History of Translation||Zhang Chi: Translating "Sherlock Holmes" and the Practice of Speaking in the Perspective of the Restoration

Source: Chinese Comparative Literature, March 2021, Issue 1, Transferred from: Comparative Literature and Translation Studies

Abstract: Sherlock Holmes was translated by Zhang Kunde in The Times and landed in China for the first time, but its narrative function and stylistic value as a detective novel were not taken seriously. In the special historical context of the Reform Movement, this novel, together with the newspaper translation column, constitutes a kind of translation of cultural modernity, catering to the expectations of Chinese scholars for translating world knowledge and renewing civilization. However, the cultural intervention posture presented by the translator in the process of translation also revealed the mental symptoms of the Restorationists' emphasis on the "group" and the neglect of the "individual", which became a realistic microcosm of the practice of the doctrine and even the reform movement during the Wuxu period.

Keywords: Reform Movement; Whodunit; cultural modernity; Cultural Intervention;

About author: Chi Zhang, Ph.D., is an associate professor at the College of Liberal Arts, Hunan Normal University.

In August 1896, Shi Wu Bao, a publication presided over by Wang Kangnian, Liang Qichao, Huang Zunxian and other reformers, was launched in Shanghai. In the inaugural issue of the Foreign Newspaper Translation column, Zhang Kunde translated and introduced a detective novel "The Strange Case of the British Bao Visiting Dr. Kadie" (translated from the London Russian newspaper) to Chinese readers. In the following year, Zhang Kunde published four more novels translated from Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes in The Times, namely: "The Naval Treaty" (volumes 6-9, originally "The Naval Treaty"), "The Revenge of the Crooked Man" (volumes 10-12, originally "The Crooked Man"), "The Stepfather's Daughter" (volumes 24-26, originally "A Case of Identity"), "The Revenge of the Crooked Man" (volumes 10-12, originally "A Case of Identity"), "The Stepfather's Daughter" (volumes 24-26, originally "A Case of Identity"), " The Murder of Halmus (Volumes 27-30, formerly known as "The Final Problem"). In 1899, these five novels were specially collected by Suyin Publishing Co., Ltd., and a single book was published as "The New Translation of Bao Detective Case", which became a sign of the climax of modern translation. Although it was not as popular as The Affair of the Lady of the Camellias in Paris, which was regarded as "opening a new era of translated literature" (Guo Yanli 11), it also represented the practical efforts of Chinese literati at that time to try to introduce Western literature.

Much has been said about Sherlock Holmes in China, focusing on the longitudinal combing of the novel narrative mode unique to detective novels, the impact on the Chinese New Fiction movement in the process of translation, and the intervention and rewriting it has suffered. Translators from Zhang Kunde, to Zhou Guisheng, Lin Shu, Liu Bannong, Cheng Xiaoqing, and other translators in different periods, have gradually realized the subtlety of the traditional novel structure as a narrative genre. There are also those who follow local aesthetic habits and moral traditions, and adopt a narrative cut and cultural intervention posture for the original work. However, the problem is that both the Sherlock Holmes story published in the Embroidered Novel in 1903 and the Sherlock Holmes Detective Cases published by Chung Hwa Book Company in 1916 show more local cultural influences and interventions in terms of narrative structure and character descriptions than the 1896 edition translated by Zhang Kunde of The Times. During the period from the First Wu Dynasty to the Wuxu period, the voices advocating the translation and printing of the Ministry of Translation and Printing were in the ascendant, and detective novels entered the field of vision of Chinese readers before political and scientific novels, and compared with other translated versions of the late Qing Dynasty and the early Republic of China, more attention was paid to maintaining the narrative structure of the original work? As the first attempt to translate "Sherlock Holmes", Sherlock· Is Holmes a simple restoration of the original work, or is it inevitably marked with a special mark of the times from the moment it entered China? This article will attempt to return to the historical field of the founding of Shi Wu Bao and the rise of the novel, re-explore Zhang Kunde's translation and rewriting of Sherlock Holmes, and discuss his interaction with the Wuxu Restoration as a representative of Shi Wu Bao's theoretical practice.

