外刊听读| 经济学人 ikigai 日本的人生哲学

ikigai

生命的意义

Circles of life

生命的圆圈

Many Japanese are bemused by the global resonance of an obscure concept

许多日本人对一个不起眼的概念在全球引起反响感到困惑

• be·mused /bɪˈmjuːzd/ /bɪˈmjuːzd/ adjective

showing that you are confused and unable to think clearly 困惑的；茫然的  

1 NORM TAM spent most of his life climbing up the corporate ladder. In his early 40s he was earning a hefty salary as an executive at a global shipping firm. But he could not help feeling a bit empty. He started Googling terms such as “meaning” and “purpose”. Eventually, he stumbled upon a Venn diagram showing four circles labelled “what you love”, “what you are good at”, “what the world needs”, and “what you can be paid for”. His eyes fixed on the peculiar foreign word at the intersection of the circles: ikigai.

 

谭诺姆一生中大部分时间都在向企业的高层攀登。在他40岁出头的时候，他在一家全球航运公司担任高管，赚取着丰厚的薪水，但他难免感到有些空虚。他开始在谷歌上搜索 "意义 "和 "目的 "等词语。最后，他偶然发现了一张文氏图，图中有四个圆圈，分别标明 "你所爱的"、"你所擅长的"、"世界需要的 "和 "你能得到报酬的事情"。他的目光定格在圆圈交汇处的一个奇特的外语单词上：ikigai。

 

2 Mr Tam, who lives in Canada, is one of many Westerners to have discovered the Japanese term, which loosely translates as “reason for being”. The diagram, created in 2014 by Marc Winn, a British entrepreneur, has gone viral online, especially on LinkedIn. A self-help book by two Spanish writers, “Ikigai: The Japanese Secret to a Long and Happy Life”, has been translated into 63 languages, sold more than 3m copies and helped globalise the concept. “The Eastern, Asian approach is inspirational,” says Paul Donkers, a career coach in the Netherlands. He dispatches more than 100 licensed (by himself) ikigai coaches worldwide “to help people find meaningful careers”. There are now ikigai weight-loss pills and crypto-companies.

 

居住在加拿大的谭先生是发现这个日本术语的许多西方人之一，它被宽泛地翻译为 "生命的意义"。该图由英国企业家马克-温(Marc Winn)于2014年创建，后在网上疯传，尤其是在LinkedIn。两位西班牙作家写的一本自我帮助的书《Ikigai: 日本人的幸福长寿秘诀》，已被翻译成63种语言，销售了300多万册，并帮助将这一概念全球化。"荷兰的职业培训师保罗-唐克斯（Paul Donkers）说："东方、亚洲的方法是鼓舞人心的。他向全世界派遣了100多名有执照的（由他自己颁发的）ikigai培训师，"帮助人们找到有意义的职业"。现在有了ikigai减肥药和加密货币公司。

 

3 Mr Tam, too, launched a business inspired by the concept: IKIGAI Coaching. “When I first saw the diagram, I was terrified…I knew I was not living my ikigai,” he says. Ever since, those circles have guided him “like the lights on an airport runway”. At his workshops, he helps corporate leaders and executives fill in the diagram’s prompts. He advises meditation to help “unlock” their potential, he says.

 

谭先生也在这个概念的启发下开展了一项业务，IKIGAI培训。他说："当我第一次看到这张图时，我很害怕......我知道我没有活出我的ikigai"。从那时起，这些圆圈就 "像机场跑道上的灯光一样 "引导着他。在他的研讨会上，他帮助企业领导人和高管填写图表中的提示。他建议通过冥想来帮助 "释放 "他们的潜力。

 

4 Yet few in Japan give much thought to the idea. When TED, a conference, staged several talks on the concept, a tweet by a baffled Japanese observer went viral: “Apparently, there’s an ancient Japanese philosophy called ‘ikigai’…huh? What’s that?”. Native speakers seldom use the term. If they do, it is in the context of small joys, such as spending time with family or enjoying hobbies, says Kanda Nobuhiko, a psychologist at Bunkyo University near Tokyo. “If I decide to sneak out of a lecture to have a beer, that counts as my ikigai.”

