述异与传教:吴板桥英译《白蛇之谜:雷峰塔传奇》(1896)研究

Narrating the Bizarre and Preaching Christianity in China:Samuel Woodbridge’s English Translation of The Mystery of the White Snake:A Legend of Thunder Peak Tower in 1896

1896年,美国来华传教士吴板桥将中国神怪小说《白蛇精记》译成英文,题为《白蛇之谜:雷峰塔传奇》出版。经考证,该译本所据版本为清代玉山主人所撰小说《雷峰塔奇传》。吴板桥的翻译明显是一种改写,主要体现在三方面:故事单元的重组、叙事方式的改变和内容的删改。为吸引西方读者,吴板桥的译文采取了西方小说的叙述形式并加入了西方价值观念。同时,其译文中还夹杂着吴板桥对中国信仰和社会现状的批判。吴板桥认为中国人有一种狂热的偶像崇拜,中国人的思想状态需要基督教的福音来改造。这里应当警惕和批判的是:翻译《白蛇之谜:雷峰塔传奇》对吴板桥而言,正是刻意描述异教中国、批评中国现状,向西方读者传达了一种急切需要在华传教的理念。

Samuel Woodbridge,an American missionary,translated the Chinese folktale The Legend of the White Snake into English in 1896 as The Mystery of the White Snake:A Legend of Thunder Peak Tower,incorporating aspects of a novel written by a Qing writer the Master of Jade Mountain(Yushan Zhuren)into the translation.Woodbridge’s work is in fact a rewriting in three ways:it reorganizes the plot,changes the narrative style,and removes content.To attract Western readers,Woodbridge adopted narrative forms of modern Western novels and incorporated Western values in his translation.Meanwhile,Woodbridge’s critique of Chinese beliefs and society is also legible in his translation.Woodbridge believed that the Chinese were given to fanatical idolatry,and that the state of Chinese minds needed to be clarified through the Christian Gospel.This article critically examines how Woodbridge’s translation narrates an exotic and bizarre China and criticizes China’s social status quo in order to convey to the Western reader the urgent need of preaching Christianity in China.