China and the West

[Huxley, Thomas Henry]. Tian yan lun. Yan Fu yi. [ID D10307].
Yan Fu writes in the preface about translation :
1. Translation involves three requirements difficult to fulfill : faithfulness (xin), comprehensibility (da) and elegance (ya). Faithfulness is difficult enough to attain but a translation that is faithful but not comprehensible is no translation at all. Comprehensibility is therefore of prime importance…
2. Terms in Western language texts are defined as they occur, somewhat similar to digressions in Chinese…
3. The Book of changes says : "Fidelity is the basis of writing". Confucius said : "Writing should be comprehensible". He also said, "Where language has no refinement, its effects will not extend far"… My translation has been criticized for its abstruse language and involved style. But I must say this is the result of my determined effort at comprehensibility. The treatise in the book is largely based upon logic, mathematics and sciences as well as astronomy…
4. New theories have been advanced in quick succession, giving rise to a profusion of new terms. No such terms could be found in Chinese. Though some Chinese expressions approximate the original, there are yet discrepancies…
5. The book deals mainly with the schools of thought since ancient Greece. Included are the renowned thinkers of various periods whose thoughts have influences the minds of the people of the West for some two thousand years…
6. The pursuit of truth is akin to the practice of government in that both place a premium on the pooling of ideas…

He writes in the preface about Huxley :
"The purpose of this book of Huxley's is to correct the abuses of Spencer's 'laisser-faire'. Many of its arguments are in accord with what our ancient sages have said. Furthermore, matters such as self-strengthening and the preservation of the race are reiterated in it. Tha is why I spent the long, wary days of the past summer to translate it. If there were people who regarded it as empty talk and useless to practical affairs, they would certainly be beyond my care."
In chapter 13, Yan Fu writes : "Huxley's discussion on the preservation of the society is indeed penetrating. But we should know that his statement that sympathy is the origin of human society has reversed the result to be the cause. Man's motive in forming a society is primarily for his self-interest, which is similar to those of lower animals. Therefore, Huxley's discussion on sociology is not as thorough as that of Spencer. Furthermore, the theory that sympathy is the origin of human society was first advocated by Adam Smith, the economist. It is not a new theory contributed by Huxley."
In chapter 14, Yan Fu writes : "What Huxley intends to point out in this chapter is that in order to preserve the society as well as the individual, self-assertion should not be completely abolished."

Sekundärliteratur
Chen Tzu-yun : Yan Fu decides to use in his translation classical Chinese (gu wen). According to Yan himself, his choice is made on the basis that 'where language has no refinement, the effect will not extend far' and that the classical Chinese has richer vocabulary than that of the vernacular. There are more terms applicable to the new Western ideas.
Yan divides the text into seventeen chapters with the result that each chapter is about of the same length. He makes the structure of his translated work similar to that of the tzu genre with which the Chinese literati are familiar. The divergence from the original work is necessitated not only by his desire to make his readers at home, but also by the fact in Yan's time the practice of paragraphing was not popularly adopted.
Yan Fu does not translate Huxley's notes on the lecture and makes no acknowledgement of their existence. He is inconsisten in some of his transliterations. There are interpolations, questionable substitutions and sometimes inadverted mistranslations. As a whole, Tian yan lun is a successful translation. Its shortcomings are of little consequence. Politically, the work is significant in that it has filled the need of the time. Literarily, it is the first major translation of Western works.
Benjamin Schwartz : The reason why Yan Fu chooses classical Chinese : 1. Classical Chinese is an appropriate medium to interest the literati of his time. 2. A dignified style can prove that Westerners are not inferior to Chinese in matter of literature and political science. 3. Yan's flair for elegance may reflect his own aesthetic bent and his pride in his own virtuosity. 4. The whole bai hua (vernacular) movement still lay in the future.