越洋采访木心

木心是谁?这位横空出世的国学大师到底是何方神圣?各地读者“揭密”木心的行动随着《哥伦比亚的倒影》一书的畅销和断档的空白等待中，拉开序幕。

日前通过各种渠道，打听到这位被陈丹青称作“师尊”的大师日前寓居美国纽约，是在美国艺术圈赫赫有名的华人画家，他刚刚于去年结束一场历时4年、轰动美国耶鲁、芝加哥等地的《全美博物馆巡回个展》。

2月9日上午10时许(美国东部时间前晚的21点)越洋采访了木心，揭开笼罩在这位大人物身上的“神秘面纱”：这位学贯中西的国学大师是可以说一口杭州话的杭州人，而他目前最大的心愿便是回国，而且杭州是他回国颐养天年的首选地!

回国首选是杭州

拨通木心美国纽约家中的电话时，铃声没响几下电话就接通了。笔者用英文简短介绍自己来自钱江晚报时，刚才还用英文应答的木心忽然冒出一句杭州话：“你好你好，我是杭州人。”让笔者一下子惊住了。

“你们到处找木心是谁?而我呢，一个人躲在美国烧饭吃。”木心先生的声音听起来风趣、年轻，笔者心里早先传染自陈丹青等人的“毕恭毕敬”的压力开始消失了。而电话线那头，木心先生也为“听到了久违的家乡声音”而非常开心，称笔者给他带去了“祖国的声音”。

“我是杭州人，现在还能说一口杭州话。我出生在浙江乌镇，但童年、求学以及第一份工作都在杭州。”木心先生早年在杭州国立艺专(现中国美术学院)上学，师从林风眠先生，30年代末曾在杭州高级中学任教。木心说，自己儿时跟家人住在杭州佑圣观路、梅花碑一带，最喜欢去的地方是西湖边的葛岭，那儿的美景仍常出现在他梦境。

“现在年纪大了，要准备‘收拾’自己了，所以我想回国了。这些年，只要我一回国，第一个去的地方就是杭州。去年，我曾到过杭州，想去找佑圣观路，可是找来找去都没找到。杭州变化太快了，杭州真的是很美。以后回国了，我最想去的地方就是杭州。现在浙江乌镇政府给了我一座小房，而我呢，最想的还是在杭州梅花碑附近有一间小房子，把我的画作都收进去。”

苦等简体版20年

《哥伦比亚的倒影》是木心的第一部简体版散文集，选编了《九月初九》《哥伦比亚的倒影》《上海赋》等最能表现他行文风格的散文13篇。20年前，木心的作品，首先发表在《联合文学杂志》，引起内地文坛震动，一度人人争问木心是谁。

笔者：听说你出了12本繁体版作品，但目前为止，你只出了1本简体字版本。是否特别偏爱繁体?

木心：繁体跟简体只是技术手段而已。画画是我的主业，我本来不想写文章，1984年我偶尔写了几篇散文，被台湾的出版商发现了，他们开始向我约稿。结果没想到一发不可收，一共在台湾出了12本作品。

笔者：《哥伦比亚的倒影》是您最好的作品吗?

木心：应该说不是，但肯定代表了我的行文特点，为了让大家知道我的作品风格，我已委托广西师大将我在台湾地区出版的12本散文浓缩成8本，《哥伦比亚的倒影》是第1本，其余7本将陆续出版。但它们收录的都是我20年前的作品，等8本出完之后，我还将把我最新的作品翻译整理出来，它们曾经以英文发表在美国的报章杂志上。

笔者：您的作品一面世即畅销，据出版社说，目前为止1万册已经都订出去了，在很多书店，它都位居畅销书榜首。

木心：这是个好消息。但应该说在我意料之中。

笔者：意料之中?

木心：我有心理准备，我知道会受欢迎，这其实不是我木心的问题，而是读者水准的问题。内地读者的水准高起来，以前没看到这样的文学，看到了就喜欢了。我以前不敢出，因为觉得时机没到。选择在这个时候出书，我等了20年，书好卖说明我出简体版的时机选对了，国内经济在发展，对文化、知识以及民族国家记忆的渴望在上升，我的书才受欢迎。这是个好消息。

比新派还要新派

笔者：陈丹青介绍您，说您是我们时代唯一完整地衔接了古典汉语传统和五四文化传统的作家。从您的作品中看，有着深厚的古文底子，国学大师在人们印象中都是很“古派”的，您自己觉得是不是这样?

木心：我不是“古派”的学者。我是借古说未来，说古的方向是发展到未来去，而不是回顾过去。我写古代不是留恋过去，而是借古代力量冲到前面，我比新派还要新派。我喜欢古文，但我不是复古主义者。我想我一点破，可能读者便能从我的古意中读出新意了。

笔者：有人说现在国内的国学研究已经断层了，像您这样学贯中西的学者几乎找不到了。您认为现在的教育中是不是少了传统国学的教育?

木心：我从小在家里父母请家庭教师接受教育，小时候家里的藏书非常多。父母亲又特别给我请了夏承焘这样的老师来教，从小我的古文就是有系统地学。这跟现在学校里的古文教育不同，但现在大家都开始重新觉得读文言文很有味道，跟以前视其为“四旧”相比，就已经很进步了。

笔者：您似乎不属于中国文学史上的任何一个阶段。您与别的作家的最大不同是什么?

木心：可能我从小看的是一些世界性的书，我看着圣经、希腊神话、莎士比亚的作品长大，再加上少时的古文底子，我和国内的作家可能不太一样。

陈丹青搞文学“前途无量”

木心也是在美华人精英圈中赫赫有名的“国学大师”，有不少学者会定期到他的寓所去听他讲《世界文学史》，一些对中国感兴趣的外国人也会来造访，陈丹青便是在他寓所听课的铁杆学生之一。

笔者：说说您跟陈丹青的交往?

