2010-05-8 母亲节
早上起来房门口,母子撞怀。
母问子：“送我什么？”其余便觉得都是废话。
儿子答曰：“送你一个好心情！”好小子，不花分文，不费吹灰之力，就把人哄了。
昨天晚饭后，儿子叫我看他的ＱＱ。双休两天，气不歇一口，工夫都用在这上了。
我不懂“ＡＢＣ”，但是，我懂“日月水火 ”。儿子的译笔让我认定就是那个百年前美国传教士的亲笔。那叙述的语气像是校长的述职报告，儿子译出了早已作古的校长办学的艰辛，基督徒的冷静和理性，也有常人的无奈。
自然，最滋补我的还是“谨以此文献给我的母亲和母校
”也许是顺水人情,可天下母亲都是好骗的呀。呵呵,因此，这回不是“顺来的”。
文很长,还配有8张图片,我只放了译文上来,大家时间都宝贝呀。
——值此母亲节之际，谨以此文献给我的母亲Fuzhou
Senior Middle School 福州高级中学
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Postscript
下为施美志校长所撰之文章，收录于1886年美以美会出版的《世世福音》中。
This article was published in The
Gospel of All Lands by Methodist Episcopal
Church Missionary Society in 1886. The author, Rev. George
Blood Smyth (施美志), was the then principal of the Anglo-Chinese
College (英华中学).
On the
21st of January the college closed for the Chinese New
Year holidays. These are the great holidays of the year to the
school boys of China. Except on a few feast days the native schools
are open all the rest of the year. They have no longer summer
vacation, such as we have, neither have they any Sunday. All days
are alike to them; Sunday has no sacredness and the summer’s heat
no terrors. All the more eagerly therefore do Chinese school boys
look for the New Year holidays. In this school there is of
necessity a long vacation of two months or more in the summer, as
the foreign teachers could not possibly continue their work. The
Chinese teachers, however, must be on hand if required to teach any
scholars who wish to continue their studies.
This long
holiday time does in no wise lessen the joy of our students when
New Year comes, they must have their holidays then with the
rest.
The closing
exercises were extremely simple, no long commencement orations, no
fine singing, and immense assemblage of gentlemen and ladies to
applaud their favorites. We trust these will come in time when the
school becomes popular, and the ladies and gentlemen of China take
an interest in it.
There were
public examinations, the reading of essays, and some interesting
gymnastic exercises. The trustees of the college, and others who
were present, declared themselves pleased with what they heard and
saw, and expressed their satisfaction at the progress the pupils
had made. This was all the more gratifying to the teachers as their
work had been done under great difficulties.
As a short
statement of the work done may be interesting, I give a list of the
studies of each class. The boys were arranged in four classes. The
fourth had reading, writing, dictation and elementary arithmetic;
the third, reading, grammar, arithmetic and geography; the second,
reading and grammar, arithmetic, algebra through simple equations,
and geography with map-drawing; and the first finished Loomis’
Treatise on Algebra, studied four books of Loomis’ Geometry, and
parts of Swinton’s Universal History and read selections from
Addison.
Five days
every week were given to this work. Saturday morning was spent in
writing compositions, reading before the school and practicing
simple gymnastic exercises. A little time each day was given to
systematic physical exercises. In addition, all the students
studied the Chinese classics, to teach which two competent native
scholars were employed.
Next school
year, which begins on the 19th of February, the fist class will
take up plain trigonometry, and Dr. Rennie, one of the foreign
physicians, has kindly offered to spend two or three hours a week
in teaching physiology. I hope after the summer vacation to begin
elementary physics or chemistry with this class. It depends
somewhat on whether some generous friend of education will give us
the necessary apparatus.
Our numbers
were not up to those of some previous years. We have much to
contend with: ignorance and prejudice on the part of the people,
and the influence of the “almighty dollar.” America is sometimes
spoken of as being the favorite land of this bad but mighty
divinity, but one must come to China if he would see people fall on
all fours and worship him. Not many of the people indeed are the
recipients of his favor, and it is perhaps on this very account
that they worship him so earnestly. In education, as in everything
else, it is difficult to interest the average Chinaman, unless you
can show him that in a year or two his exertions will begin to
enrich him.
The
Chinaman is not a man of high or distant ideals. He lives in the
present, pursues what experience has shown him to be profitable,
and can with difficulty be persuaded that Western knowledge is
worth the trouble of acquiring it. He must see that it pays before
he will have any thing to do with it. That it does pay we hope the
course of events will soon show him.
