3 ms·

Just speculating here. But it could be easier to find a closer Greek translation than a Chinese one. After all, a lot of the words we use in English have Greek

Just speculating here. But it could be easier to find a closer Greek translation than a Chinese one. After all, a lot of the words we use in English have Greek or Latin roots. So I can see how it'd be more difficult to get the author's meaning across in this case. There aren't always accurate translations of a concept, which convey all the meaning correctly. And at least with German or other languages, it's not unheard of to actually use the word in the original language and give it a definition, rather than translate it. Which seems harder to do with Chinese than with Greek/German/Latin. -- EDIT: Fix some typos

primroot 7y ago
I'd go even further in the speculation. Have you seen how some Greeks today get upset at the thought the language of Homer did not sound like theirs? I think there is a similar phenomenon with many Chinese (I'm hoping the phenomenon is less general among scholars), where they think their ancient philosopher were all Confucianists. The ambiguity of the grammar does not help. Words can also be ambiguous sometimes, but that is less of a problem. There are ancient dictionaries. But have then a Chinese amateur interpreter tell you that door means family or that ghost means ancestor with disregard to both the context and the dictionaries, completely distorting the meaning of the text in favor of some bland conformist platitude, and you will soon start rethinking the meaning of Cultural Appropriation.
- knolax 7y ago
  > where they think their ancient philosopher were all Confucianists That's a very big accusation to make without anything to back it up.
dwohnitmok 7y ago
It happens occasionally with Chinese using a romanization. Sometimes the dao in Daoism just gets directly written as the dao. Sometimes the li (rites, customs, proper behavior, etc.) in Confucianism just gets directly written as li.

primroot 7y ago

I'd go even further in the speculation. Have you seen how some Greeks today get upset at the thought the language of Homer did not sound like theirs? I think there is a similar phenomenon with many Chinese (I'm hoping the phenomenon is less general among scholars), where they think their ancient philosopher were all Confucianists. The ambiguity of the grammar does not help. Words can also be ambiguous sometimes, but that is less of a problem. There are ancient dictionaries. But have then a Chinese amateur interpreter tell you that door means family or that ghost means ancestor with disregard to both the context and the dictionaries, completely distorting the meaning of the text in favor of some bland conformist platitude, and you will soon start rethinking the meaning of Cultural Appropriation.

knolax 7y ago
> where they think their ancient philosopher were all Confucianists That's a very big accusation to make without anything to back it up.

dwohnitmok 7y ago

It happens occasionally with Chinese using a romanization. Sometimes the dao in Daoism just gets directly written as the dao. Sometimes the li (rites, customs, proper behavior, etc.) in Confucianism just gets directly written as li.