《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。
第十一章 神经麻木
从“nervous”（神经质的）这个词的不同用法中，可以看出现代文明的一个非常有意思的方面。这个词的原意是“神经的，强有力的，刚强的，有活力的”。这个词的引申意思之一，也就是我们今天经常碰到的，是“有神经衰弱或神经疾病的，神经过于紧张的，易激动的，软弱的”。表述神经疾病处于不同阶段的各种专业医学术语，今天在我们听起来，完全像是日常用语那样熟悉。现代的文明无疑使人们的神经过于紧张，各种各样的神经疾病也相应地比前一个世纪更为常见。
但是，我们现在要说的并不涉及那些真正患有神经疾病的人，我们要说的是为数众多的西方人。这些人并非有疾病而健康状况不佳，相反，他们在身体健康的情况下，经常以各种方式被提醒到，神经系统是全身最重要的部分。因此，简而言之，我们说的是那些“神经质”的人，我们心目中在这里也包括所有我们的读者。至少对于盎格鲁撒克逊人来说，那些生活在蒸汽机和电力时代的现代快节奏的人们，其神经的紧张程度，当然不同于生活在帆船和马车为代表的缓慢节奏时代的人们。我们的时代是一个日新月异的时代，也是一个急匆匆的时代。甚至连吃饭的空闲都没有，神经一直处于高度紧张状态，其后果完全是人尽皆知的。
我们今天这个时代的商人都有一副焦虑、不安的神态（至少在西方国家做生意的人是这样），他们好像时时刻刻都在盼望着一封影响其命运的电报——他们事实上也的确经常是在等着电报。我们会在许多举动中无意识地暴露这种精神状态。我们无法静静地等待，常常坐立不安，心情烦躁。我们在一边谈话时，一边还要拨弄着手中的铅笔，似乎此刻我们必须立即写些什么，否则就来不及记录了一样。我们搓着双手，好像准备干一桩需要耗费全部精力的严峻任务。我们拨弄着大拇指，像野生动物那样迅速转过头去，似乎总是担心背后有某些被忽略的危险事物。
我们总有一种感觉，有什么事情我们现在应该立刻去做，刻不容缓，即使我们已经尽力完成了手头上其他几件更为紧迫的要事，又立刻投身于那件事中去。我们的神经过度紧张，不仅导致了诸如“提琴手痉挛”、“电报员痉挛”、“书写者痉挛”之类的病，而且导致了民众整体普遍的紧张气氛。我们的睡眠大不如从前，无论就时间长度还是就休息的有效性而言明显如此。树上的小鸟一声鸣叫、射进我们昏暗房间里的一丝光线、微风吹动百叶窗的一点响声或者是一个人轻微的说话声，诸如此类，都会令人讨厌地打断了我们的睡眠。稍有风吹草动，我们就会醒来，而一旦醒来，就别想再睡着了。我们把每天的生活都安排得紧贴着我们自己，其结果是我们便失去了真正的休息。在今天，有这样一种说法：银行家只能抱着银行去睡觉才能成功。这就不难理解了，在股东们收获自己的利益之时，银行家却大叹倒霉。
这样，在我们对西方人日常生活中所熟悉的事实作了一番描述之后，如果让一个西方人以之为对比，去了解以前所看到的、感觉到的每一个熟悉的中国人，那么，他肯定会看到或感到有某种强烈的反差。中国人去世后，很少有人用尸体进行解剖研究的。当然，毫无疑问肯定也曾做过。可我们从来没听说过“黑头发人”的神经组织与高加索白种人的神经有什么根本的不同。中国人的神经组织与西方人的相比，正像几何学家所说，是“相似形”。但是有一点确凿无疑，他们的神经紧张程度却显然与我们所熟悉的神经大相径庭。
对一个中国人来说，在一种姿态上无论保持多久，似乎都没有什么特别的差异。他可以像一个机器人一样，整天地写个不停。如果他是一个手艺人，他可以从早到晚地站在一个地方干活，编织、敲打金箔或干其他什么事，而且是日复一日地从事这种劳作，没有任何变化。显然，他也根本没有想过，这种单调需要有任何变化。同样，中国的学生们也是长时间地被限制在某个地方，既没有休息也没有活动，功课是一成不变的。若在西方，这种功课肯定会逼得小学生们发疯的。我们的孩子几乎一生下来就好动，相反，中国人的婴儿抱在怀里却像泥菩萨那样静静地躺着。稍长大一点，西方人的孩子顽皮得就像是一只猴子，而中国人的孩子却往往是一动不动地坐着、站着或蹲着，往往能保持很长的一段时间。
在中国人看来，活动筋骨、锻炼自己，对于身体来说是多余的。他们不能理解为什么外国人都爱外出散步。至于冒着生命危险，像“模拟打猎”的游戏那样分别扮演“兔子和猎犬”，你追我跑地去打垒球，更是难以理解了。广州的一位教师看到一名外国女子在打网球，就问仆人：“她这样跑来跑去要付给她多少钱？”如果告诉他说：“没钱。”他根本不会相信。在中国人看来，一桩事完全有能力雇苦力去做，为什么还要自己去做？他对此根本不理解，要是有人说这样做有什么好处，他更是听不懂了。
