子張

杭州的印象：茶好酒好絲綢靚

杭州是賽珍珠父母到中國傳教的第一個落腳點，故而要說賽珍珠在中國，不能不從杭州說起。

根據賽珍珠為她母親凱麗寫的傳記《異邦客》，凱麗和丈夫安德魯新婚之后，穿過美國大陸，又橫渡太平洋，花了整整一個月時間，到達中國上海。一對老傳教士在碼頭上迎接他們，7天之后，他們各奔東西，一半人去蘇州，另一半人到杭州。在到杭州的這一半人中，正有前來迎接凱麗夫婦的司徒爾一家人：司徒爾夫婦和他們的3個男孩，司徒雷登是3個男孩中的一個。

在從上海到杭州的木船上，凱麗初次領略了這個新國家美麗的秋色：一簇簇輕軟的、搖晃的竹子，低低的綠山，運河彎曲的、金色的流水，被豐腴而沉甸甸的稻子染黃的田野，相隔約半英里的一座座有茅草屋的褐色小村莊，連枷在打谷場上發(fā)出的令人昏昏欲睡的韻律，溫暖可愛的秋天空氣……

凱麗夫婦在杭州教會住了下來，開始跟從一個中國老師學習杭州話。在一天的學習之后，這對異國的新婚夫婦便以散步的形式去考察杭州的城市和鄉(xiāng)村，他們最喜歡的是在高高的城墻上俯瞰全城、西湖以及城里的河流。經由杭州，他們感受到這個“充滿矛盾的偉大國家”。

但是他們僅僅在杭州呆了一年多。當他們第一個孩子3個月大的時候，安德魯被派去蘇州，凱麗和丈夫、孩子就一起去蘇州了。

從賽珍珠的回憶錄《My Several Worlds》所收錄其早期作品《中國之美》中的一個片段看，她似乎是來過的。這個片段是為了證明她“中國人天生不知展覽、廣告為何物”的看法所舉的一個例子。

她這樣描述杭州絲綢店里那種“尋?？床灰?、偶爾露崢嶸”的隱逸之美：“在杭州無論你走進哪家大絲綢店，你都會發(fā)現，店里樸素大方，安靜而昏暗。排排貨架，整齊的貨包，包上掛著排列勻稱的價格標簽。在國外，店主們常在陳列架上掛著精心疊起的綢緞，用以吸引人們的目光，招徠顧客。但這兒卻沒有這些。你會看到一個店員走上前來，當你告訴他想買什么之后，他會從貨架上給你拿下五六個貨包。包裝紙撕掉了，你面前突然出現一片奪目的光彩，龍袍就是用這料子做成的?？粗W閃發(fā)光、色澤鮮艷的織錦、絲絨、綢緞在你面前堆起，你會感到眼花繚亂，就像有一群脫繭而出的五彩繽紛的蝴蝶在你眼前飛舞一樣。你選好了所要之物，這輝煌的景色也就重新隱入了黑暗。”這段精彩的描述結束之后，賽珍珠追加了一句斷語：“這就是中國！”這是說，賽珍珠以杭州絲綢店不事宣揚、注重內在的經營方式說明中國之美有別于他國的特點，然從紀實的角度，也該算是賽珍珠無意中為20世紀初的杭州商鋪留下了一幅動態(tài)圖景吧。

除了這段文字，在自傳第一部分，賽珍珠談到童年時代留下的美食印象時有這樣的回憶：“幾天前的一個晚上，當我和一個中國朋友坐在我在賓夕法尼亞的家中時，我們一起回憶起童年世界的幾道名菜——鄭州鮮美的黃河鯉魚湯，西湖酸鯡，長沙熏魚、熏牛肉，潮州梅花香咸魚，蘇州清蒸螃蟹，北京糖醋魚和洞庭湖蝦干?！苯酉聛碚f到酒，賽珍珠表示“我們都認為最好的要數浙江紹興酒”，貴州茅臺、山西汾酒倒在其次。茶葉呢？一句“我們最愛浙江龍井綠茶”，就把其他天下名茶都撇到后面了。在后面羅列的吃食中，杭州的名產還包括“杭州菊花茶”和“西湖藕粉”。

如此看來，賽珍珠一家真也沒白來中國，這樣的美食體驗別說是美國人，即令普通中國百姓怕也不是人人都能享受到的。

鎮(zhèn)江之于賽珍珠，近乎母親之鄉(xiāng)

