中国文化读本 Insights into Chinese Culture （民商：石子凡 等）
民商：石子凡，杨凌晓鸥
The background of writing is a little bit special. Authored by Ye Lang and Zhu Liangzhi, this book was published in 2008, by Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press. As we all know, it was 2008 when the Olympic Games took place in Beijing. At that time, China was developing rapidly and devoted to going to the world. We couldn’t need to expose the world to Chinese culture too much, while international society couldn’t need to focus on China too much. As a result, apart from knowledge, this book provides a detailed, vivid introduction to certain unique features and highlights of Chinese culture and represents the spirit and core values of Chinese culture, especially those with universal significance. It also tries to exemplify the inner world, the life views and aesthetic interests of Chinese people. The authors hoped to serve a popular introduction to Chinese culture for readers both in China and abroad, and at the same time, they hoped their insights could provide a new perspective for readers to gain a deeper understanding of the true essence of Chinese culture.
The subjects covered in this book are divided into 4 parts: Wisdom and Beliefs, Creativity and Exchange, Art and Aesthetics and Folk Customs. They perfectly showed traditional Chinese culture in different dimensions. Shi Zifan focused on the first part: Wisdom and Beliefs and the second part: Creativity and Exchange, and Yang Lingxiaoou introduced the third part Art and Aesthetics and the fourth part: Folk Customs.
Part 1 Wisdom and Beliefs: Chinese culture regards human life as part of nature and the only way for us to survive is to live in harmony with nature. Based on the characteristics, several leading schools of thought came into our sights. Firstly, the representative of Confucianism, Confucius, known in China as Kongzi, gave his thoughts on Heaven and people, which remains the interest of not only the Chinese but also people in other parts of the world. Secondly, the creator of Daoism, Laozi, came up with the philosophy of non-action. His book Classic of the Way and Virtue (Dao de jing) also played a tremendous role in the development of Chinese culture. Thirdly, Sunzi’s Art of War by Sun Wu, is an ancient classic on war.
Part 2 Creativity and Exchange: On the other hand, this book also concerns the creativity and exchange of Chinese society. Over a history of 5000 years, Chinese people have produced numerous inventions. These include traditional Chinese medicine, silk, porcelain, the compass, paper, printing, and gunpowder. Some ancient landmarks also bear witness to Chinese people’s creativity, such as the Great Wall and the Forbidden City. At the same time, the Chinese people have always kept an open heart toward friends and cultures from other lands. The prosperity of the Tang Dynasty, for example, was largely due to Emperor Taizong’s open attitude toward the outside world. In the early Ming Dynasty, Emperor Yongle sent envoys to the Western Seas on seven long voyages. They reached as far as Mecca in West Asia and Mozambique in Africa. Wherever the Chinese travelers went, they carried out material and cultural exchanges under the principle of spreading peace.
Part 3 Art and Aesthetics: Chapter 3 is about Chinese art and aesthetics. In this chapter, you can see the unique forms of art that ancient Chinese have created. This chapter involves various relics, such as the calligraphy by Wang Xizhi, the Terracotta army or the Longmen Grottoes and other attractive art forms.
Part 4 Folk Customs: Chapter 4 concentrates on folk customs. In this chapter, you can learn about the specific regional culture and some traditional costumes. The writer seems to have a deep conversation with the readers. He explains them so detailed that you can feel many aspects of traditional life.
Art is an indispensable part of Chinese culture. Through this book, we can understand Chinese history and culture from a different perspective, and we can rediscover the inner world of the Chinese people and explore the extension of Chinese philosophy in life. The wave of globalization offers China a golden opportunity and the international community is paying greater attention to us. We need and we should build up the confidence to let the world enhance Chinese culture in a more comprehensive and profound way. And at the same time, we still need to seek and find the shards throughout our culture. Our inheritance and development will make the essence of traditional culture and Chinese spirit shine brightly.
After the introduction, we gave the class some questions. First, what special meaning does the publishing of the book in that time background? The class agreed that it pushed Chinese culture to go to the world and give a better insight to both domestic and foreign readers. Second, we have two different translation forms. The first one is to translate them with the western system, like translating "天" to "heaven", or literal translation, like translating "天" just to "tian". Which one do you think is better? As we all know, translation is a process that transforms a relatively unfamiliar way of expression into a relatively familiar one. So first and foremost, it is necessary to translate the Chinese with the western system. Because the most important function of translation is to make foreigners understand. Translation is the bridge that connects us.
However, when we translate, we also need faithfulness, expressiveness and elegance. It is difficult to translate things relevant to culture, on account of the profound cultural background and the wide difference between the west and east. Like, when the Chinese say “tian”, we don't just say the sky above us, it more like a natural rule, and belief or a kind of philosophy. Or hutong, sometimes people translate it to the word “alley”. But we can know that hutong just does not mean a narrow road, it contains the atmosphere of humanism. When we just translate them superficially, foreigners cannot really understand Chinese culture. In conclusion, I think we might translate them by pinyin. Maybe it is a great opportunity to develop Chinese culture.
Our classmates had a heated debate and discussion. Finally, one student said,” something having a different meaning to something in Western culture, such as “long” in Chinese and “dragon” in English. It is sort of improper to equate and directly translate them in the English word way. On the other hand, some words are difficult for foreigners to understand, such as some Classical Chinese phrases. If shown in the form of pinyin, they will be more elusive.
In summary, we read and discussed the book in depth. Through the book, we all aroused the inspiration to appreciate Chinese culture again. In the past, for historical reasons, our country fell for a long time. So, people's opinions on Chinese culture are mixed. Some even think it's a shame to introduce our culture to foreigners. But nowadays, with China developing rapidly, we are supposed to build our confidence again. European Rococo costumes are enriched with Chinese patterns, many brands are keen on Chinese elements and Chinese porcelain, silk and so on were once important commodities in western trade. As the saying goes:” culture belongs to both the nation and the world.” Why not introduce them to others with pride?
When our group prepared the presentation, we read the book and we thought it was easy to read and it was quick to finish it. It seems to involve lots of topics, but to be Chinese, I know deeply that there are many brilliant culture shards that aren't contained in it. All in all, it is beneficial to translate Chinese culture to English. Above all, we do not just have Confucius in China. I hope one day the world will know more about China.
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