I believe that many people have already seen "The Age of Awakening", which is a major revolutionary historical theme TV series. Set against the backdrop of the "May Fourth" New Culture Movement, the TV series shows the efforts made by people with lofty ideals in that era to save China. The turbulent years have also spawned many ideas, forming a scene of a hundred flowers blooming and a hundred schools of thought contending. From the current point of view, the new cultural movement represented by "democracy" and "science" was undoubtedly a successful ideological emancipation movement, but at that time, it was also strongly opposed by a number of royalists, including Lin Shu. In the play, Lin Shu, like Gu Hongming, is a representative figure of the royalist party, and many scholars led by him try their best to suppress and oppose new ideas. In the eyes of the audience, he may be a villain. But did you know that Lin Shu was also a great translator and made important contributions to modern Chinese translation.
In the history of modern Chinese translation, Lin Shu is a translator with the same name as Yan Fu. When it comes to Yan Fu, many people may not understand it. But I think you must know the phrase "natural selection, survival of the fittest". That's right, this is Yan Fu's translation. Lin Shu and Yan Fu have many similarities. They were of similar ages, had been engaged in translation activities at about the same time, admired each other, were good at ancient texts and translated in ancient languages, and achieved outstanding results. They also have a lot of differences. Yan Fu mainly translated social science works, and Lin Shu mainly translated novels. The number of translated works and readers of Lin Shu is far superior to yan fu, but from the perspective of the contribution and achievements of translation theory, Lin Shu is not as good as Yan Fu. The most interesting thing is that Yan Fu stayed in the West and was proficient in foreign languages, while Lin Shu did not go abroad and did not understand any foreign language. So how did Lin Shu, who did not know foreign languages, translate? And what are the representative translations?
Lin Shu was the first person in China to translate Western novels in modern times. According to statistics, Lin Shu translated about 180 kinds of Western novels in his lifetime, and the number of translated words reached 10 million words, a number that other translators could not match. After Lin Shu was widowed in middle age, he was depressed. One day, Wang Shouchang, who had returned from France, said to him: "I ask you to translate a book with your son, and the son can break the silence, and I can also introduce a book to China. In this way, Lin Shu, who was trying to pass the time, began to cooperate with Wang Shouchang. Wang interpreted, Lin wrote, and the two co-translated Dumas's "The Testament of the Lady of Paris La Traviata", first published in February 1899. This novel is novel in content, and it has been written by Lin Shurun, and the language is poignant and sensual, which is popular in China for a while. This success aroused Lin Shu's enthusiasm for translation. After working at the Beijing Normal University Translation Book Bureau, he began to translate a large number of foreign novels in this way of co-translating with others. Here are some of the translated works:
In 1901, "Black Slave Calling Heavenly Record";
1903, "The Bloody Aftermath of the Battle of Lisser";
1905, "Saxon Heroes"; "The Legend of the Ghost Mountain Wolf Man";
Man in the Mist, 1906;
1907, "The Biography of the Patriotic Second Boy"; "The Mandarin Duck at the Bottom of the Sword"; "The Biography of the Filial Daughter Nai'er"
1908, "The Rest of the Life of a Piece of Meat";
1915, "Eagle Ladder Little Haojie"; .....................
Although Lin Shu did not find the correct way to save the country, and also publicized some erroneous ideas and feudal etiquette in his translation, it is undeniable that his achievements and contributions in the field of Western novel translation cannot be denied. He also believed that only by developing the translation industry could we "enlighten the people's wisdom" and resist the European powers. It was also out of the urgent hope of saving the country that he was determined to "widely translate the book of things and things." Through Lin Shu's translation, the people of the country at that time also learned about the evils and conspiracies of the great powers to a certain extent, and understood the foreign affairs of the West. Hail to the great scholars!
Reference: A History of Chinese Translation studies by Chen Fukang