谢谢您，郝校长。各位同行、同学、朋友，大家好。今天来到北京大学，我非常荣幸，感谢你们对我的热情欢迎。请接受我对贵校一百二十周年校庆的诚挚祝贺。

Thank you, President Hao. Thank you, colleagues, students, and friends. It is an honor to be here at Peking University, and I am very grateful for the warm welcome you have given me. Please accept my congratulations on your recent 120th anniversary.

更令我感到荣幸的是，我这次到访，恰好是在五四运动百周年纪念日即将到来之际。五四运动是中国历史上一个值得骄傲的时刻。它是一代中国青年对世界的宣言：我们要追求真理，我们相信真理改变未来的力量。时至今日，我们还能听到蔡元培校长的声音： “大学者，‘囊括大典，网罗众家’之学府也…此思想自由之通则，而大学之所以为大也。” 北大人勇于探索新知，敢于推动变革，这首先得益于蔡元培校长的远见卓识。

It is a special honor for me to visit you as you approach another anniversary, the centennial of the May Fourth Movement, a proud moment in your history that demonstrated to the world a deep commitment on the part of young Chinese to the pursuit of truth—and a deep understanding of the power of truth to shape the future. Even now, President Cai Yuanpei speaks to us. “Universities are places for grand learning,” he said. “They are grand because they follow the general principle of free thought.” Under his visionary leadership, tremendous intellectual exploration and dramatic social change were unleashed.

今天我来到这里，就更热切地想要了解这所创立最早的中国大学之一。北大是为大学之道而建的大学，是为思想自由而建的大学。我来过中国很多次，既有私人旅行，也有公务访问。这次我作为哈佛大学校长访问中国，造访中国优秀的高等学府，感受尤为不同。哈佛和北大都有着对高等教育的坚定信念，两校的学生和学者之间有着深厚的联系和紧密的合作。无论是艺术和建筑，医学和公共卫生，还是工程和环境科学，他们在各个领域中共同创造的知识，都将让世界变得更加美好。我们应该记住，蔡元培不仅领导过北大，还协助创建了中央研究院、上海音乐学院以及国立艺术院。他的努力提醒我们，人文和自然科学都能够提升人类的精神境界，改善人类的生存处境。

I join you today eager to learn more about one of the oldest universities in China—a university devoted to grand learning and free thought. My personal and professional travels have brought me to China many times. But it is truly extraordinary to experience this country and some of its great institutions as the president of Harvard University. Harvard and Beida share a deep and enduring commitment to higher education. We enjoy many strong connections and collaborations among our students and our faculty, who are generating knowledge that will change the world for the better—be it through art and architecture, through medicine and public health, or through engineering and environmental science. We should remember that that Cai Yuanpei not only led this university, but also helped to found the Academia Sinica, the Shanghai Conservatory of Music, and the China Academy of Art. His example reminds us of the power of both the arts and the sciences to elevate the human spirit and improve the human condition.

从上上个世纪开始，哈佛大学就一直向东方探求知识，谋求合作。1879年，戈鲲化先生带着妻子和六个子女，不远万里从上海来到波士顿，成为了哈佛的第一位中文教师。他从中国带来的经典书卷，是哈佛获得的第一批亚洲语言文献，也是哈佛燕京图书馆最早的馆藏。一百四十年之后，哈佛燕京图书馆已经发展成为拥有一百五十万册藏书的大型图书馆，是亚洲以外最大的东亚学术资料库，其体量在哈佛全校八十余座图书馆中位居第三。哈佛燕京图书馆有很多数字化馆藏，比如“明清妇女著作”数据库，向全球的学者在线提供北大和哈佛共同收藏的珍贵文史资料。

Harvard has long looked eastward for expertise and partnership. In 1879, Mr. Ge Kunhua traveled from Shanghai to Cambridge with his wife and six children to become Harvard’s first instructor in Mandarin Chinese. The volumes he carefully transported to our campus were Harvard’s first books in any Asian language, and they became the original holdings of the Harvard-Yenching Library. One hundred and forty years and more than 1.5 million volumes later, it is now the largest academic library for East Asian studies outside of Asia—and the third largest of the University’s dozens of libraries. Among its many digitized collections are Chinese women's writings of the Ming and Qing periods—an online archive that makes important materials from both Beida and Harvard accessible to scholars worldwide

在哈佛大学各学院的教授学者中，有超过三百位中国问题专家利用我们的东亚资料从事研究。我们研究中国的学者数量，在全美所有大学中首屈一指。这些学者和老师们从方方面面推动着我们对中国更深入的理解，包括中国的文化、历史、宗教、人类学、社会学、法律、教育、公共卫生、公共政策，以及商学。上个月，为了准备本次访华，我和他们当中的一些学者共进了午餐，了解了他们丰富的学术成果。那真是一次思想的盛宴。他们让我看到了以多重视角研究复杂的中国问题的必要性，更让我深刻领会了与世界分享中国知识的重要意义。

These tremendous resources are used by some of the more than three hundred faculty across Harvard who study China—the largest group at any American university. These scholars and teachers deepen and strengthen understanding of Chinese culture, history, religion, anthropology, sociology, law, education, public health, public policy, and business. Last month, in preparation for this trip, I joined some of them for lunch to learn more about their diverse scholarship. It was nothing short of an intellectual feast, and I was reminded of the tremendous value of studying China in all its complexity and of sharing knowledge of China with the wider world.

