The twists and turns and persistence of that generation of intellectuals
Wu Wenzao, Bing Xin and the Chinese translation of the Outline of World History
Text | Wang Binggen
Source | China Reading News, December 18, 2013
At the beginning of 1973, just when the proof of "World History" (written by Hayes, Moon, and Wei Lan, translated by Wu Wenzao, Bing Xin, Fei Xiaotong, etc.) was first published, the military representatives of the General Administration of Publishing came to the Central Institute for Nationalities to contact the next step of the translation work, hoping that they would continue to translate H.G. Wells's "Outline of World History.", and neither the military representatives nor the labor propaganda team of the academy could be sure, saying, Please ask the translation team to read the original work before deciding.
《World History》
By Hayes, Moon, and Welland
Translated by Wu Wenzao, Bing Xin, Fei Xiaotong, etc
The Outline of World History, which was sent to Wu Wenzao's desk, is a 1971 edition of the Doburdi Company in New York, USA. According to Wu Wenzao's habit, starting from the last chapter, "after world war II", Wu Wenzao remembered that he did not have this chapter when he first read the translation of this book. He thought it was pirated, but he returned to the introduction to learn that this huge work had been revised many times, and Wells's version only wrote about the First World War, and the Second World War was written in part by his assistant R.W. Postgate (Author's Note: Wells died in 1946, and although the World War II was over, he was no longer able to think about and update this major historical event).
Compendium of World History, 1921 edition
The first time Wu Wenzao read this book was shortly after he came to Yenching University to teach, the commercial press version, Liang Sicheng and others translated. He noticed that the first edition was in the sixteenth year of the Republic of China (1927), when Liang Sicheng was still studying in the United States, but judging from the text translation, it should have been when he was studying at Tsinghua. Most of the translation notes of the book are written by Liang Qichao, so Wu Wenzao speculates that the first edition of the translation of the Outline of World History was done under the auspices of Liang Qichao before his death, and may have been selected by his father and completed by Liang Sicheng and other children, and the version based on it was the version released in the twenties. Wu Wenzao reread Liang's translation, and the text was fluent, but he also felt that there were many inaccuracies. In particular, the reprinted version of the revised composite encyclopedia from 1920 (the first full version), after many revisions, during which many new materials were added and many errors were revised, and the retranslation of the final version of 1969 was not just a retranslation of the book.
Early translations of the Outline of World History by Liang Sicheng and others
After reading the book, Wu Wenzao concluded: "It is necessary to change and retranslate. ”
At a meeting of the translation team attended by the Gongxuan Team, Wu Wenzao made this statement about the book:
The compilation of the "Outline of World History" is not an academic work for the sake of scholarship, the trigger point is the end of the world after the First World War, in order to find a support point for the development of the world, rather than being limited to a certain empire or even limited to Europe, discussing the history of the world and looking into the future from a world perspective. In wells's own words: "In a straight way, to show people of general intelligence that if civilization is to continue, it is inevitable that political, social and economic organizations will develop into a worldwide union." But even so, his description of China and India is still superficial, and although he has listened to Fu Si Nian's opinion, Fu Si Nian cannot unfold the description of China's five thousand years of history in a few letters. And Wells's experience and education have never had the accumulation of Chinese and other oriental cultures.
The Compendium of World History is not a university textbook, but a popular reading book for the general reader, and although it has its theoretical framework, a large number of notes from his usual reading and writing, unlike many of our historians, including Toynbee, have a large number of abstracts of material, some of which are very new, taking into account the needs of other ordinary readers like himself as a popular writer. This type of history is rare in historians and rare in China.
