A Descriptive Study Of Sci-tech Translation In Late Qing Dynasty (1861-1894)

In late Qing dynasty, China fell behind the western countries in science and technology with society being turbulent. After the Second Opium War, contemporary Chinese people initiated a self-renewal movement through learning from the western countries with the governing class as representative. During this period, a great number of sci-tech works were translated and introduced into China. This sci-tech translating activity was not brought to an end at this stage and turned to focus on social science work translating until Sino-Japanese War broke out in 1894. This sci-tech translating activity happening and developing in the way to explore the approach to save the nation was filled with confliction, acceptance and compromise with society and culture. Furthermore, this translation referring to massive and extensive sci-tech works produced a significant effect on the development of science and technology and the renovation of knowledge treasure in China.This thesis will try to study the causes, developing process and influences on target society and culture of sci-tech translations in late Qing dynasty from 1861 to 1894 by applying the research method of descriptive translation studies theory. The applied theoretical foundation is Toury's Descriptive Translation Studies, of which this thesis mainly employs the studying angles of diachrony and synchrony to describe the causes, process and influences of translating activity in the perspective of social and cultural background. During the specific description, Zohar's Polysystem theory is also applied to discover the basic and direct cause of sci-tech translating activity in late Qing dynasty, describe the developing process of the sci-tech translations and related social and cultural elements behind, and analyze the translations'influence on the science and technology development and renovation of knowledge treasure in China.Through the descriptive study of sci-tech translation in late Qing dynasty, this thesis reveals the entire image of sci-tech translations in late Qing dynasty, as well as discovers that both the happening and developing process of translating activity are influenced and restricted by society and culture at the same moment that the translations also acts and influences on the target society and culture development. This thesis settles sci-tech translations in late Qing dynasty in a larger background of society and culture to study the mutual interaction, which attempts to seek a new trial and exploration for sci-tech translation history research. It is hopeful that this thesis could provide a certain angle for the following further research.