1. The location of the newspaper translation column and the novel

Zhang Kunde's translation of "Sherlock Holmes" has two backgrounds that cannot be ignored: first, after the First Sino-Japanese War, John Fryer, Yan Fu, Liang Qichao and others successively advocated the function of novels in "Communiqué", "Guowen Bao" and "Shiwu Bao", and used novels as a tool for enlightenment and mass governance to build momentum in public opinion; First, as the most influential Restoration publication during the Wuxu period, Shi Wu Bao took it as its goal from the perspective of competition among other countries to "widely translate the recent events of the five continents" and to enable "readers to know the overall situation of the whole world and the reasons for the rise and fall of its strength and weakness" (Liang Qichao 1991c:6). Under the pressure of military and diplomatic failures, Chinese readers have paid more and more attention to the value of translation. Kang Youwei pointed out in the "Constitution of the Shanghai Strong Society" that "if you want everyone in the world to learn from the West, you should translate it into Chinese, so that millions of Chinese scholars can understand it, become talented and self-sufficient, and then use it for the state." Zhang Kunde's translation of this detective novel is part of the "English Newspaper Translation" column that he himself presided over in the "Shi Ji Bao." Including him, Guo Jiaji and Pan Yan's "French newspaper translation," Liu Chonghui and Li Jiahua's "Russian newspaper translation," Gucheng Zhenji's "Oriental newspaper translation," and Zhu Kaidi's "American newspaper translation" translated articles from the Times, Paris Daily, New York Lecture Journal, and other foreign-language newspapers and periodicals, which constitute the main content of the "Times." Starting from the 39th volume, the "Shi Ji Bao" even set up a special column entitled "Translation and Editing of the Shi Ji Bao Library" to publish the translations submitted from various places. These translations were an eye-opener for the Chinese scholars, and Zhang Zhidong said that "all the foreign newspapers collected were translated from this text, which was not as false as the newspapers in the market, and was presided over by Chinese gentry and officials, and was not pretended to be outsiders, and was in fact the first beneficial newspaper founded in China" (357). This vigorous campaign of translating foreign newspapers and periodicals has turned Shi Wu Bao into a position for scholars to propagate the Restoration. In the 38th volume of the "Confession of the Library", the newspaper also reiterated its position of translating Western newspapers widely and introducing new knowledge to promote China's reform:

However, the purpose of the translation of the newspaper is to make our Chinese scholars aware of the Chinese and foreign affairs, so the Chen of the Western Newspaper says that the Chinese are good for the sick, and the Chinese medicine can be translated in detail. (Shiji Bao 2627)

In particular, Yan Fu and Xia Zengyou first advocated the function of novels in the article "The Origin of the Printed Department of the Library", but they did not put it into practice in the "Guowen Bao", and Zhang Kunde's translation of Conan Doyle's novels in the "Shi Wu Bao" undoubtedly made up for this shortcoming. However, from today's point of view, Sherlock Holmes, a representative of the 19th-century English popular novel, not only runs counter to the newspaper's translation interest of "but it is true, not flashy," but it is also placed in the Times in many newspaper translation articles on military diplomacy, steamships and railways, commerce and trade, and scientific and technological inventions, which is rather abrupt. What is even more noteworthy is that in addition to Zhang Kunde, the 60th to 69th volumes of the "Shi Wu Bao" also appeared in Zeng Guangquan's translation of the British novelist Henry Rider Haggard's "The Art of Eternal Life" (translated from the novel She). As the host of the "English Newspaper Translation" column in the later period, Zeng Guangquan deliberately included this translated novel in a separate appendix to distinguish it from various news articles; In contrast, the positioning and treatment of "Sherlock Holmes" does not correspond to its stylistic characteristics as a detective novel.

A similar situation also occurred in 1896, when the Shiwu Bao Office printed the "Bibliography of Western Studies", Liang Qichao divided the translated books into three categories: learning, politics, and education, involving Western science and technology such as arithmetic, heavy learning, electricity, chemistry, and optics, as well as political theories such as historical records, official system, school system, law, agricultural administration, and mining administration. As the chief writer of Shi Ji Bao, Liang Qichao was also responsible for the editing of the translation of each issue of the East-West newspaper, and expressed his opinion on the selection of translation objects in the "Narrative of Datong Translation and Book Company", which was summarized as follows: "Political science should be given priority and art should be secondary" (1991e:2845), that is, translation activities were more inclined to political and scientific knowledge that could directly benefit the reform movement. His selection of Western bibliography is undoubtedly the epitome of this translation idea. Among the more than 300 foreign translated books, there are only two novels: "Xin Xi Chatter" translated by "Lisco Layshi", which is translated from the novel "Night and Morning" by British writer Edward Bulwer Lytton; A translation of Timothy Lee's "A Hundred Years of Sleep", translated from the novel Looking Backward by the American writer Edward Bellamy, is classified as "unclassifiable" by Liang Qichao as a vassal supplement to books on political science and art. Obviously, when "Sherlock Holmes" first landed in China with the help of the wave of public opinion advocating the printing of novels, the "Shi Wu Bao" fandom was still very vague about the boundaries and values of the novel.

