Theory of Celestial Performance

British Huxley's original work, political thesis translated by Yan Fu

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Tianyan Lun was written by the British Huxley Original, Prolific translator of Western works into classical Chinese Translational Political treatise 。

At the end of the Qing Dynasty, Jia Wu sea fight The fiasco of Chinese nation Pushed to the critical moment. At this point, Prolific translator of Western works into classical Chinese Translated Britain biologist Huxley's Evolution and Ethics publicized“ Natural selection, survival of the fittest ”In December 1897, the National News Collection published in Tianjin produced a huge social response that Yan Fushi did not expect. reformers leader Kang Youwei After seeing this translation, he exclaimed that "there is no such person in his eyes", saying Prolific translator of Western works into classical Chinese "Translating Tianyan Lun into China Western learning The first is also ".

Title: Theory of Celestial Performance
Alias of works: Evolution and Ethics
Author: Huxley

literary genre: Political treatise
Category: science
Translator: Prolific translator of Western works into classical Chinese

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five About the author
six Introduction to Translators

Works Viewpoint

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The basic view of Evolution and Ethics is that the creatures in nature are not immutable, but constantly evolving; The reason for evolution is "natural selection", and "competition" is Survival competition Natural selection is natural selection; The same principle applies to humans, but human civilization The more developed people are, the more they are the best in ethics. theory of evolution The foundation of the theory is Darwin On《 Origin of species 》Huxley insisted on and developed this idea.

Creation background

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Original background

Evolution and Ethics and other Essays《 evolution and ethics 》。 At that time, Britain was Victorian era ， economic stability , social prosperity, Liberalism With further development, the great navigation developed, the control of medieval religion weakened, different ideas and cultures gradually flourished, and natural science developed unprecedentedly. Darwin, Huxley, Spencer and other theories became popular in Britain.

Translation Background

In the Opium War, the Western Powers' fleet strength and artillery wealth^[1] And exposed the weakness of the Eastern Empire. So they spread Western learning, Learn from barbarians And become the consensus of the government and the public. A group of Chinese intellectuals who first accepted Western ideas, such as Wei Yuan 、 Wang Tao 、 Li Shanlan 、 Xu Shou 、 Hua Hengfang 、 Zheng Guanying Etc. for translate and write an introduction Western books, spreading western Political system 、 scientific knowledge , has played a great role. Westernization Faction Founded Jiangnan Machinery Manufacturing Bureau Translation Museum Translated and published a large number of western scientific and technological works in modern China Publishing History It has played a role that cannot be underestimated.

Yan Fu's translation of Tianyan Lun is not purely literal translation, but has comments and play. He divided the introduction of "Tianyan Lun" into 18 chapters and the main body into 17 chapters, with titles respectively, and added notes to 28 of them. While expounding the theory of evolution, he combined the reality of China and warned people that if they did not work hard, they would perish. Yan Fu pointed out in his note that there are many examples of survival competition, survival of the fittest, and elimination of the fittest in plants and animals, as well as in humans. The success or failure of human competition depends not on the number of people, but on the strength of its power. In the face of the national crisis in China at that time, Yan Fu pointed out sharply that China could no longer ignore the reality and arrogance, and just talk about the old tune of "Yi Xia Xuan" ("Yi Xia Xuan", literally: a kind of car with a high front and a curtain in ancient China, for doctors and above). If it was not done well, the country would be destroyed. Tianyan Lun tells people about the threat of national subjugation, but it is not idle Pessimism It enlightens people that although China is weak (before and after the Opium War), there is still a way to save it. This is strong competition. Through efforts, we can change the position of the weak into the strong.

