Chapter 33 Section 33: An important turning point

The translation of Chinese classics that must be done is also the necessity of the times.Dr. Leger has finished, and the result is a formidable volume.Regardless of the quality, the sheer volume of work is truly enormous.In the face of these voluminous translations, we are a little scared to talk about them.But frankly speaking, these translations do not satisfy us.Mr. Balfour (70) justly commented: the translation of these classics relies heavily on the technical terminology produced by the translator.We now feel that the terminology used by Dr. Leger is crude, crude, inadequate, and in some places almost idiomatic.It's just about form.Regarding the content, we dare not take the liberty of expressing opinions, and let Pastor Hua Zhi'an from Guangdong speak for us.He said: "Dr. Leger's annotations on Mencius show his lack of philosophical understanding of the author." We can be sure that if Dr. Leger did not achieve a complete understanding of Confucius and his teachings in his mind and If he is not sure, it will be very difficult for him to read and translate these works.What is especially special is that, no matter in his annotations or in his special research, he does not let a single phrase or sentence be missed, which shows that he grasps the teachings of Confucius with the philosophy as a whole.All in all, therefore, Dr. Leger's judgment of the value of these works cannot be accepted as final in any case.And the translators of Chinese classics will continue to change.Since the publication of the above two works, there have been many works on China.Some of them are indeed of great academic significance.But there is no one that we think has already shown an important turning point in Chinese studies.

The first is "Notes on Chinese Literature" by Mr. Wei Lie Yali (71).However, it is merely a table of contents, and not a book of literary temperament at all.The other is the "Chinese Guide" by the late Mr. Mei Huili (72).Of course, it cannot be considered a perfect thing.Nevertheless, it is indeed a great work, the most rigorous and serious of all works on China.Moreover, its actual effectiveness is second only to Wade's "Self Collection". Another sinologist to watch out for is Mr. Gilles of the British Consulate.Like other early French sinologists, Mr. Gilles has the enviable advantages of clarity, force and elegance.Every problem he touches immediately becomes clear and understandable.But there are one or two exceptions.He was not very lucky in choosing topics worthy of his pen.An exception is the translation of .This translation should be regarded as a model of Chinese-English translation.However, although it is a very beautiful work, it does not belong to the first-class works of Chinese literature. (z-87)

Mr. Balfour's latest translation of Chuang Tzu's Nan Hua Jing, which follows Dr. Leger's work, is indeed the most ambitious work.Frankly speaking, when we first heard this announcement, our anticipation and joy were like the announcement of an Englishman entering the Hanlin Academy. The "Nanhua Jing" is recognized as one of the most perfect works in Chinese national literature.Since its birth in the second century BC, this book has had almost as much influence on Chinese literature as Confucianism and its teachings.It has had a dominant influence on poetry and Romantic literature of all dynasties, just as the influence of the Four Books and Five Classics on Chinese philosophical works.However, Mr. Balfour's work is not a translation at all. To put it bluntly, it is a blind translation.We admit that it weighs heavily on us, too, to give Mr. Balfour such an appreciation for the work of so many years of hard work.But we've sworn to it, and wish we could have rated it better.We believe that if we raise the question of the intended interpretation of Zhuangzi's philosophy, it will be very difficult for Mr. Balfour to join our discussion.We quote Lin Xichong, editor of the Chinese text of the latest Nanhuajing, in his foreword: "However, when reading a book, you must figure out the meaning of each word; then you can analyze the sentences; after you figure out the structure of the sentences, you Only then can you understand the paragraph arrangement of the article; in this way, you can finally grasp the central idea of ​​the entire chapter." Today, every page translated by Mr. Balfour is flawed, showing that he neither understands the meaning of each word, Thus, sentence structure is not analyzed correctly, and paragraph arrangement is not well prepared.If the statements we have assumed above can be verified, as they can hardly be verified, then it is quite clear that Mr. Balfour has failed to grasp the central idea of ​​the whole work, just by looking at the rules of grammar. (s-16)

However, all Chinese scholars today tend to put Pastor An Zhihua in Guangdong first.Although we do not consider the work of Mr. Anzhihua to be of more scholarly or literary value than that of others, we find that every sentence of his demonstrates a grasp of literary and philosophical principles that are not found in other scholars today. Among them are rare.As for what we think these principles are?This should be left for the next part of this article.At that time, we hope to be able to clarify the method, purpose and object of Sinology.