《天文启蒙》两个中译本考略

The Study of Two Translated Versions of Tianwen Qimeng

《天文启蒙》是晚清天文学西学东渐史上唯一拥有两个中译本的著作。本文以此为代表,考察晚清译著在翻译、内容等方面的共性。首先,比对两版《天文启蒙》与底本的异同:两版中译本与底本内容基本相同,但碍于译名混乱、天文学不断发展等原因,存在一定"失真"现象;其次,考证出《天文启蒙》在《谈天》基础上,增加星云假说、彗星流星关系以及太阳所含元素等新知识;最后,通过该书在晚清学堂的使用、国人自编教科书的引用,指出其在中国获得广泛的文化认同。

Tianwen Qimeng, shortly called Qimeng, is the only book being translated twice in the history of Western Learning to the East in late Qing.This work demonstrates the eommonalities of translations, contents and influence in late Qing, based on two versions of Qi mengo By comparing the dis-crepancies of these two translations with original writing, we find they basically follow the original contents. Those mistakes are mainly from chaos in trans-lated terms, astronomy development, etc. In addition, Qimeng added some new contents than Tan Tian, including nebular hypothesis, newfound ele-ments in the Sun, etc. Finally, we summarize the application of Qimeng in education, to indicate the widely and profound effects on China.