Ku Hung-Ming's Translation of Confucian Classics: Renarrating Confucianism and Critiquing Western Modernity

  • Lin Zhang

Student thesis: Phd

Abstract

Ku Hung-Ming (1857-1928), an intellectual of both Chinese and Western learning, can be called a “cultural amphibian” (Du 2011). Despite his western educational background, Ku severely criticised the West and was enthusiastic in promoting Confucianism through his translations of Confucian classics as well as other writings, while most of his Chinese contemporary intellectuals were ready to abandon Confucianism and eager to learn from the West. This has led many to label him as “eccentric” (Du 2019; Huang 1995; Yan 2016, 2020). Extant scholarship on Ku as a translator and a historical figure has been heavily influenced by identity politics; his translations and writings have been viewed as a passive response to the challenge of the Western powers from a Chinese nationalist, or as a process of Ku’s identity building. By deprovincializing Ku and situating him in the global context, this thesis goes beyond these constraints and recognizes Ku as an active critic of Western modernity. Drawing on narrative theory and based on close readings of Ku’s translations of the Lunyu (the Analects) and the Zhongyong (the Doctrine of the Mean), this thesis investigates the ways in which Ku responds to or resists the narratives of Western modernity circulating in the West of his time, and elaborates his own narratives through his renarrations of Confucianism in his translations. Proposing that Ku’s translation of Confucian classics is a critique of Western modernity, this thesis analyses how Ku calls into question the modern enshrinement of reason, casts doubt on democracy as an effective political system, challenges racial hierarchies and various Orientalist narratives of China and other oppressed nations, opposes revolution, anarchy and secularisation, rejects modern education and condemns the modern indifference towards morality. It also shows how Ku elaborates his own alternative narratives with regard to various aspects of Western modernity. Furthermore, this thesis demonstrates that, rather than critiquing Western modernity from a singular vantage point, Ku demonstrates the impossibility of fully escaping the influence of many of the public narratives that he critiques, especially those at the level of meta narrativity. It also shows how Ku betrays narrative incoherence in his translations. This thesis constitutes a paradigm shift in the research on Ku’s translation of Confucian classics, and challenges what I call the “eccentricity thesis” in Ku Hung-Ming studies to raise awareness of Ku as a critic of modernity. It also serves as an example of how to apply narrative theory to literary-philosophical translations based on detailed analysis of the texts.
Date of Award1 Aug 2024
Original languageEnglish
Awarding Institution
  • The University of Manchester
SupervisorGregory Scott (Supervisor) & Anna Strowe (Supervisor)

Keywords

  • framing
  • narrative theory
  • translation of Confucian classics
  • Ku Hung-Ming (Gu Hongming)
  • Western modernity

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