菲尼克斯/凤凰——新神话的诞生

Phoenix/Feng-Huang : The Birth of a New Myth

外语初学者须依靠字典检索与外语词汇对应的本文化词汇,然而字典亦是人造产物,它并非语言转换精确性的绝对保证,词义阐释往往体现出不同社会历史语境下不同身份的编纂者对于两种文化关系的认知心态与模式。词汇的阐释方式可以为学习者提供新灵感,为一个文明的发展注入新元素。“菲尼克斯/凤凰”作为一组同义词,诞生不过百年时间,背后的文化酝酿却至少始于18世纪。经过了传教士、商人、学者、文人和字典编纂者的共同作用和交互影响,它们的同义关系在19世纪末-20世纪初得以确立,并借助郭沫若的新诗激发出新的神话叙事。以菲尼克斯/凤凰为个案,梳理两者同化的历史脉络,观察一组词汇如何从相距遥远到合二为一,彼此替代,并且发展出一套全新的神话叙事,有助于深刻理解中西文化交流的复杂过程。

Dictionaries are effective tools to help people understand foreign languages and cultures. However, a dictionary compiled by humans cannot guarantee the absolute accuracy of the language conversion. Semantic interpretation often reflects the mentality and cognitive models of editors of different identities regarding the relationship between the two cultures in different social and historical contexts. The juxtaposition of words provides learners with new inspiration and add new elements to cultural development. “Phoenix/Feng-Huang”, as a pair of synonyms, appeared only a hundred years ago, but the cultural preparation behind it began at least in the 18 th century. Through the interaction and influence of missionaries, businessmen, scholars, literati and lexicographers, their synonymous relationship was established at the end of the 19 th century, and new mythological images were inspired by Guo Moruo’s poem Nirvana of the Phoenix. The article takes Phoenix/Feng-huang as an example, sorts out the historical context of their assimilation, observes how a set of vocabulary develops into synonyms, and derives a new set of mythological narratives. This will help us deeply understand the complex process of Chinese and Western cultural exchanges.