In essence, from the "novel" that focuses on narrative techniques and fictional plots, to the "narrative department" that the intellectuals of the Chinese Restoration have taken the modern novels of Western studies as the coordinates to find an equivalent to them and hope to use them as a supplement to the classics and history to improve the governance of the masses, many differences and differences will inevitably arise in the process of conceptual translation and theoretical travel. In 1896, Fu Lanya commented on the collection of Chinese Shixin novels in the Universal Gazette, expressing her dissatisfaction with the "non-fiction physique" of some of the submitted works. As early as 1895, when Fu Lanya discussed his original intention of launching a novel competition in China in The Chinese Recorder, in addition to the novel's touching and remedy function, he also emphasized the narrative function and value of the novel, saying that "what China needs most now is a story, or a series of stories," and "it must be equally exciting in description." The original text reads:

What china now wants, among many other things, is a story or series of stories of the same thrilling description. (Notes and Items 330)

Judging from Fu Lanya's requirements, Conan Doyle's detective novels, which focus on narrative techniques and story suspense, are undoubtedly more in line with his vision of "a story" or "a series of stories" than the political novels and science novels advocated by the Restoration. In several detective novels translated by Zhang Kunde, great progress has been made before and after, for example, from the very beginning of "Yingbao Exploration and Theft of the Secret Covenant", to the later "The Revenge of the Chronicler", and then to "The Stepfather and the Daughter Solve the Case" and "The Murder of the Murder of Hal Ers", Zhang Kunde's translation has adjusted the structure of the original work (the narrative of the translation of "The Secret Case" is reversed to natural time, while Conan Doyle's original as a flashback) has been changed to a highly reminiscent of the reverse narrative of detective novels ("The Case of the Girl" and "The Case of the Murder"2). The structure of the article is highly consistent with the original). However, this is not enough to prove that the Restorationists, including Zhang Kunde, have converged with the concept of plot and narrative centered on fiction in advocating and translating novels, especially detective novels. Judging from the titles of the Chinese translations of the last two works, the original titles "A Case of Identity" and "The Final Problem" ("The Last Case"), none of them reveal the biggest suspense and final ending of the novel's narrative. Whether it is "Stepfather's Daughter" or "Murder of Hell", the mystery is foretold to the reader in advance, which commits the taboo of detective novels and becomes a "bad story", and its narrative charm as a novel, especially as a detective novel, is greatly reduced.

It can be seen that the attitude of the author of "Shi Wu Bao" and the Chinese Restorationists at that time towards the novel was extremely contradictory. Although Liang Qichao vigorously advocated the Shuo Department in the "General Discussion on Changing the Law: Kindergarten Learning", which was serialized in volumes 16 to 19 of Shi Wu Bao in 1897, and the newspaper translation column of Shi Wu Bao even introduced "Westerners regard novels as the quintessential beauty of literature", neither the authors nor editors of the newspaper changed their prejudices against the "unbridled game" of the Shuo Ministry, nor did they face up to the unique charm of the novel as a narrative genre. Liang Qichao's discussion of the history of Westerners' translation of Chinese books in the article "Translating Books" still reveals his views on the "obsceneness" of the novel style:

In recent years, all countries have followed one another, the land of the metropolis, the Xianjian District, and the books in the Chinese language of the library are not worried about hundreds of kinds, and those who have translated them into Western languages are as vast as the three links of the whole history, as complicated as the national dynasty scriptures, and as obscene as the barnyard official novels, all of which are in their own Chinese language, turning over and spreading, and other kinds of them. ( 1991f: 1799)

