Source of this article: "Literary Review" 2020 No. 3 Source: Modern Literature
Liang Qichao and the translation of late Qing literature
Author: Hu Quanzhang is a professor at the School of Liberal Arts, Henan University
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In the late Qing Dynasty, Liang Qichao established the lofty status of literary translation in one fell swoop with his appealing theoretical advocacy and exemplary literary translation activities, triggering a boom in the translation of foreign literature. In the field of novel translation, Liang Qichao entrusted the translation of novels with the important historical mission of importing civilization and improving the rule of the masses, created a remuneration system, and vigorously improved the social, cultural and literary status of novelists (translators). In the field of poetry translation, Liang Qichao admired the heroic and grandiose masterpieces of Western poetry, and his ideas and practices of translating Western poetry in the form of vernacular poems pointed out the path of new vernacular poetry for later generations. In terms of translation style, Liang Qichao explored two paths: the improved literary language and the improved vernacular that were open to Europeanization, and evolved towards the road of language and literary consistency.
Keywords: Liang Qichao, literary translation, translation style, improvement of literary language, improvement of vernacular
In the early years of the 20th century, literary translation, represented by the translation of novels, flourished, impacting and changing the traditional Chinese literary concept and system, and becoming the driving force behind the modernization and transformation of Chinese literature. After the May Fourth Movement, literary historians talked about the translation of literature in the late Qing Dynasty, and most of them recognized Kang Youwei's statement that "the translator is talented and the number of Yan Lin in the world", paid great attention to Yan Fu and Lin Shu, and described and framed them as the two most influential representatives of the late Qing literary translation field. However, when we return to the historical scene, we will find that in the late Qing Dynasty, the "heroes who created the current situation" who really ascended to the throne and gave literary translation a lofty status, and triggered and led the trend of literary translation with their appealing theoretical advocacy and highly exemplary literary translation activities, were not Yan Fuhe, "the first person to introduce Western modern thought", and Lin Shu, "the first person to introduce Western modern literature", but went into exile in Japan after the Wuxu coup d'état, and took the lead in opening up the channel for Western learning to the east, with the help of "Qing Yi Bao", "Xinmin Cong Bao" and "New Novel" Liang Qichao, who has become the main general of the ideological enlightenment movement and the leading figure of the revolution in the literary world, has become the main general of the ideological enlightenment movement and the leading figure of the revolution in the literary world.
In 1922, Hu Shi wrote "Chinese Literature in the Past Fifty Years", in the historical context of "seeking the application of ancient texts", telling the story of Yan Fu's translation of books of modern Western thought and Lin Shu's translation of books of modern Western literature; although Yan's original works are not Western literary texts, and Lin's translated genres do not belong to the category of "ancient texts", Hu Shi asserted that books such as "The Theory of Heavenly Evolution" "have literary value in the original text, and his translations should also occupy a very high position in the history of ancient literature", declaring that Lin Shu "used ancient texts as an experiment in translating novels". and then opened up a new colony for Guwen". This view has had a great influence in the academic world, and most of the subsequent literary history works on the translation of late Qing literature have centered on Yan and Lin. Since the 80s of the 20th century, Liang Qichao's translation theory and practice have gradually attracted attention in the academic circles. Guo Yanli's Introduction to Modern Chinese Translation Literature, Lian Yantang's History of Chinese Translation Literature in the Twentieth Century: Modern Volume, Chen Yugang's Manuscript on the History of Chinese Translation Literature, and Xie Tianzhen's History of Modern Chinese Translation Literature all have dedicated chapters or sections to Liang Qichao, affirming his pioneering position and exemplary role in the field of literary translation. To this day, the academic community still has insufficient understanding of Liang Qichao's significant influence and role as a vane of the times in the field of literary translation in the early 20th century, and the overall research on Liang Qichao and late Qing literary translation needs to be strengthened.
One
Liang Qichao and the Rise of Literary Translation in the Late Qing Dynasty
Literary historians generally regard the 1873 translation of the English novel "Xin Xi Gossip" in the first literary magazine, Yinghuan Zuoji, as the beginning of the translation of Western novels by modern Chinese writers. However, before the First Sino-Japanese War, Western books on natural and applied sciences, religion and public law occupied the center of the translation system and played a major role in the process of the eastward expansion of Western learning, while the translation of foreign literature was in a sporadic state and had not yet formed a trend of the times and a social hotspot. After the First Sino-Japanese War, elite scholars realized that Taixi's art of prosperity and strength, especially in its system and scholarship, and it gradually became a trend to translate Western philosophical and social science works. At this time, under the influence of the idea of "practical use" translation and the trend of the times, Western literature, which is not a "useful book", has not yet attracted the attention of the court and the opposition. In the summer of 1897, Liang Qichao expounded the truth that "in today's world, translation must be the first meaning of a strong country" in the "General Discussion on Changing the Law". In the autumn of the same year, Kang Youwei's "Japanese Bibliography" was written, with volume 11 as "Literature Gate" and volume 14 as "Novel Gate", emphasizing that "the strength of the Japanese people is solid in literature" and admiring "Taixi Yulong's novel learning". This is probably the first time that Shifu in the late Qing Dynasty recognized "literature" and "fiction" as an important part of Eastern and Western studies. At the same time, Liang Qichao formulated for the Datong Translation and Book Company the purpose of translation and publishing "mainly in Eastern languages, supplemented by Western languages, with political science as the first and art studies second"; although the book company was closed down a year later and the translation plan was not carried out in time, the convenient channel for translating Western books through Japanese texts specified by the company "heralded the arrival of the large-scale translation and printing of Japanese books in the early decade of the 20th century to convey the climax of Western studies." In the winter of the same year, Yan Fu and Xia Zengyou published "The Origin of the Printed Department of the Museum" in Tianjin's "Guowen Daily", declaring that "Europe, the United States, and the East, when they are civilized, often have the help of novels". So far, the political and ideological function of Western and Oriental novels has attracted the attention of the intellectual elite of the Restorationists and newspaper writers. However, after the publication of this manifesto, there was no subsequent translation and printing of the novel. The person who really put this idea into practice and triggered the butterfly effect was Liang Qichao after his exile in Japan.
