From Substance Language to Vocabularies of Process and Change:

A Comparison between the Translation of Key Philosophical Terms of The Doctrine of the Mean and Focusing the Familiar

By Dr. Hai-ming Wen 温海明*

(School of Philosophy, Renmin University of China, 中国人民大学哲学院)

INTRODUCTION

In this paper, I argue that Ames and Hall’s series of studies in Confucianism, particularly in the recent Focusing the Familiar: A Translation and Philosophical Interpretation of the Zhongyong, 中庸 has provided an opportunity to reflect and improve the understanding of interpretation of Chinese philosophy.  I compare the key terms in Ames and Hall’s new translation with those of James Legge’s translation of the Zhongyong, The Doctrine of the Mean to show how Ames and Hall try to overcome the “Christianization” of Chinese texts and avoid theologically-laden terms such as “Heaven (tian 天),” “righteousness (yi 义),” “rites (li 礼),” “virtue (de 德).” This reexamination of key terms is in search of more appropriate understanding of Chinese way of thinking.  As they claim,

Our Western languages are substance-oriented and are, therefore, most relevant to the descriptions and interpretations of a world defined by discreteness, objectivity, and permanence.  Such languages are ill-disposed to describe and interpret a world, such as that of the Chinese, that is primarily characterized by continuity, process, and becoming.^[1]

Focusing the Familiar is a reexamination of Chinese worldviews through the retranslation of key Chinese philosophical terms.  Since Ames and Hall think that the old substance language “has led to seriously inappropriate interpretations of the Chinese sensibility,”^[2] they offer a new language which they call “the language of focus and field.”

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* Ph.D. University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa, 2006. E-mail: wenhaiming@ruc.edu.cn, haimingwen@hotmail.com.

[1] Ames and Hall (2001): Ibid.p. 6.

[2] Ibid. p. 7.