西乡定做窗帘:透析中国犹太热：拜金主义与刻板印象

犹太人发现，如果他们向中国人透露自己的身份，会迅速得到对方的赞许：“精明，聪慧，善于经商”。在09年谷歌中国时代思潮排行榜上，“为什么犹太人这么聪明”紧随“为什么要入党”、“为什么要结婚”排在“为什么”栏目榜第四位（谷歌今年的普通话版排行榜中，取消了“为什么”栏目）。近年来，一股犹太热在出版界中异军突起。商人抓住中国人多将犹太人经商技艺归因于宗教这一心态，大量出版解析《塔木德》经商秘诀的书籍。

Titles such as Crack the Talmud: 101 Jewish Business Rules, The Illustrated Jewish Wisdom Book, and Know All of the Money-Making Stories of the Talmud share the shelves with stories of Warren Buffet and Bill Gates. There’s even a Talmud hotel in Taiwan inspired by “the Talmud’s concept of success” that features a copy of the book Talmud Business Success Bible in every room. With the increasing interest in business education in China, and a rise in sales of self-help literature, the production of business guides to the Talmud has exploded. The guides are like the Chinese equivalents of books such as Sun Tzu and the Art of Business.

在书店书架上，《塔木德解密：101条犹太经商之道》、《图解犹太智慧书》、《塔木德生财故事大全》等书籍与巴菲特、盖茨的传记摆到一起。台湾人甚至以“塔木德成功学”为主题建造了一座塔木德酒店，并在每间客房摆放一本《塔木德商战圣经》。自助文学方兴未艾、国人对商战教育与日俱增，《塔木德》商业指南的市场也随之火爆。在中国传统文化市场中，也能找到这类书籍，比如《孙子与商战艺术》

Han Bing, the (pseudonymous) author of Crack the Talmud, says a series on the “Jewish Bible” by a prominent publisher made him realize that “ancient Jews and today’s Chinese face a lot of the same problems,” such as immigration and isolation. The business rules he lists include such unsurprising—and universal—exhortations as “tell a customer about defects,” “help more people,” and “a partnership based on emotions is not dependable.” No statistics are available on the sales of this sliver of the book market. But while the guides haven’t reached the heights of books such as Jewish Family Education, which claims to have sold more than 1 million copies, they currently are “very popular” and a “hot topic,” says Wang Jian, associate dean of the Center of Jewish Studies in Shanghai, a research institution that focuses on Jewish culture and history, and Israel. The Talmud “has become a handbook for doing business and seeking fortunes,” Wang says.

《塔木德解密》的作者寒冰（笔名）说，一家顶级出版社曾出版过一系列“犹太经书”，他读过之后觉得当下中国人也与古代犹太人一样，面临着诸如移民、孤独感等问题。不过，他在书中列出的经商法则多是“告诉顾客商品的缺陷”、“多帮助人”、“建立在感情上的合伙人关系不靠谱”等等放之四海而皆准的劝解，并无任何新意。这本书只是书海中的一粟，销量并不可知。也许它的销量不及《犹太家庭教育》——后者卖出了百万余册——但当下却“十分流行”并成为“热门话题”，上海犹太文化研究中心副教授王建说。该中心研究重点是犹太与以色列的文化历史。

The Chinese perception of Jews as expert moneymakers does not have the religion-based antagonism that often accompanies the same stereotype elsewhere in the world, and probably had its start in the mid-19th century, when investors began flocking to China. Many of the first foreign real-estate tycoons, such as Silas Hardoon and the scions of the Sassoon family, were Jewish. Michael Kadoorie—who hails from a wealthy Jewish family that dates its China connection back to 19th-century Shanghai, and who’s made his fortune in power generators and hotels—currently ranks as the richest non-Chinese in greater China, with an estimated net worth of $5 billion.

