German sinologist Bu Songshan: How to show the "beauty" of Chinese culture by means of translation?
China News Service, Beijing, December 26 Title: German sinologist Bu Songshan: How to use translation as a path to show the "beauty" of Chinese culture?
China News Service reporter Shi Yuanfeng Wan Shuyan
European sinology began 200 years ago, while European translations of Chinese literature began as early as the 16th century. The German sinologist Bu Songshan believes that although sinology and translation have played a role in the exchange between China and the West, there is still an "asymmetry" between Chinese and Western translations: Chinese almost all Western cultural classics have been translated into Chinese, while Westerners know very little about China, because of the "hegemonic discourse" of the West.
In August 2018, the Fifth International Symposium on Sinologist Literature Translation opened in Huaxi, Guiyang City, with 38 translators from 24 countries including France and Germany, and more than 50 Chinese writers, including Mo Yan, Tie Ning, Jia Pingwa, Yu Hua, and Ah Lai, attending the seminar. Photo by He Junyi, China News Service
There are many misunderstandings and prejudices in China in the Western context. How can China and the West eliminate the estrangement and exchange and learn from each other? Karl-Heinz Pohl, a well-known German sinologist, recently gave an exclusive interview to China News Agency's "East and West Question" to talk about how to show the "beauty" of Chinese culture to the West through translation.
The interview transcript is summarized below:
China News Service: You have long studied Chinese philosophy and modern aesthetics, translated many famous Chinese works, and published academic monographs.
Bu Songshan: I became interested in Chinese culture through Lin Yutang's philosophical work The Art of Living, which I read in high school, which shows a fascinating perspective on the differences between Chinese and Western cultures. Later, I read a book about Zen Buddhism, the classic book of the American philosopher Alan Watts, The Way of Zen, and it was very fascinating. The book shows that Zen Buddhism is not so much a Japanese phenomenon as a Chinese phenomenon, a fusion of Indian Buddhism and Chinese Taoism. My religious background is Catholic, and my encounter with Zen Buddhism inspired me and greatly broadened my worldview. This also allowed me to switch from geophysics to sinology at the University of Hamburg in Germany 51 years ago.
In November 2018, representatives of overseas Chinese-language media visited the Linyutang Memorial Hall in Zhangzhou, Fujian Province. China News Service reporter Zhang Bin photographed
China News Service: You have studied Chinese culture for half a century, what kind of ideological process have you experienced? What influences has Chinese culture brought to you? How do you introduce Chinese culture to the West?
Bu Songshan: First of all, I studied the rich intellectual history of China. Although my interest began with Buddhism, I soon learned to appreciate the traditional culture of Confucianism and Taoism. I learned that these worldviews in pre-modern China are not mutually exclusive, but complement and influence each other. Today, I find each of these three doctrines equally fascinating. They greatly broadened my worldview.
Then I studied the modern history of China, especially the influence of European colonialism and Japanese militarism on China, namely the Opium War, the Boxer Rebellion and the War of Resistance Against Japan, and I began to understand how this affected the attitude of Chinese today.
When I teach or write books about Chinese culture, I first try to show the particularities of Chinese, and then introduce the influence of Confucianism, Taoism, and Buddhism, explaining it from the perspective of everyday culture. I also introduced China's uninterrupted history for more than thousands of years, and such a long history is unique in the world. Finally, I try to show how to understand the behavior of Chinese in conjunction with cultural context.
China News Service: You are a German translator of books such as "Taohuayuan - Tao Yuanming's Collected Poems" and Li Zehou's "The Course of Beauty", how do you overcome the "untranslatability" of translation in the translation process?
Mt. Bu Songshan: In 1982, my doctoral dissertation at the University of Toronto in Canada was entitled "Zheng Banqiao: Poet, Painter and Calligrapher". I embarked on my first trip to China for the sake of my research on this subject, and in 1981 I went to Nanjing for two months, where I was instructed by a calligrapher, which was a good experience. I also studied the history of Chinese aesthetics to understand the background of Zheng Banqiao.
The picture shows Zheng Banqiao's painting "Bamboo Stone Lan Hui Tu". Photo by Ge Shiheng, China News Service
In the process, I developed a keen interest in Chinese poetry. Returning to Germany from Canada, I decided to translate Tao Yuanming's complete collection of poems into German first. All of this made me interested in aesthetics. So when Li Zehou's "The Course of Beauty" was published and became famous, I completed the translation of the book with my students. I invited Mr. Li Zehou to Germany, where he spent half a year at the university where I worked. I invited again and kept in touch with him until he died a few weeks ago.
Translation is sometimes difficult due to differences in Chinese and Western ideas, but they can be overcome. Chinese there is also the additional difficulty of the language, which is extremely dense and esoteric, and is not always easy to understand even for Chinese scholars. For example, "Zhou Yi", many Chinese scholars have different interpretations of the book's contents.
