法国大革命造成了什么影响？“现在下结论为时太早。”
上世纪70年代初，在回答有关近两个世纪前法国爆发的人民起义的问题时，周恩来如此说道。此事为那种中国是一个深谋远虑、富有耐心的文明的说法提供了依据。
中国前总理的这句话已成为格言，经常被人们引用，作为睿智的中国人眼光长远的证据——相形之下，西方人则显得沉不住气。
问题在于，在与首开访华先河的已故美国总统理查德•尼克松(Richard Nixon)会晤期间，周恩来所指的并非1789年攻占巴士底狱(Bastille)事件。尼克松当时的翻译表示，周恩来答案中所指的，是发生在仅仅3年前的事件，即1968年的巴黎学生骚乱。
在华盛顿召开的庆祝亨利•基辛格(Henry Kissinger)《论中国》(On China)一书出版的研讨会上，退休的外交官傅立民(Chas Freeman)试图纠正这个由来已久的错误。
“我清楚地记得这段对话。中间发生了一个误解，因为太过有趣，而没有得到纠正。”
他表示，当被问及有关法国大革命和巴黎公社(Paris Commune)的事情时，周恩来被搞糊涂了。“不过当时学生们就是用这些词语来形容他们在1968年所从事的运动，因此周恩来对这些词也是这样理解的。”
澳大利亚国立大学(Australian National University)的白杰明(Geremie Barme)表示，周恩来这句话契合了西方普遍存在的一种观点，即东方人具有思想长远且“有些深刻”的倾向。“然而，在中国，你听到的大多是这样的言论：领导人目光短浅、急功近利，且根本谈不上敏锐。”
白杰明接着表示，能够在北京阅览外交部档案的中国研究人员说，档案里明确记载着：周恩来指的是1968年的巴黎骚乱。
中方档案里也记载着与周恩来交谈的是亨利•基辛格。
基辛格的一位女发言人表示：“他记不清楚了，不过傅立民的说法似乎更加真实可信。”
周恩来隐晦而慎重的回答，也反映出了当时北京严峻的政治环境——他不愿冒险对卷入巴黎骚乱的激进法国毛派作出评判。
中国领导人的言论遭到误读、并成为主流说法，这并不是头一次。
“致富光荣”据说出自中国市场改革的发起者邓小平，却没有任何资料表明他说过这句话。
据学者们说，经常被引用的中国祝词“愿你生活在盛世!”(May you live in interesting times)，实际上在中国并无出处。
译者/何黎
http://www.ftchinese.com/story/001039060
The impact of the French Revolution? “Too early to say.”
Thus did Zhou Enlai – in responding to questions in the early 1970s about the popular revolt in France almost two centuries earlier – buttress China’s reputation as a far-thinking, patient civilisation
The former premier’s answer has become a frequently deployed cliché, used as evidence of the sage Chinese ability to think long-term – in contrast to impatient westerners.
The trouble is that Zhou was not referring to the 1789 storming of the Bastille in a discussion with Richard Nixon during the late US president’s pioneering China visit. Zhou’s answer related to events only three years earlier – the 1968 students’ riots in Paris, according to Nixon’s interpreter at the time.
At a seminar in Washington to mark the publication of Henry Kissinger’s book, On China, Chas Freeman, a retired foreign service officer, sought to correct the long-standing error.
“I distinctly remember the exchange. There was a misunderstanding that was too delicious to invite correction,” said Mr Freeman.
He said Zhou had been confused when asked about the French Revolution and the Paris Commune. “But these were exactly the kinds of terms used by the students to describe what they were up to in 1968 and that is how Zhou understood them.”
Geremie Barme, of the Australian National University, said Zhou’s quote fitted with the widespread western view of an “oriental obliquity” that thought far into the future and was “somehow profound”. “Whereas, in China, you mostly hear that the leadership is short-sighted, radically pragmatic and anything but subtle,” he said.
Dr Barme added that Chinese researchers with access to the foreign ministry archives in Beijing said that the records made clear that Zhou was referring to the 1968 riots in Paris.
The Chinese archives also record Zhou’s conversation as being with Henry Kissinger.
A spokeswoman for Dr Kissinger said that “he has no precise recollection but that the Freeman version seems much more plausible”.
Zhou’s cryptic caution also reflected the murderous political climate in Beijing at the time, and the premier would not have risked passing judgment on the radical French Maoists involved in the Paris riots.
It is not the first time a misinterpretation of a Chinese leader’s saying has mistakenly entered mainstream parlance.
Deng Xiaoping, who launched the country’s market reforms, is credited with saying, “To get rich is glorious”, although there is no record that he said it.
The oft-quoted Chinese curse, “May you live in interesting times”, does not exist in China itself, scholars say.
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