2013 Summer Sanskrit Study Opportunities

1. Sanskrit and Nepali Summer Schools at South Asia Institute, Heidelberg University, Germany

The Department of Classical Indology, Heidelberg University, is welcoming applications for our Summer Schools between August 5 – 30, 2013 in:

Spoken Sanskrit and
Nepali Intensive Course
Please find further information at http://www.sai.uni-heidelberg.de/abt/IND/en/summerschool/summerschool.php.

2. Summer Language Intensives in Tibetan and Sanskrit at Mangalam Research Center, Berkeley, USA

This summer Mangalam Research Center for Buddhist Languages will again offer
intensive 7-week language programs in both Classical Sanskrit and Classical
Tibetan. The programs are designed to provide the equivalent of a first-year
university-level language program in each language.

Both courses meet four hours a day, five days a week. Lessons will be
reinforced with daily assignments that will insure a working understanding
of the concepts and forms discussed in class. The programs are ideal for
students at the graduate and advanced undergraduate level, as well as for
enthusiasts in South Asian humanities or linguists and classicists
interested in learning the basics of either of these influential ancient
languages.

Applications for both these programs are due by May 1, and applicants will
be notified by May 15. For further information, see http://www.mangalamresearch.org
or contact inquiries@mangalamresearch.org.

3. Intensive Course in Classical Sanskrit Reading and Recitation, Hong Kong (TBC)

Date
Summer 2013, TBA

Course method

In first session in the morning and in all three afternoon sessions the students will recite the chosen Sanskrit texts and practice recitation of different Sanskrit metres under the guidance of Dr. Kashinatha Nyaupane.

In the second and third sessions in the morning, Prof. Dr. Harunaga Isaacson will explain, comment on and discuss the meaning of the chosen texts with students.

Both teachers will use some Sanskrit as well as English medium in teaching, so that students will have the opportunity to practice Sanskrit listening comprehension; those who wish are encouraged to also take this opportunity to practice speaking Sanskrit as well.

Teaching staff

1.Sanskrit Recitation: Dr. Kashinath Nyaupane, Director of the Department of Buddhism, Sanskrit University, Kathmandu
2.Sanskrit Reading: Prof. Dr. Harunaga Isaacson, Professor of Classical Indology, Department of Indian and Tibetan Studies, Hamburg University

Last year’s website: http://www.aai.uni-hamburg.de/indtib/Sanskrit-Intensiv.html

4. Summer Sanskrit @ Harvard

This course, equivalent to two semesters of coursework, enables students to acquire the basic reading skills in Sanskrit. Stress is placed on learning the Devanagari script, basic grammar, and essential vocabulary. Emphasis is also given to correct translation of passages ranging from simple narrative literature to the epics.

Prerequisite: knowledge of Latin, Greek, or Hindi is useful but not required.

Course tuition: noncredit $5,540, undergraduate credit $5,540, graduate credit $5,540

Date: Time: June 22 – August 10, 2013.
http://www.summer.harvard.edu/courses/32541

Sanskrit in Hong Kong

In 1912, Charles Eliot was appointed the first Vice-Chancellor of the University of Hong Kong. Beside knowing over 20 languages, Eliot was also a Sanskritist who won the Boden Sanskrit Scholarship when he studied at Oxford. His knowledge of Sanskrit is evident in his magnum opus Hinduism and Buddhism. Undoubtedly, Sir Eliot would have shared his enthusiasm in languages with his colleagues and students. However, as far as the records go, no Sanskrit classes were officially offered then at the university.

Unlike other universities in Asia such as Peking University or the Imperial University of Tokyo, Indology and Buddhist Studies were never established at the University of Hong Kong. As Sanskrit is the basic language for all serious scholars in a broad range of fields including historical linguistics, Buddhism and Indian culture, philosophy and religions, we nonetheless find a number of scholars at HKU who knew Sanskrit. One of them is Prof. Hsu Ti-shan許地山, who was the Dean of the department of Chinese literature. Prof. Hsu was the probably the first Chinese professor to teach Sanskrit in a modern university. He taught Sanskrit and Indian religions and philosophy at the Yenching University in Beijing prior to his move to Hong Kong. His notes in Sanskrit are now in the Hong Kong University Archive although the staff there were reluctant to let me have access to the materials and ignored my inquiries. It appears that Prof. Hsu did not teach Sanskrit during those tumultuous years when Hong Kong was under the ongoing threat of Japanese invasion. Sadly Prof. Hsu passed away at the age of 47, just months prior to the horrific Japanese occupation of Hong Kong.

