귀츨라프의 ≪聊齋志異≫ 번역과 독법

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to examine Karl Gützlaff(1803-1851)’s translation and reading of Liaozhaizhiyi. Gützlaff was a Chinese missionary from Germany, was first active mainly in Southeast Asia and later in China. He was one of the five people who contributed the most articles to The Chinese Repository. Among the articles he contributed, translations of Chinese novels such as Liaozhaizhiyi, Hongloumeng, and The Story of the Three Kingdoms were included. He translated and introduced several works of Liaozhaizhiyi in The Chinese Repository(1842) Vol.11 No.4. This is the first document that introduced Liaozhaizhiyi to the West. However, instead of introducing Liaozhaizhiyi as a novel, he encourages readers to read it from a religious point of view, saying it "mainly legends about the doctrines of Taoism." According to him, Liaozhaizhiyi showed the story of the ghosts and monsters that bound the Chinese mental world. And he insisted that people must believe in Christianity to be saved from such a dark world of delusion. Liaozhaizhiyi is a clear evidence of the corrupt spiritual world of pagans who believed in evil spirits. He had translated and introduced a total of 9 works. His translation was not a faithful translation based on the original text, but rather an introduction to the overall plot. The title of the work was not given, and the works were separated by line breaks. Specific names of people or places were usually omitted or replaced with general nouns. When compared with the original book, we can find distortions, modifications, and additions of the plot. Since the 19th century, Protestant missionaries had shown a stronger sense of superiority toward Westerners and Christian civilization and prejudice against the East. They also needed to highlight the negative aspects that the Chinese are mired in superstitions and corrupt spiritual worlds, in order to expand the need and support base for missionary work for China in Western society. The errors and prejudices that we can see in the process of Gützlaff's translation and introduction of Liaozhaizhiyi reveal the position and perspective of such a Protestant missionary at the time, along with his level of understanding of Chinese characters.