Reborn and become a Great Scientist

Chapter 443 182 Telegram from New York

"Mencius" can be said to be a very classic mistake in the Chinese translation industry, because the translation is extremely irregular and well-known, and it has even become an allusion in the future, specifically used to refer to incorrect translations.

Of course, there are other strange and mistranslated names, such as the English name "Sun Tzu" translated as "Sangzu" and so on.

It's just that among these wrong translations, the only one that can be cited alongside "Mencius" is the example of "referring to Chiang Kai-shek."

It is worth mentioning that the person who translated Mencius' "Mencius" into "Mencius" was a professor at Beijing University, and the person who translated "Jiang XX" into "Chang XX" was an associate professor of the History Department of Tsinghua University. director.

Tsinghua University and Peking University are indeed the two top universities in China that have always been in competition with each other. They have to compete even on classic translation errors and cannot let the other party compare themselves to one another.

The direct reason for this mistranslation of personal names is the conflict between the Wetoma Pinyin created by foreigners trying to Latinize square Chinese characters during the late Qing Dynasty and the Republic of China, and the Hanyu Pinyin commonly used in China.

The generations who have learned phonetic symbols and Chinese pinyin are not very clear and familiar with the previously used Weituma pinyin, so they often make jokes.

Of course, the Weituma pinyin itself is not complete and self-consistent, and there are often errors where the same pronunciation is different, or the same pronunciation is different.

For example, "Chu" can represent the surname "Zhu" or other surnames, such as "Qu" or "Chu".

As for the world-renowned Tsingtao Beer, the previous place name is "Tsingtao" after being transcribed according to the Weituma pinyin rules. Just like Tsinghua University is not "QHU (QingHua University)" but "THU (TsingHua University)". Qingheqing is Here they are all transcribed as "Tsing".

But in the translation of another place name "Qinghai", the word used is not "Tsinghai", but "Chinghai".

However, even if the Western Pinyin may cause the above errors, it is not a qualified translator and should be used as an excuse for his own mistakes.

The reason why the translation error of "Mencius" is more classic than that of "referring to Chiang Kai-shek" is because there is an error in the original English work.

"Mencius's maxim, 'There is only one sun in the world, and only one emperor above the people,' can be applied to all realms established by large empires."

The classical Chinese text corresponding to the sentence quoted here should be "There are no two days in the sky, and there are no two kings in the people", and it did appear in "Mencius: Chapters of Ten Thousand Chapters".

It's just that the professors at Beida University don't even know that "Mencius" is Mencius, so how can they go and verify where this sentence appears?
More importantly, in "Mencius", there are three words before this sentence, which is "Confucius said:".

In other words, this sentence is not what Mencius said at all, but what Confucius said as quoted in "Mencius".

This is not the fault of the translator, but the author of the full text mistakenly abbreviated "Mencius quoted Confucius as saying" to "Mencius's aphorism" when quoting reference materials, so he made the mistake during translation.

It's a pity that neither the translator nor the proofreader even knew that "Mencius" was Mencius, let alone that they could correct the citation errors of the original author.

Yan Fu, a famous translator at the end of the Qing Dynasty and the beginning of the Republic of China, and the old president of Beijing University where the translator worked, once proposed that translation should pay attention to "faithfulness, expressiveness and elegance".

However, it now seems that his disciples and disciples have not been able to adhere to the requirements put forward by their seniors.

Among the hundreds of schools of thought in China's pre-Qin period, basically only Confucius (Confucius) and Mencius had English names ending with "-cius" as the suffix.

As for others, most of them are named directly after transliteration. In addition to Sun Tzu mentioned above, there are also Lao Tzu, Chuang Tzu, Mo Tzu, Mo Tse and so on.

Some people say that the reason why Confucius and Mencius are not directly transliterated is because the first person to translate their names into English knew that the status of Confucius and Mencius in China was similar to that of Socrates, Plato and Aristotle. The status of virtue in ancient Greece.

