晚明福音书汉语译介的若干特点

Characteristics of Chinese Interpretation to the Gospels in Late-Ming Dynasty

当代翻译理论强调,翻译不仅是单纯的语言文字转换,还与译入语的文化语境密切相关。晚明社会的伦理文化和政治意识形态的双重干预注定福音书进入中国的道路不会平坦。耶稣会士从对耶稣事迹只言片语的介绍到对福音书较为完整的转述甚至翻译,经历了半个世纪的漫长过程。在翻译策略上,耶稣会士为调和耶儒矛盾,适应中国文化处境,不得不采用选、删、节、增的方法改写耶稣生平事迹,以期将福音书从欧洲文化语境中转移出来,放到中国儒家文化的氛围中。这就使福音书的译介或多或少具有了中国本土的一些特色。福音书在晚明的译介体现了基督教作为弱势文化进入强势文化语境时不可避免的处境。

Modern translation theories emphasize that translation involves not only the simple conversion of different languages,but the cultural context of the target language.The dual influence of ethical culture and political ideology of the late Ming Dynasty leaves Gospel an uneven path to China.Jesuits made great efforts to introduce fragments of the stories of Jesus into China and then further relatively integrally recount,and even translate Gospel into Chinese,which cost a long process of half a century.In order to reconcile the conflict between Christianity and Confucianism and accommodate Gospel to Chinese culture,Jesuits had to take the ways of selecting,deleting,extracting and adding to revise the stories of Jesus,which more or less endows the translation of Gospel with the characteristics of Chinese culture.The translation of Gospel in late Ming Dynasty embodies its inevitable plight in the process of Christianity as the weak culture entering the strong culture.