Wilhelm, Richard
1873-1930 57 years
1873-1930 57 years
German scholar, linguist, writer, known mainly for his
translations of Chinese texts
ordained as a Protestant minister at 22 years
went to China at 26 (Qingdao) as a Christian
missionary, but never baptised a single Chinese.
married, 1905, son Helmut
friend of Carl Jung, psychologist
studied at Peking University.
founded Confucius Society in Qingdao, with his
teacher Lao Nai-hsuan, who introduced him to the
I Ching.
lived in China a total of 25 years 1899-1924
returned to Germany in 1925, became a professor of
Chinese studies at Frankfurt University.
well known for his translation of the I Ching (Yi Jing),
Secret of the Golden Flower (1923), etc....
said to have died of a relapse of amoebic dysentery.
translations of Chinese texts
ordained as a Protestant minister at 22 years
went to China at 26 (Qingdao) as a Christian
missionary, but never baptised a single Chinese.
married, 1905, son Helmut
friend of Carl Jung, psychologist
studied at Peking University.
founded Confucius Society in Qingdao, with his
teacher Lao Nai-hsuan, who introduced him to the
I Ching.
lived in China a total of 25 years 1899-1924
returned to Germany in 1925, became a professor of
Chinese studies at Frankfurt University.
well known for his translation of the I Ching (Yi Jing),
Secret of the Golden Flower (1923), etc....
said to have died of a relapse of amoebic dysentery.
| oshobob The Living Workshop |
| People in Osho's Talks |
| Richard Wilhelm certainly died in a very torturous way. He was a genius, and spending thirty years in China, he became aware of the subtleties and the grace that Chinese culture had developed for thousands of years. The I Ching is a very strange book. There are many books like that in the East, which give you a glimpse of your future and also a glimpse of your past. The crisis was that he was educated, brought up in the Western style, in the German culture, which does not believe in any past lives, which does not believe that the future can be seen. But thirty years is a long period, and to become a real scholar of Chinese language, that is the minimum time needed. He devoted himself totally. The result was a schizophrenic personality, he became two persons – one that had gone to China, and one that came from China. The one that had gone to China was absolutely Western, and the idea was only to translate the book; but as he was translating the book, he got more and more involved in it. The whole Western culture started looking pygmy in comparison to the Chinese insight of Tao. So a second personality started growing, and in thirty years the second personality became perfectly mature. But the first personality was not erased... --Osho The Transmission of the Lamp, ch. 38 |