The
government school, situated about ten miles from here, is crowded
with students, but it holds out attractions to which we can make no
pretension. The students there are well paid, and if they
distinguish themselves as scholars and go through the course, they
are sure of lucrative positions in the service of the government.
Of course we no not claim, we do not even pretend to compete such a
school. We have a higher aim, however; we propose giving a much
better education, and if we have the means we can do
it.
If it
should occur to any that the Anglo-Chinese College and its work are
foreign to the purposes for which missionaries are sent here, and
that we are doing nothing directly to Christianize the people, I
would say that we are educating, and educating is part of the work
of the church in our day. We are not living in the times of the
apostles; we have more to give than they had, and for that very
reason we must give it.
Many of our
students are regular attendants at the Sunday-school, and the two
most interesting and most interested classes there are composed of
the students of the first and second classes in the college. They
are fortunate in having as their teachers, Sunday after Sunday,
Miss Jewell and Miss Fisher, the two young ladies in charge of the
Girls’ Boarding School of the Woman’s Foreign Missionary
Society.
Some of the
older students are earnest, practical Christians. A few weeks ago I
called some of them together, and we organized a Branch of the
Young Men’s Christian Association. The little society now numbers
twelve members, of whom nine are students in the college, the other
three being foreigners, the Rev. J. H. Worley of this mission, Dr.
H. T. Whitney of the American Board and myself. Mr. Worley is the
General Secretary. This is the first Young Men’s Christian
Association ever organized in China, and we hope that the Inter
national Committee, when we communicate with them, will recognize
us. Already some of the members have done good work. When revival
services were held in the church some weeks ago they went out on
the streets and brought to the church many a man who probably had
never heard the Gospel preached before.
Thus our
college is a Christian school. We are not a propaganda and do
nothing to force the students to become Christians. They are
entirely free to accept or reject. We are Christians nevertheless,
and the education we give had better be given in Christian schools
than in those in which Christianity is rejected. It will be given,
and the only question is, where and by whom?
Our work
would be better and more thoroughly done if we had better means of
doing it. The term closed with not a dollar in the treasury, and
the Trustees were compelled to borrow $800 to carry on the work for
another year. We need more for other purposes. Our most pressing
wants are a suitable dormitory, and suitable apparatus for the
teaching of science. If we had $2,500 we could erect a large
Chinese building on the college grounds and purchase such apparatus
as we are most in need of.
I would
that I could lay this matter properly before some of the many
