Welcome to the Chinese Celebration of Darwin 200

 

(在中国纪念达尔文200周年诞辰、《物种起源》发表150周年研讨会上的致辞)

 

值此中国生物学家组织的、在北京大学举行的纪念达尔文二百周年诞辰研讨会之际，我想简单地提醒四点。

 

首先，在世界主要文化和文明中，可能中国对达尔文思想的抵触最小。中国从根本上是无神论的社会。当然，中国也有关于人类起源的童话，但是大家都视其为童话。中国古代的智力巨人们从来没有假装他们知道人类起源。实际上，孔夫子明确表示不谈怪力乱神。一旦经原北大校长严复的介绍，中国人很快拥抱了达尔文的思想。

 

其次，除了达尔文思想的传播以外，在座的听众们，尤其是西方来的，可能会觉得有趣的是，达尔文的朋友和同志的学术家系也遍布全球。达尔文自己没有学生，但我不久前得知，我自己的学术谱系之一，通过神经生理学家Charles Sherrington，一直可以追踪到赫胥黎。他不仅是达尔文思想的坚强鼓吹者，他自己也是一位伟大的智识分子。北京大学生命科学学院的所有学生，包括协助会议组织和今天参加会议的同学们，都是赫胥黎的第八代学术后裔。

 

第三，我想告诉大家，北京大学将成立 “演化生物学和基因组学研究所”， 结合生物学最古老的与最新的学科之一。这表明，北京大学相信，演化生物学不是过去的科学，而是现代的科学，是有着光明未来的科学。

 

最后也最不重要地，我很高兴地注意到，同时庆祝《物种起源》发表一百五十周年与达尔文诞辰二百周年，也在提醒大家，达尔文发表他最好的工作时已经年逾五十。这给我们希望，至少给我们一些人很大希望，他或她还有时间做最好的工作。

 

谢谢大家参加会议。

 

祝愿大家不仅享受学术交流，也享受北京大学。

 

（2009年10月24日星期六 北京大学 英杰交流中心 阳光大厅）

 

原文:

 

On the Chinese Symposium on Darwin 200，organized by Chinese biologists and taking place at Peking University, I would like to give four brief reminders.

 

First, among the major cultures and civilizations of the world, China offered perhaps the least resistance to Darwinian ideas. China is fundamentally an atheist society. There were, of course, Chinese fairy tales about the origin of humans, but they were understood as fairy tales. Intellectual giants in ancient China never pretended to know human origin. In fact, Confucius explicitly stated that he would not talk about gods or ghosts. Once Darwin was introduced to China by Yan Fu, a former president of Peking University, the Chinese people embraced his ideas.

 

Secondly, in addition to the spread of Darwinian ideas, the audience, especially those from the West, might find it interesting that the scientific progenies of Darwin’s friends and comrades have also spread far around the world. Darwin had no direct students, but I have learned not too long ago, that one of my own scientific lineages, through the neurophysiologist Charles Sherrington, could be traced to Thomas Huxley, Darwin’s bulldog, a strong advocate of Darwinian ideas and a great intellectual in his own right. All students in Peking University School of Life Sciences, including those in the audience and those helping with this symposium, are thus 8th generation students of Thomas Huxley.

 

Thirdly, I would like to inform you that Peking University will establish an Institute of Evolutionary Biology and Genomics, combining one of the oldest branches of biology with one of the newest, showing that Peking University believes that evolutionary biology is not a science of the past, but one of the present, with a bright future.

 

Last and also the least, I am happy to note, that by simultaneously celebrating the 150th anniversary for the publication of the Origin of Species, we are reminding people that Darwin published his best work when he was 50. This gives great hope to us, at least some of us, who has yet to do his or her best work.

 

Thank you all for coming to the symposium and I hope you will enjoy academic interactions as well as Peking University.