chinese dialogue or western monologue ?
Whole civilizations have been lost in translation. Consciously Disappeared by a hegemonic, history controlling, West. And the loss is not that of the Rest alone. Monologues, like Mono cultures of any kind, are dangerous to the very existence of not just Cultures, but Life itself.
The shengren of Confucianism (there are hundreds of them) - like the buddhas of Buddhism - are entirely un-European. They cultivate the ideal personality and become the highest members in the family-based Chinese value tradition; sagacious human beings who have the highest moral standards, called de, who apply the principles of ren, li, yi, zhi and xin, and connect between all the people as if they were, metaphorically speaking, one big family.
As the historian Howard Zinn once wrote: "If something is omitted from history, you have no way of knowing it is omitted." Western efforts to distort China's originality by translation knew of no restraints: the British, the French, and the German philosophers, the theologicians and story-tellers, they all called K'ung Fu-tzu everything but by his true term; they called him, fashion-wise, a philosopher, a saint, a magus, a teacher, or a sage, whatever floated their theory at that time. Tens of thousands of other Chinese (and other foreign) key concepts were excluded from world history this way. In effect, translations made China drop out of the humanist project and made her look as if she had no originality at all.
Some scholars have argued with me that China must engage in a dialogue with the West - they mean "in the English language". To this I add, yes, but only if the Chinese bring their own terms to the table. Otherwise, the so-called dialogue with the West will always be a Western monologue.
In practice, this would mean to identify the untranslatables, and to promote them. Most writings of European "China experts" today are inadequate because they describe a China without Chinese terminologies.
As long as Western China scholarship floats on misleading European terminology, the West isn't learning anything new from Asia. In this century, it will be necessary to depart from some erroneous Western translations. The East isn't just an appendix to the Western lingo; it has more to offer than the West could ever satisfactorily translate.
The key is to adopt Chinese terminologies, so that, one day, we may have something, anything really, to celebrate for being truly and faithfully Chinese. Amen.
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/China/NL22Ad05.html
The shengren of Confucianism (there are hundreds of them) - like the buddhas of Buddhism - are entirely un-European. They cultivate the ideal personality and become the highest members in the family-based Chinese value tradition; sagacious human beings who have the highest moral standards, called de, who apply the principles of ren, li, yi, zhi and xin, and connect between all the people as if they were, metaphorically speaking, one big family.
As the historian Howard Zinn once wrote: "If something is omitted from history, you have no way of knowing it is omitted." Western efforts to distort China's originality by translation knew of no restraints: the British, the French, and the German philosophers, the theologicians and story-tellers, they all called K'ung Fu-tzu everything but by his true term; they called him, fashion-wise, a philosopher, a saint, a magus, a teacher, or a sage, whatever floated their theory at that time. Tens of thousands of other Chinese (and other foreign) key concepts were excluded from world history this way. In effect, translations made China drop out of the humanist project and made her look as if she had no originality at all.
Some scholars have argued with me that China must engage in a dialogue with the West - they mean "in the English language". To this I add, yes, but only if the Chinese bring their own terms to the table. Otherwise, the so-called dialogue with the West will always be a Western monologue.
In practice, this would mean to identify the untranslatables, and to promote them. Most writings of European "China experts" today are inadequate because they describe a China without Chinese terminologies.
As long as Western China scholarship floats on misleading European terminology, the West isn't learning anything new from Asia. In this century, it will be necessary to depart from some erroneous Western translations. The East isn't just an appendix to the Western lingo; it has more to offer than the West could ever satisfactorily translate.
The key is to adopt Chinese terminologies, so that, one day, we may have something, anything really, to celebrate for being truly and faithfully Chinese. Amen.
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/China/NL22Ad05.html
posted by Satish Sharma at
16:08
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