Back to the 80s Machinery Factory

Chapter 401 Who taught you to take notes like this!
It's hard to say whether the teacher is tired from lecturing.

But the students all listened with furrowed brows, finding it difficult and arduous.

Jingle bell~
Finally, it's break time.

The students put down their pens and breathed a sigh of relief, exhausted.

The girls were fine; they just chatted quietly in the classroom, exchanging pleasantries as a break.

The boys, on the other hand, left the classroom in twos and threes to get some fresh air in the corridor.

Chen Luyang didn't know anyone in the class, and since she had nothing better to do,

simply,

He picked up the blackboard eraser, walked to the blackboard, and took the initiative to erase it for Li Zhengfan.

hey~
Li Zhengfan, sitting next to him, raised his eyebrows slightly.

The young man is quite adept at handling things!
After erasing the blackboard,

Chen Luyang patted the chalk dust off her hands as she walked to her seat.

"How does it sound? Can you understand it?" Li Zhengfan asked him casually with a smile.

"Teacher, you explained it so well, I understood everything," Chen Luyang replied sincerely.

That was indeed well said!

Things I didn't quite understand before, after listening to Li Zhengfan's explanation, really gave me a feeling of sudden enlightenment and clarity.

"You understood everything?"

Li Zhengfan harbored deep doubts about this statement.

Based on what he said, even the third-year students in the classroom might not be able to understand everything.
How could a kid from another department understand that?
"Bring me your notes so I can take a look," Li Zhengfan said.

Chen Luyang, without suspecting anything, handed over the notebook.

Li Zhengfan put on his glasses, held the notebook a little further away, and looked down!
next moment,
Li Zhengfan stared wide-eyed at Chen Luyang's notebook as if he had seen a ghost.

On the small notebook, Chinese and German letters were mixed together, their ink flowing smoothly under the light.

Chen Luyang's German handwriting is fluent and natural, and the curves of her strokes are quite beautiful.

Judging from his fluent handwriting, he is definitely not a complete novice learning German!

"Who taught you to take notes like this?!" Li Zhengfan asked in surprise.

"Nobody taught me... I just memorized it this way because I wanted to," Chen Luyang replied with some suspicion.

When taking notes in class, everything should be done in a way that is convenient for myself.

Chen Luyang could remember it however she wanted.

What's there to ask?

But that's not what Li Zhengfan was asking at all!

"You speak German?" Li Zhengfan asked in surprise.

"I know a little bit," Chen Luyang added modestly. "I used to work at a hotel for foreign guests in our province, and I learned it there."

Li Zhengfan flipped through Chen Luyang's notes in shock.

Even if you can learn a foreign language at a hotel for foreign guests, it's nothing more than daily communication for welcoming and seeing off guests.

It's already quite an achievement to be able to speak, how could one possibly write so fluently?
This is unreasonable!!!
Especially his notes, which are a mix of Chinese and German, switching between Chinese and German at different times.
"Aren't you afraid of confusing the concepts in the future if you mix Chinese and German?" Li Zhengfan looked at Chen Luyang with doubt.

"No, this way you can remember it more clearly."

Chen Luyang explained, “Take ‘Geist’ for example. Some people translate it as ‘spirit’, some as ‘consciousness’, and others as ‘national spirit’, ‘consciousness of the times’, ‘deity’… It’s too complicated. Rather than writing in Chinese, it’s better to read the original text and understand it thoroughly.”

Damn it...

Li Zhengfan couldn't help but sigh inwardly at the civilization!

Not to mention that Chen Luyang's pronunciation of "Geist" is extremely standard!
Chen Luyang's multiple interpretations of the word "Geist" alone are enough to prove that he has read a considerable number of translations!

Although philosophical books have been translated decades ago.

However, due to historical and various practical reasons, these historical translations generally suffer from confusion in translation and misalignment of concepts.

For example, early translations of Hegel and Kant include old translations from the late Qing and Republican periods, "ideological" translations from the People's Publishing House in the 50s, and selected editions from the 70s, with inconsistent standards.

In order to "conform to socialist ideology," some philosophical terms have been given politically charged translations.

Even if they all talk about Hegel, different teachers at different universities will have different translations and ways of explaining the same knowledge point.

It's normal for Li Zhengfan, as an expert, to know these things.

But it's very unusual that Chen Luyang can give so many usages and explanations!
Very abnormal!
"Have you read Hegel's books before?" Li Zhengfan asked.

