在傳統與創新之間十九世紀的中文化學元素名詞

Between Tradition and Invention: The Chinese Terms of the Chemical Elements in the Nineteenth Century

張澔(Hao Chang)

《化學》 59卷1期 (2001/03) Pp. 51-59

https://doi.org/10.6623/chem.2001006

摘要

現今所使用的化學元素名詞，如銻、鋇、鋰、鎂、錳、和鎢等是傅蘭雅和徐壽等所翻譯的《化學鑑原》(1872) 被提出。這些不按中國傳統形聲字規則新創的化學名詞，被當時中國文人看來洋氣十足， 然而對傅蘭雅而言，如此的翻譯卻含有特殊的動機。在傳蘭雅翻譯中文化學元素時，他只是在兩難之中的做選擇。傅蘭雅希望藉助這些新創的「形聲」字來避免中國人掉入「西學中源」的漩渦，但這些與中國形聲字衝突的名詞，曾經陷入無法被理解的困境。

關鍵字

化學史 ； 傅蘭雅 ； 化學術語

並列摘要

Many of the Chinese terms for chemical elements used are made from John Fryer and Xu Shou in 1872. They use the syllable of chemical elements to prefix the Chinese radical according to the characteristic of each element. Each element is phonetic and represented by a character. The new characters conflict with •the principle of xingsheng (combination of a graphic and phonetic element). The Chinese consider them a matter of foreigner intervention during the 19^(th) century. To Fryer there was special reason for the unique translation. In order to avoid the effect of ＂xixue zhongyuan＂ (the western science derived from Chinese) Fryer invented the new characters. He realized that the new characters may have other problems, because the Chinese do not understand them.

並列關鍵字

history of chemistry John Fryer ； chemical terminology