Zhao, Yuanren

Zhao Yuanren geht nach seinen Studien an der Qinghua-Universität nach Amerika und studiert Mathematik und Physik, nebenbei befasst er sich mit Philosophie, Linguistik und Musik an der Cornell University.

Chao, Yuen Ren [Zhao, Yuanren]. With Bertrand Russell in China [ID D28127].
Since there is much more to Bertrand Russell in China than can be covered in this brief article, I have prefixed the title with "with" to make it clear that it was my part as Russell's interpreter that I am going to write about. Russell arrived in China less than a month after I returned to
China after studying in America for ten years. I had been called back to teach mathematics and physics at Tsing Hua College in Peking. But on August 19, 1920, the third day of my arrival in Shanghai, I was asked by the newly formed Lecture Society to be Russell's interpreter. This society was formed by the Progressive Party, led by men like Liang Ch'i Ch'ao, Chiang Po Li, Fu T'ung, et al. My friends the Hu brothers, Hu Tun-Fu and Hu Ming-Fu, and (unrelated) Suh Hu (later better known as Hu Shih) warned me not to be misled by people who invited Russell here just to enhance the political prestige of their political party. When Chin Pang-Cheng (better known as P.C. King), President of Tsing Hua College, was approached about borrowing me to interpret for Russell, he agreed, provided that I did not leave the Peking locality. As a matter of fact, the Lecture Society was organized right in Peking and before I had taught a full month at Tsing Hua, I was on my way to Shanghai to meet Bertrand Russell arriving on October 13. This was what I wrote in my diary for that date:
"Bertrand Russell looked very much what I had expected from photographs and descriptions, except that he looked stronger, taller, and more gracious-mannered than I had thought. He looked like a scholar. It was easy for me to get acquainted with him thru mutual acquaintances at Harvard."
Before going to Peking both Russell and Miss Dora Black gave lectures in Shanghai, Hangchow, Nanking, and Changsha. I usually interpreted for them in Standard Mandarin. But, having always been interested in the Chinese dialects, I tried the Hangchow dialect in Hangchow and the Hunan dialect in Changsha, the capital of the province. After one of the lectures at Changsha, a member of the audience came up and asked me, "Sir, which county of the province are you from?" He had not realized that I was a speaker of Mandarin imitating Hunanese imperfectly and assumed instead that I was a Hunanese speaking Mandarin imperfectly. On the same trip I had to interpret a speech by Governor T'an Yen-k'ai into English and somebody else interpreted Russell's. It happened that there was a total eclipse of the moon that night, to which Russell referred in his usual witty manner. But the interpreter left out that best part of his speech and repeated only the usual after-dinner polite words.
It was quite a job getting settled in Peking. Having found a house at No. 2 Sui-An Po Hutung in the eastern part of the city, we had to find an English-speaking servant-cook, as I was in no way obliged or qualified to do that sort of interpreting. Mr. Russell and Miss Black used the main northern part of the courtyard and I moved out from Tsing Hua College to join them in the eastern and western apartments. People very easily got used to the idea that Mr. Russell and Miss Black lived in the same apartment, although it was a revolutionary idea of recent
origin that a boy and a girl should meet each other at all before they got married. As a matter of fact, I myself was very much concerned with the problem of breaking an engagement with a girl I had never met and was much occupied after my return from America to settle the matter, especially as I began to know and was attracted to a Miss Buwei Yang, who was running a hospital in Peking. This made it all the more attractive to move from the Tsing Hua suburb into the city.
On November 5, 1920, I interpreted an interview with Russell by Liang Ch'i-Ch'ao. This was my first meeting with Liang, whose writings had had a great influence on the young men of our generation. November 7 was the date of Russell's first regular lecture. It was on problems
of philosophy, held on the Third Campus of the National Peking University. There was an audience of some 1500 people. I find in my diary I noted that "there is more pleasure to speak as interpreter than as the original speaker, because the former gets the response from the audience."
Other topics Russell lectured on included analysis of mind, idealism, causality, theory of relativity, gravitation, and symbolic logic. As a matter of fact, one reason for getting me to interpret for Russell was my dissertation had been on problems related to logic. The locality of the lectures alternated between the National University of Peking and the Teachers' College, which had a very large auditorium. Once I spent too much time with my girl friend Dr. Yang and arrived almost ten minutes late, while Russell stood helplessly on the podium.
Seeing that I had come in with a girl, he whispered to me, "Bad man, bad man !"
I also interpreted Dora Black's lectures. Although the topics were mostly socio-politically oriented, which was outside my line, I found them faily easy to translate. Once, before a large audience at the Women's Normal School, Miss Black mentioned something about unmarried men and unmarried women. There being different words in Chinese for "marry" for men and for women, I happened to use the wrong verbs and it came out something like "men who have no husbands and women who have no wives", at which the audience roared with laughter, of course. When the speaker wondered why they were so hilarious, I had to whisper to her, "I'll