Another important scholar who had made important contributions to Indian studies, in particular, in the fields of Sino-Indian history and linguistics, is our beloved Prof. Jao Tsung-I饒宗頤. His works on Siddham studies is still considered authoritative and are often cited by Sinologists, the majority of whom unfortunately do not know any Sanskrit.

In 2002, the Centre of Buddhist Studies was established at HKU. Although no Sanskrit classes were offered then to the undergraduate students, Sanskrit and Pāli classes are offered to postgraduate students, mostly to the students of the highly popular Masters of Buddhist Studies program. Since last year, I began to give a one-semester Introductory Sanskrit class to the undergraduate students. Ideally, an introductory course should be one-year instead of one semester. But this seems the best the university, or rather, the Centre of Buddhist Studies, can manage, since the Faculty of Arts of this world-class university, oddly enough, has no apparent interest in classical languages, but offer courses in modern languages including even modern Greek.

Last year there were only three students in my class, who all passed the course, and one even with flying colors. The class always attracted some curious auditors. This year we have seven students, and as always, coming from all different departments. As I have explained to them, we will proceed at our own speed. After two lessons, some students have already mastered the writing system, reading and writing Devanāgarī. This is really not bad, considering according to the Tang monk Yijing (7/8th century), it took the children 6 months to learn through the writing system: …創學悉談章。亦名悉地羅窣覩。斯乃小學標章之稱。俱以成就吉祥為目。本有四十九字。共相乘轉。成一十八章。總有一萬餘字。合三百餘頌。凡言一頌。乃有四句。一句八字。總成三十二言。更有小頌大頌。不可具述。六歲童子學之。六月方了。(南海寄歸內法傳卷第四). At Havard and some other places, there are summer programs where students spent weeks (and thousands of dollars!) just to learn the script and basic grammar; in mainland China, Sanskrit classes are unbelievably popular. My colleague at Fudan University informed me that last year, over 100 students enrolled in the one-year introductory Sanskrit class.

Although we do not have a program for Indian or even Buddhist studies for undergraduate students like other major universities, I believe this is an excellent start for HKU. It is important that students of humanities have the opportunity to acquire the fundamental skills such as the mastery of classical languages at a young age which enable them to conduct research at a world-class level and to have direct access to primary materials such as manuscripts and original texts, instead of relying on translations and secondary literature.

So what is the future of Sanskrit studies in Hong Kong? First of all, it is important to raise the awareness of those who are in charge of university curriculum and education policy. Language education is crucial in general; no one would argue against that. But classical languages are even more so for those in the humanities. I found it sad that there is no department of classics in an English-medium university such as HKU; I find it perplexing how one can become a scholar of Western culture or even English without knowing Greek or at least Latin (and French, for that matters). But here since Hong Kong is the confluence of the East and the West, and that after all we are closer to the East than to the West, all students of humanities should have at least reading knowledge of classical Chinese and Sanskrit. Without classical Chinese and Sanskrit, students simply have no access to the vast body of literature – philosophical, religious, poetic and even scientific, of the two great civilizations of the East – China and India.

Last night I wandered down the hill and found a shop with the name “Sanskrit" written in faux devanāgarī style. However, if a visitor coming to Hong Kong thinks that Sanskrit is only found in Yoga magazine and Indian shops, then he would be very wrong. Sanskrit is found everywhere in the Chinese language（see my columns in buddhistdoor.com). Without the knowledge of Sanskrit, one will never fully understand the Chinese Buddhist texts and Chinese Buddhism, which has become an integral part of Chinese culture since nearly two thousand years ago, and especially  a thousand years ago after the Tang and Song Dynasties. Having acquired a reading knowledge of Sanskrit, one however does not stop just at the Buddhist texts, there are also all the great Indian texts of all different traditions –  the Vedas, the Hindu religions (Śaivism, Vaiṣṇavism), the Jaina, and the beautiful poetry of Kālidāsa, and for me personally, fascinating scientific literature such as all the amazing ancient astronomical texts.

