On November 15, 2021, Misha Tadd, a doctoral supervisor, was invited to give an academic lecture entitled “Global Laozegetics and Translation as Interpretation” for teachers and students of the College of Foreign Languages of Nankai University. He was a doctor in the Department of Religion of Boston University and an associate professor in the School of Philosophy of Nankai University. The lecture was jointly held in the 111 lecture hall of the College of Foreign Languages and Tencent conference online platform. This lecture was presided over by Professor Hu Cui’e of the College of Foreign Languages, with more than 150 people participated online and offline.
The lecture mainly focuses on the global studies and translation of Laozi. Professor Tadd made a comparison between “traditional studies of Laozi and global studies of Laozi, introduced the translation of Laozi in Asia and Europe, summarized the textual and contextual interpretation of Laozi, and pointed out that “global studies of Laozi” involves various commentaries and interpretation methods of Laozi both in and outside China, which is an extension of the tradition of Chinese studies of Laozi based on the notes and commentaries of previous dynasties. Professor Tadd believes that the translation is the reflection of the translator’s perspective of interpretation. Through the study of the pedigree of translation and interpretation, intralingual reinterpretation and back translation of Laozi, it is found that interpretation is more important in translation than language itself. At the end of the lecture, Professor Tadd had a warm and friendly discussion with the on-site and online audience on issues related to the lecture.
Misha Tadd, doctor of the Department of Religion of Boston University, associate professor and doctoral supervisor of the School of Philosophy of Nankai University, was selected into the “Training Program for 100 Young Discipline Leaders of Nankai University”. He was a visiting scholar to Institute of Philosophy, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences; a researcher of Institute of higher humanities, Peking University; a postdoc of Institute of Higher Learning, Peking University. His main research interests are: Taoism in the Pre-Qin and Han Dynasties, comparative philosophy and comparative religion, Heshanggongs Chapters of TaoTeChing, traditional Laozegetics, global Laozegetics. In recent years, he has published many top Chinese journal papers on Philosophical Research, History of Chinese Philosophy, Xinhua Digest, and A & HCI journals Diogenes, Relations, and has translated and published the monograph Order in Early Chinese Excepted Texts.
