中国翻译史

中外翻译简史一、中国翻译简史从现有史实来看，中国翻译史始于东汉末年安世高的佛经翻译。

大体经历了五个高潮。

1. 佛经翻译(公元148年至1111年)佛经翻译始于东汉，盛于唐朝，式微于北宋，元以后为尾声。

起始阶段(公元148—316年)的译家及译作主要有：安世高，译籍30部，41卷，现存22部，26卷；支谦，译有《大明度无极经》。

兴盛阶段(公元317—617年)的译家及译作主要有：释道安，编有《众经目录》，在《摩诃钵罗若波罗蜜经钞序》中提出著名的“五失本、三不易”理论,倾向于直译；鸠摩罗什，共译74部，现存39部，如《妙法莲华经》、《大智度论》、《金刚经》等，倾向于意译；真谛，共译64部，现存26部，如《摄大乘论》等；彦琮，共译23部。

全盛阶段（公元618—906年）的译家及译作主要有：玄奘，通称“三藏法师”，629年前往印度那烂陀寺求学，带回梵文经典657部，十九年中共译经论75部，1335卷，主持了译场，提出“既须求真，又须喻俗”和“五不翻”原则。

2、明末清初科技翻译主要是耶稣会士和中国士大夫相结合进行的，汉译17世纪西方自然科学，古希腊哲学、科学等。

从事或组织翻译的代表人物有：马礼逊(Robert Morrison)、利玛窦(Matteo Ricci)、汤若望(Jean Adam Schull von Bell)、林则徐、魏源、李善兰、徐光启、徐寿等，主要译作有《几何原本》、《泰西水法》、《奇器图说》、《四洲志》、《西艺知新》及续编等。

另外，还设有我国最早的培养翻译人才的外语学校——四夷馆（明代），创办了同文馆、京师译学馆、江南制造总局翻译馆、墨海书馆、益智书会、文会馆、广学会等翻译编译机构。

3、清末民初的社科、文学翻译清末民初的社科翻译属严复最为著名。

严复（1854—1921），福建侯官（今福州）人，字几道。

译西学颇多，影响深远，如：《天演论》（T. Henry Huxley, Evolution and Ethics and Other Essays），《原富》（Adam Smith, Inquiry into theNature and Cause of the Wealth of Nations），《群学肄言》（H. Spencer, Study of Sociology），《群己权界论》（John Stuart Mill, On Liberty），《社会通诠》（E. Jenks, History of Politics），《法意》（C.D.S. Montesquien, Spirit of Law），《穆勒名学》（John Stuart Mill, System of Logic），《名学浅说》（W.S. Jevons）等。

