《道德经》最早英译本及其译者初探  

A preliminary study on the translator of the earliest English translation of Tao-Te-Ching

作　　者：姚达兑[1] 

机构地区：[1]中山大学

出　　处：《外语教学与研究》2017年第1期135-143,共9页Foreign Language Teaching and Research

摘　　要：世传《道德经》最早英译为传教士湛约翰于1868年完成。然而,笔者新发现的耶鲁大学《道德经》英译手稿则完成于1859年。我们无法确知该稿的译者为谁,但可从一些相关线索中去推断出各种可能。该译本是由1842年儒莲法译本转译而成。译稿是圣公会中的一位学生为裨治文所誊抄。裨治文逝世之后,手稿流转至耶鲁大学首任汉学教授卫三畏手中。本文将这部手稿置放于儒莲、卫三畏、裨治文、湛约翰、王韬和梁进德等人相互交往的文化网络中去看待,解释译本产生的语境,并推测誊抄者可能是梁进德,而译者可能便是裨治文。The first English translation of Tao-Te-Ching was generally attributed to John Chalmers' s rendition in 1868. Nevertheless, an English translation manuscript of Tao-Te-Ching archived at Yale University Library was completed in 1859. Though we could not really know who the translator is, there are some possible leads. This Yale manuscript was a retranslation from Stanislas A. Julien's French rendition(1842), and was prepared by a student from an Episcopal missionary school in China for the American Missionary E. C. Bridgman. After the death of Bridgman, it was passed onto S. W. William, the first professor of sinology at Yale. Since then, the text was archived at the Yale Library. To better understand the text and its possible translator, this article contextualizes a social network of cultural exchange between some related Chinese intellectuals and Western Sinologists, with the conclusion that the possible translator is E. C. Bridgman, and the student who prepared the manuscript for Bridgman might be Liang Jinde.

关 键 词：《道德经》英译 卫三畏 裨治文 梁进德 

分 类 号：H315.9[语言文字—英语]