Who is Gu Hongming? He was born in Nanyang, studied in the West, married in the East, and served in the Beiyang. Proficient in 9 languages ??including English, French, German, Latin, Greek, and Malayan, he has obtained 13 doctorates. He read English newspapers backwards and laughed at the British, saying that Americans are uneducated. He was the first to compile Chinese "The Analects of Confucius" and "The Analects of Confucius". "The Doctrine of the Mean" was translated into the West in English and German. With his impeccable tongue, he lectured on Confucianism to Japanese Prime Minister Hirobumi Ito, exchanged letters with literary master Leo Tolstoy, and discussed world culture and political situations. He was called "the most noble China" by India's Mahatma Gandhi. people".
Gu Hongming, (July 18, 1857 - April 30, 1928), also known as Tangsheng. Born on July 18, 1857 in a British rubber plantation in Penang Island (Penang State, Malaysia) in the northwest of the Malay Peninsula in Southeast Asia. In his early years, his ancestors moved to Nanyang from Fujian, China, and accumulated rich property and reputation. His father, Gu Ziyun, was the general manager of a rubber plantation run by the British at the time. He spoke fluent Hokkien and could speak English and Malay. His mother is a blond, blue-eyed Westerner who speaks English and Portuguese. In this kind of family environment, Gu Hongming has had an amazing understanding and memory of language since he was a child. Mr. Brown, the childless rubber plantation owner, liked him very much and adopted him as his adopted son. Let him read the works of Shakespeare, Bacon and others since he was a child.
British gunboats opened the door to China in 1840. Mr. Brown, Gu Hongming's adoptive father, said to him: "Do you know that your motherland, China, has been put on the chopping block, and the vicious invaders are wielding butcher knives, ready to divide and eat it. I hope you can learn both Chinese and Western knowledge and take on the responsibility of The responsibility of governing a rich country and civilizing Europe and America." When the Browns returned to England in 1867, they brought the ten-year-old Gu Hongming to the most powerful Western empire at the time. Before leaving, his father burned incense in front of his ancestors' memorial tablets and warned him: "No matter where you go, whether you are surrounded by British, German or French people, don't forget that you are Chinese."
When he arrived in the UK, under the guidance of Brown, Gu Hongming started with the most classic Western literary masterpieces and quickly mastered English, German, French, Latin, and Greek with the most sincere rote memorization method. He was admitted to the famous University of Edinburgh with excellent results and was appreciated by the president, famous writer, historian, and philosopher Carlyle. In 1877, after Gu Hongming obtained a master's degree in literature, he went to Germany to study literature and philosophy at famous universities such as the University of Leipzig. Later, when Cai Yuanpei went to the University of Leipzig to study, Gu Hongming was already a well-known figure; and 40 years later, when Lin Yutang came to the University of Leipzig, Gu Hongming's works were already designated must-reads by the school. Gu Hongming was mentioned in a book. Fourteen years of studying abroad have turned the talented young man Gu Hongming into a young scholar proficient in Western culture.
After completing his studies, Ku Hongming followed the persuasion of Ma Jianzhong, a master of language in Singapore at the time, and immersed himself in the study of Chinese culture. He returned to his motherland and continued to study Chinese classics. He served in the powerful minister Zhang Zhidong's shogunate in the late Qing Dynasty for twenty years, and his main responsibility was "interpretation". While assisting Zhang Zhidong in coordinating Western affairs, he studied Chinese studies intensively and called himself the "Hanbin Reader".
Gu Hongming's reputation for being fluent in various Western European languages ??and being quick-tongued quickly spread among European and American people in China. He kowtowed to his ancestors, and the foreigners laughed and said: Will your ancestors be able to eat the food on the table if you do this? Gu Hongming immediately retorted: If you put flowers on the graves of your ancestors, can they smell the fragrance of the flowers? He read English newspapers backwards and laughed at the British, saying that Americans were uneducated. He used pure German to ridicule a group of Germans on the ship. The British writer Maugham came to China and wanted to see Gu. Maugham's friend wrote a letter to Gu and invited him to come. But after waiting for a long time, no one came. Maugham had no choice but to find Gu's courtyard by himself. As soon as he entered the room, Gu said unceremoniously: "Your compatriots think that the Chinese are either coolies or compradors. As long as you wave, we have to come." In one sentence, Maugham, who had traveled far and wide and experienced a lot, was immediately embarrassed. Don't know what's right.
