Richard Wilhelm

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Richard Wilhelm

Richard Wilhelm (born May 10, 1873 in Stuttgart , † March 2, 1930 in Tübingen ) was a German Protestant theologian , missionary and sinologist . His transmissions and commentaries on classical Chinese texts - especially the I Ching - were widely used.

Life

Youth and theological training

Richard Wilhelm in 1873 in Stuttgart, the son of one of Thuringia derived glass painter born. The father died in 1882; Wilhelm was raised by his mother and grandmother.

In 1891 he began studying Protestant theology at the University of Tübingen and the Evangelical Monastery . After his ordination in the Stuttgart collegiate church in 1895 he became vicar in Wimsheim and in 1897 in Boll . The encounter there with Christoph Blumhardt , who in his later years broke his close ties with the Protestant Church and was drawn to social issues and social democracy , became life-defining for Wilhelm.

family

In 1899 he got engaged to Christoph Blumhardt's daughter Salome. The wedding with Salome Blumhardt took place in Shanghai on May 7, 1900. This marriage resulted in four sons, all of whom were born in Tsingtau : Siegfried, Manfred, Hellmut and Walt.

Siegfried Wilhelm (1901–1962) studied architecture. He married Annemarie Roth. Both became parents of six children. He lived in China until 1938 and then returned to Germany with his family. Manfred Wilhelm (1902–1985) became a mechanical engineer and worked for various companies in China from the early 1930s to 1956. He married Ruth Wang. They had a son. Hellmut Wilhelm (1905–1990) studied law and sinology. He married twice and had four children. Following his exile in Beijing during the Third Reich, he was given a professorship in Sinology at the University of Washington . Walt Wilhelm (1910–1971) did an apprenticeship at the IG Farben Bayer Leverkusen company. He married twice; a daughter was born in every marriage. After completing his training, he worked for Bayer, mainly in China until the end of the 1950s; then in senior management in Hong Kong and Milan and most recently became a board member at Bayer in Cologne.

Work in Qingdao (Tsingtau)

The area around Tsingtau, where Richard Wilhelm worked
Settlement and Church of Tsingtau (before 1914)

In 1900 Wilhelm set out as a missionary to the Chinese Empire in the service of the East Asia Mission . He came to what was then the German lease area of Tsingtau in the Chinese province of Shandong . There he first learned Chinese and worked as a pastor and teacher . Among other things, he founded a German-Chinese school. Through his educational activities, he came into contact with traditionally educated Chinese scholars who deepened his understanding of Chinese culture and history, but above all supported his study of the scriptures of classical Chinese antiquity. The Dowager Empress Cixi awarded him the "fourth grade button", combined with the title "Daotai", for his services to the Chinese education .

During the Japanese-Russian War of 1904/05, the effects of which were also felt in Qingdao, he continued his work and then went on their first home leave in 1907 with his family of five .

In 1908 Richard Wilhelm traveled to China for the second time. During the Japanese occupation in World War I , he was only able to continue his work at school and as pastor of the German community in Qingdao with great difficulty. In the summer of 1920 Wilhelm ended his twenty years of missionary work and returned temporarily to Germany. His acting successor was Hermann Bohner .

Intermezzo in Beijing

From 1922 to 1924 Wilhelm worked as a scientific advisor in the German embassy in Beijing , in addition to which he taught at Peking University . Here he also translated the I Ching (Book of Changes) into German. The edition he used as a template for his translation was the Dschou I Dsche Dschung from the Kangxi period (1662–1723). With the help of his teacher Lau Nai Süan (Lao Naixuan; 1843–1921) he created his edition, which has been translated into many Western languages. Quotations from both the Bible and Goethe , as well as ideas from Western philosophers and Protestant , Parsian and ancient Greek theology were incorporated into the commentary . Wilhelm showed many parallels to Chinese wisdom.

Back in Germany

In 1924 he was appointed honorary professor to the newly established endowed chair for Chinese history and Chinese philosophy in Frankfurt am Main . In 1925 he founded the China Institute at the University of Frankfurt , which he headed until his death in 1930. It should serve the cultural exchange between China and Europe. At the same time Wilhelm founded the magazine Sinica , which developed into one of the most important German sinological magazines. In 1927 he became a full professor at the University of Frankfurt .

