Selecting, Translating, Interpreting: The Translation of Richard Wilhelm's "Tao" and the Path of Knowledge Qiao-Yi

The missionary status provided the German sinologist Richard Wilhelm (1873-1930) with the convenience of translating a series of Chinese cultural texts. This essay argues that Wilhelm's translation practice of the Chinese cultural keyword "Tao" has highlighted the earlier process of "Knowledge Qiao-Yi" (Zhishi Qiaoyi, a study on how knowledge is transferred and transformed). German philosopher Hermann von Keyserling (1880-1946) went on interpreting "Tao" after Wilhelm and established a German philosophical idea of the "Sinnphilosophie," which can be regarded as the later process of "Knowledge Qiao-Yi." They both have demonstrated the phenomenon of "Knowledge Qiao-Yi" in cross-cultural communications. The paper explains how the subject of "Knowledge Qiao-Yi"(symbols) is selected, translated, and interpreted in this process. The missionary and other intellectual elites have played critical roles and functions in "Knowledge Qiao-Yi."