I. Summary
II. Thoughts
如果将林语堂的《苏东坡传》视为传记题材的小说，那么对于喜爱苏东坡却又对他一知半解的人而言，无疑是一部精彩之极的作品。然而，对于缺少情趣并且有考据癖的研究者而言，阅读的愉悦往往伴随着焦虑。毋庸置疑，林语堂先生对英文的驾驭功力让人叹为观止，优美而简洁的用词将千载之前的的苏东坡拉到了我们的生活之中，他笔下的苏东坡比文献中的更加活灵活现。但是，这恰是令人生疑之处，文章的“美”与“信”往往不可兼得，林语堂先生用书写美文的笔触为苏东坡立传，其真实性自然要打折扣。众所周知，林语堂先生是苏东坡的仰慕者，我丝毫不怀疑他对苏东坡作品的熟悉程度，但不可轻信之处有二，一是“以情损实”，因仰慕东坡其人，文中不乏过于溢美之词；二是在引经据典之际对文献缺乏考证，稗官野史、街谈巷语不足取信却可夺人耳目。前者不过是常人之情，而后者则是林语堂先生身为作家的性格所致。
在初读序言之际，我认为林语堂笔下的苏东坡是高度主观化、个人化的苏东坡。在阅读了六章之后，我进一步认为，林语堂所写的苏东坡正是自己理想人格的化身，愈是往下读，愈能发现林语堂与苏东坡的相似之处。对苏东坡婚姻的评论、为人处世的观点，妙语如珠，更像是林语堂的肺腑之言。令我奇怪的是，林语堂仔细地向读者介绍了苏东坡家乡的风俗、虚岁的传统等等，但却没有提及苏东坡兄弟的名字“轼”与“辙”的由来，在我看来，二人的名字正是有趣且能反映个性的，不过林语堂先生既然把书名命名为“苏东坡传”，应当是考虑到汉字意义的复杂性，难以让外国读者理解吧。
III. Biography
It's quite difficult to write a biography for a young person, because his life is changeable. However, as Adrian's friend and student, not mention that I have known him for five years, I know his better especially the young Adrian before 20 years old. So I think it's a proper time to write something about him.
Almost every biography mentioned the family life at first. I will not pass that, but I have to say Adrian's family affected him in a different way. When he was little, his father and mother were both busy at work and they have a elder child. Under this environment, Adrian didn't get close to his parents like other children. Maybe that is the reason why he want to live on his own in his junior school life. Actually, he literally did so.
Both a student and a teacher is Adrian's identity. He worked as an assistant teacher during high school. I guess perhaps this is the time his teaching life begin, because from then on he always working as a teacher. He is the kind of teacher both warm-hearted and severe. I remembered when he supervise me about law examinations, he asked me got up early in the morning and only had half hour afternoon nap and reported to him everyday. Severe teacher often have excellent teaching skills, once a time I cried to him the English tests were too difficult. He comforted me and taught me to use a different method to understand the paragraph, it proved works very well.
In his college life, he fond of classics. He use several years to learn ancient Greek and Latin. Now maybe he decided to be a scholar in the future or maybe not. I cannot say for sure because life is changeable. What's more I also cannot image what will he like after decades. Whereas, the thing I confirm is that he is the person who know what he would like to do and which kind of person he want to be. That is, in one word, an interesting person.