At the same time, as a defender of Eastern culture, Gu Hongming's reputation has gradually become more prominent. When Gu Hongming was lecturing at Peking University, he publicly said to the students: "Why do we need to learn English poetry? That is because after you learn English well, you can use our Chinese principles of life and gentle and honest poetry to teach those people from all over the world. At that time, he still spoke harshly and called the West a "land of four barbarians." For this reason, many people only regarded him as a maker of jokes, but ignored his inner pain and his feelings for the barbarians. The positive thinking of Eastern culture ignores his deep concern for the fate of this land and the determined and desperate struggle he made.
Since publishing an article titled "China Studies" in the English newspaper "North China Daily" in 1883, he has embarked on a writing path of promoting Chinese culture and ridiculing Western learning. In the years at the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century, he also translated "The Analects of Confucius" and "The Doctrine of the Mean" into English, which were published and printed overseas one after another. Later, "The University" was translated. His work was creative, adding to the ancient Oriental theory the illuminating quips of Goethe, Schiller, Ruskin and Joubert. Before him, there had never been good translations of ancient Chinese classics.
From 1901 to 1905, Gu Hongming published 172 "Notes on China" in five installments, repeatedly emphasizing the value of Eastern civilization. In 1909, the English book "The Oxford Movement in China" (the German translation was titled "Defending China's Opposition to European Concepts: A Critical Essay") was published, which had a huge impact in Europe, especially Germany. Some university philosophy departments listed it as A must-read reference book. In 1915, "Spring and Autumn Days" (the famous "The Spirit of the Chinese") was published. With idealistic enthusiasm, he showed the world that Chinese culture is the panacea to save the world. At the same time, his criticism of Western civilization was also sharp and profound. Soon the German version of "Spring and Autumn Days" was published, causing a huge sensation in Germany, which was undergoing World War I.
Gu Hongming believes that to evaluate a civilization, one must look at "what kind of people, what kind of men and women it can produce." He criticized those missionaries and sinologists who were "called authorities in the study of Chinese civilization" who "actually do not really understand the Chinese and the Chinese language." He uniquely pointed out: “To understand the true Chinese and Chinese civilization, that person must be deep, broad and simple” because “the three major characteristics of Chinese character and Chinese civilization are exactly the deep, broad and simple Simplicity, in addition to "sensitivity"
From this unique perspective, Gu Hongming compared the Chinese with the Americans, the British, the Germans, and the French, highlighting the characteristics of the Chinese. Why: Americans are broad and simple, but not deep; British people are deep and simple, but not broad; Germans are broad and deep, but not simple; French people are not as naturally deep as Germans, and are not as broad-minded as Americans and British people. The land is simple, but they have the sensitivity that these three nations lack; only the Chinese have these four excellent spiritual qualities. It is for this reason that Gu Hongming said that the overall impression left by the Chinese is "gentle". "That kind of indescribable gentleness." Behind the gentle image of the Chinese people, there is hidden their "innocent heart" and "adult wisdom", Gu Hongming wrote that the Chinese "live like children." - A life of the soul.
Gu Hongming lived in an unfortunate era. In such an era, as long as you were a Chinese, you could only be weak and at the mercy of others. If You are awake, and if you want to fight, you will have to pay an extremely painful price. Facing the motherland with internal and external troubles at that time, Gu Hongming was worried about the decline of Chinese tradition and the ruin of Yanhuang civilization. He wrote in his notes "Zhang Wenxiang Shogunate". "Jiwen" expressed his deep sighs about the self-esteem and worries of Chinese culture.