梁启超（1873-1929）
After going into exile in Japan, Liang Qichao was inspired by the literary evolution of the Japanese literary circle during the Meiji period when he revered "political novels" as "the best literature", set off a boom in the translation and self-writing of political novels, promoted the civilization of Japanese society, and led to the literary evolution of novels "rising from the bottom of various literary genres and occupying the first place in the palace of literature". At the end of 1898, he published the "Preface to the Translation and Printing of Political Novels" in the inaugural issue of the Qing Yi Bao, in which he conclusively claimed:
"At the beginning of the changes in the European countries in the past, the scholars and scholars of the Confucian scholars and the people with lofty ideals often used their personal experiences and political discussions in their hearts to send them to their novels...... Often, every book is published, and the discussion of the whole country changes. The political circles of the United States, Britain, Germany, France, Austria, Italy, and Japan are advancing day by day, and political novels are the most effective. ”
Carefully weave the myth of "novels save the country", and bow down to translate the masterpiece of Japanese political fiction "The Adventure of a Beautiful Woman". In 1901, the saying that "the people of Wuhua are not familiar with this study, and foreign non-scholars dare not write novels" has become popular in the society; "Omi's novels are mostly Confucianism, observing the general trend of the world, exploring the truth of mankind, sneaking into the past, predicting the future, and then expressing their own opinions, and writing them as books, so as to awaken the ears and eyes of the people and inspire the hearts of the people", which has become common sense in the public opinion circles. So far, through Liang Qichao's advocacy and practice, "political novels with a low reputation in foreign literature have been canonized because of their political and ideological functions after translation." In the winter of 1902, Liang Qichao founded the New Novel, which held high the banner of "revolution in the world of novels" and respected "novels as the best of literature". The categories of "historical novels", "political novels", "philosophical and scientific novels", "military novels", "adventure novels" and "detective novels" that he drew for the magazine, and the titles of new novels such as "Romance of Roman History", "Republic", "Huayan Jie", "New Society", "Diary at the End of the World", and "Robinson Crusoe" were all led by translations of European, American, and Japanese novels. With the vigorous development of the revolution in the world of novels, political novels that "use the talents of barnyard officials to write about the general trend of the political circles" have been established as models and models of "new novels".
During the revolutionary period of the late Qing Dynasty, various newspapers and periodicals published translated literary works one after another, and major bookstores competed to seize the market for translated novels. "New Novels" announced that "half of the articles published in this newspaper should be translated and translated"; "Embroidered Novels" claimed that "most of the Europeans and Americans are made up of novels" and called for "the good rules of Taixi in the distance, and the afterglow of the Haidong in the near future"; "New New Novels" claimed that "half of the translations published in each issue of this newspaper" and Xu Nianci, editor-in-chief of "Novel Forest," counted the printing of new novels in 1907 and came up with the impression that "there are only one or two out of ten writers, and eight or nine out of ten translators are often in the middle of ten." Literary translation, represented by translated novels, is very popular in literary journals and publishing circles. At the same time, "Declaration", "National Daily", "Alarm Daily", "Times", "News", "Shenzhou Daily", "Shuntian Times", "Zhongwai Daily", "Minhu Daily" and other daily newspapers, "Xinmin Cong Bao", "Minbao", "Fu Bao", "Yue Bao" and other political newspapers and periodicals, "Hubei Student Circle", "Zhejiang Chao", "Jiangsu", "Henan", "Xia Sheng" and other provincial student publications, "Oriental Magazine", "Guangyi Cong Bao" and other large-scale comprehensive publications, "Li Xue Translation and Editing" and other translation publications, "Education World" and other educational publications, Vernacular newspapers and periodicals such as China Vernacular Daily, women's newspapers and periodicals such as Women's World, Mongolian journals such as Enlightenment Popular Newspaper, popular science publications such as Science World, agricultural journals such as Acta Agriculturala Sinica, military journals such as Nanyang Military Magazine, commercial journals such as Huashang United Daily, literary and artistic magazines such as The Great Stage of the Twentieth Century, church publications such as the Universal Gazette, and major bookstores in Shanghai have published and published translated literary works. In 1908, Huang Xiaopei pointed out: "The translator is like the vanguard, and the self-author is like the stamina", and "the translator of the novel is also the teacher of the real society". The vanguard role of literary translation has been described more objectively. Under the banner of the "revolution in the world of novels", a large number of new novels were published in translation, although good and bad, but they were huge, showing a prosperous scene, and an era of flourishing literary translation centered on newspapers and bookstores was quietly coming.
