Translation And The Formation Of Academic Discourse System Of Modern China

With tri-strata cultural space and academic dimensions as the overall framework for argumentation, the concept of translation redefined as thematic thread, and theoretical ideas of relevant scholars as the object, especially those concerning the scientific ideas and methodologies, this paper clarifies the important role exerted by translation in the formation of academic discourse system of modern China, as the argument strengthened by investigation of the academic history and discourse analysis.Based upon the existential reality of culture, the tri-strata cultural space is comprised of, from above to below, the ideational stratum, the institutional stratum, and the physical stratum, each of which can be further divided into theoretical and experiential sub-stratums. The academic dimensions include tao, learning, and technique. They can be measured on the scale of insightfulness, extensiveness, and expertise respectively. The cultural tri-strata and the academic dimensions share isomorphic structure, that is, tao mainly relevant to the theoretical sub-stratum of the ideational, learning reflected in all the theoretical sub-strata, and technique in all the experiential sub-strata. The concept of translation redefined includes translation proper, transmission, and interpretation. Together they give rise to seven kinds of permutation. The single, double, or triple function realized by scholars leads to multifarious academic activities when carried out with different degrees of academic commitment. Of the five scholars dealt with, Ya Fu and Wang Guowei have realized the triple function, only Yan focusing on translation and Wang on interpretation; both Liang Qichao and Hu Shi play the double role of transmission and interpretation; Jin Yuelin mainly devotes to interpretation. To account for the motive and reason behind Yan Fu's selection of Evolution and Ethics and its Chinese rendition as a thick text, this essay quantitatively describes the target text manipulation and reformation, and highlights the semantic resonance of the kernel concept"nature"in ontological thoughts over the philosophical history. Yan sets a great store on transmitting and interpreting scientific ideas and methodologies and, in tune with the national plea for strength and identity, consciously prizes induction at the cost of deduction. This commitment is partly exemplified in his faithful translation of Mill's A System of Logic. The positive method, however, does not usurp the space of the metaphysical"inconceivable"in Yan's thought.In his study and translation of western philosophical works, Wang Guowei recognizes to his dismay the persistent abyss between phenomenon and noumenon. Out of a subtle understanding of imported words, he incorporates the experiential intuition and pure intuition of western philosophy into the seminal word"intuition"which permeates Dream in Red Chamber Assessed红楼梦评论and Ren-jian Ci-hua人间词话, both being classics of original interpretation. After turning from philosophy to positive researches on traditional scholarship, he invents the"double evidence methodology"through outstanding academic achievements, and becomes the quintessence in modern scholarship.The ideal of"Universal Harmony"advocated by Kang Youwei inspires Liang Qichao in his formation of metaphysical thoughts which, of necessity, find expression in translation, transmission of western learnings and even political constructions in general. In his discussion of translation, Liang deals with topics like selection of original text, workable details, and translator training, etc. He resorts to the long history of Buddhist sutra translation as well and thereby offers a balanced view on translation standard with Xuan Zang's as the model. By the name of"analytic evolution", Liang's methodology bears upon traditional Chinese scholarship, evolution as the warp and analysis the weft, that culminates in the scientific spirit of scholars in the Qing dynasty in their emphasis on objective materials and application of positive induction.In his extensive cross-cultural career, Hu Shi cultivates a kind of universal equalitarianism. It finds expression in the Vernacular Movement featuring the equality of belles-lettres and plain speech, which sets translation of foreign literary masterpieces as one of its major tasks. Hu himself favors liberal translation in an easy and smooth style balanced by faithful transfer of the original meaning. Transmitter of pragmatic doctrines in modern China and also mastermind for the editing of traditional scholarship, Hu advocates the famous methodology,"bold assumption and assiduous verification". The radical spirit underlying is rather a kind of bold skepticism.Inspired by the Humean problem, Jin Yuelin constructs his knowledge theory and ontology, thereby argues for the unfailing truth of induction principle, and comes to assertion"The consistent principle is always checked by contingent circumstances". The kernel concepts translated by him in particular plays a fundamental role in his philosophical system. Out of his emphasis on the linguistic function of abstraction, he deals with language and translation, differentiating between meaning and nuance, the translation of meaning and the translation of nuance.To gather strength from science is one of the central themes in modern China's assimilation of western learnings, which, under the stress of national humiliation and call for survival, through many a debate between the traditional and the modern, between the Chinese and the Western, gradually finds expression in the science-only doctrine. Modern scholarship takes as one of its radical tasks the re-formation of traditional learnings under the scientific ideas and positive methodology, and, by the way, undermines the dimension of metaphysical tao. From Yan Fu down to Hu Shi, the downfall of Chinese ontology comes to the nadir. But On Tao written by Jin Yuelin marks the initial ontological endeavor after the preliminary establishment of modern academic institution. What is more, the skepticism inherent in positivism gives rise to critical negation and transcendence (or partial transcendence) from scholar to scholar, and results in the multi-dimensinal joint thrust in the academic community that pushes forward modern Chinese scholarship.