Qianjiang Evening News hourly news reporter Zhang Jinhua
"If in recent years, anyone's writing can see Chen Yinke's shadow, it is Miao Zhe." This is Southern Weekend's evaluation of Miao Zhe, an art historian and professor at Zhejiang University.
It should be said that this is a very high evaluation.
And Mr. Miao Zhe is not only the end, he can be called a cross-border literary and art circle "slash middle-aged", in addition to the status of an art historian, he is also a famous translator.
This time, however, we turned our lens to Mr. Miao Zhe, who is an art historian. Because his new book, "From the Hall of Spiritual Light to the Wuliang Ancestral Hall", has just been published, is a research monograph on the portraits of the Han Dynasty.
The study of Han Dynasty portraits is a prominent study in the history of Chinese art. The Wushi Ancestral Hall and the Portrait of the Wuliang Ancestral School, the Xiaotangshan Ancestral Hall to which it belongs, are also prominent studies of the Han Dynasty.
Professor Miao Zhe's research in recent years has focused on the use of archaeological excavations of tomb materials to reconstruct the imperial art of the Han Dynasty in the middle and late Western Han Dynasty and the early Eastern Han Dynasty, and this book is his integrated work.
The centuries from the Warring States to the Han Dynasty were the "Axis Era" of the Chinese painting tradition. The process of its occurrence, development, and establishment is still an untold story. This book presents the climax of this story: by identifying and capturing the "royal factor" in the tomb portraits of Shandong civilians, the author makes a credible restoration of the basic outlines of the emerging imperial art of the Han Dynasty, and explores the political, ceremonial, and ideological dynamics behind it.
After focusing on a series of core themes such as "Heavenly Emperor Diagram", "Xiangrui-Disaster Map", "Confucius Master Laozi", "Zhou Gongfu Chengwang", "Louge Worship Diagram" and "Chema (Halogen) Diagram", the author concludes that in the early Chinese art history, the transition from the Shangzhou pattern tradition to the Han and Tang dynasty traditions was completed at the turn of the two Han Dynasties; the external driving force of the turn was the ideological construction and dissemination of the Han Empire. Since then, the materialistic painting with the character narrative as the main content has become a new art tradition that has ruled for nearly a thousand years.
Miao Zhe said that when we talk about aesthetics, art, fashion and lifestyle in contemporary times, we often ignore the historical context behind all this, thinking that it is our personal tastes and preferences, but perhaps you do not know that all these cultivations have historical contexts and cultural origins. Perhaps, the aesthetic taste in your life, to those paintings that date back to the Han Dynasty?
Doesn't that sound a little bit fantastic?
"When we talk about painting, we're not talking about the innate instinct to paint, but about the history of painting. Therefore, we must understand the origin of the painting tradition from a historical perspective, rather than talking about the origin from the prehistoric petroglyphs and pottery patterns that have little to do with this tradition. This is one of Miao Zhe's points.
Regarding the new book, Miao Zhe said: "A society is always layered, and there are always overlapping places between layers, places of interaction, conceptual and ideological interaction, and will also cause some artistic interaction. In ancient society, it must be the royal and the upper layers that launched art, and then the art they launched would penetrate through various channels, layer by layer, such as ancient Rome, ancient Persia, ancient Egypt, and the entire ancient world was such a common model, and the lower layer lacked the need and strength to produce art, which is different from our modern society. So my inference is that these residual functional artistic productions have more or less accepted the infiltration of the upper art, or that some of the shadows of the upper art can be seen from it, and spliced together, we can reverse the inference of the royal art, the elite art, of the upper layer of society that no longer exists. My book is to argue the existence of 'downward infiltration' through the comparison of the spiritual light hall of the princes and the portrait stones in the middle and lower Wuliang Ancestral Hall. ”
The 2022 debut of the Qianbao Book Club will be at 2 p.m. on January 9, at the Mingyuan Study Room of Xiaofeng Bookstore, inviting Mr. Miao Zhe, a professor, art historian and translator of Zhejiang University, and Mr. Yang Zhenyu, dean of the School of Humanities of the China Academy of Art, to open up a world of Chinese Han Dynasty portraits for readers and friends, and also to unveil a mystery of the origin of Chinese painting for readers and friends.