Wilhelm was on friendly terms with many great scholars and philosophers of his time. His friends included u. a. Albert Schweitzer , Hermann Hesse , Martin Buber , Carl Gustav Jung , Hermann Graf Keyserling , Hans-Hasso von Veltheim- Ostrau and the Indian philosopher Tagore .

The study of Chinese culture had so deeply influenced Wilhelm that he began to devote himself exclusively to Sinology . He was filled with admiration for the Chinese and Chinese culture. Wilhelm rejected a Eurocentric view of China and advocated an exchange of cultures. Therefore, he withdrew more and more from missionary work, which he saw increasingly critical: "It is a consolation to me that as a missionary I have not converted a Chinese" .

End of life

Shortly before his death, Wilhelm was able to complete the major work he had begun twenty years earlier, the translation and publication of the eight-volume source work Religion and Philosophy of China . He died of a serious tropical disease in Tübingen on March 1, 1930 and was buried two days later in the Bad Boll cemetery. In the center of the actual tomb, in which the wife was later buried, there is a large travertine ball, enclosed by eight trigrams . CG Jung wrote an obituary which he published in 1930.

plant

Central

Confucianism and Daoism as a philosophy form the cornerstones of his work as a translator and commentator on the I Ching and the three main works of the Taoist canon ( Daodejing , Zhuangzi and Liezi ). Feng Youlan , a Chinese philosopher of the 20th century, reports an anecdote on this subject that can be seen as an answer to the relationship between the two philosophical directions. A very senior official asked a philosopher what the difference and what was in common between Laozi and Confucius. The philosopher replied, “Aren't they the same?” The high official was delighted with this answer and immediately appointed the philosopher his secretary. The philosopher could neither say that they have nothing in common, nor that they have everything in common. So his answer was in the form of a question, a really good answer, Youlan noted.

In view of the ambiguity of the texts, according to the sinologist Wolfgang Bauer , Wilhelm succeeded in describing Chinese ideas and translating them into German in such a way that they are still illuminating and stimulating today. Wilhelm's examination of the subject of faithful representation can be found in the comments and introductions to his translations. It is unusual today, says Bauer, to publish generalizations and evaluations of the way Wilhelm did this. The quality of his statements is not in question with regard to his expertise.

General

Wilhelm considered the ongoing process of "changes" or "change" to be the main law of philosophy and religion in China. The difference in Chinese thought and action gives rise to special, far-reaching and difficult research problems within Sinology. Transfers such as Wilhelm made them should therefore be of experimental nature. In Goethe's words, he interprets - in order to build bridges to this otherness - "changes", as interaction between "organic self-development and freedom". Goethe, so Wilhelm, worked on this poetically in his "Elective Affinities".

The I Ching describes how changes take place in nature and in humans. Changes have to be ordered by man through his actions if life is to succeed. The task of the philosophers is to offer concepts with which people can control and improve their actions, ie above all to stimulate thought. Feng Youlan said that this was already the task in classical times. At first one would have referred to the already existing tradition in the I Ching.

Wilhelm was no ordinary missionary or Christian. He was pious, but presumably not bound by any idea of ​​a particular correct belief. As early as 1900 he had been released from pastoral duties in order to devote himself to educational and health issues in the community. He considered religion to be the "property of humanity" and not that of denominations or religious authorities.

The creator of every culture is man, says Wilhelm with regard to the future development of the world. As a result of his source studies and his tendency to give preference to the “path or the meaning of the changes” in human life, he expresses: No longer the Christian or the Mohammedan or Buddhist, but the right person, will be the appearance of the future religion be.

According to Bauer, this promotes the dismantling of the prejudices that European culture is superior to all others. Wilhelm's writings would have made history here. The "path to a growing understanding of China ... will ... lead again and again along the paths that Richard Wilhelm discovered for us as a loner".

swell

For the translation of the Daodejing (Tao te king, Eugen Diederichs Verlag, Munich, 1978, edition with commentary and explanations, as a complete paperback edition by Bastei Lübbe, 1999) Richard Wilhelm u. a. the following sources listed in the bibliography (transcription according to the Lessing-Othmer system ):

  • Niën Erl Dsï Ho Ko (Complete Edition of the 22 Philosophers), Shanghai 1894. Stone printing. Volume I: Laotse, commented by Wang Bi with text-critical remarks by Lu De Ming.
  • Lau Dsï Dsi Gië, by Süo Hui (2 volumes). Old wood print from 1598.
  • Dau De Ging Tsche, by Hung Ying Schau (2 volumes), wood print, Ming Dynasty, no year.
  • Lau Dsï Te Gië, by Dazai Shuntai (2 volumes)
  • Wang Fu Jï, from all of the volume's works, which contains a commentary by Lao, end of the Ming dynasty.

