《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。
第八章 油滑的才能
我们盎格鲁撒克逊人最引以自豪的思维习惯是喜欢直来直去，心里怎么想，嘴上就怎么说。当然，出于社交礼节和外交的需要，我们在一定场合下并不能完全按照这一习惯行事。然而，尽管要在不同场合修正自己的表达，直来直去的天性实质上仍支配着我们。然而，经过与亚洲各民族不太长的接触之后，我们发现，他们的天性与我们的根本不一致——事实上，这两者是分别处于相反的两极。
在这里，我们并不看重所有的亚洲各国语言中都包含着非常繁复的敬语的累赘。在这一方面，某些国家的语言明显要比中文更加复杂麻烦。我们也并不在意强调各种委婉的说法，不善于使用别的称呼，不知道一些本可以简单表达出来却不能简单地说出来的话。比如，中文中关于一个人的死亡会有很多种说法，却没有一种说法会直接提及这个不恭而残忍的“死”字。不论死者是一个皇帝还是一个底层的劳工，都必须使用各种委婉的说法，只不过在这两种不同的境况下要使用不同的字眼。在这里，我们所关注的并非是那些稳定性的语言，除非就其通用的说法来看。当每个人都乐意使用那些具有“匹克威克含义”的词汇，当每个人都能理解他人这样表达出的含义，这个问题结果也就不再是一个可靠性的问题，而成了一个方法问题。
用不着跟中国人交往太深，一个外国人就能得出这样的结论，仅仅听一个中国人所说的话，是无法理解他的真实意图的。情况的确是这样，即使这个外国人精通中文口语——他或许能听得懂每一句话，甚至还能写下他所听到的那句话中每一个汉字。即便如此，他依然有可能无法准确地掌握说话者的所思所想。究其原因，这当然是因为说话者没有充分表达出他的所思所想。但是，他终究还是说出了一些或多或少与之相关的东西。他希望这些东西能够让人理解，或者是大致地理解其意。
对于任何一个想和中国人友好相处的人来说，除了熟练掌握中文之外，掌握一种强大的推理能力也非常重要。可是，无论他具有多么强的推理能力，在很多情况下，他还是会不知所云，因为他的推理能力还不足以应付实际的需要。
为了说明这个在中国人生活中随处可见的情况，请允许我暂举我的仆人中经常出现的事件为例子。对于我来说，这些仆人是整个中国人最早出现的代表，其重要意义或许并非那么低。一天早晨，家里的“书童”像平常一样面无表情地出现在你眼前，说他的一位“姨娘”生病了，他不得不请几天假去探望她。在这里，你并不能凭借这样的请求就断定他没有什么姨娘，或者那位姨娘并没有得什么病，他也并没有打算去看她的念头。而应该心平气和地想到，这位书童其实是与厨师产生了一些冲突，只不过后者势力很大，暗中在不择手段排挤他。书童对之也心有所感，为了躲避自己对头的打压，便找了托词辞职离开。
一个人帮了你一个忙，你又不能马上付钱给他，他就会彬彬有礼却十分坚决地谢绝你该付给他的钱，他会说，为了这么一点小事就收取任何酬劳，这是有违“纲常”的，你这是小瞧了他，你如果执意让他收下，就是驳了他的“面子”。这番说辞是什么意思呢？他其实是对你的回赠抱有厚望，可惜，你的出手太小气，令他大失所望，就像奥利弗·退斯特那样，他“想要得更多”。当然，也可能完全是另外一个意思，这或许是暗示你，现在或者将来的某个时候，你有能力给予他更有利可图的东西，如果现在收下了，以后就不方便再开口了。因此，他更愿意让你欠着他的情，直到他提出更大的要求来。
既然中国人在谈及自身利益时都是如此的谨慎，那么处于怕得罪人的普遍心理，在可能带来麻烦的情况下，他们在谈论别人利益时就会更加小心。中国人虽然喜欢聚在一起闲谈各种各样的事情，但是他们都能够凭借直觉判断出来，在这种场合，什么样的事情不能随便乱说，尤其是当事情涉及到很多外国人的时候，他们会对他们偶然获知的事情守口如瓶。有过很多的例子，在我们周围的那些人会不动声色地给我们若干的“指点”。在得到了指点之后，我们对待他人的行为就会发生显著的变化。不过，除非中国人能够清楚怎样做才对他们有利、怎样做才会不冒太大的风险，否则，他们会继续保持沉默寡言的本能。我们中国朋友一直会保持着他们深不可测的沉默。
最为有趣的是中国人下决心把不好的消息传给他人时的举止，他们认为最好的方式就是给出一个暗示。即使是这样一种情况下，有时事情已不是什么秘密了，甚至可以公开直截了当地说了，但传消息的人还是完全有可能采取一种拐弯抹角、不着边际的方式说一件不能说，万万不该说的事。他会心神不安地看看四周有没有人偷听，然后压低声音，神秘地窃窃耳语，含糊地暗示那个他没有点明的人。他伸出三个手指头，作为手势，不明不白地暗示那个人就是他家的老三。他先含含糊糊地说了一番，暗示事态的严重性，可正当说到关键之处的时候，他突然停住，不进一步说出导致事情发生的原因，然后意味深长地点了点头，就像是在说：“现在，你明白了，不是吗？”