"I've read a few," Chen Luyang replied modestly, then considerately added:

"But these books have all sorts of translations, which confused me. Luckily, I was working at a foreign guest hotel before, and a guest brought me a copy of Hegel's original work. He showed me the book, and that's how I managed to understand it."

Anyway!

Songting Hotel is like a brick; it can be moved wherever it's needed!

Whether it could be explained or not, Chen Luyang attributed everything to the foreign guests' hotel!
If there's no way to verify the truth, are you really going to travel all the way to Songting Hotel to confront them?

cut!
You'll be exhausted.

Li Zhengfan looked deeply at Chen Luyang.

If that's the case, then everything is normal...

Hotel for foreign guests.

These days, people who can afford to stay in hotels catering to foreign guests in China are not ordinary people.

It's not impossible to encounter a few capable and knowledgeable people along the way who can offer some guidance.

Fortunately, Xiao Hui had given them a heads-up beforehand, knowing that Chen Luyang had worked at a foreign guest hotel and was fluent in English, Japanese, Italian, and French.

Otherwise, a bright and beautiful student who understands German and Hegel would suddenly appear.

He'd probably think some professor from some university was posing as a big shot, sneaking into the philosophy department to fleece them.

"Okay...that's good~"

Li Zhengfan couldn't help but say "good" several times, and his gaze instantly became kind.

They were worried that Chen Luyang didn't know German and didn't have a deep foundation in philosophy, so they thought of having him audit the classes so they could teach him properly.

But now that I look at it... this child doesn't need to be taught German at all!

As the school bell rang, everyone returned to their seats in the classroom.

Li Zhengfan couldn't suppress his smile as he picked up the chalk with great enthusiasm:

"Let's continue!"

Down in the classroom, Chen Luyang looked at Li Zhengfan, who suddenly seemed full of energy, with suspicion.

Not right.

Li Zhengfan's gaze just now was very strange!
...Why do I feel like I'm being watched?
Chen Luyang was looking at Li Zhengfan with a puzzled expression.

The students in the second row also craned their necks suspiciously, curiously looking at his notes.

Many people witnessed Li Zhengfan checking Chen Luyang's notes during the break.

Everyone was curious about what Li Zhengfan had seen, and the two chatted back and forth.

Who knew it would have been better not to watch it?
Upon seeing this, the eyes of the people in the second row widened instantly.

I grass!

He was taking notes in his notebook, and they were in German?!
They struggled to even remember Chinese, but what they wrote was actually in German!

No wonder he's so arrogant to sit in the front row, he's got real connections!
……

After finally finishing a class, the bell rang in the hallway to signal the end of get out of class.

With Teacher Li's words, "Chen Luyang, stay behind for a moment," the other students packed up their things, slung their backpacks over their shoulders, and left the classroom.

Chen Luyang sat blankly in the classroom, not knowing what Li Zhengfan wanted to talk to her about.

As the students gradually left the classroom,

Some of the conversations, through the open door, reached Chen Luyang's ears.

“I saw it; he wrote it all in German.”

"German? Really?"

"Really! I saw it too... No wonder he was so brave to sit in the front row. If I had that ability, I would sit in the front row too."

"..."

Chen Luyang frowned slightly.

Are you talking about me?
He looked down and flipped through his notes.

It's not entirely in German!
I also took a lot of notes in Chinese.

Before he could think about it further, Li Zhengfan finished answering the student's question, picked up his textbook, and beckoned Chen Luyang to come with him.

Unaware of what was going on, Chen Luyang followed Li Zhengfan to the Philosophy Department office with her backpack.

at this time,

Inside the office, two other teachers were flipping through documents and sketching on paper with pens, seemingly outlining some framework.

When they saw Li Zhengfan bring in a student, the two teachers simply glanced up at him and then went back to their work.

"sit."

He simply said one sentence.
Li Zhengfan walked to the bookshelf, took out a classic philosophy book, sat back down at his desk, opened a page, and began to write on the paper.

Chen Luyang sat awkwardly in the office, watching the three teachers each doing their own thing, ignoring him completely.

He was too embarrassed to talk to others.

All I could do was look left and right, my eyes darting around, trying to find something good!

really! ! !

Chen Luyang's pupils contracted slightly as she noticed a stack of yellowed handwritten manuscripts bound with thin string in the corner of the bookshelf. The covers read:

Hegel's Lectures on the Shorter Logic (Internal Teaching Material) - Spring 1957

This is good stuff!
Chen Luyang's mind raced!
Although he couldn't borrow reference books from the philosophy department, he was sure the professor had them!
Since I was a philosophy department student appointed to audit classes, I had no reason not to borrow a textbook from the professor!

