MY FIRST VISIT TO PEKING: BEFORE THE SIEGE

Sewage — Expectant Taotai — Decay of religion — The spirit of Peking — Flowers and trees— Grand plan—Wasted labourEffect of government — Ming masterpiece versus English stream pollatioD mod London fogs ..... i

ON returning from Peking I still thought it the most wonderful place I had ever visited. On reaching Tientsin the first thing we saw was the then newly-arrived Thevenet steam engine and rails, and, though they were but baby ones, it seemed as if we had traversed centuries since three days before we rode stumblingly through the Peking gates. Steamers were shrilly whistling in Tientsin, men hammering, bluejackets encouraging their donkeys and ponies along the Bund in true English style, and the fair White Ensign floating from a real, live, modem man-of-war lying off the Consulate door. Three days before long strings of two-humped tawny camels were the baggage waggons, and every whiff of air we breathed assured us we were in the pre-Sanitary Period, when not only sewers had not begun troubling, but every other thing of the kind was unknown except that last modem development, the sewage farm, carried on just outside most of the gates of Peking — just inside Tung-chow— and so regardless of odour as to make one doubt whether riding into the country at Peking were quite as delightful as it is described.

以下是CHAPTER I的翻譯：

第一章：我第一次訪問北京：圍困前

污水——期待中的道台——宗教的衰退——北京的精神——花卉與樹木——宏大的計劃——浪費的勞力——政府的影響——明代傑作與英國河流污染模式的對比與倫敦霧霾的比較

在從北京返回後，我依然認為這是我所訪問過的最奇妙的地方。到達天津後，我們看到的第一件事就是新近抵達的特文奈（Thevenet）蒸汽機和鐵軌，儘管它們只是小型的，但感覺上我們像是跨越了幾個世紀，因為三天前我們還在顛簸地穿過北京的城門。天津的輪船尖聲鳴笛，工人們在敲打著什麼，英國水兵們以地道的英式風格驅趕著驢子和小馬沿著碼頭行進，潔白的海軍旗幟在領事館門前的現代化軍艦上飄揚。三天前，長隊的雙峰駝色駱駝還是我們的行李車隊，每一口呼吸的空氣都在提醒我們，我們正處於前衛生時期，那時不僅污水問題尚未開始困擾人們，其他類似的問題也都不為人知，除了最後的現代發展——位於北京大多數城門外的污水處理場——以及在通州城門內的不顧氣味的情況，這讓人懷疑在北京郊外騎行是否真的如所描述的那樣令人愉快。

Wearied of London, and perhaps somewhat overladen with the cant of the day, aesthetic, hygienic, and social -economic, I can imagine nothing more tonic for the sufferer than a sojourn in Peking, as it was. Even quinine is bitter in the taking. And what are not the after-effects of those yellow-tiled imperial pavilions, glittering in the sun, round about the marble bridge, and up the Mei-shan! Of the entrance pavilions — Ting-erh — deepest blue, bright green, bright vermilion, harmonised by golden dragons, imperially taking their ease, as also by an atmosphere whose transparency makes even a mud wall beautiful! The after-effects of finding women — women still, though for centuries wearing trousers and Lady Harberton's divided skirts ! The after-effects of mingling with a people most democratic, and yet without one touch of Radicalism, always ready to make way for Acknowledged Merit in the person of a mandarin with eight bearers, and a crowd of retainers on horseback!

厭倦了倫敦，或許也有些厭煩當時流行的虛偽風氣——無論是美學的、衛生的還是社會經濟方面的——我無法想像有什麼比在舊時的北京小住更能提神振氣。即便奎寧服用起來是苦的，而那些在陽光下閃閃發光的黃瓦皇室亭閣，圍繞著大理石橋，直上煤山的景象，難道不也是令人回味無窮嗎？那些入口處的亭子——亭兒——深藍色、亮綠色和鮮紅色，由金龍優雅地點綴著，無比和諧，再加上那透明的空氣，即使是一堵泥牆也顯得美麗無比！再想想看到那些婦女的感受——儘管她們幾個世紀以來都穿著褲子和哈伯頓夫人的分襠裙，但她們依然是婦女！還有與這些極具民主精神的人民交融的感受——他們沒有一點激進主義的痕跡，卻總是隨時準備為一位八抬大轎、隨行騎馬的官員這樣的「公認的賢能者」讓路！

We came down the Peiho, drifting slowly with the current but against the wind, in company with an expectant Taotai and his following. For all the world he might have been the sickly scion of a noble race succeeding to inherited honours, as with leaden cheeks he smoked and smoked and looked at us, quite expressionless, never speaking a word. But we tried to remind ourselves here was Acknowledged Merit, waiting its reward. For had we not just seen the outside of the great Examination Hall at Peking — one mostly used to see the outsides of things then — ^as also the Hall of the Grand Triennial Examination, where men of China contested for the highest honours, the names of the successful being inscribed on imperishaUe, huge stone tablets for all after ages to see.

