He called himself a native of Shandong, and Richard William became Wei Lixian

Source: Dazhong Daily

Original title: He called himself a Native of Shandong, changed from a missionary to a world-renowned sinologist, and played the role of "messenger of two worlds" between China and Germany.

Richard William became Wei Lixian

Wei Lixian (1873-1930) was a German who came to China at the end of the nineteenth century as a missionary, his real name was Richard Wilhelm (top right), born in 1873 in Stuttgart, the capital of the Kingdom of Württemberg, Germany. The University of Tübingen is a prestigious school in Europe with a long history, from which the famous philosopher Hegel graduated.

In 1899, Wei Lixian came to Qingdao from Shanghai as a missionary of the Tongshan Society (Weimar Missionary Society in Germany), where he has spent more than 20 years of his 57 years. His son Wei Deming, also a famous sinologist (known in Europe and the United States for teaching the I Ching), was born in Qingdao. During this period, Wei Lixian also traveled to many places in Shandong, including Tai'an, Qingzhou, Qufu, Jinan, Weixian, Laoshan and other places, and he also climbed Mount Tai twice.

Wei Lixian's missionary journey completely changed the trajectory of his life. He originally came to China to spread Christianity, but in fact, not only did he not even develop a believer, but he was attracted to Chinese culture, became extremely interested in Chinese culture, and devoted almost his life's energy to it!

When he first arrived in Qingdao, Wei Lixian eagerly learned Chinese, and named himself Wei Lixian in China, taking the word Xisheng, which shows the profound influence of Confucianism on him. Wei Lixian also founded the Zunkong Wenshe Library in Qingdao, which is the earliest modern library in the local area. At that time, the West and the East gradually formed a tide of the times, a large number of Western works and doctrines were translated into China, and Wei Lixian went against the trend and actively introduced and disseminated Chinese culture to the West, which had a huge impact in Europe and the United States.

Wei Lixian devoted himself to the work of translating Chinese cultural classics with a religious, almost fanatical, selfless mental state, and the speed and quantity were quite amazing. He completed and published the Analects (1910) (bottom right), Lao Tzu's Tao Te Ching (1911), Zhuangzi's Nanhua Zhenjing (1912), Mencius (1914), University (1920), I Ching (1924), and Li Ji - The Book of Etiquette of Da Dai and Xiao Dai (1930). Of course, what had a great influence on him and won him worldwide fame was the translation and publication of the I Ching.

It took Wei Lixian ten years before and after the translation of the I Ching. Wei Lixian himself recorded his exchanges with cultural celebrities such as Lao Naixuan, Kang Youwei, and Gu Hongming in Qingdao in his book "Chinese Soul" (also translated as "Chinese Spirit"), and some of them recorded the translation process of the I Ching.

It cannot but be said that Wei Lixian was able to successfully translate the I Ching into German, and there was one person who played a very important role, and he was Lao Naixuan. Wei Lixian became acquainted with Lao Naixuan at the recommendation of Zhou Fu, a former inspector of Shandong, and he himself recorded the process of their bond in the eleventh chapter of "The Chinese Soul", "The Ancestors of Qingdao". At that time, Zhou Fu wanted to introduce Wei Lixian to a Chinese teacher who was "truly rooted in the Chinese spirit" and could lead him "into the depths of the Chinese spirit", so he recommended Lao Naixuan to him. About this matter, Lao Naixuan also wrote about it in the "Self-defined Chronology of the Old Man of Rensu" and in the letters to Luo Zhenyu. Lao Naixuan (1843-1921) character Ji Xuan, also known as YuChu, also known as Ren Shuo, Tongzhi Ten Years (1871) Jinshi, served as the deputy minister of the Late Qing Dynasty Academic Department, the general supervisor of the Beijing Normal University, born in Shuxiang Mendi, was a scholar of broad knowledge of the history of the classics. In the third year of Tongzhi (1864), Lao Naixuan married the daughter of Kong Yueting in Qufu and became the son-in-law of Kong Fu.

After crossing the bridge with Zhou Fu, Lao Naixuan went to Qingdao to cooperate with Wei Lixian. He "lectured on the scriptures with Wei Jun (Wei Lixian also known as Wei Lixian)", and While being taught with an open mind, he often questioned his Chinese teacher, and he praised Lao Naixuan as a "truly outstanding and rigorous person". Under The careful explanation of Lao Naixuan, Wei Lixian was able to translate the I Ching "accurately and thoroughly". Both of them took their work very seriously, and Wei Lixian described it in the preface to the first edition of the German translation of the I Ching: they "translated the translation after a detailed discussion of the scriptures." It is then translated back from Chinese into German, and the translation is considered valuable only when the meaning of the text is fully expressed."

Just when Lao Naixuan and Wei Lixian were concentrating on translating the I Ching, the First World War broke out, and Lao Naixuan had to retreat to Jinan and Qufu, and the translation of the I Ching was interrupted. Three years later, Lao Naixuan returned to Qingdao and restarted the translation of the I Ching with Wei Lixian. The translation of the I Ching was completed on the basis of Lao Naixuan's detailed and in-depth explanation, coupled with Wei Lixian's own Western studies, and the success of the German translation of the I Ching was indispensable to both of them.

