有人把2000年比作一座跨世纪大桥,连接着二十世纪和二十一世纪,在这座时间大桥上回顾一下中国的国民性,过去是什么样子,现在怎么样,今后会如何?究竟进步了多少?光明日报出版社出版的《中国人的特性》一书,给予人们深深的思考,此书由英国传教士明恩溥于1890午写成并出版。鲁迅先生曾十分推崇它的关于中国国民性的描述,今天读来,仍是那么意味深长。80年前,鲁迅先生清醒而犀利地写出《孔乙己》、《阿 Q 正传》等作品,深刻地揭示了中国国民性中的麻木、自欺欺人、死要面子等不良品性,而十九世纪来华的部分外国传教士亦对中国国民性有着极为深划的认识。英国公理会传教士明恩溥(1854——1932)就是其中突出的一位。他1872年来华,先后在天津、山东庞庄传教,在华生活了近50年。 Some people compared the year 2000 to a cross-century bridge connecting the twentieth century and the twenty-first century. On this time bridge, we reviewed China’s national character. What happened in the past? How are things going now? What will happen in the future? How much? Guangming Daily Press published “the characteristics of the Chinese,” a book to give people deep thought, this book by the English missionary Ming Pu wrote and published in 1890. Mr. Lu Xun once praised his description of China’s national character. Today, reading is still very meaningful. 80 years ago, Lu Xun soberly and sharply wrote such works as “Kong Yi-ji,” “The True Story of Ah Q.” This book deeply reveals the unpleasant qualities of numbness, self-deception and death in the Chinese nationality. However, in the nineteenth century Some foreign missionaries who come to China also have extremely profound understanding of Chinese national character. The British Congregational Missionaries Ming Enpu (1854--1932) is one of the prominent one. He came to China in 1872 and successively taught in Pang Zhuang in Tianjin and Shandong Province and lived in China for nearly 50 years.