【Preface】

‘Cherish one’s own beauty, respect other’s beauty, and when both beauties are respected and cherished, the world will become one”（各美其美，美人之美，美美与共，天下大同——费孝通）, said Fei Xiaotong, a famous Chinese sociologist at a cerebration party in honor of his eightieth birthday about thirty years ago. In a time of growing interest in intercultural communication today, these words sound especially wise and far sighted. Translation, as one of the most important means for cultural communication, is usually done into one’s mother tongue from other languages by native translators. This largely guarantees the quality of translated text, so far as the linguistic readability is concerned. However, this method implies a one-sidedness in correspondence, as only the translator’s ‘respect for other’s beauty” is concerned, regardless, though not completely, of how the local people look upon and cherish their own beauty. It should be compensated by translations on the other way, that is, works selected, interpreted, and translated by the local people themselves into languages other than their own. This approach may go directly against the prevalent views in modern translation theories but, in my opinion, is worthy of practicing. It is perhaps an even more effective way to bring about successful communication in cultures, and the beauties of the world can really be shared by the world’s people. It is with such understanding that the Shanghai Foreign Languages Education Press is organizing a new series of books, entitled Readings of Chinese Culture, to introduce Chinese culture, past and present, to the world, with works selected and translated by the Chinese scholars and translators. 

The series will cover a wide range of writings including but not restricted to works of different literary genres. For the first batch, we are glad to provide three books of essays and two books of short stories, all written by authors of the 20th century. They will be continued by a batch of serious academic writings on premodern Chinese classics in philosophy, literature, and historiography, written by influential scholars of our time. Later, we will offer more books on classical Chinese drama, classical Chinese poetry, etc. 

Some of the books in the series have been published before, but they have been revised and rearranged for the new purpose to meet the current needs of broader readers. We are looking forward to hear comments and suggestions on the series for future improvement.

【译者简介/About the translator】

龚海燕

文学硕士，编审。华东师范大学出版社副社长，上海市版权协会副会长，华东师范大学出版硕士专业学位研究生兼职导师，上海出版印刷高等专科学校兼职教授。

Gong Haiyan received her M.A. degree in Chinese-English Comparative Study and Translation from East China Normal University in 1998. As a professor of editors hip, she is vice president of East China Normal University Press and Shanghai Copyright Association, adjunct professor of East China Normal University and Shanghai Publishing and Printing College.

【目录】

Introduction

Chapter One

Evolution of the Principlism: Historical Prerequisite for the Formation of Mindology

1.Nature is Principle, and Others: Intensification of Metaphysical Noumenon

2.Lu Jiuyuan: Tension between Mind and Principle

3.Wavering between the Theories of Zhu Xi and Lu Jiuyuan

Chapter Two

Records of the Instructions and Reviews and Wang Yangmings Mindology

1.From Records of the Instructions and Reviews to The Complete Works of Yangming

2.Reconstruction of Mind-Body

3.Mind and Thing

4.Innate Knowledge as Moral Nature

5.Distinction between Community and Self

6.To Attain Innate Knowledge

7.Unity of Knowledge and Action

Chapter Three

Mindology and Thoughts in the Late Ming Dynasty

1.The Taizhou Sect

2.The Theory of Child-Mind and the Principle of Individual

3.Return to Nature-Noumenon.

4.Unfoldment of the Theory of Attaining Innate Knowledge

5.The Donglin Sect and Mindology

Chapter Four

Mindology at the Turn of the Ming and Qing Dynasties

1.What Effort Attains Is Noumenon

2.Distinction between the Individual and the Whole

Chapter Five

Reverberations of Mindology in the Modern Times

1.Innate Knowledge and Individuality

2.Innate Knowledge and Intuition

3.Mind-Power and Will-Desire

4.Unity of Knowledge and Action, and Oneness of Nature and Cultivation

Appendices

I.Bibliography

II.Glossary