Abstract
During the last two decades of the Qing dynasty (1890s–1900s), intellectual discourse started to be actively reshaped by Chinese translators, writers and critics in response to the social and political problems of the day. Chapter 2 singles out Yan Fu and Liang Qichao, “the twin beacons of reformist thought in the period after 1895,” for an examination of how the importation and manipulation of Western ideas contributed to the construction of an alternative cultural imaginary. Despite their deep attachment to cultural traditions, Yan and Liang effected the popularization of important Western concepts and values that helped to link the Chinese experience with the rest of the world. The chapter will focus on Yan’s translation of social Darwinism and liberalism and Liang’s translation of political and adventure fiction as key events in the history of modern Chinese translation.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Notes
- 1.
The phrase was first introduced in 1902 by Liang Qichao in the postscript to Chap. 1 of Fifteen Little Heroes (Shiwu xiao haojie), the Chinese translation of Jules Verne’s adventure novel Deux ans de vacances (Two Years’ Vacation). Liang (1999: 5666) noted that the phrase appeared in the preface to the English version of the novel. According to Hu Cui’e (2007: 88), yiyi bu yici was widely accepted in the early twentieth century because of Liang’s popularity among Chinese intellectuals. By contrast, Yan Fu’s translation principles of xin, da, ya (faithfulness, comprehensibility, elegance) did not become popular until the late 1910s (ibid: 86–7).
- 2.
The term was imported from Japan. Meiji-era Japanese activists, who took liberties with source texts to promote their political agendas in their translations, regarded themselves as “heroes” for their refusal to follow source texts slavishly (Guo 2005: 176; Jiang 2009: 39). The method was popularized in China by Liang Qichao. See Jiang (2009).
- 3.
Liang Qichao also translated and introduced modern European theory of science, German theories of the state, the philosophy of Kant, and James’s pragmatism and his theory of religion (Wang 2011: 92). Compared with Yan Fu’s more systematic translation of social science and philosophy, Liang’s fiction translation lends itself better to an examination of how his “sense of a crisis of values” (ibid) led to his promotion of modern citizenship ideals.
- 4.
Vermeer (2000: 229) defines a commission as “the instruction, given by oneself or by someone else, to carry out a given action – here: to translate.”
- 5.
Liang Qichao sometimes deleted or changed parts of the source texts when they went counter to his political agenda. For instance, in translating Kajin no kigu (Romantic Encounters with Two Fair Ladies), Liang made many trimmings and alterations, “not explicitly on the grounds of opposing imperialism as such, but on the basis of his own Chinese nationalism” (Yeh 1990: 162). Generally, Liang used the strategy of adaptation to reorganize chapters or storylines in order to achieve a “domesticating” effect.
- 6.
Yan Fu was admitted to Fuzhou Shipyard School at the age of 14. The subjects in the curriculum included, among others, math, physics, chemistry, trigonometry and navigation. In 1877, he went to Britain to study seamanship, first at Portsmouth, and then at the Royal Naval College in Greenwich.
- 7.
Yan Fu made these observations in the 1895 essay “On Strength” (Yuan qiang).
- 8.
“Refuting Han” is a radical critique of the feudalistic autocracy theorized in the essay “Essentials of the Moral Way” (Yuan Dao) written by Han Yu (768–824 CE), a philosopher and prose stylist in China’s Tang Dynasty, who stood for strong central authority in politics and orthodoxy in cultural matters. In his article, Yan Fu unveiled the connection between autocratic monarchy and China’s backwardness to advocate his democratic politics.
- 9.
Yan Fu was convinced that scholarship had played a critical role in the buildup of Western power. In “On Strength,” another essay he published in 1895, Yan (in Wang 1986: 29) observed: “Western learning had been on a par with Chinese learning before the Ming dynasty. Since then, Western scholars have emphasized innate laws of things as opposed to exquisite diction when pursuing learning; they set great store by practicality and make light of the rhetoric of writing. In their teaching, they make sure that students actively participate in and reflect on what they learn, commending self-procurement and disregarding the adoption of old conventions, celebrating the propensity for questions and exercising caution when it comes to received wisdom. In subjects such as mathematics, students are trained in thinking skills while in other subjects such as physics, students are taught how to observe mutations.” Yan Fu (ibid: 43) lamented the way scholarship was pursued in China during his time, and summarized it as “articulating views in a loud and empty way without close observation of things and indulging in bombastic pronouncements without thinking about practicality.”