Liang Qichao mentioned the translation of Chinese books in the West in modern times, and the classics and novels were once absorbed and distributed by Westerners. In the late Qing Dynasty, under the influence of the Reform Movement and the wave of translation, together with "Sherlock Holmes", appeared in the newspaper translation column of "Shi Ji Bao", such as "On the Current Situation in the East", "On the General Trend of the Pacific Ocean", "On the Anglo-French Water War" and other important political news, "British Business Book", "On the Wealth of the United States", "On the Rise and Fall of Silver Prices" and other economic articles, as well as "Surveying the Ocean", "Exploring the Extremely Small Wheel", "Sharp Weapons for Opening the River" and other inventions. Although Zhang Kunde's own opinion on the novel is unknown, it is quite symbolic that after he gave up the translation and serialization of the novel, he replaced it with his own translation of the "Xinlong Chartering Case", which translated in detail the relevant litigation pleadings of the case of Xinlong Foreign Bank against the Jinling Preparation and Prevention Bureau in the late Qing Dynasty, and his boring and tedious transcription of the case file was even protested by readers who were "too complicated to read it" (Wang Liyuan 922), but it was serialized from volume 34 to volume 68 (Shi Ji Bao) A total of 69 volumes were published), which is in contrast to the previous translation of detective novels, which emphasized suspense and reasoning fun, but came to an abrupt end.

2. Cultural modernity and the value of detective fiction

In addition to the absorption and exploration of the narrative level of the novel, Zhang Kunde's placement of detective novels in the newspaper translation column of the "Shi Ji Bao" and the appearance of some foreign translated novels are also based on the value of the entire reform movement. In the late Qing Dynasty, with the wave of Western learning to the east, the landing of modernity in China increasingly relied on the power of translation, and "this translation is not only a linguistic translation of meaning, but more of a cultural translation and interpretation" (Wang Ning 87). In contrast to "modernization," which focuses on political and economic aspects, the term "modernity" also refers to a kind of "cultural modernity," that is, "modernity in terms of lifestyle, survival value, morality, psychology, and art" (Wang Yichuan 10). The wide variety of foreign translations has enabled the outside world and foreign cultures, which could only be experienced through the travelogues of a small number of Chinese people or the translations of missionaries to China, to enter the field of vision of a large number of Chinese readers with the help of the power of new media. In the cross-language translation and interpretation of this kind of cultural modernity, it is often because it does not involve political and religious disputes, but tends to restore the original work to the greatest extent, such as in the first volume of the Shi Ji Bao, Li Ruqian pointed out when translating "The Complete Biography of Washington":

It is more difficult to cover and translate books than to write them yourself, such as taking a photo, which must be the spirit of the original book, and you can have no regrets and do the same, and the severity of the kiss of God is not exactly the same, and it is not good. (Lai Yuqian5)

The detective novels translated by Zhang Kunde play the role of translating and interpreting cultural modernity for Chinese readers, and they appear more as cultural books from foreign lands rather than as a novel full of narrative suspense, and the modern life and way of thinking attached to the image of "Sherlock Holmes" as the protagonist are in line with the new culture and new trends of thought that re-emerged from the First Wu Dynasty to the Wuxu period. In addition to the translation of political and economic news, the "Shi Ji Bao" has attracted the attention of more ordinary readers in the process of disseminating such contents as photography, telegraphing, coal-fired heating, medical life-saving, eliminating pests, and even modern health preservation methods. These changes in the way and ideas of individual daily lives are not part of the nation-state, but they contribute to the transformation of ancient empires at the most fundamental level. Sherlock Holmes not only interprets the narrative charm of the novel's genre to the extreme, but also forms an intertextuality with the cultural modernity of these newspaper columns. As a translator, Zhang Kunde attaches great importance to the analysis of "new terms" and "new things" that are unfamiliar to Chinese readers, such as "Mi Si Te" (a word for calling people an honorific title), "yard (each yard is 2 feet 4 inches in China)", "hat Qing (Western customs, guests take off their hats when they enter the door)" and "Leisure Hall (selling Canadian non and wine)", through Bao Tan's personal perspective and suspenseful narrative structure, showing the 19th century Industrial Revolution and the heyday of the British Empire——— Victorian customs and civilization in an all-round way.

