Matteo Ricci’s Tianzhu shi yi (the true meaning of the Lord of Heaven) and his strategies for translating Christian terms into Chinese

Abstract

利玛窦是早期基督教词汇的翻译者之一。本文讨论利玛窦在以教理问答形式写成的《天主实义》这本书中基督教词汇的翻译方法。利玛窦在翻译过程中用他独有的方式,把儒家经典和基督教教义联系了起来,从而冲破了儒家壁垒。这种翻译方法在世界翻译历史上不多见。 In compiling Tianzhu shi yi(The True Meaning of the Lord of Heaven),Matteo Ricci made one of the first attempts to translate Christian terminology into Chinese.A close reading of this catechism in Chinese shows that Ricci did not adopt a"domesticating" approach,as Nida would later recommend.Instead,in turning the Confucian terminology to his own use and bringing about a fusion of Confucianism and Christianity,he employed a strategy of translation that could only be described as"foreignizing"in today’s terms.The adeptness with which Ricci applied the foreignizing method is rarely seen in the history of translation.