- 10.
For instance, Yan argued that the Chinese practiced nepotism while Westerners prized merit and talent. The Chinese governed through filial piety while Westerners governed in the public interest; the Chinese revered their rulers while Westerners held common people in high regard. Whereas the Chinese were restricted by too many taboos, Westerners prized candid comments that included ridicule and criticism. In finance, the Chinese tended to reduce expenditure while Westerners opened up new sources of income; in etiquette, the Chinese emphasized formality while Westerners delighted in simplicity; in the face of disasters, the Chinese consigned themselves to the tender mercies of the elements while Westerns were reliant on human effort (in Wang 1986: 3–4).
- 11.
According to Max Huang (2008: 244–5), Yan Fu regarded Confucian morality as the social glue for a modern society, and an accommodationist version of modernization as the best hope for China’s survival.
- 12.
- 13.
Taken from Yan’s 1895 essay “On the Urgency of the Current Changing Situation.”
- 14.
These are Evolution and Ethics (Tianyan lun), An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations (Yuan fu), Study of Sociology (Qunxue yiyan), L’Esprit des lois (The Spirit of the Laws; Fa yi) and A System of Logic (Mule mingxue).
- 15.
They are: Evolution and Ethics (Tianyan lun) (1898), Study of Sociology (Qunxue yiyan) (1902), An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations (Yuan fu) (1902), On Liberty (Qunji quanjie lun) (1903), A Short History of Politics (Shehui tongquan) (1904), A System of Logic (Mule mingxue) (1905), Primer of Logic (Mingxue qianshuo) (1908) and L’Esprit des lois (Fa yi) (1909).
- 16.
Yan Fu (in Wang 1986: 1320) wrote in the preface to his translation of Evolution and Ethics: “A Mr. Spencer has written a book on evolution, incorporating in his theory nature and mankind. This recently published book is a rare masterpiece.” He added in his annotation to Guangyi in Tianyan lun: “Evolution thus includes these and Spencer extends it to agricultural, commercial, industrial and military spheres and even to language and literature….If intelligent people can contemplate and digest it, that will be a real pleasure” (ibid: 1327).
- 17.
Taken from Yan Fu’s “Additional Remarks to Qunxue yiyan,” which appears before the translated text. “Investigation of things leading to the extension of knowledge” (gewu zhizhi), “sincere thoughts” (chengyi) and “rectifying the hearts” (zhengxin) are important doctrines propounded in Great Learning, as noted in Chap. 1.
- 18.
The term shehuixue, borrowed from Japanese, gradually replaced qunxue in the early twentieth century.
- 19.
The newspaper was founded by Yan Fu, Xia Zengyou (1863–1924) and Wang Xiuzhi (1858–1903) in Tianjin on 26 October 1897.
- 20.
Taken from Yan Fu’s 1895 “On National Salvation.”
- 21.
See “Additional Remarks to Qunxue yiyan.”
- 22.
Yan Fu made the remark in an annotation to the translation of Evolution and Ethics.
- 23.
See Yan Fu’s letter to Zhang Yuanji written in April 1899 (in Wang 1986: 527).
- 24.
Walter Bagehot (1826–1877) was a nineteenth-century British journalist, who wrote extensively about government and economic affairs. His Physics and Politics: Thoughts on the Application of the Principles of “Natural Selection” and “Inheritance” to Political Society was well received in Britain after it was published in 1872. In the book Bagehot expounded on the implications of science and was in favour of studying the history of social development by way of evolution (Wang Xianming 2005: 40). Of the six chapters, two were devoted to the discussion of nation building.
- 25.
