《中國人的性格》是美國傳教士阿瑟·史密斯（明恩溥）基于1872年赴華傳教期間的社會觀察撰寫的著作，首版英文名《Chinese Characteristics》于19世紀末問世，。作者在華生活逾五十年，書中融合人類學視角與傳教士立場，記錄了晚清民眾的性格特征與文化形態。

全書以27個主題章節剖析中國人行為模式，包含“保全面子”“省吃儉用”等生活哲學，以及“漠視精確”“因循守舊”等社會現象。通過對比西方工業文明，著重探討東方特有的生存韌性，如環境適應力與疼痛耐受性。書中案例多源自山東鄉村生活經歷，涉及衣食住行、孝悌觀念等主題，部分結論因宗教立場存在視角爭議。該著作開創西方研究中國國民性先河，被譯成多國文字，成為近代中西文化互鑒的重要文本。

第五章 疏于時間

當今全世界的發達國家都流行一句格言：“時間就是金錢。”現代社會生活的日趨復雜，一個商務工作者能在特定的商務時間里應付好各種事務，這在上一個世紀需要花費許多的時間。蒸汽機和電力已經完成了一場革命，盎格魯撒克遜人基于其自身的素質為這場革命做了預先的準備。雖然我們的祖先也曾經碌碌無為，只知道吃喝和打斗，但無論如何，我們畢竟還是能看到，我們民族是具有沖勁的民族，這種沖勁驅使每個人無休止地去做一樁又一樁事情。

中國人的問候語與盎格魯撒克遜人的問候語之間存在著一種很有意思的鮮明差異。中國人遇到他的同仁時說：“吃飯了沒有？”盎格魯撒克遜人則在這種情況下問：“你好嗎？”我們看來，做事，是一個人的正常行為，正如中國人看待吃飯問題一樣。由此可見，對我們而言，感覺到時間就是金錢，一秒鐘也不可放過，這已成為我們的第二天性；而中國人，像大多數的東方人一樣，則顯得悠然自在。

中國人的一天僅有十二個時辰，一個時辰與下一個時辰之間并沒有明確的分界線，只是象征性地把一天分為十二個部分。他們所說的“午時”是指上午十一點到下午一點之間這整個時間段里任何一個鐘點。我們曾經聽到一位中國人在問：“現在是什么時候？月亮幾時上中天？”如果用更為精確的語言來表達，他應當進一步問：“現在是半夜幾時幾刻？”

在日常生活的時間用語中，幾乎都帶有類似的不確定性。中國人所說的“日出”和“日落”可能是最精確的時間概念了，盡管他們置身于很大的經緯度跨度中。但“半夜”，正如“中午”一樣，并沒有具體的時間所指。夜里的時辰通常用“更”來劃分，同樣模糊不清。只有最后一更除外，它通常與天慢慢放亮聯系在一起，才較為精確。即便是在城市里，“更”所指的時間段也或多或少有些不確定。

對于我們所稱之為可隨身攜帶的計時的鐘表，絕大多數人一無所知。有些人確實有表，但在他們之中，即使有人每隔幾年將表擦洗一下，以保證它們的正常運轉，也幾乎沒有人會用表來安排自己的活動。普通的人，則完全是根據太陽的高度來推測時間的，把太陽高度說成是“一竿”、“兩竿”或“幾竿”高。如果遇到陰天，就通過貓眼睛瞳孔的放大和縮小來獲知大致的時間。對于日常生活，這樣的時間概念已經是夠準確的了。

中國人對時間的利用，與他們對時間不精確測算有很大的關聯。根據西尼·史密斯的劃分，世上的人分為兩類：大洪水前的人和大洪水后的人。大洪水之后的人發現，一個人的壽命已經無法達到幾百歲那么長，更不可能長達近千歲。所以，他們就得學會抓緊時間，以適應他們所處的環境。與之相反，大洪水前的人則沒有意識到長壽的瑪士撒拉時代已經一去不復返了，他們的生活一如既往，仍然在依照家族的陳規按部就班地安排。

