《西潮》里所谈的是中国从一八四二年《中英南京条约》割让香港岛到一九四一年珍珠港事件这一百年间所发生的故事。这段时间乃是历史上一个极不平凡时代的新序幕,举凡人类中各个集团的冲突,乃至东西文化的磨荡,都集中在这风云际会。
蒋梦麟从中国学究的私塾到西洋自由的 学府,从古老的农村社会到近代的都市文明,从身经专制统治的皇朝到接受革命思想的洗礼,他多年生活在广大的外国人群里面,更不断生活在广大中国人群、尤其是知识青年群众里面,他置身于中西文化思想交流的漩涡,同时也看遍了覆雨翻云沧海桑田的世局。《西潮》中所反映的决不是他的一生,而是他一生所经历的时代。
Tides from the West tells the story of China's 100 years from the cession of Hong Kong Island by the Sino British Treaty of Nanjing in 1842 to the Pearl Harbor Incident in 1941. This period of time is a new prelude to a very extraordinary era in history. For example, the conflicts of various groups in human beings and even the grinding of eastern and Western cultures are concentrated in this occasion.
Jiang Menglin has lived in a large number of foreigners for many years, and also in a large number of Chinese people, especially the educated young people. He is exposed to the vortex of cultural and ideological exchanges between China and the West, At the same time, I have also seen the world situation. What is reflected in the West tide is not his life, but the times he experienced in his life.