Sherlock Holmes
&
Shanghai
The fictional character "Sherlock Holmes" is probably one of the most well-known Britons in China. Chinese translations are so influential that the average reader may have forgotten the British detective's original name, Sherlock Holmes. There is a widely circulated theory that the full name of the Chinese translated by the famous translator Lin Shu in the late Qing Dynasty for "Sherlock Holmes" in Hokkien is "Sherlock Holmes", but this claim has yet to be conclusively proved.
In the pen of Arthur Ignatius Conan Doyle, the Mr. Holmes, who lives at 221 Baker Street B in London, is polite on the surface, but has a lot of weird tempers in private. For example, drug use (cocaine), sometimes depressed, sometimes excited, like to play the violin, moody. These personality traits are leaked from the narrative of his intercourse friend Dr. Watson. Watson's personality was gentle and dull, and as a talented Sherlock Holmes partner, it was just right.
But it was such a strange Englishman, but with the wind of learning from the West and the translation of intellectuals in the late Qing Dynasty, they began to penetrate the hearts of Chinese readers. And it all started in Shanghai.
Sir Arthur Ignatius Conan Doyle (1859–1930) was an English writer and physician. Born 22 May 1859 in Edinburgh, Scotland. He studied medicine at the University of Edinburgh from 1876 to 1881, and after graduation traveled to the West African coast as a ship's physician, returning to China in 1882 to practice medicine in Plymouth. However, his practice of medicine did not go well, and during this time Doyle began to write. After moving to Southsea, Portsmouth, he began to spend more time writing. Doyle's first major work was the detective novel A Study in Scarlet, published in Beeton's Christmas Annual for 1887, which featured the later famous Sherlock Holmes
Beeton's Christmas Annual for 1887, which first featured a Sherlock Holmes detective story
Sherlock's first experience
From a social point of view, there are specific reasons for the boom in the translation of Sherlock Holmes's detective novels in China. At the end of the Qing Dynasty and the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, with the gradual heating up of Western learning and eastern learning, the third climax of translation was formed in Chinese history, following the translation of Buddhist scriptures from the Eastern Han Dynasty to the Tang and Song Dynasties, and the scientific and technological translation of the late Ming and early Qing dynasties. In this translation climax, the translation of novels accounts for a large proportion. Especially political novels, science fiction and detective novels. Of the three, the translation of detective novels is in the first place. Among the translated detective novels, Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes detective novels are the earliest and the most numerous.
In addition, from the perspective of the mission or original intention of the late Qing translators, they did not want to attract a small number of elites, but to face a large readership. In China at the turn of the century, the novel was not only a tool of education, but also a means of enlightening the people. Thus the popularization of translated novels is in line not only with the needs of publishers for profit, but also with the ideals set forth by reformers who called on the masses to educate. Among them, especially Liang Qichao and others have mainly publicized and advocated the novel to improve society and open up the role of people's wisdom.
According to extant records (see National Diet Library of Japan, Novels of the Late Qing Dynasty, No. 97), the first English-language detective novel published in China was the three-issue serialization of Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes detective case "The Naval Treaty" (now commonly translated as "Naval Agreement") in the "Times" from August to September 1896. Three other stories followed: "The Crooked Man" (now commonly translated as "Hunchback"), "A Case of Identity" (now commonly translated as "Identity Case"), and "The Final Problem" (now commonly translated as "The Last Case"). At this time, only 9 years have passed since the detective episode debuted in the UK.
The "Revenge of the Bearer" published in The Times, which we now usually translate as "Hunchback Man"
Because newspapers and periodicals had not yet established a layout editing method for article classification, these stories were serialized between world news and special reports. Founded in Shanghai on August 9, 1896, The Times is a quarterly magazine with book style binding, each issue is more than 20 pages, about 30,000 or 40,000 words, a total of 69 issues. It can be regarded as a newspaper run by the Chinese people who had a great influence in the late Qing Restoration Movement, and the early editor-in-chief of this newspaper was Liang Qichao.
As for the earliest translators of these articles, there are sources that are based on Zhang Kunde. There are few records of his background. Comprehensive introductions to local chronicles such as "Tongxiang County Chronicle" and "Wuzhen Zhenzhi" can be briefly understood about their situation.