中國人應該可以算成是“大洪水之前的人”。一個出色的中國說書人，比如被茶館老板雇來吸引和留住顧客的那些說書人，會使人想起英國詩人丁尼生某部“滔滔不絕”的詩篇。茶客們可以來了又走，但他卻是“沒完沒了”不停地說。演戲也是一樣，有時，一場戲要連續演上好幾天。雖然與泰國的戲相比，中國的戲劇還不能算太長——我們看過泰國戲的人說，有的戲接連演了兩個月之久。中國人的戲法表演，是極其的智慧和高超，且風趣有味，但這些戲法也有一個致命的弱點——他們總要向觀眾說一大堆啰里啰嗦的開場白。這段話如此之冗長，以至于外國觀眾還沒看戲，就已經后悔自己不應該到場了。

最為可怕的是出席中國人的酒宴，筵席上的菜肴之多令人難以置信，而其持續的時間之長幾乎是沒完沒了。盡管中國人自己樂此不疲，直到散席時還意猶未盡，但所有經歷過這種場面的外國人都會感到恐怖和絕望。中國人有句最讓人回味無窮的格言，這就是“世上沒有不散的筵席”。但是，對于落入圈套、出席這種酒宴的“夷蠻之人”卻感到，這一句原本可以為他們帶來一線希望的格言，在這種場合總是遲遲才得以兌現。

中國人自打呱呱墜地之始，就完全習慣于依照大洪水前的成規不緊不慢地做每一件事情。上學的時候，他總是一天到晚待在學堂里讀書，從日出到日落，只有吃飯的時候才稍稍停歇一下。除此之外，無論是學生還是先生，都不知道世界上還有其他的讀書方式。科舉考試要持續幾天幾夜，整個過程的每一關都不是好過的。盡管大多數考生在這種荒謬絕頂的考試中體驗到了諸多的不便，但是，他們當中任何一個人都不會懷疑，這種考試對于檢驗人的知識和才能是有著一種天然的缺陷的。

這種教育所造就的精神成果，會使人聯想到其形成的過程。中國人的語言基本上是屬于大洪水之前的，要掌握這種語言，需要瑪士撒拉那樣漫長的一生時間。這就好比是與古羅馬人一樣，古代中國人意識到，如果強迫他們全身心投入學習自己的語言，他們就將永遠不會說出或者寫出其他有價值的東西！毫無疑問，中國人的歷史是屬于大洪水之前的。它可以追溯到混沌初開的時代，爾后，則是一條混濁、舒緩、漫長的歷史長河。在它的兩岸，既有既往時代的高大喬木，也有無數枯朽的樹木、枯枝和枯草。只有一個時間觀念相對淡薄的民族，沒有人會去編寫或閱讀這樣的歷史；除了中國人的記性之外，沒有人會有這么大的“肚量”能裝下它們。

中國人對時間的疏忽，還表現在他們勤勞的力度上。正如我們在前文說過的，在勤勉的強度上，中國人完全不像盎格魯撒克遜人勞動時所表現的那樣。

有幸在中國搞過建筑的，并與中國的包工頭和工匠們合作建房子的那些外國人，有多少希望再度和他們合作蓋房呢？那些中國人來得遲，走得早，他們常常停下手中的事情，喝起茶來。他們用一個小布袋從很遠的石灰坑里一袋一袋地運幾夸脫的灰漿；如果改用獨輪車來推的話，工作效率能夠提高三倍。可是誰也不愿意這樣干。只要是碰上一點的小雨，整個工程都要停下來。這樣，花費的時間不少，進度卻很慢。因此，雇主往往很難看出這些人每天到底干了多少活。我們聽說過，有一個外國人嫌他雇傭的木匠們釘板條的速度太緩慢，于是自己動手干了起來，結果在木匠們吃飯的工夫，他一個人完成了四個木匠半天的活計。

對中國的工匠們來說，就連修理他們自己的工具，也是樁很花時間、勞精費神的事情。如果工具是外國人的，那就另當別論了。這些工具會莫名其妙地就壞了，但是每一個人都不承認曾經動過。“事不關己、高高掛起。”這是一句很適合于他們所有人的口頭禪。在墻上插一些木條，用繩子捆綁一下，就算支起了腳手架。整個施工期間，每天都有可能發生危險，以前所積累的有關安全施工的經驗全被置之不理。沙子、石灰和當地的泥土原本以為都可以用，結果沒有一樣是合格材料。外國人是如此的孤立無援，就像《格利佛游記》中格列佛在小人國遭遇的一樣，他被無數的細繩拉倒在地，這些線結合在一起，千頭萬緒，多得令他疲于應付。

