Franz W. Kuhn was a lawyer and a translator chiefly remembered for translating many Chinese novels into German, most famously the Dream of the Red Chamber

Dream of the Red Chamber

Dream of the Red Chamber , composed by Cao Xueqin, is one of China's Four Great Classical Novels. It was composed in the middle of the 18th century during the Qing Dynasty. It is considered to be a masterpiece of Chinese vernacular literature and is generally acknowledged to be a pinnacle of...

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Biography

Kuhn studied law at the University of Leipzig

University of Leipzig

The University of Leipzig , located in Leipzig in the Free State of Saxony, Germany, is one of the oldest universities in the world and the second-oldest university in Germany...

 and the University of Berlin, passing his state examination in 1908 and obtaining his doctorate in 1909. He began to practice law in Dresden

Dresden

Dresden is the capital city of the Free State of Saxony in Germany. It is situated in a valley on the River Elbe, near the Czech border. The Dresden conurbation is part of the Saxon Triangle metropolitan area....

 in 1909. He was soon assigned to the German delegation to Peking as an interpreter, having completed a course of Chinese during his study at Berlin. He stayed in China

China

Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...

 until 1912.

After the First World War, Kuhn began to translate classic Chinese literature into German. Eventually he ran into conflict with the Nazi

Nazism

Nazism, the common short form name of National Socialism was the ideology and practice of the Nazi Party and of Nazi Germany...

 authorities who considered his works to be harmful. After the end of World War II

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

, Kuhn's work began to be more widely known and appreciated. He received the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany

Bundesverdienstkreuz

The Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany is the only general state decoration of the Federal Republic of Germany. It has existed since 7 September 1951, and between 3,000 and 5,200 awards are given every year across all classes...

 in 1952.

Jorge Luis Borges

Jorge Luis Borges

Jorge Francisco Isidoro Luis Borges Acevedo , known as Jorge Luis Borges , was an Argentine writer, essayist, poet and translator born in Buenos Aires. In 1914 his family moved to Switzerland where he attended school, receiving his baccalauréat from the Collège de Genève in 1918. The family...

 attributes the discovery of a "paradoxical list of animals" to Kuhn. The list has become the subject of much modern commentary after it was cited by Foucault

Michel Foucault

Michel Foucault , born Paul-Michel Foucault , was a French philosopher, social theorist and historian of ideas...

. However, Borges's attribution is the only known evidence that either such a work existed or that Kuhn discussed it.http://www.linguistlist.org/issues/7/7-1446.html.

Franz Kuhn is not to be confused with Franz Felix Adalbert Kuhn

Franz Felix Adalbert Kuhn

Franz Felix Adalbert Kuhn was a German philologist and folklorist.Kuhn was born in Königsberg in Brandenburg's Neumark region. From 1841 he was connected with the Köllnisches Gymnasium at Berlin, of which he was appointed director in 1870. Kuhn was the founder of a new school of comparative...

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Translations

• Chinesische Staatsweisheit, Darmstadt 1923
• Chinesische Meisternovellen, Leipzig 1926
• Eisherz und Edeljaspis oder Die Geschichte einer glücklichen Gattenwahl, Leipzig 1926
• Die Rache des jungen Meh oder Das Wunder der zweiten Pflaumenblüte, Leipzig 1927
• Das Perlenhemd, Leipzig 1928
• Kin Ping Meh oder Die abenteuerliche Geschichte von Hsi Men und seinen sechs Frauen, Leipzig 1930
• Fräulein Tschang, Berlin [u.a.] 1931
• Der Traum der rotten Kammer, Leipzig 1932
• Die Räuber vom Liang-Schan-Moor, Leipzig 1934
• Die Jadelibelle, Berlin 1936
• Das Juwelenkästchen, Dresden 1937
• Mao Dun
  Mao Dun
  Mao Dun was the pen name of Shen Dehong , a 20th century Chinese novelist, cultural critic, and journalist. He was also the Minister of Culture of China from 1949 to 1965. He is currently renowned as one of the best realist novelists in the history of modern China...
  
  : Schanghai im Zwielicht, Dresden 1938
• Die dreizehnstöckige Pagode, Berlin 1939
• Mondfrau und Silbervase, Berlin 1939
• Die drei Reiche, Berlin 1940
• Das Rosenaquarell, Zürich 1947
• Das Tor der östlichen Blüte, Düsseldorf 1949
• Und Buddha lacht, Baden-Baden 1950
• Der Turm der fegenden Wolken, Freiburg i. Br. 1951
• Kin Ku Ki Kwan, Zürich 1952
• Goldamsel flötet am Westsee, Freiburg i. Br. 1953
• Wen Kang: Die schwarze Reiterin, Zürich 1954
• Blumenschatten hinter dem Vorhang, Freiburg i. Br. 1956
• Altchinesische Liebesgeschichten, Wiesbaden 1958
• Die schöne Li. Vom Totenhemd ins Brautkleid, Wiesbaden 1959
• Li Yü: Jou pu tuan, Zürich 1959
• Goldjunker Sung und andere Novellen aus dem Kin Ku Ki Kwan, Zürich 1960

External links

(in German).

• The Analytical Language of John Wilkins, a short story/essay where Borges attributes a paradoxical list of animals to Kuhn's work on a Chinese encyclopedia.