Newton in China: Translating the Principia into Chinese (c. 1855–2015)

SUMMARY

This paper provides an account of Chinese translations of Newton’s Principia produced over the past century and a half within the larger context of the dissemination of Newtonian philosophy in China. Given its fundamental importance in the history of science, the Principia, originally penned in Latin, has been translated into a number of other languages. While in all these languages no more than two full translations have appeared, as many as four complete versions in Chinese have been produced since the 1850s, when first attempts were made to translate the Principia in late imperial China. They include a 1931 version in semi-classical Chinese completed during the Republican era and three rival versions in modern Chinese published in contemporary China. This rich history of translating the Principia into Chinese, which remains little known to scholars in the West, is for the first time reconstructed and presented in English. This account is based on a meticulous scrutiny of manuscripts, historical records, secondary literature and interviews with some of the contemporary translators. It demonstrates that Chinese translation of the Principia is a complex process that involves scientific traditions, linguistic peculiarities, translators’ subjectivity, readers’ expectations and even the role of the market.

Acknowledgement

The author wishes to express his heartfelt gratitude to Rob Iliffe and Yuan Jiangyang for their encouragement and insightful advice during the writing of this paper, to He Qionghui, Cornelis J. Schilt, Lee Macdonald and William Hui for their helpful suggestions on earlier drafts, and to the two anonymous referees for their extremely helpful comments.

Notes

2 I. Bernard Cohen, ‘A Guide to Newton’s Principia’, in The Principia: Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy, by Isaac Newton, trans. by I. Bernard Cohen and Anne Whitman (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1999), pp. 1–370 (p. 11).

3 It is believed that a second and independent translation may have been undertaken at the same time by Henry Pemberton, Newton’s disciple and collaborator in the preparation of the third edition, but his version never came to the light. See Cohen, ‘Pemberton’s Translation of Newton’s Principia, with Notes on Motte’s Translation’, Isis, 54.3 (1963), 319–51.

4 For a discussion on the need for a new translation, see Cohen, ‘A Guide to Newton’s Principia’, pp. 29–36.

5 For more details on the French translation, see Judith P. Zinsser, ‘Translating Newton’s “Principia”: The Marquise Du Châtelet’s Revisions and Additions for a French Audience’, Notes and Records of the Royal Society of London, 55.2 (2001), 227–45.

6 For more details of the various editions and translations of the Principia up to 1972, see ‘A Bibliography of the Principia’ in Isaac Newton’s Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica: The Third Edition with Variant Readings, ed. by Alexandre Koyré and I. Bernard Cohen, 2 vols (London: Cambridge University Press, 1972), pp. 851–83. Being published in 1972, the Bibliography was not able to include the two more recent translations in German and Spanish: Isaac Newton, Principios matemáticos de la Filosofía natural, trans. by Antonio Escohotado (Barcelona, 1993); Isaac Newton, Die mathematischen Prinzipien der Physik, ed. by Volkmar Schüller (Berlin: De Gruyter, 1999).

7 The author has learned that another full English translation of the Principia has been completed by Charles Leedham-Green, and is forthcoming from Cambridge University Press.

8 Bruce Pourciau, ‘A New Translation of and Guide to Newton’s Principia’, Annals of Science, 58 (2001), 85–91.

9 For more details of this discovery, see Han Qi 韩琦, ‘Shuli Gezhi de faxian 数理格致的发现 [The discovery of the first Chinese translation of Newton’s Principia]’, 中国科技史料 [China historical materials of science and technology], 1998.

10 Cohen’s 1972 ‘Bibliography of the “Principia”’, for example, recorded neither the first partial Chinese translation nor the first full Chinese version of 1931 and its subsequent editions, see Koyré and Cohen, pp. 851–83.

11 For a comprehensive introduction to the scientific work of the Jesuits in China from the late sixteenth to eighteenth centuries, see Benjamin Elman, On Their Own Terms: Science in China, 1550-1900 (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2005), pp. 61–189; also cf. Li Yan 李儼, Zhonguo suanxue xiaoshi 中國算學小史 [A brief history of Chinese mathematics] (Shanghai: Shangwu yinshuguan, 1930), pp. 86–108; and Li Yan and Du Shiran, Chinese Mathematics: A Concise History, trans. by John N. Crossley and Anthony W.-C. Lun (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1987), pp. 190–219.

