家有一老，如有一寶 - 潘震澤

家有一老，如有一寶。在人類平均壽命普遍不高的古代社會，能活到六、七十歲確是古來稀，也可想見其人必有特殊之處：不是天生異稟，就是時運過人，才能在艱苦的生活壓力下，存活下來。再者，經驗生智慧，經過好幾回天災人禍還能存活下來的人，就是要比從來沒經驗過的人更曉得如何應變。因此，傳統社會尊重老人，認為老人擁有智慧，其來有自。然而在教育普及、資訊流通，以及壽命普遍增長的現代，老人受到的尊重也就大不如前。一來知識以及科技更新的速度加快，上了年紀的人往往跟不上；再來社會上老人多了，不再稀罕，也顯不出有什麼特別。因此，現代老人要讓人瞧得起，還得多學著點才行。
至於什麼是智慧，倒不一定有共識，但總是與單純的聰明才智不同。有學者把智慧分成認知、內省與情感三個面向，也就是取得知識、分析資訊，以及過濾情緒的能力。理想中的智者對人性及世間困境有所了解，面對橫逆能保持情緒的穩定及彈性，知所變通，且能從經驗中學習。按時髦的說法，就是智商（IQ）與情緒智商（EQ）皆高。IQ的檢測已行之有年，可信度較高；EQ則是近二十多年來才有人提出，測試起來較為主觀，不見得代表真實情況。不過還是有心理學家針對老人進行了包含上述三種面向的「智慧」測驗，也得出一些有趣的結果。
在這種測試中得高分的一些老人，與大眾心目中的智者有很大不同；他們不是什麼具有決斷力的領導人物，也不會說什麼激勵人心、提升道德的話，有的甚至連高等教育也沒受過。但這些人有幾個共通點，就是他們年輕時都經歷過一些苦難（好比戰爭、重病、親人死亡等）；此外，他們無論在金錢及情感上都對人大方；甚至在腦部造影的研究，也發現腦中掌管情緒的杏仁體對正面與負面影像的反應，與年輕人有所不同。
看到這樣的結果，不能不佩服中國古聖賢的智慧。孟子說：「天將降大任於斯人也，必先苦其心志……」孔子說：「及其老也……戒之在得。」至於老莊思想的虛靜無為，在王維的詩句「晚年唯好靜，萬事不關心」裡，更是發揮得淋漓盡致。看來，「世事洞明皆學問，人情練達即文章」確是年長者應該追求的智慧。

Steve Jobs - Commencement Speech 2005

I am honored to be with you today at your commencement from one of the finest universities in the world. I never graduated from college. Truth be told, this is the closest I've ever gotten to a college graduation. Today I want to tell you three stories from my life. That's it. No big deal. Just three stories.
The first story is about connecting the dots.
I dropped out of Reed College after the first 6 months, but then stayed around as a drop-in for another 18 months or so before I really quit. So why did I drop out?
It started before I was born. My biological mother was a young, unwed college graduate student, and she decided to put me up for adoption. She felt very strongly that I should be adopted by college graduates, so everything was all set for me to be adopted at birth by a lawyer and his wife. Except that when I popped out they decided at the last minute that they really wanted a girl. So my parents, who were on a waiting list, got a call in the middle of the night asking: "We have an unexpected baby boy; do you want him?" They said: "Of course." My biological mother later found out that my mother had never graduated from college and that my father had never graduated from high school. She refused to sign the final adoption papers. She only relented a few months later when my parents promised that I would someday go to college.
And 17 years later I did go to college. But I naively chose a college that was almost as expensive as Stanford, and all of my working-class parents' savings were being spent on my college tuition. After six months, I couldn't see the value in it. I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life and no idea how college was going to help me figure it out. And here I was spending all of the money my parents had saved their entire life. So I decided to drop out and trust that it would all work out OK. It was pretty scary at the time, but looking back it was one of the best decisions I ever made. The minute I dropped out I could stop taking the required classes that didn't interest me, and begin dropping in on the ones that looked interesting.
