Author: DONG Linlu, Assistant Professor, School of German Studies, Shanghai InternationalStudies University.
Abstract:
The missionary status provided the German sinologist Richard Wilhelm(1873-1930) with the convenience of translating a series of Chinese culturaltexts. This essay argues that Wilhelm’s translation practice of the Chinesecultural keyword‘Tao’ has highlighted the earlier process of “KnowledgeQiao-Yi”(Zhishi Qiaoyi, a study on how knowledge is transferred andtransformed). German philosopher Hermann von Keyserling (1880-1946)went on interpreting“Tao” after Wilhelm and established a Germanphilosophical idea of the “Sinnphilosophie, ”which can be regarded as the later process of “Knowledge Qiao-Yi.”They both have demonstrated the phenomenon of “Knowledge Qiao-Yi” in cross-cultural communications. The paper explains how the subject of “Knowledge Qiao-Yi”(symbols) is selected, translated, and interpreted in this process. The missionaryand other intellectual elites have played critical roles and functions in “Knowledge Qiao-Yi.”
Keywords:
Richard Wilhelm, Tao, Knowledge Qiao-Yi, Sinnphilosophie,Semiotics
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