The Tension Between Classics and Interpretations

Author: Liu Xiaofeng
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2003-10-01
Features: The Enlightenment movement in the West not only swept away the academic traditions of China but also ended the classical era of the West. However, with the arrival of the 21st century, the Enlightenment movement was inevitably destined to be swept away by its Western descendants. "Classics and Interpretation" was originally the title of a collection of essays published three years ago by the Department of Philosophy at Sun Yat-sen University. Now, we have decided to turn the title into a direction of scholarship. Reviving the classical traditions of both the East and the West is not only because the issue of modernity compels scholarship to reflect on classical wisdom but also because classical scholarship concerns timeless human issues. Classical texts require interpretation, and interpretation is an activity that nurtures the spirit and also a choice for thought. All endeavors to annotate and explain Chinese classical texts, as well as to translate and organize recent achievements in Western studies, are nothing more than a willingness to think alongside the great wisdom of the East and the West, with the hope of finding spiritual nourishment and living up to the eternal mission of education and nurturing humanity.