Study On British Sinologists' Interpretation Of Shi-king In The Late 19th Century In Accordance With The China Review

The China Review is a sinological journal published in China in the late 19 th century with English as its main writing language.It covers various fields of China such as politics,economy and culture.It has reflected the latest research of the British sinological findings of the Chinese civilization since the Victorian Age.Based on the translation and interpretation of the Shi-King published in the magazine,this paper examines the complex features and paradigm transformation of British sinological study of the Shi-King in the late 19 th century on the basis of the hot issues,the mainstream methodologies as well as the standpoints of the study of Western Sinology in the same period.Concentrating on the translation or interpretation of the Shi-King by Thomas W.Kingsmill,Edward Harper Parker and E.J.Eitle in The China Review,this paper intends to reveal the differences on method and position between the three scholars regarding the interpretation and translation of the Shi-King as well as their conflicts.By comparing the vocabularies and expressions of the book of songs with those in Sanskrit,Kingsmill intends to test the hypothesis that the language of the book of songs originates from the transliteration of Sanskrit and the Chinese civilization can trace its root to the Aryan civilization.On the basis of criticizing Kingsmill,Edward Harper Parker translated the Shi-King in the form of English and Scottish Popular Ballads and erased the traditional Confucian concept of "poetry education" in his work,thus defined the Shi-King as the lyric singing of the primitive people.Building on the work of Edward Harper Parker,E.J.Eitle redefined the Shi-King as a pseudo-book adopting a series of positivist methods and then participated in the "Suspecting Ancient" movement of Western Sinology.Although the perspectives of the researches of the three scholars are different,they jointly reveal the shift of the "literature" paradigm concerning the translation and interpretation of the Shi-King in the English-speaking world in the second half of the 19 th century.From the perspective of synchrony,all of them abandoned the tradition of the annotation of the Confucian classics and the religious interpretation of the Jesuits in the Ming and Qing Dynasties,and tried to explore the original meaning of the Shi-King before it became Confucian classics.From the diachronic perspective,their translations and interpretations manifest a gradual "scientific" and "literary" trend,which also indicate a basic aspect of the modern " Shi-King " after the 20 th century.This paper explores and interprets the literature of the Shi-King published by The China Review,which to some extent fills in the blank of the Enghlish translation of the Shi-King in this period,and intends to reveal the hotspots and trends of sinology in the English-speaking world in the second half of the 19 th century on the basis of the research methods and positions of the three scholars.