On Translating the Yijing and Other Classics--Richard John Lynn

[tacrab]

We've had numerous discussions about translating and translations of the Book of Changes. Professor Richard John Lynn is one person who's done so; he did so using the philosopher Wang Bi's commentary (Columbia University Press, 1994). This allows the reader to see the text through the eyes of the commentator and his historical milieu. Wang Bi (226–249) was a young genius who altered the state of Chinese thought.

Lynn is also translator of the Daodejing (also Wang Bi commentary, Columbia University Press, 1999) and Zhuangzi (with Guo Xiang's commentary; Columbia University Press, 2022). For those interested in Zhuangzi, this is to my knowledge one of the only translations to include a full commentary, that of Guo Xiang (265–312).

The journal Ming Studies published an interview with Lynn recounting his academic career. A section of it covers his methods and philosophy of translation. "...it’s a close reading of the text. You understand it in terms of its original context. Why the author phrased things the way he did. What were his interests? What were his basic assumptions? And it’s a matter of figuring out contexts from large to small...."

Richard Lynn & Ihor Pidhainy (2023) Ming Studies, 2023:87, 56-79. You can probably access this online through your library.

 

[hilary]

You can probably access this online through your library

I doubt it! But thank you for the note and quote. His translation (with all those lovely footnotes) is a favourite.

 

[tacrab]

Sorry, it is probably only accessible through university libraries--maybe you could go to the campus and get a day pass to use online resources. But it's not that long a discussion to make a special trip. There are plenty of other people who write about the art and science of translation in more detail.
In any case, here's my summary of it.

Lynn works by doing a close reading of text, original context. What were author's intention, interests, and assumptions. What about other contexts, such as the zeitgeist of time of writing? After that, what is the author's style of writing and word choices? How does a translator weigh all of this, deal with ambiguity of original text, especially with ancient texts (from any culture). Finally, narrowing down translation choices by understanding all of above. The Yijing is especially complicated, due to age and unknown authorship; see Shaughnessy works on that.