12 Han Qi, ‘The Compilation of the Lixiang Kaochenghoubian, Its Origin, Sources and Social Context’, in History of Mathematical Sciences: Portugal and East Asia II, ed. by Luis Saraiva (Lisboa: EMAF-UL, 2001), pp. 147–52; also cf. Han Qi, ‘Sino-French Scientific Relations through the French Jesuits and the Académie Royale des Sciences in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth centuries’, in China and Christianity: Burdened Past, Hopeful Future, ed. by Stephen Uhalley and Xiaoxin Wu (London: Armonk, 2001), pp. 137–47.

13 See Lu Dalong 鲁大龙, ‘Lixiang kaocheng houbian de junshu he tui richan fa 历象考成后编的均数和推日躔法 [On the solar equation in the Supplement to the compendium of observational and computational astronomy]’, Zhongguo keji shiliao 中国科技史料 [China historical materials of science and technology], 2003, 244–54; and Han Qi 韩琦, ‘Lixiang kaocheng houbian yu Yixiang kaocheng de bianzuan 历象考成后编与仪象考成的编纂 [The compilation of the Supplement to the compendium of observational and computational astronomy and the Compendium of astronomical instruments]’, in Zhongguo kexue jishu shi tianwenxue juan 中国科学技术史·天文学卷 [The history of Chinese science and technology: Astronomy], ed. by Chen Meidong 陈美东 (Beijing: Kexue chubanshe, 2003), pp. 708–14.

14 Yuzhi lixiang kaocheng houbian 御制曆象考成後編 [Supplement to the compendium of observational and computational astronomy compiled by imperial command], Wuyingdian, 10 vols (Beijing, 1742), i, p. 4; also see p. 3 of vol. 2. During that period the Chinese scholar-officials were interested in Newton’s work on the reform of the calendar, although it was not among Newton’s greatest discoveries. Calendrical reform was considered a matter of great importance to the ruling dynasty, for as ‘Son of Heaven’, the emperor was responsible for an accurate calendar to order his empire as well as to demonstrate that he had received the ‘Mandate of Heaven’. Cf. Elman, pp. 63–65.

15 Chouren zhuan 疇人傳 [Biographies of mathematical astronomers], ed. by Ruan Yuan 阮元, Wenxuanlou, 46 vols (Beijing, 1799), i, pp. 1–2.

16 Prominent scholar Wei Yuan 魏源 (1794-1857) was the first to express the call to ‘master the techniques of the barbarians in order to subdue them’ (shiyi zhangji yi zhiyi 师夷长技以制夷), see his preface to Wei Yuan 魏源, Haiguo tuzhi 海國圖志 [Illustrated gazetteer of maritime countries] (Yangzhou: Guweitang, 1852).

17 Cf. Ting-yee Kuo and Kwang-Ching Liu, ‘Self-Strengthening: The Pursuit of Western Technology’, in The Cambridge History of China, ed. by John K. Fairbank (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1978), x, 491–542.

18 For an excellent treatment of the introduction and construction of modern science in late Qing China, see Elman, pp. 320–52.

19 Benjamin Hobson 合信, Bowu Xinbian 博物新編 [A treatise on natural philosophy] (Guangzhou: Wo Ai Clinic, 1854), p. 16 (Book I), 11 (Book II).