Just as Chen Luyang was frantically looking around the room to see what books he could "plunder" there,
After finishing writing what he was doing, Li Zhengfan handed a piece of paper to Chen Luyang.

"This is a passage from Hegel's original text. Take it back and see if you can translate it. Give it back to me in the next class."

Is this a class assignment?

Chen Luyang took the paper and looked at it with suspicion.

The original text is short, just a small paragraph.

Chen Luyang went over the meaning in her mind twice and got a pretty good grasp of it.

There were a few technical terms, and since he hadn't translated any documents in a long time, he wasn't sure of their meanings and needed to consult a dictionary.

The translation is very simple.
but!

How to translate, how to translate it, and what context to translate it into are all matters of consideration.

Although we have now entered a period of reform and opening up, the current era is not as advanced as that of later generations.

Following Chen Luyang's translation habits,

The words he intends to use are not commonly used today, nor do they fully conform to the existing "revolutionary philosophy framework."

but,

But it is respectful and faithful to the original work!
"Teacher, do you have a dictionary that I can borrow to look through?" Chen Luyang asked.

Li Zhengfan was quite warm-hearted: "There are some in the library. You can go to the library to look at more documents, and you can also combine them with previous translations..."

Chen Luyang, embarrassed to interrupt Li Zhengfan, said, "Teacher, I don't need to go to the library. Just give me a dictionary, and I can translate it right now."

Huh?

All three teachers in the office turned to look at them at the same time.

"You can translate right now?" Li Zhengfan's voice even changed a little.

"Yes!" Chen Luyang noticed Li Zhengfan's unusual tone and, thinking he might be worried about him taking too long to translate and delaying their departure from get off work, explained:

"It won't take too long. Lend me a dictionary; I can finish this in ten minutes."

Li Zhengfan: ? !!!
This little thing...?!
Hegel's book, is this all there is to it?
Li Zhengfan almost laughed out of anger at Chen Luyang's words.

"Okay... I'll give you a dictionary, you translate it and I'll see."

Li Zhengfan handed the dictionary on the table directly to Chen Luyang.

Chen Luyang first circled a few words with a pencil, looked up their meanings in the dictionary, and then picked up a pen and began writing the translation on the paper.

In less than 10 minutes, Chen Luyang had written down the translation.

"Teacher, I've finished translating." Chen Luyang handed the translation to Li Zhengfan.

Li Zhengfan looked down at the translation manuscript, first quickly scanning it, then his pupils contracted as he carefully read it sentence by sentence.

The other two teachers stood on either side, watching.

"This... 'the return of the historical spirit'? How did you translate that phrase?"

Li Zhengfan's voice was a little strained.

The original text's phrase "die Rückkehr des Geistes in sich selbst" is often translated as "the spirit's return to itself" or "the spirit returning to itself."

Some books even skip the meaning of "return" altogether, avoiding sensitive phrases like "self-consciousness."

why?
Because the concept of "historical spirit," within the philosophical context of the time, implicitly contained a chain of intellectual regression from Hegel to Marx to post-Marx, it was easily misunderstood as:
Does this imply that "history does not progress linearly"?
Is this a return to "humanism" rather than class struggle?
Is this blurring the political stance of "practice first"?

Even a casual remark should be considered in light of its implied political implications.

“I think ‘a return to the spirit of history’ is a more accurate description.”

Chen Luyang answered frankly: "Hegel's statement on the surface is 'the spirit returns to itself,' but it is not a static, closed loop. It is not a return from the starting point, but a re-understanding and completion of itself after a whole set of historical movements. So this 'return' is not a literal return to the starting point, but a realization of self-unity at a higher level after negating itself, objectifying, reflecting again, and self-sublation."

歘!
The two teachers, who were writing the framework, turned around abruptly, their pens stopping in their tracks.

Chen Luyang added: "If it is simply translated as 'the spirit returns to itself' or 'the completion of self-consciousness,' it is easy to understand it as an abstract concept of self-isolation, like the spirit spinning in the body, which is insufficient to reflect the 'movement' and 'historicity' emphasized by Hegel. But if it is translated as 'the return of the historical spirit,' on the one hand, it retains the philosophical structure of the original text, and on the other hand, it clarifies that this is a return after the unfolding of history, a unified return to the individual and the total, the subjective and the objective."

"Snapped!"

Li Zhengfan's right hand struck the matchbox with a flick of the match.

A small cluster of flames suddenly burst into flame.

But Li Zhengfan stared blankly at Chen Luyang, completely forgetting to light his cigarette!
(End of this chapter)