Guo Songtao (1818–1891) was a Chinese diplomat and statesman. He was the ambassador to England and France from 1877 to 1879.
- 26.
The Tongcheng School was one of the most distinguished literary schools in the Qing dynasty. The chief representatives were from Tongcheng County of Anhui Province, hence the name. The school espoused Confucian tenets of the early Chinese classics and adopted an archaic prose style.
- 27.
The great Tongcheng master Wu Rulun lamented the poor writing in most of the translations during his time. He praised Yan Fu’s style of writing, observing that his essays were comparable to those written during the Eastern Zhou (pre-Han) dynasty. He went so far as to exclaim: “We can only discuss translating books with those whose writing is as good as Yan Fu’s” (in Liu 1996: 4). Lu Xun (1981 (4): 381) recalled in 1931 that in Yan Fu’s time, returned students would not be considered a member of the gentry unless they could write in elegant classical Chinese.
- 28.
Gideon Toury opines that translating is a teleological activity which is to a large extent conditioned by the receptor culture. He observes in Descriptive Translation Studies and Beyond: “After all, translations always come into being within a certain cultural environment and are designed to meet certain needs of, and/or occupy certain ‘slots’ in it. Consequently, translators may be said to operate first and foremost in the interest of the culture into which they are translating, however they conceive of that interest” (1995: 11). Yan Fu’s translation practice lends support to Toury’s observations.
- 29.
Yan Fu demonstrated flexibility in his manipulation of the original works. He applied the same set of strategies to varying degrees across a range of source texts. For example, his translation of An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations and most other later publications stayed closer to the source text than his translation of Evolution and Ethics.
- 30.
Ban Mengjian (AD 32–92), also named Ban Gu, was a historian and poet in China’s Han dynasty. He was best known for his compilation of the Book of Han (Han shu).
- 31.
For instance, Yan Fu held several Chinese philosophers to ridicule in his 1895 essay “On National Salvation.”
- 32.
神思 (shensi) was an important Chinese literary concept, first discussed by Liu Xie (465–520). It assigns significance to the use of creative imagination in intellectual work.
- 33.
“When inconspicuous, it leads to the advancement of understanding and knowledge; when dynamic, it contributes to the development of politics, culture and scholarship” echoes Yan Fu’s citation of Sima Qian (c. 145–86 BCE) in the preface to his translation of Evolution and Ethics: “Book of Changes (Yi Jing) educes the conspicuous out of the hidden while Spring and Autumn Annals (Chunqiu) elicits the hidden from the conspicuous.” Meanwhile, the sentence conforms to what The Doctrine of the Mean (Zhongyong) prescribes for a virtuous person – that they should be able to exercise self-discipline and guard against immoral behaviour even when they are alone or inconspicuous.
- 34.
According to Lefevere (1992), ideology can be willingly embraced by the translator or imposed on him or her as a constraint by some form of patronage. Yan Fu obviously belongs to the former case, although Wu Rulun played some kind of patronizing role in recommending his translations to the public.
- 35.
Liang believed in the eventual mastery of the world by human effort. The values he emphasized can be found in Confucian teachings, but they were mainly Western inspired. For instance, whereas in Confucianism perseverance and enterprise are virtues meant to accomplish an inner ethical imperative or to fulfil Confucian moral ideals, Liang’s use of the values in his translation focused on the sustained effort and determination to overcome adversaries in dealing with the outside world and to achieve the imagined social objective.
- 36.
Yan Fu (in Schwartz 1964: 49) wrote in 1902, “What are China’s principal troubles? Are they not ignorance, poverty and weakness? In a nutshell, any method which can overcome this ignorance, cure this poverty, lift us out of this weakness, is desirable.”
- 37.
According to Wang Yiyan (2016: 195), the Chinese term for fiction, i.e. xiaoshuo (small talk), confirms its genetic make-up and low social standing in traditional Chinese literary system.
- 38.
The novel was written by the journalist and political activist Shiba Shiroo (Tookai Sanshi) (1852–1922).
- 39.