Brief Introduction of the Chinese Translation HistoryChinese translation theory was born out of contact with vassal states during the Zhou Dynasty. It developed through translations of Buddhist scripture into Chinese. It is a response to the universals of the experience of translation and to the specifics of the experience of translating from specific source languages into Chinese. It also developed in the context of Chinese literary and intellectual tradition.The modern Standard Mandarin word fanyi翻譯"translate; translation" compounds fan "turn over; cross over; translate" and yi "translate; interpret". Some related synonyms are tongyi通譯"interpret; translate", chuanyi傳譯"interpret; translate", and zhuanyi轉譯"translate; retranslate".The Chinese classics contain various words meaning "interpreter; translator", for instance, sheren舌人(lit. "tongue person") and fanshe反舌(lit. "return tongue"). The Classic of Rites records four regional words: ji寄"send; entrust; rely on" for Dongyi東夷"Eastern Yi-barbarians", xiang象"be like; resemble; image" for Nanman南蠻"Southern Man-barbarians", didi狄鞮"Di-barbarian boots" for Xirong西戎"Western Rong-barbarians", and yi譯"translate; interpret" for Beidi北狄"Northern Di-barbarians".In those five regions, the languages of the people were not mutually intelligible, and their likings and desires were different. To make what was in their minds apprehended, and to communicate their likings and desires, (there were officers), — in the east, called transmitters; in the south, representationists; in the west, Tî-tîs; and in the north, interpreters. (王制"The Royal Regulations", tr. James Legge 1885 vol. 27, pp. 229-230)A Western Han work attributes a dialogue about translation to Confucius. Confucius advises a ruler who wishes to learn foreign languages not to bother. Confucius tells the ruler to focus on governance and let the translators handle translation.The earliest bit of translation theory may be the phrase "names should follow their bearers, while things should follow China." In other words, names should be transliterated, while things should be translated by meaning.In the late Qing Dynasty and the Republican Period, reformers such as Liang Qichao, Hu Shi and Zhou Zuoren began looking at translation practice and theory of the great translators in Chinese history.Zhi Qian (3rd c. AD)Zhi Qian (支謙)'s preface (序) is the first work whose purpose is to express an opinion about translation practice. The preface was included in a work of the Liang Dynasty. It recounts an historical anecdote of 224AD, at the beginning of the Three Kingdoms period. A party of Buddhist monks came to Wuchang. One of them, Zhu Jiangyan by name, was asked to translate some passage from scripture. He did so, in rough Chinese. When Zhi Qian questioned the lack of elegance, another monk, named Wei Qi (維衹), responded that the meaning of the Buddha should be translated simply, without loss, in aneasy-to-understand manner: literary adornment is unnecessary. All present concurred and quoted two traditional maxims: Laozi's "beautiful words are untrue, true words are not beautiful" and Confucius's "speech cannot be fully recorded by writing, and speech cannot fully capture meaning".Zhi Qian's own translations of Buddhist texts are elegant and literary, so the "direct translation" advocated in the anecdote is likely Wei Qi's position, not Zhi Qian's.Dao An (314-385AD)Dao An focused on loss in translation. His theory is the Five Forms of Loss (五失本):1.Changing the word order. Sanskrit word order is free with a tendency to SOV. Chinese is SVO.2.Adding literary embellishment where the original is in plain style.3.Eliminating repetitiveness in argumentation and panegyric (頌文).4.Cutting the concluding summary section (義說).5.Cutting the recapitulative material in introductory section.Dao An criticized other translators for loss in translation, asking: how they would feel if a translator cut the boring bits out of classics like the Shi Jing or the Classic of History?He also expanded upon the difficulty of translation, with his theory of the Three Difficulties (三不易):municating the Dharma to a different audience from the one the Buddha addressed.2.Translating the words of a saint.3.Translating texts which have been painstakingly composed by generations of disciples.Kumarajiva (344-413AD)Kumarajiva’s translation practice was to translate for meaning. The story goes that one day Kumarajiva criticized his disciple Sengrui for translating “heaven sees man, and man sees heaven” (天見人,人見天). Kumarajiva felt that “man and heaven connect, the two able to see each other” (人天交接,兩得相見) would be more idiomatic, though heaven sees man, man sees heaven is perfectly idiomatic.In another tale, Kumarajiva discusses the problem of translating incantations at the end of sutras. In the original there is attention to aesthetics, but the sense of beauty and the literary form (dependent on the particularities of Sanskrit) are lost in translation. It is like chewing up rice and feeding it to people (嚼飯與人).Huiyuan (334-416AD)Huiyuan's theory of translation is middling, in a positive sense. It is a synthesis that avoids extremes of elegant (文雅) and plain (質樸). With elegant translation, "the language goes beyond the meaning" (文過其意) of the original. With plain translation, "the thought surpasses the wording" (理勝其辭). For Huiyuan, "the words should not harm the meaning" (文不害意). A good translator should “strive to preserve the original” (務存其本).Sengrui (371-438AD)Sengrui investigated problems in translating the names of things. This is of course an important traditional concern whose locus classicus is the Confucian exhortation to “rectify names” (正名). This is not merely of academic concern to Sengrui, for poor translation imperils Buddhism. Sengrui was critical of his teacher Kumarajiva's casual approach to translating names, attributing it to Kumarajiva's lack of familiarity with the Chinese tradition of linking names to essences (名實).Sengyou (445-518AD)Much of the early material of earlier translators was gathered by Sengyou and would have been lost but for him. Sengyou’s approach to translation resembles Huiyuan's, in that both saw good translation as the middle way between elegance and plainness. However, unlike Huiyuan Sengyou expressed admiration for Kumarajiva’s elegant translations.Xuanzang (600-664AD)Xuanzang’s theory is the Five Untranslatables (五種不翻), or five instances where one should transliterate:1.Secrets: Dharani 陀羅尼, Sanskrit ritual speech or incantations, which includes mantras.2.Polysemy: bhaga (as in the Bhagavad Gita) 薄伽, which means comfortable, flourishing, dignity, name, lucky,esteemed.3.None in China: jambu tree 閻浮樹, which does not grow in China.4.Deference to the past: the translation for anuttara-samyak-sambodhi is already established as Anouputi 阿耨菩提.5.To inspire respect and righteousness: Prajna 般若instead of “wisdom” (智慧).Daoxuan (596-667AD)Yan Fu (1898)Yan Fu is famous for his theory of fidelity, clarity and elegance (信達雅), which some believe originated with Tytler. Yan Fu wrote that fidelity is difficult to begin with. Only once the translator has achieved fidelity and clarity should he attend to elegance. The obvious criticism of this theory is that it implies that inelegant originals should be translated elegantly. Clearly, if the style of the original is not elegant or refined, the style of the translation should not be elegant either.Liang Qichao (1920)Liang Qichao put these three qualities of a translation in the same order, fidelity first, then clarity, and only then elegance.Lin Yutang (1933)Lin Yutang stressed the responsibility of the translator to the original, to the reader, and to art. To fulfill this responsibility, the translator needs to meet standards of fidelity (忠實), smoothness (通順) and beauty.Lu Xun (1935)Lu Xun's most famous dictim relating to translation is "I'd rather be faithful than smooth" (寧信而不順).Ai Siqi (1937)Ai Siqi described the relationships between fidelity, clarity and elegance in terms of Western ontology, where clarity and elegance are to fidelity as qualities are to being.Zhou Zuoren (1944)Zhou Zuoren assigned weightings, 50% of translation is fidelity, 30% is clarity, and 20% elegance.Zhu Guangqian (1944)Zhu Guangqian wrote that fidelity in translation is the root which you can strive to approach but never reach. This formulation perhaps invokes the traditional idea of returning to the root in Daoist philosophy.Fu Lei (1951)Fu Lei held that translation is like painting: what is essential is not formal resemblance but rather spiritual resemblance (神似).Qian Zhongshu (1964)Qian Zhongshu wrote that the highest standard of translation is transformation (化, the power of transformation in nature): bodies are sloughed off, but the spirit (精神), appearance and manner (姿致) are the same as before (故我, the old me or the ol。

