原文
诚伪是品性，却又是态度。从前论人的诚伪，大概就品性而言。诚实，诚笃，至诚，都是君子之德；不诚便是诈伪的小人。品性一半是生成，一半是教养；品性的表现出于自然，是整个儿的为人。说一个人是诚实的君子或诈伪的小人，是就他的行迹总算账。君子大概总是君子，小人大概总是小人。虽然说气质可以变化，盖了棺才能论定人，那只是些特例。不过一个社会里，这种定型的君子和小人并不太多，一般常人都浮沉在这两界之间。所谓浮沉，是说这些人自己不能把握住自己，不免有诈伪的时候。这也是出于自然。还有一层，这些人对人对事有时候自觉的加减他们的诚意，去适应那局势。这就是态度。态度不一定反映出品性来；一个诚实的朋友到了不得已的时候，也会撒个谎什么的。态度出于必要，出于处世的或社交的必要，常人是免不了这种必要的。这是“世故人情”的一个项目。有时可以原谅，有时甚至可以容许。态度的变化多，在现代多变的社会里也许更会使人感兴趣些。我们嘴里常说的，笔下常写的“诚恳”“诚意”和“虚伪”等词，大概都是就态度说的。
但是一般人用这几个词似乎太严格了一些。照他们的看法，不诚恳无诚意的人就未免太多。而年轻人看社会上的人和事，除了他们自己以外差不多尽是虚伪的。这样用“虚伪”那个词，又似乎太宽泛了一些。这些跟老先生们开口闭口说“人心不古，世风日下”同样犯了笼统的毛病。一般人似乎将品性和态度混为一谈，年轻人也如此，却又加上了“天真”“纯洁”种种幻象。诚实的品性确是不可多得，但人孰无过，不论那方面，完人或圣贤总是很少的。我们恐怕只能宽大些，卑之无甚高论，从态度上着眼。不然无谓的烦恼和纠纷就太多了。至于天真纯洁，似乎只是儿童的本分——老气横秋的儿童实在不顺眼。可是一个人若总是那么天真纯洁下去，他自己也许还没有什么，给别人的麻烦却就太多。有人赞美“童心”、“孩子气”，那也只限于无关大体的小节目，取其可以调剂调剂平板的氛围气。若是重要关头也如此，那时天真恐怕只是任性，纯洁恐怕只是无知罢了。幸而不诚恳，无诚意，虚伪等等已经成了口头禅，一般人只是跟着大家信口说着，至多皱皱眉，冷笑笑，表示无可奈何的样子就过去了。自然也短不了认真的，那却苦了自己，甚至于苦了别人。年轻人容易认真，容易不满意，他们的不满意往往是社会改革的动力。可是他们也得留心，若是在诚伪的分别上认真得过了分，也许会成为虚无主义者。
人与人事与事之间各有分际，言行最难得恰如其分。诚意是少不得的，但是分际不同，无妨斟酌加减点儿。种种礼数或过场就是从这里来的。有人说礼是生活的艺术，礼的本意应该如此。日常生活里所谓客气，也是一种礼数或过场。有些人觉得客气太拘行迹，不见真心，不是诚恳的态度。这些人主张率性自然。率性自然未尝不可，但是得看人去。若是一见生人就如此这般，就有点野了。即使熟人，毫无节制的率性自然也不成。夫妇算是熟透了的，有时还得“相敬如宾”，别人可想而知。总之，在不同的局势下，率性自然可以表示诚意，客气也可以表示诚意，不过诚意的程度不一样罢了。客气要大方，合身份，不然就是诚意太多；诚意太多，诚意就太贱了。
看人、请客、送礼，也都是些过场。有人说这些只是虚伪的俗套，无聊的玩意儿。但是这些其实也是表示诚意的。总得心里有这个人，才会去看他，请他，送他礼，这就有诚意了。至于看望的次数，时间的长短，请作主客或陪客，送礼的情形，只是诚意多少的分别，不是有无的分别。看人又有回看，请客有回请，送礼有回礼，也只是回答诚意。古语说得好，“来而不往非礼也”，无论古今，人情总是一样的。有一个人送年礼，转来转去，自己送出去的礼物，有一件竟又回到自己手里。他觉得虚伪无聊，当作笑谈。笑谈确乎是的，但是诚意还是有的。又一个人路上遇见一个本不大熟的朋友向他说，“我要来看你”。这个人告诉别人说，“他用不着来看我，我也知道他不会来看我，你瞧这句话才没意思哪！”那个朋友的诚意似乎是太多了。凌叔华女士写过一个短篇小说，叫做《外国规矩》，说一位青年留学生陪着一位旧家小姐上公园，尽招呼她这样那样的。她以为让他爱上了，哪里知道他行的只是“外国规矩”！这喜剧由于那位旧家小姐不明白新礼数，新过场，多估量了那位留学生的诚意。可见诚意确是有分量的。
人为自己活着，也为别人活着。在不伤害自己身份的条件下顾全别人的情感，都得算是诚恳，有诚意。这样宽大的看法也许可以使一些人活得更有兴趣些。西方有句话，“人生是做戏。”做戏也无妨，只要有心往好里做就成。客气等等一定有人觉得是做戏，可是只要为了大家好，这种戏也值得做的。另一方面，诚恳、诚意也未必不是戏。现在人常说，“我很诚恳的告诉你”，“我是很有诚意的”，自己标榜自己的诚恳、诚意，大有卖瓜的说瓜甜的神气，诚实的君子大概不会如此。不过一般人也已习惯自然，知道这只是为了增加诚意的分量，强调自己的态度，跟买卖人的吆喝到底不是一回事儿。常人到底是常人，得跟着局势斟酌加减他们的诚意，变化他们的态度；这就不免沾上了些戏味。西方还有句话，“诚实是最好的政策”，“诚实”也只是态度；这似乎也是一句戏词儿。
