理雅各《礼记》翻译的局限——兼论中国经典外译问题

The Limitation of the Translation of Li Ki by James Legge——with Comments on the Translation of Chinese Classics

理雅各的《礼记》译本是西方世界至今最为常用的参考文献,但它仍然不可避免地带有某些局限性.其一,他的翻译底本选择了当时最流行的科举读本,而不是当时学术水平最高的《礼记》注疏文本;其二,传教士的身份使得其翻译局限于基督教文化;其三,文化差异和礼学功底不足,使其译文字句受困于中国经典字词的多义性或歧义性.当今的中国传统经典外译,实际上是一种重译或再译.今天所面临的困难在于,翻译者的古文献训练与外语训练极不对称,很难找到两者俱佳的优秀人才.如果不熟悉经学史,撇开历代注疏而直接切入元典的外文翻译,会造成更大的语义混乱.

James Legge’s translation of Li Ki(The Book of Rites)is the most popular reference document in Western world,but it inevitably has some limitations.Firstly,the version he chose as original text was the most popular book for imperial examination,rather than the highest academic books with notes and commentaries of Li Ki.Secondly,the identity of Christian missionary limited his vision to his own Christian culture.Thirdly,the cultural gap and the lack of expertise on traditional Chinese rites made his translation trapped in the ambiguity of Chinese classical words.Nowadays the translation of Chinese classics is to some extent a retranslation.The problems today is that the translators’competency in traditional literature and their foreign language training is highly asymmetrical.That is to say,it is difficult to find a translator excellent in both aspects.If translators were not familiar with the history of Confucian classics and disregarded those notes and commentaries,they would probably fall into more semantic confusion.