“卖身事夷”的王韬:当传统文士当上了译者

Wang Tao"Selling Himself to Serve the Barbarians":When a Traditional Man-of-Letters Became a Translator

中国传统的"夷夏之辨"的思想一直影响着中国跟外族和外国的交往,其实也由此决定了译者的文化位置和社会身份。本文要处理的是19世纪中叶其中一位最早直接参与西籍翻译的中国知识分子王韬(1823—1897)。作为传统文人,王韬为经济所迫受聘于上海的"洋夷",在极不情愿的情况下担负起宣扬西方文化的任务,承受着传统文化包袱的重压,被"华夷之辨"的思想困挠,无法认同自己的工作,无法确立自己的文化位置。从王韬的个案,我们可以看到在中西文化最初的碰撞中,传统文化思想同外来西方思想的矛盾和冲突,怎样透过其中的文化传播中介——译者,来体现出来。这一方面对于我们理解晚清中西文化交流的情况有所帮助,另一方面更可展示译者在当时独特的政治、文化环境下的复杂社会身份和文化位置。

Since ancient times, the Chinese had developed a superiority complex, in particular in culture, over the neighbouring peoples, who were indiscriminately labeled as yi, or barbarians. This mentality remained unchanged in the 18th-19th century when they came into contact with the Europeans. During the course of contacts, people were required to do translations. However, because the translators were to handle barbarian issues and work with the barbarians, their social and cultural status was extremely low. They were looked down upon as people who had sold themselves to the barbarians. This paper is a case study on Wang Tao, who was among the earliest traditional men-of-letters working with the Western missionaries in Shanghai to translate Western works into Chinese. He complained seriously in his diaries and private letters for having to serve the barbarians. This paper analyzes his writings to demonstrate how the traditional mindset affected the behavior, social status and cultural positioning of the translators at this early stage of Sino-western interaction.