英译
Sincerity and hypocrisy are about people.s moral characters as well as attitudes. Formerly when talking about sincerity and hypocrisy, we mainly referred to people.s moral characters. Integrity, honesty and allegiance are all virtues of gentlemen while fraudulence is used to describe the deceitful and hypocritical villains. Half the moral character is inborn while the other half is formed through educating. Natural as the performance of moral character is, it shows one.s humanity. Judging by one.s overall behavior, we know whether he is an honest gentleman or a deceitful villain. Probably gentlemen are always gentlemen while villains are always villains. Though one.s temperament can change, it.s still an exception when we say,“no final verdict can be announced on a man before his death”. However, in society the defined gentlemen and villains are not common, people generally oscillate between these two levels; sometimes they can.t control themselves and become deceitful and hypocritical. Moreover, people are motivated to give different degrees of sincerity to different people and things in order to adapt to the situation. This describes the attitude. Sometimes attitude can.t reflect one.s moral character, for example, an honest friend will tell a lie at the last extremity. Attitude is out of necessity, and ordinary people can.t avoid it for the need of life-dealing or social intercourse. The change of attitude can be forgiven and even be accepted because it is the demand of worldly wisdom. As attitude implies so many changes, it will attract more people.s attention in such a changeable society. The words“pure-heartedness”,“sincerity”and“hypocrisy”that we usually say and write may be all about attitude.