In the late Qing Dynasty, Liang Qichao, from the perspective of political and ideological enlightenment of reforming the rule of the masses and saving the country by the new people, as well as the theoretical height of revolution in the literary world, regarded modern Western literature and the Oriental literature of the Meiji Restoration as an important part of Western studies and a "sharp weapon" for disseminating the ideas of Western civilization It is hoped that with the help of the import of foreign literature, it will promote the creative transformation and innovative development of Chinese literature, and set off a strong trend of literary translation in society. Liang Qichao's theory and practice of literary translation is ideologically oriented to supplement modern Western civilization and reconstruct the Chinese national spirit, and aims to transform traditional Chinese literature with the help of foreign literature, so as to realize the innovative development of Chinese literature. Liang Qichao's translation ideology and literary translation practice, as well as the literary translation boom it triggered, constitute an important part of the New People's National Salvation Movement and the revolutionary system engineering in the literary circles.
Two
Liang Qichao and late Qing Dynasty novel translation
Liang Qichao's greatest contribution to the translation of late Qing novels lies not in his actual translation achievements, but in his theoretical advocacy with overall significance and strategic vision, the exemplary significance of translation, and the spiritual leading role. Wang Hongzhi borrowed Lefèvre's theory of "patron" to make a case study of the patron roles played by Lin Zexu, Yi Yi and Wu Rulun in modern translation activities, revealing the complex aspects of modern Chinese translation activities. In modern times, if Lin Zexu, the minister of the Imperial Mission, was the first patron of translation, Prince Gong Yili was the most important patron of official translation activities, and Wu Rulun, the master of ancient literature of the Tongcheng School, was the patron of Yan Fu's translation activities, then Liang Qichao, the chief general of the late Qing Dynasty's ideological enlightenment movement and the revolutionary standard-bearer of the literary world, played the most powerful role in promoting the rapid development of literary translation represented by novel translation in literary translation activities, which had not been taken seriously before. At the turn of the 19th century and the 20th century, Liang Qichao accumulated unparalleled ideological influence and cultural capital in the discourse field of the new intellectual circles, and as a patron of Eastern and Western literary translation, he also had the tremendous power to influence and stir up the tide as a patron of Eastern and Western literary translation.
In the late Qing Dynasty, as the spiritual leader of the new novel industry and a powerful patron of novel translation, Liang Qichao gave the translation of novels the lofty historical mission and responsibility of importing new knowledge, disseminating civilization, improving society, and saving the country by the new people, and held high the banner of "enlightenment" literature; in the economic aspect, he established a remuneration system for translated novels and self-written novels through the magazine "New Novel", which "played an advocating and exemplary role in the establishment of the remuneration system"; in terms of status, he promoted novels as "the best in literature", which was based on " The "salvation theory" of novels, which is the highest purpose of translating novels, has had a tremendous impact, "causing the traditional concept of literature that has been maintained for more than 1,000 years to collapse and make the novel occupy a central position in the new literary order that has been reconstructed", and the social and cultural status of the translators of novels has been greatly improved.
《新小说》 | 梁启超主编
In the late Qing Dynasty, Liang Qichao called for the "translation and printing of political novels" and launched a "revolution in the world of novels", with the fundamental goal of "reforming the rule of the masses" and "new people", which belonged to the ideological enlightenment project at a higher cultural level. He and the "New Novel" fandom designed the "New Novel" genre around the ideological enlightenment principle of "New Min", and various types of new novels have been endowed with different ideological discourse functions. The "Historical Novels" column planned by the New Novel Newspaper includes "Romance of Roman History", "Romance of the Nineteenth Century", "Liberty Bell", "Flood Disaster", "Eastern European Heroines", "Alexander's Biography", "Washington's Biography", "Napoleon's Biography", "Saigo Takamori's Biography", etc.; The historical romance of the Russian Kuomintang and the romance of important historical figures in Taixi and Taidong are all in its paintings, which fully embody the purpose of "revitalizing the national spirit and opening up the national intelligence", so it is listed in the first place. "Political novels" were ranked second in the column of "political novels in which the author wanted to express his or her aspirations"; "philosophical and scientific novels" ("philosophical and scientific novels" in which "novels were used exclusively to invent philosophy and pass the academic qualifications, and whose materials were all derived from translations" were ranked third; "military novels" that "were devoted to cultivating the martial spirit of the people, and whose materials were all derived from translations" were ranked fourth; "adventure novels" that "mainly focused on stimulating the people's spirit of traveling and adventurous" were ranked fifth; and "detective novels" that "often surprising their whimsical ideas" were ranked sixth. Liang Qichao's novel "Xinmin", the concept of importing the ideas of European and Western civilization through novel translation and the new novel genre advocated by Liang Qichao was widely accepted in the intellectual circles of the late Qing Dynasty, so much so that the novel genre was regarded as a "label" by translators and publishers, and became the focus of readers' attention, and even became a "selling point".
