Focusing the Familiar: A Translation and Philosophical Interpretation of the Zhongyong

Preface

Preface In the presentation of the Zhongyong that follows, we have attempted to provide a resource for both the scholar of Chinese thought and teachers and students who may be approaching Chinese philosophical texts for the first time. The latter may initially find the rather elaborate scholarly apparatus accompanying this translation somewhat daunting. We hope, however, that we have provided sufficient guidance to enable those unfamiliar with the Chinese language to gain a productive understanding of the distinctive challenges encountered in the effort to render Chinese thought in Western contexts. This presentation is divided into four parts: First, there is an Introduction aimed at providing a philosophical interpretation of the Zhongyong. The second section presents a Glossary of Key Terms. This glossary should be particularly helpful to those using this work as a classroom text, as it provides in concise form the important senses of the terms that play a key role in the argument of the Zhongyong. Third, there is the translation itself, with sufficient annotation to alert both expert and novice to some of the more difficult of the challenges to translation. Finally, we have offered an Appendix that addresses some of the more technical issues relevant to the understanding of both the history of the text and the history of its English language translations. In the Appendix we have appealed to the recent archaeological finds in China to assist us in locating this work within its own intellectual context. xi xii Preface We should say something about our expressed intent to provide a distinctly philosophical interpretation of the Zhongyong. Our desire has not been to contrast our interpretation with other possible interpretive perspectives—for example, “literary” or “historical.” We have intended, rather, to highlight our special effort to remain attentive to the semantic and conceptual nuances of this text in order to account for its central place within Classical Chinese literature. As we shall argue at length in our Introduction , until recently, interpretive texts such as the Zhongyong, the Analects of Confucius, the Daodejing, and the Zhuangzi, have not benefited as well as they might have from treatments sensitive to the difficulties of translating their insights into an appropriate Western vocabulary. Thus, our claim to have presented here a philosophical interpretation is tantamount to saying that we have tried to treat the text in a manner we believe most germane to its actual import. In sum, we agree with Wing-tsit Chan’s comment that “the Zhongyong is a philosophical work . . . perhaps the most philosophical work in the whole body of ancient Confucian literature.”1 And we have attempted to present this important philosophical text in such a way as to permit Western philosophers to engage it in a productive manner. We hope that this effort will not only demonstrate that the text is philosophically interesting in its own right, but will provide Western philosophers and other intellectuals access to a set of interpretations and arguments that offer new insights into issues and concerns common to both Chinese and Western thinkers. In the translation itself we have included the romanization and the Chinese characters for the key philosophical terms after their first appearance in each passage. As a pedagogical strategy, we have two goals. First, the inclusion of the romanization and characters alerts readers to the fact that it is these more technical terms that are included in the Glossary of Key Terms which has been provided as part of the Introduction. Readers can return to the Glossary to refresh their memories by reviewing the fuller explanation of these terms. Secondly, a repeated reading of the various passages that constitute the Zhongyong will familiarize read- Preface xiii ers with these specific terms, and in due course, the readers will make the technical philosophical vocabulary their own. An ability to recognize and understand this set number of key terms enables readers to appreciate the philosophical message of the text in a more sophisticated way. note 1. Wing-tsit Chan (1963): 96. ...