20 ‘Xiguo tianxue yuanliu [VIII] 西國天學源流 [Progress of astronomical discovery in the West]’, trans. by Alexander Wylie 伟烈亚力 and Wang Tao 王韜, Liuhe congtan 六合叢談 [Shanghae Serial], 2.2 (1858), 8–12 (p. 8a-b) [Reprinted in 2006 by Shanghai cishu chubanshe]. A similar yet more detailed account of Newton’s achievements in modern astronomy was also given by William Martin 丁韙良 (1827-1916) in his 1883 Chinese work on Western learning, in which an alternative Chinese name for Newton, Niudong 牛董, was proposed. See William Martin 丁韙良, Xixue Kaolue 西學考略 [A brief review of Western learning] (Beijing: Zongli yamen, 1883), ii, pp. 56–57; Deng Liang 邓亮 and Han Qi 韩琦, ‘Xinxue chuanbo de xuqu: Aiyuese, Wang Tao fanyi Gezhixinyue tigang de neirong, yiyi ji yingxiang 新学传播的序曲：艾约瑟、王韬翻译⟪格致新学提纲⟫的内容、意义及其影响 [The prelude to the transmission of New Learning in late Qing China: Content, significance and influence of Gezhi xinxue tigang by Joseph Edkins and Wang Tao], Ziran kexueshi yanjiu 自然科学史研究 [Studies in the history of natural sciences], 2012.

21 See Louis Comtet, Advanced Combinatorics: The Art of Finite and Infinite Expansions (Dordrecht: Reidel, 1974), p. 173; Jean-Claude Martzloff, A History of Chinese Mathematics (Berlin; London: Springer, 1997), pp. 341–51.

22 For the life of Li Shanlan, see Li Yan 李儼, ‘Li Shanlan nianpu 李善蘭年譜 [The chronicle of Li Shanlan]’, in Zhongsuanshi luncong IV 中算史論叢（四）[History of Chinese mathematics, IV] (Beijing: Kexue chubanshe, 1955), pp. 331–61.

23 William Muirhead, China and the Gospel (London: London Missionary Society, 1870), pp. 193–94.

24 For an excellent account of Alexander Wylie’s scientific translations into Chinese, see Han Qi 韩琦, ‘Chuanjiaoshi Weilie yali zaihua de kexue huodong 传教士伟烈亚力在华的科学活动 [Alexander Wylie and his scientific activities in China]’, Ziran bianzhengfa tongxun自然辩证法通讯 [Journal of dialectics of nature], 1998, 57–70.

25 The year in the brackets following a translated work, as is the case for the following instances in this paper, refers to that of publication of the translation rather than the original.

26 See Elman, pp. 303–05; Maria Panteki, ‘William Wallace and the Introduction of Continental Calculus to Britain: A Letter to George Peacock’, Historia Mathematica, 14 (1987), 119–32; Alex D. D. Craik, ‘Calculus and Analysis in Early 19th-Century Britain: The Work of William Wallace’, Historia Mathematica, 26 (1999), 239–67.

27 For more on this topic, see Mingjie Hu, ‘Merging Chinese and Western Mathematics: The Introduction of Algebra and the Calculus in China, 1859-1903’ (Princeton University, 1998).

28 See John Herschel 侯失勒, Tantian 談天 [Outlines of astronomy], trans. by Li Shanlan 李善蘭 and Alexander Wylie伟烈亚力 (Shanghai, 1859) [Reprinted by the Commercial Press in Shanghai in 1930].

29 For a detailed discussion on the translation of this work, see Han Qi 韩琦, ‘Li Shanlan Ai Yuese yi Hu Weili Zhongxue zhi diben 李善兰·艾约瑟译胡威立⟪重学⟫之底本 [Li Shanlan and Joseph Edkins’ translation of Mechanics by William Whewell: An examination of the original editions]’, Wakumon 或問, 2009, 101–11.

30 Muirhead, p. 194.

31 For more discussion see Xiong Yuezhi 熊月之, Xixue dongjian yu wanqing shehui 西学东渐与晚清社会 [The eastward dissemination of Western learning in the late Qing dynasty], 2nd edn. (Shanghai: Shanghai renmin chubanshe, 2011), pp. 149–54; cf. Muirhead, pp. 193–94.

32 Kang Youwei 康有为, ‘Woshi 我史 [My history]’, in Kang Youwei quanji 康有为全集 [The complete works of Kang Youwei] (Beijing: Zhongguo remin daxue chubanshe, 2007), v, 58–107 (p. 65).

33 Muirhead, p. 194.

34 John Fryer, ‘An Account of the Department for the Translation of Foreign Books at the Kiangnan Arsenal, Shanghai’, The North - China Herald and Supreme Court & Consular Gazette (1870-1941) (Shanghai, 29 January 1880).

