莊周還是「裝」周？--初探理雅各譯筆下紛雜的《莊子》形象

Abstract

理雅各堪稱十九世紀最具影響力的學者型譯者，除了曾任倫敦會傳教士，也是牛津大學首任漢學教授，這些身分都成了探究其中國經典翻譯時的重要關鍵。作為一位傳教士，理雅各主張早在遠古的中國，人們就知道「上帝」（God）的存在，且認為儒道思想是分化自同一個「完美合一」（state of perfect unity）的源頭。基於這樣的信念，理雅各翻譯的《莊子》當中，亦時時可見基督信仰裡唯一「上帝」的身影，或明顯或隱微，與莊子以「道」與「自然」為核心的思想互相纏繞，形成一個紛雜的宇宙觀。此外，理雅各一生譯作頗豐，特別是儒家經典的翻譯，其數量之多至今無人可超越。而相對於道家的「絕聖去智」，儒家思想所強調的倫理、道德、是非、義務等概念，也和理雅各身為新教傳教士所服膺的道德觀較為相近。故其所譯之《莊子》當中，時常可見對原文「儒家式」的解讀。在翻譯儒家、道家皆有使用的詞彙時，理雅各也經常偏離莊子原本的「自然」之道，轉而強調儒家式的道德追求。理雅各翻譯的《莊子》收錄於1891年出版的《東方聖書：道家文本》（The Sacred Books of the East: The Texts of Taoism），這部叢書系統性地塑造了英語世界對各個東方「宗教」的最初認識，影響力不可謂不大。而理雅各更是西方翻譯、研究道家思想及道教的先驅學者，其所翻譯的《莊子》亦是西方世界認識中國傳統道家思想的重要文本之一，重要性不言而喻。本篇論文以操縱學派翻譯理論為基礎，藉由對原文及譯文的深度閱讀來分析理雅各譯筆下紛雜的《莊子》形象，並試圖探討以翻譯呈現文化「他者」的永久命題。

James Legge was one of the most influential scholar-translators in the 19th century. His multiple identities as a missionary of London Missionary Society, a translator of voluminous Chinese classics, and the first professor of Chinese in the University of Oxford greatly influenced how he understood and represented Chinese traditions in his translation. As a missionary, Legge adopted the controversial “accommodating attitude” toward Chinese traditions, believing that the ancient Chinese had known the existence of God. In his translation of the Zhuangzi, one can see frequent intrusion of Legge’s “Christian slips of tongue.” The translation proper and Legge’s annotations to the translated texts form a tangled cosmology of Daoism and Christianity. On the other hand, though a pioneering scholar who studied, translated, and constructed the earliest impression of “Daoism” in the Western world, Legge’s interpretation of the Zhuangzi often seemed rather “Confucian” and deviated from the “natural” way of Zhuangzi. Legge’s translation of the Zhuangzi, entitled “The Writings of Kwang-tze,” was published in 1891, included in The Sacred Books of the East: The Texts of Taoism. The Sacred Books of the East was an important book series for people in the West to get acquainted with Chinese philosophies/religions. The Zhuangzi constructed by Legge can be regarded as one of the earliest impression of the Daoistic text in the Western world. By reading both original and translated texts closely and analyzing how Legge’s theological ideology and Sinological scholarship participated in his translation of the Zhuangzi, this thesis aims to demonstrate the “hybridity” of “The Writings of Kwang-tze” and reflect on the everlasting tricky issue of representing “otherness” in translation.