In his explanations of the individual sections of Daodejing, he refers to the conversations of Confucius , to the Book of Documents, to Huai Nan Dsï, to the I Ching and to Liä Dsï / Liezi . Furthermore, according to the bibliography, he has viewed extensive material and other translations into European languages.

The grave of Richard Wilhelm and his wife is located in the historic Blumhardt cemetery near the country road between Bad Boll and the autobahn

In his translation of the I Ching he used a. a. the ten wings , the oldest commentary on the Book of Changes.

Last but not least, his "honored teacher Lau Nai Süan", one of "the most important Chinese scholars of the old school" (see R. Wilhelm, I. Ging, preface to the first edition, Beijing 1923), played a significant role in the design of Wilhelm Transcriptions of Daoist classics, especially the I Ching. The high esteem that Chinese culture has and is still enjoying in the western world goes back to the work of Richard Wilhelm.

More translations

In addition to the well-known translations of the texts of classical Chinese antiquity, there is a large number of works in which Wilhelm deals critically with the Chinese present. He published diary entries on contemporary events and his life and work in Qingdao , but also a work on Chinese business psychology that had a thoroughly practical objective.

Reception history

During his time, Wilhelm's translations of the Chinese classics had a broad impact on an audience looking for a cultural alternative to the experiences and consequences of the First World War in the Far East. This is explained by the fact that he made the Chinese tradition comprehensible through the connection with Christian language images within a Christian culture.

If Wilhelm had been Chinese, he would be accepted into the Confucius Temple, said the Chinese philosopher Carsun Chang in his 1930 obituary for Wilhelm. According to the Chinese custom of honoring the deceased who have achieved something important for posterity with special names, he awarded him the honorary title of "world citizen of our age". Paul Pelliot , a French sinologist, praised Wilhelm's translation work as an enrichment for German sinology. The translations are correct, written in excellent German and in any case very clear, as far as he can judge as a Frenchman.

During the Weimar Republic, Wilhelm's research results were controversial among many German sinologists. Specialists complained that Wilhelm's texts were unscientific because there were no philological investigations, in 1930 the sinologist Wilhelm Schüler reported in the sinological journal Sinica about comments from colleagues. It was also criticized that they did not contain in-depth text and word criticism. In addition, it was claimed from a scientific point of view, his representations, interspersed with Western thoughts and concepts, discolored the Chinese sense and expression.

The sinologist Alfred Forke published a more extensive critique of a very fundamental nature in 1926 . In a review, Forke wrote: Wilhelm had "lost the critical eye ... if he ever had it at all by being absorbed into China." A more serious "offense" was Wilhelm's effort to "positively reassess China" by means of scientific analyzes and Translations counted. Because of his intensive campaigning for a positive understanding of China, Wilhelm was accused of being 'almost Chinese'. The sinologist Leutner points out that this accusation also implies that Wilhelm was disloyal and that he had given up dealing with China as a German and from a German perspective. In the post-war Weimar period, 'German identity' did not mean being a pacifist or a republican, which Forke had accused his colleague Wilhelm of.

Today the work of Wilhelm is seen differently. The historian and China researcher Horst Gründer counts Wilhelm's work on the foundation of Eastern philosophy and education in German-speaking countries. For the sinologist Dagmar Lorenz, Wilhelm was the representative of a Protestant tradition in which thorough thinking and a prejudice-free attitude to culture alien was cultivated. This enabled him to see China differently than many of his compatriots. The Berlin East Asian scholar Henning Klöter stated that it was simply positive that Wilhelm's translations were able to bring Chinese literature closer to German-speaking readers in a “lasting” manner.

