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| THE PEKING EXPRESS: The Bandits Who Stole a Train, Stunned the West, and Broke the Republic of China, by James M. Zimmerman | 《北京快车》(THE PEKING EXPRESS: The Bandits Who Stole a Train, Stunned the West, and Broke the Republic of China)，作者吉莫曼。 |
| Spare a thought for bandits — social bandits, that is, not common robbers, dacoits, badmashes, brigands or gangsters snarling, “Leave the gun, take the cannoli.” | 想一下土匪——这里说的是社会土匪，不是普通的抢劫犯、流氓、坏蛋、强盗或咆哮着“枪留下，奶油卷拿走”的黑帮歹徒。 |
| Social bandits are, rather, peasant heroes of popular resistance, cheated of their livelihood, exploited and scorned by landlords and power brokers, the nascent revolutionaries who seek justice in the asymmetrical warfare of class struggle. They are known all over the world, from the early “Haiduks” of the Balkans to Robin Hood, Pancho Villa and Sun Mei-yao, the leader of the horde which attacked the Peking Express one night in 1923, the subject of James M. Zimmerman’s excellent new book. | 社会土匪是群众反抗中的农民英雄，他们被蒙骗，失去了生计，受到地主和权力掮客的剥削和蔑视，是在阶级斗争的不对称交战中寻求正义的新生革命者。世界各处都曾有这样的社会土匪，从巴尔干半岛早期的“海杜克”到罗宾汉、庞丘·比亚和孙美瑶——这个土匪首领在1923年的一个晚上袭击了一列北京快车，是吉莫曼这本绝妙新书的主要人物。 |
| Though “The Peking Express” describes in exhaustive and dramatic detail the derailing of this train, in rural China, by just such desperate and resourceful men, neither in the text or extensive bibliography does Zimmerman allude to “Bandits,” by the great Marxist historian Eric Hobsbawm. However, this book reads like an extensive and enlightening footnote to that study of the people whom Hobsbawm describes as “peasant outlaws whom the lord and state regard as criminals, but who remain within peasant society, and are considered by their people as heroes, as champions, avengers, fighters for justice, perhaps even leaders of liberation and in any case men to be admired and supported.” | 《北京快车》详细而戏剧化地描述了在中国农村地区一群绝望而足智多谋的人如何使火车出轨，但无论是在本书正文还是丰富的参考书目中，吉莫曼都没有提到重要的马克思主义历史学家艾里克·霍布斯鲍姆的《匪徒》一书。即便如此，这本书读起来就像是对霍布斯鲍姆的研究做出了广泛而富有启发性的注解，霍布斯鲍姆将这类人描述为“被领主和国家视为罪犯的农民亡命徒，但他们仍然留在农民社会中，并被他们的人民视为英雄，视为捍卫者、复仇者、正义斗士，甚至可能是解放领袖，无论如何都是值得钦佩和支持的人”。 |
| Such banditry was an ancient tradition in China, recounted in the 15th-century novel “Shuihu zhuan” (“Water Margin”) and enduring into the modern warlord era. The province of Shantung (Zimmerman uses the Wade-Giles system of Romanized transliteration, as was the custom in 1923), where the train was attacked, was dominated by warlords and foreign investors and consequently thick with peasants deprived of justice. The instigator of what became a suspenseful global story, 25-year-old Sun Mei-yao was a former soldier who sought back pay for his men, reinstatement in the army, and — ultimately — the overthrow of the Chinese government. His plan was to derail the train, kidnap as many passengers as possible, keep them as hostages and bargain for their release. | 这种土匪行为在中国是一个古老的传统，在15世纪的小说《水浒传》中被记载，并一直延续到近代军阀割据时代。火车在山东省（吉莫曼使用的是人们在1923年所习惯的威妥玛拼音写法“Shantung”）遭到袭击，该省由军阀和外国投资者控制，因此到处都是遭遇不公的农民。这一事件最终成为闻名世界的悬疑故事，其策动者、25岁的孙美瑶曾是一名退伍军人，他希望为手下的士兵讨要欠饷，恢复原来的身份，并最终推翻中国政府。他的计划是让火车脱轨，绑架尽可能多的乘客，将他们扣为人质，用来谈条件。 |
