Translation, Commentary and the Meaning of the Classics: Some Thoughts on Korean and Manchu Translations of the Daxue and the Lunyu

The role of translations of the Confucian classics as works of representation and as models for literary development for the non-Sinitic languages of the Sinosphere are well-researched. Their reception and their meaning in the negotiation of interpreting the classics are subjects that have received less attention so far from scholars of Sinology. This article argues that translations of the classics into Korean and Manchu are informed by meaningful choices that rely on a selection of interpretations of the classics found in the canonical commentaries. Instead of blindly following an orthodox model of interpretation, the translations build their own meaning, from the commentaries, from teaching practices, and both from systematic and ad-hoc conventions of translation, thus relying on the tradition on the one hand, but also on the creative input by the translators on the other hand. As a result, the translations themselves function as commentaries on the texts, suggesting and sometimes enforcing an interpretation of the classical texts that becomes more and more independent of the tradition that they rely on, laying a foundation for a tradition of their own.