The China and Japan that Waley gave to his readers were humane and balanced. From perusing their newspapers Westerners knew from 1895 onward that China was a torn and wretched country, with its people in misery from famine and civil war, and that Japan was entering a strident and dangerous phase following her startlingly rapid and successful industrialization on the West ern model. Later they could read of the 1911 Revolution and the Manchurian crisis, of Tejo, Mao Tse‐tung and Hiro shima. But with Sei Shonagon and Po Chtt‐i they were back in a world where courtesy mat tered, and good taste was not simply something connected with food.
~~~The Explorer Who Never Left Home By Jonathan Spence
Speaking of Books: The Explorer Who Never Left Home
收入史景遷《中國縱橫》上海遠東出版社，2005，頁390
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