 

Japanese Andromeda 為何梫木英語稱作“日本仙女”？

Amongst the botanical species native to Asia, one would not fail to notice the many scientific names which end with japonica. This is, however, not to say that the species are native to Japan, but rather they were first identified in Japan by Europeans who developed the botanical nomenclature as we now know. In fact, many of these species were native to China and were spread or cultivated later in Japan. The best known example would be the Pagoda Tree, named as Sophora japonica in Linnaeus’ supplement (Mantissa plantarum 1767) to the second edition of his monumental Species Plantarum (1^st ed. publ. 1753) . The species, native to China, cultivated only later in Japan, is known as huai槐in Chinese and was mentioned in some of the oldest Chinese texts such as The Rites of Zhou周禮as a tree planted outside the royal court to mark the spots where the ministers would pay their hommage to the king; it was also described in Erya《爾雅·釋木》(oldest Chinese dictionary/encyclopedia – 1000 BCE?) as a black tree with big leaves. The Europeans first classified under the Sophora because the seed pods it bears. Later in the 19^th century, botanists reclassified it under the genus Styphnolobium. The japonica part got stuck although there have been at least one binomial proposal with “sinesis”. According to the principles established in the International code of Botanical Nomenclature (1930), the earliest correct name (according to the code) stays and thus its current scientific name remains to date – Styphnolobium japonicum.

In fact, there is more Japanism in the botanical nomenclature than just japonica.

During the 17^th century, while the Chinese were still too arrogant to entertain the Europeans, oblivious to the impending threat of colonialism and Western imperialism, the Dutch and the Japanese were already starting a very curious intellectual exchange which is known later as rangaku蘭学, literally “Dutch Learning”. At that time, Japan was still under the Tokugawa shogunate’s policy of sakoku (lasted until the arrival of Black Ships in 1853),  but the exchange grew into a major intellectual development for both sides, which later enabled Japan to rapidly modernize from the mid-19^th century. It was during that time that a German naturalist by the name of Kaempfer ventured to Japan and managed to collected plants specimens (1689-1691). Amongst the specimens described in his Amoenitates Exoticae (publ. 1712) was the Ginkgo Tree. In old Chinese, this tree is known as yinguo銀果 (lit. silver fruit, now yinxing銀杏) and the Sino-Japanese pronunciation was ginkyō. When Kaempfer tried to latinize the Sino-Japanese pronunciation, due to a curious scribal quirk, ginkjo became ginkgo and the latter was adopted in Linnaeus’ nomenclature. As early as 1773, this curious ginkgo appeared in English articles. But since the consonant combination “nkg” is not permissible in Latin or English (or in any language as far as I know!), by as late as 1858, it was spelt gingko instead, which we use up till today as you can see in the healthfood store – for those who remember… Ginkgo or gingko, it tells the story of how the word migrated from Chinese to Japan, and then to the West through a German with bad handwriting.

There are yet more such japonica plants. One of them is the fancifully named Japanese Andromeda, scientically known as Pieris japonica of the generally poisonous Ericaceae family (except notably blueberry!). Again, this is a species native in China and the rest of Eastern Asia and was known in Chinese as Mazuimu馬醉木 (lit. horse-intoxicating wood) or Qinmu梫木(considered to be a type of laurel桂). How this plant acquired the fanciful name Japanese Andromeda once again has a rather convoluted history. This plant, Mazuimu or Asebi in Japanese was first classified in Linnaeus nomenclature by Thunberg (pron. Toon-be-ry in Swedish!), one of Linnaeus’ disciples. In his Flora Japonica (1784), this plant was first described as Andromeda japonica. The name Andromeda, referring in fact to another plant formerly known as Chamaedaphne, was an invention (a rather poetic one!) of Linnaeus in 1732 who associated a number of features of the plant to Andromeda, the poor princess chained to a rock in the sea in Greek mythology.