- 40.
Renowned theoretician of Chinese liberalism Zhang Foquan (1930–1994) used the phrase “nationless sentiment” (wuguo gan) to describe Liang Qichao’s lack of sense of national belonging. See Zhang (1971).
- 41.
- 42.
Some of the new fiction advocates who described new fiction readers as common and ignorant folks failed to get a good understanding of their readership. See Wong (2007: 166–7).
- 43.
I have borrowed Jeffrey Kinkley’s translation of zhanghui xiaoshuo. See Kinkley (2000: 39).
- 44.
Additional remarks at the end of chapters are traditional Chinese fiction writers’ way of creating a sense of suspense and holding the reader’s attention. This was taken up by most late Qing fiction translators. For instance, at the end of Chap. 2 of A Beautiful Story of Statesmanship (Jingguo meitan), after Babituo pacified the old housekeeper, there came three friends, who were excited to see Babituo and told him what had happened to them. The Chinese translator Zhou Kui chose to end the story before Babituo got to know who the three people were. “He heard footsteps outside the house as if there were a couple of people coming his way. Then he heard a shout: ‘Mr. Babituo, here comes our opportunity to distinguish ourselves.’” The chapter thus concludes with the following plot summary for Chap. 3: “Change occurred as a result of unexpected incidents, misfortune emerged out of accidents; heaven envies the hero and tortures him this way and that. The identity of these people and what they say will be revealed in the next chapter” (in Wang 1995: 41).
- 45.
Taken from “On Strength.”
References
Bassnett, Susan. 1991. Translation Studies. London/New York: Routledge.
Bloom, Harold. 1973. The Anxiety of Influence. New York: Oxford University Press.
Chan, Elsie. 2002. Translation Principles and the Translator’s Agenda: A Systemic Approach to Yan Fu. In Crosscultural Transgressions: Research Models in Translation Studies II: Historical and Ideological Issues, ed. Theo Hermans, 61–75. Manchester: St. Jerome Pub.
Chang, Hao. 1971. Liang Ch’i-ch’ao and Intellectual Transition in China. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
De Ruggiero, Guido, and R.G. Collingwood. 1959. The History of European Liberalism. Boston: Beacon Press.
Ding, Wenjiang, and Fengtian Zhao. 1983. Liang Qichao nianpu changbian [Chronicle of Liang Qichao’s Life]. Shanghai: Shanghai renmin chubanshe.
Fan, Xiangtao. 2006. Kexue fanyi yingxiang xia de wenhua bianqian [Cultural Change under the Influence of Translation of Science]. Shanghai: Shanghai yiwen chubanshe.
Fogel, Joshua A., ed. 2004. The Role of Japan in Liang Qichao's Introduction of Modern Western Civilization to China. Berkeley: Institute of East Asian Studies, University of California.
Guo, Yanli. 2005. Zhongguo jindai fanyi wenxue gailun [A General Introduction to Translated Literature in Early Modern China]. Wuhan: Hubei jiaoyu chubanshe.
Han, Hongju. 2005. Lin yi xiaoshuo yanjiu [A Study of Lin Shu’s Translated Novels]. Beijing: Zhongguo shehui kexue chubanshe.
Han, Jianghong. 2006. Yan Fu huayu xitong yu jindai Zhongguo wenhua zhuanxing [Yan Fu’s Discursive System and the Cultural Transformation of Modern China]. Shanghai: Yiwen chubanshe.
Hu, Cui’e. 2007. Wenxue fanyi yu wenhua canyu: Wanqing xiaoshuo fanyi de wenhua yanjiu [Literal Translation and Cultural Engagement: A Cultural Study on Late Qing Fiction Translation]. Shanghai: Waiyu jiaoyu chubanshe.
Huang, Max K.W. 2000. Ziyou de suoyiran: Yan Fu dui Yuehanmi’er ziyou sixiang de renshi yu pipan [The Raison d’ètre of Freedom: Yan Fu’s Understanding and Critique of John Stuart Mill’s Liberalism]. Shanghai: Shanghai shudian chubanshe.
