At the beginning of the 20th century, a number of Chinese students were sent to study in the United States on the Boxer Rebellion Indemnity Scholarship Program. Part of the first remission of money was also used to establish a preparatory school,named Tsinghua College and also called the “American Indemnity College”. Every year, the College would send some graduates and faculty to study in the United States. Lin Yutang, who got the chance to study at Harvard, was also a beneficiary of the Boxer Indemnity.
20世紀(jì)初,許多中國(guó)學(xué)生拿到庚子賠款獎(jiǎng)學(xué)金到美國(guó)留學(xué)。第一筆庚子賠款的一 部分被用來(lái)修建一所留美預(yù)備學(xué)校(或稱(chēng)肄業(yè)館),并命名為清華學(xué)?;?ldquo;美國(guó)賠款 學(xué)校”。每年學(xué)校要送一些畢業(yè)生和教師去美國(guó)留學(xué)。林語(yǔ)堂得到了去哈佛大學(xué)學(xué)習(xí) 的機(jī)會(huì),也算是庚子賠款的一個(gè)受益者。
Lin was born into a Christian family. His father was a Christian minister. Therefore, in 1912 Lin entered the Theological School of Saint John’s University in Shanghai to become a minister following in the footsteps of his father. While he was in Theological School, Lin tried to find answers to a number of questions about the meaning of life and went through almost every book at the University library. Still, he failed to find his answers. Then he left the Theological School, giving up his plan of becoming a Christian minister, and changed his major to language studies.
林語(yǔ)堂出生于一個(gè)基督教家庭,父親是基督教牧師。為子承父業(yè),林語(yǔ)堂1912 年進(jìn)了上海圣約翰大學(xué)神學(xué)院。林語(yǔ)堂在神學(xué)院的時(shí)候試圖尋找一些關(guān)于人生意義的 問(wèn)題的答案,為此他瀏覽了圖書(shū)館里幾乎所有的書(shū),但仍然沒(méi)有找到答案。于是他離 開(kāi)神學(xué)院,放棄了當(dāng)牧師的打算,改學(xué)語(yǔ)言研宄。
After graduation in 1916,Lin taught school at Tsinghua College. Three years later, Lin was qualified to receive a half-scholarship to study for a doctoral degree at Harvard University in the United States. Lin studied comparative literature at Harvard and received his master’s degree in comparative literature. However, Lin had to leave Harvard early in 1922 because he could not afford to continue to study there. He moved to France and eventually to Germany, where consumption level was not so high. Finally, in 1923 Lin completed the requirements for a doctoral degree at the University of Leipzig in Germany. Lin enjoyed studying abroad, but he had qualms about Westerners’ preoccupation with logic and scientific method. After coming back to China, from 1923 to 1926 Lin taught English literature at Peking University. He served as Dean at Amoy University in 1926,after being chased out of Beijing, as his writings offended the warlord Zhang Zongchang.
1916年畢業(yè)后,林語(yǔ)堂到清華學(xué)校任教。三年后林語(yǔ)堂夠資格獲得了一個(gè)到美 國(guó)哈佛大學(xué)攻讀博士學(xué)位的半額獎(jiǎng)學(xué)金。林語(yǔ)堂在哈佛讀的是比較文學(xué),并獲得了比 較文學(xué)碩士學(xué)位。但林語(yǔ)堂不得不在1922年就提前離開(kāi)哈佛,原因是他沒(méi)有錢(qián)在那里繼續(xù)學(xué)習(xí)了。他轉(zhuǎn)戰(zhàn)到了法國(guó),最后又到了 德國(guó),這兩個(gè)國(guó)家的消費(fèi)水平?jīng)]有那么高。最 后林語(yǔ)堂終于于1923年在德國(guó)萊比錫大學(xué)完 成了博士學(xué)業(yè)并拿到了博士學(xué)位。林語(yǔ)堂很喜 歡在國(guó)外學(xué)習(xí),但西方過(guò)分重視邏輯和科學(xué)方 法,他覺(jué)得這樣不太妥當(dāng)?;貒?guó)后,1923年到 1926年林語(yǔ)堂在北京大學(xué)教英國(guó)文學(xué)。后來(lái)因 為寫(xiě)的文章得罪了軍閥張宗昌,被逐出北京,1926年在廈門(mén)大學(xué)當(dāng)系主任。
Lin was a prolific writer and wrote over 35 books in English and Chinese. Besides, he was very active in the popularization of classical Chinese literature in the West. He worked to formulate Gwoyeu Romatzyh, a new method of romanizing the Chinese language, and created an indexing system for Chinese characters. He also invented and patented a Chinese typewriter.
林語(yǔ)堂是個(gè)多產(chǎn)的作家,中英文加起來(lái)共寫(xiě)了超過(guò)35本的書(shū)。此外,他還在西 方積極地推廣中國(guó)古代文學(xué);制定了一種用羅馬字體書(shū)寫(xiě)漢語(yǔ)的方法,叫國(guó)語(yǔ)羅馬字; 創(chuàng)造了漢字索引系統(tǒng);還發(fā)明了漢字打字機(jī),并申請(qǐng)了專(zhuān)利。
After 1928 Lin lived mainly in the United States. Lin saw himself as a “World citizen”,an ambassador who brought Chinese culture to the West, and who encouraged communication between the East and the West.
1928年以后林語(yǔ)堂基本上在美國(guó)生活。他認(rèn)為自己是個(gè)“世界公民”,是把中國(guó)文化傳到西方和鼓勵(lì)中西方交流的使者。