在这个全过程中，可怜且不开窍的外国人除了不明白还是不明白，他只知道没有什么值得去弄明白的。如果发生这样的事情，是不会令人感到奇怪的：你的这位通信人（似乎这么称呼并不恰当）说到这种程度，如果你还是一无所知，他把你扔到半道上，会明确告诉你，总有一天你会发觉他是对的！
中国人与其他民族都有一个共同的特性，这就是都希望尽可能长时间地隐瞒坏消息，并以一种间接的方式表达出来。但是，中国人所要求的“好方式”是某种程度过高的欺骗，这无疑会让我们惊讶并感到毫无必要。我们曾听说，有一位慈祥的老奶奶意外地遇到两位朋友在窃窃私语。这两位朋友是特地赶来向老奶奶报告她那在外的孙子不幸去世的消息，当时他们正在小声地商量应当怎么转告。可是，当遇到老奶奶后，他们却只是反复说明他们正在闲聊。尽管后来不到半个小时，消息就已经传开了。
我们还听说，一位离家数月的儿子在回家的路上，他的朋友劝他快快回家，不要逗留去看戏，他便从这个劝告中得出正确的推断，他的母亲去世了！事实果真是如此。有一次，我们受托将一个中国人的一封家书转交给离家很远的人。信的内容是：当他出门在外之时，他的妻子不幸突然去世。左邻右舍见他家没人看管，就拿走了他家的每一样东西，而这些东西本该留给他这个孤独一身的人的。然而，这封信的信封上却用大字写着不太符合实情的话：“平安家信！”
中国人善绕弯子，还时常表现在该用数字的地方偏偏不用数字。这样一来，一部分为五卷的书，每一卷不是用数字分别标上第几卷，而是标以“仁”、“义”、“礼”、“智”、“信”为名。因为这是“五德”所固定确立的顺序。四十多卷本的《康熙字典》，各册往往不是像我们所期望的那样用数字来区分，而是分别用“十二支”来编排。在科举考场上，每个学生的隔间是分别按照《千字文》中没有重复的字目次序进行标识的。
这方面的另一个事例，就是家里人和外人对已婚妇女拐弯抹角的称呼。这种妇女实际上是没有名字的，而仅用丈夫的姓和娘家的姓合成的两字姓氏来称呼。平时，她也许会被叫着“某某他娘”。比如，一位你熟悉的中国人对你说，“小二黑他妈”病了，也许你从来没听说过他家有一个“小二黑”，但他认为你肯定知道。但是，如果没孩子，那问题就更复杂了。也许，这位妇女被称为“小二黑他婶”，或者其他拐来拐去的称呼。已婚多年的妇女很自然地称自己的丈夫是“外头的”，意思为丈夫是忙家务事之外的事。结婚不久还没孩子的年轻媳妇在说到自己丈夫时常常由于没有合适的词就不知说什么为好。有时候，她会称她的丈夫为“先生”。有一次，这样的妇女被逼得没办法，干脆用丈夫干活的地方来称呼他——“油坊里的那位是这么说的！”
一位著名的中国将军在赶往战场的途中，经过一片沼泽地时，向那里的青蛙深深地鞠躬。他希望他的士兵们明白，这些小动物的勇敢是值得赞美的。普通的西方人当然知道，这位将军对其部下的要求，就像是他们得有“强大的推断力”。对于一个生活在中国的外国人来说，他需要比之更强大的推断力。
中国春节的来临，是一年一度偿清债务的时候。一位熟人前来见笔者，他做着某种手势，似乎包含着什么深奥的意思。他用手指指了指天，又指了指地，然后指了指对方，最后指了指自己，一句话也没说。最终，我们惭愧地说自己并不明白是什么意思。结果还是没法获得他的原谅，他以为通过自己的手势，能够很容易地让我们知晓，他希望借些钱用用，而且希望我们保密，只有“天知”、“地知”、“你知”、“我知”！“吃（贪吃）、喝（酗酒）、嫖、赌”指的是四种最常见的恶习，现在又加上抽鸦片。有时，人们张开五指，说，“他五毒俱全”，就是指某人沾染了这五种不良的恶习。
中国人的油滑还表现在，由于他们的礼仪规定过于复杂，可以采取一种在我们看来非常隐晦的方法去给予别人侮辱。比如，折叠信纸的某种方式就可以表现出一种故意的蔑视。在写到某个人名字时，故意不把他的名字摆在其他字之上的单独一行，就是对他的一种侮辱，其严重程度要超过英语中不用大写字母拼写一个人的名字首字母。在社交场合，不说一句话，哪怕是一句不中听的话，都可以算是一种淡淡的、伪装的侮辱，就像是迎来送往过程中不知道接客待客的程序一样。规矩如此之多，众多礼节中缺乏任何一个简单的动作，都可能或多或少地在表示一种隐含的侮辱。这些，中国人当然一看就能明白，而可怜且无知的外国人却因此无数次地成为牺牲品，还以为是受到了至高的特殊礼遇！
