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读完它们中的任何一本，你都能够对这片土地，这个国家有更深刻的理解。
这些书的行文风格各异，出版年代不同，但却都算得上备受肯定的畅销之作。
前两本书皆出自中国人之手。第一本书用中文写成，给中国人看；第二本书在美国出版，给西方人读。前者是社会学读物，后者是文学读物。
后两本书则是美国人写的，一位是在中国生活了十年的美国记者，另一位是中美几十年外交关系的推动者。一本是关于记者的旅途见闻，另一本则是关于大外交家的历史纪实。
四本书都能在网上找到中英版，不妨找来读读。
双语君推荐这四本书的顺序大致按照它们的篇幅由短到长，大家也可以以此做参考，合理安排阅读顺序。
From the soil: the Foundations of Chinese Society
豆瓣评分：9.2 费孝通（1910-2005），中国社会学与人类学的奠基人之一。他深感西方社会学研究话语无法触及中国社会的本质，于是从自身独特视角出发，写就《乡土中国》一书，成为经典。这本书根据作者四十年代在西南联大授课的讲稿整编而成，读来就如同与亲切的老教授进行对话。全书最著名的要数关于中国社会“差序格局”的描述。Written in Chinese from a Chinese point of view for a Chinese audience, From the Soil describes the contrasting organizational principles of Chinese and Western societies, thereby conveying the essential features of both.《乡土中国》透过中国人的视角，面向中国读者，以中文写成。这本书描写了中西社区截然不同的组织原则，由此描绘出两种社区组织的根本特征。Fei shows how these unique features reflect and are reflected in the moral and ethical characters of people in these societies. This profound, challenging book is both succinct and accessible. In its first complete English-language edition, it is likely to have a wide impact on Western social theorists.费孝通展现了这些社区中人们的道德和伦理特点与该社会组织原则相互反映，互相影响的独特特征。这本深刻且颇具挑战性的书简洁明了，通俗易懂。它的首版全英译本很可能对西方社会理论家产生了广泛影响。( via Amazon)
Western societies are somewhat like the way we collect rice straw to use to cook our food. After harvest, the rice straw is bound into small bundles; several bundles are bound into larger bundles; and these are then stacked together so that they can be carried on shoulder poles …in Western society individuals form organizations. Each organization has its own boundaries, which clearly define those people who are members and those who are not.西洋的社会有些象我们在田里捆柴，几根稻草束成一把，几把束成一扎，几扎束成一捆，几捆束成一挑……他们常常由若干人组成一个个的团体。团体是有一定界限的，谁是团体里的人，谁是团体外的人，不能模糊，一定分得清楚。Our pattern is not like distinct bundles of straws. Rather, it is like the circles that appear on the surface of a lake when a rock is thrown into it. Everyone stands at the center of the circles produced by his or her own social influence. Everyone's circles are interrelated. One touches different circles at different times and places.我们的格局不是一捆一捆扎清楚的柴，而是好象把一块石头丢在水面上所发生的一圈圈推出去的波纹。每个人都是他社会影响所推出去的圈子的中心。被圈子的波纹所推及的就发生联系。每个人在某一时间某一地点所动用的圈子是不一定相同的。
林语堂（1895-1976），作家、学者、翻译家。林语堂有着深厚的中英文功底，《吾国与吾民》与《京华烟云》、《生活的艺术》等作品都是以英文写就的。这本书写于上世纪三十年代，林语堂直陈当时中国土地上的贫弱与不堪，行文间满溢对祖国、对民族深沉的爱。
In this classic book Yutang Lin does a fantastic job of describing Chinese people, customs and culture in an understandable way for the Western reader. This book was the first of it's kind. This book is highly recommended on the bookshelf of anyone with an interest in different cultures and societies.林语堂以一种西方读者能够理解的方式精妙地描写了中国人及其习俗与文化。这本书还是此类书籍中的开山之作。强烈推荐给那些对不同文化与社会感兴趣的读者。(via Amazon)