Zhang Kunde, the character Shaotang, is also known as Shaotang. A native of Wuzhen, Tongxiang, Zhejiang. Graduated from the Shanghai Cantonese Dialect Museum, he served as a translator and vice consul at the Consulate of Busan, North Korea. In the twenty-first year of Guangxu (1895), when the Qing court signed the Treaty of Maguan with Japan, he served as a translator in Japan, and the draft treaties were translated by him. Huang Zunxian later hired him as an English translator for The Times, but soon resigned to work as a translator at william Venn Drummond. Zhang had correspondence with Wang Kangnian, the premier of the "Times", and wrote "Taixi New Law on Silkworm Breeding" and "Bailu Wenlu Law".
In Zhang Kunde's writing, Sherlock Holmes is translated as "Sherlock Holmes" and Watson as "Slippery Shock". This is quite the charm of Wu pronunciation. In translation, he not only translated English into traditional Chinese language, but also made some innovative changes to better conform to Chinese reading habits. He changed the first-person narrative from Watson's perspective in the original work to the narrative perspective of third-person omniscience and omnipotence commonly used in traditional Chinese novels. He also refers to the familiar form of "note novel" for Chinese readers, with a special note "Notes on Translation of Sherlock Holmes", indicating the protagonist of the story, so Watson exists only as an ordinary character in the translation, no longer the narrator and recorder of the story. For the original author Conan Doyle, Zhang Kunde also deliberately kept it out of the way according to the habit of not signing the author's name in Chinese notebook novels. So the earliest detective set is more like a record of a real case.
Subsequently, in 1899, Shanghai Suyin Bookstore published "New Translation Bag Detective Case", including Zhang Kunde's translation of Sherlock Holmes detective novels; in 1901, Huang Ding and Zhang Xin's joint translation of "One of the Taixi Sayings" and received 7 Sherlock Holmes detective novels, in 1902, Shanghai Civilization Bookstore published "Continued Translation of Watson Bag Detective Case" signed "Police Student Translation", which received 7 kinds of Sherlock Holmes detective novels; in 1903, the Commercial Press translated and printed "Supplementary Translation of Watson Bag Detective Case", which included 6 kinds of Sherlock Holmes detective novels; 1904 - In 1906, Zhou Guisheng and Xi Ruo translated "The Case of Sherlock Holmes's Regeneration" and received 10 kinds of Sherlock Holmes detective novels; in 1908, the Commercial Press published "The Opening of the Sherlockt Case" (also known as "The Study of Blood Characters") co-translated by Lin Shu and Wei Yi.
In 1902, the Shanghai Civilization Book Company published the cover of "Continued Translation of Watson's Bag Detective"
As early as 1904, Shanghai's most influential newspaper, the Declaration, also had an advertisement for "Sherlock Holmes Detective". The following is a september 11, 1904 article entitled "Shubu Shu", which also mentions the translator "Minzhong Lin Qinnan", referring to Lin Shu.
Mr. Lin Qinnan of Minzhong is good at translating novels that are popular among the population, and now I have translated the English poet Shakespeare's notes that The Pear Garden sung for the European poetry saint has not faded to this day...
The case in the case is a woman in the British Dynasty, whose father is indian and has not seen her age. A pearl was sent from the post office, and then an anonymous letter was sent to the theater garden. The female covenantEd Sherlock Holmes went together, and when there was a car to greet each other, the foo and the woman boarded the car to the township, met with a certain A, knew that the female father was dead, and knew that the female father and the father of the daughter had obtained a treasure in India together, and then went to meet brother A. Brother Jia was killed, and Fu was stabbed by a wooden foot man and an Indian barbarian, and the murderer was later detected on the river. The original commission of this case is Clear, the plot is bizarre, and the translation pen name is Jun. Each volume is priced at Ocean Ii
The "Statement" was published in the section of the Declaration on September 11, 1904
The Shanghai Commercial Press issued the cover of "Watson's Bag Detective" of "Speaking Ministry Books"
The opening text of the Sherlockge Case, translated by Lin Shu and Wei Yi, was published by the Shanghai Commercial Press in 1915. What's more interesting is that "Conan Doyle" is translated as "Conan Dalí"
Chessboard Street at the end of the Qing Dynasty. You can see all kinds of book number shop signs
Chessboard Street is the old name of the historic district. The approximate location is on both sides of Henan Middle Road between present-day Yan'an East Road and Fuzhou Road. Chessboard Street is named after the streets that resemble checkerboards. Early Checkerboard Street only referred to the section of Henan Road from Fuzhou Road to Guangdong Road. At the beginning of the 20th century, there were new and used bookstores, stationery stores and educational equipment stores. Later, it developed north to Jiujiang Road and Hankou Road, and opened Fan mounting shops such as Duoyunxuan, Jiuhuatang and Xihongtang. When the Zhonghua Bookstore was first opened, a distribution office was set up here. Since then, the publishing industry centered on Checkerboard Street has flourished, which has also provided a broad platform for the promotion of sherlock Holmes's detective translations.
