本文转载自Chinadaily公众号，仅供个人学习使用。

“中国通”是对十分了解中国的人的褒义称呼。说一口流利汉语，通晓传统文化，对当代中国有洞察是他们身上的标签。

但少有人能像美国记者埃德加·斯诺一样对共产党早期的斗争与发展有极为细致且真实的记录。

其著作《红星照耀中国》（又名《西行漫记》）直到作者去世以后仍然是国外研究中国问题的首要的通俗读物。书中的内容多来自他在红军苏区的观察与采访。

一九三六年六月至十月，斯诺排除国民党阻挠，在我国西北的革命根据地进行实地采访，向全世界做了真实的报道。

这得益于当时苏区对他这位外国记者的坦然接纳。他在书中记录了周恩来十分坦荡地对他说：

"It does not matter to us that you are not a Communist. We will welcome any journalist who comes to see the Soviet districts. It is not we, but the Kuomintang, who prevent it. You can write about anything you see and you will be given every help to investigate the Soviet districts."

“你不是共产主义者，这对于我们是没有关系的。任何一个新闻记者要来苏区访问，我们都欢迎。不许新闻记者到苏区来的，不是我们，是国民党。你见到什么，都可以报道，我们要给你一切帮助来考察苏区。”

果然，随着真正接触到红军战士们，斯诺发现他们远不是国民党抹黑的那样，而是充满了血肉与理想。他第一次见到毛主席的时候也是体会了从类似的不解到共情。书中详尽且如实的描述了他的见闻：

I met Mao soon after my arrival; a gaunt, rather Lincolnesque figure, above average height for a Chinese, somewhat stooped, with a head of thick black hair grown very long, and with large, searching eyes, a high-bridged nose and prominent cheekbones. My fleeting impression was of an intellectual face of great shrewdness, but I had no opportunity to verify this for several days. Next time I saw him, Mao was walking hatless along the street at dusk. talking with two young peasants and gesticulating earnestly. I did not recognize him until he was pointed out to me — moving along unconcernedly with the rest of the strollers. despite the $250,000 which Nanking had hung over his head.

我到后不久，就见到了毛泽东，他是个面容瘦削、看上去很象林肯的人物，个子高出一般的中国人背有些驼，一头浓密的黑发留得很长，双眼炯炯有神，鼻梁很高颧骨突出。我在一霎那间所得的印象，是一个非常精明的知识分子的面孔，可是在好几天里面，我总没有证实这一点的机会。我第二次看见他是傍晚的时候，毛泽东光着头在街上走，一边和两个年轻的农民谈着话，一边认真地在做着手势。我起先认不出是他，后来等到别人指出才知道。南京虽然悬赏二十五万元要他的首级，可是他却毫不介意地和旁的行人一起在走。

他对毛泽东的饮食等生活习惯也有记录，历史书上的人突然鲜活起来。

Mao's food was the same as everybody's, but being a Hunanese he had the southerner's 'aila', or 'love of pepper'. He even had pepper cooked into his bread. Except for this passion, he scarcely seemed to notice what he ate.

毛泽东的伙食也同每个人一样，但因为是湖南人，他有着南方人“爱辣”的癖好。他甚至用辣椒蘸着馒头吃。除了这种癖好之外，他对于吃的东西就很随便。

斯诺笔下的毛泽东“有着中国农民的质朴纯真的性格”、“颇有幽默感”、“喜欢憨笑”、是一位“精通中国旧学的有成就的学者”、“记忆力异乎常人”等等。光是与毛泽东一人的访问记录就长达“大约两万字”，能“单独写一本书”。

的确，全书有一整个章节就是写毛泽东自述如何成长为共产主义者的，从农村，到长沙，再到国民革命时期…… 十分全面。与第一次撞见毛泽东却没认出来不同，斯诺第一次碰到周恩来总理的时候就认出他来了。原因居然是一句话。

But presently a slender young officer appeared, ornamented with a heavy black beard. He came up and addressed me in a soft, cultured voice. "Hello," he said, "are you looking for somebody?"

He had spoken in English!

