RollingWave
04-05-2012, 04:31 AM
Well most threads here have been much more focused on religion, so let's shift course a bit.
Here's a sentence from Confucius' LunYu (The Analects) which is controversial.
民可使由之,不可使知之
This sentence is problematic, because in ancient Chinese writin it lacks commas and periods, which often leads to confusion in interpeting a sentence, in this sentence, with the comma in the middle the interepetation would be
"You can let the people do what they want, but you can not let them become knowledgable"
which seem to hint that to rule a country the leaders should try to keep people uneducated and thus unable to be in contact with dangerous ideas.
However, many more modern scholars wonder if the sentence actually was suppose to be seperated like this?
民可使,由之,不可使,知之
the simple change in commas ended up in a whole new different translation... which would mean
"let the able people do what they want, and educate those who are not able."
fun with language :tongue:
These sort of language translation are a major issue for many ancient / pre-modern philosophy and religious text, language change over time including the meaning of praticular words, and original meanings may not be what you seem to precieve at first sight.
Another famous example of controversial Confucious saying.
唯女子與小人為難養也
In modern chinese interpetation, this would translate to "Women and deciteful persons are hard to get along with" which obvious smacks of Chauvinism. but the problem is deciteful person (xiao ren) can also mean "servants" and women (Niu Zhi ) can also mean "Women and Children" again more modern interpetation seem to find that what Confucious probably mean was (espeically when taken the whole text into consideration)
"wife and childern along with servants/underlings are the hardest to have a proper relationship with, if your too close to them they lose respect for you, if your too distant from them they will hate you" (which is a pretty obviously true observation that is about as true today as it was 3-4 thousand years ago)
Here's a sentence from Confucius' LunYu (The Analects) which is controversial.
民可使由之,不可使知之
This sentence is problematic, because in ancient Chinese writin it lacks commas and periods, which often leads to confusion in interpeting a sentence, in this sentence, with the comma in the middle the interepetation would be
"You can let the people do what they want, but you can not let them become knowledgable"
which seem to hint that to rule a country the leaders should try to keep people uneducated and thus unable to be in contact with dangerous ideas.
However, many more modern scholars wonder if the sentence actually was suppose to be seperated like this?
民可使,由之,不可使,知之
the simple change in commas ended up in a whole new different translation... which would mean
"let the able people do what they want, and educate those who are not able."
fun with language :tongue:
These sort of language translation are a major issue for many ancient / pre-modern philosophy and religious text, language change over time including the meaning of praticular words, and original meanings may not be what you seem to precieve at first sight.
Another famous example of controversial Confucious saying.
唯女子與小人為難養也
In modern chinese interpetation, this would translate to "Women and deciteful persons are hard to get along with" which obvious smacks of Chauvinism. but the problem is deciteful person (xiao ren) can also mean "servants" and women (Niu Zhi ) can also mean "Women and Children" again more modern interpetation seem to find that what Confucious probably mean was (espeically when taken the whole text into consideration)
"wife and childern along with servants/underlings are the hardest to have a proper relationship with, if your too close to them they lose respect for you, if your too distant from them they will hate you" (which is a pretty obviously true observation that is about as true today as it was 3-4 thousand years ago)