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Synopsis
This series of short sayings, proverbs, and observations on ethics and methods for living originated around 400 B.C.
| Size | | Height: | 8.3 in | | Width: | 5.5 in | | Thickness: | 0.5 in | | Weight: | 8.0 oz |
Industry Reviews
Simon Leys is the pseudonym of Pierre Ryckmans (Chinese studies, Univ. of Sydney), who tells us in the foreword that he uses a literary pen name because his intention here was to produce a "writer's translation." In fact, this well-crafted translation of Confucius departs only in subtle ways from other distinguished translations to which Leys gives due credit, such as that by Arthur Waley (1938) and D.C. Lau (1979). When his reading is in any way unusual or when he has added to the text, he discloses his rationale fully in the notes. Leys draws parallels between Confucius and thinkers more familiar to Westerners, from Heraclitus to Emerson. He also allows himself to editorialize when a passage strikes a certain chord in him, bringing a fresh, contemporary reading to what might otherwise be an obscure Chinese concept. Scholars of Chinese may quibble over some of the nuances of translation, but it is the opinions set forth in Leys's notes that will spark lively debate. Recommended for academic collections and other collections in need of a good translation of this classic work. Mark Woodhouse, Elmira Coll. Lib., N.Y.
Ives
Because they offer diverse and sometimes diametrically opposite meanings, the words of Chinese classics are as likely to reflect the prejudices of the translator as the are to exhibit scholarly rigor. This volume is no exception. The publisher's biography of Leys calls him "an astringent observer," and such observations are readily apparent in Leys's sometimes bad-tempered and occasionally ill-judged glosses on a thinker whom he clearly believes would have agreed with him that late 20th-century culture is undergoing the same chaotic moral crisis as 6th-century B.C. China. While the translations are often elegant, and Leys's endnotes offer a few telling examinations of the vagaries and subtleties of translating the Analects, Leys is too often diverted from the Analects by barely relevant citations from European writers and his own digs at other translators of Confucius. Furthermore, neither the introduction nor the endnotes adequately place Confucius in historical context, making the book strangely vague about Confucius's impact on his time and people. (Jan.)
Lopate
There are three main problems which any translator of the Analects has to face: the reader's lack of shared cultural background, so that footnotes or paraphrase have to be supplied; the terseness of the text; and the occurrence of passages which defy understanding. . . . The Huang solution is to leave the difficulties in the text and to place notes immediately after each chapter. . . . This is messy on the page, and some of the notes are pointless. . . . The Analects are never going to have the appeal of great literature in their own right. They are neither quotable nor grippingly readable. The interest of all versions really comes from the expositions of Confucianism which accompany and selectively draw from the text. The fullest of these is to be found in the 1979 Penguin Classics translation by D.C. Lau. Chichung Huang has little to add.
Annotation copyright H.W. Wilson Company.
Baker
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