and student, not mention that I have known him for five years, I know his better especially the young Adrian before 20 years old. So I think it's a proper time to write something about him.
Almost every biography mentioned the family life at first. I will not pass that, but I have to say Adrian's family affected him in a different way. When he was little, his father and mother were both busy at work and they have a elder child. Under this environment, Adrian didn't get close to his parents like other children. Maybe that is the reason why he want to live on his own in his junior school life. Actually, he literally did so.
Both a student and a teacher is Adrian's identity. He worked as an assistant teacher during high school. I guess perhaps this is the time his teaching life begin, because from then on he always working as a teacher. He is the kind of teacher both warm-hearted and severe. I remembered when he supervise me about law examinations, he asked me got up early in the morning and only had half hour afternoon nap and reported to him everyday. Severe teacher often have excellent teaching skills, once a time I cried to him the English tests were too difficult. He comforted me and taught me to use a different method to understand the paragraph, it proved works very well.
In his college life, he fond of classics. He use several years to learn ancient Greek and Latin. Now maybe he decided to be a scholar in the future or maybe not. I cannot say for sure because life is changeable. What's more I also cannot image what will he like after decades. Whereas, the thing I confirm is that he is the person who know what he would like to do and which kind of person he want to be. That is, in one word, an interesting person.
