Rewi Alley, the Guiding Genius1領(lǐng)路天才路易·艾黎

海倫·福斯特·斯諾

Several foreign advisors have rendered distinguished service to the Chinese Government during the war， and nearly all of them happen to be either Australians or New Zealanders; for instance， Mr. W. H. Donald， Mr. George Shepherd and Mr. Rewi Alley， as well as one or two engaged in publicity work.

Rewi Alley， Chief Technical Advisor of the Industrial Cooperatives， has been the guiding genius behind this movement from the moment of its inception. Possibly no foreigner has ever before participated so closely in the actual field work of a significant reconstruction movement in China， and certainly none has ever worked under more difficult circumstances. In the summer of 1939 he was ill for weeks in a little village in Kiangsi with a very serious case of typhoid. The anxiety that attended his recovery was a measure of the importance which supporters attach to his leadership. Until that time， few realized exactly how much of the confidence in the movement was based upon the integrity and efficiency of this one individual， and he was deluged with requests to take better care of himself in future.

Alley comes of Scotch-Irish2 and English Puritan stock3， and of one of the first families to settle in New Zealand. His mother rather quaintly named him “Rewi” after the famous native chieftain of early New Zealand days. As soon as he had graduated from school， he enlisted in the World War， during which he was wounded and received one of the highest decorations for special gallantry4 in action of any New Zealander. It is from this experience that he derived his special interest in helping disabled soldiers and in assisting the fighters at the front. It was his idea Indusco should make woolen blankets for the troops and provide for the real rehabilitation5 of disabled soldiers as part of its program.

Alleys first venture was in a wool business. After the war he bought a sheep ranch in New Zealand and took care of his flocks for several years. （This is also an important reason why Indusco has plans to revive the woolen industry of China.） This occupation did not suit an active young man， however， so he travelled abroad and finally decided to do industrial work for the Municipal Council in Shanghai. That was about seventeen years ago. During those years he was Factory Inspector for the Municipal Council， and learned the conditions of Chinese industry and labor from the ground up. Whenever anyone wanted information on those subjects， he was always advised to “go talk to Alley of the S. M. C.” In his attempts to reform factory conditions in that city， Alley met Joseph Bailie and his “boys” who were operating apprentice schools， and from this friendship came the little group of a dozen Ford-trained engineers who have taken leadership in cooperative industry in China.

Alley usually spent his vacations on walking trips throughout the interior of China， during which he made investigations of rural industry. His studies of native paper， glass， cotton， woolen and other rural industries were published for many years in the China Journal. Some of his other pamphlets include studies of overseas Chinese life in New Zealand， the Philippines， England， the United States， Australia， Singapore and elsewhere.

In appearance， Alley is the athletic type-stocky， with powerful muscles and exuberant good health. He is built almost four-square. This natural strength has been very fortunate for him during his dangerous work， which requires travelling throughout the length and breadth of a continent6 at least once a year. He seems as indefatigable7 as a steam engine. He has frank very blue eyes under a scruff of sandy hair， and a boyish grin when anything amuses him.

Alley is a little on the “dour8-Scotch” side， serious-minded， studious and quiet. He talks very little and is extremely modest and unassuming， but quick to rise to the defense of anything he believes in. Nothing angers him more than corruption and selfishness and intrigue， but he has infinite patience with the underprivileged class whose lot he has tried to improve for so many years. Underneath his Puritan Scotch strictness and prudence， lies a soft Irish heart. Alley is the soul of generosity and humanitarian kindness. He is well-known in China for his voluntary assistance to the China International Famine Relief Commission during the great famine in the Northwest in 1929 and again at the time of the Yangtze Valley flood in 1931. On both of these two occasions he adopted a Chinese orphan boy.? These two boys turned out to be phenomenally successful as an experiment in foster-fatherhood. Though he has been more than forty years a bachelor， Alley kept quite the paternal establishment， educating his adopted children and taking them with him on his travels. One of them was President of his class at St. Johns University and is now helping Alley with Indusco work. The three are devoted to each other， and much of Alleys personal conversation centers around the exploits9 of “Mike and Allen.”

Alley seems always to have been keenly interested in China and to really like the Chinese people. He reads and writes the language fluently， and speaks several dialects. He has helped a continuous string of poor Chinese students through school and his house in Shanghai was always full of Boy Scouts planning expeditions and experiments.