The full episode is grandly debuted
In this context, the publication of the "Complete Works of Sherlock Holmes Detectives" by the Zhonghua Book Company has also come to fruition. In May of the fifth year of the Republic of China (1916), edited by Liu Bannong, Cheng Xiaoqing, Yan Duhe, Chen Xiaodi, Tianxu Isheng, Zhou Shuangjuan, Chen Tingrui, Tianyou, Chang Jue, Yuhuo and ten other people translated the Complete Collection of Sherlock Holmes Detective Cases in a shallow language, published by the Zhonghua Book Company, a total of 12 volumes, including 44 Sherlock Holmes detectives, including 4 novels and all short stories except for the "New Detective" that had not yet been published at that time. The style of the book is relatively complete, the beginning of the volume has a fan example and the preface of the literary masters of the time, Bao Tianxiao, Chen Lenghe, etc., Liu Bannong also wrote the "Yingxun Conan Doyle Biography" and "Trek", each novel is attached to the original title. It can be described as a collection of emperors and emperors.
Part of the cover of the 1916 edition of the Sherlock Holmes Detective Cases by Zhonghua Bookstore
The 1916 edition of the Zhonghua Bookstore's Complete Detective Cases of Sherlock Holmes is a case in point
Zhonghua Bookstore was founded in Shanghai on January 1, 1912. The founders are Lu Feikui (Bo Hong), Dai Kedun (Mao Zhao), Chen Yin (Xie Gong), Shen Yi (Duo Shan), Shen Jifang (Ji Fang). In 1913, Lu Feikui was appointed as the director (later known as the manager), and Shen Zhifang was the deputy director. The founding of zhonghua bookstore was a product of the Xinhai Revolution. On the eve of the Xinhai Revolution in 1911, Lu Feikui, who was the director of the publishing department at the Commercial Press, asked Dike Dun, Chen Yin, and other editors to secretly write new textbooks. After the opening of the Zhonghua Bookstore, it put forward the slogans of "textbook revolution" and "completely run by Chinese businessmen" to compete with the Commercial Press. In 1916, it was moved to Qipan Street (the southwest corner of present-day Fuzhou Road Henan Road), opposite the Wuzhou Grand Pharmacy east of Henan Road, and adjacent to the Commercial Press. Since the 1980s, the area has long been a Shanghai Science and Technology Bookstore, and has now been converted into a new 5-storey building for a business hotel.
Fuzhou Road Henan Road junction in the 1920s. The Zhonghua Bookstore store is very eye-catching
From 1912 to 1949, Zhonghua Book Company published about 6,000 kinds of books of various kinds, including textbook books, ancient books, dictionaries, magazines, new books in various subjects, children's books, books in foreign languages, inscriptions and calligraphy. Among them, the translated works are also a major feature of the operation of Zhonghua Bookstore. In addition to the Sherlock Holmes Detective Collection, which is popular with the public, it also includes a large number of Western natural and social science classics and literary masterpieces.
Speaking of the compilers of "The Complete Detective Cases of Sherlock Holmes", they are also well-known people. Liu Bannong was a pioneer of the New Culture Movement in China and a famous writer, linguist and educator. Cheng Xiaoqing, born poor, but diligent since childhood, taught himself foreign languages and writing. Later known as the "first man" of modern Chinese detective novels, he was "Conan Doyle of the East", and his Hawthorne was the Chinese version of Sherlock Holmes. Yan Duhe, a famous newspaperman, entered the Zhonghua Book Company in 1913 as an English editor, and later presided over the supplement of the "News Daily" for a long time, and served as the deputy director of the Shanghai Library in the early days of liberation. Zhou Shuangjuan is a famous writer and translator, and an early representative writer of the Mandarin Duck Butterfly School. From 1915 to 1919, he was employed by the Zhonghua Bookstore, The News And the Declaration, and engaged in writing and translation.
