借帆出海：我译《论语》的策略

史志康

（上海外国语大学 英语学院，上海 200083）

In his essay “Philosophy for Laymen”, Russell Bertrand says, “Mankind, ever since there have been civilized communities, have been confronted with problems of two different kinds. On the one hand there has been the problem of mastering natural forces,of acquiring the knowledge and the skill required to produce tools and weapons and to encourage nature in the production of useful animals and plants. This problem, in the modern world, is dealt with by science and scientific technique, and experience has shown that in order to deal with it adequately it is necessary to train a large number of rather narrow specialists.But there is a second problem, less precise, and by some mistakenly regarded as unimportant－I mean the problem of how best to utilize our command over the forces of nature.”

The second problem here is actually about moral issues or ethics. When it comes to moral issues, we need to consider the definition of philosophy.Philosophy is usually defined as the love of wisdom,which is, in turn, usually defined as good judgment.So moral philosophy, or ethics, is the pursuit of sound judgment about character and action. Ethics tries to answer questions about virtues and vice, good and bad,right and wrong. Shakespeare believes that there is nothing right or wrong but your thinking makes what is right or wrong. In other words, one’s philosophy of value largely decides one’s action. It is commonly acknowledged that what Confucius thinks and advocates constitutes a major part of Chinese cultural heritage, for traditional philosophy of value most Chinese hold is to a large extent derived from Confucius’s thought, belief and notions. It seems that the world is too eager to gain a better insight into China through a better knowledge about Chinese culture, a most important source of which is Confucius’ understanding of the world and his suggested or sophisticated ways in human dealings or his peculiar pearls of wisdom collected in The Analects of Confucius.

I’m fully aware of the fact The Analects has been translated into 20 foreign languages. But I feel the world still knows too little about Confucius and China against the vastness of the land and the largeness of the population and the greatness of the civilization.In my efforts to render The Analects, I face a serious and severe difficulty, that is, how to address the problem of Westerners’ confusion about Confucius.Confucius’ mind is not difficult to read, it just has to be explained in the clearest, most comprehensible way.So I have decided to make my new English language version of The Analects of Confucius near and dear to the Western readership by using words spoken by great Western minds such as Shakespeare, Francis Bacon and the ancient Greek philosopher Plato to explain similar ideas that Confucius expressed. One of the strategies I have adopted is to illuminate shared modes of thinking that lie behind seemingly different modes of expression, simply because similar ideas are more often than not couched in different ways.Hence a new part which immediately follows my translations “Appreciation and Critical Comments” in much the same way that modern Shakespeare texts have annotations and notes to make the plays more comprehensible to latter-day readers.

In this new part, I endeavor not only to dig out the full implications of the original text, but also to elaborate on the principal ideas, notions and doctrines contained in the text with reference to similar ideas,notions and doctrines that great minds in the West have adhered to.

The following selected passages well serve as examples.

例1子曰：“巧言令色，鲜矣仁！”

The master says, “It is rare that a man with invariably fair terms and a smiling countenance is benevolent in nature.”

Appreciation & Critical Comments

(1)Confucius warns us against people with fair terms but a villain’s mind or iron hands in velvet gloves. It is true that fair people are more pleasant and inviting. Everyone loves everything fair, but human beings are sometimes somewhat complicated in that a fair face does not infallibly indicate a fair heart. Here Confucius appeals to our reason though in terms of beauty, people are most likely to skip over the meshes of good counsel in cases where they wish to satisfy their senses. So it all depends on which prevails, the mind that reasons or the mind that feels.

(2)Sometimes there is a disparity between what is exterior and what is interior. Here is what Shakespeare says in Hamlet “Seems, madam! Nay, it is; I know not ‘seems’. Tis not alone my inky cloak,good mother, /Nor customary suits of solemn black,/Nor windy suspiration of forc’d breath, /No, nor the fruitful river in the eye, /Nor the dejected haviour of the visage, /Together with all forms, modes, shows of grief, /That can denote me truly; these indeed seem,/For they are actions that a man might play: But I have that within which passeth show; /These but the trappings and the suits of woe.” So actual situations vary from case to case, sometimes appearance is in perfect agreement with actuality; sometimes appearance is in agreement with actuality only to some extent; and sometimes appearance is in disagreement with actuality.

例2子夏曰：“贤贤易色；事父母，能竭其力；事君，能致其身；与朋友交，言而有信；虽曰未学，吾必谓之学矣。”

Zi Xia says, “Even though he is not so much schooled, he is still deemed as a learnt spirit, if he places virtues before appearance in his wife; fulfills his filial obligations to the fullest extent; devotes himself to his superiors and honors his words in communication with friends.”

Appreciation & Critical Comments

(1)Confucius prefers virtues to appearance in choosing one as his wife, as a fair face may hide a foul heart. However, it is so hard for a man to follow his advice, as virtues may be beheld in different lights while beautiful appearance is always pleasant to the eye.

