原文

誠偽是品性，卻又是態(tài)度。從前論人的誠偽，大概就品性而言。誠實，誠篤，至誠，都是君子之德；不誠便是詐偽的小人。品性一半是生成，一半是教養(yǎng)；品性的表現(xiàn)出于自然，是整個兒的為人。說一個人是誠實的君子或詐偽的小人，是就他的行跡總算賬。君子大概總是君子，小人大概總是小人。雖然說氣質(zhì)可以變化，蓋了棺才能論定人，那只是些特例。不過一個社會里，這種定型的君子和小人并不太多，一般常人都浮沉在這兩界之間。所謂浮沉，是說這些人自己不能把握住自己，不免有詐偽的時候。這也是出于自然。還有一層，這些人對人對事有時候自覺的加減他們的誠意，去適應(yīng)那局勢。這就是態(tài)度。態(tài)度不一定反映出品性來；一個誠實的朋友到了不得已的時候，也會撒個謊什么的。態(tài)度出于必要，出于處世的或社交的必要，常人是免不了這種必要的。這是“世故人情”的一個項目。有時可以原諒，有時甚至可以容許。態(tài)度的變化多，在現(xiàn)代多變的社會里也許更會使人感興趣些。我們嘴里常說的，筆下常寫的“誠懇”“誠意”和“虛偽”等詞，大概都是就態(tài)度說的。

但是一般人用這幾個詞似乎太嚴格了一些。照他們的看法，不誠懇無誠意的人就未免太多。而年輕人看社會上的人和事，除了他們自己以外差不多盡是虛偽的。這樣用“虛偽”那個詞，又似乎太寬泛了一些。這些跟老先生們開口閉口說“人心不古，世風(fēng)日下”同樣犯了籠統(tǒng)的毛病。一般人似乎將品性和態(tài)度混為一談，年輕人也如此，卻又加上了“天真”“純潔”種種幻象。誠實的品性確是不可多得，但人孰無過，不論那方面，完人或圣賢總是很少的。我們恐怕只能寬大些，卑之無甚高論，從態(tài)度上著眼。不然無謂的煩惱和糾紛就太多了。至于天真純潔，似乎只是兒童的本分——老氣橫秋的兒童實在不順眼。可是一個人若總是那么天真純潔下去，他自己也許還沒有什么，給別人的麻煩卻就太多。有人贊美“童心”、“孩子氣”，那也只限于無關(guān)大體的小節(jié)目，取其可以調(diào)劑調(diào)劑平板的氛圍氣。若是重要關(guān)頭也如此，那時天真恐怕只是任性，純潔恐怕只是無知罷了。幸而不誠懇，無誠意，虛偽等等已經(jīng)成了口頭禪，一般人只是跟著大家信口說著，至多皺皺眉，冷笑笑，表示無可奈何的樣子就過去了。自然也短不了認真的，那卻苦了自己，甚至于苦了別人。年輕人容易認真，容易不滿意，他們的不滿意往往是社會改革的動力。可是他們也得留心，若是在誠偽的分別上認真得過了分，也許會成為虛無主義者。

人與人事與事之間各有分際，言行最難得恰如其分。誠意是少不得的，但是分際不同，無妨斟酌加減點兒。種種禮數(shù)或過場就是從這里來的。有人說禮是生活的藝術(shù)，禮的本意應(yīng)該如此。日常生活里所謂客氣，也是一種禮數(shù)或過場。有些人覺得客氣太拘行跡，不見真心，不是誠懇的態(tài)度。這些人主張率性自然。率性自然未嘗不可，但是得看人去。若是一見生人就如此這般，就有點野了。即使熟人，毫無節(jié)制的率性自然也不成。夫婦算是熟透了的，有時還得“相敬如賓”，別人可想而知。總之，在不同的局勢下，率性自然可以表示誠意，客氣也可以表示誠意，不過誠意的程度不一樣罷了。客氣要大方，合身份，不然就是誠意太多；誠意太多，誠意就太賤了。

