How
translatable are concepts across cultures? How do translated concepts interact
with the receiving culture's repertoire of concepts and influence its
prevailing mode of thinking? How do translated concepts, specifically concepts of
category of knowledge such as ‘science’, ‘philosophy’,
‘religion’, etc., have an impact on the receiving culture's
existing body of knowledge? This paper explores the above questions with
reference to an anthology currently being compiled by the author, in English
translation, of texts on Chinese thinking about translation. The initial title
was ‘An anthology of Chinese translation theories: from ancient times to
the revolution of 1911’; this was changed to ‘An anthology of Chinese
thought on translation’ before the present title, ‘An anthology of
Chinese discourse on translation’, was adopted. By analysing, in a
self-reflective manner, the decisions involved in the movement from
‘theory’ to ‘thought’ to ‘discourse’, I hope
to throw some light on the epistemological impact produced by translated concepts
in the receiving culture. The impact is analysed in terms of the disciplining of
knowledge that could be effected by translated concepts—disciplining in the
sense of organizing, ordering, hierarchizing, including/excluding,
centring/decentring, aligning and re-aligning of material deemed to
constitute knowledge in the receiving culture, for the purpose of mono-cultural
cross-cultural, or intercultural study. As the use of translated concepts (e.g.
‘science’, ‘philosophy’, ‘religion’) to name
bodies of knowledge in ancient China is a common, though not uncontroversial
practice, the issue of the disciplining of knowledge dealt with in this paper
should be relevant not only to translation scholars but also to sinologists and
Chinese scholars the world over.
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