0504视译

“日本人见好就学”，而且以最简单和实用的方式，这是世人对日本人吸收外来文化和技术的基本态度和做法的评论。看看日本的文字和汽车，便会一目了然了。

日本的文字，由“汉字”、“平假名hiragana”、“片假名katakana”组成，看上去是拼凑起来的，很不统一；日本的汽车，更是“八国联军”，各显其能。

有一个历史故事：德国人第一次把汽车卖给日本人时，曾得意地说，不久日本人会发现我们的质量有多好，从而会大量订购的。但在久等不来之后，发现日本人已“照猫画虎”，造出了更为新颖的汽车，根本不用订购了。

就地理位置而言，日本列岛是中国和朝鲜半岛The Korean peninsula的近邻，从未受到外来文化的侵略和征服，因而在吸取外来文化和科技时，具有很大自主性。

中国文化对于日本文化固然有着巨大影响，但是日本吸收了中国的汉字、法律制度、儒教，却拒绝了不符合日本国情的宦官制度The eunuch system、科举制度The imperial examination system及以儒教基本法则为准的“同姓不婚”制度。同样的，在吸收日本的佛教文化时，亦允许僧人娶妻、吃荤，形成了一种更为宽容的佛教文化。

在家畜饲养方面，日本人也没有学习中国人的阉割牲畜castrate livestock的技术。对于西方的先进性技术，日本在模仿emulate、改造的基础上，将其制造得更加精细和廉价。所以，日本人对于外部世界的吸收方式是值得借鉴的。

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参考译文

“The Japanese always learn from the best whenever possible, and often in the simplest and the most practical way.” This is a widely heard comment on Japan’s basic attitude and approach to absorbing foreign cultures and technologies. And a look at of its writing system and homegrown cars brings the comment to life. 

The Japanese writing system is a patchwork of Kanji (Chinese ideographic symbols), hiragana and katakana, each with their own characteristics, and Japanese cars represent a winning combination of resources from countries around the world. 

Here is a story. When the Germans first sold their cars to Japan, they said proudly that their Japanese customers would place bulk orders soon when they discovered how good their products were. They waited on and on, however, without receiving any orders from that country - it turned out that the Japanese had created better cars through meticulous imitation of theirs, hence no need for imports. 

Geographically, Japan is a close neighbor of China and the Korean Peninsula, and has never been subjected to invasion and subjugation by a foreign culture. Therefore, it maintains a high degree of autonomy when taking in foreign cultures and technologies. 

The Chinese culture is a major influence on Japan indeed, but while taking in China’s writing system, legal system and Confucianism, the country rejected the eunuch system, the imperial examination system, and the ban on same-surname marriage as stipulated by the fundamental principles of Confucianism, because they were deemed as inconsistent with its national realities. Similarly, as it imported Buddhism from China, Japan allowed monks to marry and eat meat, thus forming a more inclusive Buddhist culture.

When it comes to livestock farming, the Japanese didn’t learn the technique of castration from China either, and advanced technologies from the West were made finer and more affordable by means of emulation and alteration. In conclusion, there is much to learn from the Japanese way of learning from the outside world. 

八字命理六爻奇门遁甲六壬太乙神数术数中医：斯莱特林杂物箱