野蛮的修辞:作为译者的汉学家汤姆斯

“Barbarous Phraseology”:Sinologist Peter Perring Thoms as a Translator

在19世纪英国汉学的兴起阶段,印刷工汤姆斯在汉学知识生产与翻译政治中扮演了何种角色,这是一个值得探究的问题。本文借助多种原始资料的梳理,以及汤姆斯翻译实践所涉及的中英文本对比,考察翻译作品的生成、传播与译介策略之间的关系。由此可知,汤姆斯作为主张文化理解的汉学家,以其对中国文学独特的翻译实践,最终疏离于大英帝国的翻译策略,其风格被称为"野蛮的修辞"。因此,关于汤姆斯汉学译介的个案考察,或有助于增进对英国早期汉学翻译策略的多元化理解。

What role did the printer Peter Perring Thoms play in sinology knowledge production and the politics of translation during the rise of British Sinology in 19 th century？ It is a question worth exploring. This paper tries to examine the relationship between production,transmission and translation strategy by analyzing a variety of raw materials and comparing the texts in Chinese-English involved in the translation practice of Thoms. Furthermore,special attention is drawn on revealing how he deviated from the translation strategy of the Empire,while as a Sinologist he advocated the cultural understanding. In doing so,a detailed case study on his sinology translation and propagation will enhance our multi-understanding of translation strategy in the early British Sinology.