have to explain it to you later, it'll take too long now."
Besides the regular lectures there were organized small seminars and study groups for Russell's philosophy and a Russell Monthly was published under the editorship of Ch'u Shih-Ying. 1 I myself had of course to attend and join these activities. Add to this my activities in getting disengaged from the girl I didn't know, so that I could get married to the girl I did learn to know and love, plus translating Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and making National Language Records, it was a wonder that I had nothing more than frequent colds from overwork and overexposure during those chilly northern months. Now Russell fared much less well then I did. With all his radicalism in thought, he was a perfect English gentleman in manners down to the last detail in dress, a habit which almost cost him his life. On March 14, I went with him to Paoting, about 100 miles south of Peking, where he lectured at the Yu Te ("cultivate virtue") Middle school on the subject of education. It was still wintry and windy and he lectured as usual without an overcoat while I shivered beside him even with my overcoat on. Three days after his return to Peking, he ran a high fever and was attended by Dr. Dipper of the German Hospital in the Legation Quarters. After being brought into the Hospital, he became worse. March 26 was a black day for me. First, there was news from Dr. Yang, saying that her colleague Dr. Yu had died of the plague on a trip to Manchuria to survey the epidemic there. Then I got word that my maternal grandmother had had a stroke in Soochow, of which she died a few days later. That evening I was called to the hospital. I reported in my diary for that evening:
"Prof. Dewey made out form for Mr. Rus. to sign. He was weak but seemed quite clear what he was doing. He could mutter "power of attorney?" [to Dora Black, that is], then tried to sign. The doctor was afraid "er kann nicht." But he did scribble out B. Russell. He could recognize me and called me in, whispered "Mister Ch'." He called Dewey by name and said "I hope all my friends will stick by me." I stayed for a while talking with Mr. Brandauer of the oxygen adminstrator."
The next day Dr. Esser said that Mr. Russell was "more worse". But by March 29 Miss Black reported that Russell was better. From then on he improved steadily until he was discharged from the hospital and returned to the house. Meanwhile a garbled Japanese report said that' Russell had died. When the report reached Russell himself, he said, "Tell them the news of my death was very much exaggerated." During the weeks of Russell's convalescence, I was busy finishing my translation of Alice in wonderland, meeting with members of the Committee on Unification of the National Committee, and, what was of greater personal concern, going to Shanghai to conclude the business of breaking my engagement with the girl I had never met and then to marry the girl I did know and love. On June I, 1921, with my friend Hu Shih and Buwei Yang's friend Miss Chu Cheng to sign as witnesses, we were
married just by moving to a house on Hsiao Yapao Hutung. When we asked Russell whether our no-ceremony wedding ceremony was too conservative, he replied, "That was radical enough." July 6 was the last day Russell and Black gave lectures, followed the next day by a farewell party given by Liang Ch'i-Ch'ao, at which Ting Wen-Chiang (better known as V.K. Ting) made a very good send-off speech.
On July 11 we saw John Dewey off in the morning and saw Mr. Russel I and Miss Black off in the afternoon. So this is the end of my story of the year with Bertrand Russell in China. After that my wife and I had the opportunity of seeing him once every few years. In 1924 we saw him at Land's End in Penzance (where Gilbert and Sullivan's Pirates came from and had access to what he called the Inaccessible Beach. In 1939 we saw him briefly at the Claremont Hotel in Berkeley, California. He said that by the time China wins, the sacrifice in having to become more and more totalitarian would not be worth the victory. He ordered, with great disapproval, such strange drink as 7-up for our children. In 1941 Professor Ernest Hocking of Harvard invited me to his departmental lunch, at which Mr. Russell reported on placement surveys, an unusual topic for him to discuss. In 1954 we visited with him in his London home in Richmond and had the pleasure of meeting Edith Russell for the first time. Finally, in 1968, we took a taxi from London to Plas Penrhyn, Penrhyndeudraeth, Merioneth, on the west coast of Wales and had tea with the Russells. On this occasion I thanked him for the gift of a pun. For one of his few popular lectures in Peking had been on "Causes of the Present Chaos in China." When after his return to England I informed him of the birth of our first child, Rulan, he said in reply, "Congratulations I see that you are among the causes of the present Chaos in China." But in his Autobiography he attributed that pun to me. The last view of him was when he and Lady Russell stood at the door, Chinese fashion, and waved to us as we were leaving, until we were out of sight. After his decease we received two letters from two Lady Russells, Dora and Edith, on the same day.