35 Although he returned to China after a period of three years, Wylie acted as an agent for the British and Foreign Bible Society rather than engage himself in the translation of science books any longer.

36 See Li Yan 李儼, ‘Li Shanlan nianpu 李善蘭年譜 [The chronicle of Li Shanlan]’, p. 354.

37 See Naiduan shuli 奈端數理 [The beginning of Newton’s Principia], trans. by Li Shanlan 李善蘭 and Alexander Wylie (Shanghai), p. 21a, 44a.

38 Johs [i.e. Johannes] Gumpach, ‘Correspondence: The Astronomical and Mathematical Sciences of the Chinese’, The North - China Herald and Supreme Court & Consular Gazette (1870-1941) (Shanghai, 8 March 1870).

39 Li Jiaming 李家明, ‘Naiduan shuli 奈端数理 [Newton’s Principia]’, Zhongguo lishi dacidian: kejishi 中国历史大辞典·科技史 [The Chinese dictionary of history: Science and technology] (Shanghai: Shanghai cishu chubanshe, 2000), p. 412.

40 Ding Fubao 丁福保, Suanxue shumu tiyao 算學書目提要 [Summary of a mathematical bibliography] (Wuxi: Sishi xuetang, 1899), p. 14.

41 Liang Qichao 梁启超, Liang Qichao quanji 梁启超全集 [The complete works of Liang Qichao], ed. by Zhang Pingxing 张品兴, 21 vols (Beijing: Beijing chubanshe, 1999), p. 619. Note that here Liang seems to have mistaken Hua for Li as the translator of the Principia.

42 Liang, p. 619.

43 Li Yan 李儼, ‘Zhangyong jun xiuzhi zhongguo suanxueshi yishi 章用君修治理中國算學史軼事 [The Late Zhang Yong and his study of history of Chinese mathematics: Some recollections]’, Kexue 科學 [Science], 24.11 (1940), 799–804.

44 See Han Qi 韩琦, ‘Shuli Gezhi de faxian’.

45 See Chapter 5 and Chapter 8, which are devoted to the two topics respectively, in Wuli jiaoxueshu: lixue 物理教科書: 力學 [A treatise on physics: Mechanics], ed. by Wu Guangjian 伍光建, 2nd edn (Shanghai: Shangwu yinshuguan, 1905).

46 See Chapter 4 of Minguo xinjiaokeshu: Wuli xue 民國新教科書: 物理學 [The New Scientific Series: Physics], ed. by Wang Jianshan 王兼善, 21st edn (Shanghai: Shangwu yinshuguan, 1924).

47 See, for example, ‘Naiduan yishi 奈端轶事 [Anecdotes of Newton]’, Dalu 大陸 [The continent], 1902, 1; ‘Naiduan yishi 奈端轶事 [Anecdotes of Newton]’, Xuanbao 選報 [Newspaper digest], 1902, 29.

48 The coexistence of the two Chinese names of Newton did not seem to be a problem to the more informed readers, but it did cause some confusion among the less informed of the history of science. For example, a 1933 magazine article made fun of a Chinese writer who was reported to have asked her audience during a talk, ‘Who on earth discovered the law of universal gravitation, Niudun or Naiduan?’ See Ouyang Cheng 歐陽成, ‘Zuojia lingxing 作家零星 [Bits and pieces on writers]’, Chuban xiaoxi 出版消息 [Publication Newsletter], 1933, 22–24.

49 Yang Quan 楊銓, ‘Niudun zhuan 牛頓傳 [A biographical essay of Newton]’, Kexue 選報 [Science], 1.1–6 (1915), 203–08.

50 Wen Yuanmo 文元模, ‘Zi Niudun shidai zhi Ensideng shidai yuzhou guannian zhi bianqian 自牛頓時代至恩斯等時代宇宙觀念之變遷 [On the evolution of cosmology from Newton to Einstein]’, Dongfang zazhi 東方雜誌 [The eastern miscellany], 18.6 (1921), 32–47.

51 Kang Youwei 康有为, ‘Zhutian jiang 诸天讲 [Lectures on the heavens]’, in Kang Youwei quanji 康有为全集 [The complete works of Kang Youwei] (Beijing: Zhongguo remin daxue chubanshe, 2007), xii, pp. 1–132 (pp. 93–94).

