(Question from East and West) Xu Hua: How did Tao Te Ching become a successful text for deep mutual learning between Chinese and Western civilizations?
China News Service, Quanzhou, November 6th, title: How does "Tao De Jing" become a successful text for deep mutual learning between Chinese and Western civilizations?
——Interview with Xu Hua, Professor of Faculty of Arts, Huaqiao University
Author Sun Hong, Zeng Fuzhi, Zhu Guangxing
The spread of classic ancient books bearing Chinese civilization outside the region has brought about deep exchanges, mutual learning, and integration between different civilizations.
"Tao De Jing" is the most widely circulated and most accepted text among the many ancient Chinese classics going to the world.
In the past more than a century, the circulation of Tao Te Ching in the English-speaking world surpassed that of the Analects, second only to the Bible and the Bhagavad Gita.
Xu Hua, a professor at the Faculty of Letters of Huaqiao University, recently accepted an exclusive interview with China News Agency "Dongxi Wen", and pointed out that unlike the "Bhagavad Gita", which relies on religion, the "Tao De Jing" as a classic of philosophical thought can bridge the gap between language and civilization. , Widely recognized by foreign readers, the reasons are worth pondering.
Data map: The Tao Te Ching translated and annotated by Chen Guying, a well-known philosopher and Peking University professor.
Kan Lishe
The summary of the interview record is as follows:
Reporter from China News Service: The book "Tao De Jing" can be traced back to the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries when it went out of the oriental cultural circle and spread to Europe and the United States. How about its spread afterwards? How has the communication paradigm changed?
Xu Hua:
The spread of Tao Te Ching to the Western world was first started by missionaries who came to China. They translated the Tao Te Ching into a Latin translation and distributed it to Europe.
Since then, translation and research have flourished and spread all over the world.
In 1823, Lemoussa published "A Memorandum on Lao Tzu's Life and Works", and translated the four chapters 1, 25, 41, and 42 of the "Tao Te Ching" in French, starting the translation and research journey of the "Tao Te Ching" by French scholars. .
In 1842, his disciple Ru Lian published the full translation of "Tao De Jing".
So far, there are about 150 translations of the French version of Tao Te Ching.
The translation of Tao Te Ching in the English world is based on the 1868 version of Rev. John Cham.
Since then, there have been more than 130 English translations of Laozi.
In 1870, the first German translation "Tao De Jing" was published.
In 1911, the translation of Tao Te Ching published by the missionary Wei Lixian, who studied under Lao Naixuan, was considered to be a more successful German translation.
Today, there are 82 German translations and more than 700 monographs on Laozi's thoughts.
From the perspective of dissemination paradigm, the early translation and introduction of Tao Te Ching with missionaries as the main body mainly adhered to the Christian stand or thought to understand and append the Tao Te Ching, or to show the similarities and differences between Taoism and Christian doctrine to Western readers, and extract them. Simple, benevolent, harmonious life, etc.; at the beginning of the twentieth century, under the influence of the First and Second World Wars, Western civilization was in crisis. People began to review Western culture, trying to find one from Eastern culture, especially Chinese culture. Plant a good medicine that is rooted in nature, pursues harmony, and follows the natural laws of the universe.
With the unearthing of the first and second editions of the silk book "Lao Zi" in 1972 and the 1993 Guodian Chu bamboo slip "Lao Zi", a new upsurge of old studies has been launched at home and abroad.
The translation and introduction of "Laozi" during this period attracted more Chinese scholars and paid more attention to the choice of editions, trying to convey the subtle thoughts of 5,000 words, and at the same time return to the academic discourse system that combines translation and research.
For example, transliteration increased, and the direct transliteration of "Tao" into "tao" became the choice of most translations in this period.
According to Ding Wei's "Examination of Old Learning Classics: A General Catalogue of Old Learning Documents in the World in the Past 2,500 Years", the translation of Tao Te Ching involves 73 languages and 1,576 translations, which can be described as the peak of foreign translation of classics.
Therefore, the book "Lao Zi" can be said to be a successful case of deep mutual learning between Chinese and Western civilizations.
Data map: Laozi Square in Hanguguan, Lingbao, Henan.
Kan Lishe
Reporter from China News Service: As a philosophical classic, "Tao De Jing" is not deliberately promoted, but it can moisturize things silently and deeply into the hearts of different cultures. It must be said that it is a miracle in cultural history. What is the reason for this text to overcome multiple obstacles and barriers, and produce more and more widespread influence?
Xu Hua:
From the perspective of the recipient, the wave of industrial civilization, the advancement of science and technology, and the expansion of capital are all going further and further in the realm of material civilization. The world of human spiritual civilization still needs more exploration and enrichment.
British scholar Clark pointed out that the thoughts of emptiness, inaction, equality of all things, and being simple and clumsy advocated by Laozi are just the blank spots in the spiritual life of human society, especially in the western society where industry and commerce are developed.
Taoist thought just fills this gap.
