From the Age of Discovery (late fifteenth and sixteenth centuries) to the modern twentieth century, Isaac Newton (1643-1727), Charles Robert Darwin (1809-1882), Albert Einstein (1879-1955) three scientists have changed the traditional knowledge system with modern mathematics, modern biology and modern physics, respectively. The foundation was laid for the fact that almost all natural science categories can be covered today, and the worldview and knowledge constructed from it changed the entire world!
Darwin
Darwin's On the Origin of Species, since its first edition in 1859, has been constantly revised, added, deleted, and mainly added new content by the author, until 1872, when the final edition of On the Origin of Species was published, the sixth edition. From 1872 to 2022, it was 150 years!
In the one hundred years from the publication of the first Chinese translation in 1920 to 2021, except for a few editions, most of the Chinese translations are based on the sixth edition of The Origin of Species.
In terms of the number of Chinese translations, or the recognition, acceptance and popularization of the public, Darwin's "Origin of Species" is more well-known than Newton's "Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy" and Einstein's "Foundations of General Relativity". By combing through the Chinese translation of "The Origin of Species" over the past 100 years, we commemorate this great work on biological evolution and the origin of life that has influenced the world and China from the middle and late nineteenth century to the present.
The 1859 edition was the title page of the first edition of The Origin of Species
Numerous Chinese translations of On the Origin of Species
The first Chinese translation of On the Origin of Species was translated by Ma Junwu (a political activist and educator in the late Qing Dynasty and early Ming Dynasty, the first Chinese person to receive a Doctor of Engineering in Germany) and published by the Zhonghua Book Company in Shanghai (founded in Shanghai in 1912 and headquarters moved to Beijing in 1954). Chinese book is titled "The Primitive Species of Cultural Relics of Dar", a total of four volumes, from 1920 to 1936, the Zhonghua Book Company reprinted several times with the "New Culture Series". Later, in this edition, the four volumes were changed to two volumes, which were newly printed by the Taiwan Zhonghua Book Company in 1957 and reprinted in 1968 and 1984. As far as the author's collection is concerned, I have never seen a Ma translation reprinted on the mainland after 1949.
Translated by Ma Junwu in 1936
Darwin's Autobiography (1949)
In the last fifty years of the twentieth century, the first Chinese translation of the mainland was translated by Zhou Jianren, Ye Duzhuang, and Fang Zongxi. This translation was printed in three volumes by life, reading, and new knowledge triptych from 1954 to 1956 in one fascicle per year. Later, it was transferred from Sanlian Bookstore to the Commercial Press, and reprinted in 1963 as a "Series of World Academic Masterpieces in Chinese Translation", and reprinted several times before 1995 in the format of the original Sanlian Bookstore trifection. In 1995, on the basis of this translation, it was revised by Ye Duzhuang and reprinted as a "revised version". When reprinted, no more fascicles are made. This edition was printed in the ordinary format in 2005 (but this edition does not have the name of the translator), and in 2017, the Commercial Press printed it in the hardcover edition of the "120th Anniversary Edition" of the "Chinese Translation of The World Academic Masterpieces Series". This translation, the Commercial Press in 2020, 2021 and again in the new layout. The Zhou, Ye, and Fang translations should be the Chinese translation classics with the largest number of prints, the largest number of prints, and the most extensive influence on the Origin of Species. The Taiwan Commercial Press printed the translation in 1999.
1956 Trilateral Edition of the Weekly Translation of the Origin of Species Trifecta
In the past fifty years, in addition to the Zhou, Ye, and Fang translations, there have also been a small number of Chinese translations such as Xie Yunzhen's translation (Science Press, 1972) and Wang Jingchao's translation (China Social Publishing House, 1999).
Entering the twenty-first century, the Chinese translation of "The Origin of Species" broke the loneliness of the past fifty years, and in the first decade and the twenty years of the second decade, it showed a trend of blooming flowers.
