at the home of lü simian February 27 2009 0 comments
i’m not a translator. i’m not by any means proficient enough in chinese to converse freely with taxi drivers without a good number of hiccups, but maybe their dialect is to blame. however i’ve decided trying to translate some simple things would be a good way for me to build on what i already do know and get some new vocabulary. a couple weeks ago while at the home of lu simian (read below) i was given a brochure about his life and the house-turned-exhibit and figure that since i rather enjoy the local history, i’d give it a go.
so here is the result. corrections are welcome, though i’m probably not going to edit this post after i hit ‘publish’ since it’s really just a way to force me into some version of studying. i changed some wordings from what could be literal to what i think would be more appropriate in english. i’ve also changed the numbers from arabic to chinese simply to get my aesthetics demon to leave me the hell alone.
吕思勉（一八八九年－一九五七年），字诚之，江苏常州人，当代著名史学家。毕生致力于历史研究和历史教学工作，作出了卓越贡献。
先生十五岁入县学，第二年开始自习史学。后执教于苏州东吴大学，常州府中学堂，江苏省立第一师范学校，上海沪江大学。一九二六年起任上海光华大学历史系教授，系主任。一九五一年光华等高校调整合并。成立华东师范大学，任该校一级教授，又任上海历史学会理事，首届江苏省政协委员。先生从二十三岁起立志治史。他治学严谨，勤奋博学，写出大量有系统，有分量，有见解共八百万字的论著。一九二三年出版的《白话本国史》四册，是我国第一部用语体文写的中国通史，对当时史学界产生重大影响，长期被用作大学教材。先生的著作，有专门从事研究的著述，有又教学和研究相结合的产物，在历史研究上有承前启后的作用，室今国内外仍有多种翻印本广为流传。
先生一生读书万卷，笔耕不辍。曾经把《二十四史》通读三遍，并作大量考订札记。先生识大而不遗细，泛观而会其通，于群经小学诸子百家靡不究贯，并能引用新学说融入国故而阐发。先生一生志行高洁，诲人不倦。培养出不少著名文史工作者，门墙桃李，遍及国内外。先生热爱祖国，关心民众，抱看改革社会的宏愿讲学著述，以一个史学家的高度责任惑，为后人留不了丰富的史学遗产。
先生执德契于道，立行依于儒，言治则尚法，以高尚的书生气节为我们树起了一座精神殿堂。历史将永远铭记这个名字——吕思勉 |
Lü Simian (1884-1957), courtesy name Cheng Zhi, was a famous contemporary historian. He dedicated his life to historical research, making exceptional contributions to the field.
At the age of 15 he entered the county school. In the second year he began teaching himself history. He later taught at Suzhou Dongwu University, Changzhou Prefecture School, Jiangsu First Teacher’s School and Shanghai Hujiang University. In 1926 he took a position at Shanghai Guanghua University as both a professor in and head of the history department. As a result of a merger in 1951, Guanghua University became a part of East China Normal University. He maintained his position in addition to becoming the director of the Shanghai Historical Society and a member of the Jiangsu Province People’s Political Consultative Conference. Due to his academic diligence and meticulous scholasticism, he had composed more than 8 million words on the subject of history. In 1923 he published “the Vernacular History of Our Nation” in 4 books. It was the first work on Chinese history to be written in plain language. It was at that time that history first came to be widely seen as of great importance and his work became the standard material for university-level history classes. His research and publications unified the methods for teaching history. To this day the text is widely circulated.
Throughout his life, Lü Simian read thousands of texts and wrote ceaslessly. At one time he had read “the Twenty-Four Histories” three times, taking a vast quantity of notes on the texts. He was able to retain vast amounts of information, even being able to teach with direct quotes from the texts, not missing even the most minor fragments of meaning. Through the course of his life he worked tirelessly to educate his fellow man, not to bring up just a few well cultured students but to enlighten those both at home and abroad. He loved his homeland and was concerned about his compatriots, hoping to reform society through writing and to raise scholars of history to a higher degree of knowledge in order for future generations to retail a rich historical heritage.
In thought he worked according to the Tao; in actions, the principles of Confucius; in words, the teachings of Buddha. Thus he erected for us a spiritual temple. History will always remember this name – Lü Si Mian. |
Posted on Friday, February 27th, 2009 at 18:53, filed under changzhou. , comment feed
, respond , trackback
Leave a Reply
|
xiao er jing | near, far, east.
featured posts
Limit to posts about colour, architecture, language in general or those limited to Wu, Uyghur or Manchu.
|
contact email
kellenparkerⓐgmail․com
twitter
@KellenParker  me
@xiaoerjing islam in china
@AnnalsOfWu the Wu language site
 design & content ©2009-2006
Kellen Parker unless stated otherwise
|