China, History and Culture Before 1800
A Brief History of China
A Brief History of Confucianism
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From the first batch of foreign students studying in China after the founding of New China, to sinologists, translators and cultural exchange workers all over the world today, the "Haike" have played an important role in promoting exchanges and mutual learning among civilizations. What is their understanding of Chinese culture and what are the moving stories of their interactions with China?
This newspaper has set up a column entitled "Haike Talks about China" today, inviting them to tell their chinese cultural insights from their personal perspectives, and to show their cultural relationship with China with vivid stories and real cases.
Biography
Flora Botton, the founder of Mexican Sinology, is now a professor at the Center for Asian and African Studies at the Mexican Academy, who once served as the Cultural Counsellor of Mexico in China, the director of the Center for Asian and African Studies at the Mexican Academy, and the editor-in-chief of the journal "Asian and African Studies". His major publications include "Miniatures of Chinese History", "China, History and Culture Before 1800 Years", "Han Dynasty: 206-220 BC", "Chinese Proverbs - Expressions of Language and Culture", etc.
Not long ago, a new book, A Brief History of Confucianism, which I and two colleagues wrote, was published. This is a popular book written in Spanish for a general audience. Through this book, I hope to tell Spanish readers that the history of Chinese civilization is inseparable from Confucianism. Confucianism is not only a philosophical thought, which has influenced the world outlook of Chinese, but also shaped the lifestyle and social form of Chinese, enabling the Chinese to form an unprecedented cohesion.
In "A Brief History of Confucianism", I focused on the life and views of Confucius, Mencius and other famous thinkers, such as "benevolent people love people" and "the people are precious", hoping to further guide readers to find books such as "Analects" and "Mencius" to read. Because in my opinion, approaching the culture of a country begins with a certain work that attracts you the most. For me, this book is the American writer Pearl Buck's "The Earth." "The Land" has a lot of empathy and empathy for China, which touched me a lot at the time. I became interested in China and began to imagine what kind of place China is. From 1964 to 1966, I participated in UNESCO's The East-West Major Project and officially embarked on the path of sinology.
In my research, I became more and more aware of the importance of first-hand information. This is not only for scholars, but also for readers who want to understand China, and the quantity and quality of translations also largely determine the image of China in their minds. Therefore, during my tenure as editor-in-chief of the quarterly journal Asian-African Studies from 1981 to 1987, I devoted myself to the translation of Chinese classics. By 1985, Asian-African Studies had translated and published "Eighteen Poems of Li Bai", "Eighteen Poems of Du Fu", "Selected Ancient Chinese Poems", Yu Dafu's "Spring Breeze Drunken Evening", Lao She's "Liu Family Courtyard", Zhang Tianyi's "Mr. Warwick", Zhao Shuli's "Little Erhei Marriage" and other Chinese literary works. These works open the door for Spanish-speaking readers to understand Chinese culture.
Compared with decades ago, today's ink Chinese exchanges are more prosperous, the translation of works, copyright trade is a grand view, and Mexican readers can more easily approach Chinese culture. Just in 2019, CIPG and the Mexican Library jointly created the China Book Center, and more than 1,000 kinds of Chinese, Western and English books, including the Greater China Library and the Comic Silk Road, were included in the Mexican Library, covering the contemporary Chinese national conditions, Traditional Chinese culture, Chinese literature, teaching Chinese as a foreign language and other categories. This is very exciting for me as a sinologist.
With more research materials, I have a new topic in my old age, that is, how to accurately convey the core concepts of Chinese culture to the world's readers.
When studying ancient Chinese philosophy, I pay more attention to the study, translation and interpretation of some key words. Because only by correctly grasping the meaning of these core words can we understand the way of thinking and values of Chinese. For example, the concept of "benevolence", "self-denial and retribution for benevolence", "benevolent anren, knowing the benevolent", "benevolent, he who wants to stand up and establish, he wants to reach and reach the people"... "Ren" appears very frequently in the Analects, as many as 109 times. How to explain this word to foreigners? Some people may directly apply Western philosophical terms to Chinese philosophical terms, but I think the meaning of these terms is different. My approach is to say the word "Ren" directly to them, and then find examples to explain its meaning one by one, so that they can understand what "Ren" is for themselves, rather than translating "Ren" into Spanish and then explaining it to them.
To be honest, Chinese culture is so vast and profound that I often worry about not being able to convey the connotations of these core vocabulary to the reader accurately. But despite the difficulties, I still have to do it. Because this is a shortcut for foreign friends to understand China, if you understand these words, it will be easier to understand the thinking and way of thinking of Chinese. This is exactly what you should strive for as a sinologist.
Looking back on my decades of academic career, I feel lucky. Because when I started doing sinology research, Mexico knew very little about sinology and China, and the field was still blank. I can choose my own research objects according to my interests, such as history, philosophy, literature, I am very interested and have done related research. My academic career can be summed up as my "love story" with China – because love is dedicated and enduring. Although I am no longer young, until the last moment of my life, I will continue to study Chinese culture and constantly look for new discoveries.
(Interview with Xu Baofeng and Wang Liqian of the "Belt and Road" Research Institute of Beijing Language and Culture University)