Compared with the "World History", there are many similarities, such as the way of narration, the attention to detail, etc., but the difference is also very obvious, the subtitle of the "World History Outline" is "The Concise History of Organisms and Human Beings", the history of human civilization described in the "World History", the scope of the "World History Outline" is mostly large, starting from the formation of the earth, the origin of organisms and human beings, it can be described as a broad vision, the narrative is magnificent, but it is supported by a large number of living materials, outlining the entire world history since the birth of the earth. And the author Wells is neither a historian, nor a geologist, ethnology, folklore, naturalism, archaeology, linguists, paleontologists, but a writer of popular novels, writing science fiction, his "time machine", "Invisible Man", "When the Sleeping Man Wakes Up", "The Immortal Flame" has a large circulation, in 1920 and 1934, he visited the Soviet Union twice, met Lenin and Stalin, so some people call the "Outline of World History" "Strange Man Strange Book". ”
(The speech here is compiled by the author of this article based on Wu Wenzao's notes)
Kwong Pingzhang, Bing Xin, Fei Xiaotong, and others all made statements, and finally discussed how to deal with the Second World War chapter added by Postgate. Fei Xiaotong believes that the description of China in the entire narrative is insufficient and inaccurate, and there is almost no reference to the role played by China in World War II, which is unfair and can be omitted from translation, and the whole book is still up to the end of World War I, maintaining the original appearance of wells' writings. This opinion was accepted and affirmed by the Workers' Propaganda Team. The overall grasp of the division of labor wu Wenzao is first of all a list of personal names, place names, and major historical events, and the translated names of each chapter are subject to this table, and the 39 chapters of the eighth part of the book are translated by Fei Xiaotong and others, and all translations are uniformly corrected and revised by Wu Wenzao after completion, and finally modified and polished by Bingxin in the text.
According to Wu Wenzao's notes, the Outline of World History has not appeared for nearly a year, which is probably in the stage of hard work of the translators. In September 1974, Kwong Pingzhang was the first to send some of the translations, and Wu Wenzao embarked on intense correction and revision work. Immediately after, Li Wenjin's translation was sent, and Wu Wenzao was more assured of Kwong Pingzhang, and the first thing to read was Li Wenjin's translation:
First browse the original text of the first three sections of the thirty-fourth chapter, then look at the translation, proofread paragraph by paragraph, sentence by sentence, the original manuscript is easy to understand and not easy to translate incorrectly, the main vocabulary selection is not accurate, continue to proofread in the afternoon, the progress is very slow, it is dizzy, and it is dazzling to see more.
(Notes of Wu Wenzao, September 14, 1974)
The first translation takes up more time, the proofreading is tense, and at the end of the year, Wu Wenzao's proofreading has just started. The translation team of the research office held a meeting to discuss, and everyone believed that they should concentrate their efforts on translating the "Outline of World History" in June of the following year and presenting a gift to the National Day.
The first translated manuscripts of the six people were sent to Wu Wenzao's desk one after another, but the progress of proofreading was not fast, and Wu Wenzao had to ask Bing Xin to help proofread the translated manuscripts. Just as Wu Xie's school reading was speeding up, from January 13 to 17, 1975, the Fourth National People's Congress was held in Beijing, and Bing Xin was re-elected as a deputy to the National People's Congress. On January 9, the People's Hospital held a general meeting of the whole hospital, and Director Li Li reported that when summarizing the work in 1974 and arranging the preliminary arrangements for 1975, he mentioned the retirement and retirement of the elderly, frail and sick. Wu Wenzao's thoughts were touched, and he and BingXin were both at the time of retirement, and Wu Wenzao was a little confused in the face of the large number of translations. Do you continue to do it after retirement, or do you stop? Bing Xin returned from the people's meeting, the two discussed these things, just at this time, Master Zhang of the Workers' Propaganda Team came to talk, saying that you two do not have to consider the issue of retirement and retirement, Wu Wenzao wrote in his notes, "Great encouragement to me."