Friends who like Chinese art, as well as fans of translator Miao Zhe, let's have a brain-burning and romantic New Year's appointment.
Read a little more
Below, let's revisit the Qianjiang Evening News Hour News client's interview with Miao Zhe years ago——
"Professor and Translator Miao Zhe of Zhejiang University: When you see a good book, you can't help it, and you want others to read it and then be happy"
"Since 1986, I have been cooking for a living. The longest thing in between is to do editing and cooking other people's words. Later, in addition to editing, he translated several lines of books. After that, he learned and made some old sesame seeds and rotten grain. This is what Miao Zhe, an art historian and professor at Zhejiang University's School of Art and Archaeology, did ten years ago.
He once humbly said: "Translate third-rate books, do fourth-rate learning", and now, his translations of "Selpeng Natural History", "Angler Qing dialect", "Urn Burial" and other translations, known as "Miao Zhe Classic Translation", have been polished over the years, reprinted many times, washed and brighter like pearls, and are liked by more and more contemporary readers.
If "The Fisherman's Tale" is a small pastoral, then "Selpen Natural History" is a vast pastoral, but the difference between the two is that "Selpen Natural History" is outside of the pastoral, and the author White writes letters with the attitude of a scientist.
"Angler Qing dialect" was first translated in 1994, the new edition of "Angler Qing Dialect" on the waist cover, there is such a sentence: popular for more than three hundred years, one of the most reprinted English books, for people tired of the chaos and complexity of modern life, such a book, is a refuge.
"Simplicity, kindness, patience, and contentment are not the ideals of our people today. Walton lived in a period of great change in England, and everyone was on his back, looking at the palace, looking at the god of wealth, looking at the bishop's throne, and there were not many people like him who looked down at the grass and the clear stream. Miao Zhe said "Angler Qing Talk" as an attitude to life.
"When I translated "The Fisherman's Clear Talk" to the later, I had the feeling that 'I was annoyed by the insect fish nearly, regretted that I would be tired for a long trip, Walton green shoes and socks fishing, and I clamped the pen and carried the mirror to the library building.". He said.
"Serpon Natural History", the interest in nature, is now becoming a small fashion in China. Abroad, the author White's hometown of Selpen has now become a pilgrimage site for british and American nature lovers. If you go back to the Republic of China period, Zhou Zuoren has introduced this book, and the author White represents "the dawn of the philosophical spirit of science." To a great extent, he was a pioneer of the generation of intellectual giants of Lyle, Darwin, Spencer and Huxley. Miao Zhe said, "This fun is very easy, and anyone who has a taste of the heart can enjoy it." Only highly learned and knowledgeable as Zhou Zuoren, I don't feel shallow, I don't learn like me, and I don't feel profound." This kind of pastoral fun, in Miao Zhe's view, may be able to "clear our mouths" for us in the red dust.
Regarding translation, for Miao Zhe, it is really love and hate. What is the joy of translation while shouting "Lao Tzu is no longer dry", while willingly "degenerating", "suffering like an animal"? Miao Zhe described it this way: "The person who translates the book is not for the name, not for the benefit, but when he sees a good book, he cannot be forbidden, and he will want others to read it and then rejoice." So lay out the paper, carve the chapters and sentences, and spend months and years trying their best to do their best in different languages, different species, different religions, different styles, and even hundreds of years of antiquity, and cannot invite you to the Harvard School, the foreign people who tour the official halls of Paris, only for the compatriots of the same language and the same species, and you have the same joy and the same harvest. ”
At the end of the year, the originally scheduled Qianbao reading party for Miao Zhe's new book was postponed due to the impact of the epidemic, and Professor Miao Zhe, as a translator, accepted an exclusive interview with the reporter of this newspaper, and the following is the dialogue between the Reporter of Qianjiang Evening News and Miao Zhe ——
【Fishing will eventually go to the wild, and it will be quiet after all】
Qianjiang Evening News: "Angler Qing talk" is the angler's "Bible", three hundred years enduring, you said, "I feel my own life, every time this book as my spiritual memorandum", it can be seen that between you and this translation is a kind of sympathetic relationship, you also love the "wild tune of the wind", right? This is also an important reason why the translation can become a classic, right?
