Give me a favor to take a look at the lines below, which belong to Shakespeare.

賞光看看下面幾行臺詞，是莎士比亞的。

Give thy thoughts no tongue,

Nor any unproportion'd thought his act.

Be thou familiar, but by no means vulgar.

Those friends thou hast, and their adoption tried,

Grapple them unto thy soul with hoops of steel;

But do not dull thy palm with entertainment

Of each new-hatch'd, unfledg'd comrade.Beware

Of entrance to a quarrel; but, being in,

Bear't that the opposed may beware of thee.

Give every man thine ear, but few thy voice:

Take each man's censure, but reserve thy judgment.

Costly thy habit as thy purse can buy,

But not express'd in fancy; rich, not gaudy:

For the apparel oft proclaims the man;

And they in France of the best rank and station

Are most select and generous chief in that.

Neither a borrower nor a lender be:

For loan oft loses both itself and friend;

And borrowing dulls the edge of husbandry.

This above all, --to thine own self be true;

And it must follow, as the night the day,

Thou canst not then be false to any man.

A little difficult to relate to, right? So let me present the Chinese version to you:

理解起來有點難，是吧？讓我給你呈現(xiàn)一下漢語版吧！

不要想到什么就說什么，凡事必須三思而行。對人要和氣，可是不要過分狎昵。相知有素的朋友，應(yīng)該用鋼圈箍在你的靈魂上，可是不要對每一個泛泛的新知濫施你的交情。留心避免和人家爭吵；可是萬一爭端已起，就應(yīng)該讓對方知道你不是可以輕侮的。傾聽每一個人的意見，可是只對極少數(shù)人發(fā)表你的意見；接受每一個人的批評，可是保留你自己的判斷。盡你的財力購制貴重的衣服，可是不要炫新立異，必須富麗而不浮艷，因為服裝往往可以表現(xiàn)人格；法國的名流要人，就是在這點上顯得最高尚，與眾不同。不要向人告貸，也不要借錢給人；因為債款放了出去，往往不但丟了本錢，而且還失去了朋友；向人告貸的結(jié)果，容易養(yǎng)成因循懶惰的習(xí)慣。尤其要緊的，你必須對你自己忠實；正像有了白晝才有黑夜一樣，對自己忠實，才不會對別人欺詐。

When you finish reading the lines, which word immediately came into your mind? Worldly- wise. Right?

讀過這些臺詞之后，你首先想到什么詞？世故，是吧？

Being worldly-wise has ever been a dream for many because it surely benefits you. It is quite an art of living if you have a good sense of propriety in what you do or say. The basic principle is not to offend others. Polonius, a figure in Hamlet, is surely proficient in this art. Before his son going abroad, he taught him this lesson. Such an old hand at the art of being worldly-wise there have never existed in other literature works, ancient and modern, home and abroad.

對許多人來說，世故是夢寐以求的事，因為它可以讓你受惠多多。能把握好言行之分寸，是了不起的生活藝術(shù)。其基本原則就是：不要冒犯他人。哈姆雷特中的一個人物，普隆列斯，精于此道。在其子出國之前，給他上了一課。如此世故之老手，在其他古今中外的文學(xué)作品中難見其蹤。

There are some people around you who are of being worldly-wise in this respect or that respect like Polonius but a man possessing all these characteristics I have never experienced.

周圍有些人，不在這方面即在那方面跟普隆列斯有些像，但一個具備了所有這些世故之態(tài)的人，我尚未見識過。

For some unreasonable reason, I feel terrified with the person who is too worldly-wise. Such a person is like a deep lake where you don’t know if there is a black hole trapping you or if there is slippy slope making you fall. it's hard for you to judge whether he is telling the truth or just telling a lie, whether he is making friends with you heartily or just pretending politeness and compliance. His EQ is too higher than yours and what you say and what you do is totally under control by him and so at any time you may act as a piece in a board game whose plot is decided by this worldly-wise man. A piece in a board game everyone is, actually, you may feel terrified before such a man.

