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Technical Terms

In a text of this sort technical terms offer a special problem.
Technical words, even within the limits of usage of a single school
at a given period, seldom have a single equivalent translation
word. The HSWC is as heterogeneous as its sources, and it is too
much to expect to find terms like jên [OMITTED], li [OMITTED], i [OMITTED] used with any
consistency. Originally I had planned to leave them untranslated.
However, some of them occur in contexts where they may adequately
be translated by an English word—li, for example, in
1/12 clearly is "etiquette, courtesy"—and it seems misleading not
to translate such occurrences, even though translation involves
the sacrifice of consistency. Hence the word [OMITTED] will be found as
"etiquette," "ritual," "rites"—in each case with the romanized
(li) in parentheses after the translation—and also simply as "li."
Jên [OMITTED] is used with connotations so vague as to defy English
rendering, even the most inconsistent, though occasionally I have
written "the humane (jên) man," in preference to the awkward

circumlocution "the man endowed with jên." The word i [OMITTED]
used of behavior means the act appropriate to the situation and
the individual involved; when it is used to denote an abstract
virtue, I have left it untranslated. Other terms, such as hsiao
[OMITTED] "filial piety," hsin [OMITTED] "trustworthiness," chung [OMITTED] "loyalty,"
lien [OMITTED] "integrity" (adj. "scrupulous") are used with a narrower
range of meanings that correspond to those of their single English
equivalents. Wang [OMITTED], except as a title, is used in contrast with
pa [OMITTED] "hegemon," and I have translated as "the True King."
The terms for Confucian adepts are awkward to handle. I use
"saint" for shêng [OMITTED], "sage" for hsien [OMITTED] (but "worthy" in
contrast to [OMITTED]), "superior man" for chün-tzŭ [OMITTED], and "gentleman"
for shih [OMITTED], except where an emphasis on military virtues
makes the archaic value "soldier" more appropriate, or where the
context calls for "official."

In its technical use, the word tao [OMITTED] seems to mean the "True
Way," "the Kingly Way" to Han Confucians. It occurs with a
metaphysical Taoist use a few times in the text, as in 1/23. Where
it is used other than technically, I have translated it variously to
fit the context. Yin and yang are too well established to require
a note. Anatomical and medical terms occur in 3/9 and 10/9; they
are dealt with in the notes to those sections. Ch`i [OMITTED] seldom
occurs simply as "breath," and out of ignorance of its true force
I have usually left it untranslated. Hsüeh [OMITTED] likewise carries more
weight than the English "blood." I have translated tê [OMITTED] sometimes
in accordance with Waley's note on the use of the word in
The Analects of Confucius, p. 33, and sometimes as "virtue"
when the context has demanded a vaguer word. It must be remembered
that by Han times such words had already a long
history and were seldom used in a strictly technical or etymological
sense.

An expression that occurs very frequently in HSWC is [OMITTED].
It cannot be taken as referring to HSWC itself in the way [OMITTED]
is sometimes used to introduce a passage in that work, since
HSWC is not a "commentary" following a line of the Shih;
instead the quotation normally follows the passage which illustrates
it. Nor can it be referred to a single specific source. In

1/5, 2/6, 3/5, 22, 32, 7/23, and 10/4, the quotation is from Hsün-tzŭ
(where [OMITTED] is lacking), in 9/24 it is from Han-fei tzŭ; 7/9
is from either YTCC or Han-fei tzŭ; 3/27 is from LSCC. The
great majority of occurrences introduce no identifiable quotation,
though at least one half are again reproduced in Hsin hsü, SY,
or other later compilations, with or without the introductory
[OMITTED]. A study of the passages so introduced for which a source
cannot be found in the extant early literature discloses three
types: (1) A general disquisition on moral conduct, such as 1/20,
2/30, 4/24, 7/19. These are very similar to 2/6, where Hsün-tzŭ
seems to be the source, and may well be quotations from philosophical
works now lost. (2) An aphorism (3/11, 5/15, 20, 7/5).
These passages are either short or the force of the [OMITTED] may be
restricted to the opening sentence. Of the same sort are those
occurrences of the expression within a given paragraph, as 1/1.
(3) A story or anecdote that is common to a number of pre-Han
works (2/1, 3/10, 4/7, 7/13, 15). I believe the basic and most
general rendering of the phrase would be "There is a tradition
that . . . ." In some cases a written text is being referred to; but
there would be no reason always to expect to find the source in
a text, even if all the texts to which a Han writer had access were
still available. Oral tradition undoubtedly played an important
part in the teachings of the schools attached to the Classics, and
any saying or dictum an author considered worth emphasizing
might rate a "tradition has it." In translating the expression I
have varied the English phraseology to fit the line or passage
introduced by it.