前四章目录Down by the Chehleh river,Like an inverted cup is the sky,That covers the wasteland.And the sky is a deep blue;The wind blows, the tall grass bends,And the sheep and cattle come into view.Life with the Chinese seems to move on a slower, quieter level, the level of sedate living, not the level of action and adventure, with corresponding mental and moral habits of a peaceful and negative character. This makes it easily understandable why periodic conquests from the North were inevitable.中华民族的生命，好像是在迂缓而安静地向前蠕动着，这是一种沉着坚定的生活的范型，不是冒险进取的生活的范型；其精神和道德习惯亦相称而具和平和消极之特征。这就是历史上常间歇地被北方民族征服的根源。Man knew the happiness of the joys of life, but also was aware of its ephemeral nature, fearful of the jealousy of the gods, and was willing to take the joys that were simpler but would last longer. For to enjoy too many good things of life was, according to the Chinese, to decrease one's lot of happiness in this life. Therefore 'one should be just as careful in choosing one's pleasures as in avoiding calamities.'人类知道了生活的幸福与快乐，同时却警戒着它那朝生暮死的性质；危惧于为造物所嫉妒，故宁愿生活较为淳朴而享较长久的天年。因为享受了过分的幸福，中国人想来，会减损此生之福分。所以“人当趋福避祸，两加审慎。”
何伟(1969- )，英文名：Peter Hessler，美国作家、记者，1996年作为美国“和平队” 志愿者来到四川涪陵，之后将在中国的见闻写成《江城 》、《甲骨文》以及《寻路中国》，被称为“中国三部曲”。他的作品在美国屡获大奖。这本书中，他向长城脚下的村民询问历史，在温州的工厂里和工人们聊天，路遇的“老乡们”也成为笔下主角。何伟以几条不同线索描述寻常人家由农而工而商，乡村变身城市的发展。Hessler, whom the Wall Street Journal calls 'one of the Western world's most thoughtful writers on modern China,' deftly illuminates the vast, shifting landscape of a traditionally rural nation that, having once built walls against foreigners, is now building roads and factory towns that look to the outside world.何伟被《华尔街日报》誉为“关注当代中国的最具思想性的西方作家之一”。他灵巧地描绘出一副广阔的、转变中的图景，在他的笔下，一个曾筑高墙与他国隔绝的传统农业国家，正在铺设道路，建设工厂区，摸索外面的世界。( via Amazon) The rental contract specifically forbade drivers from leaving the Beijing region, but I decided to ignore this rule. In China, much of life involves skirting regulations, and one of the basic truths is that forgiveness comes easier than permission. 租车合同有具体的规定，驾驶员禁止把车辆驶离北京地区，不过我不打算理会这一条规定。在中国，生活中很多事都要打制度的擦边球。其中最基本的真理就是，事后原谅比事前许可要简单得多。
At any rate, if things got bad in the west I could always call Mr. Zhang, the feng shui master. On his business card he offered to “tow cars and trucks”—service number twenty-two, listed between “collecting bones” and “playing horns and drums.”再说，如果真在西部某个地方遇到了麻烦事，我还可以找风水先生张宝龙帮忙。在他的名片上，印着“拖移车辆”这项业务——项目编号是22，介于“迁坟”和“敲锣打鼓”之间。It consisted of a long low building with a huge smokestack emitting billowing white clouds. Nearby, hundreds of rusty metal barrels had been lined up beneath a makeshift rain cover. A slogan decorated a wall：IN ORDER TO PROTECT THE ENVIRONMENT, EVERYBODY HAS RESPONSIBILITY.公司厂房是一长溜低矮的建筑物，几只大烟囱正吐着滚滚白烟。没隔多远，几百只锈迹斑斑的金属桶子一字排开，上面盖着简易棚子。一面墙上，写着一条标语：保护环境，人人有责。There was writing everywhere workers used to live. They had written in pen, in pencil, in paint; their self-help slogans crisscrossed dirty walls. I made my way through the former dormitory, past all the mottoes…The busy fall season had arrived, and most factories in the development zone were working hard. From outside I heard the rhythms of machinery—the rattle of glassmaking, the rumble of plastic molds, the whirr of wrapping wire. But there wasn't a single human sound, and for half an hour I stood alone, reading the walls of the empty factory.只要有工人生活过的地方，到处都写着东西。用来写字的有铅笔、钢笔，还有油漆。他们那些励志口号在污渍斑斑的墙壁上纵横交错。我循着原来的宿舍区走着，一路经过的尽是格言警句……一阵凉风吹拂着窗户。繁忙的秋季已经到来，经济开发区里的工厂大多起劲地生产着。在外面，我能够听到那些机器有节奏的声音——割玻璃的嘎嘎声，做塑料模具的隆隆声，收卷筒线的嗖嗖声。但是没有一丝人声。整整半个小时，我一个人站在那里，读着空荡荡的厂房墙壁上写的那些字。
