释“观念”

nterpretation of“观念”(“Guan Nian”)

通常认为观念史研究的“观念”一词“来自西洋、路过日本”,但是将“观念”视为西文idea之译词,本身蕴含了源自英国经验论和柏拉图主义的歧义,由此导致中国哲学家在语用中产生了分歧。进一步的探究发现,以“观念”来迻译idea,并非日本译者的发明,当初乃佛经翻译之产品;佛学“观念”作为一个译词,“观”和“念”各有其梵文之本,该术语意指观察思念真理及佛体,由此遥契智慧之域。且先人选择汉字“观”迻译梵文Vipasyana(毘婆舍那),是因为先秦哲学经典中,“观”已有超出观看外物而感知之意,指示了通达理性之知乃至形上智慧的方式。“观念”一词经过“梵—汉”和“汉—西”两层迻译,发生了意义的位移,观念史研究也因而有不同的层次和向度。

In the study of the history of ideas,the word“观念”(“guan nian”)is generally believed to have“originated from the West and spread to China through Japan”.However,simply taking“观念”(guan nian)as a translation of the English word“idea”evokes the ambiguity in British Empiricism and Platonism,hence resulting in differing ways of usage of the word by Chinese philosophers.A further study shows translating“idea”into“观念”(guan nian)was not the invention of Japanese translators,but the initial result of the translation of Buddhist scriptures;In Buddhism,“观念”(guan nian)is a translated word and both“观”(guan)and“念”(nian)have their separate Sanskrit characters.The academic jargon of“guan nian”means“observe and ponder about truth and the Buddha,therefore referring to the field of wisdom.Moreover,Chinese ancestors chose guan to translate Vipas'yanā,because in early-Qin philosophical classics,the character“观”(guan)encompassed the meaning of perception beyond observation indicating that rational cognition is the way to attain metaphysical wisdom.Through two degrees of translation,first from Sanskrit to Chinese,then from Chinese to English,the meaning of“观念”(guan nian)has shifted.As a result,there are different approaches to the study of the history of ideas.