Therefore, in order to show respect, the translator translated the names of Confucius and Mencius into the ancient Greek style by adding "-ius" at the end, and they became conventional through circulation.

Therefore, the translator of that book would take it for granted and translate the two English names into a name with a rather ancient Greek style like "Mentheus".

This explanation is a bit too taken for granted and makes the same mistake as Chen Muwu made during the unveiling.

When Chen Muwu saw the last four letters "...cius", he first translated it into Chinese "...cius", and then thought that this statue was a sage from the ancient Greek period.

But in fact, the actual corresponding letter of the ancient Greek name "Seus" is "seus", which is not next to "cius".

The real origin of the two foreign names "Confucius" and "Mencius" comes from missionaries in the Ming and Qing Dynasties.

Since Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, China has basically focused on governing the world with Confucianism for thousands of years, so Confucius and Mencius were the most famous ancient thinkers in China at that time.

At that time, the European missionaries who came to China to preach were all from different European countries, and each of them spoke a different mother tongue.

These missionaries who came to China, whether they were talking face to face, exchanging letters, or reporting their missionary status here to the Holy See in Rome, they certainly could not use their own language.

Just like in the early 20th century, when Chen Muwu first came to Europe, the common language of European aristocrats was French. In the era of missionaries, they also had their own common language to communicate with each other.

It's just that this language is not French, but the older Latin.

To this day, Latin can still be regarded as the common language of the Vatican. Even if you don't speak Italian, you can still speak Latin smoothly in the Vatican.

The corresponding transliterations of the two Chinese names Confucius and Mencius in Latin letters should be "Confuci" and "Menci" respectively.

——Because during the Ming and Qing Dynasties, it was far before the emergence of Waituma Pinyin, so the phonetic notation rules here are very different from those of Waituma Pinyin.

Unlike English, Latin nouns are participles, including "masculine", "neuter" and "feminine".

Because Confucius and Mencius were undoubtedly male, their names were followed by the suffix "-us", which means masculine in Latin.

The naming rules for the protagonist Odysseus in Homer's epic mentioned earlier are basically the same as "Menseus".

"-us" is a masculine suffix, and the "Odysse" in front, plus the letter "y", becomes the name of the second part of Homer's epic poem, "The Odyssey". It's just that because "-cius" and "-seus" have similar pronunciations, they are all called "Seus" after being translated into Chinese.

The period from the late Ming Dynasty to the early Qing Dynasty coincided with the heyday of European missionaries’ activities in China.

Correspondingly, the penultimate emperor Zhu Youxiao of the Ming Dynasty was named "Thienkius" (Apocalypse + -us) in European documents, and the last emperor Zhu Youjian was "Zungchinius" (Chongzhen +-us).

The first emperor of the Qing Dynasty after entering the customs, Aisin Gioro Fulin, was translated as "Sungteius" (Shunzhi +-us).

The translation styles of these personal names are all similar to those of Confucius and Mencius.

As for why the English names of sages such as Laozi, Zhuangzi and Mozi have not been translated into names ending in "-us", it is purely because they came out of the country relatively late, and they were all in the Weituma pinyin during the late Qing Dynasty and the Republic of China. before and after the invention of law.

At that time, because Britain had become an empire on which the sun never sets, English also became a common language around the world. Missionaries were no longer the only profession that communicated between the East and the West. Latin already accounted for a large proportion in China. Ignore it, and naturally there is no need to add a root indicating the part of speech after the noun.

After Chen Muwu laughed at the mistake he made in his heart, he did not stop the smile on his face.

He turned around and expressed his gratitude to the Swedish Crown Prince who donated the Confucius statue to Prince's College.

"Your Highness the Crown Prince, I didn't expect that you are really knowledgeable about Chinese traditional culture. You even invited Confucius, the eternal teacher."

After hearing the praise from Professor Chen, the Crown Prince of Sweden began to brag unconsciously: "Chen, I'm afraid that what you said, any European who knows a little bit about Chinese culture will know how popular Confucius is in China. Respect……"

Hearing what the Swedish Crown Prince said, Chen Muwu smiled on his face, but had another thought in his heart.

