The Making of Barbarians: Chinese Literature and Multilingual Asia

by Haun Saussy

Overview

A groundbreaking account of translation and identity in the Chinese literary tradition before 1850—with important ramifications for today

Debates on the canon, multiculturalism, and world literature often take Eurocentrism as the target of their critique. But literature is a universe with many centers, and one of them is China. The Making of Barbarians offers an account of world literature in which China, as center, produces its own margins. Here Sinologist and comparatist Haun Saussy investigates the meanings of literary translation, adaptation, and appropriation on the boundaries of China long before it came into sustained contact with the West.

When scholars talk about comparative literature in Asia, they tend to focus on translation between European languages and Chinese, Korean, and Japanese, as practiced since about 1900. In contrast, Saussy focuses on the period before 1850, when the translation of foreign works into Chinese was rare because Chinese literary tradition overshadowed those around it.

The Making of Barbarians looks closely at literary works that were translated into Chinese from foreign languages or resulted from contact with alien peoples. The book explores why translation was such an undervalued practice in premodern China, and how this vast and prestigious culture dealt with those outside it before a new group of foreigners—Europeans—appeared on the horizon.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780691231976
Publisher:	Princeton University Press
Publication date:	05/10/2022
Series:	Translation/Transnation , #58
Pages:	192
Sales rank:	840,309
Product dimensions:	5.60(w) x 8.60(h) x 0.80(d)

About the Author

Haun Saussy is University Professor at the University of Chicago and teaches in the Committee on Social Thought, the department of East Asian Languages and Civilizations, the department of Comparative Literature, and the College. His books include Translation as Citation: Zhuangzi Inside Out, The Ethnography of Rhythm: Orality and Its Technologies, and The Problem of a Chinese Aesthetic.

Table of Contents

Introduction: Intrinsically Extrinsic 1

1 The Nine Relays: Translation in China 11

2 Can the Barbarians Sing? 33

3 The Hanzi wenhua quan: Center, Periphery, and the Shaggy Borderlands 58

4 The Formation of China: Asymmetries in the Writing of History 85

5 Exiles and Emissaries amid Their New Neighbors: The View from the Edge of the World 108

Conclusion: Frames, Edges, Escape Codes 134

Acknowledgments 141

Notes 143

Index 175

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

“In The Making of Barbarians, Haun Saussy actually makes us more civilized and enlightened about the eternally nagging question ‘What is China?’ through a perceptive and informative exploration of its fringes and margins, using all his accustomed intelligence and elegance, subtlety and fluidity. Vive l’esprit de finesse!”—Anne Cheng, Collège de France, Paris

“The first book of its kind, The Making of Barbarians ushers us into the immense period of premodern Chinese history, looking at the world inside and outside of China before nation-states. Through intriguing case studies, from Buddhist scriptures and philosophical fables to poetic compositions and even sonic articulations in translation, Haun Saussy tackles issues such as center and periphery, civilization and barbarism, self and others, Sinophilia and xenophobia, and hospitality and hostility. This is a beautiful book.”—David Der-wei Wang, Harvard University

“Haun Saussy is one of the rare scholars who is able to develop problems that emerge organically from a deep and sustained engagement with premodern Chinese literary texts in ways that are immediately compelling to a larger audience in literary studies and critical theory.”—Robert Ashmore, University of California, Berkeley