"Tao De Jing" as a holistic way of thinking, an intuitive way of enlightenment thinking mode of heaven, authenticity, humanity, there and no duality, experience the ultimate existence, guide the real politics and the ancient wisdom of life, is able to help people find their own roots And soul, present and future.
From the text of "Tao De Jing", the ideological system of "Perseverance Dao" based on the ultimate ultimate is inherently universal with all-encompassing, unlimited extension and openness.
In the entire "Tao De Jing", there are no specific names of people, places, or rules of actual moral admonitions. Instead, through implicit metaphors such as "Tao", "Jianghai", "Baby", and "Xuanmin", through a lot of rhetorical questions, Arouse readers' thoughts, and trigger readers' conscious introvert verification and extrovert thinking expansion.
In addition, on the practical level, the philosophical language of "Laozi" is not a metaphysics that hangs in the world. It is instructive in real politics, economy, military, management, physics, chemistry, and psychology.
Therefore, scholars from different cultural contexts will express the same sigh: "The Tao Te Ching belongs to China and the world."
German contemporary scholar Mailer said: "It is a key to understanding modern Chinese civilization and culture. However, as a'world classic', its relevance is not limited to a specific time or space-it The topics discussed are of global significance."
Data map: Cute babies from home and abroad wear uniform Taoist clothes and hold bamboo slips. They read "Tao De Jing" and "Disciple Guidance" with Taoist teacher Fu in Sanqing Palace.
Photo by Cheng Xixue
China News Agency reporter: After all, "Laozi" is an ancient book 2500 years ago. With more than 5,000 words, it conveys the thinking of transcendence of the ultimate way and extends countless thinking about practical applications. Then, in the context of cross-culturalism, what problems still exist in the study of the Tao Te Ching?
Xu Hua:
First of all, translation and research based on the level of thinking are still relatively lacking.
Tao Te Ching, as a classic of Taoism, is the core part of Confucianism, Buddhism, and Taoism, and it is also the key to understanding the way of thinking of Chinese civilization.
However, the existing translations are often more limited to the semantic translation of the chapters and sentences, or the analysis of the interrelationships of the text, without a thought-level scrutiny; or fall into the stereotype of mysticism; or allow the text to travel in the imaginary discourse of foreign cultures Among.
Secondly, further consideration is needed to avoid double misunderstanding and single reading of the text of "Lao Zi".
Chinese is a unique existence in the world languages.
"Laozi" is five thousand words, concise and rich in meaning, full of poetry and imagination, which makes it more difficult for its overseas dissemination, but at the same time it also leaves infinite charm and huge space for interpretation.
Double misreading refers to the misunderstanding of the contextual changes from ancient times to the present. For example, Lao Tzu's "dao", "de", "stupidity", "softness", "weakness" and "inaction" have their own meanings; these have their own meanings. In the process of translation, words will inevitably lose their original meanings, resulting in double misunderstandings.
The singular reading is the reading of one word and one meaning or the reading in a Western context, which will cause many misunderstandings of the Tao Te Ching.
In addition, Western scholars’ translations of Tao Te Ching occupy the mainstream of the international book market, while Chinese scholars’ truly authoritative translations are rare.
The interpretation of the text of "Lao Zi" in the West reflects more the appearance of "Lao Zi" in the Western discourse, and it is more concentrated in a few intellectual circles.
How to use the interpretation of Chinese scholars to let Chinese culture make its own voice when it goes to the world is a major task facing us.
China News Agency reporter: What kind of enlightenment can the spread of "Tao De Jing" provide for future mutual learning between Chinese and Western civilizations?
Xu Hua:
We have learned from the dissemination of Tao Te Ching that it is possible and feasible to build traditional classic texts as a bridge for mutual learning between Chinese and Western civilizations.
I want to provide the following ideas:
The first is to strengthen the Chinese translation of representative results related to the study of traditional Chinese classics in overseas sinology, and to know oneself and the enemy can be targeted.
The second is to innovate in the dissemination form of traditional classic texts, which can flexibly adopt classic dialogues, classic questioning or story meetings, animation demonstrations, etc., to better illustrate the original meaning of the classics.
The third is to organize a domestic expert group or a Sino-foreign joint expert group to gather the strength of the group to form a relatively authoritative foreign translation for reference by foreigners who like and study classics.
(over)
About the interviewee:
Xu Hua, Doctor of History, Master Supervisor, Professor of Faculty of Arts, Huaqiao University.
The main research fields are Taoism and Taoism, and the literature of the pre-Tang Dynasty.
Presided over the sub-projects of the major bidding project of the National Social Science Fund "General History of Chinese Lao Xue (Pre-Qin Qin Han Volume)" and "Selected Literature Research", and participated in the school site work of the large-scale ancient book collation project of the State Administration of Religion.
Published "Taoist Ideological Trends and Literary Forms in Late Zhou, Qin and Han Dynasties", "On the Evolution of the Artistic Spirit of the Han Dynasty", "An Annotated Collection of Old Annotations" (20 volumes, cooperation), "Tao De Jing" (picture text) and other works.