曆史真相
古今中外曆史政治
本書作者斯特林·西格雷夫和佩吉·西格雷夫是我國廣大讀者較為熟悉的著名學者。20世紀80年代中期，斯特林·西格雷夫撰寫的《宋家王朝》曾經引起社會各界的轟動，當時《紐約時報》、《華盛頓郵報》等西方主流媒體均發文介紹評價此書。由於該書揭露了民國時期許多有關蔣介石政權的陰暗內幕，竟導致台灣7名著名曆史學教授聯名發表聲明，在美國各大媒體以刊登廣告的方式進行反駁。由於此書的巨大影響，當時國內有3家出版社幾乎同時出版了不同版本的中文版。3年後，作者另一部大作《馬科斯王朝》問世，在美國再次引起轟
作者冒著生命危險，耗時18個春秋寫成的《黃金武士》，為讀者揭開了20世紀一個令人震驚的秘密。二戰期間，日本一直在秘密實施所謂掠奪亞洲各國財寶的“金百合計劃”，戰敗投降前夕，在日本皇室成員親自組織安排下，數以萬噸計的黃金被分成175份，秘藏菲律賓各地。戰爭結束後，美國很快掌握了山下奉文黃金的秘密，但是為了政治需要，美國同日本一起掩蓋了這一真相。半個世紀以來，這批黃金不斷被挖掘，並被用來建立了許多秘密“反共”基金，開展“肮髒”行動。作者指出：“整個秘密驅使腐敗分子濫用賄賂基金，而且直到今天，這一惡習像癌細胞一樣不斷繁殖。圍繞賄賂基金，一個全球範圍的網絡已經形成。官僚、政客、間諜和將軍們已經沉溺其中。……那些從中獲得好處的人和機構正在通過各種手段甚至包括暗殺來掩蓋這一秘密。”另外，本書還為我們道出了日本至今為何不肯向二戰期間的戰俘和勞工做出賠償的真正原因。
曆史和現實是相通的。今天的新聞有些就是明天的曆史，同樣，昨天的曆史亦可成為今天的新聞。本書作者西格雷夫是新聞記者出身，新聞記者同曆史學工作者有許多相通之處，他們都特別注重事件的事實本身。《黃金武士》如同作者出版的前幾本專著一樣，充分顯示了作者非凡的史學功底。在撰寫過程中，作者運用的每一個重要資料幾乎都注有出處。作者在英文版出版前，提供給我們的英文稿，其資料注釋幾占全書篇幅的五分之一。英文版正式出版後，注釋部分雖有所簡化，但由此仍可窺知作者所花費的心血。我們照原文翻譯了注釋部分，供讀者參考。另外，作為記者，作者對史料的解讀十分敏銳，許多史料經過作者的條分縷析，使人閱後對許多曆史之謎確有恍然大悟之感。為了保持本書的鮮明特色，使部分讀者改變以前“傳說”中“山下黃金”的印象，在翻譯過程中，我們保留了作者最初較為詳細的注釋內容。需要說明的是，為了方便讀者閱讀，書中涉及的少數極偏僻地名和人名，我們做了必要的簡化處理。
《黃金武士》中文版的順利出版，我們首先要感謝作者在本書英文版未正式出版之前就寄來英文書稿。英文版正式出版後，作者又迅速寄來樣書，並為中文版寫了一篇十分精彩的序。世界抗日戰爭史實維護會的丁元先生熱情聯絡此書的中文版；王選女士在工作十分繁忙的情況下，對本書傾注了最大熱情，進行了一絲不苟的認真譯校，本書的出版凝聚了她這段時間幾乎全部的心血；作為責任編輯的宗穎女士對本書一直十分關心；胡曉丁先生對書中出現的部分日本人名的翻譯也多有幫助。本書的翻譯也得到了南京師範大學“211學科建設”辦公室的支持，並被列入校“十五”211工程建設項目。
本書是我們繼翻譯《魏特琳日記》之後的又一次集體合作，在很短時間裏，各位譯者為此付出了許多艱辛勞動。由於作者正式出版的英文版同最初提供的書稿相比有很多補充，因此，我們根據正式出版的英文版對本書後八章又進行了重新譯校。各人承擔任務如下：楊夏鳴：導言、第一至六章；張連紅：作者聲明、中文版序、第七章；張啟祥（複旦大學曆史係）：第八、九章；王豔飛：第十、十一章；楊國譽：第十二、十三章；羅峰：第十四、十五章、結束語。王選女士承擔了全書英文總審訂的任務，楊國譽、張啟祥、王豔飛為此書的出版承擔了很多瑣碎工作。
由於本書涉及許多美國、日本、菲律賓、朝鮮等曆史及人名、地名，這給翻譯校對工作帶來很多麻煩，楊夏鳴和張連紅為此做了大量工作。
翻譯是一門永無止境的學問，本書不足之處在所難免，敬請各位專家不吝指正。
譯 者
The Soong Dynasty (Hardcover)
by Sterling Seagrave (Author) "The legend of Charlie Soong is a masterpiece of twentieth-century invention..."
