(在中國紀念達爾文200周年誕辰、《物種起源》發表150周年研讨會上的緻辭)

       值此中國生物學家組織的、在北京大學舉行的紀念達爾文二百周年誕辰研讨會之際，我想簡單地提醒四點。
       首先，在世界主要文化和文明中，可能中國對達爾文思想的抵觸最小。中國從根本上是無神論的社會。當然，中國也有關于人類起源的童話，但是大家都視其為童話。中國古代的智力巨人們從來沒有假裝他們知道人類起源。實際上，孔夫子明确表示不談怪力亂神。一旦經原北大校長嚴複的介紹，中國人很快擁抱了達爾文的思想。
       其次，除了達爾文思想的傳播以外，在座的聽衆們，尤其是西方來的，可能會覺得有趣的是，達爾文的朋友和同志的學術家系也遍布全球。達爾文自己沒有學生，但我不久前得知，我自己的學術譜系之一，通過神經生理學家Charles Sherrington，一直可以追蹤到赫胥黎。他不僅是達爾文思想的堅強鼓吹者，他自己也是一位偉大的智識分子。beat365官方网站的所有學生，包括協助會議組織和今天參加會議的同學們，都是赫胥黎的第八代學術後裔。
       第三，我想告訴大家，北京大學将成立 “演化生物學和基因組學研究所”， 結合生物學最古老的與最新的學科之一。這表明，北京大學相信，演化生物學不是過去的科學，而是現代的科學，是有着光明未來的科學。
       最後也最不重要地，我很高興地注意到，同時慶祝《物種起源》發表一百五十周年與達爾文誕辰二百周年，也在提醒大家，達爾文發表他最好的工作時已經年逾五十。這給我們希望，至少給我們一些人很大希望，他或她還有時間做最好的工作。
       謝謝大家參加會議。

       祝願大家不僅享受學術交流，也享受北京大學。

     （2009年10月24日星期六 北京大學 英傑交流中心 陽光大廳）

原文:

On the Chinese Symposium on Darwin 200，organized by Chinese biologists and taking place at Peking University, I would like to give four brief reminders.
First, among the major cultures and civilizations of the world, China offered perhaps the least resistance to Darwinian ideas. China is fundamentally an atheist society. There were, of course, Chinese fairy tales about the origin of humans, but they were understood as fairy tales. Intellectual giants in ancient China never pretended to know human origin. In fact, Confucius explicitly stated that he would not talk about gods or ghosts. Once Darwin was introduced to China by Yan Fu, a former president of Peking University, the Chinese people embraced his ideas.
Secondly, in addition to the spread of Darwinian ideas, the audience, especially those from the West, might find it interesting that the scientific progenies of Darwin’s friends and comrades have also spread far around the world. Darwin had no direct students, but I have learned not too long ago, that one of my own scientific lineages, through the neurophysiologist Charles Sherrington, could be traced to Thomas Huxley, Darwin’s bulldog, a strong advocate of Darwinian ideas and a great intellectual in his own right. All students in Peking University School of Life Sciences, including those in the audience and those helping with this symposium, are thus 8th generation students of Thomas Huxley.
Thirdly, I would like to inform you that Peking University will establish an Institute of Evolutionary Biology and Genomics, combining one of the oldest branches of biology with one of the newest, showing that Peking University believes that evolutionary biology is not a science of the past, but one of the present, with a bright future.
Last and also the least, I am happy to note, that by simultaneously celebrating the 150th anniversary for the publication of the Origin of Species, we are reminding people that Darwin published his best work when he was 50. This gives great hope to us, at least some of us, who has yet to do his or her best work.
Thank you all for coming to the symposium and I hope you will enjoy academic interactions as well as Peking University.