———. 2008. The Meaning of Freedom: Yan Fu and the Origins of Chinese Liberalism. Hong Kong: The Chinese University Press.
Huxley, Thomas H. 1894. Evolution and Ethics, and Other Essays. London: Macmillan and Co.
Inaba, Kunzan. 1915. Qingdai quan shi [A Complete History of Qing Dynasty]. Shanghai: The Commercial Press.
Jiang, Lin. 2009. Liang Qichao haojie yi yanjiu [A Study of Liang Qichao’s Heroic Style of Translation]. Shanghai: Shanghai fanyi chubanshe.
Kinkley, Jeffrey. 2000. Chinese Justice, the Fiction: Law and Literature in Modern China. Stanford: Stanford University Press.
Lefevere, Andre. 1992. Translation, Rewriting and the Manipulation of Literary Fame. London: Routledge.
Liang, Qichao. 1902. Shaojie xinzhu – Yuanfu [Introducing a New Book – Yuanfu]. Xinmin congbao [The New Citizen’s Gazette] (1). (February 1902).
———. 1999. Liang Qichao quanji [Complete Works of Liang Qichao]. Beijing: Beijing chubanshe.
Liu, Mengxi, ed. 1996. Yan Fu juan [Selected Readings of Yan Fu]. Shijiazhuang: Hebei jiaoyu chubanshe.
Lu, Xun. 1981. Lu Xun quanji [Complete Works of Lu Xun]. Beijing: Renmin wenxue chubanshe.
Meng, Zhaoyi, and Zaidao Li. 2005. Zhongguo fanyi wenxue shi [History of Translated Literature in China]. Beijing: Beijing daxue chubanshe.
Qian, Xuantong. 1979. Ji Chen Duxiu [Letter to Chen Duxiu]. In Zhongguo xiandai wenxueshi ziliao huibian [Collection of Modern Chinese Literary Material], 34–40. Zhengzhou: Henan renmin chubanshe.
Qian, Mu. 1994. Zhongguo zhishifenzi [Chinese Intellectuals]. In Tai gang ji haiwai xuejie lun Zhongguo zhishifenzi [Discussion of Chinese Intellectuals by Scholars from Taiwan, Hong Kong and Overseas], eds. Tang Xuezhi and Yang Kuanghan. Zhengzhou: Henan renmin chubanshe.
Schell, Orville, and John Delury. 2013. Wealth and Power: China’s Long March to the Twenty-First Century. London: Little, Brown.
Schwartz, Benjamin. 1964. In Search of Wealth and Power: Yen Fu and the West. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Sun, Yingxiang. 2003. Yan Fu nianpu [Annalistic Biography of Yan Fu]. Fuzhou: Fujian renmin chubanshe.
Talmon, Jacob Leib. 1960. The Origins of Totalitarian Democracy. New York: Praeger.
Tang, Xiaobing. 1996. Global Space and the Nationalist Discourse of Modernity: The Historical Thinking of Liang Qichao. Stanford: Stanford University Press.
Toury, Gideon. 1995. Descriptive Translation Studies and Beyond. Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing Co.
Traugott, E. Closs, and Louise Pratt. 1990. Linguistics for Students of Literature. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich.
Venuti, Lawrence. 1995a. The Translator’s Invisibility: A History of Translation. London: Routledge.
———. 1995b. Translation and the formation of cultural identities. In Cultural functions of translation, eds. Christina Schäffner and Helen Kelly-Holmes, 9–25. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters Ltd.
———. 1998. The Scandals of Translation: Towards an Ethics of Difference. London: Routledge.
Vermeer, Hans J. 2000. Skopos and Commission in Translational Action. In The Translation Studies Reader, ed. Lawrence Venuti, 221–232. London: Routledge.
Wang, Shi. 1957. Yan Fu zhuan [Biography of Yan Fu]. Shanghai: Renmin chubanshe.
———. 1986. Yan Fu ji [Collection of Yan Fu’s Works]. Beijing: The Commercial Press.