我們會一直記住一位廣東的包工頭，他對施工的承諾像他的錢一樣統統消失在鴉片煙中。因為他是個鴉片鬼。最后，雇主們忍無可忍，便把這位包工頭犯下的實在過分的錯誤擺到了他的面前。“已經告訴過你玻璃的尺寸，你也量過三個窗子好幾遍。可是你，每一個窗戶統統都搞錯了，都不能用。你做的門一扇也關不攏，門上一點膠也沒用過。地板太短了，數量也不夠，還都是節疤孔，而且沒有徹底鋪好。”聽著雇主這一番嚴詞指責，這位脾氣溫和的廣東人似乎有些憂傷，然后便以一種文雅的抗議語調說道：“不要這樣說！不要這樣說！君子怎么能這樣說話呢！”

對中國人來說，盎格魯撒克遜人的急急躁躁不僅是不可理解的，而且完全是沒理由的。很顯然，中國人不高興我們的性格中缺乏耐心的品性，正如我們也不喜歡他們缺乏誠信一樣。

但是無論如何，要讓一個中國人學會重視迅速和敏捷的重要性，那依然是很困難的。我們曾聽說過，一個裝滿外國郵件的大包在相距十二英里的兩個城市之間被耽擱了好幾天，只是因為郵差的那匹驢子病了，需要休息！中國郵遞系統的管理也極為混亂，只是停留在應該怎樣與能夠怎樣的模仿階段。

然而，最令外國人討厭的是，還有中國人在登門訪問過程中對浪費時間的滿不在乎。在西方國家，這類似的訪問是有特定的時間限度的，他們一般不會超過時間的。但在中國，卻沒有這樣的時間限度。只要主人不提出讓客人留下來過宿，這位客人就會滔滔不絕地說下去。即使主人精疲力盡了，客人也還是要說下去。中國人在訪問外國人時，根本不可能意識到時間的寶貴。他們會和你一連坐上好幾個小時，談了不少話，不知在說些什么，或者無話可說，也不提出告辭。

一位杰出的牧師曾說過這樣的箴言：“想見我的人就是我想見的人。”假如這位牧師在中國待過，無論時間有多長，他一定會對他的箴言進行改正。在接待過幾次中國人的來訪后，他肯定會效仿另一位繁忙的牧師，在他的書房醒目地掛上一條《圣經》中的格言：“神保佑你離開！”如果對一位正說到興頭上的中國人明確表示自己很忙，那常常會給他當頭一棒。他會長時間地一言不發，默默地忍受著，其時間之長足以消磨掉十個歐洲人的耐心。終于他開口說話了，便把諺語所言之精髓表現得淋漓盡致：“上山打虎易，求人開口難！”

如果所有外國人都像已故的麥肯錫醫生那樣感覺會好多了。他發覺他的中國朋友不斷前來做客，并且“只來不走”，浪費時間，影響到他的工作。于是，他習慣性地對他們說：“請坐，像自己家一樣；我還有急事，敬請原諒。”外國人能夠像一位天真的中國學生說得直截了當、簡明扼要，那感覺就更好了。那位中國學生剛學會一些英文短語，就想在老師身上嘗試一下，結果，說得老師暈頭轉向。他是在下課時，大聲說道：“開門！出去！”

英文原版：

CHAPTER V. THE DISREGARD OF TIME

IT is a maxim of the developed civilisation "time is money." The complicated arrangements of modern life are such that a business man in business hours is able to do an amount and variety of business which, in the past century, would have required the expenditure of time indefinitely greater. Steam and electricity have accomplished this change, and it is a change for which the Anglo-Saxon race was prepared beforehand by its constitutional tendencies. Whatever may have been the habits of our ancestors when they had little or nothing to do but to eat, drink, and fight, we find it difficult to imagine a period when our race was not characterised by that impetuous energy which ever drives the individual of it onward to do something else, as soon as another something is finished.