(2)Greatest minds and noblest spirits are not exclusively products of school education. When Shakespeare says, “Natures of such deep trust we shall much need.” (We are in paramount need of people with the nature which is immensely trustworthy.)“natures” here is not something one acquires through schooling, or rather, it is something one is born with or acquires after repeatedly practicing virtuous acts.

(3)Confucius feels that if one has sufficient knowledge about and takes a proper conduct in human dealings, he is really a learnt man.

(4)Dealings with one’s wife, one’s parents, one’s superiors and one’s friends constitute a principal part.Therefore, if one assumes a proper attitude in the above dealings, he is seen as a learnt spirit.

例3子游问孝。子曰：“今之孝者，是谓能养，至于犬马，皆能有养，不敬，何以别乎?”

Zi You asks about the filial duties. The Masters answers, “At present, people are apt to understand the filial duties merely as readiness to provide a decent and comfortable living for their parents in old age.People also secure a livelihood for their domestic dogs and horses. If you do not treat your parents with due respect, where is the difference between your willingness to support your parents and your labor to feed the animals?”

Appreciation & Critical Comments

(1)Animals feel satisfied so long as they have sufficient health and food. Their action is most directed towards seeking food, apart from the mating for the continuation of their own species.

(2)Many people erroneously deem that so long as people enjoy good health, do not worry about food or shelter, they should feel happy. In truth, it is not so, at least in majority cases.

(3)When people feel satisfied at the physical level, they proceed to seek a fulfilling life with superior spiritual quality.

(4)In most cases, everyone longs for due respect from his peers and admiration from his superiors.

(5)According to Russell, vanity is also a strong motive, particularly in those who are energetic and laden with ideas. “Look at me” is an inner wish for many people. Nobody is willing to be neglected, let alone by their own children.

(6)That’s why we never fail to pay due respect to your parents even if they are in truth the setting sun,socially speaking, for the spiritual comfort of the elderly largely derives from due respect meted out to them from their descendents.

例4子夏问孝。子曰：“色难。有事，弟子服其劳，有酒食，先生馔。曾是以为孝乎?”

Zi Xia asks about the filial duties. The Master answers, “It is hard to achieve a perfect agreement between the outward deeds and the inward thoughts.Is it sufficient for the filial duties that you just take the labor and prepare drinks and foods for your parents?”

Appreciation & Critical Comments

(1)Firstly, one is supposed to wear an expression,which is near, dear and respectful before his parents.

(2)Secondly, one should never fail to take it upon himself as his obligation that he serves his parents with sufficient material goods so as to satisfy their physical needs.

(3)Thirdly, the nice facial expression one wears before his parents should stem from his heart.Genuine love towards parents is undying and greatest.

(4)When one is completely independent of his parents, one should still feel much indebted to his parents, and try every means, if possible, to make his parents happy, as far as possible. Why? According to Russell, when you are in grave difficulty or even in disgrace, everyone else may leave you, but your parents are sure to come to your side, if they are of the right sort, according to Russell.

例5子贡问君子。子曰：“先行其言而后从之。”

Zi Gong asks about what a gentleman is, the Master answers, “A gentleman practices before he prattles; then preaches what he has practiced.”

Appreciation & Critical Comments

(1)In Othello, Shakespeare says, “Mere prattle,without practice, /Is all his soldiership.” So if you mere prattle without practice, you are not qualified to be a gentleman.

(2)If you have practiced what is good to the community in general, you should preach what is good to the community in general so that more people will do more for the well-being of the community in general.

例6哀公问曰：“何为则民服?”孔子对曰：“举直错诸枉，则民服；举枉错诸直，则民不服。”

Lord Ai asks, “What should I do to win over my people?” The Master answers, “You should promote righteous persons rather than vicious people so as to make justice prevail over injustice, and will win over people; if you should show partialities towards vicious people, with the result of injustice overwhelming justice, you are liable to lose people.”

Appreciation & Critical Comments

(1)If you are the head of a certain group of people, or of a certain community, or of a certain state,you stay in the limelight and are the focus of attention,your partiality towards certain kind of people is seen as the evidence of your philosophy of value.

(2)In Hamlet, when King says, “But now, my cousin Hamlet, and my son, …” Hamlet answers, “A little more than kin, and less than kind.”

(3)As an English saying goes, “Birds of a feather flock together.” So people of the same kind prefer to stay together for they are inclined to feel and find each other congenial and pleasant company.

(4)Who are the righteous people? Who are the vicious people? Those who conform to social conventions and moral conventions in a civilized society,who uphold what is right and just in most people’s mind’s eye, and put into practice what is right and just,are commonly considered righteous people; those who do the opposite are counted as vicious people.

(5)In a civilized society, righteous people should prevail. If you are in favor of vicious people rather than righteous people, you just go against social currents of right weighing down wrong, justice overcoming injustice, so you are in for fierce opposition.

(6)At present, so far as moral issues are concerned, those who are in favor of responsibility,justice and equality are considered righteous people.

