“通”之于翻译研究的要义——从知识翻译学的困惑谈起

On the Significance of the“Hearted-communication”:Starting from the Puzzling Problems in the Construction of Transknowletology

知识翻译学自提出以来,已成一个学派,其创获可与张佩瑶所著的《中国翻译话语英译选集(上册):从最早期到佛典翻译》相提并论。但因创建时间尚短,不免引发困惑:“元知识”未见论说;知识与真理的关系未及揭示;后现代试图解构主客体二项对立,对翻译主体的观念造成空前冲击,会影响到触及知识的有关因素;认识论并非中国传统思想优势,依据西方思想建构理论,又需面对以上疑难。而从张佩瑶的编著可见,此著未走中国思想之路,致使她在先秦话语是否翻译话语的“基础观念”这一问题上摇摆不定。本文经过分析,试图说明,回归原始儒家,才可见证中国思想之为翻译思想之源的意向。一个途径乃是,扩展“翻译”观念,引入“通”以确定“元翻译”导向上的提升。本文围绕孔子“下学而上达”论断,对之进行了论证。

Transknowletology,with its achievements comparable with An Anthology of Chinese Discourse on Translation by Cheung,has become a school of thought.Yet recently established as it is,it may have led to the following troubles:(1)meta-knowledge is still to be probed into,to the result that(2)the relationship between truth and knowledge has not been paid attention to;and(3)with the binary opposition between subject and object deconstructed in postmodernism,the subjectivity concerning translation is to be reconsidered.And(4),as epistemology is not what Chinese philosophy is good at,abiding by Western thought,the school is expected to cope with the above problems.As for the book compiled by Cheung,as it also does not go by Chinese thought,it is perennially undecided on whether the Pre-Qin discourse on translation is“fundamental ideas”of translation studies.This paper,with these issues taken into consideration,attempts to reveal,with a corresponding analysis that Chinese thought as the source of translation theory can be verified only when we return to Ruism.The way to realize it is to enlarge the notion of translation as to bring in the idea of hearted-communication(通tong)to promote meta-translation in its direction.And the paper expounds the notion centering on the statement of Master Kong:“I can reach above though I learn below.”