在睡觉方面，中国人与西方人也有很大的不同。一般说来，中国人似乎不论什么地方都可以睡。那些会让我们根本无法入睡的小干扰，对他们却起不到任何作用。有一块方砖当做枕头，有用草梗、泥土或藤做的床，他们就可以躺在上面呼呼大睡，其他什么都不管。他们睡觉时，不需要房间里的光线暗一些，也不需要别人保持安静。“半夜里啼哭的婴儿”，你喜欢哭就哭吧，因为这根本不会吵醒他们。在有些地区，在夏天午后的两小时里，所有的人都本能似的（像越冬的熊）躺下来睡觉，很有规律，也不管他身在何处。在这个季节的正午后两小时的时间内，整个世界就像半夜后两点一样寂静。不论对于干粗活的人，还是其他什么人，睡觉的地方并不重要。横卧在三轮手推车上，脑袋像一只蜘蛛向下垂着，张大着嘴，苍蝇在嘴里飞进飞出。若以这样的睡觉本事为标准，经过考试招募一支军队，那么，在中国，可以轻而易举地招募到数以百万计——不，数以千万计这样的人。
除此之外，我们肯定能看到的事实是：这就是在中国，人们对舒畅地呼吸空气似乎不讲究，没有什么地方可以算是空气流通的，除非是一阵台风掀掉了屋顶，或是一场饥荒迫使房屋的主人拆掉房子变卖木料。我们常常听说中国人住得过分拥挤，但是，中国人觉得这很正常，似乎不会有任何的不方便，即使有一点不方便，那也是不足挂齿。如果他们像盎格鲁撒克逊人那样戴上一副易于激动的神经装备，那么，他们的悲哀就一如我们通常所想象的那样。
中国人对于肉体痛苦的忍耐力，也同样是他们能够摆脱神经的统治而获得自由的一个例证。对中国医院的手术场面略略有所了解的人都知道，中国的病人常常是面对疼痛而毫不退缩，有些疼痛还可能令我们外国的壮汉子都感到望而却步。这一话题可以轻而易举地扩展为一篇论文。但我们必须把它搁在一边，而去听一听乔治·艾略特在一封信中所说的“最高的感召与选择”——她显然是被她所不感兴趣的神学套话激怒了，因而说道，“是不用麻醉药，眼睁睁地去忍受疼痛。”如果她说这句话是正确的，那么毫无疑问，大多数中国人至少已经做出了他们的感召与选择。
勃朗宁夫人曾说过：“不抱着同情心去观察，只会造成曲解。”无疑，这只是对像这位著名女诗人一类具有敏感大脑的人而言的。西方人不喜欢被别人看着，尤其是他正在做一件难做的事时，更是如此。但是，中国人也许喜欢在别人的观看下做好他们的工作。在中国那些外国人不常去的地方，我们的一到来，就会引出一大群中国人前来围观。他们用好奇的目光盯着我们看，使我们一下子就产生了厌烦之感。
其实，他们只是不带任何情感地看着我们，并不是要伤害我们。但我们还是经常抱怨，若不把他们驱散，我们就会“发疯”。而对中国人来说，西方人这种本能的感觉，似乎完全无可理喻。中国人并不在乎有多少人在看他，什么时候看，看多久。若是有人对别人的观看表示出极度强烈的反感，那么，他自然地会怀疑那个人是否有毛病。
西方人不仅睡觉时需要安静，生病时更要安静。即使在平时他从未有过对安静的要求，那么他现在病了，可以要求不受噪声的干扰了。朋友、护士、医生都会齐心协力，确保为患者提供环境所允许的对治好病最为重要的这一条件。如果病人所得的病已是无力回天，那么，病人更得处于一种最安宁的环境之中。
中国人与西方人风俗的最突出的差异，就在于如何对待病人。某人得病的消息就是一个行动信号，来自四面八方的探视，都会强加于病人身上。探视者的人数是与病情严重程度成正比，病情越重，探视者也就会越多。此时，谁也不会想到，病人自己需要安静。而且说来奇怪，似乎谁都不需要安静。那么多前来探视病人的客人，需要热热闹闹地迎送、招待。有些人担心病人不久就会死去，而痛哭不止。尤其是和尚、尼姑以及其他驱鬼的巫师也造成了极大的混乱。对大多数西方人来说，面对这样一种环境，还不如死了更好。当一位尊贵的法国夫人对前来探视的人说：“她正在死去，请原谅不要打扰。”西方人一定对之抱有深深的同情之心。而在中国，决不会有人道出这样的恳求的。即使有，也不会被人接受。
还必须指出，在这个令人心烦意乱的动荡世界里，令人们感到担忧和焦虑的事情无所不在。中国人不仅像其他民族一样受到这些邪恶的影响，而且要更深重得多。在许多地区，他们的社会生活条件使得有相当比例的人总是挣扎在崩溃的边缘。只要雨水稍微减少，就会有成千上万的人挨饿。只要雨水稍微增加，洪水就会冲毁他们的家园。
中国百姓很难幸免于官司的纠缠，一旦吃了官司，即使当事人是完全无辜的，也难逃倾家荡产的厄运，而且没有任何补救的办法。许多这些灾难不仅看得见，而且可以感到它正在不断地悄然降临，如一件渐渐收紧的铁制的裹尸布。
对我们来说，最恐怖的莫过于猛然领悟到将有一场巨大的灾难降临，不可抵御却又无能为力。中国人在面对这种灾难时，也许是因为它是不可避免的，从而“头脑清晰地去忍受它”。这正构成了这个民族最为显著的性格之一。只有那些亲眼目睹灾荒年月，成千上万百姓默默地死于饥饿的人才能够理解其中的含义。要全面了解中国人，就必须去看，但无论看到什么程度，西方人都难以真正理解。就像中国人很难真正理解盎格鲁撒克逊人，继承并发展了的个人自由和社会自由的理念。