This Andromeda plant with red-turned-pink flowers, is now commonly known as Bog-rosemary and is given the species name Andromeda polifolia after its rosemary-like leaves. However, based on the principles of uniqueness and priority (which later formalized into the International code of Botanical Nomenclature in 1930), the Scottish botanist brothers David Don reclassified Thunberg’s Andromeda japonica as under the new genus Pieris instead (which incidentally refers to one of the Muses). Under this newly created Pieris genus were Pieris formosa (indeed abudant in Taiwan), Pieris Lanceolata, Pieris Ovalifolia, and Pieris japonica. Thus in George Don (younger brother of David Don)’s A general history of the dichlamydeous plants (1834), the Pieris japonica forever replaced the Andromeda japonica. Once again, due to the uniqueness principle, the term Andromeda and Pieris are distinguished at the level of genus, although Pieris was formerly called Andromeda in Thunberg’s nomenclature.

When the Japanese biologist/botanist Ito Keisuke 伊藤圭介published the Taisei Honzō Meiso泰西本草名疏in 1829, Thunberg’s Andromeda Japonica was adopted, glossed in Japanese and Chinese as アセビAsebi and 梫木Qinmu respectively. As the plant was widely cultivated in and exported from Japan, the misnomer Japanese Andromeda remains today.

 

中西交流的窘境 － 讀新渡戸稲造《武士道》

為何“禪”英語是Zen而不是Chan或Sim（更不是原來梵語Dhyāna或巴利語Jhana)？為何產於中國的“銀杏”歐洲語為Gingko而不是Yinxing/Baiguo或Nganhang/Bakguo?這些英譯都是按日語發音，而非漢語。令人匪夷所思的是，這些日語漢字本來就是漢語。

現代東西文化交流，歐美諸國甚為重視，而代表東方的只有日本。中國人往哪去了？清末一方面國家積弱，國人也故步自封，儘管偶爾冒出一兩個像辜鴻銘等通中西語言文化的天才，但整體洋學不成氣候。與之相比，日本自19世紀中葉佩里率領黑船敲開日本國門後，促進了明治維新，大舉洋學，培養了一群通東西文化的精英份子。而且與中國的留美幼童不一樣，這些精英份子除了各顯專業才華，在政界和文化界也受到掌權者的賞識而得到重用，對這個民族的水平的提升起了極大作用。日本的文化人最先把漢文化介紹到西方，也就是這個原因，“禪”念作zen，“銀杏”念作gingko（原來應作ginkyo，但轉成拉丁文時給弄錯了），連源自我國的槐樹也叫Styphonolobium japonicum而不是Styphonolobium sinicum！

最近讀新渡戸稲造《武士道》，一部20世紀初對西方文化界影響甚大的著作，令我想到中西交流最先決的條件，就是必須同時擁有對中西雙方文化獨特的見解，並具備非一般的造詣。留美兒童到了西方就給洋化了，對自己的文化失去信心，甚至信奉了別人的宗教。日本的明治精英，特點是學習別人的東西的同時，不失民族自尊，而這並不是新中國所鼓吹的那種盲目民族／愛國主義，而是透過學習和交流而不斷發掘自己的文化底藴，讓別人感受到文化的魅力。

現在中國留學生（包括港台生）每次被邀請參加文化交流活動時遇到最大的問題，就是沒有東西跟別人交流。外國的東西學得“半桶水”，國學和傳統文化的東西也幾乎一竅不通。從言行舉止都看不出是一個有文化修養的人。每次聽到中國學生揚言為中國文化而驕傲，我都暗裡冒一把汗，心裡說不出的難受。

儘管本人不是研究國學，但總覺得作為中華文化的繼承人，總有一個文化自覺的標準，能夠讓中華文化的精粹在個人的價值觀中發揮一定的正面作用，並且擁有一種以漢文化角度來解讀世界和社會的能力，能夠告訴別人，作為炎黃子孫，累積了幾千年人類的智慧，在思考和處理問題上所具有的智慧和洞察力。因此，光是懂漢語並不足夠，文史哲整體發展脈絡應該有一個宏觀、正確的理解。四書五經和儒釋道的經典最少要翻過一邊，二十四史沒有讀過，裡面的故事也得聽過，四大名著還沒讀完最少看過電視劇，琴棋書畫最少要挑一門並且精通。如果連這個最低的要求也達不到，根本沒有甚麼東西可以值得與別人交流。