52 For a factual account of Zheng’s life, see Guo Luo 郭洛, ‘Zheng Taipu shengping huodong nianbiao 郑太朴生平活动年表 [The chronicle of Zheng Taipu’s life]’, in Jinian Zhongguo Minzhu Jianguohui sanlieshi xisheng wushi zhounian 纪念中国民主建国会三烈士牺牲五十周年 [Articles in commemoration of the 50^th anniversary of the martyrdom of three members of the China Democratic National Construction Association] (Shanghai: Longhua lieshi jinianguan, 1999), pp. 76–85. Please note that the author misdated the publication of Zheng’s translations of Enzyklopadie der Elementar-mathematik (three volumes, 1934, 1934, 1937) as 1923, 1923, 1926, a mistake that has resulted from the inaccurate conversion of the Chinese Republican calendar to the Gregorian calendar, and is commonly found in most existing literature on Zheng.

53 For more details on Zheng’s translations, see the fourth chapter of Yang Ying 杨瑛, ‘Zheng Taipu kexue huodong jiqi kexue sixiang tanjiu 郑太朴科学活动及其科学思想探究 [A Study of Zheng Taipu’s scientific pursuits and thought]’ (Donghua University, 2011). His scientific translations after the publication of the Principia include Wissenschaft Und Methode (1934) by Henri Poincaré, Enzyklopädie der Elementar-mathematik (three volumes, 1934-1937) by Heinrich Weber and Die Mathematische Methode (1937) by Otto Hölder. He also translated Frederic Westaway’s The Endless Quest: 3000 Years of Science (1934) and Max Weber’s Wirtschaftsgeschichte [General Economic History] (1936, 2004).

54 Ziran zhexue zhi shuxue yuanli 自然哲學之數學原理 [The Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy], trans. by Zheng Taipu 鄭太樸 (Shanghai: Shangwu yinshuguan, 1935), p. 9.

55 See Qian's preface to Ziran zhexue zhi shuxue yuanli 自然哲学之数学原理·宇宙体系 [The Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy & System of the world], trans. by Wang Kedi 王克迪 (Wuhan: Wuhan chubanshe, 1992), p. x.

56 Mathematische Principien der Naturlehre, trans. by J. P. Wolfers (Verlag Von Robert Oppenheim, 1872), p. iii.

57 See the translator’s note in Wang Kedi 王克迪, p. 694.

58 Up to the early twentieth century, the standard written form used in China had been classical Chinese. Since the late 1910s, the modern vernacular form 白话 (baihua) has gradually replaced the classical form as the main style of writing throughout China. It was not a clear-cut replacing process though. During the 1920s and 1930s, the two forms were in co-existence and different writers employed one form or the other, or even mixed forms.

59 The translator’s preface, in Jinhua: Cong xingyun dao renlei 進化: 從星雲到人類 [ Evolution: From Nebula to Man (by Joseph McCabe)], trans. by Zheng Taipu 鄭太樸 (Shanghai: Shangwu yinshuguan, 1922).

60 As will be seen later, Chinese scholars seemed to have problems in translating Newton’s term ‘inertia’ in its various forms such as ‘inertia materiae’ and ‘materiae vis insita’ (first introduced in Definition III), since this is a case in which Newton’s conception is different from present-day notion of ‘Newtonian’ inertia.

61 Zheng, Ziran zhexue zhi shuxue yuanli, pp. 2, 719; cf. Wang Jianshan 王兼善, pp. 185, 207.

62 From a publication for internal use, quoted in Yang Ying 杨瑛, p. 43.

63 Cf. the translator’s notes in Wang Kedi 王克迪, p. 693.

64 See the publisher’s preface to Niudun ziran zhexue zhuzuoxuan 牛顿自然哲学著作选 [Newton’s philosophy of nature: Selections from his writings], ed. by H. S. Seyer 塞耶, trans. by Bianyizu 编译组 (Shanghai: Shanghai renmin chubanshe, 1974), pp. 3, 5, 6.