无论我们从哪个方面去考察中国人，我们都会发现，中国人在我们眼中或多或少依然是一个谜。我们将不断地去理解他们，直至我们终于相信，他们与我们相比是“神经麻木”的，否则我们便无法了解他们。我们不敢冒昧地做出猜测，这一意味深长的说法会对这个民族未来与我们民族的关系产生怎样的影响——这一影响很可能随着岁月的推移，这种碰撞似乎正变得越来越强烈。至少就整体而言，我们是相信适者生存这一普遍的规律的。在二十世纪的生存斗争中，最适应的是“神经质的”欧洲人，还是不知疲倦、无孔不入、不急不躁的中国人呢？
英文原版：
IT is a very significant aspect of modern civilisation whichis expressed in the different uses of the word "nervous."Its original meaning is "possessing nerve; sinewy; strong;vigorous." One of its derivative meanings, and the one whichwe by far most frequently meet, is, " Having the nerves weakor diseased ; subject to, or suffering from, undue excitementof the nerves ; easily excited ; weakly." The varied and complex phraseology by which the pecuUar phases of nervousdiseases are expressed has become by this time familiar in ourears as household words. There is no doubt that civilisation,as exhibited in its modern form, tends to undue nervous excitement, and that nervous diseases are relatively more common than they were a century ago.
But what we have now to say does not concern those whoare specially subject to nervous diseases, but to the generalmass of Occidentals, who, while not in any specific conditionof ill health, are yet continually reminded in a great variety ofways that their nervous systems are a most conspicuous partof their organisation. We allude, in short, to people who are" nervous," and we understand this term to include all ourreaders. To the Anglo-Saxon race, at least, it seems a matterof course that those who live in an age of steam and of electricity must necessarily be in a different condition, as to theirnerves, from those who lived in the old slow days of sailing packets and of mail-coaches. Ours is an age of extreme activity.It is an age of rush. There is no leisure so muchas to eat, and the nerves are kept in a state of constant tension, with results which are sufficiently well known.