From a cultural studies point of view, it was established in the 1970s - based on the circulation figures of Diederichs Verlag - that Wilhelm's versions of Chinese philosophy are generally popular, although modern Sinology regards Richard Wilhelm's translations as outdated. Another aspect that may explain the popularity of Wilhelm's versions is mentioned from a psychological point of view: Wilhelm developed a pronounced sensitivity for the translation process. This method is unique and way ahead of its time. It enables an equal dialogue between cultures.

Appreciation

In 1993 the sinologist Helmut Martin founded the Richard Wilhelm Translation Center at the Ruhr University in Bochum . It is currently the only translation center for Chinese texts in Europe.

Works

Like many German sinologists of his time, he used the now little-known Wilhelm-Lessing system for circumscribing Chinese characters , which a gathering of German teachers in China had made the standard in 1911.

Translations

literature

  • Wolfgang Bauer : China in transition . In: Richard Wilhelm: Ambassador of two worlds , pp. 6–38.
  • Reinhard Breymayer : "The Chinese Bible". On the problem of “westernized translation” in the Württemberg-Swabian Chinese studies up to Richard Wilhelm (1873–1930). In: Rainer Reuter, Wolfgang Schenk (Ed.): Semiotica Biblica. A gift from Erhardt Güttgemanns (= series THEOS. Study series Theological research results . Volume 31). Kovač, Hamburg 1999, ISBN 3-86064-936-1 , pp. 181–217.
  • Hermann Bohner : Obituary for Richard Wilhelm. In: News of the OAG . 1930.
  • Arne Eichberg: Epistemological in the Zhuangzi . Hamburg 2014.
  • Lydia Gerber: About Voskamp's “pagan bustle” and Wilhelm's “higher China”. The reporting of German Protestant missionaries from the German leased area Kiautschou 1898–1914 (= Hamburger Sinologische Schriften. 7). Ostasien Verlag, Gossenberg 2002; Reprinted 2008, ISBN 978-3-940527-12-7 .
  • Klaus Hirsch (Ed.): Richard Wilhelm. Ambassador of two worlds. Sinologist and missionary between China and Europe. Documentation of a conference of the Evangelical Academy Bad Boll in cooperation with the Institute for East Asian Studies of the Gerhard Mercator University Duisburg from June 28th to 30th, 2002. IKO Verlag für Interkulturelle Kommunikation, Frankfurt am Main / London 2003, ISBN 3-424-00502 -9 .
  • Adrian Hsia: Images of China in European Literature. Wuerzburg 2010.
  • Michael Lackner: Richard Wilhelm, a “Sinicized” German Translator. In: Vivianne Alleton, Michael Lackner (eds.): De l'un au multiple. Traductions du chinois vers les langues européennes. Translations from Chinese into European Languages. Maison des sciences de l'homme, Paris 1999, ISBN 2-7351-0768-X , pp. 86-97.
  • Ke Meng: From human freedom. Wiesbaden 2012.
  • Karl Rennstich:  WILHELM, Richard. In: Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon (BBKL). Volume 13, Bautz, Herzberg 1998, ISBN 3-88309-072-7 , Sp. 1300-1306.  ( Article / beginning of article in Internet archive )
  • Dorothea Wippermann, Klaus Hirsch, Georg Ebertshäuser (Eds.): Interculturality in the early 20th century. Richard Wilhelm - theologian, missionary and sinologist. IKO Verlag for Intercultural Communication, Frankfurt am Main 2007, ISBN 978-3-88939-819-2 .

Web links

Commons : Richard Wilhelm  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files
Wikisource: Richard Wilhelm  - Sources and full texts
Wikiquote: Richard Wilhelm (Sinologist)  - Quotes