新渡戸通歐洲多國語言，說他英語極佳並不是指他的英語達到了甚麼級，而是他外文閱歷甚廣，英語有文采，所以得到國外文化界的賞識。新渡戸同時受過傳統東方教育，學生時代每天背誦古文，而且生長於一個傳統文化甚深的環境，因此受到西方思想的刺激後，能夠反思自己固有文化的真正內涵，並且向西方傳達重要的文化信息。《武士道》裡面引用了許多儒家經典的名句，並與西方不同的觀點互相比量，特別是用英語表達，感覺非常奇特，好像與原文有所出入，但反覆細味，發覺作者的選詞實在是深思熟慮。如《論語》君子有勇而無義爲亂、小人有勇而無義爲盗，新渡戸把“義”作為闡述武士道精神的起點，與西方真理和公正相呼應。接著從義到勇，說明儒家對勇的理解並不亞於柏拉圖；從勇到仁，說明東方仁的概念比基督教的博愛更為普世；從仁到禮，說明禮的深層意義比西方理解的更深。。。如此西方讀者不得不為之信服！

近代中國人當中，除了林語堂外，沒想到別的達到這個高度的文化人了。

京都古琴演講會記

昨天應京都世協邀請，於左京區ミント畫廊舉辦了一場古琴演講會，出席人數三十餘人，座無虛席。本來打算以日語作演講，後來因為太忙，沒時間準備，決定還是以世界語發表，田平女士即時傳譯。

演講會分三部分：投影解說《古琴》、演奏和問答交流。

由於演講針對一般沒有音樂基礎的聽眾，內容比較簡單，知識量頗大但不失趣味。過去於德國漢堡、Herzberg、日本山梨、名古屋等多個城市舉辦類似的演講會已經有七八次，累積了不少經驗，可以說信心十足。英語、德語和日語演講時一方面要考慮聽眾語言習慣，另一方面受個人語言水平限制，準備功夫比較多，世界語發表則沒有這種壓力。

這回演奏曲目包括：神人暢、太古引、梅花三弄、憶故人、漁樵問答、平沙落雁、水仙操和山中思友人。由於運輸問題，這次只能帶上一張琴。考慮到場地沒有擴音，我選擇了我那張曾氏桐木琴，上了鋼弦，聲音比較響亮，適合這種示範表演。前天調弦時琴弦竟然斷了兩次，所以昨天臨時決定先彈山中思友人，後彈其他正調曲子。

這次演奏表現一般，比較滿意的為神人暢和平沙。彈漁樵時給後面工作人員閃光嚇了一下，頓時出亂，唯有接回源頭，若無其事的繼續彈下去。聽眾中有一位京大的博士生，跟鎌倉的伏見先生習琴，也許只有這位“知音”察覺。

問答部分聽眾踴躍發問，十多個問題分量十足，既深亦廣：琴曲創作的背景，琴棋書畫和文人傳統，琴曲和唱曲的關係，五聲音階和漢語的關係等等。演奏會結束後收到多位參加者的來信，十分喜歡古琴古樸的聲音，希望獲得更多關於古琴和古琴音樂的訊息。來自神戶的藤本女士建議以後舉辦定期雅集，為更多喜歡古琴音樂的朋友提供分享和交流的機會。

趣談粵語疊詞

北方方言疊詞結構簡單，白白的，紅紅的，亮亮的，小小的，即是AA。再複雜一點的有吵吵鬧鬧，大大咧咧，磨磨蹭蹭，即是AABB。北方方言是受外來語影響簡化了的漢語方言，結構簡單，學習容易，所以成為“普通話”有他的道理。但是其文化底藴和語言趣味則遠遠不及歷史悠久的南方方言。