Alleys most important qualifications for his present work， aside from his long experience and studies of both rural and urban industry， are the ability to improvise and utilize existing conditions to the full， and the capacity to get along with the type of Chinese with whom the Industrial Cooperatives have to deal. Where other experts from abroad would have given up in despair and indignation at the circumstances confronting an attempt to bring modern cooperative industry to the semi-feudal Chinese village， Alley takes them in his stride10. He does not demand perfection， but has a broad vision of an ultimate goal that does not stop at model centers and academic quibbling11. For him the Industrial Cooperatives are not an experiment on paper， but a living movement with all the multifarious problems of human life. Separately or together， he tackles these problems as they come up with dogged12 persistence. He is working with the basic human material of China， with the workers and engineers and technicians， the refugees and villagers. One can not point to a better proof of the splendid qualities inherent in the people of China than Alleys boundless sympathy and confidence in them after his difficult experiences during these past few years.

We can only match an ounce of his belief with a dollar of our own contributed toward the valuable work which he is doing.? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ■

抗戰(zhàn)期間，幾位外國顧問為中國政府提供了卓越的服務(wù)，他們幾乎都是澳大利亞人或者新西蘭人。比如，W. H. 唐納德先生、喬治·謝潑德先生和路易·艾黎先生，還有一兩位致力于宣傳工作。

作為工業(yè)合作社的首席技術(shù)顧問，路易·艾黎從工合運動伊始就一直是這場運動的領(lǐng)導(dǎo)天才。在他之前可能還沒有哪一個外國人如此密切地參與了中國一項重要重建運動的實地工作，而且肯定沒有人曾遭遇更艱苦的工作環(huán)境。1939年夏天，他在江西一個小村子患上了一種非常嚴(yán)重的傷寒，病了數(shù)周。支持工合運動的人對他的康復(fù)充滿焦慮，這也說明他們是多么重視他的領(lǐng)導(dǎo)力。直到那個時候，大家才切實認(rèn)識到，人們對這項運動的信心很大程度上建立在他這個人的正直品格和高效工作之上。人們紛紛勸說他以后要好好照顧自己的身體。

艾黎家是新西蘭第一批移民，他有蘇格蘭-愛爾蘭血統(tǒng)和英格蘭清教背景。母親為他取名“路易”，這是新西蘭早期原住民中那位著名族長的名字——一個相當(dāng)古雅的名字。他剛從學(xué)校畢業(yè)，就應(yīng)征入伍奔赴一戰(zhàn)前線，在戰(zhàn)斗中負(fù)了傷，因作戰(zhàn)行動中非凡的英勇表現(xiàn)而被授予了新西蘭人最高等級榮譽勛章。正是這段經(jīng)歷讓他對幫助傷殘士兵和前線戰(zhàn)士產(chǎn)生了特殊的興趣。他萌生了一個想法，即工業(yè)合作社應(yīng)該制作軍用羊毛毯并為傷殘士兵真正回歸正常生活的機(jī)會，將這納入工業(yè)合作社的工作計劃。

艾黎經(jīng)營的第一個項目是羊毛生意。戰(zhàn)后，他在新西蘭購買了一個綿羊牧場，花了好幾年時間照看羊群。（這也是工業(yè)合作社計劃復(fù)興中國羊毛產(chǎn)業(yè)的一個重要原因。）然而，這個職業(yè)并不適合這位進(jìn)取心強的年輕人。于是，他去國外旅行，最終決定在上海市政委員會做工業(yè)方面的工作。那是在大約17年前的事了。在擔(dān)任上海市政委員會工廠督察員的那些年里，他從基層了解到了中國工業(yè)和工人的情況。任何人需要關(guān)于這些問題的信息時，總是被告知“去和上海市政委員會的艾黎談?wù)劇薄Ｔ谒麌L試改善上海的工廠條件時，遇到了裴義理和他的 “小伙子們”，當(dāng)時他們正在開辦技工學(xué)校。兩人成為了朋友，共同培養(yǎng)出一小群經(jīng)過福特式訓(xùn)練的工程師，這些工程師引領(lǐng)了中國合作社工業(yè)的發(fā)展。

假期里，艾黎通常會在中國內(nèi)陸徒步旅行，在此過程中他調(diào)查了農(nóng)村工業(yè)狀況。多年來，他關(guān)于土紙、玻璃、棉花、羊毛和其他農(nóng)村產(chǎn)業(yè)的研究成果發(fā)表在《中國研究》上。他出版的其他一些小冊子是關(guān)于旅居新西蘭、菲律賓、英國、美國、澳大利亞、新加坡等國的海外華人生活的研究。