Business men in our time have an eager, restless air (at leastthose who do their business in Occidental lands), as if theywere in momentary expectation of a telegram—as they oftenare—the contents of which may affect their destiny in somefateful way. We betray this unconscious state of mind in amultitude of acts. We cannot sit still, but we must fidget.We finger our pencils while we are talking, as if we ought atthis particular instant to be rapidly inditing something ere itbe forever too late. We rub our hands together as if preparing for some serious task, which is about to absorb all ourenergies. We twirl our thumbs, we turn over heads with theswift motion of the wild animal which seems to fear thatsomething dangerous may have been left unseen. We havea sense that there is something which we ought to be doingnow, and into which we shall proceed at once to plunge assoon as we shall have despatched six other affairs of evenmore pressing importance. The effect of overworking ournerves shows itself not mainly in such affections as " fiddler'scramp," "telegrapher's cramp," "writer's cramp," and thelike, but in a general tension. We do not sleep as we oncedid, either as regards length of time or soundness of rest.We are wakened by slight causes, and often by those whichare exasperatingly trivial, such as the twitter of a bird on atree, a chance ray of Hght straggling into our darkened rooms,the motion of a shutter in the breeze, the sound of a voice,and when sleep is once interrupted it is banished. We havetaken our daily Hfe to rest with us, and the result is that wehave no real rest. In an age when it has become a kind ofaphorism that a bank never succeeds until it has a presidentwho takes it to bed with him, it is easy to understand that. while the shareholders reap the advantage, it is bad for thepresident.
We have mentioned thus fully these familiar facts of oureveryday Western life, to point the great contrast to themwhich one cannot help seeing, and feeling too, when he beginsto become acquainted with the Chinese. It is not very common to dissect dead Chinese, though it has doubtless beendone, but we do not hear of any reason for supposing that thenervous anatomy of the " dark-haired race " differs in anyessential respect from that of the Caucasian. But though thenerves of a Chinese as compared with those of the Occidentalmay be, as the geometricians say, " similar and similarly situated," nothing is plainer than that they are nerves or a verydifferent sort from those with which we are familiar.
It seems to make no particular difference to a Chinese h*" /long he remains in one position. He will write all day Ikean automaton. If he is a handicraftsman, he will stand inone place from dewy morn till dusky eve, working away athis weaving, his gold-beating, or whatever it may be, and do itevery day without any variation in the monotony, and apparently with no special consciousness that there is any monotonyto be varied. In the same way Chinese school-children aresubjected to an amount of confinement, unrelieved by anyrecesses or change of work, which would soon drive Westernpupils to the verge of insanity. The very infants in arms,instead of squirming and wriggling as our children begin to doalmost as soon as they are bom, lie as impassive as so manymud gods. And at a more advanced age, when Westernchildren would vie with the monkey in its wildest antics,Chinese children will often stand, sit, or squat in the sameposture for a great length of time.
It seems to be a physiological fact that to the Chineseexercise is superfluous. They cannot understand the desirewhich seems to possess all plasses of foreigners abke, to walk when there is no desire to go anywhere ; much less can theycomprehend the impulse to race over the country at the riskof one's life, in such a singular performance as that known asa "paper hunt," representing " hare and hounds " ; or the motive which impels men of good social position to stand all theafternoon in the sun, trying to knock a base-ball to some spotwhere it shall be inaccessible to some other persons, or, onthe other hand, struggling to catch the same ball with celerity,so as to "kill" another person on his "base"! A Cantoneseteacher asked a servant about a foreign lady whom he hadseen playing tennis : " How much is she paid for rushingabout like that ? " On being told " Nothing," he would notbelieve it. Why any mortal should do acts bke this, when heis abundantly able to hire coolies to do them for him, is, werepeat, essentially incomprehensible to a Chinese, nor is itany more comprehensible to him because he has heard itexplained.
In the item of sleep, the Chinese establishes the same difference between himself and the Occidental as in the directionsalready specified. Generally speaking, he is able to sleep anywhere. None of the trifling disturbances which drive us todespair annoy him. With a brick for a pillow, he can liedown on his bed of stalks or mud bricks or rattan and sleepthe sleep of the just, with no reference to the rest of creation.He does not want his room darkened, nor does he requireothers to be still. The "infant crying in the night" maycontinue to cry for all he cares, for it does not disturb him.In some regions the entire population seem to fall asleep, asby a common instinct (hke that of the hibernating bear), during the first two hours of summer afternoons, and they do thiswith regularity, no matter where they may be. At two hoursafter noon the universe at such seasons is as still as at twohours after midnight. In the case of most working-people,at least, and also in that of many others, position in sleep is of no sort of consequence. It would be easy to raise in Chinaan army of a million men—nay, of ten millions—tested bycompetitive examination as to their capacity to go to sleepacross three wheelbarrows, with head downwards, like a spider,their mouths wide open and a fly inside!
Beside this, we must take account of the fact that in Chinabreathing seems to be optional. There is nowhere any ventilation worth the name, except when a typhoon blows the rooffrom a dwelUng, or when a famine compels the owner to pullthe house down to sell the timbers. We hear much of Chineseovercrowding, but overcrowding is the normal condition ofthe Chinese, and they do not appear to be inconvenienced byit at all, or in so trifling a degree that it scarcely deservesmention. If they had an outfit of Anglo-Saxon nerves, theywould be as wretched as we frequently suppose them to be.
