Arthur Waley's the Way and Its Power

Arthur Waley’s The Way and Its Power

Representation of ‘the Other’

HSIU-CHEN JANE CHANG

RTHUR WALEY (1889–1966), a well-known British sinologist, was educated at Cambridge and received the honorary degree A of Doctor of Literature at Oxford. He was awarded the Order of Companion of the British Empire in 1952. During his lifetime, he published about forty books and some eighty-two articles. Half of his published books were translations.1 The Chinese classic Tao Te Ching2 has had a significant influence on Chin- ese culture. Since the eighteenth century, there has been a strong interest in the West in translating and interpreting this Taoist text. A great many English versions of this influential Chinese classic are available. The reason for choos- ing Waley’s translation, The Way and Its Power, for investigation is mainly that his book was selected for the Chinese Translation Series of UNESCO. It has been taken to be one of the most authoritative Western interpretations of the Tao Te Ching. I shall examine the attitude of the translator towards the source language and culture he was translating. I shall also demonstrate that, through constant dichotomies such as civilized and barbaric, scientific and superstitious, a negative image of Chinese culture is constructed. Then I shall

1 These include: Chinese Poems (London: Lowe Bros., 1916); A Hundred and Seventy Chinese Poems (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1917); More Translations from the Chinese (London: Allen & Unwin, 1919); The Way and Its Power: A Study of the Tao tê Ching and its Place in Chinese Thought (London: Allen & Unwin, 1934); The Book of Songs (London: Allen & Unwin, 1937); The Analects of Confucius (London: Allen & Unwin, 1938); Three Ways of Thought in Ancient China (London: Allen & Unwin, 1939). 2 Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching, tr. D.C. Lau (Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1963). 176 H SIU- CHEN J ANE C HANG ½¾ look back to examine the relationship between China and the West. By doing so, I intend to redefine the so-called Orientalism proposed by Edward Said.

Translating with an Attitude

I must apologize for the fact that the introduction is longer than the translation itself. I can only say that I see no way of making the text fully intelligible with- out showing how the ideas which it embodies came into existence. The introduction together with the translation and notes are intended for those who have no professional interest in Chinese studies.3

Ideally, translation is supposed to be a faithful representation of the source language and culture. In translation studies, a common research method is to compare the original text in the source language and the translation in the target language, so that we may judge how successful the translation is. The preface and introduction to the translation are often considered to be less im- portant, and may even be ignored. In reality, however, for English readers who are not familiar with Chinese Taoist thinking it would be extremely difficult, if not impossible, to appreciate this Chinese classic, even with all the translator’s notes. Therefore, very often we find that translated English texts have a long preface and introduction to help the reader understand the foreign culture – in other words, to put them in perspective. The preface and introduction of Waley’s translation are, all together, 126 pages in length, which is, as Waley notes, longer than the translated text of the Tao Te Ching itself (102 pages). The original Tao Te Ching contains only about 5,000 Chinese characters. It is short but difficult. Deciphering this ancient text itself can be a great challenge to the translator. After the transforma- tion of language and culture, it would not be surprising if an English reader found the translation itself beyond comprehension. The function of the preface and introduction is to provide the readers with a perspective; to give them a map to find the treasure the translator promises. From time to time, we may find that English readers do not understand the difficult main texts, but re- member vividly what the translator says in the preface and introduction about Chinese culture. The importance of the preface and introduction, therefore, should not be overlooked. In the following section, I shall investigate the pre- conceptions and the motivation of the sinologist when he starts the translation project.

For hundreds of millennia Man was what we call ‘primitive.’ He has attempted to be civilized only (as regards Europe) in the last few centuries. During an

3 Waley, The Way and Its Power, 14.