The Translation of Modern Western Science in Nineteenth-Century China, 1840-1895

Abstract

The translation of Western science texts into Chinese began with the Jesuits in the sixteenth century, but by 1800 their impact had waned. The First Opium War (1839-1842) and the Taiping Rebellion (1850-1864) stimulated renewed interest in Western military technologies and in the sciences that underpinned them, leading to the beginning of systematic translations at government institutions in the late 1860s. At the same time, Western missionaries were making their own science translations, in the belief that science would be an auxiliary to the spreading of the gospel. Translation techniques are compared to those of the early Buddhist missionaries. Methods for creating new terms and their relative merits are discussed, together with the opinions of those who argued that the whole enterprise was impossible. The relatively small direct influence of the translations is contrasted with their effect as catalysts for intellectual and political changes that would find their full expression only in the next century.