20100912 自译作业

The power behind the recent surge in Asia's economy may have developed from the tenets of one of that continent's earliest philosophers.

亚洲经济近来高涨的动力也许来源于那个古老大陆一个最早的哲学家的教义。

The Confucius Connection:From Cultural Roots To Economic Growth孔子的关联：从文化之根到经济增长

Geert Hofstede Michael Harris Bond

In 1968, the late Nobel-prize-winning economist Gunnar Myrdal published a book entitled Asian Drama that described his investigations into the failure of economic development policies in South and Southeast Asia.1968年，最新的诺贝尔奖获得者、经济学家Gunnar Myrdal出版了一本名叫亚洲戏剧的书，这本书描述了他对南亚、东南亚经济发展政策的调查。

Twenty years later, we are experiencing a very different kind of Asian drama: Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Singapore are now outperforming the United States and Western Europe economically. 二十年后，我们正经历着一种完全不同的亚洲戏剧：日本、南韩、台湾、香港和新加坡，它们在经济方面的演出比美国和西欧更加出色。

Western markets are flooded with high-quality, high technology products "made in Asia"; the production of cameras, TV sets, and domestic appliances has all but ceased in many Western countries, the automobile business has suffered severely, and President Reagan has had to violate his free-trade principles to save the U.S. microchip industry. 西方市场泛滥着高质量、高技术的标注着“亚洲制造”的产品，包括照相机、彩电、家用小器械等已经被许多西方国家禁止引入；汽车市场供过于求，里根总统为了挽救美国微芯片工业也不得不去违背自由贸易政策。

It is true that most of the competition is from East, rather than from South or Southeast Asia; however, some South and Southeast Asian countries besides Singapore, such as India, Malaysia, Thailand, and Indonesia (the very scene of Myrdals drama), also show signs of an economic takeoff.毫无疑问，竞争来自于东方，而不是来自于南亚和东南亚，除了新加坡之外的南亚、东南亚国家，如印度、马来西亚、泰国和印尼（好似Myrdals戏剧的一个画面），同样显示了经济转型的迹象。

World Bank data on the average annual growth rate of per capita gross national product (see Exhibit 1) confirm the East Asian lead. 世界银行数据中国内生产总值年平均增长数据（看表1）确定了东亚的领先地位。

The Five Dragons, as these countries are sometimes called, are heading the list, with average annual sustained-growth percentages over a 20-year period of 7.6% for Singapore, 7.2% for Taiwan, 6.6% for South Korea, 6.1% for Hong Kong, and 4.7% for Japan.就象有时人们称之的那样，这五条龙，在表格上是领先者，在超过20年的时间里年平均可承受的增长百分比里，新加坡7.6%，台湾7.2%，南韩6.6%，香港6.1%，日本是4.7%。

These compare with rates for Western Europe of between 3.5% for Austria and 1.6% for Britain; for Latin America of between 4.3% for Brazil and —2.1% for Nicaragua; of 2.4% for Canada; and of 1.7% for the United States.对应的数据是，在西欧国家，奥地利3.5%英国1.6%，在拉美，巴西4.3%，尼加拉瓜—2.1%，加拿大2.4%，美国是1.7%。

WHY EAST ASIA?为什么是东亚呢？

Few economists predicted the staggering economic rise of the East Asian countries, and many failed to recognize it even when it was well under way. 几乎没有经济学家能预言东亚国家经济的摇摆增长，甚至在它们已经走上高速增长之路时，许多人还不能清醒地认识到这一点。

For example, an economic forecast by Hollis B. Chenery and Alan M. Strout published in the American Economic Review of September 1966 did not even include Hong Kong and Singapore because they were considered insignificant in this respect.例如，Hollis B. Chenery and Alan M. Strout在1966年九月出版的《美国经济回顾》中做经济展望时，甚至没有包括香港和新加坡，因为他们认为在这方面给予尊敬是没有意义的。

The future performances of Taiwan and Korea were heavily underrated, and those of India and Sri Lanka were overrated. 台湾和韩国在未来的表现被严重低估了，而印度和斯里兰卡则被高估了。

Fifteen years later, Singapore with a population of 2.5 million exported more than India did with a population of 700 million.十五年后，250万人口的新加坡的出口将超过拥有7亿人口的印度。