Gu Hongming's wild posture was his tearful performance, and he used wildness to protect his strong self-esteem. When he went to a Chinese market, the four words "Children and old men are not deceived" were hung everywhere, and he often said to Gu: These four words can be seen that the Chinese people are deceitful. People are much more open-minded, and Gu Hongming understands that misfortune more clearly and deeply than anyone else. Therefore, he does not hesitate to use a paranoid attitude to express his love for Chinese culture. He studied in the West, but he likes Eastern girls. He especially liked the small feet of Chinese girls. He fell in love with her at first sight and never let her down. After the founding of the Republic of China, he taught English literature at Peking University and adopted extreme behavior - growing pigtails, wearing old clothes, and keeping concubines. and foot-binding, to counter the deformed tendency of the entire society to abandon Chinese traditions. However, he did not kowtow when he saw a memorial tablet. The "congratulatory poem" he blurted out in public was "The Emperor." For thousands of years, people have spent money. "Longevity without bounds, the common people suffer". After Yuan Shikai's death, the whole country mourned for three days, but Gu Hongming specially invited a theater troupe to hold a party at home, which was lively for three days.
Gu Hongming teaches at Peking University and wears pigtails Entering the classroom, the students burst into laughter, and Gu said calmly: "The braids on my head are tangible, but the braids in your hearts are invisible. "Hearing this, the arrogant Peking University students were silent.
Gu Hongming liked to scold Westerners in his life, but he used this to think that he was more important than Westerners. For no other reason, he scolded him to the point of death. , and can always be blamed on key points and vital points, so many Westerners believe in Gu Hongming's knowledge and wisdom, almost to the point of obsession.
At that time, Gu Hongming was at the Liuguo Hotel in the Embassy District of Dongjiaomin Lane. He lectured in English on "The Spirit of the Chinese People" (which he translated as "Spring and Autumn Days"). There was no precedent for selling tickets for Chinese lectures, but he wanted to sell tickets, and the ticket price was higher than that of Mei Lan, one of the "Four Famous Dancers" Fang. Listening to Mei's Peking Opera only costs one yuan and two cents, but listening to Gu's lectures costs two yuan. This shows that foreigners attach great importance to him.
Gu Hongming's sense of superiority in front of Westerners comes from this. Because of his wit and humor. One day, Gu Hongming entertained European and American friends at his private residence in Chunshu Hutong, Beijing. He lit a kerosene lamp, and the smoke stung his nose. Some people said that kerosene lamps are not as bright as electric lamps and gas lamps. Gu Hongming said with a smile: “We Orientals value understanding and understanding one’s true nature. Oriental people are enlightened, and the oil lamp lights itself. Orientals do not value superficiality as much as Westerners do. "Do you think this is talking about Buddhism, philosophy, or just being mystical? Anyway, his tricks are enough to scare those foreign devils.
Gu Hongming's eloquence is unparalleled.
After the Sino-Japanese War of 1898-1898, Ito Hirobumi traveled to China. While in Wuchang, he had some contact with Zhang Zhidong. Gu Hongming was Zhang's staff. As a meeting gift, he gave Ito an English translation of "The Analects" he had just published. Ito knew that Gu was a pioneer general among Chinese conservatives, so he took the opportunity to tease him: "I heard that you are proficient in Western academics. Don't you know that Confucius' teachings can be applied more than two thousand years ago, but not twenty years ago?" Century today?" Seeing the trick, Gu Hongming replied: "The method Confucius taught people is like the mathematician's addition, subtraction, multiplication and division. Thousands of years ago, the method was three three to nine. Now in the twentieth century, The method is still 33 to get 9, not 33 to get 8." After hearing this, Ito was speechless for a moment.
At Peking University, he was favored by professors Cai Yuanpei, Huang Kan and Yang, but he was the mortal enemy of Westernizers. We had already foreseen the disaster that the vernacular movement of Hu Shi and others would bring to the Chinese people on the fault line of traditional culture. However, in the end, the Republic of China government abolished classical Chinese in primary school textbooks, causing irreparable damage to the inheritance and development of China's traditional culture. Huge loss. Ku Hongming, as an overseas Chinese born in Malaysia, used his own efforts to defend the dignity of the Chinese nation. It was he who promoted the birth of the world's first Confucius Institute. He is the only figure in modern China who is the most popular among scholars from all over the world. A respected figure among literati, however, he was repeatedly ridiculed, reviled, and misunderstood by his compatriots and students in his native China. We cannot but regret the naivety and stupidity of most of our young people in such an era.