例7季康子问：“使民敬忠以劝，如之何?”子曰：“临之以庄则敬，孝慈则忠，举善而教不能则劝。”

Ji Kangzi asks, “What should we do if we wish to win people’s respect and loyalty and urge them to exert efforts for constant progress?” The Master says,“If you treat their matters with a grave attitude, you will win their respect; if you respect the elderly and take special care of the kids, you make yourself the object of being loyal to; if you eulogize and recommend the virtuous and educate and enlighten the less capable, people apply themselves to make constant progress.”

(1)Here “a grave attitude” implies your serious manner in which you handle their affairs. If you handle their matters in a serious manner, it is thought that you attach immense value to them and the matters which are closely connected with them. If you attach immense value to them and their matters, it shows that you respect them.

(2)People tend to respect those who respect them,so they are inclined to respect you.

(3)You are deemed as less socially snobbish if you respect the elderly, who are “fading fast”, “over the hill”, “out to pasture”, and even “down the drain”,if you take special care of the kids, who are so helpless,and if you enlighten the less capable who are less privileged. When you are less socially snobbish, you are more likely to be the object of being respected and loyal to.

(4)When the virtuous are encouraged, people will exert themselves to make themselves among the virtuous, so they may make constant progress.

例8或谓孔子曰：“子奚不为政?”子曰：“书云：孝乎！惟孝友于兄弟，施于有政。是亦为政。奚其为为政！”

Someone asks Confucius, “Why don’t you engage in politics?” The Master answers, “The Book says, ‘According to the spirit of the filial duties, we should be filial to parents and loyal to friends. This spirit should be applied to politics.’ So the spirit of the filial duties has something to do with politics. So what I have been preaching and practicing has something to do with politics too.”

Appreciation & Critical Comments

(1)It is believed that the proper epithet to describe politics is pervasive presence.

(2)It is not entirely true that politics is something to do with election, legislation, law and administration only.

(3)In actualities, we have many kinds of politics,say, company politics, campus politics, etc. In his novel Something Happened, Joseph Heller (b. 1923),famous American novelist of black humor, describes a certain company, “In the company in which I work,each of us is afraid of at least one person. The lower your position is, the more people you are afraid of.And all the people are afraid of the twelve men at the top who helped found and build the company and now own and direct it. All these twelve men are elderly now and drained by time and success of energy and ambition. Many have spent their whole lives here.They seem friendly, slow, and content when I come upon them in the halls and always courteous and mute when they ride with others in the public elevators.They no longer work hard. They hold meetings,make promotions, and allow their names to be used on announcements that are prepared and issued by somebody else. Nobody is sure anymore who really runs the company (nor even the people who are credited with running it), but the company does run.”

(4)In Why I Write, George Orwell (1903－1950)says, “Putting aside the need to earn a living, I think there are four great motives for writing, at any rate for writing prose. They exist in different degrees in every writer, and in any one writer the proportions will vary from time to time, according to the atmosphere in which he is living. They are:

(a)Sheer egoism. Desire to seem clever, to be talked about, to be remembered after death, to get your own back on grown-ups who snubbed you in childhood, etc. It is humbug to pretend that this is not a motive, and a strong one…

(b)Aesthetic enthusiasm. Perception of beauty in the external world, or, on the other hand, in words and their right arrangement. Pleasure in the impact of one sound on another, in the firmness of good prose or the rhythm of a good story. Desire to share an experience which one feels is valuable and ought not to be missed…

(c)Historical impulse. Desire to see things, as they are, to find out true facts and store them up for the use of posterity.

(d)Political purpose―using the word ‘political’in the widest possible sense. Desire to push the world in a certain direction, to alter other people’s idea of the kind of society that they should strive after.Once again, no book is genuinely free from political bias. The opinion that art should have nothing to do with politics is itself a political attitude.”

(5)At the highest level, almost all philosophical notions and ethics contain political elements, and the political concepts invariably contain some spiritual elements. In the broadest sense, anything metaphysical has something to do with politics.

例9子曰：“非其鬼而祭之，谄也。见义不为，无勇也。”

The Master says, “If one offers sacrifices to others’ ancestors rather than their own, that is an act of fawning on your social superiors. If one fails to put into practice what is right and just on due occasions,he is lacking in courage.”

Appreciation & Critical Comments

(1)In normal circumstances, people place the interests of his own, of his family, of those who they love before those of others.

(2)If one offers sacrifices to others’ ancestors rather than to his own ancestors, most probably it is not a mere act of sincere love and respect, but rather an act of fawning on his social superiors or betters.

(3)Such an act is of social consideration, not natural enough.

(4)Natural act is usually superior to social act.

(5)Courage can be further categorized into different kinds, such as physical courage, moral courage and civil courage.

Concluding remarks

It is sincerely hoped that my translation coupled with my peculiar way of explaining the essences of Confucius’ ideas and notions may be amply rewarded by reaching the large readership in the west and reaching into their very hearts.