“侨批”中华人精神的传承与流变:以林连玉家书为线索

Inheritance and Evolvement of Chinese Spirit in “Hakka Qiaopi”:Taking Lim Lian Geok’s Family Letter as a Clue

作为世界记忆遗产,"侨批"为近现代人物研究提供了一座不可多得的富矿。被誉为"南洋族魂"的林连玉留下的数百封家书描绘了祖孙三代人的精神肖像,为我们呈现出了一组精彩的代际精神传承和近代文化变革的写真画卷。尽管近代中国经历了"三千年未有之大变局",新学也全面地取代了旧学,但三代人对社会公共事业的热心和果敢担当都展现出一种以天下为己任的"士大夫"的精神气象。"士"的精神一脉相承,跨越了时间和地域的阻隔,始终流淌在三代人的血液里。这批家书在一个更长的时段和更为广大的地域中揭示出了民族文化的存续与代际传承方式以及时代变革中的知识与信仰的变迁,有助于我们破解东南亚华人的精神密码。

As a world memory heritage,"Hakka Qiaopi"provides rich sources for the study of modern and contemporary figures.Lim Lian Geok,known as"the soul of Southeast Asian Chinese",left hundreds of family letters depicting the spiritual portraits of the three generations,presenting us with a series of wonderful portraits of inter-generational spiritual inheritance and modern cultural evolution.Although modern China has undergone the great revolution that hadn’t happened during the past three thousand years and the new learning style has replaced the old classical learning completely,the enthusiasm and resolute commitment of the three generations to social public undertakings all show a spirit of"scholarbureaucrats"who take the world as their own responsibility.The spirit of"Scholar"comes down in one continuous line,crosses the barrier of time and region and always exists in the blood ties of the three generations.In a longer range of time and space,these family letters reveal the existence of the national culture and the way of inter-generational inheritance as well as the changes of knowledge and beliefs in the revolutionary times,which help us to decode the spirit of Southeast Asian Chinese.