I ihad my own “great turning point”2 in 1979. That year I completed my last project as a literary translator. For 30 years I had been transforming Chinese fiction into English for publication in China and sale abroad. I had produced a large number of translations3， ranging from ancient to modern， from short stories to novels， plus some essays and poetry. During the “cultural revolution” I had the chance to translate China’s great classical novel Outlaws of the Marsh.

1979年我也迎来了自己的“伟大转折点”，完成了我文学翻译生涯里的最后一部作品。三十年来，我一直在翻译中国小说，英译本在中国出版，销往国外。我可翻译了不少作品吧，有古代的和现代的，短篇、长篇小说也都有，还有一些散文和诗歌。“文革”期间，我有缘翻译了中国古典名著《水浒传》。

China’s first major novels were created in the Ming and Qing dynasties. Their milieu was the feudal era， which lasted roughly from the second century BC to well into the twentieth century. Feudalism was based on the control by a small landlord minority over the vast majority who tilled the soil in an agricultural society. In medieval China these were mainly tenants or serfs. The tenants， who had to pay the lion’s share of the yield as rent， were compelled to borrow seed or food grain at exorbitant interest from the landlords to tide them over after bad harvests. Usually， it was only a question of time before a crushing burden of debt reduced the tenant to serfdom or beggary， or forced him to sell his wife or his children.4

中国最早的几部重要长篇小说均成书于明清时期，以封建社会为背景，封建社会的时间跨度大致从公元前2世纪一直到20世纪。封建制度的基础是农业社会里少数地主控制着耕作土地的大多数人。从唐朝一直到明朝，耕作土地的人主要是佃户和农奴。佃户须把大部分收成当地租缴纳给地主，遇到庄稼歉收就不得不以高昂的利息向地主借种子、借粮食度过饥荒。通常情况下，沉重的债务负担会把佃户压垮，直到沦为农奴、乞丐，或者被迫卖妻卖子，这都是迟早的事。

This was the economic foundation of a political pyramid which extended upward through layers of bureaucratic officialdom， backed by armies and courts and police， all the way to the emperor. He was China’s biggest landlord， since theoretically he owned all the land， sublet by him to lesser landlords.

这就为自上而下的政治体系奠定了经济基础，在官兵、衙门、捕快的支持下形成层级官僚体制，一直到皇帝。皇帝乃中国最大的地主，因为普天之下，莫非王土，皇帝再把土地分配给大大小小的地主。

He was also the infallible fountainhead of justice and wisdom， modestly known as the “Son of Heaven.” Every few hundred years， when China slid into chaos， popular uprisings5 might remove a particular emperor， but only because he was deemed to have “lost Heaven’s Mandate.” Another emperor was quickly put in his place. Feudalism as an imperial political and social system was never questioned.

皇帝也是不容置疑的公正之本与智慧之源，谓之“天子”。每过几百年，中国陷入混乱，民众起来造反就可能推翻一个皇帝，原因不过是民众认为他“失却天命”，很快就另立新君取代他的位置。作为皇权政治和社会制度，封建制度从未被质疑过。

Prevailing religious beliefs and philosophic concepts praised submissiveness and respect for authority as the supreme virtues in a male chauvinist world.6 Women， at the bottom of the ladder， had to obey their husbands who took their orders from the local magistrates—euphemistically called “the parents of the people.” The magistrates were under the command of the provincial governors who were ruled by the emperor. He had a direct pipeline to God—popularly hailed as Lao Tian Ye—the “Old Lord of the Sky.”

在男权社会的主流宗教信仰和哲学观念中，人们将唯命是从和尊重权威视为最大的美德。处于最低阶层的妇女必须服从丈夫，而丈夫听命于被尊称为“父母官”的地方官。地方官又服从州府官，州府官则由皇帝统治。而皇帝直接受命于上天（即“老天爷”）。

It was an autocratic， paternalistic society in which the average Chinese respected the traditional ethical values and was generally law-abiding. At the same time he recognized the venality of the bureaucracy and the corruption of the clergy， and harbored no illusions about many who called themselves his superiors. If they harried him beyond endurance， he might rationalize resistance or even crime7， always in the name of upholding righteousness and opposing immorality.

这是一个家长式的专制社会，普通百姓遵从传统道德价值观，普遍遵纪守法。