【Preface】

‘Cherish one’s own beauty, respect other’s beauty, and when both beauties are respected and cherished, the world will become one”（各美其美，美人之美，美美与共，天下大同——费孝通）, said Fei Xiaotong, a famous Chinese sociologist at a cerebration party in honor of his eightieth birthday about thirty years ago. In a time of growing interest in intercultural communication today, these words sound especially wise and far sighted. Translation, as one of the most important means for cultural communication, is usually done into one’s mother tongue from other languages by native translators. This largely guarantees the quality of translated text, so far as the linguistic readability is concerned. However, this method implies a one-sidedness in correspondence, as only the translator’s ‘respect for other’s beauty” is concerned, regardless, though not completely, of how the local people look upon and cherish their own beauty. It should be compensated by translations on the other way, that is, works selected, interpreted, and translated by the local people themselves into languages other than their own. This approach may go directly against the prevalent views in modern translation theories but, in my opinion, is worthy of practicing. It is perhaps an even more effective way to bring about successful communication in cultures, and the beauties of the world can really be shared by the world’s people. It is with such understanding that the Shanghai Foreign Languages Education Press is organizing a new series of books, entitled Readings of Chinese Culture, to introduce Chinese culture, past and present, to the world, with works selected and translated by the Chinese scholars and translators. 

The series will cover a wide range of writings including but not restricted to works of different literary genres. For the first batch, we are glad to provide three books of essays and two books of short stories, all written by authors of the 20th century. They will be continued by a batch of serious academic writings on premodern Chinese classics in philosophy, literature, and historiography, written by influential scholars of our time. Later, we will offer more books on classical Chinese drama, classical Chinese poetry, etc. 

Some of the books in the series have been published before, but they have been revised and rearranged for the new purpose to meet the current needs of broader readers. We are looking forward to hear comments and suggestions on the series for future improvement.

【译者简介/About the translator】

汪榕培（1942-2017），1964年本科毕业于上海外国语学院英语系，1967年研究生毕业于复旦大学外文系。1975年起在大连外国语学院任教，1985-2001年间担任该院院长。曾任大连大学特聘教授，兼任苏州大学、大连理工大学等校博士生导师。汪榕培教授先后完成了《易经》《诗经》《老子》《庄子》《墨子》《汉魏六朝诗三百首》《陶渊明集》《吴歌精华》《评弹精华》《昆曲精华》《苏剧精华》等典籍的英译，翻译了《牡丹事》等汤显祖戏剧，出版了中国古典戏剧英译巨著《汤显祖戏剧全集（英文版）》。在学术研究方面，汪榕培教授出版了专著《比较与翻译》和《陶渊明诗歌英译比较研究》，主编了《典籍英译研究》。

Wang Rongpei（ 1942-2017） graduated with a bachelors degree from Shanghai International Studies College in 1964 i and a master s degree from Fudan University in 1967. He began to work as an English teacher in 1975 in Dalian College of Foreign Languages and he was President of the College from 1985 to 2001 He was a guest professor of Dalian University and a doctoral tutor of Soochow University and Dalian Polytechnic University. His translated works include The Book of Change, The Book of Poetry, Laozi,Zhuangzi Mozi, 300 Poems of Han, Wei and the Six Dynasties,The Poetry Collection of Tao Yuanming, Gems of the W Ballads Gems of Pingtan Story-telling, Gems of Kunqu Opera,Gems of Suju Opera, etc His translation of Tang Xianzu’s classical plays such as The Peony Pavilion led to the publication of his magnum opus The Complete Dramatic Works of Tang Xianzu. He also published monographs Comparison and Translation and A Comparative Study of Tao Yuanmings Poems in English and edited Studies on Chinese Classics into English.

【目录】

Introduction

Regional Songs from The Book of Poetry: Southern Zhou

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Regional Songs from The Book of Poetry: Southern Shao

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Regional Songs from The Book of Poetry: Songs of Bei

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Regional Songs from The Book of Poetry: Songs of Yong

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Regional Songs from The Book of Poetry: Songs of Wei

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Regional Songs from The Book of Poetry: Songs of Wang

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Regional Songs from The Book of Poetry: Songs of Zheng

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Regional Songs from The Book of Poetry: Songs of Qi

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Regional Songs from The Book of Poetry: Songs of Wei

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Regional Songs from The Book of Poetry: Songs of Tang

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Regional Songs from The Book of Poetry: Songs of Qin

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Regional Songs from The Book of Poetry: Songs of Chen

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Regional Songs from The Book of Poetry: Songs of Gui

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Regional Songs from The Book of Poetry: Songs of Cao

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Regional Songs from The Book of Poetry: Songs of Bin

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