一到鎮(zhèn)江，我就把住處安排在汽車站和火車站綜合大樓四層的桔子水晶酒店。根據事先了解，賽珍珠故居就在火車站北面不遠的坡地上，住這兒，方便尋訪，也方便乘車。

翌日吃過早飯，因為距故居上午9時開門的時間尚早，從效率出發(fā)，我就先打車去了西津渡歷史街區(qū)，又在9時整參觀了鎮(zhèn)江博物館和伯先路上的不少近代建筑。查手機上高德地圖，知道此處距賽珍珠故居一公里半，步行約半小時。為了對賽珍珠一家的生活環(huán)境有更感性的了解，于是沿寶蓋路一路走過去。

這一帶，似乎已是鎮(zhèn)江城北較邊緣區(qū)域，民居老舊，道路狹窄，沿路是密集而簡陋的門市，人行道上停滿了各類車輛。然而這一帶生活氣息是濃厚的，一家賣鹽水鵝的門市前排起了長隊;一個叫“真道堂”的教堂內傳出安詳的唱詩的歌聲。

路不熟，手機導航也不太靠譜，繞來繞去似乎走了不少冤枉路，登云路已拆遷，兩面筑起了圍墻，一時有些辨不清方向。但最終還是折到潤州山路上，“賽珍珠故居”的標牌已遠遠地向我打招呼了。

在幾座高層居民樓一側的小山上，珍珠公園、珍珠書屋、珍珠塑像依次出現。賽珍珠因創(chuàng)作了描寫中國農民生活的長篇小說《大地》等作品，先后獲得普利策獎和諾貝爾文學獎。拾級而上，一本打開的《大地》象形文字雕塑映入眼簾。再上去一層，山頂一片草坪后面，曾在照片中看到過的賽珍珠二層洋房故居就真真切切現身了。草坪另一側還有根據老照片雕塑的賽珍珠全家像，立在后面的中國老婦正是給過賽珍珠重要影響的女傭王媽。

正如所有文化名人的故居一樣，賽珍珠故居也有著必要的清靜。除了我，另外只有三兩個參觀者在向講解員詢問一些有關賽珍珠的問題。

一樓一底的格局，里面的設施是西化的，客廳和房間都裝著壁爐，中間是黑色木質樓梯，樓梯不是一口氣到頂，而是至三分之二處有個平臺緩沖。底樓大致包括客廳、活動室、廚房餐廳和王媽的臥室，二樓則包括賽珍珠父親賽兆祥和賽珍珠各自的書房，父母以及賽珍珠本人的臥室。我感覺最妙的一處是二樓南面中間位置類似陽臺的地方，現在放著兩張中國藤椅，周圍全是拉著窗簾的窗子，可以想見在需要陽光而又確有陽光的日子，坐在這里讀書是多么愜意！我甚至想，在20世紀之初，由美國傳教士“引入”中國的舒適小洋房，為何沒有被普通的中國民眾所接受？是文化原因還是經濟原因？

由一些資料知道，賽珍珠幼時是隨傳教的父母來到鎮(zhèn)江的，直到18歲回美國接受大學教育，大學畢業(yè)后又回到鎮(zhèn)江工作了幾年。就人的成長而言，鎮(zhèn)江之于賽珍珠，幾乎可以說是真正的母親之鄉(xiāng)。

不過若言“故居”，這座兩層的洋樓與其說屬于賽珍珠，不如說更屬于賽珍珠的父母。因為這座樓是賽珍珠回美國讀書期間蓋起來的，此前他們全家是住在一座平房里，賽珍珠住進這座二層洋樓，是從她大學畢業(yè)返回中國后開始的，住了大約3年后因結婚離開了鎮(zhèn)江。

傳教士賽兆祥夫婦的故居也罷，賽珍珠的故居也罷，從近代中美文化交流的角度說，總還是一處有紀念意義的文化遺址;從賽兆祥到賽珍珠，從《新約》到《大地》，其中種種傳奇性的故事，至今令人感慨和緬想。

故居而外，又有一座同樣是二層的新建筑被作為賽珍珠紀念館，承載著介紹賽珍珠及其文學世界、慈善事業(yè)的功能。一一瀏覽偌多實物和照片、文獻，等于重溫一遍曾經通過書籍了解到的賽珍珠堪稱偉大的一生，想：如若沒有一個博大溫暖的胸懷，又怎么會寫出那么磅礴的、為沉默而偉大的民族塑造靈魂的史詩性巨作。

