Translation as the critique of modernity: a new perspective on Ku Hung-Ming's translation of Confucian classics

Abstract The current scholarship on Ku Hung-Ming (1857–1928) as a translator and a historical figure has been constrained by identity politics and has viewed his translations and writings as a passive response to the challenge of the Western powers from a Chinese nationalist, or as a process of Ku's identity-building. This article goes beyond these constraints and recognises Ku as an active critic of Western modernity. By drawing on narrative theory, it investigates Ku's three broad choices regarding his translated Confucian classics—translation directionality, the invocation of Goethe, and the use of language mixing on the title pages and/or in the front matter—to demonstrate that Ku's translation agenda was to critique Western modernity. This article 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.