《论自由》在东方的接受环境

How was Mill's On Liberty differently received in Japan and in China on its first translation?

王克非同志此文可以称为一篇比较文化学的习作。兹举一段为例。此段比较中村正直和严复,二人都曾到英国留学,都注意到英国的政制法治有可取之处,都抱兴国利民之志,然而回国以后,两人的遭遇截然不同: 中村是教授;有地位,可专心著述,译《自由之理》等书;中国鄙夷新知,西学不为所重,留学归来的严复,只能执教于海军,寂寞十五年。在中国,科举是唯一的进身之阶,从事著译没有出路;日本无科举陋制,留学回国者,执政如伊藤博文,执教如中村正直,皆负时望。中村潜心学术,所译之书,发行数以万计,受到社会重视;严复则要“摒弃万缘,唯以译书自课”,是在迷惘之中自慰自勉。日本的归国学者在渴求新知的社会里大有可为,中国的洋翰林则为“时贤所窃笑,家人所怨咨,而掷笔四顾,亦自觉其无谓”。不同的社会环境为中村严复两氏规定了不同的生活道路,也为他们后来译介西方自由思想时,一位重个性自由和品德修养,一位重群己权界、经世济民,规定了不同的价值取向。

This is a continuation of the author's first essay which appeared in our winter number of 1989.In the present paper the author compares the different reception Mill's On Liberty met with in Japanand in China. In Japan, the translation sold tens of thousands of copies, and its translator (Nakamura Masanao) was nationally honoured; in China the translator (Yan Fu) had no such goodfortune, the books he rendered into Chinese being slighted by the established literati. The fact is,China was still very much under the bondage of Confucian precepts, taken as the highest standardof all value judgements. Japan, on the other hand, was far more receptive to western ideasbecause it had no such entrenched obstacles.