"All things Don in hast and Doubt": Translation and the early English trade at Canton, 1637-1700

该项目旨在探讨依赖于翻译调解人(通世，或语言学家)从事与现代理想截然不同的翻译实践所产生的歧义和信任和理解问题，是如何塑造了17世纪早期英国人在广州开展贸易的尝试。因此，它关注的不是中国与欧洲和西方互动的更广泛的史学叙事，而是微观层面：这些更广泛的变化过程背后的许多个人跨文化接触。中国历史上以前的翻译著作越来越多地审视翻译在简单的语言转换之外的更广泛的作用，以及个别译者作为自己的权力和利益的代理人，充当变化的调解人和推动者(哈里森2019；洪2014；夏夏2007；龙2011；申2014；王2010)。然而，就广州的英语而言，对通史的研究主要集中在英国工厂建立后的一段时间。这一学派认为他们首先是调解人或联络人，其次是语言学家，他们的作用比其他地方的同类人物大得多，但受限于较差的语言技能和对与外国人过于亲近的恐惧(Van Dyke 2005,2017；姚2013；Wang 2014)。相对较少的研究涉及到17世纪不那么正式的接触。关于1637年威德尔远征的研究已经详细地考察了语言学家巴勃罗·诺雷蒂的核心作用，但对这一时期其他九次航程的语言学家只给予了粗略的关注，尽管他们在谈判中的重要性经常被提及(Fischel 1956；Eams，1909；Morse 1926-29；wan 2004；Wang 2012)。因此，考虑到这一时期特别适合于研究翻译的作用，本项目旨在填补这一空白。这首先是因为，在这个联系不那么正式、机构知识较差的时候，沟通困难很严重。因此，了解这些以翻译为中介的互动是如何进行的，对于理解早期英语广州贸易的动态至关重要，并可以让我们对英中互动有一个更微妙的看法。其次，这一早期阶段还将深入了解后来翻译实践的起源，更全面地了解广州贸易是如何运作的以及为什么。我将利用历史翻译研究中的工作来定位和证明我对原始材料的处理方法，我将研究广泛的英语、汉语和葡萄牙语的主要来源，包括期刊、日记、信件和官方文件。除了对事件的表面叙述，我将追溯商人和他们的对话者如何看待17世纪译者的角色，询问这如何影响译者的实践和他人的期望，以及这对翻译的使用和解释的影响。这将使人们能够更清楚地看到影响英国早期贸易尝试的互动动态。最后，我将把这项研究放在更广泛的翻译话语中，既有共时的，也有历时的：中国的行业反映了人们对翻译的普遍看法，还是它产生了自己的习俗和互动方式以及做生意的方式？而且，借鉴研究得更好的18世纪的研究成果，这些早期的实践如何影响后来在广州使用语言学家的发展？这是一种例外，还是一种持久的做法的基础，这种做法远远超出了其他地方现代翻译理想的出现？因此，这个项目既将使我们对这一时期的理解复杂化，以更微妙的视角看待这些互动是如何通过翻译的中介展开的，也将使我们对广州的英语贸易和历史翻译实践有更广泛的了解。

This project aims to explore how the ambiguities and issues of trust and understanding occasioned by a reliance on translator-mediators (tongshi, or linguists) engaging in a translation practice very different from the modern ideal shaped the early English attempts to open a trade at Canton/Guangzhou in the seventeenth century. It therefore focusses not on the broader narratives of the historiography of China's interactions with Europe and the West, but on the micro level: the many personal intercultural encounters that lie behind these wider processes of change.Previous work on translation in Chinese history has increasingly examined the wider role of translation beyond simple linguistic transfer and of individual translators as agents with power and interests of their own, who served as mediators and agents of change (Harrison 2019; Hung 2014; Hsia 2007; Lung 2011; Shin 2014; Wang 2010). In the case of the English at Canton, however, the study of the tongshi has focussed on the period after the establishment of an English factory. This scholarship sees them as mediators or liaisons first and linguists second, with a much wider role than comparable figures elsewhere but constrained by poorer linguistic skills and the fear of being too close to foreigners (Van Dyke 2005, 2017; Yao 2013; Wang 2014). Relatively fewer studies have addressed the less formalised contacts of the seventeenth century. Studies on the 1637 Weddell Expedition have examined the central role of the linguist Pablo Noretti in detail, but only cursory attention has been paid to the linguists on the other nine voyages in this period, despite frequent references to their importance in negotiations (Fischel 1956; Eames, 1909; Morse 1926-29; Wan 2004; Wang 2012).This project therefore aims to fill this gap, considering that this period is particularly appropriate for a study of the role of translation. This is firstly because, at this time of less-formalised contact and poorer institutional knowledge, communication difficulties were acute. Understanding the way in which these translation-mediated interactions played out is therefore crucial to understanding the dynamics of the early English Canton trade, and can give us a more nuanced view of Anglo-Chinese interaction. Secondly, this early period will also give an insight into the origins of later translation practices, providing a fuller view of how the Canton trade operated and why.Drawing on work in historical translation studies to situate and justify my approach to the source material, I will examine a wide body of English, Chinese, and Portuguese primary sources including journals, diaries, correspondence, and official documents. Going beyond a surface narrative of events, I shall trace how the merchants and their interlocutors perceived the role of a seventeenth-century translator, asking how this affected both the translator's practice and others' expectations, and the effect of this on how translations were used and interpreted. This will enable a clearer view of the dynamics of interaction shaping the early English attempts at trade. Finally, I shall situate this study in wider translation discourses, both synchronically and diachronically: did the China trade reflect general views on translation, or did it give rise to its own conventions and ways of interacting and doing business? And, drawing on work on the better-studied eighteenth century, how did these early practices influence the later development of the use of linguists at Canton? Was this an exception, or was it the basis of an enduring practice that shaped Anglo-Chinese contact at Canton well beyond the emergence of modern ideals of translation elsewhere?This project will therefore both complicate our understanding of this period with a more nuanced view of how these interactions unfolded through the mediation of translation, and also give a wider insight into both the English trade at Canton and historical practices of translation.