《中国人的性格》是美国传教士阿瑟·史密斯（明恩溥）基于1872年赴华传教期间的社会观察撰写的著作，首版英文名《Chinese Characteristics》于19世纪末问世，。作者在华生活逾五十年，书中融合人类学视角与传教士立场，记录了晚清民众的性格特征与文化形态。
全书以27个主题章节剖析中国人行为模式，包含“保全面子”“省吃俭用”等生活哲学，以及“漠视精确”“因循守旧”等社会现象。通过对比西方工业文明，着重探讨东方特有的生存韧性，如环境适应力与疼痛耐受性。书中案例多源自山东乡村生活经历，涉及衣食住行、孝悌观念等主题，部分结论因宗教立场存在视角争议。该著作开创西方研究中国国民性先河，被译成多国文字，成为近代中西文化互鉴的重要文本。
第五章 疏于时间
当今全世界的发达国家都流行一句格言：“时间就是金钱。”现代社会生活的日趋复杂，一个商务工作者能在特定的商务时间里应付好各种事务，这在上一个世纪需要花费许多的时间。蒸汽机和电力已经完成了一场革命，盎格鲁撒克逊人基于其自身的素质为这场革命做了预先的准备。虽然我们的祖先也曾经碌碌无为，只知道吃喝和打斗，但无论如何，我们毕竟还是能看到，我们民族是具有冲劲的民族，这种冲劲驱使每个人无休止地去做一桩又一桩事情。
中国人的问候语与盎格鲁撒克逊人的问候语之间存在着一种很有意思的鲜明差异。中国人遇到他的同仁时说：“吃饭了没有？”盎格鲁撒克逊人则在这种情况下问：“你好吗？”我们看来，做事，是一个人的正常行为，正如中国人看待吃饭问题一样。由此可见，对我们而言，感觉到时间就是金钱，一秒钟也不可放过，这已成为我们的第二天性；而中国人，像大多数的东方人一样，则显得悠然自在。
中国人的一天仅有十二个时辰，一个时辰与下一个时辰之间并没有明确的分界线，只是象征性地把一天分为十二个部分。他们所说的“午时”是指上午十一点到下午一点之间这整个时间段里任何一个钟点。我们曾经听到一位中国人在问：“现在是什么时候？月亮几时上中天？”如果用更为精确的语言来表达，他应当进一步问：“现在是半夜几时几刻？”
在日常生活的时间用语中，几乎都带有类似的不确定性。中国人所说的“日出”和“日落”可能是最精确的时间概念了，尽管他们置身于很大的经纬度跨度中。但“半夜”，正如“中午”一样，并没有具体的时间所指。夜里的时辰通常用“更”来划分，同样模糊不清。只有最后一更除外，它通常与天慢慢放亮联系在一起，才较为精确。即便是在城市里，“更”所指的时间段也或多或少有些不确定。
对于我们所称之为可随身携带的计时的钟表，绝大多数人一无所知。有些人确实有表，但在他们之中，即使有人每隔几年将表擦洗一下，以保证它们的正常运转，也几乎没有人会用表来安排自己的活动。普通的人，则完全是根据太阳的高度来推测时间的，把太阳高度说成是“一竿”、“两竿”或“几竿”高。如果遇到阴天，就通过猫眼睛瞳孔的放大和缩小来获知大致的时间。对于日常生活，这样的时间概念已经是够准确的了。
中国人对时间的利用，与他们对时间不精确测算有很大的关联。根据西尼·史密斯的划分，世上的人分为两类：大洪水前的人和大洪水后的人。大洪水之后的人发现，一个人的寿命已经无法达到几百岁那么长，更不可能长达近千岁。所以，他们就得学会抓紧时间，以适应他们所处的环境。与之相反，大洪水前的人则没有意识到长寿的玛士撒拉时代已经一去不复返了，他们的生活一如既往，仍然在依照家族的陈规按部就班地安排。
中国人应该可以算成是“大洪水之前的人”。一个出色的中国说书人，比如被茶馆老板雇来吸引和留住顾客的那些说书人，会使人想起英国诗人丁尼生某部“滔滔不绝”的诗篇。茶客们可以来了又走，但他却是“没完没了”不停地说。演戏也是一样，有时，一场戏要连续演上好几天。虽然与泰国的戏相比，中国的戏剧还不能算太长——我们看过泰国戏的人说，有的戏接连演了两个月之久。中国人的戏法表演，是极其的智慧和高超，且风趣有味，但这些戏法也有一个致命的弱点——他们总要向观众说一大堆啰里啰嗦的开场白。这段话如此之冗长，以至于外国观众还没看戏，就已经后悔自己不应该到场了。
最为可怕的是出席中国人的酒宴，筵席上的菜肴之多令人难以置信，而其持续的时间之长几乎是没完没了。尽管中国人自己乐此不疲，直到散席时还意犹未尽，但所有经历过这种场面的外国人都会感到恐怖和绝望。中国人有句最让人回味无穷的格言，这就是“世上没有不散的筵席”。但是，对于落入圈套、出席这种酒宴的“夷蛮之人”却感到，这一句原本可以为他们带来一线希望的格言，在这种场合总是迟迟才得以兑现。
中国人自打呱呱坠地之始，就完全习惯于依照大洪水前的成规不紧不慢地做每一件事情。上学的时候，他总是一天到晚待在学堂里读书，从日出到日落，只有吃饭的时候才稍稍停歇一下。除此之外，无论是学生还是先生，都不知道世界上还有其他的读书方式。科举考试要持续几天几夜，整个过程的每一关都不是好过的。尽管大多数考生在这种荒谬绝顶的考试中体验到了诸多的不便，但是，他们当中任何一个人都不会怀疑，这种考试对于检验人的知识和才能是有着一种天然的缺陷的。
