Focusing the Familiar: A Translation and Philosophical Interpretation of the Zhongyong, ISBN-13: 978-0824824600

Focusing the Familiar: A Translation and Philosophical Interpretation of the Zhongyong, ISBN-13: 978-0824824600

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• Publisher: ‎ University of Hawaii Press; Annotated edition (August 31, 2001)
• Language: ‎ English
• ‎182 pages
• ISBN-10: ‎ 0824824601
• ISBN-13: ‎ 978-0824824600

The Zhongyong–translated here as Focusing the Familiar–has been regarded as a document of enormous wisdom for more than two millennia and is one of Confucianism’s most sacred and seminal texts. It achieved truly canonical preeminence when it became one of the Four Books compiled and annotated by the Southern Song dynasty philosopher Zhu Xi (1130-1200). Within the compass of world literature, the influence of these books (Analects of Confucius, Great Learning, Zhongyong, and Mencius) on the Sinitic world of East Asia has been no less than the Bible and the Qu’ran on Western civilization.

With this new translation David Hall and Roger Ames provide a distinctly philosophical interpretation of the Zhongyong, remaining attentive to the semantic and conceptual nuances of the text to account for its central place within classical Chinese literature. They present the text in such a way as to provide Western philosophers and other intellectuals access to a set of interpretations and arguments that offer new insights into issues and concerns common to both Chinese and Western thinkers. In addition to the annotated translation, a glossary of terms gives in concise form important senses of the terms that play a key role in the argument of the Zhongyong. An appendix addresses some of the more technical issues relevant to the understanding of both the history of the text and the history of its English translations. Here the translators introduce readers to the best contemporary textual studies of the Zhongyong and make use of the most recent archaeological discoveries in China to place the work within its own intellectual context.

Table of Contents:

Acknowledgments ix
Preface xi
Introduction: A Philosophical Interpretation of the Zhongyong 1
1. The Importance of the Zhongyong 1
2. Problems of Translation 3
2.1 Identifying “Philosophical” Texts 3
2.2 The Language of Focus and Field 5
2.2.1 Things, Processes, Events 8
2.2.2 Causality, Power, Creativity 11
2.2.3 Clarity, Univocity, Linguistic Clustering 15
3. Qi
and Correlative Cosmology: The Interpretive
Context of the Zhongyong 19
4. The Central Argument of the Zhongyong 26
4.1 Cheng
and “Creativity” 30
4.2 “Creativity (cheng
),” “Natural Tendencies
(xing
),” and “Emotions (qing
)” 35
4.3 “Family” as Governing Metaphor 38
4.4 Ritual Propriety (li
) in the Zhongyong 40
4.4.1 Ritual Propriety (li) and “Focusing
the Familiar (zhongyong
)” 43
4.4.2 Ritual Propriety (li) and Education
(jiao
) as Growth and Extension 50
Notes to the Introduction 53
Glossary of Key Terms 61
Focusing the Familiar: A Translation of the Zhongyong 89
Notes to the Translation 115
Appendix
1. The Text of the Zhongyong 131
1.1 The Zhongyong and the “Zisi-Mencius Lineage” 131
1.2 Zisi and the “Five Modes of Proper Conduct
(wuxing
)” Doctrine 137
1.3 The Zhongyong: A Composite Document 143
1.4 Dating the Zhongyong 145
1.5 Master Zisi: The Person 146
2. Interpretations of the Zhongyong 148
2.1 Revisiting the Opening Passage 148
2.2 Why Zhongyong is not a “Doctrine of the Mean” 150
Notes to the Appendix 152
Bibliography of Works Cited 155
Index 161

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