因為一些沒有理由的理由，我對過于世故之人有些害怕。這種人就像一個湖，你不知道什么地方有“黑洞”會陷你于困境，也不知道什么地方會有滑溜的斜坡讓你摔上一跤。你難以判斷他是在告知真相還是在扯謊，實在真心交友還是在虛與委蛇。他“情商”太高，你的言行全部在他的掌控之下，任何時候你都不過充當(dāng)他的棋子，而全局取決于這個世故之人。當(dāng)然每個人都不過是一枚棋子，但面對此人，你還是心懷恐懼。

Anyway, everyone is more or less worldly-wise for a better existence, but too worldly-wise a man is a danger for one less worldly-wise. I mean, when a society is one of the law of the jungle, a person more worldly-wise is the fittest while a person less worldly-wise is the weakest. So many people believe that being worldly-wise is a must for existence in such a society. A society of the law of the jungle is certainly not a civilized one,for such a society cultivate animal nature(barbarity) more than human nature. That is to say, a society full of worldly-wise men is less civilized than one lack of worldly-wise men. Being worldly-wise is only a choice a man has to exist in a society consisting of the law of the jungle.

不管怎么說，大家為了更好的生存，都或多或少有些世故，但過于世故之人對于不太世故之人來說，畢竟危險。我的意思是說，在一個奉行存林法則的社會中，一個更加世故之人是適者而不太世故之人則是弱者。許許多多的人都認(rèn)為生于此等社會，世故乃生存必備。奉行存林法則的社會當(dāng)然算不上文明社會，因為這樣的社會培育獸性而非人性。也即是說，一個滿是世故之人的社會沒有一個缺少世故之人的社會文明。世故乃奉行存林法則之社會不得已而為之的選擇。

Restore your belief in human nature,anyway. In this world, there are many people who are not worldly-wise but kindlinessly-wise(it’s not a dictionary word).those who are kindlinessly-wise are kind and straightforward, dealing with relationships with benevolence and tolerance. And the most prominent character of those kindlinessly-wise people is sincerity. Every word from their mouth and every act from their body is out of their inner hearts. They may have been hurt by this world,but they still contribute their sincerity to this world and so human nature beats barbarity. That's why this society of the law of the jungle is not so bad and fill with warmth of human nature.

還是恢復(fù)你對人性的信仰吧。在這個世界，有許多人并不世故，是很善故（這是一個詞典中查不到的字）這些善故之人，善良，坦率，以仁愛之心和寬容之量處理關(guān)系。而善故之人最突出的特征是真誠。一言一行，皆發(fā)自內(nèi)心。他們也許曾被這個社會傷害，卻依舊向這個社會奉獻(xiàn)真誠，因為人性打敗了獸性。這就是為什么這個叢林法則的社會還不是太壞而充滿了人性之溫暖的緣故。

One or two words to explanation why some people are so worldly-wise while some, kindlinessly-wise, it is impossible,as it is an extremely complicated problem. It is complicated because human nature, on which the problem is base, is too complicated.

為什么一些人如此世故，另一些人如此善故，一兩句話是解釋不清楚的，不可能解釋清楚，因為這是一個極其復(fù)雜的問題。它之所以復(fù)雜是因為人性復(fù)雜，而這個問題是基于人性的。

It’s beyond imagination that there exists such man of pure good or pure evil. A person is a body blending good and evil to make human nature complex, which makes this society complex as well. Let’s seek a better existence in this society of the law of jungle by showing more kindliness than worldly-wiseness.

難以想象有純善或純惡的人。一個人，是個善惡共同體，因而使人性變得復(fù)雜。人性復(fù)雜又使得社會復(fù)雜。讓我們通過展現(xiàn)出更多的善而非世故來在這個存林法則的社會里尋求更好的存在吧！