粵語裡AA疊詞比較罕見，在粵語地區如果對方說了一個“白白的”就說明對方是一個不諳粵語的北方“老兄”（念“撈鬆”）。地道的粵語該作“白雪雪”（syut1)，紅朴朴（bok1)，臘臘令（laap3lapp3ling3)/亮晶晶，細細粒，如此類推，即是ABB或AAB的結構。為甚麼粵語裡出現這種特別的說法呢？語音學家有很多說法，特別是生成語音學派的理論十分有趣，也就是說所有語言，尤其是有具有音調的語言在因素排列時有一定的規則，某些語音序列較為理想，而某些序列則盡量避免。除了結構序列外還有字數和音調搭配等其他考慮。粵語不喜歡兩個字的疊詞，而三個的疊詞則必須以ABB或AAB的結構出現。

那四個字的疊詞又怎麼辦？像北方方言裡結構為AABB的疊詞在粵語裡也有出現，例如巴巴閉閉，密密麻麻。但AABB的疊詞在粵語裡比另外一種結構更為有趣的疊詞出現次數少。試看以下例子:㧺(dam2)心㧺肺，睇嚟睇去，嘰哩咕嚕，㕧哩唦啦(si4li1sa4la4)。

這些例子懂粵語的朋友都十分熟悉。前兩者結構為ABAC；後兩者則要把字拆為音素才能看清楚：giligulu, silisala。這一組粵語疊詞的結構為XaYaXbYb。這種交錯的結構除了形式上的美感，在聽覺上亦同時帶來特殊的效果。那有朋友可能會問，這些疊字是誰創造，是古漢語遺留下來還是現代人隨便說，“亂噙”(up)的結果呢？

由於這種XaYaXbYb在粵語裡大量出現，而且新的XaYaXbYb也不斷出現，這說明兩個道理。第一，這種疊詞並不是隨機的結果。第二，XaYaXbYb這個結構在粵語語音系統裡已經固定下來，像一個模型一樣，是一個抽象的語言結構。因此人們可以根據這個結構來創造新的疊詞，而且可以無窮無盡的創造。

說粵語的人大腦裡真的那麼棒嗎，可以隨時隨地的做出結構複雜的XaYaXbYb疊詞嗎？聽民間藝人，或老人家“講故仔”時，很多“生鬼”的說法其實就是充分利用這種即興創作的結果。當然不是每個人都有這個本事，不要說廣東人對粵語不了解，連中國人一般對漢語也不了解。我說的了解是對語言整體歷史發展的理解（diachronic），語言本身結構（synchronic），方言的概念和方言之間的關係。當然我們都不是專家，不能所有細節都能得很明白，但擁有一個粗線條的理解，還有是正確的理解，還是十分必要的。然而我發現中國人，特別是中國大陸母語為北方方言的朋友，在以上問題上十個有九個都是完全錯誤的。特別是那些把普通話說成中原正音，連古漢語怎麼演變為現代漢語的歷史也不知道，說粵語甚麼南蠻鳥語的人，我只可以贈他一語：黐線。

四個字的粵語疊字還有甚麼規律呢？要把所有規則都標出來可能不太可能，但有一些規則還是比較明顯的。佛教朋友喜歡持咒，簡單般若心經裡語句謁提謁提，較長的大悲咒裡也有silisili,surusuru。這些也是疊字，是梵語裡的“效果”疊字，也就是說把字重複完全是為了效果。“謁提”是gate是詞根gam(“去”)的過去分詞gata的位格(locative)，文法上也可以理解為呼格(vocative)，不管是那一個重疊在語法上沒有意思。這些疊字的結構為XaYaXaYa，簡單的說其實就是XaYa重複一次。懂粵語的人一聽就知道這些不是廣東話的疊詞。如果有人說“好快好快”，這不是疊字，聽起來也沒有疊字效果，這是因為XaYaXaYa在粵語深層語音系統裡并沒佔一席位。