中国人因生气而互相辱骂时，充分运用各自的文学才华，很得体地使用一种精致的暗讽表示一种恶毒的意思，其暗讽水平之高，使人不能当场听出其中的真正含意，需要仔细琢磨，就像一粒糖衣里所包裹的难吃的药丸，需要慢慢才能吃出里面的味道。比如，“tung—hsi”这个词语，字面上的意思是“东西”，指的是东西两个方向，但它也代表是一样物品，而称某人是“一个东西”，就是骂人，“不是东西”，也是骂人。同样，即使拐弯抹角地说某人不是“南北”，意思就是他是“东西”，也就是骂他是“一个东西”！
每个人都会大为吃惊的是，即使是最没知识的中国人也会随机应变地凭空虚构各种似乎合理的借口。除了外国人之外，没有人会认真对待这种借口，除非是为了保住自己的“面子”。其实，过于想把问题弄清楚的外国人，根本没有人去追究他们，谁也不会把这些借口当真，或者说大家其实都明白，这不过是人家为了保住“面子”而采取的一些恰当的策略而已。一个具有过多批评精神的外国人，常期待自己有着非同寻常的求真能力，无论天上、水中还是地下，对真理的持久追求已经成为固定的习惯。而即使是最无知的中国人，在陷入困境时，也会有信心构筑一道牢不可破的防线以保证他不丢脸。他可以躲进他的无知当中，以保证他可以逃脱。他“不知道”，他“不明白”，这两句话，就像是上帝的宽恕一样，掩盖了各种各样的罪恶。
从每日发行的北京《邸报》上，很容易为我们的话题找到一些好例证。在中国，没有什么地方像《邸报》那样，能清楚地反映中国政府的真实情况，尽管也有欠缺。然而，在报上，古语所谓的“指鹿为马”也已经变得更加高级，运用也更加广泛。这是一面棱镜，这个半透明的棱镜可以让人们更清楚地看到中国政府的真实本质，其效用超过了其他窗口的综合。
中国人在谈到任何一件事情之时，都似乎喜欢绕圈子，而不愿谈及真正的理由。如果中国人真的是不愿意讲出事情的缘由，那么只能靠猜测去知晓他所说的意思。如果这个说法是一个具有普遍意义的真理，那么，最好的事例可以从中国官场的生活中去找。在中国的官场，拘泥于形式和矫揉造作已发展到极点。中国的“官方报纸”的“头条新闻”，整版都登载着一些渴望退出官位的年老官员遭受各种痛苦的情况，他们大声诉苦，希望“皇帝陛下”能够恩准他们告老还乡，这里头究竟有哪些个含意呢？如果他的迫切请求被拒绝，并被要求立即回到他的岗位上去时，这又意味着什么？那些像煞有介事的冗长奏折作为事实材料被披露出来，其真正的含意是什么？当一位被指控为有罪的高官被确定为无罪，就像每份奏折所宣称的，只是犯了一些还够不上惩罚的小过失时，这就意味着，起诉的人没有足够的影响力，或者是被指控的官员是否的确做过那种事？谁能说得清呢？
我们坚定地相信，通过细读北京《邸报》并同时研读过报上每份文献的人，都能比较正确地领悟其中真正的含意，并由此获得关于这个国家的知识，超过阅读有关这个国家的所有的著作。但是，迄今为止，所有外来的夷蛮人还得主要依靠各种暗示在理解中国。如果打交道的对方是一个中国人，我们还得千方百计竭尽所能地弄清他话中的意思。即使如此，我们还会漏掉他很多话。对此，便是我们倍感担忧的原因所系。
英文原版：
CHAPTER VIII. THE TALENT FOR INDIRECTION
ONE of the intellectual habits upon which we Anglo-Saxons pride ourselves most is that of going directly to the marrow of a subject, and when we have reached it saying exactly what we mean. Considerable abatements must no doubt be made in any claim set up for such a habit, when we consider the usages of polite society and those of diplomacy, yet it still remains substantially true that the instinct of rectilinearity is the governing one, albeit considerably modified