In 1905, Liang Qichao presided over the "New Novel" column of "Novel Series" to discuss the "remedy" of improving Chinese novels, believing that "it must start with the import of political novels, detective novels, and science novels." In Chinese novels, there is no such thing as these three qualities, and these three are the key to the whole novel." The reason for this is that Sun Baoxuan, an upper-class scholar who likes to read "new novels", said: "By viewing Western political novels, one can understand political principles; by viewing scientific novels, one can understand the principles of various qualities; and by viewing Bao Tan novels, one can explore the customs of Western countries and the dangers and deceit of their intentions, which are beyond the reach of the mainland." Among these three new novels, detective novels first appeared in Liang Qichao's Shi Wu Bao in 1896, political novels were translated and written by Ren Gong, and science novels organized by "the most accurate scientific theories and the most noble philosophical thoughts" were not only vigorously advocated by the owner of Drinking Ice.
Under the influence of Liang Qichao, a large number of translated new novels appeared in the late Qing Dynasty, which were influenced by political novels to varying degrees, showing distinct characteristics of the pan-politicized era, and critics and readers of new novels were also accustomed to reading new novels from a political perspective. Lin Shu "held the theory in the past, saying that he wanted to open up the wisdom of the Chinese people, and the Tao began with the translation of many novels related to political thought", and originally wanted to use "Napoleon" as the preferred translation, but in the end, due to the great difficulty, "the creation of the grass is undecided, and "The Remains of the Lady of the Camellias" was inadvertently written first, and it is not the ambition of Mr. ". In 1901, in the preface to his second translation, The Black Slave's Calling for Heaven, he confessed that this work was "enough to boost morale and help patriotism and protect the species", guiding readers to read it as a political novel. The people of the time commented that "the black slave calls for heaven" "to cry the tears of the black people, to cry for me as a yellow man, and to cry for the present of the black people as a yellow man" is precisely to be read as a political novel. In 1908, Chen Xiji's "<歇洛克奇案开场>Narrative" summarized the elegance of Lin Shu's translation of Taixi's novels with "improving society and exhorting people's hearts", and read "the appropriateness of the love between men and women" from "The Lady of the Camellias", "the Yiping of the noble and lowly ranks" from "The Black Slave Calling for Heaven", "militarism" from "The Bloody Aftermath of War", and "the prosperity of industry" from "The Two Patriotic Boys", which typically reflected the political reading psychology and vision of readers of Lin Yi's novels in the late Qing Dynasty.
In the practice of translating foreign novels, when the ideology of the original writer and the translator conflicted, Liang Qichao showed a distinct Chinese position and deep patriotic thoughts and feelings. At the end of his translation of "The Adventures of a Beautiful Woman", for example, when the first-person protagonist Donghai Sanshi commented on the cause and situation of the "First Sino-Japanese War" between Japan and the Qing court, which made the Japanese raise their eyebrows, caused China to lose power and humiliate the country, and what Chinese historians called the "First Sino-Japanese War", not only did he make such an argument as "Koreans were originally China's territory", but also said that Japan used obviously derogatory words such as "provoking the Qing court", "jumping wild and troublesome in the East", and "ferocious brute force" to describe its expansionist behavior. The corrupt and decayed old man who is not familiar with the world's old and sick man country" China uses righteous expressions such as "the righteousness of the great state, the cause of chaos in the territory, and the original responsibility of appeasement". Some commentators have pointed out that:
None of this could have come from the pen of a Japanese writer who emphasized national power, but the deletion of the original work by a Chinese politician with a clear political stance. ”
It is not that there is a problem with the original author's nation-state stance, but that the translator has quietly made deletions and additions that are in line with China's position and the reading expectations of Chinese readers.
The "revolution in the world of novels" launched by Liang Qichao promoted the rise of literary periodicals and newspapers and periodicals, thus providing a publishing position and living space for translated novels, and the prosperity of newspaper and periodical translation of novels also promoted the in-depth development of the revolution in the world of novels. In the late Qing Dynasty, a win-win situation was formed between newspapers and periodicals, translated novels and the revolution in the world of novels. The Zhou brothers, who were famous during the May Fourth Literary Revolution, embarked on the road of literary salvation through the translation of novels under the influence of the "revolution in the novel world" under the influence of the trend of the times. Stimulated and inspired by foreign novels, Chinese novels and Chinese literature have embarked on an irreversible path of modernization and evolution.
Three
Liang Qichao and Modern Poetry Translation
Liang Qichao is an advocate and pioneer of Western poetry translation, and his theory and practice of poetry translation are subordinate to the "poetry revolution" advocated by him, and his idea and practice of "poetry revolution" are also related to poetry translation. In 1900, he put forward three major "poetic revolution" creative programs, "new artistic conception", "new sentences" and "style of the ancients" in "Khan Manlu", the first two of which pointed to "Europe", showing the admiration for "the true spirit and true thought of Europe", and the expectation of importing "rich and different" "European artistic conception sentences", which pointed out the general direction of learning from Europe and the West for the new Chinese poetry circle in the 20th century. In 1902, he set up a column called "Stick Drinking Collection" in Xinmin Cong Bao, "transcribing the patriotic songs of Chinese and foreign philosophers, and articles on advancing virtue", and published Chinese translations of Western songs and poems such as "Song of the Germanic Motherland" and "German Men's Children's Songs" , the full text quotes Wang Tao's translation of the German "Song of the Motherland". In the same year, he translated Byron's poems in The Future of New China, published in New Novels, and expressed his revised views on the program of the "Poetry Revolution" by expounding the principles of poetry translation in accordance with the language. These measures show the remarkable intention of realizing the innovative development of traditional Chinese poetry by melting European spiritual ideas and borrowing from Western poetry styles and styles, breaking the ancient and ancient customs of the Chinese poetry circle for more than 1,000 years.