Wang, Zhongzhen. 1995. Xushu zhe de bianmao [Narrator’s Change of Position]. Qinghua daxue xuebao [Academic Journal of Tsinghua University] 10 (4): 39–43.
Wang, Xianming. 2005. Yuyan, fanyi, zhengzhi: Yan Fu yi Shehui tongquan [Language, Translation and Politics: Study of Yan Fu’s Translation of “A History of Politics”]. Beijing: Beijing daxue chubanshe.
Wang, Rongzu. 2006a. Chongdu Yan Fu de fanyi [Rereading Yan Fu’s Translations]. Zhuanji wenxue [Biographical Literature] 88 (1): 21–36.
Wang, Tiangen. 2006b. Tianyan lun chuanbo yu qingmo minchu de shehui dongyuan [The Dissemination of Tianyan lun and Social Mobilization in the Late Qing and Early Republican Period]. Hefei: Hefei gongye daxue chubanshe.
Wang, Hui. 2011. In The Politics of Imagining Asia, ed. Theodore Huters. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Wang, Yiyan. 2016. Fiction in Modern China: Modernity through Storytelling. In A Companion to Modern Chinese Literature, ed. Zhang Yingjin, 195–213. Chichester: Wiley Blackwell.
Willcock, Hiroko. 1995. Japanese Modernization and the Emergence of New Fiction in Early Twentieth Century China: A Study of Liang Qichao. Modern Asian Studies 29 (4): 817–840.
Wong, Lawrence Wang-chi. 1998. ‘The Sole Purpose is to Express My Political Views’: Liang Qichao and the Translation and Writing of Political Novels in the Late Qing. In Translation and Creation: Readings of Western Literature in Early Modern China, 1840–1918, ed. David Pollard, 105–126. Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing Company.
———. 2007/1999. Chongshi xin, da, ya: Ershi shiji Zhongguo fanyi yanjiu [Reinterpreting Faithfulness, Comprehensibility and Elegance: A Study of Translation in Twentieth-Century China]. Beijing: Qinghua daxue chubanshe.
Xiao, Yishan. 1980. Qingdai tongshi [General History of the Qing Dynasty]. Taipei: The Commercial Press.
Xu, Jilin. 2005. Modern Chinese Liberal Nationalism: Between Modernity and National Character [Zai xiandaixing yu minzuxing zhijian: Xiandai Zhongguo de ziyou minzu zhuyi sixiang]. Sixiang yu wenhua 2005 (1): 247–290.
Yang, Zhengdian. 1997. Yan Fu pingzhuan [A Critical Biography of Yan Fu]. Beijing: Zhongguo shehui kexue chubanshe.
Yeh, Catherine Vance. 1990. Zeng Pu’s Niehai Hua as a Political Novel: A World Genre in a Chinese Form. Unpublished PhD Dissertation. Harvard University.
Zhang, Foquan. 1971. Liang Qichao guojia guannian zhi xingcheng [The Formation of Liang Qichao’s National Concept]. Zhengzhi 1: 1–66.
Zhang, Zhijian. 1995. Yan Fu xueshu sixiang yanjiu [A Study of Yan Fu’s Intellectual Thought]. Beijing: The Commercial Press.
Zheng, Hailin. 1988. Huang Zunxian yu jindai Zhongguo [Huang Zunxian and Modern China]. Beijing: Joint Publishing.
Zou, Zhenhuan. 1996. Yingxiang Zhongguo jindai shehui de yibaizhong yizuo [One Hundred Translated Works That Influenced Early Modern Chinese Society]. Beijing: Zhongguo fanyi chubanshe.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2019 Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Chi, L. (2019). Translation as an Education in Modern Values: Yan Fu and Liang Qichao. In: Modern Selfhood in Translation . New Frontiers in Translation Studies. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-1156-7_2
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-1156-7_2
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Singapore
Print ISBN: 978-981-13-1155-0
Online ISBN: 978-981-13-1156-7
eBook Packages: Social SciencesSocial Sciences (R0)