田吴炤译书行迹考述

A Research on Tian Wuzhao's Translation Life

甲午战败之后,日本学习西方的成效得到中国人的肯定,因此从日本辗转输入西方知识也成为一种潮流。晚清时人田吴炤自幼年起接受中式传统教育,旧学素养深厚、多闻博览;成年后开始学习西方知识,外出留学。在中学方面,他继承乾嘉考据学传统,撰就《说文学》著作;在西学方面,作为两湖书院的优等生,受张之洞和梁鼎芬的赏识,于1899年东渡求学,归国后翻译日文书籍,引进新学知识。其后又于任职驻日使馆期间,寻访旧籍,载归中国,介绍逻辑学、心理学等新知识。同时,田吴炤的翻译作品也随着众多日本新词汇融入汉语,日本新词汇在中国语言中形成了包括上游字、下游字的贯穿为一的词汇体系,从而使西方的新学知识依靠这套词汇体系才得以输入,在当时中体西用和东学中传思潮中具有一定代表性。然而,类似田吴炤这样经历复杂且不以翻译家或学者名世的近代知识分子颇不乏人,但在近代中国史(特别是中西文化交流史)上,其地位往往是湮灭不彰。故此,这里考证了田吴炤的生平、求学经历、交游及若干主要活动,在政治活动中所扮演的角色,并特意对田氏一生译书行迹进行考述,研析其翻译作品的情况,探讨他的翻译方法和引发的反响,借此展现其在近代中国东学中传史上的地位。

After the Sino-Japanese War of 1894,the profit of Japan learning from the West had been recognized by Chinese,and introducing the Western knowledge from Japan became a trend. Wu Tianzhao,who lived in the late Qing Dynasty,received traditional Chinese education since childhood and later studied Western learnings in Japan. After returning to China he began to translate the ＂new learnings＂from Japanese. During his service in Embassy of China in Japan,he looked for old ducuments and later brought them to China for introducing new learnings of logics and psychology. Meanwhile many new words were introduced into Chinese which helped to build a new lexical system for further introduction of Western new learning. This is representative translation activity in the trend of learning from the West. However,the scholars devoted themselves into this significant cause like Tian are not well-known in the modern history of cultural exchange. This article examines into the life stories of Tian,his political activities and his translated works,studies his translation method and the response as well,intends to emphasize his position in the modern history of cultural exchange.