The Aristotelian Soul in Late Ming China

本项目旨在揭示中西知识分子相遇的第一阶段中的一个开创性时刻，当时耶稣会士Francesco Sandiasi（1582-1649）与官员徐光启（1562-1633）合作完成了《灵岩礼韶》（1624），这是亚里士多德《论灵魂》的中译本。由于明代汉语中没有直接的类似物的灵魂，这一工作提供了重要的见解，概念翻译是如何进行不同的文化。本研究的目的是揭示欧汉语境中的语义转换。其好处包括开拓性但未充分研究的文本的开放，以及为什么某些想法未能在新的目标文化中产生共鸣的见解。

This project aims to uncover a seminal moment during the first stage of Sino-Western intellectual encounters when the Jesuit Francesco Sambiasi (1582-1649) collaborated with the mandarin Xu Guangqi (1562-1633) on the Lingyan lishao (1624), a Chinese translation of Aristotle’s On the Soul. Since Ming Chinese lacked direct analogues for the Aristotelian soul, this work provides significant insights into how conceptual translation is conducted between disparate cultures. The intended outcome of this project is to reveal the semantic transformations between the European and Chinese contexts. Benefits include the opening up of pioneering yet understudied texts and insights into why certain ideas fail to resonate in their new target culture.