The same freedom from the tyranny of nerves is exhibitedin the Chinese endurance of physical pain. Those who haveany acquaintance with the operations in hospitals in China,know how common, or rather how almost universal, it is forthe patients to bear without flinching a degree of pain fromwhich the stoutest of us would shrink in terror. It would beeasy to expand this topic alone into an essay, but >ye mustpass it by, merely calling attention to a remark of GeorgeEUot's, in one of her letters. " The highest calling and election," she says—irritated, no doubt, by theological formulasfor which she had no taste—"is to do without opium, and tobear pain with clear-eyed endurance." If she is right, therecan be little doubt that most Chinese, at least, have madetheir calling and election sure.
It is a remark of Mrs. Browning's, that " Observation without sympathy is tortiu-e." So it doubdess is to persons of asensitive organisation like the distinguished poetess, as wellas to a multitude of others of her race. An Occidental doesnot like to be watched, especially if he is doing any delicate or difficult work. But perhaps a Chinese does his best workunder close observation. We all of us grow rapidly weary ofbeing stared at by the swarms of curious Chinese who crowdabout a foreigner, in every spot to which foreigners do notcommonly resort. We often declare that we shall " go wild "if we cannot in some way disperse those who are subjectingus to no other injury than that of unsympathetic obsers^ation.But to the Chinese this instinctive feeUng of the Occidental isutterly incomprehensible. He does not care how many peoplesee him, nor when, nor for how great a length of time, andhe cannot help suspecting that there must be something wrongabout persons who so vehemently resent mere inspection.
It is not alone when he sleeps that an Occidental reqviiresquiet, but most of all when he is sick. Then, if never before,he demands freedom from the annoyance of needless noises.Friends, nurses, physicians, all conspire to insure this mostnecessar)' condition for recovery ; and if recovery is beyondhope, then more than ever is the sufferer allowed to be in asgreat peace as circumstances admit. Nothing in the habitsof the Chinese presents a greater contrast to those of Westerners, than the behaviour of the Chinese to one another in casesof sickness. The notification of the event is a signal for allvarieties of raids upon the patient from every quarter, in numbers proportioned to the gravity of the disease. Quiet is notfor a moment to be thought of, and, strange to say, no oneappears to desire it. The bustle attendant upon the arrivaland departure of so many guests, the work of entertainingthem, the wailings of those who fear that a death is soon totake place, and especially the pandemonium made by priests,priestesses, and others to drive away the malignant spirits,constitute an environment from which death would be to mostEuropeans a happy escape. Occidentals cannot fail to sympathise with the distinguished French lady who sent word toa caller that she " begged to be excused, as she was engaged in dying." In China such an excuse would never be offered,nor, if it were offered, would it be accepted.
It remains to speak of the worries and anxieties to whichhumanity is everywhere subjected in this distracted world.The Chinese are not only as accessible to these evils as anyother people, but far more so. The conditions of their sociallife are such that in any given region there is a large proportion who are always on the ragged edge of ruin. A sHghtdiminution of the rainfall means starvation to hundreds ofthousands. A slight increase in the rainfall means the devastation of their homes by destructive floods, for which there isno known remedy. No Chinese is safe from the entanglementof a lawsuit, which, though he be perfectly innocent, may workhis ruin. Many of these disasters are not only seen, but theirtrain.stealthy and steady approach is perceived, like the gradualshrinking of the iron shroud. To us nothing is more dreadfulthan the momentary expectation of a calamity which cannotbe forefended, and which may bring all that is horrible in itsThe Chinese face these things, perhaps because theyseem to be inevitable, with a " clear-eyed endurance," whichis one of the most remarkable phenomena of the race. Thosewho have witnessed the perfectly quiet starvation of millionsin times of devastating famine will be able to understand whatis here meant. To be fully appreciated, it must be seen, butseen on no matter what scale, it is as difficult for an Occidental really to understand it as it is for a Chinese truly tounderstand the idea of personal and social liberty, which theAnglo-Saxon has inherited and developed.
In whatever aspect we regard them, the Chinese are andmust continue to be to us more or less a puzzle, but we shallmake no approach to comprehending them until we have itsettled firmly in our minds that, as compared with us, they aregifted with the " absence of nerves." What the bearing ofthis pregnant proposition may be on the future impact of this race with our own—an impact likely to become more violentas the years go bymost fit.—we shall not ventiire to conjecture. Wehave come to believe, at least in general, in the survival of theWhich is the best adapted to survive in the struggles of the twentieth century, the " nervous " European, or thetireless, all-pervading, and phlegmatic Chinese?
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