It wasn't all romantic. I didn't have a dorm room, so I slept on the floor in friends' rooms, I returned coke bottles for the 5¢ deposits to buy food with, and I would walk the 7 miles across town every Sunday night to get one good meal a week at the Hare Krishna temple. I loved it. And much of what I stumbled into by following my curiosity and intuition turned out to be priceless later on. Let me give you one example:
Reed College at that time offered perhaps the best calligraphy instruction in the country. Throughout the campus every poster, every label on every drawer, was beautifully hand calligraphed. Because I had dropped out and didn't have to take the normal classes, I decided to take a calligraphy class to learn how to do this. I learned about serif and san serif typefaces, about varying the amount of space between different letter combinations, about what makes great typography great. It was beautiful, historical, artistically subtle in a way that science can't capture, and I found it fascinating.
None of this had even a hope of any practical application in my life. But ten years later, when we were designing the first Macintosh computer, it all came back to me. And we designed it all into the Mac. It was the first computer with beautiful typography. If I had never dropped in on that single course in college, the Mac would have never had multiple typefaces or proportionally spaced fonts. And since Windows just copied the Mac, its likely that no personal computer would have them. If I had never dropped out, I would have never dropped in on this calligraphy class, and personal computers might not have the wonderful typography that they do. Of course it was impossible to connect the dots looking forward when I was in college. But it was very, very clear looking backwards ten years later.
Again, you can't connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something — your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life.
My second story is about love and loss.
I was lucky — I found what I loved to do early in life. Woz and I started Apple in my parents garage when I was 20. We worked hard, and in 10 years Apple had grown from just the two of us in a garage into a $2 billion company with over 4000 employees. We had just released our finest creation — the Macintosh — a year earlier, and I had just turned 30. And then I got fired. How can you get fired from a company you started? Well, as Apple grew we hired someone who I thought was very talented to run the company with me, and for the first year or so things went well. But then our visions of the future began to diverge and eventually we had a falling out. When we did, our Board of Directors sided with him. So at 30 I was out. And very publicly out. What had been the focus of my entire adult life was gone, and it was devastating.
I really didn't know what to do for a few months. I felt that I had let the previous generation of entrepreneurs down - that I had dropped the baton as it was being passed to me. I met with David Packard and Bob Noyce and tried to apologize for screwing up so badly. I was a very public failure, and I even thought about running away from the valley. But something slowly began to dawn on me — I still loved what I did. The turn of events at Apple had not changed that one bit. I had been rejected, but I was still in love. And so I decided to start over.
I didn't see it then, but it turned out that getting fired from Apple was the best thing that could have ever happened to me. The heaviness of being successful was replaced by the lightness of being a beginner again, less sure about everything. It freed me to enter one of the most creative periods of my life.
During the next five years, I started a company named NeXT, another company named Pixar, and fell in love with an amazing woman who would become my wife. Pixar went on to create the worlds first computer animated feature film, Toy Story, and is now the most successful animation studio in the world. In a remarkable turn of events, Apple bought NeXT, I returned to Apple, and the technology we developed at NeXT is at the heart of Apple's current renaissance. And Laurene and I have a wonderful family together.
I'm pretty sure none of this would have happened if I hadn't been fired from Apple. It was awful tasting medicine, but I guess the patient needed it. Sometimes life hits you in the head with a brick. Don't lose faith. I'm convinced that the only thing that kept me going was that I loved what I did. You've got to find what you love. And that is as true for your work as it is for your lovers. Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven't found it yet, keep looking. Don't settle. As with all matters of the heart, you'll know when you find it. And, like any great relationship, it just gets better and better as the years roll on. So keep looking until you find it. Don't settle.
My third story is about death.
When I was 17, I read a quote that went something like: "If you live each day as if it was your last, someday you'll most certainly be right." It made an impression on me, and since then, for the past 33 years, I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself: "If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?" And whenever the answer has been "No" for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something.
Remembering that I'll be dead soon is the most important tool I've ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything — all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure - these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.
