The Polish Translation Of Chinese Literature(1948-2015)

In the 17 th century,when Polish Jesuit Micha? Boym came back to Poland from his mission in China,the Polish for the first time in history were given a chance to encounter with the profound Chinese culture.In his famous works entitled Chinese Flora,Key to the Medical Doctrine of the Chinese on the Pulse,Chinese medicinal plants,etc.Boym described in details Chinese customs,geography,flora,medicine,etc.laying foundations for emergence of the European Sinology.Unfortunately,due to complicated Chinese domestic situation,after Boym's death his contribution was gradually forgotten and there was no one willing to continue his mission in China.Until the late 19 th century,no Polish scholar took any interest in exploring Chinese culture.In 1948,for the first time in the history of Polish sinology a famous sinologist Witold Jab?o?ski translated and published a novel by a Chinese author Lao She entitled Zhao Ziyue.At the time,a group of outstanding sinologists(Janusz Chmielewski,Olgierd Wojtasiewicz,Aleksy D?bnicki,Tadeusz ?bikowski,Mieczys?aw Künstler)graduated from sinology at the University of Warsaw,also started working on translation of Chinese literary works.The history of translating Chinese literature in Poland can be divided into three stages: 1948-1976,1983-1999,2000-2015.Between 1948 and 2015,there were six main types of the translated literature: Pre-Qin and Han literature,Yuan-Ming-Qing fiction and drama,novels by modern writers of the first half of the 20 th century,the contemporary novels and poetry,political literature and contemporary popular fiction.The translations created a specific image of China and the Chinese among the Polish people: oppressed women in the patriarchal feudal society,male anti-hero,victims of political repressions,yet living in a country of profound culture,long history and tradition.Compared to Russia,France or the UK,the history of Polish sinology is rather short and the achievements in the field are not very spectacular.There are two main reasons for that: the internal reasons(in 1775,after the third partition conducted by Russia,Prussia and Austria,Poland lost independence for 123 years)and the external reasons(geographical location of Russia,France and the UK;trade relations between the three countries and China;the international status of the three countries;missionary work of the Russian,French and English missionaries in China,etc.).Between 1948-2015,a total of 132 translations of Chinese literary works were published in Poland.