论著推介｜王宏志 编《十九至二十世纪初翻译与东亚现代化》

编者按

2013年，香港中文大学翻译研究中心（RCT）举办“十九至二十世纪初翻译与东亚现代化国际研讨会”，共有136篇论文受邀在大会上宣读。Translation and Modernization in East Asia in the Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Centuries一书从大会论文中精选11篇，题目涵盖十九至二十世纪初中国、日本和韩国的现代化进程与翻译之关系的诸多重要课题。

本书Translation and Modernization in East Asia in the Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Centuries是翻译研究中心策划推出的《亚洲翻译传统》书系第三卷，前两卷分别是Translation and Global Asia: Relocating Cultural Production Network和Sinologists as Translators in the Seventeenth to Nineteenth Centuries。书系由香港中文大学出版社出版，旨在推动亚洲翻译研究。翻译研究中心一直致力于促进有别于西方论述的翻译研究，尤其近十年来，通过组织一系列国际学术会议，汇集海内外学者的高水平研究，已经成为开拓亚洲翻译研究的前沿重镇。此丛书以英文出版，填补亚洲翻译史研究英文著作的空白，在国际学术界产生广泛影响。

Edited by: Lawrence Wang-chi Wong

Publisher: Chinese University Press

Publication date: November 2017

Language: English

Pages: 400

Price: US$50.00

ISBN: 9789882370517

内容简介

Translation and Modernization in East Asia in the Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Centuries is a collection of selected papers of the international conference on “Translation and Modernization in East Asia in the 19th and Early 20th Centuries,” organized by the Research Centre for Translation (RCT), The Chinese University of Hong Kong in May 2013. The conference aimed at studying the role played by translation in the modernization process of the East Asian countries. In the 19th and early 20th centuries, many people saw the West as a model for modernization and hence modernization in East Asia was more often than not taken as a process of learning from or even imitating the West. In this process, translation played a crucial role, when efforts were made to import Western ideas, knowledge, concepts and practices. The articles in this volume study and explain the various translation phenomena in the modernization process of China, Korea and Japan.

目录

书评

Taken together, the essays reveal the richness and global nature of translation in this pivotal period for Asian modernity. They establish not just connections between East Asian countries, with Japan frequently serving as the common hinge for both colonial-era Korean and Chinese literature translations, but also the ways each of the countries used translation as a way to engage with the world and the often vertiginous forces of modernization.

—Shellen X. Wu, 

University of Tennessee, Knoxville

East Asian Publishing and Society

书摘

“Entrance into the Family of Nations”:  

Translation and the First Diplomatic Missions to the West, 1860s–1870s 

 Lawrence Wang-chi WONG

Traditionally, there was not any school in China for the training of Western languages. As a result, China had no qualified translators or interpreters to deal with the communication problems when the Europeans started to come in the seventeenth century. The situation became extremely acute and pressing when foreign countries began to set up legations at the Chinese capital in 1861. To cope with these changes and in their endeavour for "entrance into the family of nations,” the Qing government started to train its interpreters for Western languages with the establishment of the Tongwen Guan 同文馆 ( School of common languages) in Beijing in 1862.

△同文馆

As the first school of Western languages in China, Tongwen Guan has attracted considerable attention from scholars in Qing history, and a good number of studies exist. Among them, Biggerstaff’s chapter on the School in his book The Earliest Modern Government Schools in China has been widely read and quoted, while the monograph by Su Jing 苏精, no doubt another solid piece of work, is not as popular because it has not been well distributed. Most of the studies focus on the language school as part of the reform movement undertaken by the Qing court in the second half of the nineteenth century, Ziqiang yundong自强运动 (the Self-Strengthening Movement, more often known as Yangwu yundong 洋务运动，the Foreign Affairs Movement). One topic that has been discussed thoroughly is the struggle between the protagonists of the modernization movement, principally Prince Gong恭亲王 ( Prince Kung, Aisin Gioro Yixin爱新觉罗奕䜣, 1833-1898), and the conservatives, which culminated in the controversy over the establishment of the Mathematics and Astronomy Schools in Tongwen Guan in 1867, described by a historian as the “fight between Chinese learning and Western learning at the highest level of the Qing Court.” Nevertheless, despite the fact that Tongwen Guan was essentially a school to train diplomatic interpreters, few people have paid attention to the interpreters themselves.

