China and the West

[Defoe, Daniel]. Lubinsun piao liu ji ; Lubinsun piao liu ji xu ji. Lin Shu yi. [ID D10426].
Lin Shu schreibt im Vorwort :
"The English man Robinson, because he is not willing to accept the golden mean as a doctrine for his conduct, travels overseas alone by boat. As a result, he is wrecked in a storm, and was caught in a hopeless situation on a desert island. There he walks and sits alone, lives like a primitive man. He does not go back to his native country until twenty years later. From ancient times to the present, no book has recorded this incident. His father originally wished for him to behave according to the doctrine of the golden mean, but Robinson goes against his will, and in consequence, becomes an outstanding pioneers. Thereupon, adventurous people in the world, who are nearly devoured by sharks and crocodiles, are all inspired by Robinson."

"As I read it, I saw all the more clearly how best to handle loneliness and deal with extremity. You handle loneliness with your will, extremity with your own effort. When you are first confronted with loneliness, you are overwhelmed by anxieties, worries, fears, and frustration, you know not where to turn for help. But it is not loneliness that leads your to such a state... When Crusoe is first stranded on the island, he too is troubled and tormented with worries, but when he is resigned to the fact that there is no help and he is entirely on his own, when he knows that worrying would not do him any good, he reins in his fear of death, and he seeks spiritual support in religion. Having attained a measure of peace, he could apply all his energies to survival. It is important to remember that a person will forget his worries if his mind is occupied. During the day, Crusoe focueses his mond on his work - growing crops, building shelters and the like ; at night, he focuses his mind on religion. Through such steadfast discipline, he finally attains equanimity, his thoughts are serene, his words generous and kind. Twenty-seven years later, Crusoe returns to England, disposes of his property and uses his wealth for the care of his relatives and friends ; as head of family, he acts generously and humanely. For having undergone the most trying of all human experiences, he knows how difficult it is for man to bear with difficult circumstances, and so in all his dealings, he keeps in mind the workins of human nature. In this, he truly abides by the Doctrine of the Mean."

"Translating is unlike writing. The writer can write about what he has seen or heard, either in vague expressions or in detailed descriptions, that is to say, he can write about whatever subject and in whatever manner he likes. However, when it comes to translating, the translator is confined to relating what has already been written about, how is it, then, possible for him to adulterate the translation with his own views? When religious inculcations are found in the original text, he must translate them ; how can he purge his translation of that discourse just for tabboo's sake ? Hence, translation must be done exactly like what has been written in the original."