当然，任何个人的能力都比不上集体的力量。哈佛成立了一系列的研究中心和研究所来支持、推广研究。费正清中国研究中心、哈佛亚洲中心以及哈佛中国基金等机构，全面地影响着哈佛对中国的思考方式，从教学研究到交流合作。它们当中最老的是哈佛燕京学社。九十年前，哈燕社正是在这里，从燕京大学的故址起步的。今天它仍然在支持各个领域的中国青年学者的学术成长。我们的这些机构当中最新的是哈佛全球研究基金。它从四年前启动时开始，就一直为不同规模的研究项目提供资金支持，大部分是关于中国的。为气候变化、网络安全、国际关系等重大挑战提供有效研究方法的解决方案，这不是一所大学、甚至一个国家所能做到的。要在这样的领域推动变革和进步，需要很多人跨学校、跨行业、跨文化、甚至跨政府的共同合作。

Of course, no one person can hope to accomplish as much as a team of people can. My university supports and amplifies the important work of our faculty through a variety of centers and institutes. The Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies, the Harvard Asia Center, the Harvard China Fund: these initiatives have shaped how Harvard thinks about its engagement with China in every dimension—from teaching and research to exchange and collaboration. The oldest of these is the Harvard-Yenching Institute, which got its start right here on the grounds of the old Yenching University some 90 years ago, and which continues today to support the training of outstanding young Chinese scholars in every field. The Harvard Global Institute, the newest of our efforts, was launched four years ago to provide funding for small- and large-scale research projects, the majority of which are focused on China. Effective approaches and solutions to challenges posed by climate change, cybersecurity threats, and international relations will not be developed by a single university—or a single nation. Change and adaptation in these and other areas will require many people collaborating across schools, sectors, and societies, as well as governments.

正因为如此，我们现在如何培养人才和智力资本，就至关重要。在哈佛的校园里，我们欢迎来自世界各地的有志者；我们相信他们能为我们的社区以及更广阔的世界作出贡献。今年一年之内，就有一千多名中国学生和超过一千名中国学者来到哈佛求学求知。这比来自其他任何国家的学生学者都多。他们的足迹遍布哈佛的每个学院。我们还有超过两千五百名中国的校友。如果戈鲲化先生今天能回到波士顿，看到很多和他一样生于中国的学者在哈佛任教，一定会感到欣慰。他如果得知中文已经成为哈佛第二热门的外语科目，一定会感到高兴。

For this reason, how we choose to nurture human and intellectual capital at this moment is extraordinarily consequential. At Harvard, we welcome to our campus individuals from around the world who we believe will make meaningful contributions to our community and to the wider world. This year, over 1,000 students and more than 1,000 scholars have joined us from China—the largest cohort from any nation. They are learning and working in every School at the University. We also have more than 2,500 alumni who call China home. If Ge Kunhua were to return to Cambridge today, no doubt he would be gratified to see that there are many Harvard professors who, like him, were born in China and are now teaching at the University; he would also be pleased, I think, to learn that Chinese is the second-most widely studied foreign language at Harvard.

我刚才介绍的这些数据和举例显示了我们对中国社会文化的浓厚兴趣，以及我们为之作出的巨大努力。但数字并不能完整地解释，作为一个大学社区的成员意味着什么。哈佛校园里的每一次对话，每一种互动，都透露着谦逊和希望。我们随时都愿意承认“我不知道”，我们随时都愿意和伙伴们相向而行，面对挑战和失败，在追求知识的道路上一起憧憬成功的喜悦。发现和创新的过程总是复杂而艰辛的。这个过程需要创造力和想像力，但更重要的是勤奋的工作。卓越不是轻而易举可以获取的，且谁都不可能仅凭一己之力取得成功 。

The numbers and examples I have just shared communicate important and meaningful commitments, but they cannot fully capture what it means to be a member of a university community. Each interaction that unfolds, each relationship that blossoms on our campuses depends on both humility and hope—a willingness to say to others “I do not know,” to look in the same direction with them, and to imagine success—and risk failure—in the joint pursuit of knowledge. The work of discovery and innovation is messy and laborious. It requires creativity and imagination, but it mainly requires hard work. Excellence is never achieved easily—and nobody gets anywhere of consequence in this world on his or her own.

