By investigating the translations of the Western Learning in the early modern China, with the focus on the formation process of translation system, my dissertation probes into the buildings of 'modern translation' and the prototype of the modern disco...
By investigating the translations of the Western Learning in the early modern China, with the focus on the formation process of translation system, my dissertation probes into the buildings of 'modern translation' and the prototype of the modern discourse in the 'space of modern language.' Especially, in the Chinese contexts after the Opium War, I investigate the linguistic/cultural conflicts and the building of the modern hegemony. The detailed sources I refer to are the national educational institute for translation, Tongwenguan (同文館 ; the Imperial College of Languages), established by the Qing dynasty, and the translated examples excerpted from Elements of International Law, one of the representatives of the Western Learning at that time. My thesis is composed of five chapters.
In the first chapter, I want to prove why the reexamination of the translation of the Western Learning in the early modern China is needed, and I suggest the hypothetical presumptions and methodologies in order to process the reexamination.
In the second chapter, I try to explore the translation before the mid-19th century in the premodern linguistic space. In particular, as the preliminary preparation stage to form the modern translation protocol, the Western Christian missionary's sporadic participation is noted. In the space of the premodern language, the classical language (classical Chinese) played as the meta-language and shared-language transcending each people's native tongues and dialects, and the translation between each people's characters did as a secondary role.
In the third chapter, the main idea is dealt with through the translation system and protocol, the formation process of modern hegemony, right before the Tianjin(天津) Treatment in the wake of the Second Opium War. China's hegemony was turned over to the West with the conclusion of the Tianjin Treatment. The establishment of the national educational institutes for translation is in line with the perceptional changes made by the upper class intellectuals, which further greatly influences on the activities of the Western missionary such as Mohaishuguan (墨海書館) and Guangxuehui (廣學會) along with the flourishing of the Western Learning translation with the translation system and protocol formation. Through the translation of the Western Learning, there were made the translation words and meaning changes in the existing vocabulary, which resulted in the 'break' in the existing linguistic systems and discourse order. In this sense, the modern translation can be evaluated as the new verification of hegemony in the modern discourse.
The fourth chapter goes into the detailed translation examples in Elements of International Law translated by William Martin who engaged as a missionary, delegate, and Tongwenguan teacher. By the examples of the practical translation, I try to look into the hybridity in the hegemony formation of the Western discourse along with the traditional discourse. The Western modern international law resulted from the Euro-centrism, and Orientalism replaced the East Asian traditional discourse order through the translation of Elements of International Law.
In the final chapter, I reexamine the double values contained in the 19th century Western Learning in translation, and I discuss the out-of-modern prospects and possibilities amongst the forces of centripetal and centrifugal. Following the continuous changes of language, translation also changes along with the historical meaning changes in the texts. Translation establishes the linguistic hegemony but it continuously breaks down the existing hegemony. Plus, translation disregards two different elements, which sheds the possibility to go beyond the binary oppositions, like "Huzangqize(互藏其宅 ; mutual hiding of its dwelling), " the concept from the Book of Changes.