In 2005, Zhou Jianren, Ye Duzhuang, Fang Zongxi translated it, and the Commercial Press extracted the "Chinese Translation World Academic Masterpieces Series" to reprint it separately.
2005, Shu Degan Translation, Peking University Press. In 2018, the translation was reprinted in an updated version after the translator traveled along the Darwin Route.
2010, Translated by Miao Desheng, published by Yilin Publishing House. In 2014, Relay Publishing House published Miao Desheng's translation and Guo Jian's "Origin of Species: Children's Painted Edition".
2012, translated by Li Hu, published by Tsinghua University Press. In 2021, it was reprinted with The Origin of Species: A Modern Annotated Edition.
2014, Translated by He Dian, published by Chongqing Publishing House.
In 2014, Wang Zhiguang's translation was published by Yilin Publishing House; in 2016, Yilin launched a bilingual version.
2015, translated by Jiao Wengang, published by Beijing United Publishing Company.
2017, Wenshu Compilation, published by China Overseas Chinese Publishing House.
2017, Translated by Yu Litao, published by Beijing Institute of Technology Press.
2020, Zhu Deng's translation, published by Tianjin Science and Technology Publishing House.
2020, Han An and Han Leli translations published by Nova Publishing House. ......
A translation that is particularly worth mentioning
In such a colorful Chinese translation of "The Origin of Species", there are several that are particularly worth mentioning. 1. Translation by Li Hu of Tsinghua University. Lee's translation is based on the annotated version of James Costan, which is based on the first edition of On the Origin of Species. 2. The 2018 Color Picture Collector's Edition Shudgan Translation, because the translator went to the Galapagos Islands as a senior scientific adviser in 2015 to investigate along the Darwin expedition route, making Shu's translation very live. In particular, the translator's "Ten Conjectures of Evolution" is attached at the end of the article, which makes "The Origin of Species" more than 150 years ago have a contemporary feel. 3. The Miao Desheng translation was printed several times in different bindings at Yilin Publishing House until it was reprinted again in 2020. Since the Miao translation is not limited to the sixth edition of The Origin of Species but absorbs the contents of the first and second editions, the Miao Translation 2020 edition claims that its translation is "a book very different from other Chinese translations". 4. Han An and Han Leli translations. It is said that Han Leli (Han An's son) translated it according to Han An's 1953 manuscript.
2020 Miao Translation of "Origin of Species"
The Chinese translation of On the Origin of Species has entered the twenty-first century, and another feature is that there are a variety of newly simplified (or rewritten) Chinese translations of Westerners. Two of them are stunning. One is an illustrated version of Darwin's Origin of Species, which was printed three times in June 2021 after the first edition of the People's Post and Telecommunications Publishing House in September 2020. The illustrations in this book are shorthands in French drawn by the Frenchmen Bernard Pierre Moran and Jotgia Nortone Waukiske (both of whom are famous French filmmakers). The original illustrations are very beautiful in the Chinese translation. The other is the Englishman Rebecca Steven's rewrite of What Darwin Found– The Origin of Species from today's Perspective. The brilliance of this book is to place the latest academic achievements in biological evolutionary research today in comparison with The Origin of Species: either to confirm Darwin's correct foresight and vision beyond the times, or to correct some of Darwin's erroneous conclusions due to the limitations of the conditions at that time.
Illustrated edition of Darwin's Origin of Species
Differences in Chinese translations
Mainly based on the Chinese translation of the sixth edition of "The Origin of Species" in 1872, because of the time, but also because of the English level, professional level and other factors of the translators, the difference between the translations is certain. Regarding the several Chinese translations that I have read through, I will briefly talk about the differences between the Chinese translations.
Whether one has read On the Origin of Species, knows only a little darwin, or has never been exposed to this great work, "natural selection is the survival of the fittest" is known to most people.