In 1903, Chen Jinghan proposed the so-called "way of detective" in the preface to Detective Talk, a collection of detective novels compiled by himself and published by Shizhong Book Company. Starting from the personal level relative to the state, he compares the intelligence of the detective with the military power of the state, and discusses the value of translating detective novels, in fact, he also discusses the exploration of cultural modernity in the name of detective novels. In the article, he said:

Dare to ask Detective Yu Guo how? It is said that the soldier is the left and right hand, the soldier is yang, and the detective is yin; The soldier is the table, the detective is the inside, the soldier is the brave, and the detective is the wise. The country has no soldiers, just as people have no strength. There are no detectives in the country, such as people lose their intuition. (65)

For Chinese readers, the protagonists of detective novels and their characters are captured by Conan Anderson. The survival values and moral concepts of modern citizens constructed by Doyle and other novel authors belong to a fresh and unfamiliar experience of modernity, just like other translations in the Times. In modern Shanghai, as a new profession that emerged in the concession space, it was not accepted by the local culture. In 1898, the "Dianshizhai Pictorial" published an image of Bao Tan's lynching, accompanied by text explaining Bao Tan's false accusations and torture. Compared with private detectives, in the eyes of readers of Qing Dynasty novels, the upright and impartial law enforcement of the Qing officials, and the chivalrous men who see injustice, punish evil and promote good, can better represent their imagination of social civilization and justice. In 1896, after the confluence of chivalrous and public case themes such as "Seven Heroes and Five Righteousness" and "Shi Gong Case", in 1896, the Xianxia novels represented by "Seven Swords and Thirteen Heroes" were printed and circulated in Chinese folk magazines, and the narrative protagonist of the novel became a knight who could fly to the sky and escape and could use fantasy spells. Although the Sherlock Holmes Detective Collection translated by Zhang Kunde does not occupy a long space, it restores the image of a private detective with great personality and charm, and the modern way of life and cultural spirit embodied in it. Sherlock Holmes lived in the city, drinking coffee, reading newspapers, taking trains, and boats, and his characters were more three-dimensional, with the advantages and disadvantages of ordinary human nature. His appearance in "The Case of the Exploration and Theft of the Secret Treaty by Yingbao" catered to the imagination of the Chinese reformers at that time for the modern scientific civilization and rational spirit of the West:

Sherlock sat at the table in a long robe, a small stove was installed on the table, the smoke in the furnace was blue, a bottle on the stove, the mouth of the bottle was connected to a tube, the water in the bottle boiled, the steam came out of the tube, the tube was excited with cold water, the steam salted into water, and dripped into the two vertical penetrating vessels. Sherlock sat on a chair, Sherlock held a small glass rod and dipped it in several bottles, re-held a tube, which contained a potion, to the table, and held a blue paper to test the acidity in his right hand, and said: "What is the sliding shock?" At this time, Fang is anxious to test this, and if this paper turns red, it should be worth a great crime. After a while, the paper fruit turned a dark red. Because of the book and telegram, pay his servants. Said Slippery Shock, "This ordinary murder, you must have an extraordinary person." (Doyle 1991e:375)

Compared with the world of fantasy and surreal ability, or the model of pure officials who hope for moral self-discipline, Holmes's pursuit of justice comes from scientific and rational judgment and reasoning. In the novel, Conan Doyle asks Detective Bao to confront criminals and even big evil organizations in this way, which is easily reminiscent of the competition at the national level, and the background of the "Secret Case" is precisely the secret treaty jointly formulated by Britain and Italy to contain the French naval army, which was stolen in the hands of the children of the external ministers' family, and through his friend Sherlock Holmes, the crisis was averted. The "Shi Ji Bao", whether it is the argumentative articles of Chinese authors or the translation column of foreign newspapers, is full of words that praise the scientific civilization and the study of style in the modern West. In another detective novel translated by Zhang Kunde in the inaugural issue of Shi Ji Bao, "The Strange Case of the British Bag Visiting Dr. Kadie," he introduced scientific detective methods such as food testing and autopsy, and in addition to the inherent reincarnation of heaven and the idea of retribution for good and evil, at the end of the article, he gave more prominence to his praise of personal value ——— his admiration for the detective's "subtlety and knowledge":

It is ruthless and cunning, but it can't escape the detection of the detectives. This inherent way of heaven is also due to the precision and knowledge of the detective, so it can solve this strange case. (Doyle 1991a:51)

