A Chinese Tree Planted in a Western Land： Jung on How to Read Chinese Classics

In 1928， sinologist Richard Wilhelm sent psychologist Carl Jung a Taoist alchemist book that he had translated，T’ai I Chin Hua Tsung Chin，and invited Jung to comment on it. Jung suggests naming the book for Western readers The Secret of the Golden Flower： A Chinese Book of Life， and in his commentary proffers a methodology for reading Chinese classics. On the one hand， Jung insists that Westerners should not study ancient Chinese philosophy as merely scientific knowledge about an exotic culture， but should likewise consider it to be a body of living wisdom that would potentially solicit a transformation of one’s psyche. On the other hand， Jung uses the vocabulary of modern psychology to reinterpret Taoist metaphysics， as he asserts that science is the method with which the Westerners understand the world. The contributions of Jung’s commentary should not be evaluated merely in terms of how accurate his understanding of the Chinese text is， but of how and what he presents as a forceful defense of his unique hermeneutics.