AN OPTIMIST LOOKS AT CHINA
樂觀看中國
By Hu Shih
胡適
It is in the direction of abolishing the numerous evils of the old tradition that China has achieved the greatest success in the past few decades.
過去數(shù)十年間移斩，中國在拋棄很多傳統(tǒng)惡習方面取得了巨大成功。
She has successfully prohibited the foot-binding which has? been a terrible curse to Chinese womanhood for at lease a thousand years.
中國已成功廢除裹足憎账，至少一千年以來蔗喂，這個一直是中國婦女可怕的夢魘句占。
The hereditary absolute monarchy has been overthrown, and with it are gone all those institutions which for centuries have been its paraphernalia: the imperial household with its unlimited number of wives and concubines, the institution of eunuchism, the parasitic nobility born to power, and many others.
世代沿襲的君主專制制度已經(jīng)被推翻诬烹，與之相關的整個體系也隨之瓦解：妻妾成群的皇室，太監(jiān)仍劈，生來就擁有特權并靠他人供養(yǎng)的貴族，等等寡壮，都已不復存在贩疙。
With the revision of Chinese law and the reform of legal procedure, the ancient tortures and inhuman punishments were abolished.
隨著中國法律的修訂和法律程序的改革，古代的酷刑和非人性的懲罰措施已得到廢止况既。
The opening of new schools marked the disappearance of the mechanical and exacting form of literary composition, known as the Octopartite, which had been required as the standard form in all state examinations, and for the mastery of which the best years and energies of the whole educated class of the past six centuries had been sacrificed.
新式學校的開放这溅，標志著“八股文”這種機械嚴苛的寫作形式已經(jīng)消失，所有的科舉考試都曾以八股文為標準棒仍。過去六百年以來悲靴，為了精通八股文，整個受教育階層浪費了最美好莫其、最具活力的年華癞尚。
These are a few of the more fundamental departures from the old tradition.
上述改革只是其中的一小部分，都是對舊傳統(tǒng)更為深刻的背離乱陡。
They are not merely isolated items of reform; they are indicators of fundamental changes in attitudes toward the most important phases of life.
它們絕不僅是孤立的變革浇揩，更顯示了人們在對重要人生階段的態(tài)度上的根本轉變。
The binding of women's feet, for example, was not merely an isolated institution of extreme cruelty and brutality, but also the clear and undeniable evidence of a general attitude toward womanhood which ten centuries of native religion and moral philosophy had failed to condemn and rectify.
例如憨颠，婦女纏足胳徽，不僅是極端殘忍和野蠻的陋習，還清晰而確鑿地證明了對待婦女的普遍態(tài)度爽彤。上千年來养盗，中國的宗教和道德哲學并未對此予以譴責和糾正。
The abolition of foot-binding, therefore, is not merely the passing away of an inhuman institution, but an indication of the coming of an entirely new attitude toward womanhood.
因此适篙，廢止纏足往核，不僅僅意味著廢止了一項殘忍的陋習，還預示著一種對待婦女的全新態(tài)度正在形成嚷节。
In that sense, it is veritably a moral revolution.
從這個意義上講聂儒，這是一次真正的道德革命蝶缀。
This revolution with regard to womanhood, which began with the agitation of Christian missionaries against foot-binding, has? been going on all these years.
這場關于婦女的革命源自基督教傳教士發(fā)起的反纏足運動。近年來薄货，該運動一直在持續(xù)，
It includes the opening of schools for girls, the gradual spread of coeducation in practically all universities and colleges, the entrance of women into professional and even official life, the recognition under the new Civil Code of their equal rights to inherit property with their brothers, and the rapid changes in the law and custom concerning marriage and divorce.
包括：開設女校碍论，幾乎所有大學和學院都逐漸建立了男女同校制度谅猾，婦女開始就業(yè)甚至從政，新民法承認女性擁有與其兄弟同等的繼承權鳍悠，與婚姻和離異相關的法律和風俗也迅速發(fā)生著變化税娜。
The revolution is far from completion; but it has already achieved in a few decades what twenty-five centuries of Confucianist humanitarianism and twenty centuries of Buddhist mercy had never dreamed of achieving.?
這場革命遠未結束，但是在過去數(shù)十年間取得的成就卻是兩千五百多年倡導仁義道德的儒家和兩千年來倡導慈悲為懷的佛家所沒有想到的藏研。
May we not call this a great progress?
我們能不稱之為巨大的進步嗎敬矩？
（彭萍? ?譯）
