A Comparative Study On Chinese Translations Of The American Science Primers:Physics In The Late Qing Period

During the wave of “Western Learning” in the late Qing period,a great number of Western scientific and technological translations were introduced into China through translation.Many research achievements in the history of translation in the late Qing period cover physics translations,while the bulk of studies focus on macro dimensions such as the quantity and overview of translated physics works and there are fewer studies that conduct in-depth comparative analysis of the source text and the Chinese translation through close reading from the micro dimension.The American textbook Science Primers: Physics was translated into Chinese in the late Qing period and it had two Chinese translations.One is Gezhi Qimeng: Gewu Xue translated jointly by Young John Allen and Zheng Changyan,and the other is Xixue Qimeng Shiliu Zhong: Gezhi Zhixue Qimeng rendered by Joseph Edkins.Taking two Chinese translations as the research objects,this thesis aims to investigate how the contents and knowledge of Western physics were selected,introduced,and accepted during the wave of “Western Learning” in the late Qing period,and how such translation activities contributed to the enlightenment,enrichment and power of the country.The research applies the conceptual history and House’s Translation Quality Assessment model（2015）as the theoretical framework and uses the descriptive and comparative analysis research approaches with the visual analysis tool and the corpus to depict and explain research questions from the macro social and historical to the micro linguistic level,which include that（1）what the general information about the Science Primers: Physics and its translations is;（2）what strategies and methods translators adopt to transfer the content of the source text,how they translate Western physics terms,principles and experiments into Chinese,and what the differences between the two Chinese translations and the source text are;（3）what the dissemination and acceptance of the translations at the time was.The major findings of the research are that:（1）Science Primers: Physics was selected and arranged for translation by government-run translation institutions.Allen has the science education background but excels in history and politics translation,whereas Edkins is experienced in translating physics works.Zheng only writes down what Allen interprets with less effect on the translation;（2）the two Chinese translations are translated based on different editions of the source text.Contents differ in that Edkins’ translation lacks the part of the “questions”;（3）the existing traditional Chinese expressions were mostly adopted as the translations of the concept “physics” in the late Qing period.“Ge Wu” became the main translation of physics due to its profound cultural connotation and the common use in bilingual dictionaries of the late Qing period and it gained the new interpretation related to natural science in addition to its traditional connotation;（4）in terms of translation quality,most of translations of terms are relatively accurate,but the expressions are too complicated and breach concise feature of scientific and technological terms.The phenomenon of inconsistent translation exists in Edkins’ translation.Both Chinese translations are complete translations.The source text has almost 35,000 English words.Allen and Zheng’s translation has 30,018 Chinese characters and it is simple and fluent with superior written language.It conveys the gist of the original basically,but omissions and simple language result in the loss of information,even the breach of the original meaning.While Edkins’ translation is around 50,000 Chinese characters attributed to the interlinear strategy and addition of detailed explanations based on the source text.It is also in written language,but certain parts are obviously colloquial.Edkins’ translation is more faithful to the original,but it is very verbose with several instances of illegibility.The research conclusions are that:（1）regardless of the quality of their translations,missionary translators are significant for cultural exchange,their translation activities and influence promote the development of physics in the late Qing period;（2）from the adoption of different traditional Chinese expressions as translations to the selection of“Wuli Xue” as the unified translation,the transformation,elimination and unification of the Chinese name of “physics” reflect the process of national cultural selection and acceptance;（3）both Chinese translations are not good translations,as Allen and Zheng’s translation lacks content,and Edkins’ translation is wordy;（4）the depth and breadth of dissemination of the two Chinese translations are limited due to factors such as circulation,cultural attitudes,translators and translation quality,but their comprehensive introduction to the basic knowledge of physics is conducive to further development of physics in China,and the value of the translations cannot be ignored.