About a year ago I was diagnosed with cancer. I had a scan at 7:30 in the morning, and it clearly showed a tumor on my pancreas. I didn't even know what a pancreas was. The doctors told me this was almost certainly a type of cancer that is incurable, and that I should expect to live no longer than three to six months. My doctor advised me to go home and get my affairs in order, which is doctor's code for prepare to die. It means to try to tell your kids everything you thought you'd have the next 10 years to tell them in just a few months. It means to make sure everything is buttoned up so that it will be as easy as possible for your family. It means to say your goodbyes.
I lived with that diagnosis all day. Later that evening I had a biopsy, where they stuck an endoscope down my throat, through my stomach and into my intestines, put a needle into my pancreas and got a few cells from the tumor. I was sedated, but my wife, who was there, told me that when they viewed the cells under a microscope the doctors started crying because it turned out to be a very rare form of pancreatic cancer that is curable with surgery. I had the surgery and I'm fine now.
This was the closest I've been to facing death, and I hope its the closest I get for a few more decades. Having lived through it, I can now say this to you with a bit more certainty than when death was a useful but purely intellectual concept:
No one wants to die. Even people who want to go to heaven don't want to die to get there. And yet death is the destination we all share. No one has ever escaped it. And that is as it should be, because Death is very likely the single best invention of Life. It is Life's change agent. It clears out the old to make way for the new. Right now the new is you, but someday not too long from now, you will gradually become the old and be cleared away. Sorry to be so dramatic, but it is quite true.
Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of others' opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.
When I was young, there was an amazing publication called The Whole Earth Catalog, which was one of the bibles of my generation. It was created by a fellow named Stewart Brand not far from here in Menlo Park, and he brought it to life with his poetic touch. This was in the late 1960's, before personal computers and desktop publishing, so it was all made with typewriters, scissors, and polaroid cameras. It was sort of like Google in paperback form, 35 years before Google came along: it was idealistic, and overflowing with neat tools and great notions.
Stewart and his team put out several issues of The Whole Earth Catalog, and then when it had run its course, they put out a final issue. It was the mid-1970s, and I was your age. On the back cover of their final issue was a photograph of an early morning country road, the kind you might find yourself hitchhiking on if you were so adventurous. Beneath it were the words: "Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish." It was their farewell message as they signed off. Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish. And I have always wished that for myself. And now, as you graduate to begin anew, I wish that for you.
Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish. Thank you all very much.

再說中國人的名字 - 楊靜

中國人對名字是非常講究的，特別是文人名人。就拿清末名臣、洋務派首領張之洞來說吧！他不僅有姓名張之洞，還有字孝達、號香濤；號中還有自號壺公，又號無竟居士，晚年又號抱冰老人。此外，由於他祖籍河北省南皮縣，所以也被稱為南皮；他號香濤，擔任兩廣總督時是中法戰爭的總指揮，又被稱為香帥。他官居一品，是清政府的大學士，稱張中堂。他對晚清的文運國運都有功績，死後，被清廷特賜予諡號文襄。
再說中國著名教育家陶行知。他原來的學名叫陶文俊，因崇拜明代理學家王陽明的「知是行之始」的哲學見解，就改名為「陶知行」。後來，他通過學習和社會實踐，否定了王陽明「知是行之始」的觀點，認為「不行不知」，只有「實踐才能出真知」、「行而後知」。於是，他毅然更名為「陶行知」。
傑出的科普作家高士其，原名叫高仕錤。三十年代在《讀書生活》雜誌上寫了許多科學小品，用的筆名是「高士其」。當朋友問他為什麼要用這樣的筆名時，他說：「去掉人旁不做官，去掉金旁不為錢。」這筆名體現他不為名利、全心全意普及科學知識的理想。