65 See the editors’ notes at the end of Yuanli: Shidai de juzhu 原理: 时代的巨著 [The Principia: An epoch-making work], ed. by Dai Nianzu 戴念祖 and Zhou Jiahua 周嘉华 (Emei: Xinan jiaotong daxue chubanshe, 1988), pp. 321–24.

66 Again, the year in the brackets refers to that of publication of the translation rather than the original.

67 The other works in this series included Copernicus’ De revolutionibus orbium coelestium, Descartes’ La Géométrie, Boyle’s Sceptical Chymist, Harvey’s De Motu Cordis, and Maxwell’s Treatise on Electricity and Magnetism.

68 See the translator’s note in Wang Kedi 王克迪, p. 693. As a sideline, it may be worth noting that the translation of the Principia seemed to have opened up a new research area for Wang. Four years later, he produced a Chinese biography of Newton. Not only that, he also contributed entries on Newton and the Principia to the revised edition of the Encyclopaedia of China (Zhongguo da baike quanshu 中国大百科全书) of 1999.

69 The traditional characters are mainly used in overseas Chinese communities including Taiwan, whereas in mainland China, simplified characters have come to be used since the late 1950s. In this paper, simplified characters, together with the Pinyin (Romanisation) system, are used except for the notes and references where traditional characters are used when the sources are in traditional characters.

70 For errors introduced into the Motte-Cajori version, see Cohen, ‘A Guide to Newton’s Principia’, pp. 29–36; Cohen, ‘Pemberton’s Translation of Newton’s Principia, with Notes on Motte’s Translation’; Cohen, ‘Newton’s Use of “Force,” or, Cajori versus Newton: A Note on Translations of the Principia’, Isis, 58.2 (1967), 226–30.

71 Zhao Zhenjiang 赵振江, Interview on translating the Principia, 2015.

72 See the translator’s note in Ziran zhexue de shuxue yuanli 自然哲学的数学原理 [The Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy], trans. by Zhao Zhenjiang 赵振江 (Beijing: Shangwu yinshuguan, 2006), p. 694.

73 Zhao, ‘Interview on translating the Principia’.

74 The misreading may have resulted from the fact that in the original Latin version the left end of the vinculum was printed rather close to the top of the square root sign. For more discussion on this example, see Cohen, ‘A Guide to Newton’s Principia’, pp. 303–04.

75 See, for example, Isaac Newton, Universal Arithmetick: Or, A Treatise of Arithmetical Composition and Resolution, trans. by Joseph Raphson (London: W. Johnston, 1769), p. 12.

76 See the translator’s note in Zhao, Ziran zhexue de shuxue yuanli, p. 694.

77 Newton, Universal Arithmetick, p. 12; see also a discussion on Newton’s technical terms in Cohen, ‘A Guide to Newton’s Principia’, p. 302.

78 See Zhao, Ziran zhexue de shuxue yuanli, pp. 2, 17.

79 The series is not limited to translations of classics of science, for it also includes Marx’s Das Kapital, Darwin’s Origin of the Species, Shikibu’s Genji monogatari (The Tale of Genji) and the native work Jiuzhang suanshu (The nine chapters on the mathematical art).

80 Ziran zhexue de shuxue yuanli 自然哲学的数学原理 [The Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy], trans. by Zeng Qiongyao 曾琼瑶, Wang Ying 王莹, and Wang Meixia 王美霞 (Chongqing: Chongqing chubanshe, 2008), p. 1.

81 Isaac Newton, The Principia: Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy, trans. by I. Bernard Cohen and Anne M. Whitman (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1999), p. 793.

82 This paper is focused on the historical journey of the Principia to China via translations, with the strengths and weaknesses of the Chinese versions only touched upon in general terms. A comparative examination into the translated texts would require a new focus and a follow-up paper.

83 See Maeve Olohan and Myriam Salama-Carr, ‘Translating Science’, The Translator, 17.2 (2011), 179–88, and Bettina Dietz, ‘Introduction: Special Issue “Translating and Translations in the History of Science”’, Annals of Science, 73.2 (2016), 117–21; and David Wright, Translating Science : The Transmission of Western Chemistry into Late Imperial China, 1840-1900 (Leiden: Brill, 2000).