Reading Reflection

    我对于第一章的开篇感到十分惊艳，了解一个人与他同时代与否并无多大关系，你若要完全知道一个人，先要了解他，而你之所以了解他，无非是你非常喜爱他。我时常感慨没有和喜爱的历史人物活在同一时期，现在看到林语堂如此豁达——一如苏轼——也是豁然开朗，有时候对于同代的人（contemporaries），你反而会受到很多局限以至于无法彻底地了解。不过看到他说，“without any apology”最偏爱苏东坡时候我也挺乐，因为without any apology, my favourite poet is Li Po. 当然了，苏轼也是非常值得敬仰的~

    还有一点感悟。我以前总是觉得中华文化——尤其涉及到文学方面——是没办法用外语好好地传神达意地介绍出去的，因为我私心里想这种诗词歌赋的音韵美和其中的深层含义动辄就牵扯到几千年的文化传统民俗的东西，如何用外语表达得出来？或者，即使表达了，也总会觉得差那么一点儿‘神’吧？但是今天读完第一章后，我好像得出了另一种“曲线救国”的看法，即是说我们未必要字字珠玑地‘神还原’，而是完全用外语思维，抱着一种介绍中国文化与介绍其他文化无异、古代中国院落和欧美复古建筑同属、中外文学作品都可遵循背景--人物--作品的介绍模式的态度，它未必就很难，只是需要大量的图像辅以想象，毕竟对于外国人来说，亚洲的东西长相倒是不太一样。总之在读第一章的时候，我倒是并没有十分地有违和感，反而兴致勃勃，可能少了文言的书卷气，但是的确多了几分英语语言流畅的激情。

Guiding Question

Why Su Tungpo enjoys a peculiar position in China's history?

    First of all, Su stands confirmly for his principles and opinions, he is nearly a democrat today, he not only contributed to the culture development, but also concerns civils; besides, the charm of his poems and prose which his reputation rests.

Words & Expressions

1.  a  galaxy of

At the time of Su Tungpo's youth there was a brilliant galaxy of scholars gathered at the court of the Chinese emperor.

[熟词僻义] Galaxy: If you talk about a galaxy of people from a particular profession, you mean a group of them who are all famous or important. 一群名人、群星荟萃。初看到这个短语感觉非常惊艳，用来形容当时文坛群星闪耀，群贤毕至十分合适。

e.g. Tom often says he is a small galaxy of British actors.

2. petty

When petty men were ready to serve as puppets of a powerful neighbor from the north in the name of a "regional independent China" which owed allegiance to a foreign power...

Petty: Petty is used of people or actions that are less important, serious, or great than others. 我以为这里的petty men其实就是指“小人”，挺合适的一个词。

e.g. Su was not a man who dealt with petty officials.