The most difficult thing is the translation of the poem, which has to do with its form. Forms cannot be translated, such as the flat-rising style or other formal features in Du Fu's poems. Therefore, Chinese poem translated into German can only convey its content, but it is difficult to convey the beauty of its form, as the saying goes: "poetry cannot be translated".
China News Service: What are the similarities and differences between Chinese and Western aesthetics? What are the characteristics of the contact between modern Chinese aesthetics and Western thought? What do they learn from each other?
Mount Bu: Western aesthetics is a subdiscipline of philosophy. In the West, it is not considered very important. In Chinese history, aesthetics can be considered a special "Chinese way" of exploring artistic and literary creativity: the essence of poetry, calligraphy, and painting.
Chinese aesthetics is also closely related to cultural identity. When Western thought was introduced to China about 150 years ago, Chinese believed that Chinese culture was shaped by aesthetics, while Western culture was shaped by Christianity. Cai Yuanpei advocated: "Replace religion with aesthetic education." Aesthetics, therefore, is important for understanding the discussion of Chinese identity, "Chineseness." Like the "aesthetic fever" that arose in China in the 1980s under the influence of Li Zehou's writings, this is impossible to appear in the West. In the West, we can learn more about the importance of aesthetics for Chinese sense of identity.
A new Christian church in Zhongguancun, Beijing, photographed in June 2007. Photo by Liao Pan, a reporter from China News Service
China News Service: Cross-cultural communication and dialogue between China and the West is also your field of study. In your opinion, what is the origin of Chinese and Western value systems? How do you think there should be an intercultural dialogue between China and the West?
Bhusongshan: The origin of the Western value system is Christianity, and today the influence of religion has been greatly weakened and is no longer so obvious, but it is important to understand this context. That's why I call Western values post-Christian values. The origin of the Chinese value system is Confucianism, which constitutes the moral foundation of Chinese society, and Confucianism is the core of traditional Chinese culture. Even in today's society, Chinese values still have a strong Confucian color, such as "benevolence, righteousness, wisdom and faith".
Intercultural dialogue should take place on the basis of equality, mutual respect, a willingness to learn from each other, and an attempt to understand each other's point of view by changing perspectives, understanding another civilization of the world.
In September 2018, the 2018 Gusu Confucius Cultural Festival and Confucius Sacrifice Ceremony was held at the Confucian Temple in Suzhou, Jiangsu Province. At the ceremony, more than 20 foreign students from Soochow University wore traditional Chinese dresses, held bamboo sticks, and recited the Analects in unison in Chinese. Photo by Wang Jiankang, China News Service
China News Service: What is the enlightenment of translation for today's Sino-Western exchanges?
Mount Busson: The development of culture depends heavily on translation, just as the Bible was translated from Hebrew to Greek, from Greek to Latin, from Latin to English... This can be seen in the translation process of Western culture, not to mention English, French, German, Spanish and other languages. In China, the translation of Indian Buddhist scriptures has had a great influence on Chinese culture. The translation of Karl Marx's works had a fundamental impact on modern China.
In the case of Chinese-Western translation, the problem is "asymmetry": Chinese translate almost all the classics of Western culture into Chinese, but Westerners know very little about China. Although sinologists have played a role in promoting cultural exchanges and mutual understanding between China and the West, they are far from enough.
In November 2020, the ceremony and exhibition of the original works of the French text "Introduction to the Analects" opened at the National Library of China and the National Museum of Classics in Beijing. This precious manuscript and related precious documents are exhibited at the National Library. Photo by Du Yang, a reporter from China News Service
This situation is related to the position of the West for centuries. Western ideas and opinions have become the norm, the so-called "hegemonic discourse", Western views and ideas have influenced the whole world, and China has learned a lot from the West.
This "asymmetry" will only change if China becomes more important on the global stage and more confident in its own culture, while also increasing the West's desire to understand China. (End)
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Karl-Heinz Pohl, a well-known German sinologist and professor at the University of Trier, Germany, was born in 1945 in Saarluis, Germany. He was Professor of Chinese Literature and Philosophy at the University of Tübingen, Germany, former Dean of the Faculty of Literature and Media at the University of Trier, and Head of the Department of Sinology. His research interests include the history of Chinese philosophy, ethics and modern Chinese aesthetics, and cross-cultural communication and dialogue between China and the West. He is the author of academic monographs such as "Chinese Aesthetics and Literary Theory", "Chinese Thought in the Context of Globalization", "Intercultural Dialogue with China", "Discovering China: Tradition and Modernity", and has translated "Peach Blossom Garden- Tao Yuanming's Collected Poems" and "Li Zehou".