Reconsiderations About Ancient China Provoked by Wolfgang Kubin’s Ten German Volumes Representing “Classics of Chinese Thought”

Abstract This is both a descriptive characterization and comparative assessment of the ten-volume set produced by Wolfgang Kubin in German called Klassiker des chinesischen Denkens (Classics in Chinese Thinking). I compare what Kubin has accomplished in relationship to the massive translation projects produced by James Legge (1815–1897) and Richard Wilhelm (1873–1930), and also with various anthologies of Chinese literature and Chinese philosophical texts. As a consequence, I demonstrate that Kubin’s series is a true “German canon-in-translation” of Ancient Chinese works. In order to understand more precisely what he has accomplished, I provide a codicological description of the series, and then augment this with a lengthier description of how his series fulfills an ideal series of translations of ancient Chinese writings conceived by Richard Wilhelm. Subsequently, I offer five detailed perspectives on what distinguishes Kubin’s twelve-translations-in-ten-tomes, including some critical assessments of his unusual versions of the Dàxué and Zhōngyōng , as well as one set of translation options that he did not generally take advantage of. The main contribution of Kubin’s series is that he demonstrates that in ancient Chinese writings there is a diversity of ways of thinking that need to be understood and appreciated.