傅兰雅西学翻译中的读者意识

John Fryer’s Consciousness of Readers in His Translation of Western Scientific Knowledge

晚清来华英国传教士翻译家傅兰雅一生翻译出西方科学书籍158种,为晚清的"西学东渐"做出了重大贡献。他在翻译过程中,心怀读者,设身处地为读者着想,有着强烈的读者意识,主要表现在如下几方面:关照中国读者的语言与阅读习惯;关照中国读者的数字系统与书写习惯;主张配备术语表与术语解释。从接受美学视角来看,傅兰雅读者意识的贡献与局限性表现为:迎合了晚清读者的期待视野,但忽视了译本的"召唤结构"。因此,译介要有正确的读者观:要照顾读者,但又不能一味迁就读者。这也是傅兰雅读者意识这面"他者之镜"给中华文化域外译介的启示。

John Fryer,a British missionary translator,who came to China in the late Qing Dynasty,translated 158 western science books in his life,contributing a lot to the "Introduction of Western Learning into China".In the process of translation,he took his readers into consideration,and had a strong sense of readership,which mainly covered the following aspects:care for Chinese readers’ language and reading habits;care for Chinese readers’ digital systems and writing habits;advocating making glossaries of terms and explanation of terms.Seen in the light of reception aesthetics,the contribution and limitation of John Fryer’s consciousness readership lies in that it meets the readers’ expectation,but ignores the"appealing structure".Therefore,translation should be done with a correct view of readership:it should consider the readers,but it can’t cater to readers blindly.This is also the revelation of John Fryer’s sense of readership on translating the Chinese culture into the western world.