Seagrave's work is not always well documented, and he is really more of a storyteller than an historian. Having said that, his stuff is usually a quick read, and does give plenty of interesting information about the period he is discussing. This book is about the Soong family, and you will not get a grasp of the development of modern China without understanding this family. The title, of course, is a play on words, because it has nothing to do with the classic dynasties of antiquity. Rather, it chronicles the development of the family of Charlie Soong, and discusses how this family influenced the development of modern China. Charlie Soong managed to get a job on a ship, and spent some time as a sailor off the East Coast of the United States. His life took a very important turn when he wandered into a revival meeting in the old south, and became a Christian. He was subsequently educated and sent back to China as a missionary. Unable to support himself on $15 a month, he eventually became involved with the underworld in order to earn enough to feed his family. Charlie had three daughters. The oldest married a Wall Street financier. The second eloped with Sun Yat Sen. The youngest daughter married Chiaing Kai-Shek. It is not possible to study the history of China in the Twentieth Century without running into this family over and over again.
I became interested in learning more about the three Soong sisters after seeing the Chinese film, "The Soong Sisters." What I learned from reading this book was two of the sisters were far worse than as portrayed in the movie.
Sterling Seagrave in "The Soong Dynasty" reveals the unbelievable greed and corruption among most members of the Soong family and many of their associates. Given the widespread and often lengthy quoting from primary sources to support his conclusions, this is a better documented book, in my opinion, than some reviewers have claimed. Such highly regarded persons as the journalist Theodore White and United States General Joseph Stilwell, as quoted in the book, were highly critical of Chiang's regime.
It has been thoroughly demonstrated by numerous historians how Chiang's incompetence and corruption led to the downfall of his Nationalist government in 1949. However, after reading "The Soong Dynasty," one must conclude that he was one of the worst villians in modern Chinese history. As one example, as the author says and this is also pointed out by numerous historians, Chiang refused to order his armies to fight the Japanese, who were guilty of atrocities in China comparable to the Holocaust. One of the great tragedies in modern Chinese history has been the very negative effects Chiang and Mao had upon the Chinese people.
The first few chapters in the book focus upon the incredible rise to wealth and influence by Charlie Soong, the founder of the "Soong dynasty." Of the three Soong sisters, Ai-ling and May-ling were preoccupied with power and hardly imaginable greed. Seagrave shows how certain very greedy members of the Soong family embezzled hundreds of millions in United States military and humanitarian aid to China during the 1940's.
The other sister, Ching-ling was the only member of the Soong family, that also included three brothers, who actually cared about the people of China, as well as who was not greedy and selfish. I wish there had been more information in the "Soong Dynasty" about Ching-ling's life after the 1930's.
This book is truly a feast for the reader with an interest in China as it has evolved in the previous century. This is the story of the Soong family and their enormous influence on modern China. The six Soong children, three sons and three daughters, were the offspring of Charlie Soong and Ni-Kwei-tseng. These two Chinese were very religious and God-fearing Christians. Charlie was educated in the US and made his fortune selling Bibles in China. This book tells the story of these children and their almost unbelievable lives. To quote the author "Few families since the Borgias have played such a disturbing role in human destiny". One son, T. V. Soong became perhaps the richest man in history and exerted enormous influence over US foriegn policy towards China. He was also the finance minister of China. Of three Soong sisters, one, Mai-Ling, married Chaing Kai-Chek, another, Ching-Ling, married Sun Yat-sen, and the last, Ai-Ling, married into one of the richest banking families in China. Mai-Ling was educated at Wellesley and was long regarded as one of the ten most influential women in the world. An understatement, if ever there was.