| Compare this ambitious, sinister yet somehow high-minded scheme to the complacency of the mostly European and American first-class passengers on the train from Shanghai to Peking, delighting in luxurious sleeping cars and excellent meals. Among them was John D. Rockefeller’s sister-in-law, the heiress Lucy Aldrich; the distinguished publisher John B. Powell; various U.S. Army officers; a Fascist Italian diplomat; and a number of men from Shanghai’s Jewish community — a stockbroker, a jockey, a playboy and at least one criminal, Joseph Rothman. The other carriages were crammed with hundreds of poor Chinese traveling hard class. | 这个胆大包天却也有些高尚情操的邪恶计划与头等舱乘客的自鸣得意形成了鲜明对比，这些乘客大部分来自欧洲和美国，他们在从上海到北京的火车上享受着豪华卧铺和美味佳肴。其中包括约翰·D·洛克菲勒的妻姐、继承人露西·奥尔德里奇；著名出版商约翰·B·鲍威尔；多名美国陆军军官；一名意大利法西斯政府的外交官；还有一些来自上海犹太社区的人——一名股票经纪人、一名骑师、一名花花公子和至少一名罪犯约瑟夫·罗斯曼。另外还有挤在硬座车厢那数百名穷困的中国人。 |
| The initial plan was a success. The derailment took place at Lincheng, which gave the heist its historical name, “the Lincheng Incident” — the inspiration for the 1932 film “Shanghai Express.” But the film was mostly Hollywood baloney; Marlene Dietrich and her co-stars never knew the horrors and hardships described by Zimmerman. Rothman was fatally shot, along with the many Chinese who resisted, and the surviving hostages — most of them in pajamas — were force-marched for miles up rocky terrain to a rough camp, while at the same time a local warlord, who had been alerted to the incident, began to lay siege to the kidnappers. | 最初的计划成功了。出轨地点在临城，这起抢劫案因此得名“临城事件”，成为1932年电影《上海快车》的灵感来源。但这部电影的剧情大部分是好莱坞的编造；玛琳·黛德丽和其他主要演员从来不知道吉莫曼描述的那种恐怖和艰辛。罗斯曼和许多抵抗的中国人被枪杀，幸存的人质大多数还穿着睡衣，他们被迫在崎岖多石的路上长途跋涉，最终来到一个简陋的营地。与此同时，一名当地军阀收到消息，开始围攻绑匪。 |
| One of the salutary features of this book is Zimmerman’s use of quoted speech, all of it sourced from memoirs and newspaper reports, so the human voice is heard often and to good effect. The kidnappers had more hostages than they had bargained for — 100, including 28 foreigners — and there was not nearly enough food. Some supplies were hastily arranged and sent up the mountain, causing Leon Friedman to remark, “What is a good Jew boy going to do in the circumstances? We starve and they send us a ham! We have nothing to read, and they send us the New Testament!” Friedman was happier when he got a shipment of what was described as veal — and he acted as chef, until it was revealed to be dog meat. | 这本书有一个具有教益的设计，那就是吉莫曼引用了书中人的原话，所有都来自回忆录和报纸报道，因此常常让人感觉听到了人声，效果甚佳。人质的数量超出了绑架者的预想——100人，其中包括28名外国人——而且食物也远远不够。他们紧急筹措了一些补给送上山，利昂·弗里德曼说：“在这种情况下，一个虔诚的犹太男孩会怎么做？我们快饿死了，他们却送来火腿！我们没有东西可以读，他们却送来了《新约》！”让弗里德曼高兴的是他收到一批说是小牛肉的货物——他当起了厨师，却发现那是狗肉。 |
| Negotiations began, a few ailing hostages were released, messages were carried down the mountain by some of the American children; but the threats from below increased. Sun and his men dragged the hostages higher, to a hide-out at the top of distant Paotzuku Mountain. This ancient redoubt was also a prison, where scores of kidnapped children from wealthy Chinese families were languishing. | 谈判开始了，一些生病的人质被释放，一些美国孩子下山带信；但来自山下的威胁在增加。孙美瑶和他的手下将人质带到更高的地方，来到远处的抱犊崮山顶的一个藏身之处。这个古代要塞同时也是一个囚牢，数十名来自中国富裕家庭的孩子被关押在那里，饱受折磨。 |