中国人早在19世纪中叶外商大举涌入时，就发现“犹太人擅经商”，但并未像世界其他地方那样，滋生出一种宗教敌对情绪。最早登陆中国的外国地产大亨很多都是犹太人，比如哈同以及萨松家族的子嗣。米高-嘉道理出身犹太富豪家庭，祖上在19世纪就来到上海经商。他靠经营电力发电机和酒店致富，目前身价50亿美金，是大中华区最富有的非华裔人士。

The admiration for Judaism stems from a history that goes beyond business. About half of the dozen or so Westerners active in Mao Zedong’s China were Jewish, and that also led to increased interest in Jewish culture among Chinese intellectuals, says Xu Xin, professor of Jewish studies at Nanjing University. That’s resulted in mostly glowing portrayals of certain Jewish individuals in the official Chinese press. They included Sidney Rittenberg, the first American citizen to join the Chinese Communist Party, and journalist Israel Epstein, who interviewed Mao at length and whose funeral was attended by China’s President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao. Rittenberg, who spent 16 years in solitary confinement in China, made the transition from party ideologue to consultant upon his release, and now operates the successful Rittenberg & Associates, which trades off his personal relationships with communist leaders and has advised companies including Microsoft, Hughes Aircraft, and Levi Strauss.

历史上促成中国人热爱犹太文化的因素不仅局限于商业。毛泽东时代活跃在中国的西方人屈指可数，其中有一半是犹太人，他们在中国官方媒体中形象光辉。南京大学犹太研究中心加教授许钧认为这一现象引发了知识分子对犹太文化的兴趣。上述犹太人中包括李敦白，首位加入中共的美国人、记者爱泼斯坦。后者曾长期采访毛泽东，死后葬礼胡锦涛温家宝纷纷列席。李敦白曾被单独拘禁16年，出狱后这位红色理论家摇身一变，成了咨询师。他开设李敦白有限公司，利用自己与中共领导人的私交为微软、休斯、李维-施特劳斯等名牌企业提供咨询，事业可谓一帆风顺。

Non-Chinese experts on Judaism are quick to point out that the Talmud is not a business manual. While the Talmud mentions contract law, zoning, and problems involved with charging interest, it’s not a get-rich-quick guide, says Rabbi Eliezer Diamond, associate professor of Talmud and rabbinics at the Jewish Theological Seminary in New York. “I’ve heard a couple of [Chinese] people say that Jews are smart because of the Talmud. But they don’t seem to know what it is. I think they see it as some sort of secret intelligence book,” added Rabbi Nussin Rodin, a Beijing-based emissary of the Chabad-Lubavitch movement. “I once got a letter from someone in China saying, I’m very interested in making money so I’d like to know what you teach at your courses about how to make money,” says Diamond. “Of course, there aren’t too many people in the Jewish Theological Seminary pulling in the big bucks.”

非华人的犹太教专家很快指出，《塔木德》并非一本商业手册。纽约犹太神学院塔木德和希伯来语副教授Eliezer Diamond拉比认为，《塔木德》的内容虽涉及合同法、计算分区、收税等内容，却没有指出一夜暴富的途径。“我听到一两个中国人说犹太人因《塔木德》而聪慧。他们似乎并不了解书的真正内容，而只将其看作智慧密典”，拉比Nussin Rodin补充道，他是查巴德-卢巴维奇运动的京区特使。“有一次，我收到一封来自中国信，大意是：我很想赚大钱，所以想了解您在课上是如何教授赚钱的”，Diamond拉比说。“其实，犹太神学院里的大款可没几个”，他补充道。

The notion of the Talmud as a book full of business secrets for others to search for is not entirely benign. Two of the books feature the quote “No one can defeat the Jews, unless they’ve read our holy book the Talmud” on their cover, spuriously attributed to financier George Soros. “There are anti-Semites throughout the world who will say they want a Jewish lawyer, because Jews are good lawyers,” says Diamond. Han Bing says he has never met a Jew and cautioned NEWSWEEK that he’s not sure if he’s gotten his portrayal right. But he nevertheless states that “Jews understand that money itself is neither good nor bad.” He sees his book as “bringing some light into the dark room of Chinese businesses.” At the same time, he complains that no businessman has ever contacted him to say how the book may have changed him. “There’s just too many of these books out there,” he acknowledges.

将《塔木德》视作用来探寻商业机密的密典，这一现象所传达的信息并非都是善意的。有两本书的封页上假借金融家索罗斯之名印着一段引言：“要想打败犹太人，就得读他们的圣书《塔木德》”。“全世界的反犹人士都会雇佣犹太律师，因为后者擅于打官司”，Diamond说。寒冰提醒《新闻周刊》，自己没见过犹太人，无法保证作品中犹太形象的正确性。他认为自己的作品只是为“混沌中的中国商业照亮几道光”。同时他还抱怨，没有任何商人与自己分享该书给其带来的变化。他承认：“市面上，这样的书太多了”。