論辜鴻銘儒家經典英譯的動機及目的

摘 要：在清末民初，隨著封建社會的衰落和西方列強的入侵，很多知識分子紛紛開始翻譯西方的政治、思想和文學等作品，以實現救國救民的政治目的。然而，辜鴻銘卻選擇了不同的救國的方式。他選擇將中國的儒家經典翻譯成英語，這在當時是非常另類的做法。因此，本文試圖探究辜鴻銘在當時很多知識分子紛紛將西方作品譯入到中國的社會大背景下，卻選擇將中國的儒家經典翻譯成英語，譯入到西方國家的翻譯動機以及目的。

關鍵詞：辜鴻銘；翻譯動機；儒家經典

作者簡介：郝廣麗，臨沂大學外國語學院講師，翻譯理論與實踐。

1. Introduction to Gu Hongming's Life and His Translation Activities

1.1 Introduction to Gu’s Life

Gu Hongming was born in an overseas Chinese family， in Penang， East India Island. Gu stayed in Europe for 11 years and went to many countries to acquire thorough western knowledge.

1.2. Gu’s Translation Activities

The translation of Chinese classics into English started from the period of late Ming Dynasty and early Qing Dynasty. Missionaries and Sinologists were the main force of translating Chinese classics. But， in Gu’s eyes， these missionaries and Sinologists’ versions distorted the original meaning of Confucian classics and spoiled Chinese culture and even engendered the westerners’ prejudice toward Chinese civilization. To eliminate this kind of prejudice， Gu made up his mind to translate the Confucian classics himself. Thus， in 1898， he published his first translation work The Discourse and Saying of Confucius: A New Special Translation， Illustrated with Quotations from Goethe and Other Writers (《論語》). In 1905， he brought out his second translation works The Universal Order or Conduct of Life，(《中庸》). Later he translated Higher Education(《大學》)， which was not published.

2. Gu’s Motivation of Translating Confucian Classics into English

2.1 Overview of Gu’s Motivation to Translate Confucian Classics

During the late years of the Qing Dynasty， China stepped into the abyss of a semi-colonial and semi-feudal society. The dominant trend of translation in China was to translate English into Chinese. Living in a decaying semi-feudal and semi-colonial society， most of Gu’s contemporaries were translating foreign literature into Chinese and the purpose of their translation at that time “is to serve the society and politics and to promote social innovation and progress”. (阿英，《晚清小說叢鈔—小說戲劇卷》，1960：14)

However， unlike his contemporaries who introduced foreign literature and philosophy into China， Gu translated Chinese classics into western countries. Gu’s motivation is different from that of his contemporaries， which is examined as follows.

2.1.1To Uplift the Image of China and Chinese People

During the late period of the Qing Dynasty， China had become a semi-feudal and semi-colonial society. The imperialist countries regarded China as their own property and insulted and bullied China at their will. Rooted in western tradition， they arrogantly depicted or created the image of China according to their own one-sided imagination. They consider the Chinese people to be inferior to them and belittled Chinese culture and literature. Many common western readers knew little about China and Chinese people. In their eyes， Chinese people were inferior and were uncultivated and untidy. Chinese women usually had their feet bound and Chinese men had a long plait behind their back.

Due to his experiences in the west， Gu knew well about the biased attitude and therefore he wanted to change this kind of image by the means of translation. Gu wrote in the preface of Lunyu: “I just want to express a will that learned and well-cultivated English people could reflect upon their prejudices toward Chinese after reading my English version and accordingly correct their misunderstandings and transform their attitudes towards the relationships not only between the English and the Chinese but between England and China” (trans， 黃興濤，《辜鴻銘文集》，1996：346not;—347).

2.1.2. To Spread and Glorify Chinese Culture and Civilization

As a cultural conservative， uplifting the images of China and Chinese people was not Gu’s sole purpose. He did his translations with a keen hope that western readers could realize the value of Chinese culture and the value of Confucian classics， which he considered to be the essence of Chinese civilization. He tried to convince them that Chinese civilization could save the world out of war and turmoil and save European civilization from bankruptcy. Just as Gu himself pointed out in one of his articles : “ I do this with the hope that all educated serous thinking people， who read this book of mine， will， by reading this book， better understanding the moral causes of this war …This new Religion， the people of Europe will find here in China， is the Chinese Civilization. To prove the value of Chinese civilization， I want to show how the study of the Chinese civilization can help to solve the problem facing the world today， --the problem of saving the civilization of Europe from bankruptcy.”(Gu Hongming， The Spirit of the Chinese People， 2004:18)

3. Conclusion

By elaboration on Gu’s translation activities， the author finds out that his motivation and purposes differed a lot from those of his contemporaries. When most of Chinese intellectuals chose to translate foreign literature into Chinese for national salvation， Gu decided to translate Chinese classics into English. And his motivation was to uplift the image of Chinese people and China and to spread and glorify Chinese culture and literature.

參考文獻：

[1]Gu Hongming， 2004， The Spirit of the Chinese People， Beijing: Foreign Language Teaching and Press.

[2]Reiss， Katharina Vermeer，Hans， 1984， trans. Grundlegung einer allgemeinen Translationtheorie， Tubingen: Max Niemeyer.

[3]阿英.晚清小說叢鈔——小說戲劇卷[M].北京：中華書局，1960.

[4]辜鴻銘.辜鴻銘文集[M].黃興濤等譯.海南：海南出版社，1996.

[5]黃興濤.文化怪杰辜鴻銘[M]. 海南：海南出版社，1995.