The Relationship between Chinese Learning and Western Learning according to Yan Fu ( 1854 - 1921 )

During the nineteenth century, translations in Chinese from Western languages were done essentially by missionaries with the help of Chinese collaborators or by some Chinese intellectuals in contact with Japan. For instance, the translation of Henry Wheaton’s Elements of International Law (1836) as Wanguo gongfa 萬國公法 in 1864 by W. A. P. Martin is often regarded as an epoch-making event. But, the main fields of translation remained science and technology. Yan Fu 嚴復 (1854-1921) was the first Chinese translator of the works of Adam Smith, John Stuart Mill, Thomas Henry Huxley, Herbert Spencer, and Montesquieu, among others. He wrote many commentaries on these authors and their works in his translation. His three criteria of translation: faithfulness (xin 信), comprehensibility (da 達), elegance (ya 雅), published in the preface of Tianyan lun 天演論 (Translation of Evolution and Ethics of Huxley, 1898), have become classical ones in the Chinese theory of translation. Before him, Chinese elite had begun to discuss the relationship between hanxue 漢學 and xixue 西學 commonly rendered as Chinese Learning and Western Learning: the first was considered as “Constitution”, “Foundation” or “Substance” (ti 體, “body”), the second one as “Function” or “Practical Application” (yong 用). Yan Fu first examined this relationship between ti and yong in the perspective of political thought taking Freedom as ti and Democracy as yong. The objective of this paper is to understand how Yan Fu conceives this thesis and to discuss some recent evaluations of Benjamin Schwartz’s pioneering work on Yan Fu. I begin with a presentation of Yan Fu’s life and his role in the introduction of European human and social sciences.