看人、請客、送禮，也都是些過場。有人說這些只是虛偽的俗套，無聊的玩意兒。但是這些其實也是表示誠意的。總得心里有這個人，才會去看他，請他，送他禮，這就有誠意了。至于看望的次數(shù)，時間的長短，請作主客或陪客，送禮的情形，只是誠意多少的分別，不是有無的分別。看人又有回看，請客有回請，送禮有回禮，也只是回答誠意。古語說得好，“來而不往非禮也”，無論古今，人情總是一樣的。有一個人送年禮，轉(zhuǎn)來轉(zhuǎn)去，自己送出去的禮物，有一件竟又回到自己手里。他覺得虛偽無聊，當作笑談。笑談確乎是的，但是誠意還是有的。又一個人路上遇見一個本不大熟的朋友向他說，“我要來看你”。這個人告訴別人說，“他用不著來看我，我也知道他不會來看我，你瞧這句話才沒意思哪！”那個朋友的誠意似乎是太多了。凌叔華女士寫過一個短篇小說，叫做《外國規(guī)矩》，說一位青年留學(xué)生陪著一位舊家小姐上公園，盡招呼她這樣那樣的。她以為讓他愛上了，哪里知道他行的只是“外國規(guī)矩”！這喜劇由于那位舊家小姐不明白新禮數(shù)，新過場，多估量了那位留學(xué)生的誠意。可見誠意確是有分量的。

人為自己活著，也為別人活著。在不傷害自己身份的條件下顧全別人的情感，都得算是誠懇，有誠意。這樣寬大的看法也許可以使一些人活得更有興趣些。西方有句話，“人生是做戲。”做戲也無妨，只要有心往好里做就成。客氣等等一定有人覺得是做戲，可是只要為了大家好，這種戲也值得做的。另一方面，誠懇、誠意也未必不是戲。現(xiàn)在人常說，“我很誠懇的告訴你”，“我是很有誠意的”，自己標榜自己的誠懇、誠意，大有賣瓜的說瓜甜的神氣，誠實的君子大概不會如此。不過一般人也已習(xí)慣自然，知道這只是為了增加誠意的分量，強調(diào)自己的態(tài)度，跟買賣人的吆喝到底不是一回事兒。常人到底是常人，得跟著局勢斟酌加減他們的誠意，變化他們的態(tài)度；這就不免沾上了些戲味。西方還有句話，“誠實是最好的政策”，“誠實”也只是態(tài)度；這似乎也是一句戲詞兒。

英譯

Sincerity and hypocrisy are about people.s moral characters as well as attitudes. Formerly when talking about sincerity and hypocrisy, we mainly referred to people.s moral characters. Integrity, honesty and allegiance are all virtues of gentlemen while fraudulence is used to describe the deceitful and hypocritical villains. Half the moral character is inborn while the other half is formed through educating. Natural as the performance of moral character is, it shows one.s humanity. Judging by one.s overall behavior, we know whether he is an honest gentleman or a deceitful villain. Probably gentlemen are always gentlemen while villains are always villains. Though one.s temperament can change, it.s still an exception when we say,“no final verdict can be announced on a man before his death”. However, in society the defined gentlemen and villains are not common, people generally oscillate between these two levels; sometimes they can.t control themselves and become deceitful and hypocritical. Moreover, people are motivated to give different degrees of sincerity to different people and things in order to adapt to the situation. This describes the attitude. Sometimes attitude can.t reflect one.s moral character, for example, an honest friend will tell a lie at the last extremity. Attitude is out of necessity, and ordinary people can.t avoid it for the need of life-dealing or social intercourse. The change of attitude can be forgiven and even be accepted because it is the demand of worldly wisdom. As attitude implies so many changes, it will attract more people.s attention in such a changeable society. The words“pure-heartedness”,“sincerity”and“hypocrisy”that we usually say and write may be all about attitude.

