近代東アジアの言語交渉による漢語の意味変化

Abstract

It is a well-known fact that the intellectuals of the Meiji Period produced new translated words for Western concepts. Especially, there were many interesting stories about how the translated words were created by mimicking celebrities. However, the translated words used in modern day Japan are not entirely produced in Japan, and there was also another route, China, through which the modern concepts were brought in. Important concepts such as "heritage, war expenditures, right, treasury, diplomatic, financial resources, divorce, autonomy, independence, justice, barbarian, responsibility" used today were also incorporated into Japanese directly through "Elements of International Law" In other words, the countries such as the United Kingdom and the United States of America that have newly emerged were barely known, not to mention their language, for the West had been introduced through the Dutch studies. However, books on Western geography, politics, and science written in Chinese were published in China and it was possible to directly absorb the Western knowledge that was written in Chinese characters and could be read, and the concept of the Chinese words were accepted through the process. In fact, words such as "telegraph, telegram, railway, industry, bank, insurance, medicine, and chemistry" that are common used on everyday life are borrowed directly from modern Chinese. Of course, borrowing the modern concept from China was not enough. Japanese readers also gave enormous effort to produce translated words. Other than aforementioned examples, they produced translated words such as “telephone" after being stimulated by "telegram" produced in China and also produced "psychological studies, logic studies, ethical studies, physics studies, geographical studies, and astronomical studies" to represent Western studies in the form of "~ Studies." Still, however, it was not possible to cope with the wave of Western civilization in two ways described above, and they had to use cope with it with existing words. The fastest way was to match the knowledge of Chinese classics learned through the study of Chinese classics in Edo to Western concepts. For example, they directly matched the words that have already been used in Chinese classics such as "ideology, economy, society, literature, culture, civilization, art, freedom, revolution, ideas, and welfare" to Western concepts. However, the problem was how to resolve the difference between the old concepts of Chinese classics and the new concept of the West. This not only embarrassed Japanese people at the time, but also became the cause that always bothered Chinese people after such words were transmitted to China. It is rather easy to understand the words coined by Japanese people on their own to cope with foreign concepts, because there is an objective premise that such forms cannot be found in Chinese language. In contrast, the words from Chinese literature adopted to cope with the Western concepts can easily alienate the new and old concepts and take time to adjust the two concepts. While following the establishment of such translated words, this study examined how China and Japan coped with new concepts in the same modern era and what the exchange of words between two countries has caused, or the backgrounds for the establishment of each word. In the modern era, both China and Japan, located in the East Asia, have accepted Western knowledge and concepts, and there were times when two different translations were used in Japanese, times when meanings were varied, and times translated words were exchanged until finally they were settled as they are used today in three directions in the following. ① Chinese word is replaced by Japanese word and both China and Japan are using the latter today. For example, "animal-plant (China) à movable assets and real estate (Japan)", such as " Public Law of All Nations (China) ⇒ International Law (Japan)." ② Japanese word is replaced by Chinese word and both China and Japan are using the latter today. For example, such as "Electric (Japan) ⇒ Electricity (China)", " Seimi (Japan) ⇒ Chemical (China)". ③ China and Japan are using different words. For example, "Democracy (China) - Republic (Japan)", "Judgement (China) - Trial (Japan)", and "General (China) - Normal (Japan)." Therefore, the concepts of translated words were identified through the linguistic exchange between China and Japan and formed the basis to proceed to modernization.