The Early Translation And Dissemination Of Socialism In China (1900-1908)

This dissertation borrows the concept of "medio-translation" from comparative literature studies and focuses on the early translation and dissemination of socialism in China from the perspective of translation studies. In the dissertation, the author not only examines the domestic background and foreign conditions of the early translation and dissemination of socialism, the historical process of the early translation and dissemination, and the different outlooks on socialism formed in its influence, but also analyzes the historical functions and limitations of the early translation and dissemination of socialism in China, and sums up the lessons and enlightenments from the early translation and dissemination for the modern dissemination of Marxism.The early translation and dissemination of socialism in China had a special domestic background and foreign conditions, which were closely related to the profound changes of political and economic situations both in China and Japan caused by the Sino-Japanese War of1894-1895. In China, the defeat in the war resulted in unprecedented national crisies, which prompted the rising of the Hundred Days’Reform in1898and the tide of sending students to study in Japan. In contrast, Japan’s winning of the war and the gain of large amount of war compensation from China stimulated the development of capitalism as well as the rise of socialist ideology and movement in Japan. Therefore, the war made totally different changes of political and economic trend as well as social and political thoughts in China and Japan, which consisted of the domestic background and foreign conditions of the translation and dissemination of socialism by the Chinese students in Japan.The process of the early translation and dissemination of socialism in China can be divided into three phases. In the early period (1900-1904), Chinese students in Japan started some periodicals and published in them the translated books and articles, including the contents of socialism. At that time, the students did not necessarily translate for the purpose of introducing socialism, but accidentally found socialism in translating. Such magazines as A Collection of Translated Works, Tide of Zhejiang and Studying Abroad and Translated Works published articles introducing different schools of European socialism, main ideas of important advocators, and the history of European socialist movements. Meanwhile, Marx’s historical materialism, class struggle theory and the theory of surplus value started to be translated into Chinese. From1902to1903, there appeared an upsurge of translating Japanese books such as Socialism, Modern Socialism and The Essence of Socialism to introduce western socialism, including Marx’s life and doctrines. In the middle period (1905-1906), The Chinese revolutionaries in Japan, including Zhu Zhixin, Liao Zhongkai and Song Jiaoren translated socialism and make it published in the Min Pao magazine to disseminate Sun Yat-sen’s thoughts of social revolution and to support themselves in their debates with Liang Qichao who was then the chief editor of the Xin Min Cong Bao magazine. The revolutionaries gave due attention to the introduction of Marxism and the history of the European socialist movements, but they also translated western anarchism and compared it with socialism. In this phase, almost all the translated articles in the Min Pao magazine introduced Marxism, including Marx’s theory of class struggle, the surplus value theory, the "Ten-Point Programs" in the Manifesto of the Communist Party, as well as the theory of violent revolution. The classical paragraphs of the Manifesto of the Communist Party were translated repeatedly. Hereby,"socialism" became one of the heated topics of the debates between the Min Pao magazine and the Xin Min Cong Bao magazine, and the phrase "scientific socialism" appeared in the discourse of the revolutionaries. In the later period (1907-1908), Some Chinese anarchists in Japan translated and disseminated socialism and Marxism in the Tian Yi magazine, which, aiming at disseminating anarchism, had a special preference to Marxism. The Tian Yi magazine not only published the translated preface of the Manifesto of the Communist Party from the English version by Engels in1888and the first chapter of the Manifesto, but also published a notice of the upcoming publication of the translated Manifesto of the Communist Party. Among the Chinese anarchists, Liu Shipei admired Marx’s theory of class struggle so much that he repeatedly highlighted it in the prefaces or postscripts of the translated articles and claimed the theory to be "most beneficial to history".In the context of the early translation and dissemination of socialism in China, the early Chinese bourgeois reformists, the revolutionaries, and the anarchists in Japan represented by Liang Qichao, Sun Yat-sen, and Liu Shipei respectively, based on their different political stance and opinions, reinterpreted socialism in the Chinese context and formed their own outlooks on socialism. Liang Qichao held the viewpoint that socialism was interferism other than laissez-faire and it pursued a value of "seeking equality in a state of inequality". He was rather optimistic that "socialism would prosper in the20th century". He argued that the European socialism was born in the industrial revolution and was a logical outcome of the excessive and disorderly capitalist free contention. He concluded that the most fundamental meaning of socialism was public ownership of land and public ownership of capital and the source of all values should be attributed to labor. Liang Qichao argued that socialist spirits was inherent in the Chinese culture but he was opposed to putting socialism into practice immediately. He explained that this was basically because there was no working class in China. Liang Qichao categorized socialism into social reformism and social revolutionism, and he believed that the practice of socialism should vary with different countries and times. He also believed that capitalism was only a transition and would ultimately turn to socialism. He never hesitated to declare that he was an advocate for state socialism. Liang’s outlook on socialism was also embodied in his opinion on production and distribution. He first emphasized the question of production but then turned to stress the importance of distribution, yet finally he held that production should be encouraged and distribution should never be neglected. This showed that Liang’s knowledge of socialism experienced a deepening of cognition. Sun Yat-sen, holding his "historical concept of people’s livelihood" as the philosophical basis for his outlook on socialism, argued that the principle of people’s livelihood was socialism, and socialism would be realized if the question of people’s livelihood was settled. In the eyes of Sun Yat-sen, the core issue of socialism was to equalize the right to land ownership, while the control of capital was an essential content. Sun Yat-sen categorized socialism into the Utopian school and the Scientific Marxist school, yet he put forward the concept of of regarding people’s livelihood as the central part of history which was contrary to the Marxist historical materialism. Sun Yat-sen believed that China’s condition was different from that of the European and American countries. He argued that as China was industrially under developed, the Marxist methods of class struggle and proletarian dictatorship should not be used to settle the political and economic issues of China. So he insisted on "referring to its meaning instead of using its method". Liu Shipei argued that socialism and anarchism were largely complementary, and the anarchist communism originated from socialism and was the higher stage of socialism. He believed that socialism "was bound to reach the realm of anarchism". He reconciled the relationship of socialism and anarchism but embraced anarchism in nature. He asserted that his anarchism selected and adopted elements from both communism and socialism. Liu Shipei blamed the government for all the inequalities, and he believed that anarchism would look upon equality as its gist and objective. He proposed to change the world with anarchism and the essence of his socialist outlook was his anarchist concept of equality.In the process of Chinese translators’and readers’reinterpretation of socialism, the early siniflcation of socialism through translation started the combination of socialism with the traditional Chinese culture as well as introduced a set of socialist terms into the Chinese language by means of translation, which embodied the linguistic characteristics of the times by using classical Chinese in the translated works. However, limitations of the early translation and dissemination of socialism were also obvious. For instance, the early translators were not believers in socialism, nor were they proactive disseminators of socialism; the early translated socialism was mainly from the Japanese version instead of the original form of the European socialist works, and this indirectness would inevitably influence the Chinese understanding and reception; what’s more, the translators and disseminators seemed to have a confused knowledge of the different socialist schools and concepts.When associating the early signification of socialism with the modern dissemination of Marxism, we may find it proper to think about modern dissemination of Marxism in the perspective of the disseminators, the media, the contents and the language. Consequently, the effectiveness of the modern dissemination of Marxism requires that the disseminators should have a true understanding and belief of Marxism, the forms and ways of dissemination should be varied, the contents of dissemination should be concise as well as effective, and the discourse of dissemination should be easy to understand.