梁思成“建筑可译论”之前的中国实践

Architectural Translations and the Notion of Architectural Translatability in Modern China

20世纪50年代梁思成针对中国风格建筑的设计提出了"建筑可译论"。他相信将西式建筑中的构图要素替换为相应的中式要素,就可以将建筑转变为中式风格。本文探寻19世纪以来,在梁思成理论表述之前中国就已经存在的"西译中"建筑实践。作者认为,这一研究将有助于揭示一个曾经同时被中国和西方建筑史视为边缘的领域及其对于两个学科所具有的同等重要性。它在对一种看似混杂的建筑现象进行解释的同时也将厘清若干中外建筑文化交流的线索。此外,它还试图引发人们对于"建筑可译性"在实践过程中的许多具体问题进行反思。这些问题包括:对应词汇的选择及其与社会文化和专业的语境的关系,翻译所导致的语义转变,以及强势文化和弱势文化的差别所导致的"非互换性"。更进一步,它还将质疑欧洲中心主义和现代主义史学中的"折衷主义"概念。

In 1954, Liang Sicheng, a great architectural historian of twentieth century China, proposed his idea of ＂architectural translatability＂ regarding the design of a Chinese style architecture. He believed that by substituting Chinese architectural elements for the corresponding Western ones, the style of the latter could become Chinese. This paper explores a field that is marginal yet significant to both the studies of Chinese and Western architectural histories by studying the architectural designs that took the ＂translation＂ approach prior to Liang＇ s methodological formulation. Through interpreting some seemingly hybrid architectural works, it also attempts to clarify several threads of Sino-Western architectural communication. In addition, it brings attention to more questions generated by the ＂translation＂ practices, such as the selection of the equivalent architectural ＂vocabulary＂ and its socio-cultural, as well as academic context, the semantic change of the vocabulary during the translation, and the non-reciprocity due to the non-equality in cultural hegemony. Furthermore, it questions the concept of ＂eclecticism＂ in Euro-centric and modernist architectural history.