On Feng Youlan’s Construction of an Image of Chinese Philosophy in his Chinese-English Translation

Abstract

ABSTRACT Except Chuang Tzu: A New Selected Translation with an Exposition of the Philosophy of Kuo Hsiang, Feng Youlan’s translations themselves are little known, let alone their influence. As a matter of fact, Feng translated seven works from Chinese into English in total, and his English works also contain a lot of translation elements, for example, “Why China Has No Science – An Interpretation of the History and Consequences of Chinese Philosophy” 中国为何无科学 – – 对于中国哲学之历史及其结果之一解释 (1922) and A Short History of Chinese Philosophy 中国哲学简史 (1948). Based on historical documents and the method of empirical analysis, the paper provides an analysis of how Feng Youlan constructed an image of Chinese philosophy in his Chinese-English translations from five perspectives: (1) he argued for the existence of philosophy in China; (2) he created a positive image of Chinese philosophy in the West; (3) he accurately translated Chinese philosophical terms into English; (4) he interpreted Chinese traditional philosophy from a Chinese scholar’s perspective; (5) he translated Chinese academic works.