『金甁梅』의 만주어 번역과 그 의의

Abstract

Since the conquest of Beijing in 1644, the imperial court of the Great Qing had strived to establish the Manchu language as the national language of the empire. The project of translating Chinese documents into Manchu was conducted on a national scale with the installment of Bureau of Translation, and thereby a considerable number of books in the Chinese script were translated into Manchu after 1650. The literary works were no exception to this ambitious project, as a range of literary as well as theatrical works belonging to the various genres such as yanyi, caizijiaren, and xiayi were translated, including the Book of Odes, and Four Master work sof the Ming Novel. The Manchus’attempt to render classical Chinese literature in their script stems not merely from the aspiration to institute Manchu language as the primary language of the culture, but also from the desire to obtain better understand ing and deeper appreciation of the Han Chinese literature. The Plumin Golden Vase(Jin ping mei) is one of the works that probe in to humanp sychology and demonstrate diverse aspects of the Han Culture, containing vernacular vocabulary, idiomatic phrases, regional dialects, and profanities. The Chon-zhen edition of The Newly Carved Jin Ping Mei with Illustrations and Commentaries and Zhang Zhupo’s commentary edition of Jin Ping Mei: The Number One Extraordinary Book are considered to be the source text of The Plumin Golden Vase in the Manchu Script(Manwenjinpingmei). Manwen jinpingmei was published in the 45th year of Emperor Kangxi’sreign(c.1708), only thirteen years after the publication of Zhang Zhupo’s commentary edition, which was published in the 34th year of Emperor Kangxi’sreign(c.1695). While the extant manuscripts and woodblock prints of Manwen jin ping mei are held in the public and private collections in China, Japan, Canada, the United States, and Russia, National Library of China owns a complete set of Manwen jin ping mei consisting of 40 volumes and 100 chapters. As in the case of other records in the Manchu script, Manwen jin ping mei is written vertically from left to right. It includes a preface explicating the translational intent, providing the Manchu text, Sino-Manchu vocabulary, and Manchu translation of Chinese text. The Chinese characters are given next to the names of figures, regions, government positions as well as vernacular expressions and lyrics in Manchu. Errors in the figure names and character forms are found in addition to the transcriptions diverging fromYuzhi zengding Qingwen jian, the standard Manchu language. Hence a close inspection into Manwen jin ping mei reveals not only the similarities and differences between the Manchu and Chinese languages but also the linguistic exchange between them. Moreover, since Manwen jin ping mei renders classical Chinese proverbs and poems heavily laden with implications and metaphors in plain Manchu, some of its content are more accessible than the original text.