也就是這樣大悲咒裡的silisili,surusuru聽起來十分神祕，十分另類。其實這個結構在其他語言也可以找到。印尼語／馬來語就是其中一種。過去學bahasa學了三年，聽起來最有趣的就是這些疊詞：jalan jalan , bulu bulu。前者是逛街的意思，後者是“毛”。jalan本來是行走的意思，把字叠起來成為一個強調衍生詞。至於bulu是甚麼就不清楚了，難道是毛給人毛茸茸的感覺，所以要叠起來說？懂bahasa的朋友請指教。

Bahasa裡由於很多這種疊字，為了方便重複部分用一個“2”字代替，例如jalan-2，bulu-2。起初見到這種簡體字，感覺有點不倫不類，B老師也簡易我不要模仿。最近讀一部密宗寫本，發現過去梵語的密咒也用這種簡寫。不管是濕婆教還是佛教，密宗很多咒語一般用很曖昧的表達方法表現出來，行外人不懂各種倒裝或略寫術語根本猜不出來。但這裡的“2”很明顯不是甚麼密碼，而是一個普通的縮略符號，就以以下寫本為例，咒語是oṃ mālini kiṇi 2，即是oṃ māliṇi kiṇi kiṇi。值得注意的是黃色寫本的2字與一本寫本的不同。

《歲月神偷》：追索童真，緬懷往昔，還是對集體記憶的再創造？

沒想到在HKIA寫了那篇博客後，去法蘭克福途中就看了羅啟銳執導，最近榮獲多項殊榮的《歲月神偷》。我想我喜歡這套電影的原因有很多，首先我本來就喜歡“感動／勵志型”題材的小說和電影，每半年非得要找個機會好好的讓情感釋放一下不可，不讓自己心靈麻木，情感角質化。日本的情感勵志戲很多，情感表達十分細膩，可以說得上是鍛鍊心靈敏銳性的工具。《歲月神偷》也做到這一點了，儘管橋段十分老土，像得了血癌的大哥，運動會，被人家瞧不起的窮兄弟，一段不果的戀情，為了望子成龍，不顧犧牲一切，含辛茹苦的兩老等，這套電影仍然留給觀眾一個十分“真”的感覺，也就是說這套電影排得認真，劇本編劇連道具等反映這部電影一切用心，演員也流露了真情感。

作為一個70後的香港人，香港的60年代，一個所謂充滿拼搏精神的年代對我來講只是一個想像出來的東西。沒有經歷過，只能幻想。但從父母和身邊的朋友，偶爾可以感受到那個年代的氣息。《歲月神偷》透過對過去的緬懷，希望給充滿“負能量”的現代人帶出一些正面的信息，因此對大家的集體記憶進行再創造或改造，對歷史進行過濾，這是無可厚非的。片中價值觀黑白分明－－欺詐老百姓的港英“差佬”和腐敗的醫療體制是邪惡的，階級之間的不平等是沒有公理的；反過來說，父母愛子之心是無私、偉大的，一切以家為本，不管外面風雨怎麼大，在這個苦海裡我們最後還是要回到我們的家，尋找心靈最後的依歸。

現實世界當然沒有那麼非黑即白，事實上港英政府也不是完全的壞，我們的“家”也不是那麼完美。但人總是希望創造一個烏托邦，要不把它放到未來，要不把它放在過去。未來的烏托邦比較玄，天國、涅槃、大同，說著說著弄得不好就攪出一個獨裁主義；過去的烏托邦因為包含了歷史因素，所以必需要對歷史進行改造才能化身為一股為現代人帶來靈感的力量－－K教授對吠陀文化的演繹，大姐對“老革命時代”的嚮往，新國學希望復興的禮樂文明，這都不就是對過去的再創造麼？

偶爾一點顛倒幻想我覺得不是壞事，但從佛家的如實正觀的立場來說，還是應該活在當下。吸收了歷史的教訓，受了前人的啓發，接著就是繼續往前奮鬥。沈醉於對過去的緬懷絕對不是好事，把我們從現實與過去的烏托邦對立分離，同時對歷史的發展和價值觀的演變失去了正觀，哪怕當了神偷的並不是歲月，而是這部電影！

昨晚做夢，世界末日，地球被昆蟲佔領。醒來好幾次，竟然繼續發同一個夢！大吉利是！