The Study On The Chinese Translation Of The Art Of Rearing Silk-Worms

As the first and only monograph on silk-worm translated from the West by Jiangnan Manufacturing Bureau during the late 18th century, the Yidali canshu (意大利蚕书,Italian Book on Silkworms) had great practical significance to sericulture of China, particularly at a time when Chinese sericulture industry was suffering from a sharp decline. The book was dictated by John Flyer,penned by Wang Zhensheng and proof read by Zhao Yuanyi. In view of few study has been done on it, this article aimed to do a comprehensive research on on the book.The main works in this thesis are the following:1. Through a wide investigation of European authors on sericulture, I found that the original name of the author"意大利丹吐鲁", as mentioned in the Chinese version, is Vincenzo Count Dandolo (1785-1819), a well known Italian chemist and agriculturalist in the 19th century.2. Through an search of Dandolo's works, I found that he published an Italian book on sericulture in 1815which became quite influential and was translated into English and French in 1825. Through a textual study, I found the Chinese version was based on the English translation The Art of Rearing Silk-worms.3. On the basis of a textual comparison between the Chinese and English Versions, I gave a preliminary assessment for the feature and quality of the Chinese translation..4. After a comparison of the book with both traditional Chinese books on sericulture and some lately translated works on sericulture, I summarized the level and characteristics of the sericulture techniques as introduced in the book..