Lin Huiyin and Liang Sicheng, Chroniclers of Chinese Architecture1 (I)

文/丹尼尔·E.斯洛特尼克 译/程颋

1原文刊于《纽约时报》2018年3月8日开辟的新专栏Overlooked No More，此专栏为补发该报历史上遗漏的重要女性和有色人种的讣闻而设立。自1851年创刊以来，该报的讣闻一直以白人男性为主。设立新专栏的目的是为了弥补性别歧视和种族歧视造成的缺憾。

In the 1930s, the couple began surveying and recording the country’s overlooked ancient buildings, in an effort to begin preserving them. 20世纪30年代，为了开展对中国古建筑的保护工作，

这对夫妇开始勘察那些无人关注的古建筑，并做记录。

Many of China’s ancient architectural treasures crumbled22 crumble坍塌；崩裂。to dust before Lin Huiyin and Liang Sicheng began documenting them in the 1930s.In China, ancient structures were usually treated like any other buildings rather than being protected and studied,as they were in many Western countries.The husband and wife team were among the first preservationists to operate in China, and by far the best known. Their efforts have since inspired generations of people to speak out for architecture threatened by the rush toward develop-

20世纪30年代，林徽因和梁思成开始对中国的古建筑珍品做详细的记载。而在此之前，很多这样有价值的古建筑都已沦为废墟。在那时的中国，人们对待古建筑的态度和其他建筑没什么不同，不像在很多西方国家那样进行保护和研究。这对夫妇属于中国最早也是迄今为止最知名的一批古建筑保护者。此后，他们的努力激励着一代又一代人为受到仓促上马的无序开发所ment.

[2] Becoming China’s premier architectural historians was no easy feat.The buildings they wanted to save were centuries old, often in shambles3in shambles废墟。and located in distant parts of the country. In many cases, they had to journey through treacherous4treacherous暗藏危险的。conditions in the Chinese countryside to reach them.

[3] Exploring China’s outlying areas during the 1930s meant traveling muddy,poorly maintained roads by mule, rickshaw5rickshaw人力车；黄包车。or on foot. This was a demanding undertaking both for Liang, who walked with a bad limp after a motorcycle accident as a young man, and Lin, who had tuberculosis for years. Inns were often squalid6squalid肮脏的；邋遢的。and lice-infested, food could be tainted, and there was always risk of violence from rebels, soldiers and bandits.

[4] Their greatest discovery came on an expedition in 1937 when they dated and meticulously catalogued7catalogue（为……）编目录。Foguang Si, or the Temple of Buddha’s Light, in Wutai County, Shanxi Province. The breathtaking wooden temple was built in 857 A.D., making it the oldest building known in China at the time. (It is now the fourth-oldest known).

[5] Liang and Lin crawled into the威胁的建筑发声。

[2]林徽因和梁思成历尽艰辛，才最终成为中国杰出的建筑历史学家。他们想要拯救的建筑都有几百年的历史，往往破败不堪，且地处偏远。很多情况下，他们不得不穿行于中国乡间，克服种种艰险，才能到达目的地。

[3] 20世纪30年代，在中国的边远地区考察，就意味着要靠骑骡子、坐人力车或徒步走过泥泞破旧的道路。这对他们两人都不容易。梁思成年轻时因摩托车事故一条腿落下了残疾，林徽因则罹患肺结核多年。他们经常住的是肮脏的小旅店，里面虱子横行，食物可能也不干净，而且一路上随时都有可能遭到叛军、士兵和土匪的侵害。

[4]他们最伟大的发现来自1937年的一次考察。在这次考察中，他们明确了位于山西省五台县的佛光寺的建造年代，并对其做了详细编目。这座令人惊叹的木结构寺庙建于公元857年，是当时已知的中国最古老的建筑（现在是已知的第四古老的建筑）。

[5]为了确定这座寺庙的temple’s most forbidding, forgotten areas to determine its age, including one aerie8aerie（鹰等的）巢。inhabited99 inhabit栖息（在）。by thousands of bats and millions of bedbugs, covered in dust and littered with dead bats. Liang wrote of the experience in an account10段[6]原文引自梁思成先生用英文写的《中国最古老的木构建筑》，原载《亚洲杂志》1941年7月号。《梁思成全集》第三卷有相应译文，由英若聪程慕胜校。这次部分重了included in “Liang and Lin: Partners in Exploring China’s Architectural Past,”11译文采用了上海文艺出版社2003年版译本的书名。费著参考了《梁思成文集》、《林徽因诗集》、《美国与中国》（费正清著）、《梁启超年谱长编》等一批中英书籍, 从梁、林的幼年记到两人病故, 实为梁思成、林徽因合传。the English-language story of their lives written by Wilma Fairbank12全名Wilma Canon Frbk，中文名费慰梅（1909—2002），美国著名汉学家，研究中国艺术和建筑的美国学者，是美国汉学大师费正清（John King Fairbank）的夫人。曾任美国驻华大使馆文化参赞。费氏夫妇是梁思成和林徽因的好友。, their close friend and correspondent.

[6] “In complete darkness and amid the vile odor, hardly breathing, with thick masks covering our noses and mouths, we measured, drew, and photographed with flashlights for several hours,” Liang wrote. “When at last we came out from under the eaves to take a breath of fresh air, we found hundreds of bedbugs in our knapsack. We ourselves had been badly bitten. Yet the importance and unexpectedness of our find made those the happiest hours of my years hunting for ancient architecture.” ■

(To be continued)年龄，梁思成和林徽因爬进了里面最危险、最偏僻的地方。其中有一个灰尘覆盖的阁楼，栖息着无数只蝙蝠和臭虫，死蝙蝠到处都是。和他们通信的密友费慰梅在《中国建筑之魂：一个外国学者眼中的梁思成林微因夫妇》一书中用英文讲述了他们的人生故事，其中就有梁思成描述的这段经历。

[6]“四周一片漆黑，秽气冲天，我们戴着厚厚的口罩掩住口鼻，难以呼吸。我们一连好几个小时测量、绘图、用闪光灯拍照。”梁思成写道，“最后我们从屋檐下出来呼吸新鲜空气时，发现背包里竟有几百只臭虫，而我们自己已经被咬得伤痕累累了。但这次出乎意料的重要发现让这几个小时成为我搜寻古建筑的几年中最快乐的时光。” □

（未完待续）