从“French Revolution”到“法国大革命”:一个重要史学名词译名的确定

From “French Revolution” to “Faguo Dageming”:The Invention of a Historical Term in Translation

19世纪前中期,传教士译介的“French Revolution”呈现多元、游移的特征,有“大变”、“作乱”、“大乱”等词。到19世纪后期,“法国大乱”成为传教士群体的主流表达,且该词除表达暴力动乱外,已衍生出民主政治意涵。“法国革命”在19世纪80年代由日本管道输入,但整体而言,直至19世纪90年代,本土知识分子仍主要采用传教士译语。王韬《重订法国志略》中的“法国革命”,只是史料抄录过程中附带的文字符号,并无作者阐释,且该词在日本原著语境中尚囿于“革命”的传统语意。在1898年至1900年间,“法国革命”才真正被梁启超等本土知识分子采用,并由一个指涉暴力鼎革的语词转向一个现代政治概念。此后,现代意义上的“法国革命”或“法国大革命”才逐渐流行,成为认识他者与自身历史的概念工具。

In the beginning and middle nineteenth century,Western missionaries used multiple Chinese terms to translate the French Revolution,such as“dabian,”“zuoluan,”and“daluan.”By the late nineteenth century,the standard translation of the French Revolution among missionaries had become“Faguo daluan.”This translation contained the meaning of not only violence but also democracy.“Faguo geming”gradually appeared in the 1880s after Japanese texts spread into China.As a whole,Chinese intellectuals still used the missionary translation by the 1890s.When Wang Tao compiled Chongding Faguo zhilue[The revised edition of the brief history of France],he merely copied“Faguo geming”from Japanese text.From 1898 to 1900,“Faguo geming”was adopted by Chinese intellectuals like Liang Qichao,and acquired the connotation on democracy in modern linguistic context.Then,as a neologism,“Faguo geming”or“Faguo dageming”gradually became popular and a useful tool by which Chinese intellectuals conceptualize the history of self and others.