有「江南活武松」之稱的京劇表演藝術家蓋叫天，本名叫張英傑，唱武戲時曾取藝名「緊斗子」。他十分敬佩譚鑫培先生的表演藝術，因譚的藝名叫「小叫天」，便謙遜地給自己取名為「小小叫天」，誰料卻招來譏諷：「哼！你也配叫這名兒？」他並不理會人們的譏諷，為了爭氣，索性改名為「蓋叫天」。
再說說李叔同，他在杭州虎跑寺出家，法名演音，號弘一。他還有一個鮮為人知的名字，叫二一老人。李叔同解釋這個名字的來歷，他說：古人有句詩：「一事無成人漸老。」清初吳偉業臨終的絕命詩有：「一錢不值何消說。」這兩句詩的開頭都是「一」，所以用來做自己的名字，叫做「二一老人」。

貼不住任何人的心

大陸已故名作家汪曾祺，在西南聯大選過沈從文先生的三門課。他描述沈先生講課毫無系統，從不引經據典，只憑直覺，講話很誠懇，甚至於天真，沒有一點譁眾取寵的江湖氣。但是你要是真的聽懂了他的話、話中尚未發揮罄盡的寓意，你會受益匪淺，終生受用。汪曾祺在「創作實習」課上寫了篇小說，竭力把對話寫得美、有詩意、有哲理。沈先生說：「你這不是對話，是兩個聰明腦殼打架。」汪曾祺才瞭解，對話就是普普通通樸實的話。
沈老師經常說：「要貼到人物來寫。」很多同學聽不懂，汪曾祺認為這句話是小說學的精髓。小說中，人物是主要的、主導的、其餘部分都是派生的、次要的。環境描述、作者的抒情、議論、只附著於人物。作者不能和人物遊離，要和人物同呼吸、共榮辱、心要隨時緊貼著人物。什麼時候作者的心「貼」不住人物，筆下就會浮、泛、飄、滑、花裡胡哨、故弄玄虛，失去了誠意。
沈先生的「小說精髓論」不僅僅適用在小說一門學問上，凡是人類的活動，做好它只有一個途徑：貼著人物來寫。導演不能憑概念塑造角色，演員入戲，就是要緊貼著他扮演的人物，音樂家演奏必須貼住作曲者的心。為政者若不能緊貼住他們治下或代表的群眾（人物），和這些人物同呼吸、共哀樂、心意相通，就出現台灣數十年來的政壇現象：浮、泛、飄、滑、花裡胡哨、故弄玄虛、誠意蕩然。媒體上還有太多的聰明腦殼，天天打架。
沈老師教寫作，要學生先寫，然後他講。通常他寫得比說得多，作業上寫很長的讀後感，有時比原作還長。又介紹學生閱讀和這篇作品相近的中外名著，對比借鑑。抗戰時物資匱乏，沈先生就找一些書來，借給學生看。汪曾祺認為沒有比這個更好的方法教創作了，感嘆日後的老師，為什麼不用沈先生的方法試試？現代老師誰有那個閒工夫教學生？很多學生只想混個好分數，交作業前上Google一查，拼拼湊湊有了一篇，又不是他寫的，認真去教也沒效果。此一時也，彼一時也。沈從文先生只有小學學歷，他早期寫的數十篇小說，膾炙人口傳播甚廣，影響了數代中文作家。夏志清教授推崇他是中國現代文學最偉大的印象主義者。一九八八年諾貝爾文學獎已經決議頒獎給沈從文，他在委員會宣佈前去世。
沈老一生坎坷，但始終溫文誠懇，從不疾言厲色，尊重學生未成熟的作品，不厭其煩寫讀後感，筆下多勉勵之詞、指點方向、提具體建議，鼓舞學生創作不輟。見到較好的作業，自己花郵費寄出發表。西南聯大數年，造就幾位優秀作家。
耐心和勉勵是沈老的準則，在今天更具深意。批評短處很容易、講刻薄話、罵人畜牲不如、宣洩一時之憤，表現自己的高明。沈老從不鄙視他人的作品，他的傑出世界公認。太多的怨恨促使沉淪，整個社會都在指責、叫囂，整體沉淪就快來了。謾罵，貼不住任何人的心。（作者為電影導演）

1949的禮讚

「1949――新臺灣的誕生展」前言 楊儒賓
1949年，一個不太受世人注目的歷史年份，此年歐洲成立了北大西洋公約組織，除了這個事件較受注目外，美、亞、非洲個別地區都有些騷動，但都不成氣候，相對而言，世界局勢可謂大體平靜無波。此年上距一次大戰善後會議的巴黎和會，恰好三十年，距離引發中日十四年戰爭的滿州事變十八年，離二次世界大戰結束也已四年；此年下距古巴危機十三年，離越戰結束廿七年，離象徵冷戰體制崩潰的柏林圍牆倒塌四十年。比起上述的年份，1949此年在歐美史上或第三世界史上，都沒有太重要的地位，它似乎是個可以被忽略的數字。但1949此年在兩岸關係上卻是舉足輕重的，此年十月一日中共建國，新中國建立，爾後的世界政治版圖就此全面改寫。此年十二月七日，國民政府遷移臺灣，在一種更深層也更悠遠的意義上，新臺灣從此誕生。臺灣海峽兩岸人民各有他們的1949，1949年之於新中國，主要是政治的意義；1949年之於新臺彎，則是文化的意義。
