Found (and Lost?) in Translation: Culture in The Analects

Abstract

The use of the word culture to render the Old Chinese term wen 文 in English translations of The Analects increased dramatically from one instance in 1861 to 93 percent in a translation from 2003. This development illustrates how historical changes in word meanings and epistemic assumptions profoundly influence modern Western understanding of early Chinese thought. Semantic changes in the English word culture enabled nineteenth-century translators to discover a concept of high culture—culture as a civilization of assumed universal scope—in The Analects. Subsequently, over the course of the twentieth century, the idea that Old Chinese wen means culture became almost universally accepted. However, since the prevalent concept of culture is now the relative, anthropological concept of culture as a way of life, this assumption is potentially leading to misunderstandings and the propagation of problematic culturalist ideas about culture in early China.