Analysis on Yan Fu and the Ideological Features in His Time

ZHANG+Jing

【Abstract】Yan Fu is known as an important enlightenment thinker and translator in Chinas history. Thanks to his educational experience， he is proficient both in traditional Chinese and in English， furthermore， his thoughts was deeply influenced by the then more advanced western bourgeois class. As to ideology at his time， politically， the whole nation was exerting their efforts to save the country mainly by learning from the West；in literature， they still held in high esteem the elegant classical Chinese， which are the chief cultural factors that influence Yan Fus translation practice later.

【Key words】Yan Fu； political ideology； aesthetical ideology

Yan Fu is introduced as an important enlightenment thinker and translator in Chinas history. Thanks to his outstanding command of both Chinese and English and his seriousness towards translation， Yan made western works of politics and social science accessible to Chinese people， which met the demand of the Chinese intellectuals who yearned for learning from the West for national salvation. In that critical age when China was faced with partition by world powers， Yan Fu made great contribution in enlightening his fellowmen through his own way. By putting forward the famous translation criterion “faithfulness， expressiveness and elegance”， his contribution in translation theories will never be ignored too.

1. A Brief Introduction to Yan Fu

Yan Fu （1854-1921）， a native of Fujian province， China， lived his life in an eventful era. He learned traditional Confucian classics diligently from his tutor Huang Shaoyan since he was ten years old， which obviously built a solid foundation for his master of classical Chinese. In 1871， he graduated with outstanding achievements from a naval academy in Fuzhou and then dispatched to practice on a vessel. He arrived in Singapore， Japan and other places successively. In 1877， he was selected by the Qing government to be sent to Britain for further education. Since then， he had trod on a very different road compared with his most contemporaries in China.

The experience abroad is critical for Yan Fu， because not only his master of the language was further strengthened， but his thoughts began to be deeply influenced by the then more advanced western bourgeois class. His later achievements in translation were just based on such an experience.

Yan， opposing the feudal absolute monarchy and feudal culture， defending western bourgeois democracy and western knowledge， was known as a member of the Reformers. His articles helped to stimulate peoples demand for institutional reform and national revival. Yet it was through translation that Yan gained himself a high reputation as a bourgeois enlightenment thinker throughout the country. His first translated book Tianyan Lun published in 1898 from the English original Evolution and Ethics written by Huxley was a great success and exerted profound influence on many Chinese elites like Lu Xun， Hu Shi and the like. Later he selected other 12 western masterpieces covering philosophy， politics， economy， science of law， education and ethics to translate into Chinese in less than thirteen years. All his translation had an explicit political purpose：to introduce advanced western ideas to his fellowmen for the salvation of China. Devoting all his life in translation， he died of disease in 1921.endprint

2. Ideological features in Yan Fus time

2.1 Political ideology in the latter half of the 19th century

The latter half of the 19th century was a critical era for China. Her territory was faced with being partitioned by imperial powers and her people being wiped out as a whole. Since the Opium War of 1840-1842， China was reduced to a semi-colonial and semi-feudal society and China entered a lamentable time in its modern history， when Yan Fu lived his life.

Facing the frequent foreign aggression and long-lasting domestic trouble， some of the Qing officials， later known as the “Westernization Group”， through establishing western-style factories， tried to make the motherland strong and prosperous. They learned advanced military and industrial technology from western bourgeoisie to build up their military and civilian industries. They were in the hope of saving China through advanced navy and army. They also built some schools to cultivate students for special purposes. Yan Fu attended such a school in Fu Zhou in 1866.

Though the actions and movement initiated by the Westernization Group have certain progressive function in history， they are impossible to make China strong and rich. The fundamental reason lies in the nature of the Group—they were actually representatives of feudal class. They attempted to develop modern industry on the premise of not changing the feudal institution， which was definitely an illusion.

From the 1870s to the early of 1890s， with the emergence of national industry， the reformism trend of thought gradually came into being. The reformists were dissatisfied with the weakness of the Qing government because of their giving up the sovereign of the state. They advocated learning from the West， eradicating unhelpful policies and searching for self-salvation and self-strengthening. Simultaneously they were critical of the conduct of the Westernization Group. Instead of imitating the solid vessels and sharp weapons from the West， they supported the idea of learning the political and economic policies from them. They are regarded pioneers of searching truth from the West. These ideas reflect the demand of the Chinese national bourgeoisie and laid a basis for the later Reform Movement led by them.

After the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-95， imperialist powers frantically carved up their orbit on the Chinese territory. It seemed that the disaster of being eradicated as a nation was imminent. The unprecedented national crisis spurred a national patriotic movement with the purpose to save China over the whole country—Reform Movement. Kang Youwei， Liang Qichao， Yan Fu and Tan Sitong were major representatives.endprint

The gist of their ideas， which can be seen as the manifestation of social ideology at that time was as follows：①Resistance to foreign aggression；② Development of national capitalism and opposition to the Qing policy of restricting national industry and commerce；③Institution of a constitutional monarchy. ④Establishing schools and learning western knowledge to enlighten the Chinese people. In all， in that eventful era， the dominant political ideology in the whole nation can be concluded into one phrase：saving the country and surviving the disaster. Living in the special era， the translations of Yan Fu just met the demand of the dominant political ideology.

2.2 Chinese Aesthetical ideology in the late-Qing Dynasty

Even in the same era， people of different social class have different literary preferences. In the second half of the 19th century， the scholar-officials were the ruling class of China， thereby the literary aesthetics of such literati reflected the mainstream of cultural ideology at that time， for which this paper will mainly show concern.

Scholars at that time preferred a kind of classical Chinese known as “Archaic Chinese” of Tongcheng School， which had developed during the early and middle Zhou （1100BC—256BC） and Han （221BC –207BC） dynasties （Zhang Weihe， 2003）， whose texts included inscriptions on bronze artifacts， the poetry in Shijing， the history of Shujing， and portions of Yijing. As the primary language form used in Chinese literary works until the May Fourth Movement， classical Chinese was distinguished by an effort to maintain parallelism and rhythm， even in prose works， and by its extensive use of allusions that also contributed to its brief style. Because of its heavy use of literature references and allusions and emphasis on balance of rhythm， imagery and tonal patterns， Archaic Chinese can be understood only by educated elites and thus gradually and eventually became the language of the elite， which was mainly in use in canonical literature and formal documents in China.

In summary， the social ideology in late Qing Dynasty， when Yan Fu lived， could be generalized as follows：①politically， the whole nation was exerting their efforts to save the country mainly by learning from the West；② in literature， they still held in high esteem the elegant classical Chinese that developed about two millennia ago， which are the chief cultural factors that influence Yan Fus translation practice later.

參考文獻：

[1]Lefevere André.Translation，Rewriting，and the Manipulation of Literary Fame.London and New York：Routledge，1992a.

[2]Pi Houfeng.Yan Fu.Nanjing：Nanjing University Press.2006（皮后鋒，嚴復評傳，南京：南京大學出版社，2006）.

作者簡介：張靖（1976-），女，漢族，黑龍江哈爾濱人，畢業(yè)于哈爾濱師范大學，碩士研究生，副教授，研究方向為金融英語、翻譯理論與實踐。endprint