by special circumstances. No very long acquaintance is required with any Asiatic race, however, to satisfy us that their instincts and ours are by no means the same—in fact, that they are at opposite poles. We shall lay no stress upon the redundancy of honorific terms in all Asiatic languages, some of which in this respect are indefinitely more elaborate than the Chinese. Neither do we emphasise the use of circumlocutions, periphrases, and what may be termed aliases, to express ideas which are perfectly simple, but which no one wishes to express with simplicity. Thus a great variety of terms may be used in Chinese to indicate that a person has died, and not one of them is guilty of the brutality of saying so ; nor does the periphrasis depend for its use upon the question whether the person to whom reference is made is an emperor or a cooIe, however widely the terms employed may differ in the two cases. Nor are we at present concerned, except in a very general way, with the quality of veracity of language. When every one agrees to use words in " a Pickwickian sense," and every one else is doing so, the questions resulting are not those of veracity but of method.
No extended experience of the Chinese is required to arrive at the conclusion that it is impossible, from merely hearing what a Chinese says, to tell what he means. This continues to be true, no matter how proficient one may have become in the colloquial—so that he perhaps understands every phrase, and might possibly, if worst came to worst, write down every character which he has heard in a given sentence ; and yet he might be unable to decide exactly what the speaker had in mind. The reason of this must of course be that the speaker did not express what he had in mind, but something else more or less cognate to it, from which he wished his meaning or a part of it to be inferred.