木心：1982年我到美国。2年后，我认识陈丹青。他是在我寓所听课的学生之一，他是很认真的学生，听课笔记做得很完整。文学是他的爱好，是我鼓励他开始写作的。

笔者：陈丹青去年有一本《退步集》很畅销，作为老师，您有什么评价?

木心：艺术都是共通的，文学、音乐、美术都是一个审美的行为。陈丹青是搞艺术的，他搞文字同样出色，同样前途无量。

有关链接：

木心，本名孙璞，1927年生，浙江桐乡人。上海美术专科学校西画系毕业，1982年移居纽约，从事美术及文学创作。著有《散文一集》《琼美卡随想录》《即兴判断》《温莎墓园》《素履之往》《巴珑》《会吾中》等。

名家推崇

木心先生有高远的抱负，他要打破传统意义上的散文界限，在散文创作中融入诗、小说、评论诸多因素，使之成为一种崭新的文体。鲜明亮丽的文字背后，深邃的思想，形而上的思考汩汩而出。写散文于木心先生，就像是散步，“闲庭信步”。

――陈子善

第一次读到木心先生的文章时，词穷，脑子里居然跳出“惊为天人”四字。从实处去看，那词藻，那语气，那眼光，那凝重的轻轻松松，清清爽爽，我没见过。他常在人们说够了的地方接着写下去，写出独有的好天好地。

――陈村

我们几代人已经被深深包围并浸透在我们的阅读经验之中。初读木心先生，惊异、赞美者有之，不习惯、不懂得而茫然漠然者也有之。当我们打开木心先生的书，很可能不是我们阅读木心，而是他在阅读我们。木心先生在阅读什么呢?阅读我们的“阅读经验”。

――陈丹青

My Phone Interview with Mu Xin

By Han Xiaojun

Who is Mu Xin? Many Chinese readers are asking this question after the first edition of his first collection of essays entitled Reflections of Columbia sold out on the Chinese mainland. Little is known about him except for the brief fact that he is a master of Chinese literature and landscape artist with profound knowledge of Chinese classics.

After pulling every string, I finally learned that the master now lives in New York and that his four-year solo art show in museums across America just ended last year. I phoned him at 10 lock on the morning of February 9, 2006. This telephone interview unveiled some surprising details about the writer. He is from Hangzhou; he speaks Hangzhou dialect fluently, and Hangzhou, known as a paradise on earth in China, will be his first choice for an easy life in old age if he chooses to go back home.

My first words were in English. After learning that I was a journalist with Qianjiang Evening News, he suddenly spoke in Hangzhou dialect, to my astonishment. He joked with me, "You are asking around who Mu Xin is" Well this Mu Xin is in the United States cooking for himself right now."He said I brought the sound of the motherland to him.

Mu Xin was the penname of Sun Pu born in 1927 in Wuzhen, a water town in Tongxiang, Zhejiang Province. He graduated as a western painting major from Shanghai Institute of Fine Arts and moved to New York in 1982.

He grew up in Hangzhou, went to school in Hangzhou, and found his first job in Hangzhou. During his childhood years, his family lived in southern part of the city. He loved West Lake. Even now, he said, the beautiful scenery of the lake and surrounding hills still appeared in his dreams.

"Now I am old,"he said, "I want to settle myself and return to my country. The first stop of my home trips in the past years has always been Hangzhou. I went to Hangzhou last year. I failed to find the street where my family once lived. There have been great and fast changes in Hangzhou. Hangzhou will be my choice when I come home. I wish to have a small house around the street where I once lived and store my paintings there.?Reflections of Columbia is Mu Xin's first book published in simplified Chinese characters and on the mainland. It contains 13 representative essays that can best showcase his style.Mu Xin's essays were first published in Taiwan and caused a big stir then. In 1984, Mu Xin wrote a few essays and got them published. The publishers in Taiwan took great interest in his writings and asked him for more. So far he has published 12 collections of essays in original complex Chinese characters in Taiwan.

Mu Xin has contracted with a publisher in Guangxi Autonomous Region in southwestern China to condense the 12 books into 8. Reflections of Columbia is the first. All the eight include essays he wrote 20 years ago. After the eight, he will translate his new essays which have been published in America back into Chinese and introduce them to mainland readers.

The first edition sold out pretty fast. It stayed on top of bestseller lists at various bookstores. Hearing this feedback, Mu Xin said it was good news and it was what he had expected. He explained that he had expected that his essays would be warmly received, for he knew the mainland readers were now well prepared for his essays.have waited for this readiness for 20 years. I did not put my books on the mainland market because I thought the time had not yet matured. The sellout means that I made the right choice at the right time. My essays are highly appreciated because, with the booming economy, the people have become more eager for culture, knowledge and the national memory. This is really good news.?His profound knowledge of China's literary classics came from his private education received at home in his childhood years. Xia Chengtao, a celebrated Chinese master, was his private teacher for a while. His father had a large collection of books. The systematic training in ancient Chinese prose prepared Mu Xin for his essays. Mu Xin said he was not a scholar of the past. He wrote about the past, but his focus was not on the nostalgic past and he did not mean to go back to the ancient glory. His writing was new. He believed that readers can read something fresh in his seemingly ancient styled essays.

Within the elite Chinese community in New York, Mu Xin enjoys a reputation as a prominent master of Chinese literary studies. He held regular lectures at his house.

Experts on the mainland find it hard to classify Mu Xin, who is different from any other writer on the mainland. There are mixed reviews. Some laud his works. Some don't. Mu Xin attributed his difference to both his knowledge of Chinese and the books such as Bible, Greek Myths and Shakespeare's works he read in his childhood years.

(Translated by David)