传教士汉学家的中国经典出版的比较: 理雅各、顾赛芬、卫礼贤

本文基于以下前提而撰：苏格兰不信奉国教的新教徒汉学家理雅各在翻译、阐释、出版“四书五经”时为后世的儒教与道家经典的汉学翻译设置了15条标准。 这些标准将在本文中得到描述并举例。然后，我们把这些标准用来验证法国耶稣会士汉学家顾赛芬的大量儒家经典翻译，以及德国路德宗传教士汉学家卫礼贤选译的儒家、道教与其他古代经典文本中。基于理雅各的先例进行仔细的对比分析后，我们获得了重要结论。顾赛芬的译著包括了对四书的拉丁文与法文的翻译以及对《仪礼》的新译，他大致上遵循了理雅各先前设定的一半原则。但卫礼贤德译《易经》与《礼记》是一种“反传统”的再现。他的《易经》翻译是原典经书、经典点评与译者个人对阐释的选取的大杂烩。更有甚者，他的《礼记》翻译仅仅是选择，而且根据其个人对主题的喜好对文本进行了完全重组。

This article is based upon a basic premise: the renderings, interpretations and publications of the Four Books and Five Classics by the Scottish Nonconformist Protestant missionary-sinologist, James Legge (1815—1897), set fifteen standards for subsequent sinological publications of Ruist and Daoist classical literature. These fifteen standards are each described and illustrated.

They are then applied to the extensive Ruist translations published by the French Jesuit missionary-sinologist, Seraphim Couvreur (1839—1919) and the more selective renderings of Ruist, Daoist and other ancient texts by the German Lutheran missionary-sinologist , Richard Wilhelm (1873—1930).

Careful analysis based on Legge's precedents reveals important comparative results. Couvreur's works generally followed Legge's precedents, though he offered both Latin and French renderings of the Four Books and a new translation of the Ceremonial Rites (Yili). Couvreur was only able to match up to about half of Legge's fifteen precedents. Wilhelm's German renderings of The Book of Changes (1924) and the so-called Book of Rites (1930) are actually found to be non-standard representations. Wilhelm's Yijing mixes up the divinatory text, its classical commentaries, and Wilhelm's own selection of interpretations in a willful manner. Furthermore, his renderings of the Liji are only selective and completely reorganized according to Wilhelm's own thematic preferences.