Next to a competent knowledge of the Chinese language, large powers of inference are essential to any one who is to deal successfully with the Chinese, and whatever his powers in this direction may be, in many instances he will still go astray, because these powers were not equal to what was required of them. In illustration of this all-pervading phenomenon of Chinese life, let us take as illustrations a class of persons who are among the earliest, and often by no means the least important, representatives of the whole nation to us—our servants. One morning the " Boy " puts in an appearance with his usual expressionless visage, merely to mention that one of his " aunts " is ailing, and that he shall be obliged to forego the privilege of doing our work for a few days while he is absent prosecuting his inquiries as to her condition. Now it does not by any means follow from such a request that the " Boy " has no aunt, that she is not sick, and that he has not some more or less remote idea of going to see about her, but it is, to put it mildly, much more probable that the " Boy " and the cook have had some misunderstanding, and that as the prestige of the latter happened in this case to be the greater of the two, his rival takes this oblique method of intimating that he recognises the facts of the case, and retires to give place to another.
The individual who has done you a favour, for which it was impossible to arrange at the time a money payment, politely but firmly declines the gratuity which you think it right to send him in token of your obligation. What he says is that it would violate all Five Constant Virtues for him to accept anything of you for such an insignificant service, and that you wrong him by offering it, and would disgrace him by insisting on his acceptance of it. What does this mean? It means that his hopes of what you would give him were blighted by the smallness of the amount, and that, like Oliver Twist, he " wants more." And yet it may not mean this after all, but may be an intimation that you do now, or will at some future time, have it in your power to give him something which will be even more desirable, to the acquisition of which the present payment would be a bar, so that he prefers to leave it an open question till such time as his own best move is obvious.
If the Chinese are thus guarded when they speak of their own interests, it follows from the universal dread of giving offence that they will be more cautious about speaking of others, when there is a possibility of trouble arising in consequence. Fond as they are of gossip and all kinds of small-talk, the Chinese distinguish with a ready intuition cases in which it will not do to be too communicative, and under these circumstances, especially where foreigners are concerned, they are the grave of whatever they happen to know. In multitudes of instances the swarms of people by whom we are surrounded could give us " points," the possession of which would cause a considerable change in our conduct towards others. But unless they clearly see in what way they will be benefited by the result, and protected against the risks, the instinct of reticence will prevail.
Nothing is more amusing than to watch the demeanour of a Chinese who has made up his mind that it is best for him to give an intimation of something unfavourable to some one else. Things must have gone very far indeed when, even under these conditions, the communication is made in plain and unmistakable terms. What is far more likely to occur is the indirect suggestion, by oblique and devious routes, of a something which cannot, which must not be told. Our informant glances uneasily about as though he feared a spy in ambush. He lowers his voice to a mysterious whisper. He holds up three fingers of one hand, to shadow dimly forth the notion that the person about whom he is not speaking, but gesturing, is the third in the family. He makes vague introductory remarks, leading up to a revelation of apparent importance, and just as he gets to the climax of the case he suddenly stops short, suppresses the predicate upon which everything depends, nods significantly, as much as to say, "Now you see it, do you not ? " when all the while the poor unenlightened foreigner has seen nothing, except that there is nothing whatever to see. Nor will it be strange if after working things up to this pitch, our informant leaves you as much in the dark as he found you, intimating that at some other time you will perceive that he is right!
A like tendency to keep bad news hidden as long as possible, and to disguise it when it must be told, is a human trait shared by the Chinese with other races. But the conventional rules of Chinese society carry this practice to an extreme that often strikes outsiders as strange and pointless. We once knew a grandmother who was visited by two friends who had come to break the news of her grandchild's death far from home. To soothe her, they began by chatting about trivial gossip, pretending there was no sad news to share, though the truth came out soon afterwards. On another occasion, a man returning home was warned by a villager at the last stop before his house not to stop to watch a theatrical show. From this indirect hint, he rightly guessed that his mother had passed away.
We once received a letter entrusted to us for delivery to a distant acquaintance. The writer's wife had died suddenly, and neighbours had looted the empty house, leaving the man utterly destitute. Yet on the envelope of this sad message were written in large characters the words: "A Peaceful Family Letter."
