论蔡元培的传记写作

On Cai Yuanpei's Biographical Writing

蔡元培并不是一位以写作传记而闻名的文学家,但在一生中写下了大量的传记作品。在接受启蒙教育和"自由"读书的过程中,他积累了良好的传记写作素养,逐渐形成了对中国传记文化的认同感。随着政治革命、教育革新等活动的展开,他更是积极写作各种人物传记,其中的革命家传和亲友传最具特色。晚年在胡适的影响下用年谱体写作自传。尽管蔡元培的志向并不在传记写作及研究上,此外亦无十分深刻的传记理论见解和非常自觉的现代传记文体意识,但对中国传记文学观念的现代转型具有一定的助推作用。

Cai Yuanpei wrote a great many biographical writings in his life though he wasn＇ t famous for writing biography. In the period of his formative education and studying freely, he accumulated the attainment of biographical writing and cultivated gradually the sense of cultural identification based on Chinese ancient bi- ography. When embarking on political revolution and educational innovation, he became more active in bio- graphical writing, especially choosing those revolutionaries, relatives and friends as leading characters. In his later years, he wrote autobiography with a style of annals suggested by Hu Shi. All in all, it was very obvious that Cai should be a helpful promotion to modem transformation of Chinese biographical idea though he wasn＇ t determined biographical writer and researcher, including his lack of more profound biographical theories and very self-conscious sense of modem biographical style.