| Lucy Aldrich, who had fallen behind, found herself in a small village and was rescued. One hardly knows whether to admire or scorn this woman who — at the risk of her life — kept her jewels from the grasp of Sun and his men by first stuffing them into her brassiere and later hiding them in the crevice of a rock. It was an enormous satisfaction to her that, while every other passenger had been fleeced, she was able to retrieve her trove, and she dined out on her kidnapping story, an account of which she published later in the Atlantic Monthly as “A Week-End with Chinese Bandits.” | 掉队的露西·奥尔德里奇发现自己在一个小村庄并获救。人们几乎不知道该赞美还是鄙视这个女人，她冒死保住了她的珠宝，没有被孙美瑶和他的手下抢走，先是把珠宝塞进胸罩，后来又藏在岩石缝里。其他所有乘客都被夺走了财物，但她能够找回自己的宝贝，这给她带来极大的满足，并成了日后在饭桌上反复讲述的故事，还在《大西洋月刊》上发表了一篇《与中国土匪共度的一个周末》。 |
| In all the to-ing and fro-ing, which involved President Harding, the Chinese premier, and French and Italian diplomats, the real hero of the Lincheng Incident was Roy Scott Anderson, political adviser to the Chinese government and a longtime resident, fluent in Mandarin, who was brought from Peking to negotiate the release of the remaining hostages. Due to the gradual release of prisoners, their numbers had now diminished to only eight, but almost a month of captivity had taken its toll. They were still hungry, and Sun had threated to kill them all if negotiations failed. Yet Anderson was persuasive, and in the absence of a guarantee from the Chinese government, he gave his personal assurance that Sun and his men would be compensated and reinstated. After 37 days the hostages were granted their freedom. | 在哈定总统、中国总理以及法国和意大利外交官的往来中，临城事件的真正英雄是罗伊·斯科特·安德森，作为中国政府的政治顾问，他久居此地，讲一口流利的中国官话，他被人从北京请到这里谈判促成其余人质的释放。随着分批的释放，人质最终减少到只有八人，但将近一个月的囚禁已经造成了伤害。他们仍然饿着肚子，孙美瑶威胁说，如果谈判不成，就杀了他们。然而安德森很有说服力，在没有中国政府保证的情况下，他个人保证孙和他的手下将得到军饷并恢复原职。37天后，人质重获自由。 |
| Happy for them — but not for Sun Mei-yao, who, much to Anderson’s horror, was captured and summarily beheaded. But Sun had made his point: The Lincheng Incident proved that the Chinese government was incompetent and corrupt. The president was deposed, and ultimately Mao was given a peasant martyr to exalt. | 对人质们来说是好事，但对孙美瑶却不是，他被捕并就地斩首，令安德森大为惊骇。但孙美瑶说的有道理：临城事件证明了中国政府的无能和腐败。中国的总统被罢免，最终毛泽东得到一个供他称颂的农民烈士。 |
| Much as I enjoyed the book, I must take issue with the publisher’s description of it as “brilliantly written.” We regularly find such locutions as, “three days of schlepping across the countryside” and “Musso went ballistic.” The serious subject deserves more felicitous language. | 尽管我很喜欢这本书，但我对出版商说的“文笔出色”有些看法。我们经常会发现“东倒西歪在乡间走了三天”和“穆安素气炸了”。严肃的主题应使用更恰当的措辞。 |
| Zimmerman may not be a stylist, but he is a diligent researcher, and as a longtime resident of China, a shrewd observer of its politics. In an ominous epilogue, he writes that the Lincheng Incident should have provided an enduring lesson. And yet, “economic inequality and systematic corruption continue to bedevil the leadership in power, just as in 1923.” He goes on, “China’s contemporary warlords, up and down the government and state-sector hierarchy, continue to plunder the country’s wealth and opportunities at the expense of the powerless.” This would be a great subject for another book, as well as provocation for another social bandit. | 吉莫曼可能算不上文体家，但他是一名勤奋的研究者，在中国生活多年，也是一名敏锐的政治观察者。在一个不祥的结语中，他写道，临城事件应该提供一个持久的教训。然而，“经济不平等和系统性腐败继续困扰着当权领导层，就像1923年一样。”他继续说道，“中国当代的军阀，在政府和国有部门上下层级，继续以弱者为代价掠夺国家的财富和机会。”这应该也是一个写书的好题材，催生另一位社会土匪的揭竿而起。 |
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