The Translation Of Scientific And Technical Terms At The Late Qing Dynasties

The dissertation selects John Fryer, the remarkable missionary dedicating to the translation and dissemination of western scientific and technical literatures at the late Qing dynasties as the study object, by analyzing his translation theory and practice, so as to expound the constitution and historical significance of the translation for scientific and technical terms during a period of "oral interpretation by foreigners and written translation by Chinese".John Fryer was one of the most secular among the missionaries entering China at the late Qing dynasties. He had served as the chief translator of Kiangnan Arsenal since1868. During the28years on the job, he had worked closely with several outstanding Chinese scholars such as Hsu Shou, Hua Heng-fang, Chao Yuan-Ⅰ, and pushed the so-called "oral interpretation by foreigners and written translation by Chinese" to a new height in this area.As the most prominent personage in the mid and late terms of19th century, John Fryer left many classical cases in his translation practice. He and Hsu Shou invented pictophonetic characters to denominate chemical elements, which is set as the successful example of adopting features of traditional Chinese character building. He made an arduous and creative attempt to use “卫生” to interpretate "sanitation" in Chinese Scientific Magazine, using an old word to denote new meanning. Moreover, his compilation of vocabulary of names at the Kiangnan Arsenal as well as the School and Textbook Committee had contributed to the unification of terminology. All of his painstaking translating efforts help to introduce western science and technology to Chinese scholars. However, Chinese scholars’understanding of the word "science" then was not its true nature. This is not only due to the limitation of translators, but also the influences of receivers and the environment of that time.With the most favourable conditions and enviroments during the "oral interpretation by foreigners and written translation by Chinese" period, John Fryer’s rich translation practice had enabled him to condense the theoretical thoughts to the translation and dissemination of western literature on natural science and technology. The books that should be regarded as the best embodiment of his translation theory include,"An Account of the Department for the Translation of Foreign Books at the Kiangnan Arsenal Shanghai" and "Scientific Terminology:Present Discrepancies And Means Of Securing Uniformity". He devoted himself to exploring the feasibility and methods to translate western scientific and technical terms. He insisted on the equivalence of both Chinese and western languages, and called for establishing criterion of denomination of scientific and technical terms.With the end of this era and the spread of new loanwords from Japan in China, John Fryer and of his kind withdrew from the history stage. Even so, the post John Fryer times from late Qing dynasties to the Republic period inherited the theory and undertakings from the former pioneers. Since then, a large number of professional scientific and technical talents well versed in Chinese and western languages have emerged on the transformation of scientific environment, which leaded the denomination and unification of scientific and technical terms to a road towards systematization and standardization.