翻译—阐发与严复造天演论：中国现代思想生成的一个面向

Translation-Elucidation and Yan Fu’s Creating Tianyan Lun:An Aspect of the Generation of Modern Chinese Thought

赫胥黎的“Evolution and Ethics”在英文世界中也许只是一篇讲究学理的普通公众演讲稿,但严复修辞达旨,造出一部转变时代风气、产生意识形态效应的文献,即《天演论》。考察中国现代思想及现代化进程,不能不注意到从“Evolution and Ethics”到《天演论》的“翻译-阐发”现象。从“Evolution andEthics”到“天演论”,不是漏译了“伦理学”,而是改变了“进化论”与“伦理学”的关系,从而引出了一种不同于赫氏伦理学的严氏伦理学。“天演”将演化提升到了天道的地位,而演化又是在进化的意义上得到理解。然而,赫胥黎所理解的演化,除了上升进化之外,尚有退化、盛衰消息循环,以及类似于章太炎所标举的苦乐善恶俱分进化论等复杂的面向。对于这些面向,严复或者略而不译,或者改易原意,或者在案语中引斯宾塞加以反驳。严复的当务之急,乃是要缔造一种信仰,为救亡图存的民族大业提供精神动力。学问不妨矛盾复杂,但行动指南必须简单明了。演化的纯粹单义性,天道的超越神圣性,这两个因素都有力地缔造了一种天演宗。

Although Huxley’s“ Evolution and Ethics” is merely an ordinary public speech in the English world, its Chinese version created by Yan Fu has become modern classics that transforms the trend of the times and produces ideological effects. Investigating modern Chinese thought and the process of modernization in China, we must pay attention to the phenomenon of“ translation-elucidation” from Evolution and Ethics to Tianyan Lun. The change from Evolution and Ethics to Tianyan Lun, it is not the absence of“ ethics”, but the transformation of the relationship between“ evolution” and“ ethics”, which consequently leads to an ethics of Yan Fu in contrast to Huxley. The term tianyan elevates evolution to the status of the Dao of Heaven on the one hand and evolution is understood in the sense of progress. However, in Huxley, evolution can also be a process of degeneration or a process of cycle, as well as the complicated progress of pain with happiness, and good with evil, just as Zhang Taiyan claims. These aspects have been ignored, modified or criticized in Yan’s comments by quoting Spencer. The urgent affair for Yan Fu is to create a belief, which will produce spiritual impetus for the great cause of national salvation. Academic discussion welcomes complexity, but a guide to action must be simple and straightforward. Both the un-ambiguity of the term“ evolution” and the divinity of the term tian have effectively created a kind of religious belief of tianyan to some extent.