서양의 유교 사상 수용 양상 고찰－‘인(仁)’의 번역을 중심으로－

Abstract

This paper aims to examine the perception of Confucian thought by Western missionaries, so investigates the translation of "Ren(仁)" in Western missionary translations of the Four Books, and analyzes its changes and characteristics. Western missionaries, from Jesuit missionaries working in China since the 16th century, to Protestant missionary, James Legge, who laid the foundation for Western Sinology, translated the Four Books in order to understand Chinese culture. Jesuit missionaries, from Europe, usually translated the it into Latin, and Protestant missionaries into English. The Four Books is the roots of not only Chinese but also Eastern culture and notion influenced by Confucianism. Therefore, western translations of the Four Books are important research materials that reflect one aspect of East-West cultural exchange. (However, existing studies on the Four Books of translations by Western missionaries only focus on the translations of Jesuit and Protestant missionaries based on specific individuals or missionary groups to which they belong.) This thesis is about a key concept in Confucian thought, ‘Yin’ which Western missionaries found it difficult to translate into a single word. It reveals the various types of translations that missionaries attempted, and focuses on showing the process of succession and acceptance of translated languages. The missionaries tried to translate ‘Yin’ in various ways, such as ‘pietas’, ‘amor’, ‘virtus’, ‘benevolentia(benevolence)’, ‘probitas’, ‘humanitas’, ‘innocence’, ‘integrity’, etc. The characteristic of the change of the translation words is that the translation word proposed by the Jesuit missionary was succeeded by the Protestant missionary. However, Protestant missionaries did not use ‘pietas’ and ‘virtue’ as translations for ‘Yin’, but used the former as a translation of ‘filial piety(孝)’ and the latter only as a translation of’integrity(덕, 德)’. Among the Four Books, in particular, it is unusual that various translation words ​​were used when translating ‘Yin’ in the Analects translations.