中国渔民解释为什么他们认为南海是他们的

TANMEN, China — Little boats withnoisy engines puttered purposefully down the river and out toward the SouthChina Sea. Big vessels — ships, really, with three or four decks, and heavyequipment — lay tied up close to the crowded town, looming over the lowbuildings along the bank. Then a workhorse of the sea — high-bowed, about 40feet long, wheelhouse astern — slipped by. It was heading out for a week, ormore likely a couple of weeks, on the open water. Crewmen, stripped to thewaist, lathered up and washed from a barrel of water on deck as their tripbegan. The boat cleared the last bulkhead and then let loose with dozens offirecrackers that hung in strings over the sides.

中国潭门——小小的渔船漂出河流，进入了南海。大型船只——拥有三到四层甲板并拥有重装备的船只——被停泊在人口众多的小镇旁，岸边都是低矮的建筑。然后有一艘大船——高高的船首，驾驶室在船尾——飞掠而过。这艘船将出海一周，或者最有可能是几周。

We had arrived by bus: fifteen reportersfrom a dozen countries, on a tour arranged by the East-West Center of Hawaii.We were in Tanmen, on the island of Hainan, at the northern approaches to theSouth China Sea, to talk with fishermen. We were not going from boat to boatlooking for someone with tales to tell. Our local escorts had arranged ameeting on the paved walkway along the south bank of the river. A delegation ofretired fishermen was there to receive us and tell us about their livelihoods.

我们坐大巴抵达这里：来自12个国家的50名记者，这是夏威夷东西方研究中心安排的一次旅行。我们来到的这个地方是海南的潭门，位于南海的北部，我们是来这里和渔民交谈的。我们不会一条船一条船的去询问渔民们的故事。我们在当地的导游在这条河流的南岸安排了一次会面。一支退休渔民代表团将会在那里迎接我们并向我们讲述他们的谋生方式。

China and its neighbors are quarreling overthe South China Sea, and fishermen play a role in that. Chinese coast guardboats have been drivingPhilippine and Vietnamese fishing boats away from reefs and fishinggrounds that China now claims control of. We were here to get the Chinesewater-level perspective.

中国及其邻国就南海问题发生争议，而渔民们在其中也扮演了自己的角色。中国海警船将越南和菲律宾渔民驱赶出自己所声称拥有的岛礁和渔场。我们来到这里是为了知道中国渔民是怎么看待这件事情的。

Su Cheng Feng is 80, retired now for 11years. At first, after the firecracker display died down, he was the mosttalkative. He said he didn’t meet fishermen from other countries very often inthe old days when he was out at sea, before the surrounding countries’territorial claims began to be taken seriously, because their boats weresmaller than the Chinese boats, and, frankly, their skills weren’t as high. Thesea, he said, was China’s traditional fishing ground.

苏成峰今年80岁，已经退休11年了。在爆竹声消逝后，他几乎是最健谈的一个。他说以前（周边国家的领土声明变得认真起来之前）他在南海上并不经常预见其他国家的渔民，因为这些国家渔民的船只比中国渔民的船只来得小，而且坦白说，他们的捕鱼技巧也没有中国渔民高。他说，这片海是中国传统的渔场。

Chinese “fishermen have been fishingin the South China Sea for many, many generations,” hesaid. “These are our own waters, just as natural as a farmer going tohis field.”

中国渔民世世代代都在南海上捕鱼，他说。“这些是我们的海洋，就像一个农民去自己田地里一样。”

We asked him about the past. What was itlike before the Communists came to power in 1949, or even during the war, whenhe was a boy and his father was a fisherman? He didn’t have much to say;nothing special, nobody talked about it.

我们询问了他有关过往的事情。我们问他在他还小以及他父母还是一名渔民时，也就是说在共产主义者1949年执政中国之前或者说战争期间，南海是什么情形？他没有给我们提供太多的答案；没什么特别的，没人谈论这种事情。

Wu Shujin, 79, Mai Yunxiu, 79, and HuangQinghe, 82, listened in, added a word here and there. They had all beencaptains. They had fished for wrasse, grouper and mackerel. They dried theircatch on board or sold it to a buyer’s boat that would take it back to shore.They didn’t get much help from the government. (Younger men standing nearbydisputed that.)

