杭州觀察(附錄一)
馮儁熙
二零零三年十月二十四日
從岳王廟說起
一
來到杭州，會想起岳飛。
岳飛，南宋抗金名將，被秦檜以「莫須有」的罪名處死。一段可歌可泣的歷史，一個家傳戶曉的故事。
杭州，南宋首都，有「人間天堂」的美譽。就在那西子湖邊，栖霞嶺下，長埋著這「還我河山」的英魂。
岳王廟，讓我們反思何謂民族，何謂國家。
岳王廟正門處有一「重修岳飛墓記」，讀來不勝感慨：
南宋岳飛墓為國務院公布的全國重點文物保護單位。一九六六年秋被毀。一九七九年重新修復。歷時一年，花費人力五萬六千工。人民幣四千萬元。
浙江省文物管理委員會
一九七九年七月
又是文革．．．．．．
昔日的「封建主義」殘渣，今天的「愛國主義教育基地」。好一個１８０度的轉變。當馬列破產的時候，人民共和國更需要岳飛。
「乾坤正氣忠孝完人樹千古英雄模範
廟貌重新湖山生色寫百代道德文章」
好一副對聯，想必是七九年重修後寫的。經過那十年浩劫，也許寫這副聯的文學家、書法家對著那八百多年前的古墳，想起那為著一己私利而草菅人命者，也會悲從中來。
二
今天是浙大的校運會，運動健兒競賽場上比高下時，我這個文弱書生就感謝他們，讓我多了一天假期。
兩位星加坡同學和我一起去參觀岳王廟。一位是為了做報告(presentation)，另一位是陪她去的，而我是為了找題材寫文章。
沈甸甸的照相機，加上一枝筆和一本簿，只欠一部錄音機，不然更像一個記者。想起在歐洲，當我參觀一些名勝古蹟時，常常見到一個個小學生，在老師的陪同下，帶著紙與筆，尋訪他們祖先曾經走過的地方：
「你們眼前的廢墟，從前是一座修道院。這座修道院後來被亨利八世下令解散。誰可以告訴我有關亨利八世的事情？」
「他前後有六個老婆！」
真令人羨慕。我指的是那些小學生。
「你可以花一年時間到中國遊學，是很難得的機會，要好好把握呀！」
「你讀完生物，再讀歷史。能夠有機會涉足文理兩面，香港學生中很少有這樣的機會呀！」
「我現在功課繁重，無緣出外旅遊，但我猜想透過你的文章，我也可以『參觀』很多美麗的地方吧。」
真令人羨慕。別人指的，是我。
但我的心境再也不是小學生。
三
小學三年級開始有歷史課，還要是用英語授課的，至今也不知是幸運呢，還是可憐呢。每個星期六，就是在家裡背生字：原來古時有個New Stone Age，人們懂得用石器，合作去hunt一隻mammoth。呀！還有hippopotamus。什麼？Hippo什麼？是hippopotamus。吓？！是hip-po-po-ta-mus!意思是河馬。還有科學科的chrysanthemum。至今我還是要查字典才敢肯定這兩個字怎樣拼。一隻河馬與一朵菊花相輝映。
如是者，到了中學。分中國歷史和世界歷史兩科。世界歷史，老實說，除了四大文明古國外，基本上，就是西方（特別是西歐）文明史。中國歷史呢，基本上就是「帝王將相史」。當然啦，我的中史和世史基礎，就是依靠初中三年的教育而來。雖然放下了七年，歷史的輪廓還是深植於心內。無論是「人道是三國周郎赤壁」，還是「壯志飢餐胡虜肉，笑談渴飲匈奴血」，總會有個大概印象。
記得我曾經問過中史老師，為什麼漢武帝派大將北伐匈奴，逐其至千里之外，我們稱讚他雄才大略，建立起一個大帝國。為什麼我們不從匈奴的角度出發去想？印象中，老師的答案是我們讀的是中國歷史，我們自然是從中國的角度出發啦。現在回想起來，如果匈奴作為一個民族今天還存在的話，不知道他們會怎樣想呢？
如果這問題太抽象，不如設想一下，假如你是一個滿族人，今天參觀岳王廟，你的感受會如何？滿族的前身是女真族，而金朝是由女真族建立的。當你站在這個威武的抗金名將的塑像前，你是同其他漢族朋友一樣，愛國主義情緒高漲呢？還是自慚形穢，覺得自己的祖先侵略人家在先，於法無據，於理不合？又還是覺得這些漢人都是離譜的，明明今天大家都是中國人，為什麼還要尊崇這個視女真人（滿族人）為世仇的將軍為民族英雄呢？
Observations in
Isaac Chun Hai Fung
This was an unfinished article. Only three sections were written.
