On translation of Taoist philosophical texts: Preservation of ambiguity and contradiction

Journal of Chinese Philosophy

Volumn 25, Issue 1, 1998, Pages 147-156

  Fleming, Jesse ^a  

^a TAMKANG UNIVERSITY   (Taiwan)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 61049355120     PISSN: 03018121     EISSN: 15406253     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1111/j.1540-6253.1998.tb00502.x     Document Type: Review

References (15)

1. In my own opinion, all language is metaphorical, even this sentence- a view I would attribute, by the way, to both Nietzsche and Chuang Tzu.
2. After all Wang Bi lived around 250 A. D. and Chu Hsi around 1200 A. D.- at least 500 years and 1400 years, respectively, after the most recent parts of the I Ching were composed.
3. Oxford University Press, 1992
4. Scholar's Press, 1982, and SUNY Press, 1990, respectively.
5. By "mystical' philosophy, I mean a philosophy which denies that language and logic are capable of straightforwardly presenting the truth to us for example, the Lao Tzu says that, "Those who speak do not know, and those who know do not speak. "
6. The Act of Reading: A Theory of Aesthetic Response, Johns Hopkins University Press, 1978
7. See the last third of Gadamer's Wahrheit und Methode
8. See Ch'en Ku-ying's Lao Tzu chin-chu chin-i chi p'ing-chieh, Taipei: Shang-Wu Yin-Shu Kuan, 1976, and the English translation of Ch'en Ku-ying's book by Rhett Y. W. Young and Roger Ames, Lao Tzu: Text, Notes and Comments, R. O. C. : Chinese Materials Center, 1981.
9. Wing-tsit Chan offers a similar translation/interpretation: "The Nameless is the origin of Heaven and Earth,/The Named is the mother of all things", A Source Book in Chinese Philosophy, Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1963.
10. For a definitive discussion of a similarly ambiguous line from the Lao Tzu (ch. 25: Tao fa tzu-jan) see Gunter Wohlfart's 'Truth lies in Translation. Philosophische Bemerkungen zu Wahrheit und Luege von Uebersetzungen am Beispiel einer Passage aus dem Laozi," presented at the 9th Symposium of the Academie du Midi, in Covilha, Portugal, May 24, 1997. Prof. Wohlfart's opinions regarding preservation of ambiguity in translation of Taoist texts seems not too different from my own (p. 12). "Koennte sich die Problematik der Uebersetzung nicht als eine Scheinproblematik erweisen, resultierend aus westlicher Entweder/Oder-Logik?"
11. In his Appendix, "On Translating Certain Chinese Philosophical Terms," Chan remarks: "Some terms are so complicated in their meanings, like yin (dark, negative, passive, or female principle, force, or element) and its opposite, yang, that they have to be transliterated. "
12. For an in-depth discussion of the parallels between translation of texts and "translation" of the unconscious into consciousness, see Andrew Benjamin's Translation and the Nature of Philosophy, (Routledge, 1989), chapter 5 "Psychoanalysis and Translation. "
13. Of course, there are fascinating and illuminating comparisons to be made between comparative philosophy and comparative literature, both are attempts to "translate" some idea, image, symbol, etc. from one context into another. Both have a dangerous tendency to emphasize similarities at the cost of important differences, just as in "translation" the translator may seek to convey conceptual similarities and neglect important differences as though they didn't exist, thus deceiving the uninformed reader.
14. This point was suggested to me by two papers in Interpreting Across Boundaries: New Essays in Comparative Philosophy, edited by Gerald J. Larson and Eliot Deutsch, Princeton University Press, 1988
15. namely, "Comparative Philosophy: What It Is and What It Ought to Be," by Daya Krishna, and "What is Comparative Philosophy Comparing?" by Raimundo Panikkar.