79岁的吴述金，79岁的麦运秀以及82岁的黄庆和在一旁倾听，时不时的说一两句话。他们以前都当过船长。他们捕捞过 濑鱼，石斑鱼，马鲛鱼。他们会将捕捞到的鱼直接在船上晒干，或者卖给买家渔船，然后买家渔船再把这些鱼运上岸边。他们没有从政府那里获得太多帮助。（站在一旁的年轻男子对此表示异议。）

Then Lu Yuyong suddenly appeared. He’s 51,still active on a boat. He took over the conversation. “The life on a boatis very tough,” he said.

突然，卢玉勇出现了。他今年51岁，仍然是一名活跃的船员。他接过了话头。“船上的生活非常艰难，”他说。

He brought out a pink plastic bag andunwrapped from it a traditional Chinese compass. It’s one of the four greatChinese inventions, he said (along with gunpowder, paper-making and printing).

他拿出了一个粉色的塑料袋，里面装的是传统的中国指南针。是中国古代四大发明之一，他说（包括了火药，造纸术和印刷术）。

Suddenly he was on his knees on theblacktop, unrolling a nautical chart of the sea. He was showing us how to usethe compass on the chart, and having a little trouble, most likely because ithad traditional markings on it and not the 360 degrees of a modern one. Su gotdown with him, and all the reporters and local hangers-on crowded around.

突然间他跪在了地上，并铺开了一张海图。他向我们展示如何在海图上使用指南针，但是遇到了一点麻烦，可能是因为这个指南针上印的是传统的标志，而不是现代的那种印有360度的指南针。苏也跪下来，所有记者以及当地人围绕在一旁。

Lu said he was glad the Chinese governmentis building up some of the islands in the sea; he has lost three family membersin storms who had nowhere to go to and no one to help them. Permanentoccupation on some of the islands could save lives, he said.

卢玉勇说他很高兴看到中国现在在南海上建立岛屿；他已经有三名家人在风暴中死去，因为当时没有地方可以躲避，也没有人帮助他们。而在某些岛屿上建立永久性的设施是可以救命的，他说。

But when fishermen from other countriesdare to fish the South China Sea, he said, “they’re invading ourwaters.”

但是当其他国家的渔民敢在南海上进行捕捞时，他说，“他们是在侵犯我们的领海。”

“We could go all the way to Australiaif we wanted to,” he said. “But we don’t. That’s not our ground. It’snot about loving or not loving your country. It’s about fishing your ownwaters.”

“如果我们想的话，我们可以一直抵达澳大利亚，”他说。“但是我们不会。那不是我们的地盘。这不是爱不爱国的问题。而是要在自己的领海里捕捞才对。”

Chinese fisherman, he said, were the firstto discover the islands of the South China Sea. “And as opposed to othercountries, we are civilized,” he said, again mentioning the compass as oneof the four great inventions. He rolled up the chart, then got out a piece ofpaper and drew his own map of the sea, which he labeled the “AncestorSea.” He talked about the annual celebrations in Tanmen for theBrotherhood of the 108 (also known as the 108 Stars of Destiny, or the Outlawsof the Marsh), demonic overlords from a 700-year-old novel who werebanished, repented and were reborn as heroes. What upstart nation, he seemed tobe asking, could lay claim to history here the way China can?

他说，中国渔民是首先发现南海岛屿的。“而且不同于其他国家，我们是文明的，”他说，并再次提到指南针是中国四大发明之一。他收起了地图，拿出一张白纸并在纸上画出了自己的海图，他称之为“祖先的海”。他说潭门每年都会举行一百单八将的庆祝活动，指的是700年历史之久的《水浒传》中108个英雄好汉的故事。他似乎在问：什么样自命不凡的国家可以像中国那样做出历史主权声明？