汉传佛典《四十二章经》英译的范式研究

English Translation Paradigms of Classic Buddhist Sutra in Forty-Two Chapters

作为初传中土的标志之作,《四十二章经》是中国佛经典籍。本文针对18世纪首部被译为西方语言的佛教典籍。通过对《四十二章经》外译史梳理发现,本经可分为欧洲汉学翻译、日本禅学翻译和西方佛学翻译三个阶段,分别以毕尔、铃木大拙、法界佛教翻译委员会三个英译本为代表。分析文本内容及其翻译特色,其译文则可归纳为"福音化"到"禅学解读"再到"信仰阐释"三种翻译范式。

Sutra in Forty-Two Chapters,recognized as the earliest Buddhist scripture translated into Chinese,was later translated into many western languages.The translation went through three stages,namely the sinological translation in Europe,Zen Buddhist translation in Japan,and translation of Buddhist scriptures in the West.The three best known English translations were by Samuel Beal,Suzuki Daisetsu and DRBA’s translation committee.Through a contrastive analysis,the study shows that different translation approaches were adopted,including"evangelization","Zen interpretation"and"belief explanation".