Let’s start with
ONE
Arriving at
YUE Fei, a famous general of the Southern Song
Dynasty who fought against the Jin Dynasty, was executed by a fabricated charge
(mò xü you, “Maybe there
is”[i])
made by QIN Hui (1090-1155). An episode of history so
heroic and touching as to bring people to tears; a story known to every
household.
At the main gate of
The Tomb of Yue Fei
of the Southern Song Dynasty is a key protected historical monument of national
importance, decreed by the State Council. It was destroyed in the autumn of
1966. It was renovated in 1979. [The renovation] took one year, employing
56,000 workers. It cost 40 million Chinese yuans.
Committee of management of antiques and historical monuments of
July 1979
Again, it was the Cultural Revolution….
The trash of “feudalism” in those days, an “educational base for
patriotism” today. What a turn of 180 degrees! When Marxist-Leninism goes bankrupt,
the People’s Republic needs YUE Fei evermore.
“Full of righteous, a perfect man of loyalty and filial piety, the
exemplar of hero everlasting;
What an antithetical couplet (duì lián), it must be written after the renovation in 1979.
Having experienced the Ten years of Disasters (i.e. the Cultural Revolution),
perhaps the writer and calligrapher of this antithetical couplet, facing this
ancient tomb of more than 800 years’ history and thus being reminded of those
who for the sake of their own interests treated their people as if they were
not worth a straw, would felt heavy and grievous from within.
TWO
Today is the Sports Day of Zhejiang University.
While the athletes run for their championships in the stadium, a frail student
like me thanks them for giving me an extra day of vacation.
Two Singaporean friends and I visited the
A heavy camera, with a pen and a notepad, it would sounds more like a
reporter if I have got a tape recorder. This reminds me that when visiting
famous sights and historical monuments in
“The ruin in front of you was a monastery in the past. It was dissolved
under the decree of Henry VIII. Who can me something about Henry VIII?”
“He had had six wives all together!”
What an envious scene. I mean the primary school children.
“To take a year out to study in
“After reading biology, you are going to study history. To have the
opportunity to get involved in both humanities and science, is an opportunity
unavailable to many students in
“I am very busy with my studies, and thus have no chance to go travelling abroad. However, I guess, through reading your
articles, I can also “visit” many of these beautiful places.”
What an envious scene. To whom people are saying, is me.
Yet my state of mind is no longer that of a primary school child.
THREE
Starting from primary three, I had lessons on history. Furthermore, it
was conducted in English. Up to now, I still cannot decide whether it was my
fortune, or was it my pity. Every Saturday, I stayed at home memorising vocabulary: oh, long time ago, there was a “New
Stone Age”, when people used stone-made tools. They cooperate to hunt a
“mammoth”. Ah, there was “hippopotamus”. What? “Hippo” what? It is a
“hippopotamus”. Huh? It is “hip-po-po-ta-mus”! Known
as River Horse (He Ma) in Chinese. Also there was “chrysanthemum” in the
Science lesson. Up to now, I still have to look up the dictionary to make sure
how these words are spelt. A hippopotamus and a chrysanthemum champions each other
as being difficult to spell [literally in
the Chinese original, add radiance and beauty to each other].
Life went on and I entered secondary school. There were two history
subjects, one of
I remembered that once I had asked my Chinese history teacher, why did
we praise Emperor Wu of the Western Han Dynasty of his great ability and
strategies, establishing a great empire, for being able to send generals and
armies to invade the Huns in the north and chase them thousands of miles away.
Why did we not consider this from the point of view of the Huns? In my
impression, my teacher’s answer was that what we were studying was Chinese
history, thus naturally we are looking from the perspective of
If this question is too abstract, let us consider this: if you are a
Manchu, what is your feeling today when you visit
Translated from the Chinese original on 19th March and
Back to the Table
of Contents of “Observations in Hangzhou”
[i] Qin Hui (1090-1155), the treacherous Prime Minister of the
Southern Song Dynasty, falsely accused Yue Fei, a patriotic general, of plotting a rebellion. When Han
Shizhong, another patriotic general, indignantly
questioned him whether he had any evidence, Qin Hui
replied: ‘mò xü you’, meaning ‘maybe there is’. Since
then, the three characters have been used to mean unwarranted; groundless;
fabricated; trumped-up. (The Contemporary
Chinese Dictionary [Chinese-English Edition],