The Fusion of Eastern and Western Cultures: The Cases of Nakamura Keiu and Yan Fu

Title

The Fusion of Eastern and Western Cultures: The Cases of Nakamura Keiu and Yan Fu

Author

Wei-fen CHEN

Page

61-111

DOI

Abstract

In the year of 1854, Yan Fu 嚴復 (1854-1921) was born in Fuzhou 福州 while China's first overseas scholar in America, Yung Wing 容閎 (1828-1912), returned China after obtaining Degree. In the year of 1866, Joseph Hardy Neesima (1843-1890), the first Japanese overseas scholar in America, was baptized in Boston. In the same year, Tokugawa Bakufu issued the admission to Japanese for studying in England, France, the Netherlands, Portugal, and America; later, Nakamura Keiu (1832-1892), as an official of the Shoheiko, led twelve students to England. In this year, Zuo Zongtang 左宗棠 (1812-1885) brought up the suggestion of establishing Fuzhou Shipment Bureau to Qing government. Yan Fu was one of the students in the first year when Fuzhou Shipment Bureau started to run school affairs. Since Nakamura was an overage student to the University of London, he studied English literature one-on-one with the English tutors.. After two years (1868), he took a liner from Paris back to Tokyo. When the University of Tokyo was founded in 1877, Nakamura was hired as a literature professor. The same year, Yan Fu and twelve students left for England and learned navigation at Greenwich Naval College. The study originally was planned to finish in three years, but, due to lacking of teachers, Zuo was called back to teach at Fuzhou Shipment Bureau in the next year.
Being the pioneers of Chinese and Japanese overseas scholars, Nakamura Keiu and Yan Fu both were devoted to introducing thought of enlightenment from England and America to their home countries, like theory of liberty, theory of polity, evolution, and theory of civilization, through translation and annotation. Nakamura's translated works include Self Help (1870), On Liberty (1871), The Federal Government (1872) , Character (1888) and Thrift (1897) . Yan has his own translated ones such as Evolution and Ethics (1896) , Inquiry into the Nature and Cause of the Wealth of Nations (1901) ,Study of Sociology (1903) , On Liberty (1903) , History of Politics (1903) , De L'esprit des lois (1904) , A System of Logic (1905) 、and Primer of Logic (1909) . In addition to translated works, Nakamura and Yan wrote multiple academic papers and books related to the Eastern and Western culture. Therefore, this paper will focus on "translated works" and "translation language," comparing the differences between Nakamura's and Yan's thought. Firstly, the paper will portray the background where they located in terms of analyzing their personalities on enlightenment and transition. Later, the focus is transferred to the comparisons on their bases on Confucianism, viewpoints of Western learning, and the argument of interpenetrating the Eastern and the Western culture. Finally, in contrast with their culturally translation language in On Liberty (written by John Stuart Mill, 1806-1873), the paper discusses the mutual influences and characteristics between modern Chinese and Japanese translation culture.

Keyword

Nakamura Keiu, Yan Fu, John Stuart Mill, Modern Translation, On Liberty, Eastward Expansion of Western Learning

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