On April 30, 1928, Gu Hongming died in Beijing at the age of 72.
[Edit this paragraph] Writing books
Gu Hongming’s official career is not enough to talk about. The significance and importance of his life story lies in the communication between Chinese and Western cultures and resorting to translation. . In order to let Westerners understand China's philosophy of Confucius and Mencius, spiritual morality, he wrote diligently. Gu wrote quite a lot throughout his life, and most of them were written in fluent English. His purpose was to make Westerners understand and respect Chinese culture through understanding.
Gu Hongming’s English works mainly include:
1. Papers from a Viceroy's Yamen: A Chinese Plea for the Cause of Good Government and True Civilization. On the cover is the Chinese title "Zun Wang Pian" written by Zhao Fengchang himself. This book was published in Shanghai in 1901. It is a collection of a series of English political articles published by Gu Hongming in newspapers such as the "Japan Post" since the Boxer Rebellion. These articles analyzed the causes of the Boxer Rebellion and pointed out that the Boxer Rebellion was entirely caused by the improper activities of foreign missionaries and the colonial policies of Western powers. Gu Hongming also made public comments on Western civilization and its decline in the book. After the book was published, Europeans rushed to buy it and circulate it, which had a great impact on the international community at that time. The biography of "Manuscripts of the History of the Qing Dynasty" says: "Gu wrote the "Respect the King" in English to express his great righteousness. The great powers knew that China built a country based on ethics and education, and could not be insulted in the end, so peace talks were concluded."
2. ET nunc, reges, intelligite! The Moral Cause of the Russia-Japanese War ("Today, emperors, please think deeply! The moral reasons for the Russo-Japanese War") It has been published continuously in the "Japan Post" since December 10, 1904 Published and published in Shanghai in 1906. It mainly discusses the moral roots of the Russo-Japanese War, as well as the issues of Chinese and Western civilizations, and criticizes the policies of both Russia and Japan.
3. The Story of a Chinese Oxford Movement was written by Gu Hongming in memory of Zhang Zhidong and was first published in Shanghai in 1910. In the book, he compares Zhang Zhidong to Cardinal Newman in the 19th century in England, and compares the Qingliu Movement led by Zhang Zhidong, which defended the Chinese Communist Party, with Newman's Oxford Movement, which attacked liberalism in the Church of England. Research points out that Zhang Zhidong's Qingliu Movement and Newman's Oxford Movement were both opposing and attacking the same enemy - the destructive force of modern Europe's highly material civilization.
4． The Spirit of the Chinese People ("The Spirit of the Chinese People", also known as "Spring and Autumn Days"), this is Gu Hongming's representative work to promote Chinese traditional culture to the West. The book was first published in Beijing in 1915 and was soon translated into German by German scholar Oscar.A.H.Schmitz, causing a sensation in the West. The book vigorously explains the moral spirit of the Chinese nation and the value of Chinese civilization, and advocates the theory that Chinese culture can save the West. The whole book is divided into four parts: introduction, introduction, main text and appendix.
The introduction explains "The Religion of Good-Citizenship"; the first chapter of the text discusses "The Spirit of the Chinese People", the second chapter discusses "The Chinese Woman", Chapter 2 Chapter 3 is about "The Chinese Language", Chapter 4 is about "John Smith in China", Chapter 5 is about "A Great Sinologue", Chapter 6 is about "A Great Sinologue" , Chapter 72 discusses "Chinese Scholarship"; the appendix discusses "The Religion of Mob-Worship or the War and the Way out".
In addition, Gu Hongming often publishes articles in English newspapers and periodicals, such as "Zi Lin Xi Bao" (also known as "North China Daily News"), "Japan Weekly Mail", "Beijing Daily News", "Millard's Review of the Far East", "North China Standard", "The Times" and other English newspapers are all He criticized the West and promoted the "Tao of Zhou and Confucius".
