Category Archives: Translation

New series of bilingual editions of source texts in Chinese philosophy (Chinese & German)

Meiner, a renowned philosophy publisher from Hamburg, has established a new series of bilingual editions of source texts in Chinese philosophy in both Chinese and German. For the series see: https://meiner.de/monographien-reihen/sino-philosophica.html

The first volume of the series is a translation by Iso Kern of a selection of the correspondence between Wang Yangming, Ouyang De and Luo Qinshun on the basis of ethical action. For this new publication see:
https://meiner.de/monographien-reihen/sino-philosophica/kontroversen-uber-die-grundlagen-ethischen-handelns.html

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New Book: The Daodejing Commentary of Cheng Xuanying

Oxford University Press has published The Daodejing Commentary of Cheng Xuanying, a translation of Cheng Xuanying’s 成玄英 famous and philosophically rich commentary, which in turn shaped both Daoist and Buddhist discourse thereafter. The translation is expertly elucidated with ample notes and glosses by the translator, Friederike Assandri, a leading authority on Cheng Xuanying and the Twofold Mystery School.
This is now the third translation in the Oxford Chinese Thought book series, which is devoted to providing high-quality translations of important philosophical and religious texts, for scholars and for classroom use. A short description follows below the fold.

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Translation of Zhen Dexiu’s Xin Jing

Ryan Chiang McCarthy has published a translation of the 13th c. CE text Xinjing 心经. As he explains the text was:

…compiled by the Southern Song Dynasty politician and scholar Zhen Dexiu (1178-1235, art name Xishan). The Xinjing is an anthology of selected texts, from ancient classics such as the Yijing, the Liji, and the Mengzi, accompanied by comments by the Cheng brothers, Zhu Xi, and other eminent scholars, mostly of the Song period. Its theme, as the title suggests, is the matter of cultivating the heart, or mind.

Please see here. Congratulations, Ryan!

APA Newsletter on Translating Chinese Philosophy

The latest APA Newsletter on Asian and Asian-American Philosophers and Philosophies has been published and is available here. The contents:

From the Guest Editor
“The Timeliness of Translating Chinese Philosophy: An Introduction to the APA Newsletter Special Issue on Translating Chinese Philosophy,” Ben Hammer

Articles
“Preparing a New Sourcebook in Classical Confucian Philosophy,” Roger T. Ames

“The Impossibility of Literal Translation of Chinese Philosophical Texts into English,” Tian Chenshan

“Translating Today’s Chinese Masters,” Dimitra Amarantidou, Daniel Sarafinas, and Paul J. D’Ambrosio

“Three Thoughts on Translating Classical Chinese Philosophical Texts,” Edward L. Shaughnessy

“Introducing Premodern Text Translation: A New Field at the Crossroads of Sinology and Translation Studies,” Carl Gene Fordham

Peimin Ni wins Scaglione Prize in translation

MLA’S SCAGLIONE PRIZE FOR A TRANSLATION OF A SCHOLARLY STUDY OF LITERATURE AWARDED TO PEIMIN NI FOR UNDERSTANDING THE ANALECTS OF CONFUCIUS AND TO SYLVIA ADRIAN NOTINI FOR THE VENETIAN QUR’AN; JOHN MARINCOLA TO RECEIVE HONORABLE MENTION FOR ON WRITING HISTORY

New York, NY – 4 December 2019 – The Modern Language Association of America today announced it is awarding its thirteenth Aldo and Jeanne Scaglione Prize for a Translation of a Scholarly Study of Literature to Peimin Ni, of Grand Valley State University, for Understanding the Analects of Confucius: A New Translation of Lunyu with Annotations, published by the State University of New York Press, and to Sylvia Adrian Notini, of the University of Bologna, for her translation of Pier Mattia Tommasino’s The Venetian Qur’an: A Renaissance Companion to Islam, published by the University of Pennsylvania Press. John Marincola, of Florida State University, is receiving an honorable mention for On Writing History: From Herodotus to Herodian, published by Penguin.

Please click here to download a PDF of the full press release.

CFP: A Crisis, or a New Direction?: Reconsidering the Translation of Chinese Philosophy

CFP: A Crisis, or a New Direction?: Reconsidering the Translation of Chinese Philosophy, 16-17 October 2020

We invite paper proposals for a symposium to be held in October 2020 at the International Academy for Chinese Studies (IACS國際漢學家基地) at Peking University. The focus will be on past and contemporary attempts to tackle Chinese philosophy through translation in the Western world, from the Jesuit missionaries to present-day translators working in the academia and beyond. We seek contributions that focus on the cultural impact of translated Chinese philosophical masterworks in the West at different historical periods. This is the fourth symposium in a five-symposium series, which is part of a grander project led by IACS Director Prof. Yuan Xingpei 袁行霈 that covers multiple themes of cultural dialogs between China and the rest of the world.

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