The Subject of Smiling微笑問題
1.In the spring of this year, a Beijing television channel produced a program called, "Smile." It televised the reaction of people on the street when confronted with a smile from an unknown person, chosen at random. Most people were either surprised or seemed a little worried. A few more enthusiastic people even muttered that the person who smiled was "crazy". The number of people who actually returned the smile could be counted on one hand.
1、這一年春天，北京電視臺(tái)以《微笑》為題作了一檔街頭調(diào)查節(jié)目：請(qǐng)一些人在街道上對(duì)著遇到的行人微笑，以觀察行人的反應(yīng)。結(jié)果多數(shù)人現(xiàn)出驚訝或緊張的表情，更激烈些的則罵一聲“神經(jīng)病”?；貓?bào)以微笑的路人屈指可數(shù)。
2.It seems Chinese people don't really like to smile and that's the impression they convey to the world.
2、中國(guó)人不太愛笑，這差不多是個(gè)國(guó)際印象。
3.What is not understood by outsiders is that smiling in China is a very meaningful and subtle thing. Around 781 BC, there was a monarch called Zhou You Wang, who cared little for ruling his country. Instead, he much preferred to chase women. One of his Ministers gave the Emperor a beautiful woman, whom the Emperor really liked, except for the fact that she would never smile. After trying countless different methods to get her to smile, a Minister came up with an idea. He suggested the Emperor light the twenty or so signal fires which were spread around the capital city to warn people when the country was in danger of war. The Minister thought the fires would summon the Warlords and Dukes to bring their armies to the capital and, when the woman saw the chaos caused by tricking the armies, she would surely laugh.
3、外國(guó)人不明白，笑在中國(guó)是一件內(nèi)涵頗深的事情。大概在公元前781年，一位稱作周幽王的君主，酷好美女，無心國(guó)政。有大臣便將一名美女獻(xiàn)給他。周幽王非常喜歡她，但這個(gè)美女從未笑過。百般招數(shù)無效后，有一大臣出主意讓周幽王點(diǎn)燃烽火。京城附近有20多座烽火臺(tái)，這是為戰(zhàn)爭(zhēng)時(shí)向諸侯求救而建立的信號(hào)臺(tái)。大臣認(rèn)為諸侯見到烽火就會(huì)趕至京城，美女看到兵“慌”馬亂的情形，一定會(huì)笑出來。
4.The Zhou Emperor tried this idea and, sure enough, it made the beautiful woman laugh. Later, when a real enemy came and the Emperor lit the signal fires, the Generals didn't respond, thinking it was just another trick. Thus, the Emperor and his beautiful woman were both captured. Today, the Chinese refer to this story of Emperor Zhou as, "Signal fires joke with the Generals".
4、周幽王照此辦理，果真引得美人一笑。只是后來外敵來犯，周幽王的烽火沒能把曾受騙的諸侯召來，至使自己命喪敵手。那位美女也被敵人擄了去。這一樁君王逗美女一笑的故事，就是今天中國(guó)人所知的“烽火戲諸侯”。
5.There are four main Chinese classical stories that deal with this problem of smiling. The books are A Dream of Red Mansions, Romance of the Three Kingdoms, Water Margin, and Journey to the West. The main character in A Dream of Red Mansions is a young master, no older than 15 or 16, named Jia Baoyu. When trying to get a servant girl to smile, he prepared a bunch of paper fens for her to rip. When the servant heard the ripping sound, she couldn't contain her happiness and broke into a smile. The mother of the young master took a dislike to the girl and found an excuse to cause her death.
5、中國(guó)有四大古典名著（《紅樓夢(mèng)》、《三國(guó)演義》、《水滸》、《西游記》)，《紅樓夢(mèng)》中的男主人公是年齡不過十五六歲的王府少爺賈寶玉。這少爺為討婢女的笑臉，備下大堆的紙扇給她撕，這女子聽到撕扇聲就樂不可支。結(jié)果是少爺?shù)哪赣H看不慣這位婢女的張揚(yáng)，找了個(gè)碴，置她于死地。