“中国来源”伪译《僧侣》与18世纪英国国教拯救观

出版于1769年的《僧侣》是一部以李明《中国近事报道》英译本为中国知识来源的伪译。小说以灵魂转世为叙事框架,重申行善获救的英国国教拯救观。小说一面借重剑桥柏拉图主义的“灵魂先在论”,认为人类的苦难植根于灵魂在先在境界所犯罪恶,解释了“恶的起源”问题;另一面吸纳《中国近事报道》所载佛教“灵魂转世论”,指明灵魂获救的途径在于行善。小说表明,英国国教在与中国佛教的对话中进一步明确了区分于其他新教传统的独特教义,其伪译形式亦展现了18世纪中英文学、文化交流的独特模式。

The Bonze(1769)is a pseudotranslation based on an English translation of Louis Le Comte's Nouveaux mémoires sur l'état présent de la Chine.Using transmigrations of the protagonist as narrative structure,it echoes an Anglican Soteriology.On the one hand,the novel borrows the theory of Pre-existence from Cambridge Platonists to argue that human suffering is derived from the disobedience in the pre-existent state,as an answer to the Problem of Evil.On the other,the novel,benefiting from the Buddhist theory of transmigration,points out that good works are a requisite to salvation.The novel shows that Anglicanism,in dialogue with Buddhism,established distinguishable features compared to other Protestant traditions.The genre of the pseudotranslation also proves a mode of cultural communication which is instrumental to Sino-British literary relations in the 18^(th) century.