Galleries and Translations > Models of Masterpieces > Modelling and English Translation of Sun Guoting's "A Narrative on Calligraphy" 孫過庭 《書譜》之臨習與英譯
Modelling and English Translation of Sun Guoting's "A Narrative on Calligraphy"
(Part VI)
by Kwan Sheung Vincent POON (潘君尚)
Dec. 1, 2017
Published on www.vincentpoon.com, Toronto
A. Modelling (by KS Vincent POON)
A model of Sun Guoting's "A Narrative on Calligraphy" (Part I)
臨孫過庭《書譜》 (第一部份)
35 X 137cm (11)
Click to Enlarge. In reserve, not available in Shop.
B. Historical Information
Please see Part I
Readers are strongly encouraged to read the blue numerical footnotes below to gain a better understanding of the original Chinese text and to review some major errors in the translations made by others.
English Translation
Original Chinese Text
122. 代有《筆陣圖》七行，中畫執筆三手;圖貌乖舛，點畫湮訛。
This document now appears to be widely circulated across the North and South and is suspected to be authored by Youjun (Wang Xizhi).
123. 頃見南北流傳，疑是右軍所製。
Although the authenticity of this document has not been verified, it nonetheless can serve as a guide for ignorant children. Since it has been commonly retained by many, I shall not catalogue and document it here.
124. 雖則未詳真偽，尚可發啟童蒙。既常俗所存，不藉編錄。
FOR LINES 125-149,
PLEASE PURCHASE THE REVISED AND ENHANCED EDITION WITH FOOTNOTES AND BIBLIOGRAPHY:
125. 至於諸家勢評，多涉浮華，莫不外狀其形，內迷其理。今之所撰，亦無取焉。
126. 若乃師宜官之高名，徒彰史諜；
127. 邯鄲淳之令範，空著縑緗。
128. 暨乎崔、杜以來，蕭、羊已往，代祀緜遠，名氏滋繁:
129. 或藉甚不渝，人亡業顯；
130. 或憑附增價，身謝道衰。
131. 加以糜蠹不傳，搜秘將盡。
132. 偶逢緘賞，時亦罕窺。
133. 優劣紛紜，殆難覶縷。
134. 其有顯聞當代，遺迹見存，無俟抑揚，自標先後。
135. 且六文之作，肇自軒轅；八體之興，始於嬴正。
136. 其來尚矣，厥用斯弘。
137. 但今古不同，妍質懸隔。既非所習，又亦略諸。
138. 復有龍蛇雲露之流，龜鶴花英之類；
139. 乍圖真於率爾，或寫瑞於當年。
140. 巧涉丹青，工虧翰墨。異夫楷式，非所詳焉。
141. 代傳羲之《與子敬筆勢論》十章。
142. 文鄙理疎，意乖言拙。詳其旨趣，殊非右軍。
143. 且右軍位重才高，調清詞雅。 聲塵未泯，翰櫝仍存。
144. 觀夫致一書、陳一事，造次之際，稽古斯在。
145. 豈有貽謀令嗣，道叶義方，章則頓虧，一至於此!?
146. 又云與張伯英同學，斯乃更彰虛誕。
147. 若指漢末伯英，時代全不相接；
148. 必有晉人同號，史傳何其寂寥？
FOR FURTHER TRANSLATION, FOOTNOTES, AND
ELABORATIONS
PLEASE SEE :
A Narrative on Calligraphy by Sun Guoting Revised and Enchanced Edition 英譯書譜 增訂版Translated by KS Vincent POON and Kwok Kin POON (Mar. 2019)
ISBN 978-1-989485-10-1
A Narrative on Calligraphy (Shu Pu, 書譜) was written in 687AD by the renowned Tang dynasty calligrapher Sun Guoting (孫過庭) of the seventh century and is regarded to be one of the most important narratives in examining the traditional art of Chinese calligraphy. Yet, there is currently no satisfactory English translation of it. This book provides readers an accurate, annotated, line-by-line, consistent and comprehensive English translation of A Narrative on Calligraphy. Furthermore, various major and fundamental mistakes found in the two previous English translations by Chang & Frankel and De Laurentis are detailed and discussed.
This book is the revised and enhanced version of the previous book and delivers an even more precise translation with 20 titled thematic paragraphs that is based on Dr. Kwok Kin POON’s The Vernacular Chinese Translation of Sun Guoting’s A Narrative on Calligraphy (孫過庭書譜白話對譯. Toronto: The SenSeis, Feb. 2019).
WorldCat/Library: [WorldCat] [Oxford U] [U of T] [Harvard U] [Columbia U] [HKU] [CUHK] [Kyoto U] [National Taiwan U]
149. 非訓非經，宜從棄擇。
END OF PART VI (Dec. 1, 2017)