从歧义到弥合:美国国名在中国早期的英汉翻译嬗变

Divergence to Approbation:The Experience of Early Chinese Translation of American Country Name in China

在早期中美关系史上,中美双方在将美国国名The United States of America翻译成中文时,经历了从歧义到弥合的过程。首先是对于America一词的翻译存有歧义,中国官绅将其音译时,刚开始多用带有贬义的汉字,最多也是带有中性的汉字;而来华的美国传教士则力求使用汉语的褒义字,经反复磨合,最终得以用“美利坚”汉译名称消弭分歧。其次是关于United States的汉译,美国传教士将美国的States对应为中国的“省”,但中国官绅则将States视为“部落”或“郡国”,拒绝对应为“省”,因此多采用音译。直到中国洋务运动兴起后,随着洋务派官员对西方的进一步了解,最后才形成了音译与意译相结合的“美利坚合众国”汉译名。其间的过程,既折射了中美两国制度文化的差异,也体现中国官绅对美国认知的变化。

In the early history of Sino-US relations,when the country name“The United States of America”was translated into Chinese,it experienced a process from divergence to approbation.In the beginning,there exited ambiguity in the translation of the word“America”.When the Chinese officials and gentry transliterated it,they used derogatory Chinese characters at first,or at most some neutral Chinese characters,while American missionaries residing in China tried to use commendatory characters.After many changes,the Chinese characters“Mei Li Jian”were used to eliminate the differences.As for the Chinese translation of“United States”,American missionaries translated the“States”into China's“provinces”,but Chinese officials regarded“States”as“tribes”or“prefectures”and refused to correspond to“provinces”,or translated it just through transliteration.It was not until the rise of the Westernization Movement in China,as the Westernization officials had a better understanding of the West,that the Chinese translation of the“United States of America”combining transliteration and free translation was finally formed.The process during this period reflects the differences in the system and culture of China and the United States,the increasing influence of the United States in China and the changes in the perception of the United States by Chinese officials.