闲来无事，在书橱里发现则一本书，叫做《苏州文化，文化苏州》。扉页上写着，此书是献给陆文夫老先生的。我虽然读书很少可是还知道陆老先生是苏高中校友，他为苏中校史写的文章我拜读过，是整本书里所有文章中我最中意的，因为文笔很幽默，让枯燥的历史事件有了生气。于是我就想，不得了了，说不定是一本什么利害的人写的书，看一眼吧。作者的名字我不熟悉，原因自明，因为读书太少。可是从上下文理解是苏州的学者，出版的时间是一年前。突然之间我就有了点兴趣，想看看书里写的和自己的亲身经历有什么联系。
也许是国内出版物的惯例，序言需要写一些这本书对国家建设的重要性，于是乎出现了打造苏州文化品牌，为苏州经济建设作贡献的泛泛之辞。脑子里浮现的是在飞机上翻到的‘品牌万里行’活动。现在各大城市向新加坡学习成功经验，一个词’pragmatism'似乎在任何情况下都要用一用。这个先不讨论。
接下来讲讲书里的内容，要用英文了，怕侵权。
The First Chapter is on
Every culture has a ‘gene’ that preserves its characteristics over time. Unlike a ‘gene’ in the traditional sense of the word, this gene could not be examined under a microscope; and therefore the study of it will involve an investigation into the impact of time, geography and people upon this ‘cultural gene’.
The cultural gene manifests itself in a physical way as the cultural ecology. The most distinct feature of the cultural ecology of
The traditional 衣食住行‘四大件’of Suzhou people are all associated with water. Traditionally the main fabric for clothing is silk, the soft and tender feel of which resembles that of water. Known as ‘鱼米之乡’，Suzhou also boasts its wide variety of fish and great abundance of rice, with both industries relying upon water as one of the primary raw materials. ‘君到姑苏往，人家尽枕河’ is a perfect reflection on how close the association is between water and people’s housing in Suzhou. The verse, which is from a famous poem, literally means that houses in