While advocating a scientific and rational way of life, Sherlock Holmes explores the survival value of modern citizens, including reflections on complex human nature, and also provides a new paradigm for Chinese readers who are accustomed to the system of clean officials and swordsmen outside the system—how ordinary people can intervene in the maintenance and reconstruction of social order. Although Sherlock Holmes's expression of "justice" in the original text, "It's every man's business to see justice done" (Doyle 419), or translated as "justice is the duty of everyone", was simplified by Zhang Kunde to "a private interviewer who is inherently unjust", the reflection on modern European science, which has been highly respected since the Westernization Movement, was selectively translated by Zhang Kunde. The modern civic spirit and social ideals of Sherlock Holmes are also reflected in the translation of his psychological activities. In the article "The Murder of Holmes", Professor Mo, the leader of the criminal organization, who was Holmes's greatest opponent, "was born into a family, was very learned, and was especially sophisticated in arithmetic, and at the age of twenty-one, he deduced mathematics and science, and wrote a book that was all over Europe" (Doyle 1991d: 1832), but he robbed and murdered, and "repeatedly violated the constitution of the country, and regretted it, and was the Napoleon of the guilty men" (ibid.). And when he was targeted by the evil organization and foresaw his own danger, Holmes confessed to Watson (Zhang Kunde's translation as "slippery shock"): "My life is not useless, even if my profession is stopped tonight, I have a clear conscience, London side, since I have it, as if the weather is getting brighter and brighter"; Recently, I have been focusing on people's temperament, and I am not very good at the good and evil of people on the surface. If I remove the most dangerous sinners in Europe, then I can also take note of them" (2033). This kind of public sentiment corresponds to Chen Jinghan's cultural judgment on the sincerity, meticulousness, thoughtfulness, perseverance, and diligence of detectives in the preface to the translation of "The Detective Collection."

III. Symptoms of Cultural Intervention and the Reform Movement

Influenced by the reform atmosphere of "translating the latest events in the five continents" and "knowing the overall situation of the whole place" in the "Shi Ji Bao", the newspaper translation column mostly showed the posture of "passing on the photo" and "not showing off the picture", and Zhang Kunde's detective novel translation also tried to maintain the description of the characters' dialogues, social scenes, and the process of solving the case in the original work, and the changes were few. However, it cannot be ignored that the phenomenon of these translations intervening when Chinese still exists: perhaps due to the narrative mode of traditional novels, the depiction of the protagonist Sherlock Holmes from Watson's first-person perspective and defamiliarization in the original work is often ignored by translators; Or it is based on the reading habits of local readers, such as the appearance of Sherlock Holmes in The Secret Case, which was originally introduced through Watson's memories and a letter of help from his friend, and which became a direct introduction in the translation, and at the beginning of The Stepfather's Daughter, when Holmes and Watson have a conversation, a large discussion about the wonders of everyday life and the art of fiction is carried by the sentence "The aftertaste is in the place of Holmes, and the conversation is unfinished" (Doyle 1991b: 1625). Obviously, apart from Holmes's penchant for scientific reasoning, the preservation of social justice, and other spiritual qualities, as well as the language related to the main narrative line, the personal emotions and temperament of the protagonist are not valued by the translator. In "The Case of the Secret Covenant", Sherlock Holmes once expressed his philosophical feelings about religion, life, and human beings in front of the roses, and this language, which greatly shows the detective's personality and profound thinking, was directly deleted in the translation. This passage was translated in the 1981 mass edition as:

According to reasoning, it seems to me that our highest belief in God's mercy is in flowers. Because everything else: our abilities, our desires, our food, all of these things are first and foremost necessary for survival. This flower is very different. Its aroma and its color are the embellishments of life, not the conditions of existence. Only kindness can produce these extraordinary qualities. So I repeat, humanity has great hope in flowers. (Doyle 1981b:233)

The revision and deletion of the original work in the subtleties reflect the Chinese Restorationists represented by Zhang Kunde, who made judgments and trade-offs about cultural modernity in the course of Western learning and the role of the novel while translating Western newspapers and introducing new knowledge. Although "Sherlock Holmes" is only a popular novel serialized in the "Shi Ji Bao" for more than 10 issues, and its text content is the furthest from the various issues of the reform movement compared with other newspaper translation articles, it also presents the cultural symptoms of this ideological change: In the political commentary and newspaper translation articles of the "Shi Wu Bao," the discussion of the general trend of the world and China's reform of the law points to a common problem, that is, "gregariousness" -- a group of people in a united country with the goal of strengthening the country and strengthening the species. Whether it was Liang Qichao's proclamation in the "General Discussion on Law Change: The Society" that "the Tao is not good at the group, and it is not good at independence" (1991b:621), or Mai Menghua's proposal in "Minyi" that "the Chinese people are scattered but not gathered, and the people are independent but not the group" (1865), the new cultural ideas on the new people, enlightenment, and even women's emancipation that emerged during this period were all considered from the level of the "group" of national competition. Although it has been a few years since Liang Qichao formally proposed the dualistic relationship between fiction and group rule through "On the Relationship between Novels and Group Governance," Yan Fu, Xia Zengyou, Kang Youwei, and others all showed the charm of "group" in their remarks about novels at this time. Liang Qichao's article "The Combined Narrative of Mongolian Journal and Romance Daily" published in the "Times Daily" also pointed out:

Western textbooks are the most prosperous, and game novels are especially popular, so Japan's changes rely on slang songs and the power of novels. Cover to please the boy, to guide the crowd, and there are no good at it. (1991d: 2988)

From the perspective of promoting national reform and improving the rule of the masses, "Sherlock Holmes" appears in the newspaper translation column of the "Times", which has its specific value orientation, and precisely because the "group" is the object and goal of the reform, it is natural that the "group" is questioned from the level of "individual" is not allowed. Kang Youwei once proposed that quotations cannot be metaphorical, and novels are metaphorical; The rule of law cannot be cured, and the use of novels to govern them does not mean that they really hope to use novels to replace the status of law, but only hope to use novels as a tool to achieve the goal of assisting the law in completing the reform of the rule of the masses. In Conan Doyle's original work, Holmes's personal charm comes from the supplement to the shortcomings of the law, the limitations of the police, and the reconstruction of the order of social reality, showing a tension of reflection and criticism of civilized society between individuals and groups. But in Chang's translations, the tense confrontation between Sherlock Holmes and the police is selectively eliminated, such as in The Secret Case, where there is a conversation between Sherlock Holmes and the official police detective Forbes (translated as "Fubos") while gathering intelligence at the police department. The original text is as follows:

Said he tartly. “You are ready enough to use all the information that police can lay at your disposal, and then you try to finish the case your- self and bring discredit on them. ”

“On the contrary,” said Holmes,“ out of my last fifty-three cases my name has only appeared in four, and the police have had all the cred- it in forty-nine. I don’t blame you for not knowing this. ”(Doyle 458)

Zhang Kunde's translation reads:

He said: "You know that I have found out the news of the house, so you inquire and obtain the investigation, so you claim to be famous, and I am not talented, and my skills are skillful." ”

Xie said: "In the past, I handled 53 cases, and only four of them were obtained, and the rest were all arrested. Thou hast said thou, but thou hast not blamed thee. (Doyle 1991e:444)

In the original book, faced with the honor of being accused of using police information to solve crimes, Sherlock Holmes emphasized that of the 53 cases he handled, only 4 cases were signed; In the translation, it becomes that Sherlock Holmes admits that the rest of the cases were investigated by the "patrol room", and then admits his own incompetence, which is completely contrary to the original meaning. In a similar vein, at the beginning of "The Stepfather Solves the Case," Holmes' criticism of the clichés of the police case report was completely deleted. At the end of the novel, when it is necessary to punish the stepfather who deceived his stepdaughter and plotted his fortune, the law is flawed and the perpetrator cannot be punished, and Holmes himself faces the threat of prosecution for personal assault and illegal detention. The original statement is "The law cannot, as you say, touch you. "yet there never was a man who deserved punishment more" (or translated as "as you say, the law can't help you", "but no one should be punished more than you"), Zhang Kunde simplified it to "although the law does not punish you", compared with the justice and rule of law embodied in the original work, the emotional expression has been weakened a lot, obviously, the translator is more willing to stand in the perspective of the group, to maintain the authority of social law, morality and police.

同样的情形还出现在张坤德对于女性形象的处理上。 柯南·道尔的 小说对于维多利亚时代女性社会地位的提升,包括女性接受教育、参加工作、自由恋爱,有着较多的表现。 《继父诳女破案》中,女主人公 Mary Suth- erland(译作“迈雷色实”),恰是靠着经营铅印打字和股票,实现了物质的 丰盈自足。 原作中其关于女子地位的表述,在译文中被强化。 例如原作中两段女主人公的独白:“There was no use denying anything to a woman, for she would have her way”;“ He used to say that a woman should be happy in her own family circle. But then, as I used to say to mother,a woman wants her own circle to begin with, and I had not got yet. ”(Doyle 194),可以对比群众出版社与《时务报》上的两个版本翻译:

The translation of the mass version of Chen Yulun is:

"It is useless not to let a woman do what she wants to do, she will always do whatever she likes. "He always said that a woman's house should be content with her own people. However, I often told my mother that a woman must first have her own circle, and I did not have it myself. (Doyle 1981a:388)

Zhang Kunde's translation in the "Times" is:

"Women want to be promising, and there is no way to ban it. "As the saying goes, a woman should entertain herself in the room, and I often say to my mother, a woman should ask for friends, and I have no friends." (Doyle 1991b:1627)

Compared with the original work, the literary translation in the "Shi Ji Bao" strips away the specific situation, and elevates the idea of the heroine's words from the perspective of a woman who should get rid of the state of self-entertainment in the room, seek friends, and be promising. This is related to the Restoration intellectuals and the call for women's emancipation in the "Shi Wu Bao" from the First Wu Dynasty to the Wuxu period, Liang Qichao, Huang Zunxian, Wang Kangnian and others participated in the establishment of the Shanghai Non-Foot Binding Association, and published the constitution of the "Shi Wu Bao" in the "Shi Wu Bao"; At the same time, Liang Qichao also called for the establishment of a women's school in the press, saying that "rejuvenating the country and the people will not start here" (1991a:3053). However, as Xia Xiaohong points out, whether it is to liberate Tianzu or to advocate women's studies, because of the utilitarian color given by the theme of salvation and survival, "the freedom and independence of Chinese women can only be subordinated to the cause of national salvation" (107). The significance of women as citizens and citizens has been fully recognized; The consciousness of freedom and independence as an individual will inevitably be filtered and filtered from the perspective of old moral thought. In Zhang Kunde's first detective novel, translated from the London Russian Gate, the description of women begins with the words: "Shao Xiu is a weak Spanish beauty. and between the lips and cheeks, there is a slight viciousness, and it seems to be uncertain, and it is easy to be instigated" (Doyle 1991a:47), which not only obviously destroys the narrative suspense of detective novels, but also returns to the stereotype of the femme fatale of traditional narrative literature. In "The Stepfather Solves the Case", the heroine appears dressed in a costume "in the manner of a Duchess of Devonshire" (Doyle 1981a:334) (In a coquettish Duchess of Devonshire fashion), which seemed out of the ordinary to Chinese readers, and was directly deleted by the translator; Sherlock Holmes's assessment of the word "a very interesting study" (Doyle 1981a:343) (originally Quite an interesting study) is translated as "This woman is like a woman, and she can be a boudoir and a teacher" (Doyle 1991c:1696), adding a bit of moral judgment, and in The Revenge of the Servants, the translation of the word "love" is chosen to be replaced by "joy", returning to the gentle and generous expression of traditional literature. Once the characters and language of the novel leave the circle of meaning of the "group" of the country, they will inevitably face the conscious cultural intervention of the translator in the process of translation, and thus lose their original brilliance. This phenomenon that occurred when Zhang Kunde translated "Sherlock Holmes" will not be an isolated case in the subsequent wave of translating Western novels and creating new novels.

epilogue

As the most influential publication in China during the period from the First Sino-Japanese War to the Wuxu Restoration, the practice of speaking in Shi Wu Bao was accompanied by calls for the translation of Western Newspapers and the translation and printing of novels, and had a slightly bland end. Although Liang Qichao had for the first time publicly advocated the role of the Ministry of Speech in his article "General Discussion on Changing the Law: Kindergarten Learning" published in Shi Wu Bao, and Zhang Kunde's translation of "Sherlock Holmes" had made an unprecedented breakthrough in the ontological level and narrative mode of the novel, and the translation and interpretation of relevant culture was undoubtedly in line with the original intention of the newspaper translation column, the translation of "Sherlock Holmes" did not become a model of new novels in the late Qing Dynasty with the help of the reading wave set off by Shi Wu Bao. After the failure of the Reform Movement, Liang Qichao went into exile in Japan, and soon published the "Preface to the Translation and Printing of Political Novels" in the Qing Yi Bao, advocating political novels and making directional revisions to the translation of novels. He also clearly quoted the words of the British celebrity and proposed that "the novel is the soul of the nation", which can be seen as his rejection and negation of the previous brief practice of the "Times". However, in essence, his setting and thinking on the relationship between novels, mass governance, and the Restoration, as well as his mental symptoms, have long been implicit in Zhang Kunde's translation activities, and will appear in the translation and creation of different types of literature in the late Qing Dynasty.