中英雙語話中國歷史名人 第42期:嚴復

Yan Fu (1854~1921), styled Jidao, self-assumed name Yuye in his late years, alias philosopher of Tianyan sect，was a native of Houguan (present Fuzhou) in Fujian Province. He was among the first to study in England.

嚴復(1854~1921)，字幾道，晚年自號老人，別署天演宗哲學家，福州南臺人，曾經作爲中國第一批留學生留學英國。

He attributed the sticking point of the "Chinese Problem" to “the messy and chaotic internal affairs instead of bully and humiliation of foreign countries".

他把“中國問題”的癥結歸結爲“不在外國的欺凌，而在內政之不修”，認爲中國只有變法圖強，才能挽救危亡。

Therefore in order to save the nation in peril and make the national might felt once again, China had no other way out but to initiate liberal social and political reforms and self-strengthening, and learn from Western science and technology of the capitalist era.

要重振中國的雄風，只有一條路可走，那就是學習西方的近代科學技術與知識。

He translated large numbers of Western academic masterpieces such as introducincing the modern Western society, politics, culture and ideology, especially Darwinism, establishing his status of "top translator of modern China".

他翻譯出版了大量西方學術名著，介紹西方近代的社會、政治、文化與思想，尤其是達爾文的進化論，從而奠定了“近代中國第一譯手”的地位。

He wanted to acquaint the Chinese with such biological evolutionist ideas as “organic evolution and natural selection" and "the survival of the fittest" and awaken them to the necessity of retaining the political consciousness of striving to become stronger, of competing with nature for supremacy. These ideas became powerful weapons against the ossified ideas of the feudal diehards and stimulated people's demand for institutional reform and national revival.

他的目的是使中國人知道“物競天擇，適者生存”的道理，喚醒中國人保種自強、與大爭勝進而變法圖存的政治意識。

He translated the British political economist Adam Smith's An Inquiry into The Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, which was the most important of his translations and largest in scale.

爲了促進中國的富強與發展，他翻譯了英國政治經濟學家亞當·斯密的《原富》(今譯《國民財富的性質及原因研究》)，是分量最重、規模最大的一本譯作。

He paid a panegyric on the British philosopher Herbert Spencer's vulgarization of evolutionism conformed better to the actual demand of saving the nation from extinction and self-strengthening.

他特別推崇英國哲學家斯賓塞的“庸俗進化論”，翻譯了他的《羣學肄言》(今譯《社會學研究》)，認爲斯賓塞對進化論所進行的庸俗化更合乎當時中國社會救亡圖存的現實需要。

He also translated A History of Politics, On Liberty, De l'Esprit des Lois, System of Logic and Pure Logic.

另外，他還翻譯了《社會通詮》 ,《羣己權界論》、《法意》(今譯《論法的精神》)、《名學》、《名學淺說》等。

Yan Fu devoted all his life to the publicity of the ideology of enlightenment. He was one of the most eminent thinkers of enlightenment in modern China.

嚴復畢生致力於啓蒙思想的宣傳，是近代中國最著名的啓蒙思想家之一。