基辛格(1923- )，外交家、美国前国务卿，因促成1972年尼克松访华而被中国人所熟知，被称为“中国人民的老朋友”。《论中国》讲述了新中国成立之后中美两国领导人之间的交往，“试图解释中国人对战争与和平、国际秩序等问题的理性思考，以及这种思考与美国人更为实用的、就事论事的思维方式的关系。”In this sweeping and insightful history, Henry Kissinger turns for the first time a book length to a country he has known intimately for decades and whose modern relations with the West he helped shape. 在这段全面而富有洞察力的历史中，基辛格首次以整整一本书来写这个他几十年来已经非常熟悉的国家，而且这个国家与西方的关系还是他帮着牵线搭起来的。
On China illuminates the inner workings of Chinese diplomacy during such pivotal events as the initial encounters between China and tight line modern European powers, the formation and breakdown of the Sino-Soviet alliance, the Korean War, and Richard Nixon’s historic trip to Beijing. 《论中国》描述了中国在关键事件中外交政策的内在运作，这些关键事件包括中国与现代欧洲国家的最初相遇、中苏联盟的形成与破裂、朝鲜战争以及尼克松历史性的北京之行。（via Amazon）
全书目录
When the bloodletting ended and China again stood unified, the Han Dynasty (206 B.C.–A.D. 220) adopted Confucian thought as an official state philosophy. Compiled into a central collection of Confucius’s sayings (the Analects) and subsequent books of learned commentary, the Confucian canon would evolve into something akin to China’s Bible and its Constitution combined.待到流血冲突结束后，中国再次统一。汉朝（公元前206~公元220 年）开始采取儒家思想作为官方哲学。记载孔子言行的《论语》和其后的经史典籍构成了儒家经典，有点像是中国的《圣经》和《宪法》的混合体。At the same time, the era of China’s hobbling stands in many ways as a testimony to its remarkable abilities to surmount strains that might break other societies.同时，中国人的这段苦难岁月恰好佐证了中国人非凡的能力，足以战胜可能压垮其他国家的重重劫难。The Chinese Communist leadership retained some of the traditional approach to barbarian management. In it, the other side is flattered by being admitted to the Chinese “club” as an “old friend,” a posture that makes disagreement more complicated and confrontations painful.中国共产党领导人仍然保留了一部分“制夷”的传统，他们让对方为以“老朋友”的身份进入中国“俱乐部”而深感荣幸，这样就使对方在表达不赞同意见，提出质疑上陷入复杂而又不愉快的处境。I am aware that the cultural, historic, and strategic gaps in perception that I have described will pose formidable challenges for even the best-intentioned and most far-sighted leadership on both sides. On the other hand, were history confined to the mechanical repetition of the past, no transformation would ever have occurred. Every great achievement was a vision before it became a reality. In that sense, it arose from commitment, not resignation to the inevitable.我知道，即便对于双方最有善意、最高瞻远瞩的领导人来说，文化、历史和战略认知上的差异也将形成严峻的挑战。另一方面，如果历史只是机械地重复过去，以往的任何转变都不可能发生。每个伟大成就在成为现实之前都是一种远见。在这种意义上，它产生于勇于担当，而不是听天由命。
编辑：唐晓敏 祝兴媛 实习编辑：杨燕媚
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