Zhao, Yuanren. Luosu zhe xue de jing shen [ID D28289].
Zhao Yuanren writes about methodological implications of Bertrand Russell's philosophy. He characterized. He characterized it as empirical, analytical and specific. The ultimate goal of Russell's empirism was to establish experience as standard of truth, not matter or spirit, as done in the two influential philosophical schools of materialism and idealism, but events being immediately accessible to experience. Zhao conceded similarities with James' empirism, but underlined that Russell's thought integrated the most up-to-date results in modern physics. When calling Russell's philosophy specific, Zhao reminds that it can not be encapsulated in a central hypothesis (as Descartes' or Schopenhauer's ideas). It strove to give 'specific answers to specific questions', i.e. to carefully and analytically inquire about any question or problem before giving any judgement. Since this analysis stemmed from suggesting 'classes of events' Russell's philosophy could, as Zhao thought, also be compared to materialism.

Zhao, Yuanren. Letter to Peking Leader ; 7. Aug. 1921.
"The Lecture Association would have found it worthwhile to invite Bertrand Russell if he had merely come to mingle with the present and future leaders of China to acquaint them with fair ways of thinking. His presence made dry as cotton books on abstract subjects sell like novels."
Zhang noted that Russell's lectures were to be published for profit by several commercial presses, and that discussion circles 'were formed with a zeal as has rarely been shown on any occasions'. Russell's close contact with the 'returned students' led them to 'constructive thinking and doing'. Zhao contended that even Russell's 'opponents' (reactionaries) were unable to ignore Russell and had to be content with alleging that others 'ignored' him. Zhao noted the young Chinese leaders' disappointment that Russell could not completely deliver 'his more directly practical lectures', but his opponents were 'joyful' over it.