The Chinese also favour indirect references when naming books, documents or people, instead of using plain titles and names. The five volumes of a classic might be labelled with the Five Constant Virtues: Benevolence, Justice, Propriety, Wisdom, and Fidelity. The massive Kangxi Dictionary, with dozens of volumes, is often marked using the twelve Earthly Branches of the traditional Chinese calendar rather than numerical order. At imperial examinations, candidates' cells are labelled with characters from the ancient Thousand-Character Classic, a text with no repeated words, instead of simple numbers.
Married women are another group often referred to indirectly. A married woman generally has no personal given name that is commonly used; people speak of her as "the mother of so-and-so". We have heard a Chinese man talk about the illness of "Little Black One's mother". We had no idea who this "Little Black One" was, yet the speaker assumed we knew perfectly well. If a woman has no children, the circumlocutions become even more awkward. She might be called "Aunt of so-and-so". Elderly married women sometimes refer to their husbands as "the one who takes care of outside affairs". Young wives without children struggle to mention their spouses directly, and one woman we know resorted to calling her husband by his occupation, saying, "The oil-mill man says thus and so!"
A famous Chinese general once came upon a marsh full of frogs on his way to war. He bowed respectfully to the frogs, and his soldiers understood this gesture as a reminder to be as brave and tenacious as these creatures. Those who deal with the Chinese soon learn that such indirect appeals and gestures demand careful interpretation. Around Chinese New Year, when the traditional season for repaying debts arrives, an acquaintance once met us and used a wordless pantomime: he pointed to the sky, then the ground, then us, then himself. We failed to grasp his meaning at first, but he intended to ask for a loan, hoping the favour would remain known only to "Heaven, Earth, you and me".
When describing vices, indirect language is also common. The phrase "gluttony, drinking, lust and gambling" names four major vices, with opium smoking often added as a fifth. A speaker might hold up all five fingers and say, "He has taken to all of these", leaving listeners to infer the man's bad habits without spelling them out.
China's elaborate code of etiquette also allows people to show disrespect through indirect, subtle acts that would seem absurd to Westerners. Folding a letter improperly, or failing to raise certain characters above the rest on the page can be a deliberate insult. In social settings, failing to greet a guest at the proper spot or neglecting to escort them partway on their departure can convey quiet contempt. Countless foreigners have been slighted in these ways without ever realising they had been offended. When Chinese people quarrel, they rarely use outright insults; instead, they rely on veiled sarcasm and hidden barbs. A common indirect insult uses the words "east and west": to call a person "a thing" is rude, and since "not north and south" implies being "east and west", this phrase is used to mock others without open abuse.
Even ordinary people in China are remarkably skilled at inventing elaborate excuses to avoid trouble or embarrassment. These excuses are almost always fictional, yet everyone accepts them as a polite way to "save face". When cornered and unable to explain their mistakes or failures, the most common fallback for any Chinese person is to plead ignorance: "I did not know" or "I did not understand". These two simple phrases cover a multitude of errors and misdeeds, and are almost always accepted as a reasonable defence.
Nowhere is this talent for indirection more fully displayed than in official documents and imperial communications such as the Peking Gazette. The ancient saying "to point at a deer and call it a horse" perfectly describes this practice. Official reports rarely state facts plainly. When a high-ranking official submits repeated petitions asking to retire due to old age and poor health, the lengthy descriptions of his ailments are indirect rhetoric. If the throne refuses his request to step down, the refusal itself carries hidden meanings about court politics. Official inquiries into crimes or scandals likewise use roundabout language, shifting blame or redefining offences without addressing the core issues directly. An outside observer reading these records will find it nearly impossible to discern the full truth behind the words.
To understand the real meaning behind Chinese official and everyday speech, one must master the art of reading between the lines. A foreigner who eventually grows adept at interpreting these indirect hints and veiled messages will gain a far deeper understanding of China than those who take every word at face value. Yet such a person may also find that, after adapting to this way of communication, others will struggle to understand their own words, just as we once struggled to understand the indirect speech of the Chinese.
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