His "good friend" in China, Hu Shi, was the first to put forward the idea of ​​"Down with the Confucian Family Store" during the New Culture Movement more than ten years ago.

Many of the teachers who came to Europe now were leaders of the New Culture Movement, and the students were all more or less influenced by the New Culture Movement.

Fortunately, this is Stockholm, the territory of Sweden.

If Prince's College was built on Chinese soil and a statue of Confucius was erected on the school campus, I'm afraid this would be a bit unsightly.

He did not tell the chancellor of Prince's College what he was thinking, but smiled as the Swedish Crown Prince continued: "I wanted to hire craftsmen in Europe at first, but when I made the request, no matter which craftsman it was, They all declined politely.

"This is because Confucius is a Chinese sage and is not well known in Europe, so craftsmen do not know how to carve.

"So I asked Swedish diplomats in China..."

Chen Muwu was shocked when he heard this.

The Crown Prince of Sweden is really spending a lot of money. Is it possible that this statue of Confucius was carved from China and then sent over?
Not to mention how much it costs to engrave, the shipping costs along the way are already an astronomical figure!
Chen Muwu wanted to express his amazement, but unfortunately the Crown Prince of Sweden did not give him a chance to interrupt. He still kept talking: "...ask them to find the statue of Confucius in China, and then take photos from all angles and send them back to Sweden. Then ask the craftsman to carve it according to the image in the photo.

“I originally wanted to go to Xiandongfu, the Confucius Temple in Confucius’ hometown, but because the civil war between the north and the south was happening in your country at that time, I couldn’t make the trip for safety reasons.

“This statue was carved with reference to the Confucius Temple on the Qinhuai River in Tingjing, which I had visited, and the statues in the Jiading Confucian Temple near the Sihai Sea.

"Dr. Chen, as a Chinese, would you like to comment on this Chinese statue carved by European craftsmen?"

The explanation given by the Swedish Crown Prince was much more reasonable than Chen Muwu imagined.

The idea he had just now was indeed a bit naive. It was not a gift from one country to another like the Statue of Liberty. It was just a sculpture given at the beginning of school. Is it necessary to spend so much money?
Although the Crown Prince of Sweden said that he is the school's supervisor and has an obligation to make the school develop better.

But Chen Muwu knew that this statue of Confucius came mainly for him, and he had to express his gratitude.

The two exchanged a few polite words before breaking up at the school gate.

Although there is an office for the Crown Prince of Sweden in Prince's College, we can't really expect the school supervisor to live in the school every day, right?
The calendar for February 1929, 2 has been removed from the desk calendar.

First, local newspapers in Stockholm, and then newspapers around the world, published and reproduced the opening ceremony of Prince's College in full or selectively, as well as the speeches given by everyone at the opening ceremony.

Those who were waiting to see what Chen Muwu said may be disappointed, because although the newspaper marked the full text, Chen Muwu's speech was only a few lines, with a bracket in it - (here is a poem Chinese songs, omitted).

News spread from Stockholm to other parts of the world along telegraph lines or wireless telegraph signals, and at the same time, many telegrams were sent back to Stockholm along telegraph lines or wireless telegraph signals.

Telegrams from universities and research institutes in Europe, America, East Asia and other countries all congratulated Prince College on its official opening.

Apart from polite remarks, these telegrams contained basically no substantive information.

——Except for a telegram sent from New York, USA, the sender was Robert Oppenheimer, a professor of physics at the University of Chicago.

Chen Muwu was a little surprised when he received Oppenheimer's telegram.

What surprised him was not that Oppenheimer sent him a telegram to celebrate the opening of Prince's College - isn't that a matter of course -, nor that Oppenheimer did not write "Love from New York City" on the telegram.

Chen Muwu just didn't understand why Oppenheimer sent him this telegram from New York instead of Illinois, where the University of Chicago is located.

Could it be that he quit his job?

(End of this chapter)