One of the most curious things in China is that this hall, even then still used for winning the highest honours by China's most distinguished men, had a much more neglected, discarded air than the remains of the dead and buried Roman age to be seen in Italy. There one goes into heathen temples, where for centuries no heathen rite has been performed, but looking much more as if it were going on still than the Chinese temi^es, where yet, till the siege, if not now, magnificent rites were at least twice yearly performed. The ApoUos and Jupiters I have seen have had a far fresher air of being venerated than the Chinese Buddhas and Goddesses of Mercy. Never up till then had I succeeded in seeing anywhere the smallest fragment of religious service.

It may be true that China is still Buddhist, or Confucian, or Taoist. But I believed it far less after a few months in China than before. For there was no evidence of it beyond the temples and the images, according to which Rome would be Pagan still. I remember lionising foreigners in London. We went to Westminster Abbey, and the service was not over yet. They were none of them Christians, and were greatly impressed by its solemnity, till at last one sprighdy German lady visitor whispered, " Could it possibly be allowed to use my opera-glass to look at this beautiful building.?" Who would hesitate to use an opera-glass in a Confucian temple ? We went on to the House of Commons ; they were at prayers there. We proceeded to the House of Lords, but were not allowed even to look in, for the Lords had not yet prayed, and till they did, according to the policeman, none must even look in. "And is this every day every day ? " asked a Swedish professor, solemnly.

我們沿著北河順流而下，雖然逆風，但隨著水流緩緩漂動，同行的還有一位滿懷期待的道台及其隨從。他看起來像是繼承家族榮譽的病弱貴族後裔，臉頰蒼白，默默地抽著煙，毫無表情地看著我們，始終一言不發。然而，我們努力提醒自己，眼前的這位是「公認的賢能者」，正等待著他的獎賞。因為我們剛剛還見過北京那宏大的考試院——那時我們大多只能看到事物的外觀——以及大三年考試的考場，中國的士子們在此競爭最高榮譽，成功者的名字被銘刻在巨大的不朽石碑上，供後世瞻仰。

中國最奇特的現象之一就是，即便在那時，這座考場仍然用來讓中國最傑出的人才競爭最高榮譽，但它的廢棄和荒涼感卻遠超過了在意大利看到的已經消亡的羅馬遺跡。那裡的異教廟宇，幾個世紀以來不再進行任何異教儀式，但看起來比中國的廟宇更像是仍然在使用的。而在那些廟宇裡，直到北京被圍困之前，每年至少還會舉行兩次盛大的儀式，儘管現在可能已經不再舉行了。我所見過的阿波羅和朱庇特的雕像看起來比中國的佛像和觀音菩薩還要受人尊敬。在那之前，我從未在任何地方見過哪怕是一點點的宗教儀式。

也許中國依然是佛教國家，或者信奉儒家和道家思想，但在中國待了幾個月之後，我對此的信念比來之前減少了很多。因為除了寺廟和神像之外，幾乎找不到任何證據來證明這一點，按這種標準，羅馬也應該依然是異教徒。我記得曾經在倫敦帶著外國遊客參觀，我們去了西敏寺，那時禮拜儀式還未結束。他們當中沒有人是基督徒，但都對儀式的莊嚴印象深刻，直到最後，一位活潑的德國女士悄悄問我：「可以用我的小型望遠鏡來欣賞這座美麗的建築嗎？」在儒教廟宇裡，誰會猶豫是否可以使用望遠鏡呢？我們接著去了下議院，他們正在那裡祈禱。我們再前往上議院，但不被允許進入，因為貴族們尚未祈禱，而在他們祈禱之前，根據警察的說法，任何人都不得進入。「這真的是每天都如此嗎？」一位瑞典教授莊重地問道。

MY FIRST VISIT TO PEKING 5

"Then, whether it is from the heart or not from the heart, still I say your England is a wonderful country."

China struck me as far more wonderful in its neglect of ordinances. And how congenial such neglect is to the human heart, is abundantly shown by the way in which it grows upon the Europeans in China. Almost all my life I have lived what is called abroad, yet I never but once heard a lady say she had been to a picnic on Sunday, for instance, till I came to China. Here it seems to be the rule rather than the exception. "It is the men's one day for getting away," they urge. But this could be said with more force in smoky, foggy Liverpool or London. Where in all the civilised world will you find the European churches so little frequented as in China .^ I am often reminded of a Commissioner of Customs' remark : " The Chinese have done more to heathenise the English than the English with all their missions to Christianise them."

Looking at that huge caravanserai Peking, I wondered what the subtle influence was that even had conquered the conquering Manchus, for at first sight everything seemed so overpoweringly repulsive, so beyond all exaggeration disgusting, that one would have thought that its present state would rather serve as a horrible example