1949年是臺灣的年份，它賦予臺灣一種歷史定位的架構，臺灣則充實了1949年在東方歷史上的意義。縱觀臺灣四百年史，歷史斷層特多，文化意義的累積常無法連貫。大斷層的斷裂點通常是政權的遞換所致，而隨著政權的遞換往往會帶來移民潮的湧入。就漢人的觀點看，1661、1895與1949當是臺灣史上三個最關鍵性的年份。1661年鄭成功趕走荷蘭人，歐洲海權在臺灣的擴充行動嘎然中止，漢人移民作為臺灣社會變遷的歷史主軸就此奠定。1895年日人據臺，臺灣很快的淪為新興帝國主義者的殖民地，這個島嶼迅速的捲進了「文明化」的現代性行程，它領先它的大陸兄弟，進入現代的世界體系。1949年的歷史地標則是國民政府敗退入臺，撤退雖是內戰所致，但也是尖銳的意識型態鬥爭的結局，其結果則是前所未見的大量移民湧入臺灣。在這三個轉折期中，1949年的移民潮數量最大，改變的社會結構最深，牽動的國際因素最複雜，但也最有機會搭上歷史的列車，讓臺灣走出灰白黯淡的默片時代。
在三波的大移民潮中，1949年所以特別重要，乃因當時的移民集團是以整體中國格局的縮影之方式移來臺灣。我們不會忘記，也老是被反對運動人物提醒：1949是個受詛咒的歲月，因為純樸的島嶼此年被一個由失意政客、殘兵敗將所組成的政權污辱了。這個失德的政權被趕出了中國，它轉進了臺灣，隨後卻將這塊救命的島嶼塗抹成所謂的自由中國。這種比例失衡的中國架構加上舊中國的官僚作風，曾帶給臺灣相當的痛苦，讓它在政治的轉型運作中充滿了難言的斑斑血淚，也使它在爾後的國際活動空間中，嘗盡了苦果。1949的痛苦是歷史的存在，解釋不掉的。不管對新移民或舊住民而言，他們都被迫要面對一個陌生的處境，他們一樣有不堪的歷史記憶――只是不堪的面向不一樣。1949的臺灣被籠罩在一片完全看不到陽光的陰影中。
但臺灣背負的中國格局不盡是包袱，同樣重要，甚至更重要的面向也不容忽視，正是因為敗退的國民政府抱著代表中國正統的想法，所以才會有故宮博物院、國家圖書館這種世界級的文物進駐臺灣，也才會有代表中國頂級學術文化意義的中央研究院、國史館、歷史博物館等機構文物進入此一島嶼，其他各級殘缺不全的政府組織也因應時局輾轉入臺。物華天寶，千載一會。不誇張的說，1949年湧進臺灣的文物之質與量，超過以往三四百年的任一時期。文物重要，但更重要的是人才的因素，除了眾所周知的大量的軍警人員外，最頂級的大知識分子與為數不少的中間知識分子也因義不帝秦或個人的抉擇來到此地。他們參與臺灣，融入臺灣，他們的精神活動成為塑造今日臺灣面貌的強而有力因素。
臺灣無從選擇地接納了1949，接納了大陸的因素，雨露霜雹，正負皆收。結果短空長多，歷史詭譎地激發了臺灣產生質的飛躍。但獨坐大雄峰，誰聽過單掌的聲響？中國大陸的文化與人員因素也因進入臺灣，才找到最恰當的生機之土壤。在戰後的華人地區，臺灣可能累積了最可觀的再生的力量，其基礎教育、戶政系統、公務體系的完整都是中國各地少見的。臺灣人民的祖國熱情雖然在前兩年的浩劫中被澆熄了一大半，但「艱難兄弟自相親」的情分猶存。更重要的，臺灣在清領與日治時期已累積了豐饒的文化土壤，它的文化力量是和經濟實力平行成長的。如果不是臺灣這塊土地以同體大悲的襟懷消化流離苦難，我們很難相信1949來臺的大陸因素如留在原有的土地，它可以躲過從反右到文革的一連串政治風暴。1949之所以奇妙，在於來自於大陸的因素結合島嶼原有的因素，產生了大陸與島嶼兩個個別地區都不曾觸及的、也始料未及的文化高度。
1949年的奇妙也在於此年歷史曾將枷鎖套在臺灣身上，但臺灣卻掙脫了枷鎖的束縛。1949年以後，臺灣無從選擇地被納入國際冷戰體系，成為西太平洋上一艘不沈的特大號航空母艦，它的功能被設定了，它與世界的關係也改變了。海洋不再是黑格爾所說的交流之天然管道，而是成了森冷的海上柏林圍牆。舊大陸此時成了匪區，它是島嶼人民的對立面。新大陸則貶視臺灣為反共體系中的一環，它僅能擁有工具的地位。臺灣在文化意義上比在政治意義上更像是座孤島，臺灣的新舊居民不得不在封鎖的孤島下，摸索自己的未來。由於物質條件不同了，居民組成的成分多樣化了。亞細亞的孤兒在生物學的孤島效應下，發展出異於舊臺灣的自由經濟、民主制度、文化樣式與生活方式，這樣的生活世界非東非西，亦東亦西。它發展出比中國還中國，也比非中國還非中國的新華人文化面貌。