在已經融入現代化城市的登云山上，無法想象一個多世紀以前的傳教士賽兆祥一家的生活狀況，但是透過賽珍珠描述幼年生活的文字，以及她兩個姐姐和一個哥哥不幸夭折的悲劇，總能大約猜出當時環(huán)境的惡劣。聯系閱讀賽珍珠為他父母親寫的傳記，我對當時那些懷著愛心幫助過中國普通平民的人們充滿敬意。

穿過鎮(zhèn)江火車站下面寬闊的通道，回到我居住的酒店，才發(fā)現賽珍珠故居其實就在對面不遠的地方，中間僅僅隔著火車站內的數十道鐵路而已。

Pearl S. Buck was the first woman to win a Nobel Prize in Literature. Bucks life in China as an American citizen fueled her literary and personal commitment to improve relations between Americans and Asians.

If one traces the footsteps of Pearl S. Buck （1892-1973） in China， Hangzhou comes up first. She was born as Pearl Sydenstricker. When she was five months old， her parents Absalom and Caroline， both Presbyterian missionaries， spent a month crossing the United States from the east coast to the west coast and crossing the Pacific Ocean to reach Shanghai， with Pearl in tow. They were met in Shanghai by a missionary couple from Suzhou. After a week in Shanghai， the old couple returned to Suzhou whereas the Sydenstrickers came to Hangzhou， met by the Stuarts. One f the sons of the Stuarts was 16-year-old John Leighton Stuart （1876-1962） who grew up to a missionary， the founder and president of Yenching University in Beijing and served as US ambassador to China before October 1949 when the Peoples Republic of China came into being.

Pearls parents spent about a year in Hangzhou before they moved to Suzhou and then Zhejiang where Pearl spent her child and youth.

Did Pearl visit Hangzhou as an adult？ From her memoir titled ， one can conjecture that the answer is yes. In the book is a description about her visit to a silk store in Hangzhou where she was delighted and surprised to see fine silk fabrics after the dull wraps were removed. In her autobiography she mentions a conversation about food in China with a Chinese friend at home in Pennsylvania. Pearl and her Chinese friend agreed that Shaoxing Wine and Dragon Well Tea， both special delicacies of Zhejiang， were the best beverages of China.

If one wants to know more about Pearl S. Buck， one needs to visit Zhenjiang， a city where the Grand Canal comes from the south and connects with the Yangtze River. I visited Zhenjiang to have a first-hand feel about the place where I could probably have insight into the formative years of the future winner of Nobel Prize for Literature.

Pearl S. Buck is a VIP presence in the riverside city. The day I visited the former residence of Pearl S. Buck， I got up early. I decided to visit a historical part of the city where old houses still remain before the former residence opened at nine oclock in the morning. The historical district was on the northern edge of the city. I walked through Baogai Road， an old street of shops. There was a long queue of customers in front of a salted goose shop. I passed a church and heard the choir sing peacefully from outside. Looking at the map on my phone， I found I was close to the former residence， though the map wasnt updated to give me correct directions. But eventually I found the path to the hill.

I walked up the steps of the hill and pretty soon I set my eyes on a sculpture of ， a book that won Pearl S. Buck a Pulitzer Prize in 1932 and Nobel Prize for Literature in 1936. In front of the house is a large lawn. A sculpture of the Sydenstrickers including Pearl， her parents and their maid surnamed Wang， stands on one side of the lawn. The house where Pearl S. Buck once lived is now called the former residence of Pearl S. Buck. The two-storied house is on the top of the low hill， flanked by some tall apartment high-rises. In fact， the two-storied house was built during her absence in America. The family had lived in a bungalow for about 18 years. When she was 18， she went back to the USA to receive university education. After she came back to Zhenjiang， she lived in the new house for three years. The bungalow was no more.

Near the two-storied residence stands Pearl S. Buck Museum， where one can view the literary career and charity work of Pearl S. Buck. On display are objects， photos， and text documents， portraying the great soul of the woman.

The two-storied house， which does not look outmoded even today， does not give one any clue to imagine how Caroline and Absalom Sydenstricker lived in China more than 100 years ago. Pearls two elder sisters and an elder brother died young in China. If one reads Pears biography of her parents， one finds the couple respectful： they cared for ordinary Chinese people.