Miao Zhe: The Fisherman's Tale was published in 1653, just after the end of the English Civil War (1642-1651). This was the beginning of Britain's entry into modern times. Everything was chaotic: politics, beliefs, values, ways of behaving; in Walton's words, "wild tunes that prevailed." He wrote this book just to be quiet. If you look at this book, there is a quiet and a pastoral tune, how can there be any fuss? I translated this book in the early 90s, which coincided with the great changes. My personality, which was cultivated in the 80s, is not adapted to the restlessness at that time, and translating it is also a figure of tranquility, reinforcing the old belief. "Wild tunes of the wind"? I never liked it.
Qianjiang Evening News: You may wish to go into more detail, you said that fishing is also very ancient in China, and there are many mentions in the Book of Poetry, mainly for the entertainment of small people, but you also said: Fishing is a philosophy, what is the solution? Do you personally like fishing?
Miao Zhe: Fishing is one of the earliest production methods of human beings, and it is "ancient" everywhere, not only in China. As for the development of entertainment, giving it meaning, which is of course the result of culture. In the era of the Book of Verses, there were indeed ones, such as "What is its fishing?" Wicked and bream", and so on. Fishing is philosophy, meaning to give it meaning. Fishing is to go into the wild, to be quiet, to encounter the human "other", the fish. This is separate from the "everyday" and requires a special way of behaving. You elevate this approach to principle, with the belief that behavior is "everyday," which is "philosophy." As for myself, fish are not caught much. "The heart yearns" only, "can not arrive".
Qianjiang Evening News: Let's talk about "Angler Qing talk", from Walton in the West to the classical Chinese poet Zhang Zhihe's "Fishing Songzi", is the fishing thing they praise the same thing? Is it the same way of life? Between the words, you seem to have a lot of doubts about the theme of "fishing and fishing" in China?
Miao Zhe: The character cultivated by fishing and the beliefs generated by fishing are all medicines that relieve the disturbance of red dust in ancient and modern China and abroad. Chinese poems such as "Fishing Songzi" and Walton's "Xi Jing" philosophy are all about this. Of course, in detail, there are also differences. The feelings of ancient China were always inseparable from the "temples" and "rivers and lakes". Fishing in the rivers and lakes is a reflection of the temple. The West, for its part, lacks our dualistic structure of "temple-jianghu"; fishing as a symbol has little to do with politics, mainly character and faith. If I am not satisfied with the theme of "fishing and fishing" in China, it is too posture and not good fishing.
[Translation must be proud, otherwise it is too bitter]
Qianjiang Evening News: Regarding the translation, the translations in this set of "Miao Zhe Classic Translations" that we have read look very quaint, and should they be mainly attributed to the beautiful and ancient language of the original work? Or is the style of translation itself more decisive, such as your personal cultivation in classical poetry and art, in order to translate the elegant taste of a translation that matches the classical British style? Especially some of the ancient Ballads of the United Kingdom, such as sonnets, you translate them into sonnets with the flavor of ancient Chinese poetry, such as, "Swan Play Qingbo / Boats and Boats Are Crowded / Huanghuang Thames / Standing in the Hundred Rivers", etc., this is really a deliberate "combination of East and West", in the process of translation, are you very proud of the translation of such inspired Qingshi li sentences?
Miao Zhe: I have translated four books, in addition to the three reprints this time, there is also a set of Burke's texts on the independence of the Americas ("Three Books of the Americas"). Four authors, all with styles. Brown was dull but brilliant, Walton idyllic, White whispered softly, and Burke salivated. I am a Chinese of bonology, I have few writers' aspirations, and I have no success, so I use translation as a sustenance. In this style, sometimes it is "overheated" ,—— you call it "a combination of East and West", or good. The translator must be proud, otherwise it will be too bitter to last. Liang Shiqiu translated Shakespeare, encountered "a pissing while", a clever idea, and wrote as "the work of soaking urine". After translating the pen, Gu Pan Zixiong. This is a great pride. I am small, only small and proud.
Qianjiang Evening News: You have written an essay before, called "Less Do Not Read Tang Poems", it seems that you also have a lot of experience in ancient poetry, you said that Tang poetry emphasizes the artistic conception, re-practice of words, less experience and poor sense of writing, it is difficult to appreciate its beauty, I want to ask, a good translator must have a good ancient culture, such as to be familiar with Tang poetry?