Zhonghua Bookstore's "The Complete Works of Sherlock Holmes Detectives" was already the twentieth edition in 1936, which shows the degree of best-selling. The picture shows the title page of this edition, which contains many important information such as translators
At that time, the sherlock Holmes detective novel translation fever probably had these reasons:
First of all, in modern China, especially after the Sino-Japanese War, China was bullied by the great powers, and many people of insight hoped to change the closed and backward situation of China's poverty and weakness through the study and understanding of the West, from natural sciences to social sciences to the translation of literature, all followed such a big idea, so the novel was mainly used as a tool to improve society to "rejuvenate the people's morality" and "open up the people's wisdom". Conan Doyle's detective novels show readers a variety of realities in the political, economic, legal, diplomatic and other fields of modern British capitalist society, as well as various characters from various social classes, inadvertently opening a window that people are eager to understand Western society.
On May 30, 1923, an advertisement published by the Commercial Press for the publication of "Selected Cases of Sherlock Holmes" was published in the "Declaration", and it can be understood from the content that this is likely to be the original English reading
Cover of Sherlock Holmes's Detective Short Stories (Illustrated Edition), published by the Shanghai World Book Company in 1946
Second, Shanghai is the fastest growing city in modern China. The plot of Sherlock Holmes's detective novels is twisted and bizarre, and the story is extremely strong, which greatly attracts the growing class of citizens at that time. They need a popular spiritual food outside of work, and Western detective novels with thrilling plots, mysterious and stimulating characteristics are the reading materials they need most.
In addition, the natural science common sense, scientific reasoning, meticulous analysis, and the spirit of tireless work and dedication to justice involved in Holmes's detective novels were all praised and advocated by the social reform politicians of the time who thought they deserved to learn from.
At that time, "Sherlock Holmes" was so famous that many industries have also played signs, according to the current saying, it is "rubbing hot spots" and "IP development". Among them, the more well-known are the "Sherlock Holmes newspaper" and "Sherlock Holmes brand cigarettes" that appeared in the 1920s.
On September 29, 1927, the "Declaration" published an apology notice from the "Sherlock Holmes Newspaper Library". Sherlock Holmes was founded in Shanghai on July 3, 1926, the 15th year of the Republic of China, and ceased publication in August 1937. Originally a three-day magazine, it was later changed to a daily magazine. After Conan Doyle's detective novels became popular in China, Holmes became a household legend. The newspaper named "Sherlock Holmes", which means that it is good at spying on news. But this kind of snooping on privacy and eye-catching street tabloids often causes trouble, and public apologies are commonplace
On April 3, 1933, the "Declaration" published a large advertisement for "Sherlock Holmes cigarettes" on the front page. This product is the main product of China Fuxin Tobacco Company. Founded in Shanghai in 1926 by the famous industrialist Ding Houqing, Fuxin Tobacco Company is a leader in the national capital tobacco industry
On October 10, 1935, the "Declaration" published an advertisement for a "Sherlock Holmes sound cinema machine"
An enduring rendition
Due to the huge market demand and reader base, The Sherlock Holmes Detective Collection has been on the screen for a long time. As early as 1916 in the era of silent films, the silent film Sherlock Holmes was released. Holmes was played by American actor William Gillette, one of Holmes's early screen images. William Gillette also played Sherlock Holmes on stage several occasions. In 1939, the American Twentieth Century Fox Company filmed "The Hound of Baskerville", which had a huge impact around the world, and both of the above films were released in Shanghai.