Sekundärliteratur
John Kwan-Terry : It is in the context of a Confucian ethos that Lin Shu discusses Crusoe's appeal to him in his 'Preface'. As Lin sees him, the Confucian hero whose life exemplifies the true principle of the golden mean is a person who is firm and steady of character and who does not tend to extremes of behavious ; he is not fickle in his emotions and beliefs and, far from deviating from the path of truth when under the severest pressure, will be ready to fight and die for it. On the other hand, the vulgar concept of the golden mean projects a man whose idea of not living an excessive life is to spend countless hours in comfort and safety with his wife ; though such a man has not committed any bad deeds, he is but middling and one among the very common. Crusoe, according to Lin, is not of this middling sort. His life shows a man of dynamism, of an independent, adventurous spirit, who is defiant of death, who faces the raging elements with courage, and overcomes the most adverse circumstances with ingenuity and resourcefulness. Such vitality of temperament supports the realization of the ideal mean which lies, not in a mere avoidance of extremes, but in an orderly fulfilment of responsible actions within society, within the family, within the time of human life. In this last observation, Lin has not overlocked the fact that there is little family or society to speak of in Robinson Crusoe, at leas in the sense of extended, overt reference. By its very nature, Lin's Confucian outlook on life has a 'this-worldly' orientation, in which ethical definitions are directed primarily towards the creation of social harmony. This means that Lin takes for granted Crusoe's social context, whether such a context has been elaborately fashioned or merely implied ; without such a context, Crusoe's extraordinary life becomes ultimately meaningless. Lin would have noticed that such a context has been established on the very first page of the novel, where Crusoe supplies details of his date of birth, the history of his name, his family's immigration into and subsequent naturalization in England – genealogical and sociological details that people in the traditional Chinese world, whether in real life or in literature, seldom overlook.
A nameless Crusoe, however heroic, who lives and dies alone on an island, will be an image of little consequence to Lin. If Lin has emphasized Crusoe's existential image, it is because, having taken Crusoe's social context for granted, he finds that this image is highly attractive and meaningful fo Lin's world-picture. Thus he does not find it awkward, while discussing Crusoe's dynamic personality, to give as much space in his preface to discussing Crusoe's relationships with his father, his wife and friends even though they appear but briefly in the book. It is from the same Confucian standpoint that Lin interpreted Crusoe's religious experience, his family and social relationships and his mythic significance. In his preface, he makes it clear that although he has translated Crusoe's Christian cogitations and prayers faithfully, he does not accept them. The religious sense, however, that they occasionally, and Crusoe's attitude always, impart, he understands and associates with the Chinese consciousness of the tao.
Lin's subsequent description of Crusoe's development shows, he can tolerate Crusoe's invcoations to God and Christ as occasions illuminating the emotional and psychological states that accompany the hero's efforts to make sense of his condtion.
Crusoe began with a love of adventure, Lin explains. His first act, in disregarding his parents' advice and admonition, was an act of ignorance. But paradoxically, it was also an intuitive reaction of his 'tao' and, if not an act of wisdom in itself, it led to wisdom, to that process of self-discovery in which widom lies. Initially, however, it saved Crusoe from settling down to that kind of 'middling' life that his father had advocated and that exemplifies the 'vulgar concept of the golden mean'. Once on the island, away from men, Crusoe's religious consiciousness began to develop. At first, alone and confused, he suffered from severe psychological disorientation, as nay normal man would, and became successively passive and apathetic, and obsessed with fencing himself in to keep out predators, both real and imagined. Crusoe's isolation had been beneficial in another way. As he arrived at an understanding of his condition, he gave thanks that with all its hardships and miseries, it had not been worse, indeed that it probably was much better than what many people had to suffer. With this realization, self-pity gave way to a mind at peace and a heart in closer sympathy with other men. Thus, 'after reading Robinson', Lin maintains, "I understand how to fight loneliness and difficulties. Loneliness is fought through the heart, difficulties are fought through power".
Lin adds : "Crusoe's treatment of his father shows that not all Westerners are unfilial, that he who knows how to fulfil filial obligations knows how to be loyal and care for his country. In this way, filial piety can be extended beyond family bonds to serve the purpose of national wealth and harmony. Since not all Westerners are unfilial, we cannot commend China and deprecate foreign countries. The reason Western learning has not spread all over China lies precisely in the mistaken notion held by a few conservatives that Westerners know no fathers."
Lin regards Crusoe as a model of heroic endeavour for his readers. The political implications of an example what is Western in nature and conception are not lost on him. While enthusing over Crusoe as the embodiment of individual vitality, he is sufficiently convinced of its essentially predatory nature to feel apprhensive of what the type means in the historical context of his time. The arrival of Friday in the story is thus seen as a signal for the subjugation, however benevolent, of the inferior for the benefits of the superior.
The translation of Robinson Crusoe, in Lin Shu's hands, becomes not so much a problem of literal accuracy as a work of interpretation and cultural transplantation. Lin has not hesitated to delete and abridge, to add a few words of his own to make the meaning clearer or supply his own metaphor to heighten the effect of the original, or to intersperse in the translated text his own annotations or critical comments in order to bring out a point or draw some conclusion. All the liberties that Lin took with Defoe's text served to record his appreciation or explication of the original work, its theme and art. In Lin Shu's Chinese eyes, Crusoe represents an image of human achievement that is both inspiring and threatening, an image, at the same time, that is seen to evolve within the contextual framework, not from book-learning or philosophical speculations but from experience, from the actual efforts at making a life worth living.