Ten years after sharpening a sword, Wei Lixian's German text of the I Ching was finally published in 1924, and in the preface to the first edition, he fully expressed his deep respect and gratitude to the Chinese teacher Lao Naixuan. In 1926, he also published the portrait of Lao Naixuan in the first edition of "Chinese Soul", which showed the importance and respect he attached to this Chinese teacher. Wei Lixian later wrote in his recollection of Lao Naixuan: "He was known for his humor and humor, but in fact he was a truly outstanding and rigorous person, but he adopted an informal way of behaving. He belongs to the mysterious sages. (See Translations of the History of Sino-German Relations)

Wei Lixian's German translation of the I Ching was a great success and earned him a worldwide reputation. After the publication of the German version of the I Ching, it caused a strong response in Germany and even the entire Western world, and was republished one by one. Swiss psychologist Jung called it an "unparalleled version." So far, Wei Lixian's German I Ching has been reprinted more than twenty times. English, French, Italian, Spanish and other languages translated from this model are widely circulated all over the world.

Wei Lixian's translation of the Taoist classic "Taiyi Jinhua Purpose" was also quite influential in the Western world. In 1927, after Wei Lixian translated the Taiyi Jinhua Purpose into German, he invited the famous psychoanalytic psychologist Jung to write a commentary, and Jung praised it after carefully studying it from the perspective of a psychologist, saying that the book helped him contact the "secret of the Chinese soul". In 1929, Wei Lixian and Jung cooperated to complete the German translation of "Taiyi Jinhua Purpose" published, entitled "The Secret of the Golden Flower - The Book of Life in China", which is a work of deep collision and fusion of Eastern and Western ideas, which immediately had a major impact on the Western academic circles, and was immediately translated into English, French, Italian, Japanese and other languages, and a variety of Chinese versions were also published. Through the bridge of "Taiyi Jinhua Purpose", Wei Lixian and Jung achieved cross-border cooperation and achieved great success. Jung said, "He as a sinologist and I as a physician will never be in contact," and "However, we met in the humanities." It should be said that Jung's praise-filled commentary enhanced the influence of the book.

As a sinologist with world influence, Wei Lixian not only translated Chinese cultural classics, but also published many books on China and Chinese culture, as well as customs and customs, such as "Chinese Mind" (published in 1926), "Chinese Economic Psychology" (also translated as "Economic Psychology of Chinese", published in 1930), "Confucius and Confucianism" (published in 1928), "Lao Tzu and Taoism" (published in 1925), "Chinese Cultural History" (published in 1928), "Chinese Philosophy" (published in 1928), "Chinese Philosophy" (published in 1929), as well as Social Etiquette in China (published in 1906), Customs of Chinese Girls Born (published in 1909), and so on. Among these works, the book "Chinese Mind" has the greatest influence.

Wei Lixian's time in China coincided with a period of great changes in Chinese society: major events such as the Boxer Rebellion, the Xinhai Revolution, and the New Culture Movement occurred one after another. The content of "Chinese Soul" is very rich, not only from the perspective of a foreigner to record the great changes in Chinese society, but also to record the author's interactions with some famous figures, such as Prince Gong Puwei, Gu Hongming, Kang Youwei, Lao Naixuan, etc.; describes some famous mountains and rivers, introduces the customs and habits of Shandong, and even writes about beggars and thieves. The seventh chapter, "Journey to Confucius And the Wedding of Confucius Descendants", records what was seen and heard in Confucius House in Qufu, as well as the grand occasion of the wedding of Confucius descendants. This content opened a window for the West to understand China, and after the book was published in Berlin, Germany, in 1926, it was translated into English in 1928, published by Harcourt Press in New York, usa, and circulated around the world.

In addition, Wei Lixian also had contacts with the modern Chinese poet Xu Zhimo. According to Wei Lixian, the two met at a gathering of beijing cultural celebrities held at the Beijing Hotel. At that time, Wei Lixian served as a "student advisor" at the German Legation in Beijing, and was also invited to work part-time in the German Department of Peking University, teaching courses such as German literature and German philosophy, during which he became acquainted with Cai Yuanpei, Hu Shi and others. Xu Zhimo has a poem "Small Flower Basket - Sending Mr. Wei Lixian", which was written in commemoration of Wei Lixian accompanying him on a tour of Germany a year ago, and was published in the Morning Post on March 23, 1923. In the archives of Wei Lixian's manuscripts collected by the Bavarian Academy of Sciences in Germany, there is also a six-page letterhead manuscript sent by Xu Zhimo to Wei Lixian.

Wei Lixian's association with Chinese culture began with a religious mission. He came to China from the distant European continent as a missionary on an old-fashioned steamship, but was deeply attracted by Chinese culture and turned to the translation and dissemination of Chinese culture, which he did not expect. He was keenly aware that Chinese culture contained something very precious, and "sacrificed its European prejudices for this rare treasure" (Jung), which is what makes Wei Lixian extraordinary. He "went beyond his profession, and his knowledge became a concern for humanity". He called himself a native of Shandong, changed from Richard Wilhelm to Wei Lixian, changed from a missionary to a world-renowned sinologist, played the role of "messenger of two worlds" between China and Germany, made great efforts and outstanding contributions to the spread of Chinese culture in the world, and was a "great German Chinese".

(The author is a doctoral supervisor and professor of Shandong Normal University, and this article is the result of the Shandong Provincial Social Science Foundation project "Research and Dissemination of Chinese Culture by Missionary Wei Lixian")