On November 12, 1917, there were already films about Sherlock Holmes on the "Declaration". The picture shows the Shanghai Grand Theater at the intersection of North Sichuan Road and Qiujiang Road broadcasting "Most Detective Films... Sherlock Holmes Railway Adventures"
On February 25, 1931, the "Declaration" published a large film advertisement. The Sherlock Holmes detective film produced by Tianyi Film Company. The advertisement called it "the first creation of a domestic detective movie", which was a sensation at the time
An advertisement for a Sherlock Holmes film published in the Declaration on June 25, 1947. From 1942 to 1946, Universal Pictures produced 12 Sherlock Holmes films, played by Philip St. John Basil Rathbone, the "Bethy Rice". The film' original English title was "Sherlock Holmes and the Secret Weapon", which was filmed in 1942. After the end of World War II, a large number of American films were introduced to Shanghai, and this series was also one of them
The most classic of the TV series is the TV series "Sherlock Holmes Adventure", which premiered in the UK in 1984, with Jeremy Brett as Sherlock Holmes. For this role, Bright's famous quote is "Do The Doyle" (loyal to Doyle), and during the filming, he always led the original novel research, and his hard work was eventually rewarded, and he is still loved by a large number of Sherlock Holmes fans. Jeremy Bright is also the most recognized of all the actors who playEd Sherlock Holmes. The series also has a large number of fans in Shanghai. In the late 1980s, Shanghai Film Translation Studio auditioned several episodes.
Jeremy Bright's Sherlock Holmes is a classic, and many Chinese audiences see him as the embodiment of Sherlock Holmes
The series was produced by the British Television Company granada in 1984 and became a hit
After the 1980s, represented by the 1981 Beijing Mass Publishing House Ding Zhonghua et al., the "Complete Works of Sherlock Holmes Detectives" was used as the first Chinese translation of Sherlock Holmes detective novels after the reform and opening up, the translation of this book was rigorous and serious, the language was fluent, fascinating, and better restored the style of Conan Doyle. It was widely welcomed after publication. By November 2003, it had been reprinted 20 times.
Since 2000, there are more than 10 new versions. Among them, the more representative is the "Complete Collection of Sherlock Holmes Detective Novels" translated by Yang Liu et al., published by Huacheng Publishing House in 2003. On the basis of the previous translation, this translation reflects a new feature and trend in the treatment of language style and cultural factors.
postscript
In April 2007, in order to commemorate the 120th anniversary of the advent of Sherlock Holmes, hundreds of publishing houses under the Shanghai Literature and Art Publishing House published the Complete Works of Sherlock Holmes (Illustrated Full Translation), which was translated by Wang Zhiyi, a translator in Taiwan. A major feature of the collection is the distribution of a large number of illustrations faithful to the original Sidney Paget. Sidney Paget was a Victorian English illustrator best known for his illustrations of Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes story in The Strand magazine.
Sidney Paget's extensive sherlock Holmes detective book illustrations have been influential. Since then, many film and television works, whether it is actors, scenes or even plots, can see their imprint
Does the appearance of Roll Fu and Peanut have the charm of the illustrations of more than 100 years ago?
On November 15, 2012, the new translation of the Complete Works of Sherlock Holmes by Zhonghua Bookstore met with readers, and it has been 96 years since Zhonghua Bookstore first translated and published the complete works of Sherlock Holmes. With the great development of media means, the book version of Sherlock Holmes Detective Collection was gradually replaced by film and television, and the form of expression and story content were also innovated. On 25 July 2010, BBC Wales released a three-season mini-series of Sherlock Sherlock, with Sherlock Sherlock (surnamed "Sherlock Holmes") played by movie star Benedict Cumberbatch and John (surnamed "Watson") played by Martin Freeman. The play is set in modern Britain in the 21st century, showing holmes in the eyes of the screenwriter, and Holmes in the play uses various high-tech techniques to assist in solving the case. After the launch of the series, the reputation was very good. On January 1, 2016, a special film version of the series was released. On January 4 of the same year, the film premiered in Shanghai. From the first translation in 1896 to the film in 2016, after 120 years, text and images connect shanghai's century-old changes and social development in a way with the characteristics of the times. END
Reference
Li Oufan: "Sherlock Holmes in China"
Kong Huiyi: "Still with the Background, But Also with Justice: On the Chinese Translation of English Detective Novels in the Late Qing Dynasty and the Early Ming Dynasty"
Mao Li: Translation of Sherlock Holmes's Detective Novels, A Study of Reception and Influence
"Shanghai Tongzhi", "Shanghai Publishing Chronicle", "Shanghai News Chronicle" and so on
"Declaration" resources: Ai Rusheng declaration database
Some of the images are from the web
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