Miao Zhe: Compared with the modern languages of the West, the history of modern Chinese is too short; compared with ancient times, the investment in intelligence is not enough,—— the first-class wisdom of ancient times is nothing more than writing; modern times are divided into different fields, such as science, technology, law, economy and so on. In this way, the fineness of modern Chinese is insufficient, such as the "spectrum" of the vocabulary is not long enough, and the sentence form is not rich enough. Ancient Chinese has a history of more than 2,000 years, whether it is the subtlety of the expression or the flow of sentences, there are places we can learn from. But language is always a reproduction of experience, and the language of ancient times may not match today's experience; learning too much will distort and shield living experience. So do you want to learn it? This is not easy to say.
Qianjiang Evening News: You once wrote an article "Who Really Did It", described the hardships of translating books, "those who do not want to get rich, they do not dare to think about names", and you also said that sometimes the names of translators are still "annoying and annoying", as a translator, what kind of book will make you have the impulse to translate into Chinese to Chinese readers? Is there a standard for works that make you "can't help it"?
Miao Zhe: Different people, of course, the impulse is not the same. But one thing should be common: want to share it with others. I'm pretty much the same. In addition to sharing, what piqued my impulse was the style of writing. Style is a challenge. It's not about challenging me personally, it's about Chinese. The experience in foreign languages is not consistent with what is expressed in Chinese, and it cannot be put into existing Chinese. This becomes a test of the potential of the Chinese language. If, when it is put in, not only is the structure undamaged, but also a different kind of beauty, this grasps the essence of translation: it enriches the language and the experience. I don't do translation, I've been doing it for many years, but every time I read a good style, I can't help but shake like a veteran hearing a trumpet. A few days ago, the epidemic was isolated, and I went to idly flip through Gibbon's "History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire". The structural strength of the language is like a Gothic church. There is a "shape", there must be a "shadow"; there is a "sound", there must be a "sound". Translated into Chinese, will it become a sloppy postmodern building?
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[Don't be too narcissistic, let yourself drown people]
Qianjiang Evening News: "The Natural History of Selpeng", Zhou Zuoren said that this book "talks about grass, trees, insects and fish, which is a very interesting thing in my opinion", but he wants to translate the whole text but has not translated it? In addition, the writer Li Guangtian of the Republic of China also wrote an article to introduce this book, when was the first time this book was transmitted to China? Whether this epistolary work of natural erudition also hits a certain sentiment of the Chinese literati and has attracted attention?
Miao Zhe: The first person to introduce the Natural History of Selpen seems to be Zhou Zuoren. Li Guangtian was a disciple of Zhou Zuoren, and his introduction was probably "Shi Cheng". Zhou Zuoren did the translation, it was 49 years later, the book was designated by the state (mostly Greek works), he did not decide. Before this, he talked about dragons and tigers, and did not translate books very well. The Natural History is about grass, trees, insects and fish, which is consistent with some of the contents of the scripture Erya. You said that it is alluded to "a certain feeling of Chinese literati", which is of course good. However, since the Meiji era, Japan has been influenced by the West, and it has also set off a naturalistic fever. There are institutions, there are societies, there are magazines, there are books, and the momentum is huge. "Natural History" is also expensive in Japan. Zhou is familiar with Japan, and of course he is no stranger to this. Therefore, in addition to the old Chinese feelings, his interest in "Natural History" should also have a Japanese element.
Qianjiang Evening News: In order to translate the natural history of Serpen, do you personally need to do a lot of naturalistic knowledge reserves, or are you also a naturalist enthusiast, and this book is in line with your personal accumulation of interests for many years, so that when you translate, you can naturally reach the world in the book?
Miao Zhe: It's similar to fishing, basically "on paper". When I was a child in the countryside, I saw a lot of grass and trees and insects. But the days are bitter, the heart to eat is more, and the heart of "lattice" is less. Growing up reading the Scriptures, Erya was also unfamiliar with it. So how can it be translated? Very fortuitous. I was speaking in Parliament at The Translator Burke. It was a quarrel in parliament, and the tone was so high that it hurt my brain. My old friend, Mr. Qin Ying, who was the editor-in-chief of Huacheng at the time, came to "put down the set" and said, you might as well translate "Natural History" at the same time, a temple, a river and lake, you have better travel in both, there will be Zhang Youchi; after you finish translating, I will publish. That's how I'm in the loop. But in retrospect, it was a very pleasant experience.