The translation of Xu Xianwei began on April 19 and was completed on May 16. For Xu Xianwei's translation, Wu Wenzao only "re-revised where there are difficulties", believing that the translation is of "high quality and easy to change". After Bingxin polished the correction draft, this time adding another process, after Bingxin, Wu Wenzao re-read it, and on August 15, Wu Wenzao wrote:
First look at the last two verses of the nineteenth century (section 19) of chapter 37 of the Ying revision of Xu's translation, study literature, and then re-read the revision of the last section (section 9) of the thirty-eighth chapter of the Li translation, and the difficult parts of the first draft are to be discussed, and then transfer to chapter 39, "Twenty years of hesitation and its consequences."
On August 27, there were:
In the morning, I revised chapter 37, verses 10 to 18 for the second time, and read all the places that Ying had changed, and personally sent them to Comrade Wen Jin to pay for the copy.
This conscientious approach, the operation of several procedures, is reflected in the entire translation process. Of course, all the members of the translation team of the Civil Yuan, who cannot independently undertake the translation task? However, the collective power of the "Cultural Revolution" was reflected, and there was a cooperative translation, and if the translation came to Wu Wenzao, if it did not do so, each person would translate a paragraph, and no matter what. Later, attentive readers read out the different styles of translation.
After 1949, the process of producing a book is quite complex and rigorous, whether it is translation or originality, whether it is individual originality or collective creation, from the selection of topics and approvals of publishing houses to the creation (translation), revision, to the first draft, the finished draft, to the editing and review (generally after the first, second and third reviews), to the final proofreading and printing, a process must not be less, especially for Western scholarly works such as the "Outline of World History". "World History" and "Outline of World History" are both designated topics, and many processes are omitted, but in the translation process, the opportunities of the latter are not as good as the former, people are still those people, but the environment is different. At the end of 1974, when the class struggle re-emerged, Wu Xie was inescapably involved when he read and edited the "Outline of World History". Wu Xie had to put down his work and devote himself to sports.
When the proofreading of "The Loneliness of Constantine the Great, I was quite touched", Wu Wenzao stayed in front of this text for a long time:
Although Constantine the Great is still like a phantom, and although the details of his family life are not revealed except for the faint tragedy, we can still guess many of his thoughts. In his later years, he must have felt very lonely in his heart. He was more authoritarian than any previous emperor—that is, he had less advice and help. There were no more zealous and reliable people to work with, neither elders nor advisers to share in his plans. How much he knew about the geographical weaknesses of the Empire, and how far he saw the impending total collapse, we could only guess.
(Outline of World History, Vol. II, P478, Guangxi Normal University Press, 2001)
From books to reality, from the connection of historical struggle to the criticism of reality, Wu Wenzao has thought a lot, and after knowing the situation, the workers' propaganda team advised him to "combine work and leisure" and "do not rush, but pay attention to the body."
The last proofreading of the first edition of the Compendium of World History was completed in late 1976. The completion of the school is actually only a stage of consolation, and the publication of the "Outline of World History" still has a long way to go. As soon as New Year's Day passed, Wu Wenzao devoted himself to the second proofreading work, and the second reading was generally ranked after the editing of Bingxin's text, that is, the final draft was completed at wu Wenzao's hand. The second reading took a lot of time and was not completed until October, during which there were still mistakes to be corrected. When Wu Wenzao finally completed his review of chapter 39, he again read chapter 40 of the original book, which not only discussed World War II, but also comprehensively covered the world pattern after World War II, including China's Cultural Revolution. At this time, the Cultural Revolution had just ended, and Chapter 40 held the position of Westerners on the Cultural Revolution, and there were many doubts and criticisms, and Wu Wenzao believed that it was of great reference value to translate it. The translation team approved Wu Wenzao's proposal, and after October, it was intensively translated and proofread, and Wu Wenzao also had to undertake the compilation of the chronology and index of the whole book, which was extremely complicated and careful.
