高山仰止,景行行止——二十世纪中西学术史中的赵元任先生

The Ultimate Tribute to Professor Yuen Ren Chao and His Place in the Academic History of the Twentieth Century in the East and West

赵元任先生是一位世界级的学术大师。他很多的研究工作都是开创性的,其学术成就超越了国界,是20世纪学术史上的里程碑。他联接了两个世界,即中国的学术世界和西方的学术世界,一方面他把西方的学术思想成功嫁接到中国学术领域,并让它开花结果;另一方面,他又把中国传统学术的成果和方法引到了西方,建构了跨越东西方学术的宏大框架。他的研究成果集中在当代,大多为共时研究,在清华国学院四大导师中非常独特。他对美国的语言学和汉学研究贡献巨大,在海外汉语教育方面的推广工作上也是成绩斐然,是许多美国汉学家的入门导师。

Professor Yuen Ren Chao was a world-class scholar.His groundbreaking work has influenced people in different countries.While setting scholarly milestones one after another,he connected two worlds: the scholarly world of China and that of the West.On the one hand,he introduced western thoughts and methodologies to Chinese academics and created his own paradigm in humanities and social sciences in China;on the other hand,he introduced traditional Chinese scholarship to the West,and established a comprehensive framework that spanned both Eastern and Western scholarly worlds.His research is mostly synchronic,making him stand out in the then School of Sinology known as The Four Mentors in Tsinghua University in 1920s.His contributions to linguistic studies in the United States and more generally to the study of China were particularly significant.