……但是这时突然出现了一个清瘦的青年军官，他长着一脸黑色大胡子。他走上前来，用温和文雅的口气向我招呼：“哈啰，你想找什么人吗?”

他是用英语讲的！

我马上就知道了他就是周恩来，那个“鼎鼎大名”的红军指挥员，他曾经是个教会学校的高材生。

在斯诺眼中，周恩来“无私地忠于一种思想”，具有“从不承认失败的不屈不挠精神”。

起初从外界了解到周恩来30岁以前的革命活动和成就，他以为周会是一个“狂热分子”，后来却发现“他谈吐缓慢安详，深思熟虑，头脑冷静，善于分析推理，讲究实际经验。

他态度温和地说出来的话，同国民党宣传九年来诬蔑共产党人是什么“无知土匪”、“强盗”和其他爱用的骂人的话，形成了奇特的对照。”

Somehow, as he walked with me back along the quiet country lane to Hundred Family Peace, through fields of sesame and ripe wheat and the nodding ears of corn, he did not seem to fit any of the well-worn descriptions of the Red-bandits. He seemed, on the contrary, genuinely light-hearted and as full of the love of life as the "little Red devil" who trudged manfully beside him, and around whose shoulder he had thrown a fatherly arm.

不知怎么，当他陪着我走过安静的乡间田埂，穿过芝麻田、成熟的小麦田、沉甸甸地垂着穗的玉米田，回到百家坪去时，他似乎是一点也不象一般所描绘的赤匪。相反，他倒显得真的很轻松愉快，充满了对生命的热爱，就像神气活现地仿佛一个大人似的跟在他旁边走的“红小鬼”一样，他的胳膊爱护地搭在那个“红小鬼”的肩上。

The Chinese could fight as well as any people, as I had learned during the Shanghai war in 1932. … It was the Reds' greater success at the educative tasks in the building of an army that enabled them to withstand the tremendous technical and numerical superiority of their enemy.

我在一九三二年的淞沪战役中就知道，中国人同任何别国的人一样能打仗。……红军在建军的教育工作方面的成功，使他们能够抵抗得住敌人的在技术上和数量上的巨大优势。

For sheer dogged endurance, and ability to stand hardship without complaint, the Chinese peasants, who composed the greater part of the Red Army, were unbeatable.

中国农民占红军的大部分，他们坚忍卓绝，任劳任怨，是无法打败的。

熟悉美、英、法、日、德等国军队的斯诺认为，他们不见得能吃得消红军战士在长征中所经历的“风吹雨打、食物粗粝、住所简陋、长期艰苦的生活 （the Reds took a terrific pummelling from all sides, slept in the open and lived on unhulled wheat for many days） ”。

斯诺认为，红军之所以条件艰苦却依然斗志十足可能来源于他们独特的精神面貌。

They seemed to be fairly happy, and perhaps the first consciously happy group of Chinese proletarians I had seen. Passive contentment is the common phenomenon in China, but the higher emotion of happiness, which implies a feeling of positiveness about existence, is rare indeed.

在我看来，他们相当快活，也许是我所看到过的第一批真正感到快活的中国无产者。在中国，消极的满足是普遍的现象，但是快活这种比较高一级的感情，却的确是罕见的，这意味着对于生存有着一种自信的感觉。

What discipline they had seemed almost entirely self-imposed. When we passed wild apricot trees on the hills there was an abrupt dispersal until everyone had filled his pockets, and somebody always brought me back a handful. Then, leaving the trees looking as if a great wind had struck through them, they moved back into order and quick-timed to make up for the loss. But, when we passed private orchards, nobody touched the fruit in them, and the grain and vegetables we consumed in the villages were paid for in full.

他们有的那点纪律，似乎都是自觉遵守的。我们走过山上的一丛野杏树时，他们忽然四散开来去摘野杏，个个装满了口袋，总是有人给我带回来一把。临走时他们好象一阵大风卷过一般又排列成行，赶紧上路，把耽误了的时间补回来。但是在我们走过私人果园时，却没有人去碰一碰里面的果子，我们在村子里吃的粮食和蔬菜也是照价付钱的。