Chronology Entry
Year
1920
Text
[Dewey, John]. Duwei wu da jiang yan. Hu Shi yi. [ID D25871]. [Five major lecture series of John Dewey in Beijing].
Hu Shi : "Dr. Dewey intends to revise and expand his original lecture notes for publication in book form. When his manuscript is complete, I hope to translate it into Chinese, so that both English and Chinese versions can be published at the same time."
Robert W. Clopton : Unfortunately this intention was not carried out. Dewey's lectures were published in Chinese, many of them in the Bulletin of the Ministry of Education. Dewey referred in his lecture on ethics to Sun Yat-sen's theory : 'To practice means to seek knowledge. A theory must be tested before it becomes accurate. I fully agreed with the great Chinese statesman Dr. Sun Yat-sen, when he said the old saying, 'to know is easy ; to act is difficult' has contributed a great deal to the backwardness of China, because under the influence of the saying people have become lazy and hesitant to do anything. It is true that we cannot always anticipate with accuracy the consequences of what we do. But this is no warrant for us to sit idle. The more we try doing something, the more experience we have and therefore the more knowledge we can get. The attempt to get knowledge apart from doing and applying it in a practical situation never will succeed.
Jessica Wang : Hu Shi's translations seem highly problematic – mostly in style and tone and occasionally in content. Hu's eloquent, pompous, and proselytizing style marked a dramatic difference from Dewey's usually unassuming and unimposing style. I do not mean to suggest that Hu Shi intended to distort Dewey's lectures, nor do I mean to imply that the records of Dewey's lectures in China were largely fabricated and unreliable. Nonetheless, we may reasonably believe that Hu may have occasionally altered the meanings of what Dewey said to highlight a particular point or to promote a certain agenda. Even though these occasional anomalies may seem minor, they eventually affected the way Chinese intellectuals responded to Dewey.
Hu Shi : "Dr. Dewey intends to revise and expand his original lecture notes for publication in book form. When his manuscript is complete, I hope to translate it into Chinese, so that both English and Chinese versions can be published at the same time."
Robert W. Clopton : Unfortunately this intention was not carried out. Dewey's lectures were published in Chinese, many of them in the Bulletin of the Ministry of Education. Dewey referred in his lecture on ethics to Sun Yat-sen's theory : 'To practice means to seek knowledge. A theory must be tested before it becomes accurate. I fully agreed with the great Chinese statesman Dr. Sun Yat-sen, when he said the old saying, 'to know is easy ; to act is difficult' has contributed a great deal to the backwardness of China, because under the influence of the saying people have become lazy and hesitant to do anything. It is true that we cannot always anticipate with accuracy the consequences of what we do. But this is no warrant for us to sit idle. The more we try doing something, the more experience we have and therefore the more knowledge we can get. The attempt to get knowledge apart from doing and applying it in a practical situation never will succeed.
Jessica Wang : Hu Shi's translations seem highly problematic – mostly in style and tone and occasionally in content. Hu's eloquent, pompous, and proselytizing style marked a dramatic difference from Dewey's usually unassuming and unimposing style. I do not mean to suggest that Hu Shi intended to distort Dewey's lectures, nor do I mean to imply that the records of Dewey's lectures in China were largely fabricated and unreliable. Nonetheless, we may reasonably believe that Hu may have occasionally altered the meanings of what Dewey said to highlight a particular point or to promote a certain agenda. Even though these occasional anomalies may seem minor, they eventually affected the way Chinese intellectuals responded to Dewey.
Mentioned People (3)
Dewey, John
(Burlington 1859-1952 New York, N.Y.) : Philosoph, Pädagoge, Psychologe
Hu, Shi
(Anhui 1891-1962 Shanghai) : Schriftsteller, Philosoph, Diplomat
Sun, Yatsen
(Xiangshan, Guangdong 1866-1925 Beijing) : Politiker, Präsident der Republik
Subjects
Philosophy : United States of America
Documents (3)
| # | Year | Bibliographical Data | Type / Abbreviation | Linked Data |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1972 | Ou, Tsui-chen. Dewey's lectures and influence in China. In : Guide to the works of John Dewey. Ed. by Jo Ann Boydston. (Carbondale : Southern Illinois University Press, 1972). | Publication / DewJ74 |
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| 2 | 1973 | Dewey, John. Lectures in China, 1919-1920. Transl. from the Chinese and ed. by Robert W. Clopton, Tsuin-chen Ou [Wu Junsheng]. (Honolulu : University Press of Hawaii, 1973). (An East-West center book). | Publication / DewJ5 |
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| 3 | 2007 | Wang, Jessica Ching-Sze. John Dewey in China : to teach and to learn. (Albany, N.Y. : State University of New York Press, 2007). (Suny series in Chinese philosophy and culture). S. 31. | Publication / DewJ2 |
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