第35课翻译史--中国翻译简史我国的翻译有着数千年的历史。

打开这一翻译史册，我们可以看到翻译高潮迭起，翻译家难以计数，翻译理论博大精深。

了解这一历史不仅有助于我们继承我们的先人的优秀文化遗产，而且也有助于我们今天更加深入认识和发展我们的翻译事业。

简单说来，中国的翻译史大致可以分为以下几个阶段：一、汉代-秦符时期；二、隋-唐-宋时期；三、明清时期；四、五四时期；五、新中过成立至今。

一、汉代-秦符时期中国的翻译活动可以追溯到春秋战国时代。

当时的诸侯国家相互之间交往就出现了翻译，如楚国王子去越国时就求助过翻译。

当然这种翻译还谈不上是语际翻译。

中国真正称得上语际翻译的活动应该说是始于西汉的哀帝时期的佛经翻译。

那时有个名叫伊存的人到中国来口传一些简单的佛经经句。

到了东汉桓帝建和二年（公元一八四年），佛经翻译就正式开始了。

译者安世高是安息（即波斯）人，他翻译了《安般守意经》等三十多部佛经。

后来月支人支娄迦谶（又叫娄迦谶）来到了中国，他翻译了十多部佛经。

支娄迦谶译笔生硬，基本上是字对字、句对句地翻译，中国读者不易看懂。

中国翻译界现在的直译和意译之争大概就是从这个时候开始的。

支娄迦谶有个学生叫支亮，之亮有个弟子叫支谦。

他们三人号称"三支"，是当时翻译佛经非常有名的译者。

与"三支"同时从事佛经翻译的还有竺法护。

他也是月支人，是当时的佛经翻译名家，总共译了一百七十五部佛经，对佛经在中国的流传贡献不小。

竺法护和"三支"一道被人称作月之派。

不过，这一时期的佛经翻译活动还只是民间私人事业。

到了符秦时代，佛经翻译活动就组织有序了。

当时主要的组织者是释道安。

在他的主持下设置了译场，开始了大规模的佛经翻译。

由于释道安本人不懂梵文，惟恐译文失真，因此他主张严格的词对词、句对句(word for word, line for line)的直译。

当时的佛经《鞞婆沙》就是按此方法从梵文译成汉语的。