However, people define these words a bit strictly. According to their definition, there are too many people who are disingenuous and insincere. In the eyes of the youth, except for themselves most people and things in society are hypocritical. The word“hypocrisy”used in such a way seems to be defined a little broadly, which makes the same sweeping mistake with the old people who always say“people are not what they were in times past and the moral values of society are worsening day after day”. Generally speaking, people always confuse moral characters with attitudes, so do the young people. But they have various illusions about“naivety”and“purity”. Though honesty is indeed a treasure, everyone will make a mistake, and phoenix and sage are rare.The only thing we can do is to be magnanimous and start from the small aspect—attitude, otherwise our life will be full of unnecessary annoyance and pointless dispute. As for naivety and purity, it is a characteristic only for children. The children that behave like adults are disagreeable to our eyes. However, if a person remains innocent and pure all the time, no harm will be done to him but lots of troubles will be made to others. Someone praises“childlike innocence”and“childishness”, but it is only limited to small programs in order to regulate the dull and boring atmosphere. If you still perform casually at the crucial moment, you will be regarded as a willful and ignorant person.Fortunately, words like dishonesty, insincerity and hypocrisy have become conventional expressions, and people usually speak these words irresponsibly, at most frowning or sneering to show their helplessness. Of course, some people are serious, but both themselves and others will suffer from this. The young people easily become serious and unsatisfied, and their dissatisfaction can be a driving force for social reform. But they have to be careful, because if they.re too serious to differentiate sincerity and hypocrisy, they will be regarded nihilists.

There is a certain line between people and things, so it.s very difficult for us to behave appropriately. Sincerity is indispensable, but when faced with different situations, we must weigh and balance the amount of sincerity. Therefore etiquette and formalities are produced. Someone says that etiquette is the art of life, and it should have been. Politeness in daily life is also an etiquette or formality.However, some people think that politeness stands on ceremony too much and loses the real heart, so it isn.t a genuine attitude. They suggest following what is natural. It.s fine to behave naturally, but we must adjust ourselves to different situations. For example, if we behave casually when meeting strangers, people will think we are rude. Even though for acquaintances, being such immoderately casual is inappropriate. Couples are close enough, however, they still need to respect each other. In a word, under different circumstances both nature and politeness can express sincerity. Your politeness must be liberal and match your own identity, otherwise too much sincerity can decrease its value.

Visiting friends, entertaining guests and sending gifts are all formalities. Some people think that these formalities are some hypocritical conventions and boring stuff, in fact these can also show sincerity. Only when you care for him will you go off your way to do those activities.This is enough to show sincerity.As for the frequency of visiting, the time of visiting, being invited as a guest of honor or guest for accompanying and the atmosphere of visiting, these just indicate the amount of sincerity rather than whether the sincerity exists or not. When you visit, treat or send a gift in return, actually you are returning sincerity. As the old saying goes,“one good turn deserves another”. At any time, it remains the same. Someone surprisingly received one present which he had given to others during a Spring Festival. This has been taken to be insincere and regarded as a standing joke. Indeed, this is funny, but still embodies sincerity. Another one came cross a person who he had made nodding acquaintance with previously and was told,“I am going to call on you.”Then he said in conversation with others,“Don.t bother visiting me. I don.t think he will do it. What an empty promise!”It seems that person showed excessive sincerity. Foreign Rules, a short novel written by Ms. Ling Shuhua, is about a young overseas student who accompanied to the park, a young lady who grew up in a traditional family. He was devoted to her, and unexpectedly the young lady mistook his kindness for love. In fact, the young man followed the foreign customs and performed a little more enthusiasm. The comedy is caused by the lady.s ignorance of new etiquette and formalities and overestimate of the overseas student.s sincerity. So you can see, sincerity has weight.

We live not only for ourselves but for others. We can also be regarded as pure-hearted and sincere if we have consideration for others.feelings while not doing harm to our own identity. Such a broad view may cheer some people up. As a Western saying goes“l(fā)ife is like acting”, our lives can also be wonderful as long as we try to act in a good way. Such as politeness, some people regard it as a show, however, a show is also fine if it is beneficial to all. Furthermore, pure-heartedness and sincerity may also be shows. Nowadays people usually say,“I am talking to you very sincerely...”or“I am very serious...”. Similar with every potter praising his own pot, they praise their own genuineness and sincerity. Honest gentlemen probably will not do such things. However, ordinary people have got used to it, and they think it is just for increasing their sincerity or emphasizing their attitude, which is different with peddlers.touting wares.Ordinary people as we are should weigh and balance our sincerity and change our attitude following the current situation. But unavoidably, a little flavor of show is involved. Here.s another Western saying“honesty is the best policy”, which is also a line of the actor. Here“honesty”also indicates our attitude.