Translation achievements

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Tianyan Lun is actually a very wonderful political paper. The book believes that all things are "selected by nature" natural law Change, "competition for things" is the "survival competition" between organisms, where superior species defeat inferior species, and strong species defeat weak species; "Natural selection" is natural selection, Natural elimination Biology evolves in the process of "survival competition" and "natural elimination". contact Sino Japanese War The situation of the post national crisis sent out a cry to the Chinese people to compete with the sky and strive to preserve the species, pointing out that if we do not change the law, we will follow the rule of "the superior wins and the inferior loses" and perish the country and the species! This idea revealed in Tianyan Lun is combined with the introduction of Darwin's theory of biological evolution and the West Philosophical thought It made the Chinese intelligentsia at that time in the era of "knowledge famine" a treasure and had an enlightening effect.

Since the publication of this book, the words "natural selection", "the superior wins and the inferior loses" have become the mantra of people. When Hu Shi was reading, his teacher asked his students to buy Tianyan Lun as a reading book, and asked them to write a composition on "natural selection, survival of the fittest". He said, "Of course, this topic is not something that our teenagers can play. But it shows that reading Tianyan Lun has become the trend of that era." He commented Yan Fu as "Introduction modern times The first person of thought ".

Produced by the publication of Tianyan Lun shock wave Not only at that time, but also affected several generations, and established Yan Fu's position in the modern Chinese ideological circle.

Yan Fu advocated reform with western theories, which shocked the Chinese ideological circle at that time and promoted the development of the reform movement. He was an enlightenment thinker in modern China.

Influence of works

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Influence on modern Chinese thought

He said that Darwin's book was translated in 1896 Europe and America In two continents, almost every family has a series of books, which are well known to women and children. There are two most important theories, one is competition for things, and the other is natural selection. In addition, Yan Fu also translated Tianyan Lun to Liang Qichao Wait and see. Therefore, although Tianyan Lun was officially published in 1898, its theory of natural selection had long been in the thought circle Spread the word.

It took three years for Tian Yan Lun to be translated and officially published. These three years, from 1895 to 1898, were Modern Chinese History It was an unusual three years, Jia Wu sea fight The national crisis was unprecedented Reform movement It keeps rising. At this time, "Tian Yan Lun" came out, and natural selection came out, which naturally caused a strong shock in the ideological circle. Famous in literature Tongzhi Jinshi Wu Rulun See Tianyan Lun Translation Later, he was full of praise and thought that there was no such grand system since China translated Western books. This old man in his fifties wrote his own words when he was not only giving a reward characters of very small size , transcribe the full text of Tianyan Lun word for word and hide it in the pillow. Liang Qichao read the translated version of Tianyan Lun and publicized it before it was published. Always supercilious Kang Youwei After reading the translation of Tianyan Lun, I have to admit that I have never seen such a book before Western learning The first is also ". youth Lu Xun When I first read Tianyan Lun, I couldn't put it down... An old man with a cold head objected to Lu Xun's reading this new book, but Lu Xun ignored him, "I still don't think there is anything wrong with him, and when I have free time, I eat pancakes as usual peanut meat 、 Pepper See "On the Performance of Heaven". It can be seen that Tianyan Lun was well received by the society at that time.

On《 Celestial performance After the publication of, "Tianyan", "Wuji" and "Tiancai"“ Survival of the fittest ”Such new terms soon flooded newspapers and periodicals and became the most active words. Some schools use Tianyan Lun as their teaching materials, some teachers use "competition for things" and "natural selection" as their writing topics, and some teenagers simply use "competition for survival" and "fitness" as their own names.

Hu Shi Memory: (In Chengzhong School) once, he (Yang Qianli, a Chinese language teacher) taught our class to buy Wu Rulun's abridged version of Yan Fu's "Tianyan Theory" as a reading book. This was the first time I read "Tianyan Theory", and I was very happy. The title of his composition is“ Natural selection, survival of the fittest , try to explain its meaning ". Of course, this kind of topic is not something that we teenagers can play, but reading "Tianyan Lun" and doing "natural selection" articles can represent the ethos of that era.