Not only was the success of the Five Dragons unpredicted, but even after the fact economists have no explanation of why these particular countries were so successful. 不仅是这五条龙的成功未预报，而且，事实上在面对这些现实时，经济学家们也没有解释这些特殊国家为什么是很成功的。

Why, for example, did South Korea outperform Colombia, which seemed to be in a better starting position? 为什么呢？比如，南韩会优于显得起点更好的哥伦比亚？

In 1965, Colombia's per capita income ($280) was about twice South Korea's ($150). In 1985, South Korea's per capita income ($2,150) was about one-and-ahalf times Colombia's ($1,320). 在1965，哥伦比亚的总收入两倍于南韩，到了1985年，南韩的总收入已经是哥伦比亚的一倍半了。

U.S. garment buyers, however, chose South Korea —even though Colombia is nearer —because of better selection, better quality, lower prices, and more reliable delivery times. 尽管哥伦比亚在地理位置上更近，美国的服装消费者却更愿意选择来自于南韩的产品，因为产品多校更易于采购，质优价廉，数次交付更加可靠。

Better management was obviously also involved, but this is too easy an explanation for two reasons.更加优质的管理也同样包括在内，对这两条原因来说，这太容易解释了。

First, the quality of management depends on the qualities of the people to be managed; second, the quality-of-management explanation begs the question of how an entire nation can collectively produce better management than another nation. For the real explanation, we must turn to the domain of culture.首先，管理的质量来自于人民被管理的质量；第二，管理质量的解释源于这样一个问题，与其他国家相比，整个国家如何能够合作生产得更好。至于真正的原因，我们需要探讨到文化的领域。

THE NEO-CONFUCIAN HYPOTHESIS新儒家学说

Futurologist Herman Kahn has labeled the cultures of the East Asian countries "neo-Confucian"— that is, rooted in the teachings of Confucius. 未来学家Herman Kahn给东亚国家的文化贴上了一个新儒家的标签，也就是说，根源于孔子的说教。

Kahn saw himself as a "culturist":He, like the authors of this article, held the belief that specific nations have specific cultural traits that are "rather sticky and difficult to change in any basic fashion, although they can often be modified." Kahn称他自己为文化学者，他，就如本文作者，执有这样一种信念，特定的国家有其特定的文化特征，“尽管他们经常在形式上被修改，但在其根基上是稳定的、很难被改变”。

The authors like to define culture as "the collective programming of the mind that distinguishes the members of one category of people from those of another."这位作者倾向于这样定义文化：“一种把这类人与其他人区分开来的综合性思维运转过程，”

This definition applies to national as well as to corporate cultures, but we will stay at the national level. 我们放在国际视野中，那么这个定义同样可适用于国际间文化。

Kahn's neo-Confucian hypothesis is that the countries of East Asia have common cultural roots going far back into history, and that under the world-market conditions of the past 30 years this cultural in-heritance has constituted a competitive advantage for successful business activity.

Kahn的新儒家学说之意是，东亚国家在历史上有着共同的文化根源，在过去三十年的世界市场的条件下，这种文化继承性构成了成功商业活动中具有竞争性的优势。

Cultural inheritances are not genetically transferred; they can in principle be acquired by any human being who is at the right place at the right time. 文化传承不能简单理解为在基因上的传递，在原则上，他们可以被在正确的时间停留在正确的地点的任何人获取

We begin to acquire the mental programming we call culture from the day we are born, and the process continues throughout our life in a particular society.从出生之日，我们就开始获得我们称之为文化的这种心理历程，在特定的社会环境中，这种过程贯穿我们一生。

Cross-cultural developmental psychologists who have studied the behavior of children in different societies have shown that a child learns patterns of cultural behavior very early in its life. 那些研究在不同社会环境中孩子的行为的跨文化发展性心理学家表示，孩子们在其生命之初就开始学习文化行为的模式。

For example, Japanese male infants of 3 to 4 months are noisier than Japanese female infants of the same age, whereas in the United States the opposite is true. 例如，3个到4个月的日本男性婴儿比同一年龄的日本女性婴儿喧闹，而在美国却相反。

Sex roles are only one aspect of our cultural programming; thus from generation to generation, all kinds of cultural traits are transferred.