[Carroll, Lewis]. Alisi man you qi jing ji. Zhao Yuanren yi [ID D8584].
Zhao Yuanren : "The first step of my way to translate this book is, I'd think of what we'll say in spoken Chinese at sight of a sentence. After that I put it down, checked it against the original. And then, in order to reach the standard of 'every word is faithfully translates', I tried to make some amendments, and kept alert never to get it sound like a foreign language. It would be impossible to translate this book perfectly into Chinese if we didn't employ the vernacular Chinese, so this translation can serve as a sample to judge the vernacular Chinese too.
The joke in this book is of another kind, whose sense lies in its nonsense. Why ? There're two reasons : firstly, the author intends to create an artwork instead of a fable ; secondly, the so-calles 'nonsense' in English means 'butong' in Chinese. However, not all nonsense is significant. The point of nonsense is that, it sounds like a word of sense, but nonsense in fact ; it looks like a thing of sense, but nonsense too. The book is a reference book of philosophy and logic as well. When probing into the profoundest of logic, many puzzles of 'nonsense' will emerge, and some are unsolvable till now."
Sekundärliteratur
Hu Rong : Zhao Yuanren found the book for children would offer a best sample for his linguistic experiment : "The Chinese language is now undergoing an examination, and it's good chance to make an experiment for several purposes". To translate Alice's adventures in Wonderland into Chinese looked for him like a mission impossible to put such a book full of 'nonsense' into Chinese, the vernacular Chinese particularly, since no one had succeeded in the last half century. He acquired the best reward by attaching his name to his favorite book forever as a result.

[Russell, Bertrand]. Luosu wu da jiang yan : zhe xue wen ti. Zhang Tingqian, Zhao Yuanren yi. (Beijing : Xin zhi shu she, 1921). [Übersetzung des Vortrags von Russell über Philosophie in China].
罗素五大讲演 : 哲学问题

[Russell, Bertrand]. She hui jie gou xue wu jiang : song bie luo su xian sheng zhi ji nian te kan. Zhao Yuanren, Fu Lu yi. (Beijing : Chen bao she, 1921). Übersetzung von Russell, Bertrand. Science of social structure. (1921). In : Russell, Bertrand. Uncertain path to freedom : Russia and China 1919-22. In : Russell, Bertrand. The collected papers of Bertrand Russell. (London : G. Allen & Unwin, 1983-2008).
社會結構學五講 : 送别羅素先生之紀念特刊

[Russell, Bertrand]. Wu zhi fen xi. Notes and transl. by Ren Hongjun and Zhao Yuanren. In : Ke xue ; vol. 6, no 2 (1921). = [Russell, Bertrand]. Wu de fen xi. Luosu zhu ; Ren Hongjun yi ji. (Shanghai : Shang wu yin shu guan, 1922). (Luosu jiang yan lu ; 3). Übersetzung von Russell, Bertrand. The analysis of matter. (London, K. Paul, Trench, Trubner & Co., 1927). [Vortrag in China 1920].
物的分析

[Carroll, Lewis]. Alisi man you qi jing ji. Lewis Carroll yüan zhu ; Zhao Yuanren yi. (Shanghai : Shang wu yin shu guan, 1922). Übersetzung von Carroll, Lewis. Alice's adventures in wonderland. With forty-two illustrations by John Tenniel. (London : Macmillan, 1865). [Erste Übersetzung].
阿麗思漫游奇境記

[Milne, A.A.]. Guo yu Luoma zi dui hua xi xi pu Zui hou wu fen zhong. Zhao Yuanren bian yi ding pu. (Shanghai : Zhonghua shu ju, 1929). Übersetzung von Milne, A.A. Winnie-the-Pooh. (London : Methuen, 1926).
國語羅馬字對話戲戲譜最後五分鐘

Tshangs-dbyangs-rgya-mtsho = Love songs of the sixth Dalailama. Transl. into Chinese and English with notes and introd. by Yu Dawchyan and transcribed by Jaw Yuanrenn. (Peiping : Academia Sinica, 1930) (Academia sinica mongraph ; A, 5). [Yu Daoquan ; Zhao Yuanren ; Da liu dai Dalailama Cangyangjiacuo qing ge ; Tibetische Volkslieder].

Levenson, Rosemary. Yuen Ren Chao : Chinese linguist, phonologist, composer, & author. With an introd. By Mary Haas ; an interview conducted by Rosemary Levenson. (Berkeley, Calif. : The Regents of the University of California, 1977). (Bancroft Library, University of Califonria / China scholar series). [Zhao Yuanren].