Liu Jinyu 刘瑾玉, Fanyi, gainian yu jingji: Yan Fu yi ‘Guofu lun’ yanjiu 翻译、概念与经济:严复译《国富论》研究 (Translation, Concepts and Economy: A Study on Yan Fu Translating The Wealth of Nations). Beijing: Shehui Kexue Wenxian Chubanshe 社会科学文献出版社, 2021. ISBN: 978-7-5201-7846-4, 634 pages, 198 RMB.
Reviewed by Stefan Christ (Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg)
Yan Fu (1854–1921) has long been seen as a pivotal figure in the transitional period of late Qing and early Republican China. His translations of important Western works like Thomas Henry Huxley’s Evolution and Ethics or John Stuart Mill’s On Liberty, among others, have received considerable attention from scholars inside and outside of China. There are comprehensive monographs on all his major translations and many books and articles representing a wide range of perspectives on Yan Fu’s thoughts and ideas. More often than not, questions concerning intellectual history are discussed in connection with Yan Fu’s translation practice.[1] Liu Jinyu, a well-established scholar from the Foreign Languages College of Inner Mongolia University (内蒙古大学外国语学院), nonetheless promises new insights and understandings can be gained from Yan Fu’s translation of Adam Smith’s The Wealth of Nations in the book under review here (the somewhat inept English title on the cover is: Translation, Concepts and Economy: Yan Fu’s Translating The Wealth of Nations in China).