Literature是怎样“变成”“文学”的--晚清早期新教来华传教士的“文学”实践及评价

When and How the "Literature"=文学(wenxue):A Perspective over Protestant Missionaries in the Late Qing Dynasty

马礼逊、米怜、麦都思、理雅各等最早一代新教来华传教士接触中国的过程,其实也是一个文化探险历程。当大多数传教士最初将注意力集中于宗教领域中的"术语问题"(Term Question)之时,其实他们在中西世俗文化交流领域同样遭遇到了"术语问题"。当他们面对中国丰富而悠久的文学传统时,他们习惯性地使用了英语中的Literature,来描述并论述中国"文学"。而其实从一开始,西方的Literature与中国的"诗文"为中心的传统就不是可以简单替换的完全对等概念。而在此语境中传教士们所生成的最早一批中西跨文学交流的文本成果,亦大多带有文献文本的性质。但又恰恰是这些传教士的文学与文化探险,开创了中西之间文学交流的先河,并最终让西方的Literature,成为了中国的"文学"。

For R. Morrison , W. Milne, W. H. Medhurst, and J. Legge etc, the first generation of Protestant Missionaries, their journeys to China and later operations there were also a kind of cultural adventure. While most of the missionaries first centered much their attention to ＂Term Question＂ in the religious field, they also encountered the ＂Term Question＂ in the case of secular cultural exchange between China and the West. The fact is while confronting the Chinese rich literary tradition and heritage, the missionaries once felt harassed and finally chose the English word ＂literature＂ as the substitute for what they found in Chinese literary texts. But obviously the concept of literature used by the missionaries in the West in the 19th century seemed much hard to simply replace the Chinese concept： Poetry and Prose （诗文）. That may probably decipher why the first fruits of the works by the missionaries featured historical documents and general literary text. But even so, the literary and cultural adventure of the missionaries created a precedent for literary exchange between China and the West, and ultimately made Western word Literature into the Chinese word 文学 （wenxue）.