The English Translation of Lunyu and the Dissemination of the Confucian Culture

As one of the carriers of Confucian culture,and from ancient times to the present,Lunyu or The Analects or The Analects of Confucius,has been well received by readers at home and abroad,and there are more and more English translations of Lunyu.This article will select some of the vocabulary translations with ancient Chinese characteristics in Lunyu as the object,employ the method of a comparative analysis to explore the cultural connotation behind the text and the dissemination of the translation,and discuss the translator’s translation strategies.Judging from the research on The Analects by scholars from home and abroad and the opening and development of overseas Confucius Institutes,Lunyu has exerted an enlightenment effect in different times.

Confucian Culture and Human Rights Development

I. Confucianism has long been the mainstream of traditional Chinese culture, as well as a major component of Eastern and world culture. We can see that Confucianism has existed for 2,500 years since it was founded by Confucius in the late 6th and early 5th centuries BC. Over this very long pe- riod of time, Confucianism has played a dominant role in Chinese culture. It established the basic orientation of the country＇s socioeconomic system, influenced the formation and develop- ment of China＇s political system, and established Chinese society＇s ethical standards and values.

Confucian culture and corporate bond pricing

We investigate the effect of Confucian culture on corporate bond pricing.Using the birthplace data of 56,759 Jinshi in the Ming and Qing dynasties to construct a proxy of Confucian culture,we find a significantly negative relation between Confucian culture and bond pricing:the stronger the Confucian atmosphere of the corporate headquarters’location,the higher the bond rating and the lower the credit spread.This conclusion still holds after using the distance to the nearest ancient printing office as an instrumental variable and a series of robustness tests.The mechanism test shows that Confucian culture can improve the pricing efficiency of corporate bonds by fostering investors’trust,alleviating principal-agent problems and restraining bad corporate behaviors.Moreover,the impact of Confucian culture on corporate bond pricing is greater for firms located in regions with weak legal and other formal institutional constraints and for unlisted companies.Our study complements the literature on culture and bond pricing,and provides policy insights from traditional Chinese wisdom for improving the efficiency of financial markets.

Confucian culture and the external pay gap

We examine the impact of Confucian philosophy on external pay gaps,and find that a Confucianist atmosphere is negatively associated with firms’external pay gaps for both executives and employees.Mechanistically,the Confucian concept of“righteousness”reduces the self-interested motivation of management,in turn reducing executives’external pay gap;“humaneness”causes management to focus on protecting employees’rights and interests,benefiting employees’compensation;and“honesty”improves information disclosure,reducing the external compensation gap for both executives and general employees.The inhibitory effect of Confucian culture on the external pay gap is greater in regions with weak formal institutions and non-state-owned firms,while foreign cultural shocks attenuate the Confucian influence.Finally,the Confucian culture-driven reduction of the external pay gap improves enterprises’economic efficiency.

Anti-Confucianism:The Formation Process and the Ideology Essence of the Cultural Policy of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom

The“anti-Confucianism”constituted the main feature of the cultural policy of the Taiping Rebellion.However,the anti-Confucianism movement of the Taiping Rebellion was mainly in form rather than in content,and mainly in action rather than in thought,which manifested itself in a policy of banning and destroying the physical forms of Confucian memorial tablets,Confucian temples,and Confucian classics.The core elements of Confucianism were all inherited and retained by Hong Xiuquan,who was committed to subverting Confucius’position as the cultural authority of Chinese society,so Confucianism,together with Christian thought and folk religious thought,constituted the main source of the ideology of the Taiping Rebellion.It was the influence of Confucianism and folk religious thought on Hong Xiuquan that gave the idea of worshipping God a localized character and made a new type of religion that combined Chinese and Western elements.The“anti-Confucianism”was mostly based on an irrational political movement,and the Taiping Rebellion never criticized the doctrine of Confucius and Mencius from a theoretical point of view.Thus the political submission of civil society to the Taiping Rebellion hardly rose to the level of political identification.Cultural antipathy,to some extent,led to the eventual defeat of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom.

China Elderly Care:A Confucian Legacy

This paper explores the Confucian roots of elderly care expectations and how these expectations may influence the current state of the elderly and elderly care in modem China.This paper posits that the outdated expectations combined with recent urbanization trends has put unrealistic pressures on society to adequately care for a rapidly aging population.Until expectations are adjusted to reflect modem day families and realities,the elderly will continue to struggle with a sense of inadequate care,which can lead to mental health issues and feelings of isolation.Once the shackles of Confucian expectations are removed,families,governments and private institutions will have the freedom to be more creative in the way they imagine solutions for elderly care.

Interpretation and Translation:A Case Study of the Translation of“Péng(朋)”and“Yǒu(友)”in The Analects of Confucius

Lun Yu or The Analects,a masterpiece of ancient Chinese thought,contains Chinese Confucianism and the values and ways of doing things that it represents.This paper focuses on the interpretation and translation of“péng(朋)”and“yǒu(友)”in the translations by James Legge,Arthur Waley,Koo Hung-ming,and Xu Yuanchong respectively to explore the similarities and differences between Chinese and Western cultures and the concepts held by different translators in the way of conducting oneself in society.

The Asian Dimension Reflection of Hofstede’s Cultural Theory—Based on the Consumption Cognitive Characteristics of Chinese Post-90s College Students

This article is based on Hofstede’s cultural theory,taking the post-90s college students as the research object,and through a small-scale survey method,uses the cultural conflicts of the post-90s college students’cognition of“frugality”and“consumption”to explore the characteristics of their consumption outlook.The consumption behavior of post-90s college students presents a diversified structure,lacks planning,and has short-term orientation tendencies such as light luxury and impulsive consumption.At the same time,it displays an obvious living within its means and a wait-and-see attitude towards advanced consumption,focusing on the long-term orientation of its own investment in the future.The Confucian cultural characteristics of the contradictory but complementary consumption outlook of college students born in the 1990s provide Hofstede with a new perspective beyond the long-term and short-term dualistic orientation.