In February 1902, the second issue of Xinmin Cong Bao published a Chinese translation of the German poet Gernawood's Song of the Germanic Motherland.
"Before the founding of Germany, the capitals were scattered and unified, and they were overwhelmed by their powerful neighbors, so patriots advocated the Germanic motherland to inspire its people. At that time, the writers were the most poets with this intention, and this is also one of them. ”
From the ideological point of view, the poem conveys strong patriotic feelings, a sense of gregariousness, a martial spirit, and a belief in national self-esteem and self-improvement, which can indeed play a role in awakening the people and invigorating the national soul of the "new people". From the perspective of the "Poetry Revolution", the content of the work meets the requirements of "new artistic conception", the seven ancient styles meet the requirements of "ancient style", and the new nouns such as "Germanic" meet the requirements of "new sentences". The main theme of "German Men's Nursery Rhyme" published in the same issue is in line with the spirit of "military music" advocated by the owner of Bingxue, and the style of the music is not only in line with the "ancient style", but also reflects the spirit of emancipation of the poetic style, and the language is easy to understand and suitable for singing. In July and November of the same year, Xinmin Cong Bao recorded Wang Tao's translation of the German national anthem and the French national anthem in the "Military and National Chapters" and "Poems of the Ice Room" respectively. Liang Qichao affirmed that the two national anthems "are the works of famous Chinese artists and have a great relationship with the founding spirit of the two countries", saying that "Wang's translation can still convey its charm." Wang Tao's two translations convey the military soul of the modern Western nation-state, the soul of the country, and the soul of the nation, which is in line with the paraphrase principle of "translating the meaning without translating the words" put forward by the master of the ice drink, and conforming to the basic guidelines of the "poetry revolution" of "using the old style with the new artistic conception". The Western translations published in Xinmin Cong Bao have important exemplary significance and play the role of a vane of the times.
At the end of the old calendar in 1902, Liang Qichao's "The Future of New China" was serialized to the fourth chapter of "New Novels", which included the Chinese translation of the poems of the great British poets "Byron" (Byron), "Giaour" (Giaour) and "Don Juan" (Don Juan), the latter is the famous "Lamenting Greece" The first and third stanzas are the beginning of the Chinese translation of Byron's poems. The fourth content of the "Xinmin Cong Daily" published in advance has a preview:
When Huang and Li first arrived in Lushun, they met a person singing the patriotic poems of the British writer next door. The value of the author's literature has long been determined, and these poems are especially dismal. ”
It can be seen that these translated poems are carefully managed, and the praise of "the first spectacular revolution in the poetry world" is not the self-flaunting of the owner of the ice drink. In the "General Criticism", Han Wenju presents Liang's perception and inventory of the popular "poetry revolution" and "revolutionary poetry" in the poetry circle:
In today's China, all tangible and intangible things cannot be left without revolution. If the revolution in the poetry world and the revolution in the literary world are all the people who speak day by day. Nowadays, he is known as a revolutionary poet, or he is just a person who picks up one or two terms in the new academic circles, and he is just a person who has no objection to the reform, and he takes the purchase of military ships, the practice of foreign exercises, and the opening of railways as the extreme track of civilization. The author does not use the name of the poem, but often speaks of the revolution in the poetry world, saying that he must take the style of the artistic conception of the Taixi writer, cast it into my poem, and then open up a new world for this...... It is advisable not to seek between the words in vain, but not to lose its spirit as the first meaning.
Liang Qichao put forward a needle for the so-called "revolutionary poetry" that has its form but no spirit, emphasizing that the "poetry revolution" in the true sense should be based on the artistic conception and style of Taixi writers. His idea of translating masterpieces of Western poetry in the vernacular genre is of great significance for the "poetry revolution" and the creation of new Chinese poetry.
Liang Qichao "often wants to translate the ontology of Chinese music into a collection of poems by foreign writers". He sees this translation practice as the result of a "revolution in poetry". The first section of "Lamenting Greece", which he translated with the song "Drunk East Wind", belongs to the vernacular songs and poems that do not lose the "ancient style" and generally rhyme, and the transliterated new nouns and literary vocabulary are embellished in the vernacular sentences, and the style is slightly Europeanized and literary, showing the trend of Europeanization and elegance of the vernacular, and the pursuit of the effect of language style songs and poems that are consistent with the language and the common appreciation of elegance and vulgarity. The third stanza of Lamentation of Greece, which he translates in accordance with the principle of "translating foreign meanings from China", is not completely restricted by the fixed words and sentences of the music card of "Memories of the Peach Spring", but adopts a modified vernacular that is open to Europeanization and literary language, and the style is close to that of free-form vernacular poetry. As for the scattered verses he translated, such as "sweating for the Greeks, weeping for the Greek nation", "How can a good compatriot raise some slaves with his milk", "The land of slaves is not the land we should live in; ...... It also took the path of translating Western poetry in the vernacular, pointing out the path of new vernacular poetry for later generations.
