神在哪裡？ -- 從十八、十九世紀《四十二章經》法文翻譯看佛教在歐洲形象的轉變=Where is God?: Evolution of the representation of Buddhism in the French Translations of The Sutra of Forty-two Chapters
作者單位: 法國巴黎高等研究實驗學院（École Pratique des Hautes études）
關鍵詞
歐洲佛教=Buddhism in Europe; 法語=French; 翻譯=Translations; 《四十二章經》=The Sutra of Forty-two Chapters
摘要
在中國佛教的傳統敘事中，《四十二章經》常被描述為第一部傳入中國的佛經。有趣的是，一千多年之後，它的法語翻譯也成為了第一部以西方語言發表的完整佛經，並在之後的一百五十年內相繼四次被譯為法語。然而，與其重要性形成鮮明對比的是，至今還並未有學者對其法語翻譯進行系統的研究。本文將分別研究《四十二章經》在十八至十九世紀期間的四個法語譯本，譯者分別為法國學者約瑟夫·德金（Joseph de Guignes, 1721–1800）、法國天主教遣使會（Lazariste）傳教士古伯察（Évariste Régis Huc, 1813–1860）與秦噶哔（Joseph Gabet, 1808–1853）、法國學者萊昂·費赫（Léon Feer, 1830–1902）以及比利時學者夏和樂·德·阿赫萊茲（Charles de Harlez, 1832–1899）。通過對其翻譯詞彙、風格及闡釋的分析，本文將揭示四位譯者如何通過對一部佛經的翻譯塑造了四個截然不同的佛教形象：從一神論到泛神論，從虛無主義到泛心論。而這四種形象，作為彼時以“神”作為中心概念來定義宗教的產物，也並非以靜態知識的形態獨立於其所處的歷史環境之外，而是積極的參與了十八、十九世紀的東西方文化論爭，同時成為了保護與挑戰歐洲自我意識的武器。
The Sutra of Forty-two Chapters (Sishi’er zhang jing 四十二章經) is traditionally considered to be the first Buddhist sūtra translated into Chinese. Interestingly, after more than a millennium, its French translation also became the first integral translation of a Buddhist sūtra published in western language. However, despite its importance, its French translations have never been studied systematically. The present study is a historical and textual research of its four consecutive French translations from the eighteenth to the nineteenth century, respectively translated by Joseph de Guignes (1721–1800), Joseph Gabet (1808–1853) and Évariste Huc (1813–1860), Léon Feer (1830–1902), and Charles de Harlez (1832–1899). Through an analysis of vocabulary, style and interpretation of the translations, it shows that the image of Buddhism represented in these translations has changed from a monotheism, to a pantheism, a nihilism and a panpsychism. The evolution of its representations, as the result of a search for ‘God’ when defining a religion, is analyzed from the historical point of view which reengages the translations in the cultural controversies during the period when the discovery of the Orient was used to both challenge and defend the European conscience.
