The Imperial College Of Translators And The Scientific Institutionalization In Modern China

Scientific institutionalization in Modern China was initiated during the Westernization Movement. The Imperial College of Translators, founded in 1862, is China’s first government-run translation agency in the Modern China, as well as a new-style school of a higher learning, which plays a crucial role in the establishment of scientific institutionalization in Modern China.In this paper, the Imperial College of Translators was analyzed under the framework of scientific institutionalization and divided into several organic connections of sub-systems, including discipline construction, personnel training, teachers’ training, the translation, publication and etc. Each of them was analyzed one by one the significance roles of the various parts in the establishment of scientific institutionalization in Modern China. Efforts were made on the comparative analysis and comprehensive survey among sub-systems, so as to investigate the impacts of the Imperial College of Translators on the scientific institutionalization in Modern China.From the perspective of historical study, many reforms had taken place in the traditional Chinese science, technology and education system rightly before the establishment of the Imperial College of Translators, in terms of personnel training system, the content of education, teachers, etc. But the breakthroughs of scientific institutionalization had failed to be achieved; from the horizontal point of view, the reforms of science, technology and education in Modern China with regards to institutional change, personnel training, translation and publication, was developed basically on their own, which is self-contained, lack of inter organic links and information gathering. Therefore, the reforms were difficult to form a "community."If the long traditional period offered a quantitative accumulation of modern scientific institutionalization, the new-style schools represented by the Imperial College of Translators against the backdrop of the Westernization Movement, then achieved "qualitative changes" in the aspects of scale effects. On the one hand, compared with scientific and educational institutions in the traditional period, the Imperial College of Translators was innovated in terms of education, curriculum, Western books translation, personnel training and etc, which laid a solid foundation of modern scientific institutionalization. On the other hand, the Imperial College of Translators also played a leading and exemplary role in the development of China’s higher education and modern science and technology.Firstly, in the aspect of the subject construction, the Imperial College of Translators actively deepened reforms of the curriculum, teaching content, teaching methods and etc, implemented the strategy that "Chinese and Western cultures go in parallel, humanities and science develop simultaneously". The development of science education and cultivation of scientific knowledge had changed the condition of single education without forming discipline system in traditional period, which drew up the curtain of modern science education.Secondly, in the aspect of personnel training, the Imperial College of Translators changed the traditionally mechanical approaches to social-personnel training and single manner of personnel selection and trained a number of integrated staff who were expert in western languages and cultures, which provided a strong support for the development of scientific institutionalization in Modern China.Thirdly, in the aspect of teachers’training, the Imperial College of Translators innovated the traditional mode of "treating Officials as Teachers" as appointments of teachers, initiated the appointment system and hired foreign instructors to teach natural, cultural knowledge. The early teacher appointment represented a milestone in the history of education in modern China.Last but not least, in the aspects of translation and publication, a large number of western societies, humanities and natural science books were compiled by the cooperation of teachers and students, which trained a large number of outstanding translators. The Imperial College of Translators introduced advanced Western technology, including lithography, letterpress printing, etc. A large number of scientific works were published, which contributed significantly to the wide spread of scientific knowledge in modern China.In conclusion, in the present study, the specific contribution of the Imperial College of Translators in the process of the establishment of scientific institutionalization was analyzed in an attempt to deeply investigate the Imperial College of Translators in terms of discipline construction, personnel training, teachers’ training, translation and publishing by the bottom-up approach. Furthermore, dynamic mechanism of modern educational institutions for the "national salvation" was analyzed with the combination of economic and social background to summarize strengths and weaknesses of the Imperial College of Translators, as well as the experiences and lessons learned in scientific institutionalization in Modern China.