At the beginning of the 20th century, Liang Qichao fixed the image of "Pendulum" as "the first poet of modern England" and the "great hero" who dedicated himself to the independence of the Greek nation through the magazine "New Novel". Liang's first translation of Byron's poems was "recited for a while", especially "loved by young people", so that many years later, Lu Xun still remembers the situation of "how to read his poems and be full of energy". From the late Qing Dynasty to the May Fourth period, many translators such as Ma Junwu, Su Manshu, Hu Shi, and Wen Yiduo competed to show their translation talent by retranslating the poem. In 1905, Ma Junwu translated "Lamentation of Greek Songs" in the style of songs, which was the first full translation, which belonged to a typical "poetry revolution". Around 1915, Hu Shih, who studied in the United States, began to brew the "Poetry Revolution" and put forward the theoretical proposition that "the Poetry Revolution began and that poetry should be written as essays". His translated poems such as "Lamentation of Greek Songs" in this issue tried to be relatively free poems. Hu Shi is confident that "today's translation can be said to open up a new colony in the translation world for me", and thought that it was "better than the Ma and Su translations" in terms of "unbridled freedom" and "original expression". However, he localized the Western sun god as "Xihe" and added a "Su'e" out of thin air, which was also "lost", and calling Shafu a "poet" is not as elegant as the "female poet" used in Liang's translation.
On the road of Hu Shi's exploration of new free-form vernacular poetry, the landmark is the translation of "Old Lobo" and "Can't Shut Up!". During his stay in the United States, Hu Shi was inspired by the evolution of the slang literature of various European nation-states into the Chinese literature of various countries in recent times, and the famous European love poem "Old Lobo" is a vernacular poem in the English literary world; when he translated it into Chinese poetry in a vernacular style that is as clear as words, it caused great repercussions after the publication of "New Youth" in 1918, and strengthened his belief in trying vernacular poetry. "Can't Shut Up!" is a model of new vernacular poetry that embodies the spirit of poetic emancipation, the translated poem maintains the arrangement and sound group of the original work, and the emotions really flow out through the protagonist's dialogue and scene description, and the syllables "follow the natural twists and turns of the poetry, natural weight, and natural superiority", which belongs to the "natural syllables"; it is in this sense that Hu Shi called this translated poem "the era of the establishment of 'new poetry'" in the "self-preface to the reprint" of the "Collection of Experiments". When the Anglo-American free-form poetry form was successfully introduced into China in a more natural way, it was the day when Hu Shih's vernacular poetry, which Hu Shih had painstakingly tried for many years, was reborn and transformed from a chrysalis to a butterfly.
From the late Qing Dynasty to the May Fourth Movement, from Liang Qichao to Hu Shizhi, from the "Poetry Revolution" to the "Poetry Revolution", from "using the old style with a new artistic conception" to "composing poetry like an essay", from "Duan Zhi'an" to "Old Lobo" and "Can't Shut It Up!", from the vernacular poetry of the song ontology to the new vernacular poetry in the free form, from the politicization of reason to the artistry of reason, the poetry translation practice of two generations of "but not as a teacher" of the literary revolution has completed the evolution and transmutation from modern times to modern times in a way of historical relay from the river to the sea.
Four
Translation style: improved classical Chinese and improved vernacular
The transformation of Chinese literature from the late Qing Dynasty to the May Fourth Period, and the modern transformation of language and style, have more crucial ontological and symbolic significance than the changes in political ideology and literary trends. Among them, the literary translation activities of Chinese writers have played a crucial role. At this time, one of the major historical roles played by translated literature is to explore and create a new literary language that integrates language and literature in modern China, and as a leading figure in the literary revolution, Liang Qichao is also a leading pioneer and enlightener in the exploration and innovation of language and style. In 1902, Liang Qichao and Yan Fu had a debate in Xinmin Cong Bao on the issue of elegance and vulgarity in the translation style. Liang believed that "the business of writing and translation should be to spread the idea of civilization to the people, not to the immortal reputation of Tibetan Mountain", so he emphasized "to practice with a fluent and sharp pen", and criticized Yan Translation of "Yuan Fu" for "the writing is too pragmatic and elegant, deliberately imitating the pre-Qin style, and it is difficult to understand it if you are not a person who reads many ancient books". Yan thought that the translated book was originally written for people who were familiar with ancient books, and ridiculed each other: "If it is a vulgar word, in order to facilitate the seclusion of the market and the countryside, this is the so-called Lingchi, not revolutionary." The disagreement between Yan and Liang on whether the style of writing should be ancient or vulgar shows two paths: elite enlightenment and mass enlightenment.
Literary translation in the late Qing Dynasty was mainly constrained by two factors: political function and market efficiency, and the core issue behind the two was the positioning of readers. The intended readers of Yan's translation of Western books were positioned in the scholarly class that had influence on national politics and scholars' customs, so he deliberately used the beautiful and quaint Tongcheng ancient texts that were appreciated by the upper class. Liang Qichao, on the other hand, positioned the enlightenment object of the translation industry as ordinary citizens, so he emphasized that the language is shallow, fluent and sharp, and elegant and vulgar. The two men's different readership and stylistic pursuits were initially a great success. However, the audience and social influence of Yan's famous works after "The Theory of Heavenly Evolution" are far inferior to Liang Qichao's newspaper "New Literary Style". During this period, the Japanese style of learning from the French and Western countries during the Meiji Restoration had a direct impact on the creation of the "new style" of the Liang style.
