從翻譯至懷疑：廣東《述報》（1884-1885）的時事知識取徑

《述報》（1884-1885）為廣東首份粵人自辦日報，抱持「兼繙海外」的宗旨，上承鴉片戰爭前後粵地情報翻譯的實踐，下啟戊戌左右廣東民報勃興的新局。本文分析《述報》內標記為譯本的時事新聞，探討日報作為西方而來知識載體，最初在粵地如何發生，面向何人出版，展示何種知識變化。本文先描寫背景，透過分析《述報》聲明、告白及承印商海墨樓的書目和售書位置，指出《述報》面向廣東普通士人；後採樣《述報》關鍵卷冊，追溯資訊來源，發現「兼繙海外」是表象，刊中時事知識大多並非取材西報、經語際翻譯而來，而是轉錄中文報刊、經語內重組而成，甚至有「偽譯」的可能。溯源分析可見，《述報》乃以極有限的知識資源，每日將西方時事呈現為一種在經典及制藝之外的新的知識類別。譯本對讀表明，《述報》一面按日刊出時事知識，一面亦習得一種對經翻譯所得的知識存疑而「照錄」的態度。懷疑的取態同時顯現於刊內日益尖銳的評論，尤其是針對學制、仕制的疑思和批評。綜合此研究，可見讀報和譯報在1884至1885年已進入廣東士人視野；譯報而來的西方時事一面催生新的知識類別，一面激發對傳統知識與體制的檢視，其效具雙重性；報刊翻譯乃西方報刊文化形塑晚清廣東士人的重要界面，值得深入探討。

關鍵字

《述報》；晚清；廣東；翻譯；懷疑

並列摘要

In this essay, I explore Shubao (1884-1885), the first Chinese-run Chinese-language daily newspaper in Canton, with a focus on the news articles marked as translations. I first identify the anonymous Shubao's intended readership as the ordinary local Cantonese intellectuals. Working on a substantial representative sample of texts, I track Shubao's information sources and describe the synthesis of sources. The source-tracking reveals that most of the news articles marked as interlingual translations from ＂Western＂ (Xi) texts were in fact intralingual and intersemiotic reproductions of texts and images in a limited range of Chinese-language periodicals. I then argue that the intention of such production was not only to relay daily information on current affairs, but also to exhibit a new category of knowledge that supplemented-if not contravened-the target readers' traditional learning. Further, in my close reading of a selection of associative news articles, I observe that it was in such a translational production that Shubao gradually acquired a combination of celebrative and sceptical attitudes towards the information explosion in the late Qing periodical press. Shubao's uncertainty about information intertwined with the insecurity about translation, and the dual scepticism paralleled the increasingly critical reflection on the knowledge structure and institution in Chinese traditional learning. This paper, thus, takes Shubao as an entry point to argue that newspaper translation was a significant interface, where traditional learning in Canton and the influx of information from the West collided, and where fine changes in the knowledge landscape of local Cantonese intellectuals took place.