性别角色只是我们文化思维运转的一个方面; 因而一代又一代，各种各样的文化特征被转移下来。

With this in mind, let us begin to look at the teachings of Confucius.

鉴于此，让我们开始看孔子之教学。

CONFUCIUS AND HIS TEACHINGS

孔子和他的教学

Kong Fu Ze, whom the Jesuit missionaries renamed Confucius, was a high civil servant in China around the time of 500 B.C. 孔夫子，后来被别有用心的传教士重命名为孔子，在公元前500年前后是当时中国的一名高级官员。

Known for his wisdom, he was always surrounded by a host of disciples who recorded what we know of his teachings. 他以智慧闻名，他总是被一群门徒所包围，门徒们的记录让我们获知他的教学。

He thus held a position very similar to that of the Greek philosopher Socrates, who lived just 80 years later. 他所处的社会地位非常类似于晚于他80年的希腊哲学家苏格拉底。

Confucius' teachings are lessons in practical ethics without any religious content; Confucianism is not a religion but a set of pragmatic rules for daily life, derived from what Confucius saw as the lessons of Chinese history. 孔子之教学仅是教人实践性的伦理而没有任何宗教内容，儒教并非宗教，而是一套日常生活中侧重实效的规则，这些则源于孔子从中国历史中得出的教训。

The following are the key principles of Confucian teaching:下列是儒家教学的关键原则：

1. The stability of society is based on unequal relationships between people. The "wulun," or five basic relationships, are ruler/subject, father/son, older brother/younger brother, husband/wife, and older friend/younger friend. 社会的稳定基于人与人之间的不平等关系，五伦就是五种基本的关系，即君臣、父子、兄弟、夫妻、朋友。

These relationships are based on mutual, complementary obligations: 这些关系基于相互间完整的义务。

The junior partner owes the senior respect and obedience; the senior owes the junior partner protection and consideration.卑者对尊者应尊重和服从，尊者对卑者应保护和体谅。

2. The family is the prototype of all social organizations. 家庭是社会组织之根基。

A person is not primarily an individual; rather, he or she is a member of a family. 一个人首先重要的不是他自己，反之，他或者首先是一个家庭中的成员。

Children should learn to restrain themselves, to overcome their individuality so as to maintain the harmony in the family (if only on the surface); one's thoughts, however, remain free. 孩子应学会克制自己，抑制个性以保持家庭和谐（别怕仅在表面上）；然而，个人的思想是保持自由的。

Harmony is found in the maintenance of an individual's "face," meaning one's dignity, self-respect, and prestige.和谐就是每个都保住自己的脸面，脸面之意就是个的尊严、自尊和声望。

The use of our own word "face" in this sense was actually derived from the Chinese: Losing one's dignity, in the Chinese tradition, is equivalent to losing one's eyes, nose, and mouth. Social relations should be conducted in such a way that everybody's face is maintained.我们自己的词汇“脸面”在这个意义上其实就源于中国：在国传统中，失去一个人的尊严，就如同失去一个人的眼睛、鼻子和嘴巴。所有人都保住自己的脸面，社会关系就保持住了。

Paying respect to someone else is called "giving face."给别人尊重就叫做“长脸”。

3. Virtuous behavior toward others consists of treating others as one would like to be treated oneself: a basic human benevolence —which, however, does not extend as far as the Christian injunction to love thy enemies. 对其他人的贞洁行为包括对别人就象希望别人对自己所做的：基本的人类仁爱――这个，然而，没有象基督教义那样将爱扩展到爱敌人。

As Confucius said, if one should love one's enemies, what would remain for one's friends?如同孔子说，如果一个人应该爱你的敌人，那么何以报答你的朋友呢？（以德报怨，何以报德？）

4. Virtue with regard to one's tasks in life consists of trying to acquire skills and education, working hard, not spending more than necessary, being patient, and persevering.有关个人责任的美德包括尽力去获得技能和教育，努力工作，清心寡欲，耐心和坚持。

Conspicuous consumption is taboo, as is losing one's temper. 忌挥霍，正如勿发脾气。

Moderation is enjoined in all things.万事不可不作为。