Couplet, Philippe (trans.). Confucius Sinarum philosophus, sive, Scientia Sinensis Latine exposita.柏應理譯《中國聖賢孔子》 , 1687
h = 75, d = 50 cm

Couplet, Philippe (trans.). Confucius Sinarum philosophus, sive, Scientia Sinensis Latine exposita. Parisiis: Apud Danielem Horthemels, Viâ Jacobaeâ, sub Maecenate, 1687.

柏應理譯《中國聖賢孔子》,巴黎:Apud Danielem Horthemels, Viâ Jacobaeâ, sub Maecenate,1687。

This book is the first and authoritative early modern European translation of three of the Four Books (Lunyu, Daxue and Zhongyong). The preface provides an overview of the Chinese literary-philosophical canon, its primary interpreters, and the approach of Jesuit missionaries to Chinese culture. The other prefatory text of note is an extensive life of Confucius, and explicitly identifies Confucius as a “philosopher” (philosophus) and the “Chinese leader in philosophy” (princeps philosophiae), thereby inserting Confucius into an identifiable scholarly category. The book is considered a monument of Western Sinology.

此書為近代早期歐洲首次翻譯《四書》其中三部(《論語》、《大學》和《中庸》)的作品,其序言細述中國文學哲學典籍、註釋者,以及耶穌會會士對中國文化的理解。另一篇值得注意的序跋則概述了孔子的生平,明確認定孔子為「哲學家」和中國的「哲學領袖」,由此將孔子歸類為一種確切的學術類別。此書實為西方漢學發展的里程碑。

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