《翻译的危险》内容简介

　　1792年，82岁的乾隆帝在清军击败入侵的廓尔克后志得意满，撰文彰显自己的“十全武功”。18世纪中后期，他治下的中国疆域辽阔、社会繁荣，但内忧外患早已显露。与此同时，英国在七年战争中击败法国，成为海上霸主，极大地促进了工业革命，产生了对原料、市场和财富的巨大需求。1783年，失去北美十三州殖民地后，英国先是进一步加强对印度的控制，更把目光投向了马六甲海峡以东。

　　1793年夏，英国政府派往清朝的大使乔治•马戛尔尼远渡重洋，率使团抵达承德觐见乾隆帝。这是中国同西方交往的历史中最著名的时刻之一，英使不肯下跪而乾隆大怒、清朝以天朝自居而无视其他文化导致了冲突、乃至中国近代的持续落后，成为讲述这一时刻的主要旋律。

　　本书不仅描述了使团筹备、人员物色、海上航行、清朝官员一路的接待、正式与非正式会谈、翻译造成的误解、使团见闻等诸多细节，更将镜头转向觐见现场的译员李自标和小斯当东，让他们的人生沉浮与使团出使交织在了一起，展现了国与国交往的机制。作者认为，马戛尔尼使华，是中英密切接触的结果，而非开始。清朝当时有不少人对欧洲知之甚多，但英国的威胁让拥有这些知识变得危险，故无人愿意显露。对他国越是了解，在本国就容易受到猜疑，理性的声音就会受到压制，翻译首当其冲。

　　当鸦片战争最终爆发，帝国主义以及一种全力与之相拮抗的民族主义，就占据了中国与西方关系的主流，世界权力格局也随之改变，文化间的相互理解越来越重要。

　　作者简介

　　沈艾娣（HenriettaHarrison），牛津大学博士。曾任教于哈佛大学，现为牛津大学中国史教授。主要研究方向为华北乡村、地方宗教与社会、清末以降的社会文化等，擅长将全球视野与微观史研究方法相结合。著有《梦醒子：一位华北乡居者的人生（1857—1942）》（TheManAwakenedfromDreams：OneMan’sLifeinaNorthChinaVillage,1857-1942）、《传教士的诅咒：一个华北村庄的全球史》（TheMissionary’sCurseandOtherTalesfromaChineseCatholicVillage）等。

The Dangers of Translation

In 1792, the 82-year-old emperor Qianlong, elated after the Qing army defeated the invading Gurke, wrote an article showing his "perfect martial arts". In the middle and late 18th century, China under his rule had a vast territory and a prosperous society, but internal troubles and foreign troubles had already emerged. At the same time, Britain's defeat of France in the Seven Years' War and emergence as a maritime hegemon greatly contributed to the Industrial Revolution, creating a huge demand for raw materials, markets, and wealth. In 1783, after the loss of the thirteen colonies in North America, Britain first further strengthened its control over India and set its sights on the east of the Strait of Malacca.

In the summer of 1793, George Macartney, the British ambassador to the Qing Dynasty, travelled across the ocean and led a delegation to Chengde to meet Emperor Qianlong. This is one of the most famous moments in the history of China's engagement with the West, and it is mainly recounted by the British ambassador's refusal to kneel and the Qianlong's rage, the conflict caused by the Qing Dynasty's self-regard for heaven and its disregard for other cultures, and the continued backwardness of modern China.

The book not only describes the preparation of the mission, personnel selection, sea voyage, reception of Qing officials along the way, formal and informal talks, misunderstandings caused by translation, and what the mission saw and heard, but also turns the lens to the interpreter Li Zibiao and Xiao Stang Dong, so that their life ups and downs are interwoven with the delegation of the mission, showing the mechanism of state-to-state exchanges. The author believes that Macartney's visit to China was the result, rather than the beginning, of close contact between China and Britain. There were many people in the Qing Dynasty who knew a lot about Europe, but the British threat made it dangerous to have this knowledge, and no one was willing to reveal it. The more you know about other countries, the easier it is to be suspicious in your own country, and the voice of reason will be suppressed, and the translation will bear the brunt.

When the Opium War finally broke out, imperialism and a fully antagonistic nationalism dominated the relationship between China and the West, and the world power structure changed, and mutual understanding between cultures became more and more important.

About the author

HenriettaHarrison, PhD, University of Oxford. He taught at Harvard University and is now Professor of Chinese history at Oxford University. His research interests include rural areas in North China, local religion and society, and social culture since the end of the Qing Dynasty. He is good at combining a global perspective with microhistorical research methods. The author of "dream: a north China township resident's life (1857-1942)" (TheManAwakenedfromDreams: OneMan 'sLifeinaNorthChinaVillage, 1857-1942), "the preacher's curse: A village north of global history "(TheMissionary 'sCurseandOtherTalesfromaChineseCatholicVillage), etc.