COMPTES RENDUS - AFEC

Comptes rendus
in its wake various connotations that are quite différent from those of the
closest équivalent western term chosen to translate it. Gernet cites two
examples : zhi ff, translatée! 'substance' and tian ^, translated 'ciel'
(heaven). The former, as Gernet points out, referring as it does to the composition
resulting from the combinations of invisible yin and yang energy,
is entirely différent from the western meaning of the term, while the latter
may also frequently be rendered 'Nature' and retains of course in Chinese
its connotation 'sky'. The translation of another key term such as li ïg may
présent further problems. Rendered by Gernet as 'principe d'organisation'
and 'pouvoir d'organisation' in his discussion of Wang Fuzhi's philosophy
and that of his Song predecessor, Zhang Zai (1020-1076), where it refers
to the principle that gives structure and organization to the invisible combinations
of yin and yang energy in which it necessarily inheres, indeed is
immanent, it was also (as Gernet notes) interpreted as a transcendent idéal
principle by the majority of Neo-Confucian thinkers due to the dominance
of the Cheng-Zhu school and Zhu Xi (1130-1200), who, influenced by
Buddhism, tended to equate it with the Absolute. Given the confusion that
ail too often results from translating such philosophical terminology, some
scholars hâve preferred to work with romanized transcriptions of the terms,
but this, particularly when dealing with Song Neo-Confucianists, can
produce discourse that resembles algebra.
It must be emphasized that Gernet's translations overcome thèse difficulties
admirably. Indeed, one of the great merits of this book is the
extensive body of translations from Wang Fuzhi's original Chinese. Thèse
translations cover the whole of the enormous corpus of Wang's writings
(over ten thousand pages in the latest édition, the Chuanshan quanshu $6
U-lèllf), hardly any of which hâve been translated into any western language.
Moreover, Gernet présents his translations in such a way as to
allow Wang to speak for himself. He makes Wang speak directly to the
reader through the judicious juxtaposition of passages in which Wang
exposes his thought. Thèse passages, accompanied by the original texts in
Chinese for the benefit of sinologues, are culled from the many commentaries
Wang wrote on a variety of différent classical and traditional texts.
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