After Gu Hongming’s article was published, Westerners were both surprised and admired, especially the Germans and Japanese. In order to let more Chinese people understand the thoughts and doctrines of this Eastern sage, they put Gu Hongming’s The articles and writings were translated into German and Japanese. In 1920, Gu Hongming's collection of essays Vox Clamantis ("Scream", also known as "The Voice of Complaint"), translated by Professor Nelson, was published in Leipzig, Germany. The famous German sinologist Richard Wilhelm compiled a collection of Gu Hong's inscriptions "China's Resistance to European Thought: A Collection of Critical Essays", the main body of which is "The Oxford Movement in China". The papers that Gu Hongming delivered in Japan were compiled by the Daito Cultural Association of Japan into the "Collected Lectures of Gu Hongming" and was published in Japan in 1925. In 1941, the Japanese Yuji Satsuma compiled and published "Collected Works of Gu Hongming" in Japan. The main articles were selected and translated from "Collected Lectures of Gu Hongming" and "The Spirit of the Chinese".
[Edit this paragraph] Translation Practice
As a translator, Gu Hongming’s contributions mainly include two aspects: on the one hand, he translated the Chinese classics "The Analects of Confucius", "The Doctrine of the Mean" and "The Doctrine of the Mean" into "University" and so on were translated into English, which enjoyed the highest reputation among the English translations of Chinese books in the late Qing Dynasty and the early Republic of China; on the other hand, foreign poems were translated into Chinese, mainly including William Cobb's "The Riding Song of the Ridiculous Man" and Coleridge "The Ome of the Ancient Mariner" became a pioneer in modern China's translation of Western poetry into the country.
The translation of the Four Books and Five Classics of China first began in the late Ming and early Qing dynasties. At that time, foreign missionaries and sinologists who came to China translated ancient Chinese cultural classics such as the Book of Songs, the Book of Changes, the Analects of Confucius, and Laozi into various languages ??and spread them to Europe and the United States, including Latin, English, and Italian. , French and other translations. To translate ancient Chinese classics into Western languages, one must be proficient in both languages ????of the translation and be able to thoroughly understand the cultures of the two countries, which is not something ordinary people can do. Most of these missionaries and sinologists only have a rough understanding of Chinese, so there are many shortcomings in the translated works. Some even accumulate words into sentences or articles, which cannot reflect the essence of Chinese culture as a whole. place.
In modern times, the most famous translator of the works of Confucius and Mencius is James Legge. Legge was a famous sinologist with high attainments in Chinese. With the assistance of Wang Tao, he translated ten of the Chinese "Thirteen Classics" into English, collectively known as "The Chinese Classics", which enjoys a high reputation in the West and is still regarded by many Westerners as regarded as the standard translation. However, due to the huge differences in language, culture, and way of thinking between English and Chinese, although Legge's translation is relatively accurate compared to previous translations, it is still prone to misunderstandings, rigid translations, and out-of-context translations.
As early as 1884, Gu Hongming pointed out in his article "Chinese Studies": Legge's work of translating "Chinese Classics" was just a temporary need. Although the number was astonishing, not all of it was satisfactory. satisfy. Gu Hongming believed that it was these missionaries and sinologists who distorted the original meaning of Confucian classics, ruined Chinese culture, and caused Westerners to have various prejudices against Chinese people and Chinese civilization. In order to eliminate these prejudices, he decided to translate Confucian classics himself.
In 1898, Gu Hongming published his first translation of "The Analects of Confucius" (The Discourses and Sayings of Confucius: A New Special Translation, Illustrated with Quotations from Goethe and Other Writers) in Shanghai, and in 1906 he published his second translation. "The Universal Order or Conduct of Life", and later he translated "Higher Education", but it was not officially published.
He claimed in the preface to the translation of "The Analects": We only want to express a wish here, hoping that those educated and thoughtful British people can reflect on their views on China after patiently reading our translation. People's existing prejudices can be corrected and their attitudes towards the relationship between people and countries in China and Britain can be corrected.