这种教育所造就的精神成果，会使人联想到其形成的过程。中国人的语言基本上是属于大洪水之前的，要掌握这种语言，需要玛士撒拉那样漫长的一生时间。这就好比是与古罗马人一样，古代中国人意识到，如果强迫他们全身心投入学习自己的语言，他们就将永远不会说出或者写出其他有价值的东西！毫无疑问，中国人的历史是属于大洪水之前的。它可以追溯到混沌初开的时代，尔后，则是一条混浊、舒缓、漫长的历史长河。在它的两岸，既有既往时代的高大乔木，也有无数枯朽的树木、枯枝和枯草。只有一个时间观念相对淡薄的民族，没有人会去编写或阅读这样的历史；除了中国人的记性之外，没有人会有这么大的“肚量”能装下它们。
中国人对时间的疏忽，还表现在他们勤劳的力度上。正如我们在前文说过的，在勤勉的强度上，中国人完全不像盎格鲁撒克逊人劳动时所表现的那样。
有幸在中国搞过建筑的，并与中国的包工头和工匠们合作建房子的那些外国人，有多少希望再度和他们合作盖房呢？那些中国人来得迟，走得早，他们常常停下手中的事情，喝起茶来。他们用一个小布袋从很远的石灰坑里一袋一袋地运几夸脱的灰浆；如果改用独轮车来推的话，工作效率能够提高三倍。可是谁也不愿意这样干。只要是碰上一点的小雨，整个工程都要停下来。这样，花费的时间不少，进度却很慢。因此，雇主往往很难看出这些人每天到底干了多少活。我们听说过，有一个外国人嫌他雇佣的木匠们钉板条的速度太缓慢，于是自己动手干了起来，结果在木匠们吃饭的工夫，他一个人完成了四个木匠半天的活计。
对中国的工匠们来说，就连修理他们自己的工具，也是桩很花时间、劳精费神的事情。如果工具是外国人的，那就另当别论了。这些工具会莫名其妙地就坏了，但是每一个人都不承认曾经动过。“事不关己、高高挂起。”这是一句很适合于他们所有人的口头禅。在墙上插一些木条，用绳子捆绑一下，就算支起了脚手架。整个施工期间，每天都有可能发生危险，以前所积累的有关安全施工的经验全被置之不理。沙子、石灰和当地的泥土原本以为都可以用，结果没有一样是合格材料。外国人是如此的孤立无援，就像《格利佛游记》中格列佛在小人国遭遇的一样，他被无数的细绳拉倒在地，这些线结合在一起，千头万绪，多得令他疲于应付。
我们会一直记住一位广东的包工头，他对施工的承诺像他的钱一样统统消失在鸦片烟中。因为他是个鸦片鬼。最后，雇主们忍无可忍，便把这位包工头犯下的实在过分的错误摆到了他的面前。“已经告诉过你玻璃的尺寸，你也量过三个窗子好几遍。可是你，每一个窗户统统都搞错了，都不能用。你做的门一扇也关不拢，门上一点胶也没用过。地板太短了，数量也不够，还都是节疤孔，而且没有彻底铺好。”听着雇主这一番严词指责，这位脾气温和的广东人似乎有些忧伤，然后便以一种文雅的抗议语调说道：“不要这样说！不要这样说！君子怎么能这样说话呢！”
对中国人来说，盎格鲁撒克逊人的急急躁躁不仅是不可理解的，而且完全是没理由的。很显然，中国人不高兴我们的性格中缺乏耐心的品性，正如我们也不喜欢他们缺乏诚信一样。
但是无论如何，要让一个中国人学会重视迅速和敏捷的重要性，那依然是很困难的。我们曾听说过，一个装满外国邮件的大包在相距十二英里的两个城市之间被耽搁了好几天，只是因为邮差的那匹驴子病了，需要休息！中国邮递系统的管理也极为混乱，只是停留在应该怎样与能够怎样的模仿阶段。
然而，最令外国人讨厌的是，还有中国人在登门访问过程中对浪费时间的满不在乎。在西方国家，这类似的访问是有特定的时间限度的，他们一般不会超过时间的。但在中国，却没有这样的时间限度。只要主人不提出让客人留下来过宿，这位客人就会滔滔不绝地说下去。即使主人精疲力尽了，客人也还是要说下去。中国人在访问外国人时，根本不可能意识到时间的宝贵。他们会和你一连坐上好几个小时，谈了不少话，不知在说些什么，或者无话可说，也不提出告辞。
一位杰出的牧师曾说过这样的箴言：“想见我的人就是我想见的人。”假如这位牧师在中国待过，无论时间有多长，他一定会对他的箴言进行改正。在接待过几次中国人的来访后，他肯定会效仿另一位繁忙的牧师，在他的书房醒目地挂上一条《圣经》中的格言：“神保佑你离开！”如果对一位正说到兴头上的中国人明确表示自己很忙，那常常会给他当头一棒。他会长时间地一言不发，默默地忍受着，其时间之长足以消磨掉十个欧洲人的耐心。终于他开口说话了，便把谚语所言之精髓表现得淋漓尽致：“上山打虎易，求人开口难！”
如果所有外国人都像已故的麦肯锡医生那样感觉会好多了。他发觉他的中国朋友不断前来做客，并且“只来不走”，浪费时间，影响到他的工作。于是，他习惯性地对他们说：“请坐，像自己家一样；我还有急事，敬请原谅。”外国人能够像一位天真的中国学生说得直截了当、简明扼要，那感觉就更好了。那位中国学生刚学会一些英文短语，就想在老师身上尝试一下，结果，说得老师晕头转向。他是在下课时，大声说道：“开门！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!"
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