Chapter 3 Book Excerpt: Translating Selected Works of Mao Zedong

Zhongshu only taught at Tsinghua University for one year. In the midsummer of 1950, Qiao Guanhua came to Tsinghua University to ask him to translate Mao Zedong's anthology, and wanted to be seconded. In August 1950, Qian Zhongshu was transferred to the city to participate in the translation of Mao Zedong's anthology in the English Translation Committee of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China.The director of the committee is Xu Yonghuoying, who graduated from Tsinghua University in 1924 and later studied economics at Stanford University.He has worked in the United States for more than 20 years and served as secretary of the China Bureau of the American Communist Party. During the founding meeting of the United Nations in 1945, he assisted the Chinese Communist Party delegation led by Mr. Dong Biwu. He was transferred back to China in 1947.

The office of Mao Xuan English Translation Committee is located in Tangzi Hutong, Xicheng, Beijing.Zhongshu lived in the city, and went back to Tsinghua every weekend to guide the graduate students he was in charge of until they graduated. The English Translation Committee of Selected Works of Mao and the Publishing Committee of Selected Works of Mao were established almost at the same time. During Mao Zedong's visit to the Soviet Union from December 1949 to February 1950, Stalin suggested to him to edit "Selected Works of Mao Zedong" "to help people understand the experience of the Chinese revolution". In May 1950, the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China decided to establish the "Selected Works of Mao Zedong" publishing committee, under the chairmanship of Mao Zedong, began to edit the Chinese version of Selected Works of Mao Zedong (the first three volumes were published in October 1951, April 1952, and April 1953, respectively. The fourth volume was published in 1960).

In May 1950, Xu Yonghuoying served as the director of the Mao Xuan English Translation Committee. In July 1951, Mao Xuanying Translation Committee was renamed Mao Xuanying Translation Office, and it was abolished after the completion of the first three volumes at the end of 1953.Jin Yuelin, Qian Zhongshu, Zheng Ruzhen, Wang Zuoliang and many other people started to participate in the English translation, as well as a group of foreign experts such as Smedley, Epstein, Adler, etc. After one year, only Qian Zhongshu and A few young assistants. Xu Yonghuoying attached great importance to the old school teacher and philosopher Jin Yuelin. When encountering major difficulties in the translation of "On Practice" and "On Contradiction", he was often asked to make a decision.Jin Yuelin once came across an idiom "Eat a pit, gain a wisdom", and didn't know how to translate it well, so he asked Qian Zhongshu for advice.Zhongshu blurted out almost without thinking:

Afallintopit, Again in your wit. The antithesis is neat, and the rhyme is also very clever; the shape, sound and meaning are complete, which is amazing.Jin Yuelin felt ashamed, and everyone admired him. As soon as the news that Zhongshu was recommended to translate Mao Zedong’s anthology spread, an old acquaintance who lived in the city and couldn’t get in during Tsinghua’s anniversary, now immediately hired a rickshaw to come to congratulate him.Zhong Shu panicked and said to Yang Jiang: "He thought I was going to do a 'South Study Room Walk'. This is not easy to do. I don't want meritorious service, but I want no fault."

This matter is really not easy to do. One of the reasons is that the English translation of Mao Zedong’s anthology is being edited simultaneously with the editing of the original Chinese text; the original text is constantly revised during the compilation process, and the English translation has to be changed accordingly.It is often the case that a finalized translation manuscript keeps moving repeatedly, and naturally there are also reasons for inconsistent understanding.For example, Chen Yi once advocated dead translation, and translated the original text "fight fight, stop stop" into "fight fight, stop stop"; later, he felt that it was not good and retranslated it all.Often rework, after the translation is completed, overturn and retranslate; overthrow again, and retranslate again.Yang Jiang laughed and compared their translation to the cloth that the heroine of Homer's "Odyssey" weaves for her father-in-law.

Fortunately, Zhongshu is the most obedient, and he will change it if he disagrees. He has never had any opinions and is completely passive. He can only be compared to a tool.However, he is still very serious about his work.Once, in the translation, I found a passage saying that Monkey King got into the belly of the giant bull devil, and I felt that it was wrong.He likes it very much. He has read it many times, and the content is familiar.He insisted that "Sun Hou'er never got into the belly of the Bull Demon King".Xu Yonghuoying asked his superiors for instructions, and Hu Qiaomu sent various versions from all over the country to check.Qian Zhongshu was not wrong.Monkey Sun turned into a bug and was swallowed by Princess Iron Fan; Princess Iron Fan cannot be said to be a "monster".Chairman Mao had to revise two sentences of the original text.Although Zhongshu was not wrong, he was also "crazy".Hu Qiaomu once criticized him for "conservative clothing" without naming his name. At that time, ordinary people's clothing had changed to Zhongshan-style uniforms, but he still wore long robes.

Zhongshu is highly efficient and quick to do things. He can finish other people's work in half a day, or even two hours. With the time saved, he can read books by himself, so happy!Zhong Shu thought that the biggest advantage of the Mao Xuan English Translation Committee was that there were fewer people, and there was no momentum to engage in sports, and they had time to study. Xu Yonghuoying admired Zhongshu very efficient, and because he is good at both Chinese and English, and is also familiar with various ideological theories, he was asked to argue with foreign experts when reviewing and approving the translation.Foreign experts have different cultural backgrounds and do not understand Chinese. Sometimes they insist on their own opinions and are difficult to deal with.Zhongshu is eloquent, often quoting Chinese and Western classics, ancient and modern metaphors, and explaining the subtleties, all in one sentence.Of course, there are occasional situations where people get red-faced.Zhongshu had his own grievances. He said to Xu Yonghuoying: "If I don't argue, you blame me; if I argue, you blame me." .” Xu Yonghuoying, who was eight years older than him, could only smile.

Zhongshu's high efficiency also comes from the fact that he has a plan in his work, what to do first, what to do next, and how to do it.Not only does he do it himself, but he often reminds busy leaders what to do first, and prepares for everything thoughtfully for him.So Xu Yonghuoying laughed and said that Zhongshu is his officewife.In the end, because of their happy cooperation, the two became very good friends from superior to subordinate.Yang Jiang and Xu Yonghuoying's wife Zhang Shuyi also became very good friends. After Xu Yonghuoying died in the "Cultural Revolution", the two families still maintained friendly exchanges.

Huang Yushi (Huang Ai), a graduate student supervised by Qian Zhongshu at Tsinghua University, also came to work in Mao Xuan's English Translation Committee after graduation, and helped the teacher.According to Huang Yushi's recollection: "Mr. Qian doesn't watch movies or theaters. It seems that he has no other hobbies or any pastimes except reading. He has never attended the banquet invitations in Zhongnanhai. He always spares time for reading. I never want to waste a little bit lightly." During the three years of translating Mao Xuan, Mr. Qian often went to the street with some of us young people after dinner to visit second-hand bookstores.In the early days of liberation, there were used bookstores everywhere in Beijing, and two or three rooms were filled with all kinds of thread-bound books.Walking into a bookstore, Mr. Qian said, "Yushi, if you can find a book here that I haven't read, I'm not your teacher." Out of curiosity, we searched the store for some obscure book that we had never heard of and asked him if he had read it, and he immediately told me where the book was written and what it was about.Tried and tested, never missed. "