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ SINOLOGICA COLONIENSIA 28, Wei jiao zi ai "Schone dich für die Wissenschaft", life and work of the Cologne sinologist Walter Fuchs (1902-1979) in documents and letters, edited and edited by Hartmut Walravens and Martin Gimm, Harrassowitz Verlag, Wiesbaden 2010 , P. 195, [1] .
  2. ^ Biography at www.tsingtau.org. Last accessed on August 30, 2017.
  3. ^ Richard Wilhelm; The Soul of China, Chapter Seventh: A Journey to the Tomb of Confucius and the Wedding of His Grandson, fn. P. 60, full text .
  4. ↑ In the summer of 1923 Bohner married a sister of Wilhelm's wife, Hanna Blumhardt (1883–1971).
  5. ↑ See publication by the Frankfurt China Institute
  6. ↑ CG Jung: Collected Works, Volume 15: About the Phenomenon of Spirit in Art and Science , 2001 edition, Walter Verlag , ISBN 978-3-530-40715-0 .- Source used to portray his life: Karl Rennstich : Richard Wilhelm (1873-1930) . BBKL Volume XIII (1998), columns 1300-1306.
  7. ^ Feng Youlan : A short history of Chinese philosophy . New York 1966, 30th edition, p. 13.
  8. ↑ See Wolfgang Bauer (ed.): China in transition : Richard Wilhelm: Ambassador of two worlds . Cologne 1973, pp. 34-38f.
  9. ^ Adrian Hsia commented that Wilhelm borrowed "words from the German classics ... to describe Chinese characteristics". This represents "a method by Wilhelm to discreetly show the affinities of both cultures". Hans-Wilm Schütte: Book review on Wippermann / Hirsch / Ebertshäuser (ed.): Interculturality in the early 20th century: Richard Wilhelm - theologian, missionary and sinologist . Frankfurt a. M./London 2007. NOAG 183-184, Hamburg 2008.
  10. ↑ See Adrian Hsia: China pictures in European literature . Würzburg 2010. pp. 125-136. - Horst founder: Richard Wilhelm. German liberal imperialist and friend of China. In: Yearbook for European Overseas History. Wiesbaden 2009, p. 187.
  11. ↑ See Karl Rennstich: Richard Wilhelm (1873-1930) . BBKL Volume XIII (1998) columns 1300-1306.
  12. ↑ Wolfgang Bauer: China in transition: Richard Wilhelm: Ambassador of two worlds . Cologne 1973, p. 38.
  13. ^ Andreas Pigulla: China in German world history from the 18th to the 20th century . Wiesbaden 1996, p. 36.
  14. ↑ Van Ess, epilogue to: Confucius: Conversations . Munich 2005.
  15. ↑ Carsun Chang: Richard Wilhelm, the citizens of the world . In Sinica 5/2 1930, pp. 71-73.
  16. ^ Wilhelm pupil: Richard Wilhelm's scientific work . Sinica 5, 1930, p. 65.
  17. ↑ See Wilhelm Schüler: Richard Wilhelms scientific work . Sinica 5, 1930, 57-71.
  18. ↑ Cf. Mechthild Leutner: Controversies in Sinology: Richard Wilhelms cultural and scientific positions in the Weimar Republic . In Klaus Hirsch (ed.): Richard Wilhelm, ambassador of two worlds: sinologist and missionary between China and Europe . Frankfurt a. M. 2003, ibs p. 454 and 43.
  19. ↑ See Henning Klöter: Between China, Sinology and German reading public. Comparative notes on Richard Wilhelm and Franz Kuhn . In: Andreas F. Kelletat, Aleksey Tashinskiy (ed.): Translators as Discoverers: Your Life and Work as the Subject of Research in Translation Studies and the History of Literature . Berlin 2014, p. 253.
  20. ↑ See Horst founder: Rudolf Wilhelm. German liberal imperialist and friend of China . In: Yearbook for European Overseas History . Wiesbaden 2009, p. 188.
  21. ↑ Dagmar Lorenz: Richard Wilhelm and his country of longing China . Publication of the Goethe-Institut China 2008. - Lixin Sun made a similar statement: The image of China by the German Protestant missionaries of the 19th century . Marburg 2002, p. 45.
  22. ↑ See Henning Klöter aoO p. 251. Professor at the Asia and Africa Institute Humboldt University Berlin
  23. ↑ Dagmar Lorenz aoO .
  24. ↑ Cf. Aksel Haaning: Jung's Quest for Aurora Consurgens . In: Emilija Kiehl: A Record of the Proceeding of the 19th Congress of the IAAP in Copenhagen 2013 . Einsiedeln 2014. o. P.
  25. ↑ The Richard Wilhelm Translation Center , accessed April 18, 2018 ( English )
personal data
SURNAME Wilhelm, Richard
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German sinologist
DATE OF BIRTH May 10, 1873
PLACE OF BIRTH Stuttgart , Württemberg, Germany
DATE OF DEATH March 2, 1930
Place of death Tubingen , Germany