Double Bind - Literary. Imitation and Anthropological Collection: Literary. Imitation and Anthropological Collection

Author: René Girard
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2006-05-01
Features: René Girard is one of the most talented, ambitious, and thought-provoking thinkers of our time. He craves debate, is passionate, and is unwavering—a demolisher who fearlessly engages with figures such as Freud, Lévi-Strauss, Deleuze, and Lacan. Since Yan Fu's translation of Western legal and political works in the late Qing Dynasty to the 1940s of this century, the insightful scholars in the Chinese academic world have deeply felt that encountering Western learning was an unprecedentedly significant event in the history of Chinese thought. They diligently sought to understand Western knowledge, selecting and translating classic works based on their personal talents and interests, giving rise to a generation of outstanding translators. It is understandable that at that time, the academic community's understanding of Western intellectual traditions was still in its infancy, and the selection of Western classics was inevitably somewhat arbitrary. In the late 1950s, the government of the newly established People's Republic of China standardized the translation of Western classics, compiled the drafts left over from the 1940s, and formulated new selection plans. Over the decades, through inch-by-inch accumulation, by the mid-1980s, a comprehensive and well-structured "Chinese Translation of World Academic Classics" system was established. Although the contributions of opening the door for future scholars are undeniable, the design of this classic system was still constrained by the dogmatism of the academic community at the time.
"The mind is not beyond the realm of principles and institutions" (a quote by Kang Youwei), and Western classics that deal with principles and institutions have not been translated into Chinese, though the actual number is not few.