"Survival of the Fittest" has different Chinese translations:
"In such a situation, only the most agile and cunning wolves have the best chance of survival, and are therefore preserved or chosen,—— as long as they maintain the strength of the sacrificial beasts sufficient to subdue them during this or some other season when they have to hunt other animals." (Translations by Zhou Jianren, Ye Duzhuang and Fang Zongxi, Sanlian Bookstore, 1954-1956, hereinafter referred to as "Zhou Translation")
"In this case, I have no reason to suspect that only the swiftest and slenderest wolves have the best chance of survival, and are therefore preserved or chosen—if they retain the strength to subdue other prey during this or that season when they have to hunt other animals." (Miao Deshi Translation, Yilin Publishing House, 2020, hereinafter referred to as "Miao Translation")
"In this case, of course, only the fastest and most dexterous wolves can get the best chance of survival, so that they can be selected and preserved, and of course they must also retain enough strength at all times, because they may be forced to hunt other prey." (Zhu Deng's translation, Tianjin Science and Technology Publishing House, 2020, hereinafter referred to as "Zhu Translation")
Another example is the different Chinese translations of "the role of natural selection":
"Just as modern geology has almost ruled out the idea that a flood can be chiseled into a great valley, natural selection will also exclude the belief that new organisms can be created continuously, or that the structure of organisms can undergo any great or sudden variation." (Weekly Translation)
"Natural selection works only in the preservation and accumulation of every tiny genetic variation in favor of living things; just as modern geology has almost abandoned the idea that a flood of waves can be hewn into deep valleys, natural selection, if a true principle, rejects the creed that continues to create new organisms, or that the structure of living things can undergo any great or sudden change." (Miao translation)
"The role of natural selection is to accumulate and preserve countless tiny genetic variations, and the variations that are preserved are usually beneficial to the individual. Since modern geology has abandoned the idea that a large valley can be formed in a single flood, the principle of natural selection would eliminate the idea of constantly creating new organisms, or change the view that biological structures suddenly undergo major changes. (Zhu translation)
There are several Chinese translations, and even the systematic text constructed by the most important catalogs varies. As the author has cited in these Chinese translations, the Zhou translation and Zhu translation have a total of fifteen chapters, and the Miao translation has a total of fourteen chapters. Even if it is fifteen or fourteen chapters, the table of contents is not the same. Take the fifteen chapters of The Zhou translation and the Zhu translation as an example: (the zhu translation table of contents in parentheses, the same non-repetition): 1. Variation in domestic conditions 2. Variation in natural conditions 3. Struggle for survival 4. Natural selection is the survival of the fittest 5. The law of variation 6. Difficulties of doctrine 7. Various objections to the doctrine of natural selection 8. Instinct 9. Heterozygous nature 10. On the incompleteness of the geological record (incompleteness of the geological record) 11.On the geological succession of organisms (succession of paleontology) 12.Geographical distribution (geographical distribution of organisms) 13.Continuation of geographical distribution (continuation of geographical distribution of organisms) 14.Interrelated relations of organisms: morphology, embryology, residual organs (interrelated relations of organisms: morphology, embryology, evidence of degenerate organs) 15.Recapitulation and conclusions (review and conclusion).
It is precisely because of the difference in the base of the evidence that the content of the fourteen chapters is less than the content of the fifteen chapters. The Translation of Wang Zhiguang does not have the text "The Role of Natural Selection". Of course, not every reader of On the Origin of Species will touch a different translation as I did. However, the colorful pictures presented by so many translations and their different translations (whether good or bad) should be said to still provide hundreds of millions of readers with different imagination and thinking space. This, a beautiful thing! A good deed!
2020 Chen Hong's translation of "The Voyage of the Beagle"
The optimism of Yan Fu's "The Evolution of Heaven" and "The Origin of Species"
To speak of the Chinese translation of The Origin of Species, one must say Yan Fu's Chinese translation of Thomas Henry Huxley's Theory of Heaven .000(1825-1895).
