A Lineage of Light — Lecture Three, Herbert Allen Giles

It must however always be borne in mind that translators are but traitors at the best, and that translations may be moonlight and water while the originals are sunlight and wine.

— Herbert Giles, 16 October 1883

Herbert Giles (1845-1935) and Pu Songling’s Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio is the third lecture in the series ‘On Culture & Translation’. It was presented by John Minford at the Hang Seng Management College on 27 February 2016. A link to the recording of the lecture on YouTube is provided here and below, along with the Lecture Handout prepared by the speaker.

We hope our readers will take the time to listen to these lectures, and to read the accompanying notes. As Giles himself wrote:

many, in their race toward other goals,
May joy to feel, albeit at second-hand,
Some far faint heart-throb of poetic souls
Whose breath makes incense in the Flowery Land.

***

The word 譯, ‘convey, explain, translate’, in the hand of Wang Duo 王鐸 (d.1652).

In February and March 2016, John Minford, co-founder of The Wairarapa Academy for New Sinology and a leading translator of literary Chinese, presented ‘On Culture & Translation’, a series of five public lectures at the Hang Seng Management College 恒生管理學院 in Hong Kong where he is Sin Wai Kin Honorary Professor of Translation and Culture 冼為堅榮譽教授 (中國文化與翻譯) in the School of Translation.

In his lectures John traces a lineage of leading British interpreters of Chinese literature and thought by focussing on four translators: James Legge, Herbert Giles, Arthur Waley and David Hawkes. The Introductory Lecture addressed the broad topic of Culture and Translation and the nurturing of the literary or cultivated mind, what in Chinese is known as xiūyǎng 修養, or, in French, formationBildung in German. This is a subject that we will continue to consider in China Heritage.

John extols translators and their role in world civilisation as Warriors of Light. His overview of these four great translators whose work spans one and a-half centuries offers readers an insight into a little-appreciated Lineage of Light, one that remains vital for the appreciation and understanding of the Chinese world.

These lectures will be included in The Wairarapa Talks, one of the Projects of China Heritage. The Wairarapa Talks are recorded and/or transcribed lectures, speeches and lessons presented in various formats and at various locales by members of the Academy. Over time, The Wairarapa Talks will also recommend lectures by non-Academy writers and scholars.

— Geremie R. Barmé, Editor, China Heritage,  25 May 2017



Further Reading

John Minford and Tong Man 唐文, ‘Whose Strange Tales?’, East Asian History, Nos.17/18 (June/December 1999): 1-48.

***

Dear Land of Flowers, forgive me! — that I took
These snatches from thy glittering wealth of song,
And twisted to the uses of a book
Strains that to alien harps can ne’er belong.

Thy gems shine purer in their native bed
Concealed, beyond the pry of vulgar eyes;
Until, through labyrinths of language led,
The patient student grasps the glowing prize.

Yet many, in their race toward other goals,
May joy to feel, albeit at second-hand,
Some far faint heart-throb of poetic souls
Whose breath makes incense in the Flowery Land.

Herbert Giles, October 1898, Cambridge