严复中英文简介

严复（1853——1921）：triple principle of translation

信（faithfulness）：忠实准确

达（expressiveness）：通顺流畅

雅（elegance）：文字古雅

Yan fu put forward this“three character guide”in his preface to the translation of T.H.Huxley`s book Evolution and Ethics and Other Essays （《天演论》译例言1898）

译事三难信达雅。求其信已大难矣。顾信矣不达。虽译尤不译也。则达尚焉。……易曰修辞立诚。子曰辞达而已。又曰言之无文。行之不远。三者乃文章正轨。亦即为译事楷模。故信达而外。求其尔雅。此不仅期以行远已耳。实则精理微言。用汉以前字法句法。则为达易。用近世利俗文字。则求达雅。往往抑义就词。毫厘千里。审择于斯二者之间。夫固有所不得已。岂钓奇哉。……

Translation has to do three difficult things：to be faithful，expressive，and elegant。It is difficult enough to be faithful to the original，and yet if a translation is not expressive，it is tantamount to having no translation.Hence expressiveness should be required too……The Book of Changes says that the first requisite of rhetoric is truthfulness. Confucius says that expressiveness is all that matters in language。He adds that if

one`s language lacks grace，it won`t go far.These three qualities，then，are the criteria of good writing and，I believe，of good translation too.Hence besides faithfulness and expressiveness，I also aim at elegance.I strive for elegance not just to make my translations travel far，but to express the original writer`s ideas better，for I find that subtle thoughts are better expressed in the vocabulary and syntax of pre-Han prose than those of the vulgar writings of today. Using the latter often leads to distortion of meaning，which，however slight，results in vast misunderstanding. Weighing the pros and cons，I opted for the former，as a matter of necessity，not trying to be different.……

Yan Fu

(simplified Chinese: 严复;

traditional Chinese: 嚴復;

pinyin: Yán Fù;

Wade–Giles: Yen Fu;

courtesy name: Ji Dao, 幾道;

8 January 1854 — 27 October 1921)

was a Chinese scholar and translator, most famous for introducing western ideas, including Darwin's "natural selection," to China in the late 19th century.

Life

Yan Fu studied at the Fujian Arsenal Academy (福州船政學堂) in Fuzhou, Fujian Province. In 1877–79 he studied at the Navy Academy in Greenwich, England. Upon his return to China, he was unable to pass the Imperial Civil Service Examination, while teaching at the Fujian Arsenal Academy and then Beiyang Naval Officers' School (北洋水師學堂) at Tianjin.

It was not until after the Chinese defeat in the First Sino-Japanese War (1894–95, fought for control of Korea) that Yan Fu became famous. He is celebrated for his translations, including Thomas Huxley's Evolution and Ethics, Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations, John Stuart Mill's On Liberty and Herbert Spencer's Study of Sociology. Yan critiqued the ideas of Darwin and others, offering his own interpretations.

The ideas of "natural selection" and "survival of the fittest" were introduced to Chinese readers through Huxley's work. The former idea was famously rendered by Yan Fu into Chinese as tiānzé (天擇).

He became a respected scholar for his translations, and became politically