There is a significant difference in the salutations of the Chinese and of the Anglo-Saxon. The former says to his comrade whom he casually meets, " Have you eaten rice ? " The latter asks, " How do you do ? " Doing is the normal condition of the one, as eating is the normal condition of the other. From that feeling which to us has become a second nature, that time is money, and under ordinary circumstances is to be improved to its final second, the Chinese, like most Orientals, are singularly free. There are only twelve hours in the Chinese day, and the names of these hours do not designate simply the point where one of them gives place to another, but denote as well all the time covered by the twelfth part of a day which each of them connotes. In this way the term " noon," which would seem as definite as any, is employed of the entire period from eleven to one o'clock. " What time is it," a Chinese inquired in our hearing, " when it is noon by the moon? " Phrased in less ambiguous language, the question which he intended to propound was this : " What time of night is it when the moon is at the meridian ? "

Similar uncertainties pervade almost all the notes of time which occur in the language of everyday life. " Sunrise " and " sunset " are as exact as anything in Chinese can be expected to be, though used with much latitude (and much longitude as well), but " midnight," like " noon," means nothing in particular, and the ordinary division of the night by " watches " is equally vague, with the exception of the last one, which is often associated with the appearance of daylight. Even in the cities the " watches " are of more or less uncertain duration. Of the portable time-pieces which we designate by this name, the Chinese as a people know nothing, and few of those who really own watches govern their movements by them, even if they have the watches cleaned once every few years and ordinarily keep them running, which is not often the case. The common people are quite content to tell their time by the altitude of the sun, which is variously described as one, two, or more " flagstaffs," or if the day is cloudy a general result can be arrived at by observing the contraction and dilatation of a cat's eye, and such a result is quite accurate enough for all ordinary purposes.

The Chinese use of time corresponds to the exactness of their measures of its flight. According to the distinction described by Sydney Smith, the world is divided into two classes of persons, the antediluvians and the post-diluvians. Among the latter the discovery has been made that the age of man no longer runs into the centuries which verge on a millennium, and accordingly they study compression, and adaptation to their environment. The antediluvians, on the contrary, cannot be made to realise that the days of Methusaleh have gone by, and they continue to act as if life were still laid out on the patriarchal plan.

Among these " antediluvians " the Chinese are to be reckoned. A good Chinese story-teller, such as are employed in the tea-shops to attract and retain customers, reminds one of Tennyson's " Brook." Men may come and men may go, but he goes on "forever ever." The same is true of theatrical exhibitions, which sometimes last for days, though they fade into insignificance in comparison with those of Siam, where we are assured by those who claim to have survived one of them that they are known to hold for two months together! The feats of Chinese jugglers when well done are exceedingly clever and very amusing, but they have one fatal defect—they are so long drawn out by the prolix and inane conversation of the participants, that long before the jugglers finish, the foreign spectator will have regretted that he ever weakly consented to patronise them. Not less formidable, but rather far more so, are the interminable Chinese feasts, with their almost incredible number and variety of courses, the terror and despair of all foreigners who have experienced them, although to the Chinese these entertainments seem but too short. One of their most pensive sayings observes that " there is no feast in the world which must not break up at last," though to the unhappy barbarian lured into one of these traps this hopeful generality is often lost in despair of the particular.

From his earliest years, the Chinese is thoroughly accustomed to doing everything on the antediluvian plan. When he goes to school, he generally goes for the day, extending to all the period from sunrise to dark, with one or two intermissions for food. Of any other system, neither pupils nor master have ever heard. The examinations for degrees are protracted through several days and nights, with all grades of severity, and while most of the candidates experience much inconvenience from such an irrational course, it would be difficult to convince any of them of its inherent absurdity as a test of intellectual attainments.

The products of the minds of those thus educated are redolent of the processes through which they have passed. The Chinese language itself is essentially antediluvian, and to overtake it requires the lifetime of a Methusaleh. It is as just to say of the ancient Chinese as of the ancient Romans, that if they had been obliged to learn their own language they would never have said or written anything worth setting down! Chinese histories are antediluvian, not merely in their attempts to go back to the ragged edge of zero for a point of departure, but in the interminable length of the sluggish and turbid current which bears on its bosom not only the mighty vegetation of past ages, but wood, hay, and stubble past all reckoning. None but a relatively timeless race could either compose or read such histories ; none but the Chinese memory could store them away in its capacious " abdomen."

