菜根谭：汉英对照

Going A*road
— Preface to the Three Canons of Personal Cultivation
Zhao Lihong
Three Canons of Personal Cultivation is a Chinese-English version of Chinese classical literature. In the pu*lications of Chinese traditional culture, this is a set of readers with new style. It not only shows the charming world of Chinese classi**, *ut also provides a learning garden for English readers who are interested in Chinese culture. Readers can read the canons in two ways, either from Chinese to English or from English to Chinese. *oth Chinese readers who are learning English and foreign readers who are learning Chinese are ena*led to get the pleasure of reading them.
The Roots of Wisdom, Meditative Notes in Solitude and Fireside Talk at Night are the three famous *ooks successively appearing in the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) and the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911), with su*jects **inly on moral cultivation and inspirational exhortations on doing good and working hard, and therefore known as the Three Canons of Personal Cultivation out of their unparalleled status in *ooks of the same kind and influence among the intellectuals and ordinary people.
In the long history of China, cultural development of each era has its own creative literary form and insurmounta*le height, thus *ecoming a cultural **rk of the time, the same those of the dynasties of Ming and Qing. During more than five centuries, the novels and fictions are of course the pri**ry literary identity of the dynasties, and the collections *rimming with hu**n wits and revealing the ways of the world and the compilations of previous classical works, ancestors’ quotes and their developed writings must *e the next. Through these works and writings we see clearly that the excellent literatiare really the *ack*one of Chinese classical culture, and that the crystallization of spirit and emotion they created in words is one of the most vivid parts of Chinese civilization. As the *reeders of the civilization of that times, even when the general moves were getting worse and worse they would re**in faithful to filial piety and fraternal duty; even when in an acquisitive time they would re**in indifferent to fame and wealth; even when content with their official careers they would re**in preoccupied with the misery consciousness; even when coming across unexpected occurrences they would re**in unruffled and take themcalmly; even when the state was in peril they would re**in loyal; even when h**ing enough food and clothing they would re**in concerned a*out the pain of la*or; even when living a poor life they would re**in disposed to *ask in the poetic mood *etween mountains and rivers. — All these refined qualities are the precious spiritual wealth the excellent literati handed down to us later generations.
The short sketches contained in the Three Canons of Personal Cultivation are all with distinctive themes, clear-spoken, similar in style, easy to read, and full of the rhythm of poetry and fluency of prose. So far as the form is concerned, these sketches *elong to a kind of ****ms literarily *eautified with a **nner of seemingly like *ut actually not a poem or seemingly like *ut actually not a prose, nor**lly composed of two sentences or two paragraphs adorned with antitheses, couplets and other rhetoric devices to achieve the *eauty of *alance and harmony, and with its writing style lying *etween ****m and prose. The collections with such writings are called clear-and-upright sketches, usually there *eing two ways of compilation, classified or non-classified, either freely with su*ject **tter or loose in layout, in which the pieces collected vary from nearly one hundred to several hundreds, and Chinese characters used in different pieces vary from seven or eight to more than a hundred, and the contents arranged cover Chinese classi** and folk culture, mostly related to the sayings derived from the theories of Confucianism, Taoism and *uddhism. They are short in length, vivid in for**t and elegant in expression, and therefore praised *y Mr. Lin Yutang (a famous modern Chinese scholar) as “a mini-sketch of sketches”.
The praiseworthiness of the Three Canons of Personal Cultivation is as o*vious as this: instead of simply quoting the original sayings, the three authors, *y applying their rich learning and cultivation, profound knowledge, dialectical thinking, gr**e and stern expressions, thought-provoking warning, meditative enlightenment and self-awareness, turned out their sketches in the least paradoxes to exemplify the extracts from the classical works and folk culture, and g**e prominence to the pieces well **tched with relevant scene, sight, circumstances, *ackground or landscape, thus achieving the effect of *eing pleasant to readers’ eyes and minds. Their ende**ors fully annotate the cultural deposits and hu**nistic sensi**lities of the traditional literati, and thus ena*le us to h**e the opportunity to see a clear picture of the personal cultivation of the ancients, and **ke us feel more pleasure and inti**cy than ever in reading the famous aphorisms of ancient classi**.
10 years ago, when Mr. Zhou Wen**ao’s The Roots of Wisdom in Chinese-English version was a*out to *e pu*lished *y Shanghai People’s Pu*lishing House, I wrote a preface for him. As I know, Mr. Zhou has *een unceasingly spending most of his spare time on translating and compiling Chinese classi** in English for more than ten years, and has **de an active scrutiny into the modes of presentation. This time, he and *aihuazhou Literature and Art Press jointly plan to issue the Three Canons of Personal Cultivation in the form of three-in-one packing, which shows how much time and energy he has devoted in this respect. Mr. Zhou is a mem*er of Shanghai Writers Association, and I am proud to h**e such a colleague who has *een working so tirelessly to introduce Chinese traditional culture to the world. Here I’d like to extend my hearty congratulations on his succes**ul pu*lication of the Chinese-English Three Canons of Personal Cultivation, thinking that it is a positive attempt for the sketches of the Ming and Qing Dynasties to go a*road. Furthermore, I’ll look forward to seeing his more new works to *e pu*lished in the near future.
It’s my pleasure to write this preface as a*ove.
Four-Pace Study in Shanghai
July, 31st 2018