In March 1980, the People's Publishing House sent a proof of the entire book "Outline of World History". After Wu Wenzao and others read the proofs, Chen Yiwen, the editor of the publishing house, informed him that after research, the company decided to delete chapter 40, and the chronology and index were not used, because the reason was changed from "internal distribution" to "public release". It is understandable to delete chapter 40 for this reason, but it is very puzzling to remove the chronology and index of major events. This is not only a lot of his effort, but also for the convenience of readers, and the public should have these contents.
The publishing house did not adopt Wu Wenzao's opinion, and then the issue of attribution came up again. Because it is a collective task, some people advocate the collective signature of the "Translation Group of the Research Office of the Central Institute for Nationalities", while others advocate the signature of "who translates who schools". Wu Xie did not express his opinion, and after several consultations, Fei Xiaotong finally made a decision: "It is not appropriate to use the collective name, because the translation team is not all involved, and it is necessary to seek truth from facts to show responsibility." He personally arranged the order of signatures.
After the decision to be released to the public, the Outline of World History was re-sampled in February 1982. After reading through, Wu Wenzao once again carefully signed. In May of this year, the People's Daily released the news for the upcoming publication of the book, and on July 2, four sets of ink-scented "Outlines of World History" were sent to Wu Xie's hand, and the final signature order was:
Wu Wenzao, Xie Bingxin, Fei Xiaotong, Kuang Pingzhang, Li Wenjin, Chen Guansheng, Li Peilai, Xu Xianwei
Before the book arrived, the manuscript fee had been issued, Wu Wenzao ordered 10 sets of books, and the purchase price was deducted from the manuscript fee. These 10 sets of books were given to three children, as well as Gu Yuxuan, Pu Xuefeng and other old friends who were far away in the United States.
In the early 1980s, after the ideological emancipation movement, there was a wave of reading for the whole people, and the translation of the "Outline of World History" translated by Wu Xie and others entered the tens of millions of students in this reading boom, and one or even many publishing houses repeatedly reprinted it, becoming a popular classic version. The initial comments aside, until the Internet era in the early 21st century, many netizens were still enthusiastic. think:
If there were 6 stars I would not hesitate to give. Finally found a history of the world that I loved to read... In particular, from the perspective of a rational and knowledgeable Westerner, we examine the 5,000-year-old culture that Chinese has always been proud of and has a brilliant memory. It turns out that in their eyes, our achievements, declines, and rises are like this.
Every time someone asks me to recommend any historical work, I will go to great lengths to recommend H.G. Wells' Outline of World History. This is the first book of world history I have read, and I also think that this is the best general history work I have ever read... Finally, it cannot be mentioned that the charm of this text is also largely due to the strong translation lineup of this set of books, please see: Wu Wenzao, Xie Bingxin, Fei Xiaotong... These names guarantee the quality of the translation of the book.
Of course, there are also different sounds:
Translation is not only not excellent, fifty or sixty words of European long sentences are not uncommon, according to English grammar hard translation sentences are everywhere, do not conform to the habits of Chinese there are many words and sentences, read a few steps a meal, the idea can not be coherent... Or the so-called translator Jia, may refer to the translation of Mr. Liang Sicheng.
The translations of Wu Xie and others did drive the popularity of the Outline of World History in China. At the same time, the Shanghai People's Publishing House published a translation of Liang Sicheng in 2006, and after that, century publishing group also reprinted the chinese and chinese translations co-translated by Liang Sicheng and others, focusing on "introducing the academic trends and trends of the Republic of China period." The nostalgia and yearning for the academic freedom of the Republic of China has made the reprint version also popular with many people, and some university professors have strongly recommended the Liang translation to students. Although there is no intention of disparaging the translation of Wu Xie Fei Zhujun here, the recommendation is based on emotional factors and personal preferences. The recommenders lack the basic consideration here, that is, the version on which Liang's translation is based is the original version of Wells, which has been revised many times since then, and the so-called time and place are accurate to the point where there is no doubt, and they are all versions after repeated consultations with various parties, including Fu Si Nian's opinion. How can the translation be perfect due to flaws in the original version?