Covers the chaotic years of modern China and the long brutal wars against the Japanese and the savage conflicts between the Nationialists and the Communists. Has a lot of great information on the American involvement here, Stillwell, Claire Chennault (who was almost the only American in China who was not a fool) and the Flying Tigers (the Flying Tigers are venerated in the China of today), Hurley, Morgenthau, Henry and Claire Booth Luce and many, many others. This book is so jam packed with information that it is almost mind boggling. The Green Gangs, Big Eared Tu, a host of warlords, the dreaded gangster Tongs, drug empires, murderers, adventurers, Soldiers of Fortune, prostitutes and thieves. The cast of characters in this book is almost endless, however it all fits together very well and will leave the serious reader a changed person as far as China and our own endlessly bumbling government is concerned. Everything I have read in this books dovetails nicely with the study I have done on China.
The author, Sterling Seagrave, spent most of his life Asia and knows his subject well.
I can only say read this remarkable book. It is an absolute must have for the China history buff and scholar.
I've read this book several times since it was first published, and while I agree that Seagrave's sources aren't always documented as well as they should be, the author's conclusion is inescapable: the Soongs were largely as bad for China as were the communist leaders they struggled against so ardently. Even Ching-ling, who I agree, was used as a pawn by the Soviets, however unwittingly.
Most of the negative reviews of Seagrave's "The Soong Dynasty" that state that it is too partisan maybe correct. However, the opinions and writings of General Joseph Stillwell, and the results of Freedom of Information Act inquiries by researchers (revealing the investigations by the by the Truman Administration and the F.B.I) are difficult to dismiss. My wife is Chinese, and her paternal grandfather was a member of Chiang Kai Shek's officer corps. We also have friends who married into the extended Soong family in California, and all of them bridle at this characterization of Chiang, his wife and her siblings. However, the Soongs' collective behavior as leaders of modern China cannot be so easily excused by those who cite that all of this occurred "during a difficult period of Chinese history" so they should be judged less harshly and/or more fairly. Of course it was difficult; they helped to make it so along with their communist counterparts.
Having lived and worked in Taiwan for a number of years in the late 1980s and early 1990s, I was able to observe first hand how modern politicians conduct themselves and how the elections are handled, and I must state that little has changed since the halcyon days of the Soong clan. Government goon squads are sent out by the incumbents, prior to the actual elections, intimidating potential dissenters and reporters, party campaign volunteers travel door-to-door offering voters cash in exchange for their support, opposition party members die in mysterious accidents, etc. These incidents, I saw personally, and read about in the daily periodicals. Even today with a different party than the Kuo Ming Tang in power, there are dubious things afoot such as the questionable 'assassination attempts' on the eve of a potentially disastrous election for the incumbent.
Yes, again, I would state that little has changed in the way the Chinese conduct themselves politically since the 1911 Revolution and the establishment of Communist China. The subsequent economic successes of Taiwan and now Mainland China are a testament to the resilience, diligence and inventiveness of the Chinese people, rather than the foresight and thoughtfulness of their politicians (e.g. Chinese tanks at Tiananmen, Taiwanese boxing matches in sessions of their Parliament, etc.).
Rather pointedly, there is kind of a running joke in Taiwan and China comparing the economic successes of the Japanese with that of the Chinese. It goes something like this (I'm paraphrasing, of course):
10 Chinese entrepreneurs start 10 different small businesses as do 10 Japanese entrepreneurs. However, by the end of the year, the Japanese businessmen have consolidated each of their individual operations into a conglomerate, to take advantage of the economics of scale which benefits all, while the Chinese continue to operate their mom & pop ventures, individually, each owner unwilling to relinquish the reins of ownership and power, regardless of the potential benefit to the group.
This may be a cultural pathology of the Chinese, and how this behavior often manifests itself politically can be disastrous for a nation. That's how I see the Chiang Kai Shek, the Soongs, and Mao and his cronies: interested in bettering things for themselves first, with the welfare of their nations' populace a distant second.