Chinese disregard of time is manifested in their industry, the quality of intension in which we have already remarked to be very different from that in the work of Anglo-Saxons. How many of those who have had the pleasure of building a house in China, with Chinese contractors and workmen, thirst to do it again? The men come late and go early. They are perpetually stopping to drink tea. They make long journeys to a distant lime-pit carrying a few quarts of liquid mud in a cloth bag, when by using a wheelbarrow one man could do the work of three ; but this result is by no means the one aimed at. If there is a slight rain all work is suspended. There is generally abundant motion with but little progress, so that it is often difficult to perceive what it is which represents the day's " labour " of a gang of men. We have known a foreigner, dissatisfied with the slow progress of his carpenters in lathing, accomplish while they were eating their dinner as much work as all four of them had done in half a day.

The mere task of keeping their tools in repair is for Chinese workmen a serious matter in expenditure of time. If the tools belong to the foreigner, however, there is no embarrassment on this score. They are broken mysteriously, and yet no one has touched them. JVon est inventus is the appropriate motto for them all. Poles and small rafters are pitched over the wall, and all the neighbourhood loins appear to be girded with the rope which was purchased for supporting the staging. During the entire progress of the work, each day is a crisis. All previous experience goes for nothing. The sand, the lime, the earth of this place will not do for any uses for which sand, lime, and earth are in general supposed to be adapted. The foreigner is helpless. He is aptly represented by Gulliver held down by threads, which, taken together, are too much for him. Permanently have we enshrined in our memory a Cantonese contractor, whose promises, like his money, vanished in smoke, for he was unfortunately a victim of the opium pipe. At last, forbearance having ceased to be a virtue, he was confronted with a formidable bill of particulars of the things wherein he had come short. " You were told the size of the glass. You measured the windows three several times. Every one of those you have made is wrong, and they are useless. Not one of your doors is properly put together. There is not an ounce of glue about them. The flooring boards are short in length, short in number, full of knot-holes and wholly unseasoned." After the speaker had proceeded in this way for some time, the mild-mannered Cantonese gazed at him sadly, and when he brought himself to speak he remarked, in a tone of gentle remonstrance : " Don't say dat! Don't say dat! No gentleman talk like dat! "

To the Chinese the chronic impatience of the Anglo-Saxon is not only unaccountable, but quite unreasonable. It has been wisely suggested that they consider this trait in our character as objectionable as we do their lack of sincerity.

In any case, appreciation of the importance of celerity and promptness is difficult to cultivate in a Chinese. We have known a bag full of foreign mail detained for some days between two cities twelve miles apart, because the carrier's donkey was ailing and needed rest! The administration of the Chinese telegraph system is frequently a mere travesty of what it might and ought to be.

But in no circumstances is Chinese indifference to the lapse of time more annoying to a foreigner than when the occasion is a mere social call. Such calls in Western lands are recognised as having certain limits, beyond which they must not be protracted. In China, however, there are no limits. As long as the host does not offer his guest accommodations for the night, the guest must keep on talking, though he be expiring with fatigue. In calling on foreigners the Chinese can by no possibility realise that there is an element of time, which is precious. They will sit by the hour together, offering few or no observations of their own, and by no means offering to depart. The excellent pastor who had for his motto the saying, "The man who wants to see me is the man I want to see," would have modified this dictum materially had he lived for any length of time in China. After a certain experience of this sort, he would not improbably have followed the example of another busy clergyman, who hung conspicuously in his study the scriptural motto, "The Lord bless thy goings out! " The mere enunciation of his business often seems to cost a Chinese a mental wrench of a violent character. For a long time he says nothing, and he can endure this for a period of time sufficient to wear out the patience of ten Europeans. Then, when he begins to speak, he realises the truth of the adage which declares that "it is easy to go on the mountains to fight tigers, but to open your mouth and out with a thing—this is hard!" Happy is the foreigner situated like the late lamented Dr. Mackenzie, who, finding that his incessant relays of Chinese guests, the friends " who come but never go," were squandering the time which belonged to his hospital work, was wont to say to them, " Sit down and make yourselves at home ; I have urgent business, and must be excused." And yet more happy would he be if he were able to imitate the naive terseness of a student of Chinese who, having learned a few phrases, desired to experiment with them on the teacher, and who accordingly filled him with stupefaction by remarking at the end of a lesson, " Open the door! Go!"