Liang Qichao's translation of "The Adventure of a Beautiful Woman" is obviously different from Yan's translation of famous works and Lin's novels. Yan Fu followed the path of learning from the West and came from the West, and his translations paid attention to the pre-Chinese character syntax; the early novels translated by Lin also took the original French and English works, and were less influenced by the new nouns of the Japanese source. The most obvious stylistic feature of Liang Yi's "The Adventure of a Beautiful Woman" is the large incorporation of new nouns and Europeanized syntax. In the first sentence of the opening sentence, new terms such as "Feifu", "Independence Cabinet", "Liberty Bell", "Omi", "United States", "Independence" and "Independence" appeared, spreading the idea of national independence and self-determination. The emergence of a large number of polyphonic words with new nouns as the main body has formed a new type of written language that is different from the traditional classical Chinese, in short, an improved literary language. Liang Qichao's stylistic experiments in improving the literary language are not only manifested in the articles of newspapers called "new folk style" by historians, such as political essays, biographical essays, academic essays, and essays, but also in the style of his novel translation. Ren Gong's experiments with improved literary styles and styles that were open to Europeanization, ancient vernacular, and colloquial language were evident in the political novels he began translating in 1898.
Liang Qichao's 1902 retranslation of the French novel Fifteen Little Heroes through Japanese deliberately adopted the vernacular style. He set up a "Chinese narrative style" for it, "originally intended to follow the genre of books such as "Water Margin" and "Red Chamber", purely using colloquialisms", but "when translating, it was very difficult", so "refer to the literary language, and work twice the result with half the effort". This translated novel, which combines literature and customs, is more popular in style than Qianyi Wenyan, and more elegant and clean than the colloquial vernacular, which is an improved vernacular. In the eyes of the contemporaries, the "mixed words" body is a transitional form to the "consistent words" body. In 1903, Di Baoxian expounded Liang Qichao's view of language development:
The owner of the ice room often said: The popularity of the popular language style is the biggest key to the progress of real literature. All countries are the same, and so should China. Recently, schools in Europe and the United States have been advocating the abolition of Greek and Roman texts. Even in Japan, in recent writings, it is also possible to use the consistency of words and writings...... The Chinese character is not spoken, so the separation of language and text is an obstacle to the progress of this popular language, and it is also an obstacle to social progress. For the sake of today's plan, we can create the most suitable new words, so that those who are consistent in words and words are also on it; even if they can't, they will also have mixed words.
The popularity of vernacular literature is the general trend of the evolution and development of literature in various countries, and the long-term separation of language and literature in Chinese society is an obstacle to the progress of vernacular literature. The so-called "consistency of language and writing" is not only a one-way movement of literary language to move closer to the vernacular, but also includes the literalization (refinement) and modernization (Europeanization) of the vernacular, so as to enrich the vocabulary and syntax of the vernacular and enhance the expressiveness of the written vernacular. To paraphrase the saying of the time: "If the language is the same, the words will be changed to shallow, and the words will be changed to high, so that the two are improvised; As a pioneer in advocating the translation of novels in the vernacular style and putting them into practice, Liang Qichao's practice of "combining literature and customs" is actually an emergency method to remedy the shortcomings of the vernacular with the strength of the literary language, which objectively promotes the vernacular and vernacular literacy, and shortens the distance between the literary language and the vernacular. On the other hand, both the improved literary language and the improved vernacular have the problem of Europeanization of vocabulary and grammar, either actively or passively. The translation style of "Fifteen Little Heroes" had a huge demonstration effect on the translation of novels in the late Qing Dynasty. The multi-dimensional linguistic and stylistic experiments of translated novels in the late Qing Dynasty lead to the road of "consistency of words and texts" in the future.
In the late Qing Dynasty, newspaper editors and new novelists adopted a two-legged approach to the language and style of translated novels. "New Novel" advertises that "literary and colloquial references, and among its colloquialisms, official dialect and Cantonese are referenced". "New New Novels" also insists on "using both literary language and slang". It is the norm for the same magazine to publish both Chinese and vernacular translations, and for the same translator to have both literary and vernacular pen and ink. Liang Qichao's translation of The Adventures of Beautiful Ladies is in the vernacular style, and the translation of Fifteen Little Heroes is in the vernacular, while Zhou Shuren's translation of The Journey to the Moon is in the vernacular, and the translation of Foreign Novels with Zhou Zuoren is in the vernacular.
At the end of the Qing Dynasty and the beginning of the Republic of China, the literary style dominated the literary translation world, but it basically belonged to the improved literary language that was open to Europeanization and vernacular, rather than the ancient literary language of Chen Chen Xiangyin. Lin Yi's novels, which are the most successful in the field of novel translation, and the Western translated poems of Ma Junwu and Su Manshu, who are the most famous in the poetry translation industry, generally belong to the improved literary style. The translations of well-known translators in the field of newspaper and magazine novel translation, such as Chen Jinghan, Xu Nianci, Bao Tianxiao, and Zhou Shoujuan, as well as the early literary translations of the Zhou brothers, are all in the improved literary style. Qian Zhongshu pointed out that "the style used in Lin Shu's translation is what he thinks is more popular, more casual, and more flexible", "in terms of vocabulary and syntax, the rules are not strict, and the collection capacity is very lenient", and the literary language is mixed with "Jun language", "Tong Qiao language", colloquial language, foreign new terms, etc., "The translation contains a lot of 'Europeanization' elements". The Zhou brothers' experiments in Europeanizing literal translation of Western syntax and chapter have made the improved literary style of the "Collection of Foreign Novels" more avant-garde and modern. In this sense, Wang Feng asserts that the Collected Novels of Foreign Languages "can indeed be regarded as a landmark product of the revolution in the Chinese written language, although it is a literary language." The late Qing Dynasty novel translators' experiments in improving the style of classical Chinese evolved in the general direction of modernization and the integration of Chinese and Chinese.