追求和创造知识的人们之间，总是有一种跨越时空的相互关怀。我还记得七十年代后期，我还是麻省理工学院的年轻教员时，一个中国学术代表团对学校进行过一次历史性的访问。漫长的分离一点都没有削弱师生同事之间的美好感情。他们中的很多人已经几十年没有见过面了，但他们就像刚分开不久的朋友一样相互问候，然后又开始讨论共同关心的学术课题。对我来说，这生动地证明，在严峻的经济政治社会条件下，大学仍然可以成为力量的来源。

People who seek and generate knowledge share a special connection across time and that extends across space. I recall being a young faculty member at MIT in the late 1970s and witnessing a historic visit from a delegation of visiting scholars from China. Long separation had not weakened the bonds of affection among students and their teachers or faculty and their colleagues, some of whom had not seen each other for decades. They greeted one another as if they had been apart for only a short while and soon found themselves engaged again in areas of common interest. It was powerful evidence to me that universities can be sources of strength through tough economic, political, and social times.

我还想到第一届帕格沃什 [Pugwash] 科学与世界事务大会。在1957年紧张的冷战局势下，来自世界各地的二十二位著名科学家聚集在加拿大新斯科舍省，讨论热核武器的发展及其对文明的威胁。他们的集体努力为1963年部分禁止核试验条约、1968年不扩散核武器条约和其他若干重要协议奠定了基础。这二十二位与会者中，七位来自美国，三位来自苏联，三位来自日本，两位来自英国，两位来自加拿大，另外各有一位来自澳大利亚、奥地利、中国、法国和波兰。物理学家周培源教授是这二十二人中唯一的中国人。他后来还担任了北京大学的校长，并在1978年率团访美，谈判促成了中美之间的学者交流。我们应该感谢像周培源教授这样富有远见和勇气的领导者，始终把和平和共识放在首位。

I am also reminded of the first Pugwash Conference on Science and World Affairs. In 1957, as Cold War tensions mounted, twenty-two of the world’s eminent scientists gathered in Nova Scotia to discuss the development of thermonuclear weapons and the threat their use posed to civilization. Their collective work helped to pave the way for the Partial Test Ban Treaty of 1963 and the Non-Proliferation Treaty of 1968, among other consequential agreements. There were twenty-two attendees—seven from the United States, three from the Soviet Union, three from Japan, two from the United Kingdom, two from Canada, and one each from Australia, Austria, China, France, and Poland. Professor Zhou Peiyuan, a physicist and the sole Chinese member of the group, later became president of this great institution and, in 1978, led a delegation that arranged for scholarly exchange between China and the United States. We owe thanks to people like Professor Zhou Peiyuan for their farsighted and courageous leadership and for putting peace and mutual understanding above all other considerations.

当下，我们两国政府之间正在就一系列重要问题进行谈判。这些谈判有时很艰难；它们的结果将对全世界产生深远的影响。我相信，保持学者之间跨越国界的交流，对我们今天在座的所有人来说都至关重要。不仅如此，任何关心高等教育在人类生活中所起作用的人，都应该能够理解其中特殊的意义。

As I speak to you now, our governments are engaged in important and at times difficult discussions over a range of issues—and those discussions have implications that reverberate around the world. I believe that sustaining the bonds that join scholars across borders is of the utmost importance for all of us gathered here today—and for anyone who cares about the unique role that higher education plays in the lives of countless people.

在这样的关键时刻，优秀的学府更应该发挥积极的作用。当然，哈佛在美国，北大在中国，我们都有责任为各自的社会做出贡献，促进各自国家以及全世界的发展。而我们作为大学，要真正承担起这样的责任，唯一的方法就是践行和维护那些能够超越国界的学术价值。我去年十月发表就职演说时，曾经谈到过这些基本价值。当时出席就职典礼的，有哈佛大学成百上千的学生、教授、职员、校友和友人，也有来自全球二百二十所院校的代表。我想现在和大家分享一些我当时发表的想法。

It is at crucial times like these that leading universities have a special role to play. To be sure, Harvard is an American university, and Beida is a Chinese university. Our institutions have a responsibility to contribute positively to our own societies and to the national good, as well as to the world at large. But as universities we fulfill this charge precisely by embodying and defending academic values that transcend the boundaries of any one country. I spoke about some of those values when I delivered my inaugural presidential address in October. In the audience were hundreds of students, faculty, staff, alumni, and friends from Harvard, as well as delegates from 220 colleges and universities from around the world. I thought I would share with you now some of the thoughts I shared then.

伟大的大学坚持真理，而追求真理需要不懈的努力。真理需要被发现，它只有在争论和试验中才会显露，它必须经过对不同的解释和理论的检验才能成立。这正是一所伟大大学的任务。各学科和领域的学者在大学里一起辩论，各自寻找证据来支持自己的理论，努力理解并解释我们的世界。

Great universities stand for truth, and the pursuit of truth demands perpetual effort. Truth has to be discovered, revealed through argument and experiment, tested on the anvil of opposing explanations and ideas. This is precisely the function of a great university, where scholars in every field and discipline debate and marshal evidence in support of their theories, as they strive to understand and explain our world.