1971 Yan translation of "The Theory of Heavenly Speech"
Judging from the successive Chinese translations, China was the first to know the "theory of evolution" from the "Theory of Heavenly Evolution". In 1896, Yan Fu, a graduate of the Royal Naval College, translated the "Theory of Evolution" section of Huxley's Evolution and Ethics and published it under the name "The Theory of Heaven" (the full Chinese translation of Evolution and Ethics was not published by Peking University Press until 2010, translated by Song Qilin, etc.). Huxley claimed to be "Darwin's Hound" (see Footnote to the Translator on page 13 of the 1995 Business Edition), and because Huxley's work advocating evolution was mostly the author's speech, it was more popular and popular than On the Origin of Species. Importantly, yan translation conformed to the reading habits of the Chinese people at that time: first, the "Treatise on The Evolution of Heaven" was translated into Chinese according to the "chapters and sentences" of the Analects (a total of thirty-five chapters in the whole book, the first volume of the eighteenth volume and the seventeenth volume); second, Yan Fu's translation of "Material Competition" and "Heavenly Selection" highly and concisely summarized Darwin's theory of evolution. The strict translation goes like this:
Although the fortunes of heaven change, there are those who do not change. Why not change? It's a famous performance. Taking the celestial performance as the body, and its use is twofold: the competition of things and the selection of heaven. This is the case with all things, and it is especially true for the living and the like. The competitor of things, the struggle for the survival of things, with one thing and one thing, or survival or death, and its effect is attributed to natural selection; natural selection, things compete and exist alone. ...... The chosen one chooses nature, although the choice is not choiced, there is no dispute between jude and the world. ("Heavenly Evolution: The First Change")
Thus, the evolutionary theory of "natural selection is the survival of the fittest", which is repeatedly discussed in Darwin's "Origin of Species", is not far away from the four words of "natural selection" translated by Yan. The first publication of The Evolution of Heaven after 1949 was in March 1971 by Science Press, with the notation that it was "only available for domestic distribution". In March 1971, my second year of junior high school was in the spring. The following year, in 1972, the Science Press published a Chinese translation of Xie Yunzhen's Origin of Species. In January 1972, there was still one term left in the junior high school, so he went up to the mountains and the countryside to the vast world to receive re-education from the poor and lower-middle peasants. Naturally, I had never seen the "Heavenly Evolution" and "Origin of Species" published at that time. By the time I knew the "Theory of Heavenly Evolution" or the "Theory of Evolution", it was already the early and mid-1980s when Chinese translations of Western writings were in full swing! At that time, when I was teaching in the countryside, I bought Chinese-to-Western books and read Chinese-to-Western books, perhaps more than I read the books of my ancestors in China. This habit of buying books and reading books is still today.
Back to the colorful Chinese translation of "The Origin of Species".
Whether it was in 1859, the first edition of On the Origin of Species, or the last edition in 1872, western academic circles at that time were full of longing and optimism about the future and the future. Different Chinese translations of The Origin of Species retain this optimism:
Life and its enduring power were initially injected by the Creator into a few or individual types; when the planet continued to operate according to a fixed gravitational force, countless of the most beautiful and bizarre types evolved from such a simple evolution and are still evolving; how magnificent is the view of life! (Miao translation)
Originally, the Creator gave one or more life the power contained in life, and as the planet continued to move along the eternal and unchanging laws of gravity, one or more of the simplest forms of life above it evolved into the most beautiful and peculiar types, and was still evolving; how magnificent and glorious life was! (Pan Lei's translation of Darwin's Origin of Species)
This is the last paragraph of On the Origin of Species, and the original English text reads like this:
There is grandeur in this view of life,with its several powers,having been originally breathed into a few forms or into one;and that,whilst this planet has gone cycling on according to the fixed law of gravity，from so simple a beginning endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful have been，and are being,evolved.
(With the exception of "The Title Page of the 1859 Edition of the First On the Origin of Species, which was taken from Wikipedia," the other plates are all images of the author of this article.) ）
(Editor-in-Charge: Sun Xiaoning)