After the publication of Tianyan Lun, it became popular throughout the country within a few years and became a reading material for middle school students. Few readers of this book can understand Huxley's History of Science And contributions in the history of thought. All they can understand is that the formula of "the superior wins the inferior loses" International politics The meaning of. After repeated defeats in China Geng Chen 、 Xin Chou After the great humiliation, the formula of "the superior wins and the inferior loses" is really a slap in the face, giving countless people a great stimulus. In the past few years, such thoughts have been like wildfire, burning the hearts and blood of many young people. "Tianyan", "Wujing", "Elimination", "Natural Selection" and other terms have gradually become newspaper articles idioms , has gradually become the mantra of a group of patriots. There are still many people who like to use this noun as their own or children's names. According to statistics, since 1898, in just over a decade, Tianyan Lun has issued more than 30 different versions, which is incomparable to any other western books at that time. The reason why it is so popular, in addition to the main reason that its thought is enough to alert the world, is also one of the reasons why the translation is elegant and easy to read.

Reviewing the backward, poor and closed minded motherland, Yan Fu was deeply shocked, so he paid more attention to the West capitalism We have been assiduously studying the "similarities and differences between Chinese and Western learning" and exploring the way to make China prosperous and powerful. After returning to China Fuzhou Ma Jiang Shipbuilding School teaches. In the sixth year of Guangxu, Li Hongzhang Established in Tianjin Beiyang Naval Academy , Yan Fu was transferred to school General teaching And later served as the head office (president). These qualifications and experiences enable Yan Fu to have the necessary qualities to become a thinker and the conditions to participate in politics. The war between China and Japan started in the 1894-1895, and the national danger hung in the air《 Treaty of Shimonoseki 》The signing of the agreement aroused the incomparable anger of the Chinese people. Yan Fu was in Tianjin from February 4 to May 1, 1895《 Direct reporting 》Continuous publication《 On the Urgent Change of the World 》《 Yuanqiang 》《 To open up Korea 》《 Continuation of Yuan Qiang 》《 A verdict on national salvation 》Five articles Political treatise , called for reform, and its shocking comments made it increasingly famous and attracted the attention of the world. In Yuan Qiang, he introduced Darwin to Chinese people for the first time《 Origin of species 》And its biology theory of evolution And introduced the UK Positivist philosophy Home and sociologist Spencer's theory of survival of the fittest combines the two and expounds his own views on saving the nation from extinction. The in-depth discussion of this thought is reflected in the process of translation of Tianyan Lun.

The Theory of Celestial Evolution is translated from British biologist Huxley《 evolution and ethics 》One book. This is a popular pamphlet to promote Darwin's theory of biological evolution. The first half of the book talks about evolution, and the second half talks about ethics, Prolific translator of Western works into classical Chinese Selected part of the introduction and the first half of the speech. Yan Fu translated the book not only according to the original text, but also selectively free translation, or even use the topic to play, so Lu Xun Mr. Yan Fu said that "after all, he did Tianyan Theory". The word "do" incisively delineates Yan Fu's painstaking efforts in translating this book.

About the author

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Tianyan Theory

Thomas Henry Huxley (1825-1895), a famous British naturalist, Darwin theory of evolution The most outstanding representative. He called himself Darwin's Bulldog. Huxley has published more than 150 scientific papers on zoology Paleontology , geology, anthropology and botany. In 1893, at the invitation of a friend, he was 68 years old Oxford A lecture on evolution was held, mainly about the fundamental issues of mutual promotion, mutual restriction and interdependence between natural forces in the cosmic process and human forces in the ethical process. After sorting out, this speech is called Tianyan Lun.

Introduction to Translators

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Yan Fu, the Translator of Tian Yan Lun

Yan Fu (1854-1921 Marquis (present genus Fuzhou City) people. In the third year of Guangxu (1877), Yan Fu acted as Qing government The first batch of students sent to study in Britain and France to study driving in Britain. In the UK Greenwich navy College (renamed later Royal Navy During the two-and-a-half years of study in the college, he became the top student of the school by "repeatedly ranking top in the exam". Tianyan Lun is Yan Fu's most famous translation.

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