Bernard Solomon (1924–2022) In Memoriam

訃文緬懷美國漢學家蘇魯孟（Bernard S. Solomon，1924–2022 年）。蘇魯孟長期擔任教學職務並致力於學術探究，尤其對中國「名家」流派考究方面頗有造詣。1962–1986 年間，蘇魯孟在紐約皇后學院任職中文教授，憑借對錯綜復雜的語言本身的探索熱忱，以及他才識淵博的教研學術底蘊，使其在對國學古文考究領域的翻譯和文本透析方面，形成一系列獨具挑戰性和技巧性的學術理念。他畢生的「名家學」研究成果，由《華裔學志叢書》（Monumenta Serica Monograph Series）於 2013 年出版，專著為《論中國古代的名家》（On the School of Names in Ancient China）。此項研究從語言視角切入法透析文本，以及闡釋語言如何被塑造和被應用。此外，蘇魯孟亦是一位極具啟發力的導師，他將自己的數名學生引入中文研究領域，學子們在他的熏陶下相繼踏上教學和從事學術研究之路。

Professor Bernard Simon Solomon, who had a long and distinguished career in teaching and in scholarship related especially to the Chinese School of Names (mingjia 名家), passed away on 2 December 2022 at the age of 98.

Bernard S. Solomon, 2019

(photo by the author)

Professor Solomon was born into a poor family in Bronx, New York on June 10, 1924. He attended Morris High School in the Bronx where he was chosen by his classmates as the student most likely to succeed. After serving in the U.S. Army Cavalry Corps during WWII, he enrolled in the Army Language Training Institute to study Chinese. He received his B.S. in Mathematics from The City College of New York and his M.A. and Ph.D. degrees in Far Eastern Languages from Harvard. There, between 1952 and 1958, he was a Research Assistant in the monumental, but ill-fated, Harvard-Yenching Institute Chinese–English Dictionary project, under the direction of the eminent Sinologist and Mongolist Francis W. Cleaves (1911–1995). In 1952, he and Dr. Glen W. Baxter (1914–1998) embarked on the weighty project of editing Achilles Fang’s (Fang Zhitong 方志浵, 1910–1995) annotated translation of The Chronicle of the Three Kingdoms (220–265), Chapters 69–78, taken from the Zizhi tongjian 資治通鑑 (The Comprehensive Mirror to Aid in Government) by the Song historian Sima Guang 司馬光 (1019–1086). In 1954, after pondering the entry in the Chinese dictionary Cihai 辭海 on the number “one” in Chinese, Solomon published a challenging article entitled “One is No Number in China and the West” in the Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies. In 1955, Harvard published his dissertation The Veritable Record of the T’ang Emperor Shun-tsung, which is arguably the earliest surviving example of the genre known as shilu 實錄 (veritable record). During his two Fullbright Fellowship years, 1955–1956, he stayed for further research at the Vatican Library in Rome.  It was during these years that he fell in love with Italy.  He spent many summers in Florence and eventually explored all of Europe. He spoke five languages fluently. 

Following his time at Harvard, Solomon went on to teach Chinese language, literature and civilization at SUNY-New Paltz in upstate New York (1959–1962) and at Queens College in New York City, where he became Professor of Chinese (1962–1986). Between 1967 and 1978, he received The National Endowment for the Humanities and The American Council of Learned Societies grants to pursue research into the Chinese School of Names, specifically the thinkers Hui Shih 惠施 (380–305 BC) and Gongsun Long 公孫龍 (325–250 BC). Two articles were published in 1969 and 1984 on this school in Monumenta Serica, and owing to the support of professors James R. Hightower (1915–2006) and A.C. Graham (1919–1991), he continued this research, resulting in the 2013 monograph On the School of Names in Ancient China, published by the Monumenta Serica Institute. This study, which includes the two earlier articles, looked at the texts through the approach of language games and how language was used qua language. During the 1980s, he contributed some of this research to the Columbia University Seminar on Traditional China, directed by Professor William Theodore de Bary (1919–2017).

On his path of research, Professor Solomon joined his insights into the intricate nature of language with his knowledge in Mathematics and logic and offered some of the most astute and thought-provoking input to translation and textual analysis in the field of Chinese studies. His monograph on the mingjia was appraised in Rafael Suter’s review (cf. below, p. 530) as: “It is doubtless one of the formidable merits of Solomon’s book to pay due attention to the linguistic complexity of the use of apparent paradoxes or conundrums in ancient Chinese thought.”

But it should also be noted that he was a remarkably inspiring teacher who brought many students into the field of Chinese studies who followed his path into teaching and scholarship. Among Professor Solomon’s many successful and well-known students, Professor Richard Strassberg (Ph.D. East Asian Studies, Princeton, 1975) is the most accomplished one. He taught Chinese language and literature for many years at the University of California, Los Angeles. Strassberg’s books include Inscribed Landscapes: Travel Writing from Imperial China (University of California Press, 1994), A Chinese Bestiary: Strange Creatures from the Guideways through Mountains and Seas (University of California Press, 2018), and Wandering Spirits: Chen Shiyuan’s Encyclopedia of Dreams (University of California Press, 2022).

Never one to promote his own considerable accomplishments, Professor Solomon was much beloved by students, colleagues and fellow scholars in the field and supported by his friends in the Vermeer Apartments in New York City.