钟叔河序
Zhong Shuhe's Foreword
概要
Summary
序言的主要部分是作者和读高中的外孙女之间的对话。先解释什么是骈文，然后说学习骈文的好处。其一是增加文学史知识。其二是骈文的对偶句，可以增加散文的表现力。
The main part of this foreword is a conversation between the writer and his granddaughter, a high school student. First, he explains to her what is a couplet writing and then tells her the benefits of learning couplet writings. One is to learn more knowledge on literary history. The other is that coupleting sentences in these articles can help to increase the expressive power of prose.
然后作者讲了自己的想法，即汉语的语言学特征决定了骈文的影响不会消失。最后解释了这本书的可读之处。
Then the writer gives his own opinion that the linguistic features of the Chinese language determines that the influence of couplet writing will always exist. In the end, he shows the reader the merits of this book.
理解
Understanding
用故事或对话来说明问题，可以作为写作的一种技巧来学习。这是善于写作的学者的一种技巧展示。
To explain something with a story or a conversation can be regarded as a skill of writing to be learned. This part of the forward demonstrates the skill of a scholar good at writing.
根据作者的评价，《骈文概论》这本书只是介绍骈文的基本知识，所以对话的对象是一个高中生。
In Zhong's opinion, the book A Brief Introduction to Couplet Writing only explains the basic knowledge on couplet writing. So his counterpart in the conversation is a high school student.
说到《骈文概论》的作者，序言里给出了相当明确的信息。而且这些信息非常重要，因为在现代，骈文只是作为文学史的素材来研究。而这个作者生活在骈文仍然作为活的书面语言使用的时期里，直接继承了晚清的骈文知识理论，又同时具有理论分析能力和实际使用经验带来的准确语感。也就是说，这位学者所拥有的在文体上的语感，非常重要，也十分宝贵。
Speaking of the author of the book, the Foreword gives very clear Information about him. And the Information is very important. In contemporary research, couplet writing is only studied as the materials on literary history. But this author lived in an age when couplet writing was still used as live written language. He directly inherited the knowledge and theory on couplet writing in the late Qing dynasty. And at the same time, he had the ability to make theoretical analysis and also the accurate sense of the language established through the experience of practical use. That is to say, the sense of the language on the genre that this scholar possessed is both vital and valuable.
评价
Comments
序言里有两点认识十分重要。第一是普及书和专业书，必须要分清楚。读者的背景知识是能否读懂一本书的关键。而且对于不是专业研究者的一般读者而言，细枝末节的分析并没有太大益处。倒是整体宏观的基本结构和重要要素，更能体现出整个学科的基本情况。
There are two very important ideas in the Foreword. First, there must be a very clear line drawn between a popular reader and a book on specialized field. The reader's knowledge background is the key to whether he or she can read and understand a book. To a regular reader who is not a researcher in a specialized field, analysis on small details does not bring much benefit. Rather, the basic structure of certain area of learning in a holistic and macroscopic perspective and other important elements will show him or her the fundamental situation of an entire discipline.
第二是所谓学术传承的重要性。在古时，一个伟大的学者或者哲学家周围会形成一个优秀学者群体。所谓学术传承代表了学者成长的各种基本条件和资源，也就决定了学者的成就大小。当然，这一点是人类历史发展的局限。
Second, there is the importance of inheritance in the academic world. In ancient times, a group of excellent scholars would emerge around a great scholar or philosopher. The inheritance in academic study represents various basic conditions and resources for the growth of a scholar, which determine the scale of accomplishment of this scholar. And this comes from the limitation of the historical development of the mankind.
问题
Questions
这本书的出版时间很早，而且并不常见。如果想认真学习骈文知识，可以参考常见的文学史或者直接去读《昭明文选》，当然也可以找一些明清时期的骈文选本。不过对于普通读者，只要细读其中一本就可以了。
The book was published a long time ago. And it is not very easy to find now. If the reader wants to study the knowledge of couplet writing in detail, he or she can refer to a regular book on Chinese literary history. Or he or she can read the Zhao Ming Selected Works or some selected collections of couplet writings published in the Ming and Qing Dynasties. And for a regular reader, he or she can just read any one of them to have sufficient knowledge on couplet writing .
