Translating Nuclear Science In The Context Of The Republic Of China:Terminology,Translation And Modernity

The dissemination and acceptance of modern Western science in China has contributed to the modernization of Chinese science and society,which has been an important driving force in the construction of Chinese modernity.Translation,as a necessary means of spreading modern scientific knowledge in China,has played an important role as a linguistic accelerator in the historical wave of Chinese modernization.This study takes the nuclear science translation activities that took place in the Republic of China（1912—1949）as the research object,takes scientific terminology as the entry point of the whole translation study,and integrates the literature research method,textual analysis method,comparative research method and historical analysis method under the perspective of the theory of descriptive translation to investigate the role of the nuclear science translation activities in promoting social modernity in the fields of Chinese language,disciplines and concepts from the translation history,science and technology history,social development history and other approaches.The study begins with a comprehensive excavation and collation of the relevant historical documents.Based on the historical materials examined,such as monographs on nuclear science translations and important newspaper translations,the publication of nuclear science translation products of the period is staged and analyzed in terms of the genre of the translations and the types of source languages.At the same time,a further classification and summary of the characteristics of the institutions sponsoring nuclear science translation activities in the Republic of China is made,and the composition of the group of translators is examined from the perspectives of disciplinary background,study abroad experience,and institutions of service,completing a thorough sorting and preparation of historical materials for translation studies.Subsequently,the study reproduces the historical modernization push that nuclear science translation has had on Chinese society at three separate levels:linguistic,disciplinary and conceptual,using translation of terms as the main point of examination.At the linguistic level,the role and influence of translations of nuclear science terms on the formation of Chinese alphabetic words is revealed;the process of translating the radioactive element“Radium”into Chinese examines the causes of the struggle between different translation norms and the rebirth of old Chinese characters in the wave of science;the naming of key nuclear science terms such as“disintegration”,“fission”and“fusion”reflects the spontaneous modernity of translators in the translation process in this period.At the disciplinary level,a comparison of Zheng Zhenwen’s translation原子说发凡from the perspectives of translation content and terminology reveals the significance of its disciplinary inception;an examination of the preparatory and operational norms of Yu Qianxiu’s translation原子物理学概论reveals the tendency of textbookization of content and localization of scientific terminology in the construction of the discipline at that time;a study of Chen Yuesheng’s translation原子能与原子弹——核物理学发凡reflects the awareness of scientific translators at the end of the Republic of China in the expansion of the disciplinary knowledge matrix and the creation of terminology translation norms.At the conceptual level,the translation of the term“atom”is applied as a clue to the introduction of knowledge of atomic structures and atomic theory in China,and its revolutionary effect on popular conceptions of knowledge;an examination of translated texts relating to“Radium”reveals its impact on the public’s perception of the value of things;the“atomic age”and the cult of the atom,which emerged as the culmination of translations after the atomic bomb,reflect the new and fluctuating ideological orientation of translation towards societyA certain scale of continuous nuclear science translation activity existed in reality during the Republican period,which had a major impact on the way modern Chinese was constructed and played a better role in taking up the nomenclature of modern Chinese nuclear science terms.At the same time,translation activities in nuclear science during the Republican period also provided the intellectual concepts and scope planning needed for the early formation of the discipline in China,accelerating the modern process of its construction.In addition,it broke through the professional boundaries of the language and discipline of science and,to a certain extent,had a greater impact on the social perceptions of the time.The main findings of this study show that nuclear science translation activities in the Republican period played an important role in the modernization of Chinese language,disciplines and concepts,and were an important force in the development of modern nuclear science in China since its inception,and contributed to the strong development of China’s nuclear industry after 1949.This study attempts to refine and sublimate the influence of humanities and sociology through the study of the translation of rational concepts of scientific and technological terms on the basis of the interaction between humanities and natural sciences,and makes a contribution to the integration of multidisciplinary knowledge through the trinity of the history of translation,the history of science and technology and the history of social thought.In this way,it has made a modest contribution to the integration of multidisciplinary knowledge.It also provides useful references for the discovery of new historical documents on the history of scientific translation,the mastery of the discourse of translation of emerging scientific terms and the prediction of terminology-derived concepts.