中日两国哲学术语optimism译词的形成与演变

The origin and evolution of the philosophical term optimism in China and Japan

哲学术语optimism源于拉丁文optimus,于19世纪中后期传入中日两国。通过调查中日两国多种近现代词典与两国语料库发现,在译介到两国之初时,日语先后译为「楽天教」「萬物皆善説」「楽観主義」「楽天主義」等,其后译词传入汉语。而现代,两国在译词选择上出现了不同倾向,中方较统一地以“乐观主义”对译;日方则较为复杂,同时存在多个译词且较不固定,但整体上来说以「楽天」为语素的译词占优。这与汉日语中的同形词“乐观/楽観”“乐天/楽天”的语义及使用相关,同时也与汉日语分别使用反义词“乐观—悲观”和「楽天―厭世」对译哲学术语optimism与pessimism有密切关联。

The philosophical term optimism,derived from the Latin optimus,was first introduced into both China and Japan in the middle of the 19th century.A survey of Chinese and Japanese dictionaries and corpora has revealed that,at the beginning,optimism was translated into Japanese as rakutenkyo,banbutsukaizensetsu,rakkansyugi,and rakutensyugi.Later,those words were introduced into Chinese through Japanese interpretation.In modern times,the two countries have shown different tendencies in translating the same words.It is related to the homogeneity of concepts leguan/rakkan and letian/rakuten in both Chinese and Japanese especially in the semantic denotation and pragmatic implications.And Chinese-Japanese usage of the different antonyms leguan-beiguan and rakkan-ensei has strongly influenced the translation of the philosophical terms optimism and pessimism.