雙語(yǔ)散文|顧均正——耳聞不如一見(jiàn)？
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耳聞不如一見(jiàn)？——從焦尾琴談起
在郭老新編的話劇“蔡文姬”里，提到了蔡文姬的父親蔡邕（yōng）所造的那張焦尾琴。最近我看了“蔡文姬”的演出，自然而然想起了焦尾琴，想起了關(guān)于焦尾琴的故事：蔡邕因?yàn)椴辉岗吀綑?quán)貴，怕被人陷害，曾經(jīng)亡命江南，往來(lái)于吳會(huì)之間（今江、浙一帶），計(jì)十二年。據(jù)說(shuō)他在吳（今蘇州）的時(shí)候，有一天聽(tīng)見(jiàn)鄰家燒飯的柴火中發(fā)出一種爆裂的聲音，他熟悉這種聲音，知道這聲音來(lái)自一種極好的桐木，這種桐木是造琴的最好材料。他就跟鄰家主人商量，把這段燒焦了的桐木要了來(lái)，造成一張琴。這張琴?gòu)椘饋?lái)果然非常好聽(tīng)。因?yàn)樗囊欢耸菬沟?，所以大家都叫它焦尾琴?br /> 當(dāng)我想起這個(gè)故事的時(shí)候，使我對(duì)“耳聞不如目見(jiàn)”這句成語(yǔ)不能不有所懷疑。的確，我們認(rèn)識(shí)這個(gè)物質(zhì)世界，有時(shí)候不是用眼睛來(lái)看而是用耳朵來(lái)聽(tīng)的。蔡邕能夠從木材燃燒時(shí)發(fā)出的爆裂聲來(lái)辨別木材的好壞，充分說(shuō)明了“耳聞”不一定“不如目見(jiàn)”。當(dāng)然，“耳聞不如目見(jiàn)”這句話的原意是指間接經(jīng)驗(yàn)不如直接經(jīng)驗(yàn)?zāi)菢涌煽浚@是完全正確的。但是，如果對(duì)這句話只是從字面上來(lái)理解，認(rèn)為耳朵聽(tīng)到的總不如眼睛看見(jiàn)的那樣可靠，那對(duì)耳朵來(lái)說(shuō)，卻是極大的冤枉。
我們應(yīng)該承認(rèn)，眼睛是直接經(jīng)驗(yàn)的主要來(lái)源，可是我們同時(shí)也得承認(rèn)，眼睛是最會(huì)騙人的。舉一個(gè)極普通的例子來(lái)說(shuō)，我們大家覺(jué)得早晨的太陽(yáng)比中午的太陽(yáng)大得多，可是如果你用照相機(jī)給太陽(yáng)在早晨和中午各照一個(gè)相，你就會(huì)發(fā)現(xiàn)攝得的相片是一樣大小的。誰(shuí)會(huì)想到，在這個(gè)每天接觸到的日?，F(xiàn)象上，從古到今，無(wú)論是什么人，無(wú)論在什么地方，都一直在受著眼睛的騙？并且騙得我們好苦，不但古代的大學(xué)問(wèn)家如孔子，沒(méi)有能回答為什么早晨的太陽(yáng)看起來(lái)會(huì)大于中午的太陽(yáng)，連現(xiàn)代的科學(xué)家，對(duì)這個(gè)問(wèn)題也不曾有一個(gè)令人十分滿意的解釋。這個(gè)現(xiàn)象對(duì)迷信眼睛的人來(lái)說(shuō)，是一個(gè)有力的諷刺。
當(dāng)然，我們這樣說(shuō)，并不是要否定眼睛的作用。我們只是說(shuō)明，眼睛雖然有非常廣闊的活動(dòng)范圍，可是它是有缺點(diǎn)的。我們不能迷信眼睛，小看了耳朵的作用。
耳朵的活動(dòng)范圍雖然小，可是它的作用也不只是聽(tīng)聽(tīng)講話，聽(tīng)聽(tīng)音樂(lè)。它還有其他的特殊功用。在某種場(chǎng)合，它不但無(wú)愧于“以耳代目”這句話，而且比眼睛做得更好。
Is the Ear Less Reliable than the Eye? — About the Story of Jiao Wei Qin
In the play Cai Wenji, newly written by venerable Guo Moruo, reference is made to jiao wei qin, a zithern partly made of scorched wood by Cai Yong, father of Cai Wenji. Recently, after I saw the play on the stage, my mind naturally went to jiao wei qin and its story.Cai Yong disliked playing up to bigwigs and, to avoid frame-ups, he went into exile in the South, wandering about for twelve years in Jiangsu and Zhejiang Provinces. It is said that one day during his stay in Suzhou when he heard the crackling of firewood from his next-door neighbour at cooking time, he knew the familiar sound came from paulownia, a kind of choice wood best for making zitherns. Now, talking it over with his neighbour, he was given the piece of scorched wood, which he subsequently made into a zithern. This musical instrument, when played, turned out to be extremely pleasant to the ear. People called it jiao wei qin because the tail of its soundboard was made of scorched wood.
When I think of the story, I cannot help having doubts about the validity of the proverb, "Seeing is better than hearing." Fact is, to know the material world, we sometimes use not the eye, but the ear. That Cai Yong could tell the quality of wood by listening to its crackling sound while it was burning in the kitchen stove makes it crystal clear that "hearing" is not necessarily less reliable than "seeing". The above-mentioned proverb literally means that secondhand experience is less reliable than firsthand experience, which is perfectly true. But, if we should take this saying at its face value and regard the ear as invariably less reliable than the eye, we shall do the former a gross injustice.
While we agree that the eye is the main source of direct experience, we must admit that it is also most misleading. Take a most common example. We all agree that the sun is much bigger in the early morning than at noon. But if we take a photo of it in the early morning and at noon respectively, we shall find it of the same size in both cases. Who would have thought that, when it comes to this common phenomenon in our daily life, people the world over should have been fooled by their own eyes ever since time immemorial? The optical illusion has indeed landed us in indescribable trouble. Not only were great ancient sages like Confucius stumped by the question why the sun was seemingly bigger in the early morning than at noon, even scientists of today have failed to give a wholly satisfactory explanation. This is a keen satire on those having blind faith in the eye.
Of course I do not mean to deny the role played by the eye. All I want to show is that although the eye has an extremely wide scope of activities, it is, nevertheless, far from being faultless. We should, therefore, never overtrust the eye and underestimate the usefulness of the ear.
Although the ear has a smaller scope of activities, its functions are not confined to listening to conversation or music only. It has other specific functions of its own. Under certain circumstances, it is not only worthy of the saying, "Let the ear do duty for the eye," it can even excel the eye.
顧均正（1902—1981），浙江嘉興人，文學(xué)翻譯家、雜文作家?！栋俾劜蝗缫灰?jiàn)？》是他寫(xiě)的一篇富于知識(shí)性和趣味性的科學(xué)小品。
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