摘要
傳教士如何使用他者的語言，向受眾傳遞他們文化和語言中原來並不存在的概念？又如何以此言說現象界並不存在的事物？這正是明清之際入華傳教士所遭遇的困境；也是跨文化翻譯必須面對的挑戰。本文以anima的翻譯，分析中國天主教社群如何面對這兩個問題，並討論受眾如何透過中文譯詞，習得這些天主教的新概念。
傳教士選用了一系列和靈與魂相關的語詞來翻譯人的anima。這一系列的詞彙大約可分成兩組：與人的生命力和認知功能有關的如「性」、「精神」、「精靈」、「靈明」、「性靈」、「靈性」、「靈心」、「靈才」；與人死後的存有狀態有關，如「魂靈」、「靈魂」、「魂」、「魂神」、「人魂」。但是傳教士要強調人的anima在活著的時候有認知功能，可經由學習而認主；又要說明人的anima死後不滅，接受審判。anima這一西方的概念，不論其對譯之語為何，皆有著原本中文裡面所沒有的意指。這些譯詞只是有著中文表面的意符（signifier），承載著完全不同的符指（signified）。
最終，天主教社群所選用的譯詞以「靈魂」最為普遍。由於anima的不可譯性，不論傳教士所選用的譯詞為何，傳教士必須掏空譯詞原有的指涉，填入天主教anima的內容。譯詞表面仍是中文，卻已脫離漢語原來的意蘊，受眾必須重新學習，再融入中文語境。當時的天主教社群透過問答，並配合圖像指示，在各種儀式中，不斷操練「靈魂」作為譯詞的指涉，使傳教士的受眾，慢慢學會了「靈魂」如何指涉西方anima的內容；並在靈修和儀式的日常實踐中，習得了西方靈魂論的要義：上帝賦予生命，也為人提供生命追求的目標；靈魂以其明悟認知世界，以其愛欲選擇行動，並在死後接受審判，或歸天堂或下地獄。翻譯anima因而提供了不朽靈魂結合腐朽肉軀的新人觀，也定義了天主教信仰為「教」；在社會和文化層次上，合理化了天主教在中國的存在，成為三教的競爭者。
Catholic missionaries were required to use the language of their audience to spread their faith. How could they convey concepts that were originally absent from their audience’s culture and language? And how could they use language to describe phenomena that did not exist in the phenomenal world? These were the dilemmas faced by missionaries in China during the Ming and Qing dynasties, and they remain challenges for cross-cultural translation. This article analyzes the translation of anima to examine how the Chinese Catholic community addressed these two issues and discusses how the audience acquired new Catholic concepts through translations.
The missionaries used a series of terms related to ling 靈 to translate anima, as they are related to either vitality or the state of existence after death. The most common rendering was linghun 靈魂, with others including hunshen 魂神, xing 性, jingshen 精神, jingling 精靈, lingming 靈明, xingling 性靈, lingxing 靈性, lingxin 靈心, and lingcai 靈才. Regardless of which was selected, the missionaries hollowed out the original meaning of the Chinese signifiers and filled them with the content of the Catholic anima. This translation, while seemingly Chinese, departs from the original cultural and linguistic contexts, and thus had to be relearned. The Catholic community at that time used question-and-answer sessions to constantly practice the meaning of these terms, and with the help of visual aids, the missionaries’ audience gradually learned the new meaning of linghun as the Catholic anima; furthermore, through the daily prayers and ritual texts, they grasped the essence of the theory of the soul: God gives life and provides human beings with the goal of pursuing good; the anima uses its intellect to understand the world, employs its will to act, reveres God, and returns to His embrace in heaven. The translation of anima thus provided a new view of the immortal soul combined with the mortal body, and also qualified Catholicism as a teaching (jiao 教), competing with the other three Chinese teachings and folk beliefs.
關鍵詞
靈魂 anima 亞尼瑪 人觀 翻譯
anima; translation; Catholicism; Jesuits; concept of man