One of the most prominent features of Gu Hongming's translation of Confucian classics is the free translation method, which uses the method of "dynamic equivalence" to make the translated text play the same role as the original text in expressing ideas, rather than between the original text and the translated text. Mechanical conversion of word-to-sentence ratios. In the preface to the translation of "The Analects", he clearly stated that the purpose of his translation was "to enable ordinary English readers to understand this Chinese booklet that gave the Chinese people their intellectual and moral outlook." Therefore, he worked hard to "make Confucius and his disciples understand The way of talking is just like the way educated British people express the same thoughts as these Chinese heroes. "In the preface to the translation of "The Doctrine of the Mean", he further clarified his translation views: "To fully grasp the meaning, not only to translate it. The text of the original work must also reproduce the style of the original work. "Gu Hongming really worked hard to implement this translation purpose in his specific translation work. For example:
1. A dialogue between Zigong and Confucius in "The Analects of Confucius·Xue Er No. 1". Zigong said: "What is it like to be poor without flattery, or to be rich without arrogance?" Confucius said: "Yes. It is not as poor as to be happy with Taoism, but as rich as to be polite." Gu Hongming translated it as: "A disciple of Confucius said to him,' To be poor and yet not to be servile; to be rich and yet not to be proud, what do you say to that?'' It is good, 'replied Confucius, 'but better still it is to be poor and yet contented; to be rich and yet know how to be courteous.'" The translation of the word "鄄" in the sentence is particularly wonderful. The word "servile" is far more expressive than the word "flatter". Moreover, the entire translation is concise and clear, which not only conforms to English expression habits, but also echoes the style of the original sentence.
2. "The Analects of Confucius·Zihan No. 9" records Yan Hui's praise of Confucius's high and profound way: "Looking up will make it higher, drilling into it will make it stronger. Looking ahead, suddenly it is behind. Master's good deeds are alluring, and he has won me over. The more I have looked up to it the higher it appears. The more I tried to penetrate into it the more impenetrable it seems to be. When I have thought I have laid hold of it here, lo! it is there. But the Master knows admirably how to lead people on step by step. He has enlarged my mind with an extensive knowledge of the arts, while guiding and correcting my judgment and taste . Thus I could not stop in my progress, even if I would."
Gu's translation does a good job of maintaining the simplicity and conciseness of the original text. "The more I have looked up to it the higher it appears. The more I tried to penetrate into it the more impenetrable it seems to be", the contrast is neat and the wording is concise.
"When I have thought I have laid hold of it here, lo! it is there" vividly conveys Yan Hui's lament about the profoundness and elusiveness of Confucius' way, making people feel like hearing his voice and seeing it. Its people. Gu translated "不stop" into "Thus I could not stop in my progress, even if I would", fully exploring the connotation and charm of the original text and vividly reproducing it.
Gu's efforts to reproduce the style of the original work are also reflected in the translation of poems into poems, that is, the poem fragments appearing in "The Analects of Confucius", "The Doctrine of the Mean", etc. are also expressed in the form of poems. Since Gu was proficient in Chinese and English, his translation was quite successful. For example, in "The Analects of Confucius: Chapter 18 of Wei Zi", Chu Kuang's song of receiving public opinion: "Feng Xi Feng Xi! How can one's virtue decline? Those who have gone by cannot be admonished, but those who have come can especially be pursued. That's it, that's it! Today's politicians "O Phoenix bird! O Phoenix bird,
"Where is the glory of your prime?
"The past, --t is useless now to change,
"Care for the future yet is time.
"Renounce! Give up your chase in vain;
"For those who serve in Court and State
"Dire peril follows in their train."
The whole poem is divided into three stanzas, with ***7 lines, each line of 8 Each syllable, the two lines rhyme, and it is catchy after reading. The key point of the whole poem is "Renounce! give up your chase in vain", which fully expresses Jieyu's incomprehension and regret that Confucius did not retreat in troubled times.
Another important feature of Gu Hongming's translation of Confucian books is that he quoted the words of famous Western writers and thinkers such as Goethe, Carlyle, Arnold, and Shakespeare to annotate certain scriptures. This was the first time in the history of translation of Confucian classics. Gu explained its purpose in the preface to the translation of "The Analects": "In order to allow readers to fully understand the meaning of the ideas in the book, we have quoted the words of some very famous European writers as annotations. By evoking already familiar ideas, these annotations may be able to Attract readers who know these writers. "Although the cultural exchanges between China and the West in modern times were two-way, the influence of "Western learning spreading to the East" has always been much stronger than "Eastern learning spreading to the West", and Westerners are carrying out research on Eastern learning. The choice was always made with the condescending attitude of the colonizers, so there was a deep separation from Eastern culture. In this case, Gu's method of annotating Confucian classics is undoubtedly very meaningful in helping Western readers understand Chinese culture.
