Translating Early Chinese Texts and the Problem of Contextualization: The Example of Chapter 1 of the Lǎozǐ

This article explores the issue of contextualization in translating early Chinese texts. It takes the example of Chapter 1 of the Lǎozǐ, which is analysed sentence by sentence with the focus on possible contexts in which the sentences can be read. Three types of contexts are distinguished in the article – immediate textual context, edited context, and discursive context. While the former two types of context (paragraph, chapter, book) are evident and naturally taken into account in any translation, it is stressed in this article that the discursive context is often overlooked or at least not regarded properly. The article argues that discursive context is crucial for translating early Chinese texts in general, and in particular an ambiguous text like the Lǎozǐ.