Confucianism was and still is the backbone of Chinese
culture. The 論
語
(Confucius --- the Analects) is the nutshell of the Confucianism. Yet, 100% of
middle school Chinese language teachers both in China and in Taiwan does not
read 論
語 in its entirety, and they cannot
understand 50% of the book as they no longer understand the Chinese language at
that level.
Before the 1920s,
85% of the population in China were illiterate, but that 15 % were able to
understand the entire ‘scope’ of the Chinese language. Today, the Chinese government
claimed that 85% of the population in China are now literate (able to read and
write on the street talk level, no more classic canons). Yet, 99.99% of this
literate population cannot understand 論 語 by reading even with the help of a dictionary. That is, with the
1920s standard, the illiterate rate on the Chinese language is now 99.999%. 論 語 is only about 1/20 the length of
Bible. While many Westerners did read the Bible in its entirety and have no problem
of understand its language, it is truly a shame that 99.99% of the Chinese
population cannot understand the language of 論 語, let alone to appreciate its essence and its spirits. This
shameful situation was brought by the May 4th movement, led by 胡
適、
陈
獨
秀、
鲁
迅、
钱
玄
同
in 1919.
胡 適 brought up the slogan ‘打 孔 家 店 [“Smash the Confucius’ flea market (swap
meet) "]’; then it became a new cultural movement (see, http://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E6%96%B0%E6%96%87%E5%8C%96%E8%BF%90%E5%8A%A8
). In addition to outcaste the Confucianism as the malignant tumor in Chinese
culture, it killed the Chinese language proper, and everything which remains is
the ‘street talk’ language.
Thus, I have two missions for translating the 論 語.
a. Allowing
the Westerners to read and to understand the nutshell of Confucianism.
b. Allowing
the Chinese to read and to understand 論 語, as there is not much chance for them to understand it with their
Chinese language. The English translation will help them to jump over that
great canyon. At the same time, it will provide them a chance to learn that great
language.
This new translation is available at http://www.chineselanguageforums.com/chinese-idioms/confucius-the-analects-a-new-translation-t2062.html
