ABSTRACT
The importance attached by Kongzi followers to the transforming influence satisfies behaviours built upon emotional insights. Kongzi himself did not translate and seldom talked about translation. He only mentions the xiang officials in passing. From the firm views he expresses about the different pursuits to which people from different status groups should devote themselves, and from the distinctions he draws between what he considers to be major and minor pursuits, it is quite clear what position interpreters/translators and interpretation/translation occupy in his highly organized view of society itself a natural outcome, perhaps, of the agricultural way of life that prevailed in ancient China. Indeed the primarily, almost predominantly agricultural way of life meant that people were more inward-looking, more preoccupied with the land and with the seasons, with nature rather than with activities that were more outward-looking. The title "Son of Heaven", therefore, is not to be confused with Jesus Christ in the Christian religion.