members of our church to whom God has given means abundant to aid
in carrying on this work. I am convinced they could find no object
more worthy of their giving. There are some young men here of such
high character and promise that many who now take but little
interest in our work, would, if they but know them, give
unstintedly to assist in education them. The College is here and it
has accomplished something. The great object now should be to keep
it open till by its work the people are persuaded of its
usefulness. But give us the means of working, and, to borrow the
pregnant words which I once heard Bishop Fowler use in addressing
the theological students at Drew, we shall be able to “bring things
to pass.”
Since
writing the above the new school term has begun, and I am happy to
be able to add that so many new students have entered that our roll
is much larger than it was last year.
Foochow, China,
Feb. 26,
1886.
译文
一月二十一日，学校放假过年，对中国孩子来说，这是个重大的节日。除了一些节日外，当地的学校常日开放。他们不像我们，有暑假与xx日。每天对其来说都是一样的。没有神圣的xx日，也没有对酷暑的恐惧。因此，这些中国孩子们更加盼望着新年。在夏天，这所学校必须有两个月或更长的假期，因为外国老师们没法在这时继续工作。而若有学员要求继续学习，中国教师则会担当辅导。
这个长长的假期（暑假），丝毫未减少我们学生对新年的热情，他们要暑假也要节日。
闭学仪式十分简单，没有冗长的演说，没有美妙的唱颂，亦没有学生大众的欢呼雀跃。我们相信当学校闻名后，这一切都将即时到来，中国的青年们定会对其发生兴趣。
我们有公共考试，包括英文阅读及一些有趣的体育训练。学校理事及其他相关人士参与到这些公试中，他们喜闻乐见孩子们所取得的进步。这是这些教师们所能得到的{zd0}满足，因为他们的工作是在十分艰辛的条件下开展的。
由于对每门课程做简要说明有助于激发学生之兴趣，我为每个班级列出了课程明细。男生们被分作四个班级。第四班级授以阅读、写作、听写与初级算术，三班授以阅读、语法、算术与地理，二班为阅读、语法、算术、线性代数及绘图地理，一班则为卢米兹（美国数理学家）代数终论，卢米兹几何四部，史云顿（英国作家）寰宇历史，及阿狄森（Joseph
Addison十八世纪英国xx作家）文选。
周一至周五教授这些课程，周六上午为写作与体育活动。{yt}中有少部分时间被用作物理实验。此外，所有学生学习国文，国文课由当地两位出色的老师教授。
下一学年将于二月十九日开学，一班将开设平面三角，外籍医师——好心的瑞莱医生将于每周抽空二至三个小时为我们教授生理学。我希望暑假后，于此班开设初级物理或初级化学。这取决于教育界是否有慷慨人士为我们提供所必须的仪器设备。
学校的学员人数已不比往年，我们有诸多事情需要应付：部分人的偏见无知，以及“美元无上”主义的影响。有时，美国被作为邪恶但却{wn}的主所喜爱的地方而提及，你只有在中国才能看到人们对祂五体投地的崇拜。并非所有人都是祂恩泽的受惠者，也许这能从某种程度上解释人们对其崇拜的虔诚。教育有如其他的所有一切，都难以让中国大众发生兴趣，除非你让他们看到一两年内他们的付出能使自己富裕起来。
中国民众不是境界高远的理想主义者，他们生活于现实之中，追求那些能够给他们带来切实利益的东西，使其相信探求西方知识的价值有相当的困难。他们必须得先看到成果才会愿意为之付出。这倒确实给了我们希望——随着事态发展，一切将于不久展现在他们面前。
在离我们学校十英里远的地方，有一所拥生甚众的公立学校，它有着我们所无法匹敌的吸引力。毕业的学生收入丰厚，若他们在校期间成绩优异或考试过关，定能在政府部门谋到很好的职位。当然我们不是在声明什么，我们甚至没打算过与那间学校竞争。但我们有着更高的目标，如果我们有办法做到，我们将提供更好的教育。
若此点需被提及，英华学校及这里的工作与当初遣送传教士们至此之目的是毫无关联的，因为我们并未直接为教化民众做任何事情。我只是说我们在传授教育，而教育是当今教会的一项工作。我们已不生活在使徒时代（基督教最初传道时期），有着比他们更多的布施予人的东西，仅凭这点，我们就必须给予（教育）。
大部分学生都按时参加周日的xx课，最有意思的两个班级是一班与二班。他们有幸在周六与周日听到珍维小姐和费雪小姐的授课，她们是海外女子传教会创办之女子寄宿学校（私立毓英女子初级中学）的负责人。
一些高年级的学生是虔诚实在的基督信徒。几周前我召集他们组织成基督教青年联合会分会，这个小团体现有十二名成员——九名学生和三位外国人：本教区的沃利先生，美国教会的魏特尼博士和我。沃利先生为社团秘书。这是在中国组织的{dy}个基督教青年联合会，我希望当我们与基督国际联系时，他们能认识到这一点。其中一些成员已做出相当的成绩。几星期前在我们举办的复活仪式上，他们走向街头引导那些或许从未遇见福音的众人来到教堂，听取福音。
故我们是一所教会学校，我们不是传教会，并不要求学生一定成为基督信徒。他们有接受或拒绝的xx自由。然而我们是基督徒，我们传授教育必须在教会学校，那些拒绝基督教的学校将不予接受我们。教育需要被传授，而问题是，在哪里传授以及为谁所传授？
若有更好的方法，我们的工作将可以开展地更富有实质性。学期在毫无盈余中结束，为开展下一学年的工作，信徒们被迫借款八百美元。我们还需要花费更多的钱在其他项目上。目前最需要的是一个合适的学生宿舍，及教授自然科学所必需的仪器设备。如果有二千五百美元，我们将能够在学校操场上建起一座中文大楼并购置急需的教学器材。
我愿寄希望于那些受到上帝恩典的众多信徒中，有部分人能够资助此项工作的实施。我相信他们再不会找到比这更值得布施的事了。这里有着一些地位高尚的士绅，但对我们的事业没一点兴趣，若他们能够多了解孩子们一点，或许会愿意为此慷慨解囊。学校在这里达成了一些事情，目前最艰巨的任务是将其维系下去，直至人们认识到它的意义所在。请赐予我们工作之智慧，在此借用福勒主教于德鲁大学神学院演说时蕴意隽永的话语，我们将“不辱使命”。
撰写此文时，适值新学期开学，而我很高兴地看到有这么多新学员加入，我们的队伍已比去年壮大许多。
一八八六年二月二十六日
于中国·福州