In addition to quoting European famous figures for annotations, Gu also made horizontal comparisons in his annotations between Chinese characters and Chinese dynasties appearing in the book and characters and time periods with similar characteristics in Western history. For example, Yan Hui is compared to St. John, Zilu is compared to St. Peter, Yao is compared to Abraham, etc. Regarding the time concept of the Xia Dynasty, Gu made this comparison: The Xia Dynasty was to the people of Confucius's time what Greek history is to modern Europeans. Such a comparison may not be appropriate, but it will help Westerners who know little about Chinese culture to better grasp the content of Confucian classics.
The Analects and Doctrine of the Mean translated by Gu Hongming have made a qualitative leap compared with previous translations of Confucian classics by Western missionaries and sinologists. It can be said to be a milestone in the history of the Western translation of Confucian classics. However, due to the limitations of thought and time, there are deficiencies of one kind or another in his translation.
The biggest shortcoming of Gu's translation is excessive free translation. One of its manifestations is to add a lot of content that is not in the original text at will while grasping the general idea. For example, the translation of the sentence "Learning and practicing it from time to time, wouldn't it be nice to have friends coming from afar?" ("The Analects of Confucius·Xue Er No. 1").
Ku's translation is: "It is indeed a pleasure to acquire knowledge and, as you go on acquiring, to put into practice what you have acquired. A greater pleasure still it is when friends of congenial minds come from afar to seek you because of your attainments." Among them, "as you go on acquiring", "greater", "of congenial minds" and "because of your attainments" all exceed the content of the original text. The second manifestation is to delete a large number of Chinese names and place names that appear in the translation.
For example, in "The Analects", he only retained the names of Yan Hui and Zhong Yu, while the other disciples of Confucius were directly translated as "one of Confucius's disciples" or "another disciple". Although his motivation for doing this is good: "In order to further remove the sense of weirdness and strangeness that English readers will have, whenever possible, we will delete the proper nouns." (See the preface to the translation of "The Analects of Confucius") But for help It is not beneficial for Western readers to better understand Chinese culture, because Chinese names and place names appearing in Confucian classics often contain rich cultural content, and deleting them will change the cultural and national color of the original text. Lionel Giles pointed out in his own translation of The Analects (The Sayings of Confucius) that Gu's approach will only greatly reduce the intensity of character portrayal, and character creation is the attraction of The Analects. place.
There have been two diametrically opposed evaluations of Gu's English translation of Confucian classics: one is praise and praise, the other is negative criticism. Those who hold the former view are represented by Lin Yutang. Lin Yutang commented in his book "From Pagan to Christian": "His (Ku Hongming's) great achievement is to translate three of the "Four Books" of Confucianism. It is not only a faithful translation, but also a creative translation. The light of the ancient classics is infused with a deep and clear philosophy. He actually acts as a galvanizer of Eastern ideas and Western ideas. His "Discourses of Confucius" is decorated with Goethe, Schiller, Ruskin, and Zhu. Bell's enlightening words. The translation of Confucian books benefited from his deep understanding of the original works. "The negative attitude is represented by Wang Guowei. Wang Guowei once carefully studied Gu's translation of "The Doctrine of the Mean" and wrote an article "After Gu Tangsheng's English Translation of "The Doctrine of the Mean"", pointing out several major and minor shortcomings in it, and believed that Gu's translation attempt was a major failure.
Regardless of people’s evaluation of Gu’s translation activities, we should all admit that he made a great contribution to the interpretation and promotion of Chinese culture. The Analects of Confucius he translated has nearly 10,000 copies purchased in Europe and the West and is widely circulated; his translation of "The Doctrine of the Mean" was included in the "Oriental Wisdom Series". Gu family also became famous in the West. He introduced traditional Chinese culture to the Western world with great enthusiasm and creativity, and wrote an important chapter in the history of Chinese and Western cultures.