從外表來看，艾黎像運動員一般敦實，肌肉結(jié)實，身體健壯，體格魁梧。這種天生的強壯對他而言是一種幸運，因為他的工作有危險性，至少每年要到中國各地走一趟。他像一臺蒸汽機(jī)一樣不知疲倦。他頭發(fā)淺棕，留著背頭，湛藍(lán)的雙眼目光真誠坦率。碰到可樂的事情會像孩子似的咧嘴一笑。

艾黎性格有點偏向蘇格蘭式的倔強，嚴(yán)肅，好學(xué)，安靜。他沉默寡言，非常謙虛，為人低調(diào)，但他也敢于挺身捍衛(wèi)自己的信仰。沒有比腐敗、自私和陰謀更令他憤怒的事情，他對底層的人們有著無限的耐心——多年以來，他一直致力于改善底層人的命運。在他蘇格蘭清教徒嚴(yán)厲、謹(jǐn)慎的外表之下，有著愛爾蘭人的柔軟內(nèi)心。艾黎是慷慨和博愛的化身。在1929年西北大饑荒和1931年長江水災(zāi)期間，他向中國國際饑荒救濟(jì)委員會提供了無償援助，由此聞名中國。他在這兩次援助中各收養(yǎng)了一名中國孤兒。他作為男性嘗試收養(yǎng)孩子，結(jié)果非常成功，兩個孩子都培養(yǎng)有成。盡管40多年來艾黎一直單身，他一直是稱職的父親，教育養(yǎng)子并帶他們一起旅行。其中一個孩子在圣約翰大學(xué)讀書時擔(dān)任了班長，目前在工業(yè)合作社協(xié)助艾黎工作。他們?nèi)烁星樯詈瘢璧乃饺苏勗挻蟛糠侄紘@“邁克和艾倫”的奇遇。

艾黎似乎始終對中國抱有濃厚的興趣，并且真正地喜歡中國人民。他漢語讀寫流利，能講幾種方言。他幫助了一批又一批中國貧困學(xué)生完成學(xué)業(yè)，他在上海的家中總是擠滿了計劃進(jìn)行各種探險和試驗的童子軍。

除了他對農(nóng)村、城市工業(yè)的長期經(jīng)驗和研究之外，艾黎能勝任當(dāng)前工作最重要的一點在于他能隨機(jī)應(yīng)變，最大化地利用現(xiàn)有條件，還能與工業(yè)合作社必須打交道的社外的那類中國人相處好。在嘗試把現(xiàn)代合作社工業(yè)引入一個半封建的中國村莊時，其他外籍專家可能會因為自己遭受的處境而感到沮喪和憤慨，因而放棄。艾黎則從容應(yīng)對這些困難。他并不強求完美，而是對終極目標(biāo)有著廣博的認(rèn)知，這種目標(biāo)不會因為建立了示范中心和產(chǎn)生了學(xué)術(shù)爭論而止步不前。對他而言，工業(yè)合作社并非紙上談兵試驗，而是一場鮮活的運動，涉及人類生活方方面面的問題。這些問題總是出現(xiàn)，他要么一一應(yīng)對，要么一起解決。他正立足中國基本的人力條件而開展工作，既和工人、工程師、技術(shù)員合作，也同難民和村民打交道。經(jīng)歷了過去幾年的艱難困苦，他對中國人民產(chǎn)生了無限的同情和無比的信任，這足以證明中華民族有著許多固有的優(yōu)秀品質(zhì)。

我們只有為他所從事的重要工作盡自己的綿薄之力，以此向他的堅定信念看齊。? ? ? □

1原文英文版見于美國胡佛研究所《尼姆·韋爾斯文獻(xiàn)總匯》。本文為2020年度陜西省寶雞市哲學(xué)社會科學(xué)專項課題“一帶一路背景下寶雞工合資料挖掘、遺存保護(hù)和精神傳承研究”（項目編號：BJSKZX-202032）的階段性成果。

2 Scotch-Irish蘇格蘭-愛爾蘭裔的。? 3 stock家族;世系。? 4 gallantry（尤指在戰(zhàn)場上）勇敢。? 5 rehabilitation恢復(fù)（正常生活）;康復(fù)。

6此處指中國。? 7 indefatigable不知疲倦的。? 8 dour倔強的;嚴(yán)厲的。

9 exploit不尋常的行為;英勇的行為。? 10 take in ones stride從容處理。? 11 quibble（為小事）爭論，發(fā)牢騷。

12 dogged堅持不懈的。