At the end of the Qing Dynasty and the beginning of the Republic of China, the translation of novels that followed the vernacular translation route was also in the same vein and achieved good results. Zhou Guisheng, who served as the chief translator of "New Novels", and Wu Han, who worked in the compilation office of the Commercial Press, were pioneers in the translation industry who took this route. Zhou Guisheng's translation of "The Circle of Vipers", and Wu Han's translation of "The Lampstand", "The Adventure of Jiashan", "Ideal Beauty", "Scout Beauty Talk", etc., are obvious examples. Its style is not only different from the ancient vernacular in the old novels, but also concise and crisp than the colloquial vernacular, which is close to the modern vernacular after May Fourth. The most successful translators who insisted on translating Western novels in the vernacular were Wu Guangjian and Zeng Mengpu. Wu Guangjian, a young returnee, translated French literature with pure and fluent vernacular, and achieved great success. Dumas's "The Hidden Tale of the Heroes" and "The Hidden Tales of the Continued Heroes" translated by Wu were reprinted many times in 1907 as the "Novels of Famous European and American Writers" by the Commercial Press, and in 1915, together with the "Novels Translated by Lin", they were compiled into the "Shubu Series" and became all the rage. Hu Shi highly admired Wu Guangjian's vernacular translation, believing that "in recent years, the translation of Western novels should be the first in the books translated by Jun Shuo", praising him that "the vernacular used is not a plagiarism of old novels, but a kind of specially created vernacular, which can best convey the spirit of the original book", and said that "its value is a hundred times higher than that of Lin Shu". A more representative of the achievements of vernacular translation of novels in the late Qing Dynasty and the early Republic of China is the novelist Zeng Pu, whose translations of "The History of Queen Ma" and "Ninety-three Years" are clear and clear, and can be seen not only in the professional translation level, but also in the vernacular writing skills.
Since the end of the 20th century, scholars have noticed the existence and influence of the Europeanized vernacular translations of Western missionaries to China in modern times, and even put forward the view that the Europeanized vernacular texts of missionaries are the true origin of new Chinese literature. Relying on the Chinese newspapers and periodicals founded in China, Western missionaries in modern times published a large number of improved literary texts and improved vernacular texts; these improved literary texts and improved vernacular texts have had a certain impact on the ideological concepts and language and literary concepts of Chinese native writers, both in terms of subject matter and language and style. But this impact should not be exaggerated. At the end of the Qing Dynasty and the beginning of the Republic of China, the literary translation practices of local Chinese writers such as Liang Qichao, Lin Shu, Zhou Guisheng, Wu Han, Ma Junwu, Chen Duxiu, Su Manshu, Wu Guangjian, Zhou Shuren, Zhou Zuoren, Chen Jinghan, Bao Tianxiao, Li Hanqiu, Zeng Mengpu, and Hu Shi are worthy of in-depth study. Literary translators of the late Qing Dynasty made multi-dimensional efforts and explorations in the stylistic experiments of improving the literary language and improving the vernacular, and the vernacularization of the literary language, the vernacular of the vernacular, and the Europeanization of the literary language and the vernacular to varying degrees were the significant linguistic characteristics of the literary translation texts in this period, which to a large extent narrowed the distance between the literary language and the vernacular. It is precisely a large number of literary translators, famous and unknown, who have intentionally or unintentionally experimented with language and style, that have made multi-directional and beneficial explorations for the innovative development of Chinese literature in the 20th century, and finally found a path to modernization that leads to the "integration of language and literature".
In 1902, Liang Qichao predicted in his famous essay "On the General Trend of Changes in Chinese Academic Thought":
"There are only two civilizations in the land today: one is the Taixi civilization, Europe and the United States, and the other is the eastern Taixi civilization, and China is also. The twentieth century was the era of marriage between the two civilizations. I want my compatriots to put up the lamp and set up the wine, turn the door, and let it go three times, so as to welcome the ceremony. He is a Western beauty, and he will be able to raise Ning Xin'er for my family. ”
In the late Qing Dynasty, Chinese writers adopted and transplanted the ideas of Western civilization and foreign literary styles through the advocacy and practice of foreign literary translation, impacted and broke the foundation and order of traditional Chinese literature and culture, and pointed out the fundamental direction and laid a preliminary foundation for the reconstruction of China's new literary system in the "transitional era" of the old and new worlds, where China and the West merged, the ancient and the modern were transferred, and the old and new worlds left this shore but did not reach the other shore. In the late Qing Dynasty, the literary translation practice of Chinese writers with multiple symbiosis and multi-dimensional exploration constituted an important wing of the revolutionary movement in the literary world advocated by Liang Qichao, which influenced and even influenced the historical trend of the modern transformation of Chinese literature.