抱殘守缺辜鴻銘
Conservative Gu Hongming
中國二十世紀初的大學問家辜鴻銘，在北大任教時住在椿樹衚衕。一天，他在私宅宴請歐美友人，不點電燈，卻用煤油燈，屋內煙氣嗆鼻。老外說，煤油燈不如電燈明亮，辜鴻銘笑道：“我們東方人，講求明心見性，東方人心明，油燈自亮。東方人不像西方人那樣專門看重表面功夫。”他乘機借燈講起了佛理和哲學。所以，20世紀初，西方人曾流傳一句話：到中國可以不看三大殿，不可不看辜鴻銘。
Gu Hongming was a great scholar in the early years of the twentieth century. While teaching at Peking University, he lived at Chunshu Lane. One day, he invited some western friends to dinner at his house. His house was not lighted by electric lights but by kerosene burners, filling the house with irritating smoke smell. Those foreigners said the kerosene lamps were not as bright as electric lamps. Gu replied, "We Easterners attach great importance to purify our minds to seek the truth. As we have a clearer mind, our kerosene lamp looks naturally bright. We are not like Westerners who pay so much attention to the appearance." He then took the opportunity to expand on Buddhist teachings and philosophy. Consequently, there circulated a saying among Westerners: Once in China, it is not sensible not to see the three main palace Halls, neither is it not to see Gu Hongming.
辜鴻銘何許人也？百度人物簡介：他生在南洋，學在西洋，婚在東洋，仕在北洋。他獲有13個博士學位，倒讀英文報紙嘲笑英國人，說美國人沒有文化，第一個將中國的《論語》、《中庸》用英文和德文翻譯到西方，憑三寸不爛之舌，向日本首相伊藤博文大講孔學，與文學大師列夫?托爾斯泰書信來往，討論世界文化和政壇局勢，被印度聖雄甘地稱為“最尊貴的中國人”。
Who was this Mr Gu? His profile on Baidu: Born in Southeast China, educated in the West, married to a Japanese girl and serving in the Beiyang Government. Holding 13 doctorates, reading English newspapers backward in order to make fun of English people, describing Americans uncultured, he was the first to translate Lun Yu and Zhong Yong into English and German. Eloquent, he elaborated on Confucianism to the then Japanese Prime Minister Itō Hirobumi, had correspondence with the literary mater Leo Tolstoy discussing the world culture and political situation. He was hailed as "the noblest Chinese man" by Mahatma Gandhi.
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