However, people define these words a bit strictly. According to their definition, there are too many people who are disingenuous and insincere. In the eyes of the youth, except for themselves most people and things in society are hypocritical. The word“hypocrisy”used in such a way seems to be defined a little broadly, which makes the same sweeping mistake with the old people who always say“people are not what they were in times past and the moral values of society are worsening day after day”. Generally speaking, people always confuse moral characters with attitudes, so do the young people. But they have various illusions about“naivety”and“purity”. Though honesty is indeed a treasure, everyone will make a mistake, and phoenix and sage are rare.The only thing we can do is to be magnanimous and start from the small aspect—attitude, otherwise our life will be full of unnecessary annoyance and pointless dispute. As for naivety and purity, it is a characteristic only for children. The children that behave like adults are disagreeable to our eyes. However, if a person remains innocent and pure all the time, no harm will be done to him but lots of troubles will be made to others. Someone praises“childlike innocence”and“childishness”, but it is only limited to small programs in order to regulate the dull and boring atmosphere. If you still perform casually at the crucial moment, you will be regarded as a willful and ignorant person.Fortunately, words like dishonesty, insincerity and hypocrisy have become conventional expressions, and people usually speak these words irresponsibly, at most frowning or sneering to show their helplessness. Of course, some people are serious, but both themselves and others will suffer from this. The young people easily become serious and unsatisfied, and their dissatisfaction can be a driving force for social reform. But they have to be careful, because if they.re too serious to differentiate sincerity and hypocrisy, they will be regarded nihilists.
There is a certain line between people and things, so it.s very difficult for us to behave appropriately. Sincerity is indispensable, but when faced with different situations, we must weigh and balance the amount of sincerity. Therefore etiquette and formalities are produced. Someone says that etiquette is the art of life, and it should have been. Politeness in daily life is also an etiquette or formality.However, some people think that politeness stands on ceremony too much and loses the real heart, so it isn.t a genuine attitude. They suggest following what is natural. It.s fine to behave naturally, but we must adjust ourselves to different situations. For example, if we behave casually when meeting strangers, people will think we are rude. Even though for acquaintances, being such immoderately casual is inappropriate. Couples are close enough, however, they still need to respect each other. In a word, under different circumstances both nature and politeness can express sincerity. Your politeness must be liberal and match your own identity, otherwise too much sincerity can decrease its value.
Visiting friends, entertaining guests and sending gifts are all formalities. Some people think that these formalities are some hypocritical conventions and boring stuff, in fact these can also show sincerity. Only when you care for him will you go off your way to do those activities.This is enough to show sincerity.As for the frequency of visiting, the time of visiting, being invited as a guest of honor or guest for accompanying and the atmosphere of visiting, these just indicate the amount of sincerity rather than whether the sincerity exists or not. When you visit, treat or send a gift in return, actually you are returning sincerity. As the old saying goes,“one good turn deserves another”. At any time, it remains the same. Someone surprisingly received one present which he had given to others during a Spring Festival. This has been taken to be insincere and regarded as a standing joke. Indeed, this is funny, but still embodies sincerity. Another one came cross a person who he had made nodding acquaintance with previously and was told,“I am going to call on you.”Then he said in conversation with others,“Don.t bother visiting me. I don.t think he will do it. What an empty promise!”It seems that person showed excessive sincerity. Foreign Rules, a short novel written by Ms. Ling Shuhua, is about a young overseas student who accompanied to the park, a young lady who grew up in a traditional family. He was devoted to her, and unexpectedly the young lady mistook his kindness for love. In fact, the young man followed the foreign customs and performed a little more enthusiasm. The comedy is caused by the lady.s ignorance of new etiquette and formalities and overestimate of the overseas student.s sincerity. So you can see, sincerity has weight.
We live not only for ourselves but for others. We can also be regarded as pure-hearted and sincere if we have consideration for others.feelings while not doing harm to our own identity. Such a broad view may cheer some people up. As a Western saying goes“life is like acting”, our lives can also be wonderful as long as we try to act in a good way. Such as politeness, some people regard it as a show, however, a show is also fine if it is beneficial to all. Furthermore, pure-heartedness and sincerity may also be shows. Nowadays people usually say,“I am talking to you very sincerely...”or“I am very serious...”. Similar with every potter praising his own pot, they praise their own genuineness and sincerity. Honest gentlemen probably will not do such things. However, ordinary people have got used to it, and they think it is just for increasing their sincerity or emphasizing their attitude, which is different with peddlers.touting wares.Ordinary people as we are should weigh and balance our sincerity and change our attitude following the current situation. But unavoidably, a little flavor of show is involved. Here.s another Western saying“honesty is the best policy”, which is also a line of the actor. Here“honesty”also indicates our attitude.
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