The Analects of Confucius is a compendium of lively banter and engaging exchanges between Confucius and his contemporaries, one that touches upon culture, fashion, arts, and society, making fun of celebrities and political figures of the day with juicy quotes from bestselling books as well as popular lyrics from the most widely-circulated songs, all of which, unfortunately, is lost on the modern reader — lost in translations that, out of good scholarly intention, seek to faithfully preserve historical reference. Not in this version of the Analects however, which translates not only language but also culture. In the world’s first skopos-oriented translation of the Confucian Analects, the distractions of history and culture are sidestepped by teleporting Confucius into modern society and allowing him to speak in a contemporary American idiom: where he quotes from the masterworks of his day, classical passages from the Western canon are reproduced; where he sings from popular songs, lines from the Anglo-American lyrical repertoire are appropriated for effect. Politicians of antiquity are replaced with their doppelgangers from the American political landscape; Chinese dynasties are swapped for the empires of Greece and Rome. The result is a work of equivalent effect, through which the rhetorical force and conversational style of Confucius becomes evident, allowing the ideas of Confucius the man to shine through.
विषयसूची
Dedications
Translator’s Preface
Preface by Frederik H. Green
Technical Notes
01 Learning
02 Service
03 Dance
04 Community
05 Courtship
06 Proteges
07 Tradition
08 Exemplars
09 Afterlife
10 Folkways
11 Camaraderie
12 Humanity
13 Leadership
14 Humility
15 Warfare
16 Statecraft
17 Temptation
18 Sanctuary
19 Chivalry
20 Mandate
21 Inquiry (fragment)
22 Gnosis (fragment)
Appendix: Cast of Characters
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Chris Wen-Chao Li is a translator and theoretical linguist. He received his doctorate in General Linguistics and Comparative Philology from Oxford University, and is currently Professor of Chinese Linguistics at San Francisco State University, where he teaches classes in general linguistics, Chinese language, news writing, and translation-interpretation.