1949年發展出的政治、經濟、社會制度與生活方式，顯然與十七、八世紀的傳教士或旅行家所見的華人社會面貌迥然不同，它不但是徹底的非舊臺灣的，也是徹底的非舊中國的。在三個關鍵的象徵性年份中，1661年來臺的明鄭王朝，能在政治上以區區島嶼抗衡大清，不可不謂是豪傑之舉。驅逐荷蘭此事在世界性的反帝抗爭中，尤具有指標的意義。但明鄭文化基本上是閩粵的區域文化，當時這一個區域文化總是受制於永不歇息的軍事行動，歷史沒有給它喘息以外的廣闊空間。1895年後的臺灣子民能於異族專制下，借力使力，轉化「棄民」、「孤兒」的心境為奮進的動力，拓展開大幅的生存空間，其苦心孤詣不容後人不由衷感戴。但壓不扁的玫瑰雖壓不扁，其時的臺灣子民不管在文化、生活或心理各種意義上都是附屬的，顯層的是附屬在扶桑島嶼，底層的是附屬在中原大地，臺灣仍沒有成為啟蒙精神的子民。
從1661到1949，臺灣這塊島嶼曾發生過許多可歌可泣的故事，臺人精神之奮發也是極可感的，但無庸諱言，在長達三百多年的期間，臺灣雖曾出現過不少優秀的學者、詩人、書家、畫師，但其作用基本上都是島內的，影響沒有波及全國。三百年的臺灣極少出現過全國性的文化巨人，也沒有產生過全國性影響的學派、畫派、詩派、書派。沒有這些重要的文化指標並不意外，也不一定可惜，因為洪荒留此山川，原汁原味，它沒文明化，也沒有腐化。它的初步意義先是作為遺民與移民的世界，接著再累積創造力。從清領到日治時期，臺灣的文化天空雖缺少耀眼的巨星，但民間社會的文化能量並不比大陸大部分的地區少。它需要的是更進一步地找到表現的形式，它的火山精神仍在海洋底層醞釀，等待有朝一日迸破而出。
1949年就是臺灣等待的契機，因緣成熟時，臺灣這隻不馴的怒海鯤鯨終將遽化為衝天大鵬，遨翔於世界的長空。但人在此山中，山的真面目是看不清楚的。只有走過歷史，回首反省時，我們才不能不驚嘆此年歷史意義之重大，它竟然能催生這麼燦爛的臺灣新面貌，我們看到了傳統文化最精緻的發展：我們發展出中國佛教史上最典型的人間佛教，我們發展出民國哲學史上最具創發力的新儒學，我們擁有從飲茶到戲劇極精緻的傳統文人文化，我們也擁有深厚的東方社會之工商管理模式，即使在流行的庶民文化領域，從飲食到流行歌曲，我們也看到了一股壓抑不住的衝動。如果要尋找臺灣的「正統」文化，我們不難發現：它不存在於政治圈的法統，也不在光艷耀眼的牌樓、博物館或大人物的紀念館，而是滲透在每一生活細節中的文化氛圍。在文化意義上，臺灣比任何華人地區更有資格代表漢文化，因為漢文化在這裡是生活中的有機成分，它仍在欣欣不已的創造。
1949年曾是個苦悶的年份，不管是舊居民或新移民，沒有人知道臺灣下一步的命運為何。地理的前方是汪洋，地理的後方也是汪洋；歷史的過去是苦痛，歷史的未來好像也還是苦痛。上自達官貴人，下至販夫走卒，大家都在鬱悶中煎熬，也在迷惘中摸索。但歷史的目的是曲折的，歷史的意義超越了個人的意圖。苦悶的1949年的最大意義就在於它的自我揚棄，1949的意義要在歷史走過一段路頭後，驀然回首，其豐饒的圖像才會經由苦痛的自我否定而顯現出來。蛻變在不知不覺中已經發生了，一種從1949長出的新興文化已是我們生活世界中最自然不過的氛圍，從飲食、語言到信仰，我們的社會早已有機的融合了藍海洋與黃土地的精粹。我們現在的1949轉化了歷史上的1949，1949需要經由後1949才能展現出它的本質，新的臺灣就這樣被撞擊出來了。
1949的意義再怎麼宣揚都不會太過分，由於有了1949，我們的世界觀完全不一樣了。抽離了1949，我們的親友網脈就不完整了；抽離了1949，我們就缺少一塊足以和世界對話的宏闊背景。1949是個包容的象徵，隨著時間的流轉，以往建立在特定的語言、習俗、血緣上的舊論述不得不鬆綁，1949使得「臺灣」、「臺灣人」、「臺灣文化」的內涵產生了質的突破。每一位島嶼的子民都不再鬱卒，它們與島嶼相互定義，彼此互屬。
一個迥異於過去四百年的新臺灣已經被撞擊出來了，但更重要的新臺灣還在形構之中。臺灣在中國大陸旁，在東亞世界中，臺灣的地理位置曾使它歷盡了不堪的滄桑。但痛苦是成長最大的動力，臺灣的存在應該有更高的目的。隨著中國與東方在新世界秩序中的興起，臺灣會在歷史的新巨流中扮演更重要的角色的，這樣的歷史目的論不是玄想，而是臺灣人民很謙卑的一種祈求。因為經由血淚證成的創造性轉化，中國與東亞不必然再是臺灣外部的打壓力量，它們反而是臺灣內部創造力的泉源。我們不因懷舊而回首，我們的回首是為了迎向未來，回顧的雙眼與前瞻的雙眼是同樣的一對眼睛。歷史會證明：1949是個奇妙的數字，臺灣人民將它從苦痛的記憶轉化為傲人的記號。