异步共踵:清末民初统计学著作的译述与编写

Asynchronous Steps by the Same Heel:Translation and Compilation of Statistical Works in the Late Qing Dynasty and the Early Republic of China

中国近代意义上的统计学,是从西方移植来的。在晚清西学东渐浪潮的推动下,翻译来的统计学著作主要包括两类:一是从印欧语系直接翻译而来的各国统计年鉴;二是从日本转译而来的日本学者译著的统计学著作,日本学者将英语statistic音译为tokei,或译作政表、表记、制表或作综计,该词而后由日本辗转传入中国。日本统计学译本的翻译出版,标志着中国现代统计学的发轫。在译介西方统计学已有成果的基础上,中国学者开始探索编著各种统计学讲义,以适用于新式学堂的教学之用。早期的知识精英们对西方现代统计知识的认知与接受,并非是简单的他者渗入与移植,而是一场由西方文化传播者与本土接受者共同参与的复杂的在地化知识生产的过程。随着新式学堂的普遍建立、七科之学的逐渐形成,统计学在新学制中占有一席之地,亦随之在中国逐渐成长为一门独立的现代学科。

Statistics in modern China was transplanted from the West.Driven by a wave of Western learning in the late Qing Dynasty,the statistical works translated into Chinese consisted of two main categories:firstly,the statistical yearbooks of various countries translated directly from English;secondly,the statistical works translated by Japanese scholars from Japanese,who translated the English word“statistic”as“tokei”,or as political table,notation,tabulation or comprehensive calculation,which was later transferred from Japan to China.The translation and publication of the Japanese-translated statistics works marked the beginning of modern statistics in China.On the basis of the translation of Western statistics,Chinese scholars began to explore the compilation of a variety of statistical handouts for the use of teaching in the new style of schools.The early intellectual elites’perception and acceptance of modern Western statistical knowledge was not simply the infiltration and transplantation of the other,but a complex process of localization and reproduction involving both Western cultural transmitters and local recipients.With the widespread establishment of new style of schools and the gradual formation of the seven disciplines,statistics took its place in the new school system and gradually grew into an independent modern discipline in China.