Qianjiang Evening News: You quote Ben-Qiongsheng as saying: Where the world style is corrupt, the language is also followed. The decay of language is a sign of mental illness. Are you a person with a linguistic cleanliness? Is there some bad ethos in the translation industry that you would like to approve? And the online language that fills people's eyes today, what do you think? In your opinion, is it a positive or negative act for a translator to move closer to the taste of popular culture when translating the writing of a book?
Miao Zhe: Translation is a chore. Not only is it bitter, it has no money; in school, there is no work points. There are still people who do it, and this is what Mencius called "the heart of a benevolent person"! When you go to a bookstore, the proportion of translated works is unexpected; the more serious the bookstore, the more so. Knowing that without translation, the landscape of our intellect would be very different. To contribute like this, to gain as much as you can, and to criticize it is too unforgiving. Now a lot of translations, maybe not good, but bad truth, in the mechanism, not in the individual. The mechanism is smooth, and it is not too late to approve it. As for whether it is good or bad to use online language, it has to do with the style of the original work. The essence of translation, although it is to make "him" become "me", but when doing it specifically, it is still necessary to keep "him" as much as possible, don't be too narcissistic, and let yourself drown people.
[I'm not a literati]
Qianjiang Evening News: I read some of your articles, I like to use the text directly, and I have also mentioned the last Confucianism and the last literati in the article, and also said that in the behavior of traditional literati, there is a distinction between "celebrity" and "yashi", you said that both reflect the "most beautiful and exquisite parts" of Chinese culture, but also said that in modern and even postmodern today, the mind of a celebrity or a gentleman cannot handle the current experience, which type of literati do you personally prefer to be?
Miao Zhe: I am not a literati. The so-called literati do not refer to occupations, but to a state of life. This state, of course, can have many definitions, such as being able to write poetry, being able to compose, being able to taste the meaning beyond the everyday from the everyday, and so on. But from a sociological point of view, the so-called literati regard education as capital, from people who are not the same as me. I was "less and less cheap" and did not cultivate this kind of elite consciousness. "Parenting" is, for me, just a vocational skill. From a sociological point of view, the division of classes always depends on collective consciousness. You personally have a sense of separation, so what's the use? The community has no feelings for your feelings, only that you are ridiculous. I don't think today's society feels this way, so I don't think there are literati now.
Qianjiang Evening News: As an art historian, we know that you have a new book this year, and you have lamented that art is difficult to write. Writing form, then the language is mental, clumsy in describing the knowledge of the senses; talking about the context, the different experiences of human beings, is "secret bypass", there is no trace of the association that needs to be slackened, and the appreciation of words is that the feeling is ethereal, not easy to appear in the language, so to speak, whether doing art history research or translation, it is a bit of a forced road, not so easy to walk, but these two categories have been immersed in decades, can you still enjoy it?
Miao Zhe: Translating and doing research are different things, but they are very bitter. The bitterness of translation is the transformation of style. The translation should not be too raw or too familiar. "To be born" requires creation, and it is always not easy to create. The bitterness of art history research is the transformation of vision into words. Visual things cannot be thought of, and they must be "literalized" before they can be thought of. This requires jumping between different cognitive systems,—— just like you use music to express your sense of taste for food. Of course, this is difficult. In comparison, I prefer translation. First, it is full of small pleasures, the pleasure of fiddling with words,—— which is every moment; the joy of research, only in the time of breakthrough. Second, the books you translate are always classic, always written by first-class minds. Research, I don't have enough brains, I can't do first-class, and doing this is very senseless. Liberal arts stuff, much like eyebrows: eyebrows are not pretty, does it matter?
Miao Zhe
He graduated from the Department of Chinese of Peking University in 1986. Professor of the School of Art and Archaeology of Zhejiang University, scholar of Chinese and Western art history. He is the author of "The Collection of Evil Dates". His translations include "Urn Burial", "Angler Qing Dialect", "Selpen Natural History", "Three Books of the Americas", "Robinson Crusoe" and so on. His translations are exquisite and elegant, antique, and highly respected in the translation community.
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