△同文馆学生

The present paper will first study how China’s first generation of diplomatic interpreters to the West was trained in the School. It will then proceed to examine the role played by its graduates in the first several Chinese missions sent to Europe and America in the 1860s and 1870s. Given the fact that a lot of money and effort had been spent in training these interpreters, it is a pity they were not able to perform their duties satisfactorily in the missions. For over two decades after the establishment of the Tongwen Guan, China’s diplomatic interpreting still relied heavily on some Westerner translators. This has profound effect on China, as it is doubtful, and legitimately, if these Westerners would always take the best care of China's interests. In our discussion, we will pay special attention to one of Tongwen Guan’s earliest graduates, Zhang Deyi 张德彝 (1847-1919, also known as Deming 德明). He is chosen because he was the only person who went to all the first four missions to the West. He provides a good case to demonstrate the role of Tongwen Guan graduates as the first generation of diplomatic interpreters to the West.

△张德彝（1847-1919）

《亚洲翻译传统》书系

（Asian Translation Traditions Series）

△已出版三卷书影

Series Editor's Preface

Asian countries have long histories of translation, though research in this field has remained fragmented and obscure. As a result, their rich translation traditions remain largely unexplored. This state of affairs leaves much to be desired, as studies on the richness of translational activities throughout history in this region will undoubtedly yield valuable information on Asia and, on a larger scale, the whole world. From the Turkish Ottoman Empire to the colonial rule in Asian societies, more academic research is needed to examine the impact translation had on the highly diversified Asian societies and cultures.

To promote and enhance high-quality research in the translate traditions of Asian countries, the Research Centre for Translation (RCT), Chinese University of Hong Kong publishes the present  Asian Translation Traditions Series. It aims to attract scholars of translation studies as well as various related disciplines to contribute to the field, and to fill the current vacancy of English publications on translation history. The series will be especially valuable to Western scholars with limited access to works and materials in the Asian languages.

Edited volumes and monographs by single or multiple authors are included in the series’  publishing scope. Volumes in the series can focus on a topic relating to translation traditions of one single Asian country, or cover multiple countries for comparison. To ensure the highest possible acadenic standard, all book manuscripts will undergo a double-blind review process, which is closely monitored by the Academic Committee. The committee comprises distinguished and renowned international scholars who would also advise on the focus and orientation of the series.

The RCT is a research unit at the Institute of Chinese Studies, The Chinese University of Hong Kong. Established in 1971, it aims to promote Chinese literature internationally through translation and to foster pioneering research in Asian translation studies. It is now one of the foremost research centres in translation and translation studies in Asia. The centre has published since 1973, Renditions, the very successful journal of Chinese literature in English, and a new academic journal, Studies in Translation History, which was launched in June 2011 and is jointly published with Fudan University Press in Shanghai. It is the first of its kind and publishes high quality papers on Chinese translation history.

Asian Translation Traditions Series welcomes submissions from all researchers and scholars. It is our sincere wish that, together with your support, we can help push the boundaries of research in Asian translation history.

Lawrence Wang-chi Wong

Series Editor, 

Asian Translation Traditions Series

Volume I  

Translation and Global Asia: 

Relocating Cultural Production Network

Edited by: Uganda Sze-pui Kwan 

and Lawrence Wang-chi Wong

Publisher: Chinese University Press

Publication date: December 2014

Language: English

Pages: 324

Price: US$45.00

ISBN: 9789629966089

Volume II  

Sinologists as Translators in the Seventeenth to Nineteenth Centuries

Edited by: Lawrence Wang-chi Wong 

and Bernhard Fuehrer

Publisher: Chinese University Press

Publication date: December 2015

Language: English

Pages: 460

Price: US$52.00

ISBN: 9789629966072

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