 

然而，在日本很少有人会考虑这个想法。当TED（一个会议）举办了几场关于这个概念的讲座时，一位困惑的日本观察家在推特上发了一条博客，"显然，有一种古老的日本哲学叫做'ikigai'...嗯？那是什么？"。日本人很少使用这个词。东京附近的文京大学心理学家Kanda Nobuhiko说，如果他们这样说，那是在小确幸的背景下，例如与家人共度时光或享受爱好。"如果我决定从讲座中溜出来喝杯啤酒，这也算作我的ikigai。"

 

5 Ikigai thus joins a long list of Japanese words that have been repurposed to lend an aura of ancient wisdom—and exoticism—to banal ideas. Kakeibo has been peddled as the “Japanese art of saving money” (in practice, keeping a notebook to track finances). Shinrin-yoku, or the Japanese art of “forest bathing”, is really just going for a nice stroll in nature. Wabi-sabi describes an interior design trend that embraces minimalist decor and natural materials. In Japan, it refers to an aesthetic philosophy of appreciating imperfection. (Hygge, a Danish word meaning something like “cosiness”, has suffered a similar fate.)

 

因此，Ikigai加入了一长串日语词汇的行列，这些词汇被稍加修改，为平庸的想法披上了古老的智慧和异国情调的光环。Kakeibo被兜售为 "日本的省钱艺术"（在实践中，保持一个笔记本来跟踪财务状况）。Shinrin-yoku，或日本的 "森林浴 "艺术，实际上只是在大自然中进行一次愉快的漫步。Wabi-sabi描述的是一种室内设计趋势，即拥抱极简主义装饰和自然的材料，在日本，它指的是一种欣赏不完美的美学哲学。(Hygge，一个丹麦词，意思是 "舒适"，也有类似的命运）。

 

6 Yet the difference in interpretation also owes something to the passage of time. In 1966, Kamiya Mieko, a Japanese psychiatrist, published “Ikigai-ni-Tsuite” (About Ikigai), a thoughtful memoir based on her experience of treating leprosy patients at a sanatorium on the small south-western island of Nagashima. Her message, that individuals can overcome hardships so long as they have something to look forward to, resonated during a period of soaring living standards and corporate drudgery.

 

然而，解释上的差异也归因于时间的流逝。1966年，日本精神病学家神谷美惠子出版了 "Ikigai-ni-Tsuite"（关于Ikigai），这是一本深思熟虑的回忆录，基于她在长岛（一个日本西南部的小岛）疗养院治疗麻风病人的经验。她所传达的信息是，只要有期待，个人就能克服困难，这在生活成本飙升和工作繁重的时期引起了共鸣。

 

7 Some Japanese experts have been all too happy to capitalise on ikigai’s global appeal. In “Awakening Your Ikigai: How the Japanese Wake Up to Joy and Purpose Every Day”, Mogi Kenichiro, a neuroscientist in Tokyo, claims that ikigai is “highly immersed in Japanese culture”. He makes his case through figures familiar to foreigners, such as Ono Jiro, a sushi chef made famous by a Netflix documentary, and Miyazaki Hayao, a much-loved anime filmmaker.

 

一些日本专家非常乐意基于ikigai的全球影响力将其变现。东京的神经科学家Mogi Kenichiro在《唤醒你的ikigai：日本人如何每天从快乐和目标中醒来》中声称，ikigai "高度渗透在日本文化中"。他通过外国人熟悉的人物来说明他的观点，例如因一部Netflix纪录片而成名的寿司主厨小野二郎，以及备受喜爱的动漫制片人宫崎骏。

 

8 Others would like to see the concept make a comeback inside Japan. Despite its reputation as a land of healthy, long-lived people, Japan is hardly a utopia. It has the highest suicide rate in the G7, a club of rich countries. Its demanding corporate culture has led to cases of karoshi, or death from overwork. The government has tried to legislate its way to a healthier work style, with limited effect. Perhaps Japan, too, could do with a bit more ikigai.

 

其他人则希望看到这一概念在日本国内卷土重来。尽管日本被誉为健康长寿之国，但它并不是一个乌托邦。它的自杀率在七国集团（一个富裕国家俱乐部）中是最高的。其苛刻的企业文化导致了 "过劳死 "的案例。政府曾试图以立法的方式建立一种更健康的工作方式，但效果有限。也许日本也可以多一点ikigai。