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The Influence of James Legge (1815-1897) on Later Translations of the Confucian Classics
2018/2019 School of Chinese Research Student Seminar
The Influence of James Legge (1815-1897) on Later Translations of the Confucian Classics
理雅各對後世翻譯《四書五經》的影響
Mr. Christian Nordvall 王子安先生
February 25, 2019 (Monday); 5:30-6:45pm
Room 730, Run Run Shaw Tower, Centennial Campus
Language: English
James Legge (1815-1897) was the first professor of Chinese at Oxford, and before that an important missionary to Hong Kong. He is best known for making the first, and so far only, complete translation of the Confucian Four Books & Five Classics into English, published in seven volumes over a 24-year period 1861-1885. While nobody has since attempted to re-translate the entire canon, there are dozens of partial translations, especially of the Four Books. What is the relationship of these later translators to Legge? Most of them admit to having read his work in their prefaces and footnotes, but generally they do not say what, if anything, they have borrowed from him. This talk will briefly introduce the history of translating the Four Books & Five Classics during the first 100 years after Legge’s last publication (1885-1985), and then analyse the dependence of later translators on Legge from the three angles of vocabulary, hermeneutics, and worldview.
理雅各（1815-1897）為香港著名傳教士，後為牛津大學首任中文教授。他以完整地英譯《四書五經》的第一人著稱。此翻譯耗時24年（1861～1885），共分七卷。一個多世紀以來，儘管有部分經典被重譯，尤其是《四書》，但理雅各的翻譯迄今仍是唯一完整的《四書五經》英譯。後人重譯的版本與理雅各的譯本之間存在怎樣的關係呢？一般後世譯者均在序言、注解中承認參考過理雅各的版本，但通常不會說明自己借用了理雅各譯本的多少内容。本次報告將簡介《四書五經》在理雅各譯本問世後一百年間的重譯情況，並從詞彙、經學、世界觀三個方面來分析理雅各版本對之後《四書五經》譯本的影響。
ALL ARE WELCOME!
