How Does Knowledge Grow? Cross-Cultural Reconstruction and Its Implications in Brook Ziporyn’s Self-Retranslation of Zhuangzi

doi:10.3969/j.issn.1674-8921.2026.02.010

Abstract

Abstract:

Based on Transknowletology, this paper explores the knowledge reconstruction paths and motivations in Brook Ziporyn’s self-retranslation of Zhuangzi via textual comparison, theoretical interpretation and historical research, aiming to uncover the dynamic mechanism of self-retranslation as cross-cultural knowledge production. The study reveals a triple interactive transformation in knowledge reconstruction: knowledge generation shifts from commentary reliance to translator dominance, the framework upgrades from fragmented selection to holistic integration, and interpretation evolves from static correspondence to dynamic growth, forming a paradigm leap from curatorial translation to interpretive translation. The dual motivations for knowledge reconstruction are the usage feedback driven by teaching practice and the dialogic revision empowered by the academic community, which reveals the “practice-cognition” interactive mechanism of cross-cultural knowledge production. Self-retranslation is a circular reproduction of deconstructing and reconstructing source-text knowledge with cognitive and contextual adaptation. Ziporyn’s dynamic knowledge growth paradigm enlightens the cross-cultural communication of Chinese philosophical classics with the translator as knowledge producer, and enriches the translator subjectivity in Transknowletology.

Key words: Transknowletology, self-retranslation, knowledge reconstruction, cross-cultural knowledge production, Brook Ziporyn, Zhuangzi

CLC Number:

H315.9

LIN Lin, CHEN Xiaojie. How Does Knowledge Grow? Cross-Cultural Reconstruction and Its Implications in Brook Ziporyn’s Self-Retranslation of Zhuangzi[J]. Contemporary Foreign Languages Studies, 2026, 26(2): 128-139.

Figures/Tables 1

References 11

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