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

本项目旨在探讨17世纪早期英国人试图在广州/广州开展贸易的过程中，由于依赖翻译调解人（通译或语言学家）从事一种与现代理想截然不同的翻译实践，所引起的模棱两可和信任与理解问题是如何形成的。因此，本书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：在这些更广泛的变化过程背后的许多个人跨文化遭遇。中国历史上的翻译研究越来越多地考察了翻译在简单的语言迁移之外的更广泛作用，以及作为具有自己权力和利益的代理人的个体翻译，他们作为变革的调解人和推动者（Harrison 2019; Hung 2014; Hsia 2007; Lung 2011; Shin 2014; Wang 2010）。然而，就广东的英国人而言，对通史的研究主要集中在英国工厂建立后的时期。该奖学金首先将他们视为调解人或联络人，其次是语言学家，与其他地方的类似人物相比，他们的作用要广泛得多，但受到较差的语言技能和对与外国人过于亲近的恐惧的限制（Van Dyke 2005, 2017; Yao 2013; Wang 2014）。相对较少的研究涉及17世纪不太正式的接触。对1637年威德尔探险队的研究详细考察了语言学家Pablo Noretti的核心作用，但对这一时期其他九次航行中的语言学家的关注却很粗略，尽管他们经常提到他们在谈判中的重要性（Fischel 1956; Eames, 1909; Morse 1926-29; Wan 2004; Wang 2012）。因此，本项目旨在填补这一空白，认为这一时期特别适合研究翻译的作用。这首先是因为，在当时的非正式接触和较差的制度知识，沟通困难是尖锐的。因此，理解这些以翻译为中介的相互作用是如何发挥作用的，对于理解早期英国广东贸易的动态至关重要，并且可以让我们对英中相互作用有更细致的了解。其次，这一早期时期也将深入了解后来翻译实践的起源，为广州贸易的运作方式和原因提供更全面的视角。借鉴历史翻译研究的工作，定位和证明我对源材料的方法，我将研究广泛的英语，中文和葡萄牙语主要来源，包括期刊，日记，通信和官方文件。超越对事件的表面叙述，我将追踪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其他人的期望，以及这对如何使用和解释翻译的影响。这将使我们更清楚地了解形成早期英国人贸易尝试的互动动态。最后，我将把本研究置于更广泛的翻译话语中，既包括共时性的，也包括历时性的：中国贸易是否反映了人们对翻译的普遍看法，还是它产生了自己的惯例和互动和做生意的方式？并且，借鉴18世纪的研究成果，这些早期的实践是如何影响后来广州语言学家使用的发展的？这是一个例外，还是一种持久的实践的基础，这种实践塑造了广州的英中交往，远远超过了其他地方现代翻译理想的出现？因此，这个项目将使我们对这一时期的理解变得更加复杂，更细致地了解这些相互作用是如何通过翻译的中介展开的，也将对广州的英语贸易和翻译的历史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.