CopyRight YANABU Akira
CopyRight YANABU Akira
|Translation by people who had not known 'society'
The word shakai(Πο) is being used in books on sciences, newspapers, magazines and even everywhere in printed matters we can see in Japan today, many of which are used as comparatively important meaning. This word shakai is a translating word from society or same meaning of Western words. It has become used since about 10s of the Meiji era and has over a century of history till today. However, society was once very difficult to understand and to translate for Japanese people, because there was no word of equivalent meaning in Japanese language in those days, that is, in the background of the language, there was no equivalent sense of circumstances in Japan.
Soon after, the translating word shakai was coined and took root in Japanese. But this did not signify the fact corresponding to shakai-society became existing in Japan, which fact even influences of us today. We ought to look back then, the time when how difficult the translation of this word was felt.
First of all, let us look back the history of translating the word society or same meaning of Western words into Japanese.
In 1796, in the first Dutch-Japanese dictionary "Haruma wage * (interpretation in Japanese, modeled upon F.Halma's dictionary)" written by a scholar of Dutch language, Inamura Sanpaku * , Dutch word genootschap was translated as majiwaru * (to associate with), atsumaru * (to meet), in this dictionary, parts of speech being not always certain, noun of source word was rendered into verb.
In 1814, in the first English-Japanese dictionary by a interpreter at Nagasaki, Motoki Masahide # , "Angeria gorin taisei # (General collection of English words)", society appeared and rendered into ryohan # , soban # , which were nearly the same meaning as a partner today. In 1855-58, in a Dutch-Japanese dictionary by Katsuragawa Hoshu #,"Oranda jii # (Dutch vocabulary)" which inherited "Haruma wage" mentioned above and was more completed, genootschap was replaced by yoriai # (a party) or shuukai # (a meeting).
In 1862, in the English-Japanese dictionary "Eiwa taiyaku syuchin Jisho $ (English-Japanese portable dictionary)" edited by Hori Tatsunosuke $ etc., society was nakama $ (a companion), majiwari $ (intercourse) and itchi $ (agreement). This dictionary was most popular from the last days of the Tokugawa era to the beginning of the Meiji era. In 1864, in the French-Japanese dictionary by Murakami Hidetoshi $ who was the originator of French language study in Japan, "Futsugo meiyou $ (interpretation of French language", societe was put as nakama $ , nengoro $ (friendship) or majiwari $.
In 1867, in the Japanese-English dictionary by J.C.Hepburn * who was known as a inventor of Hepburn style Roman spelling system, "Waei gorin shuusei * (Japanese-English vocabulary collection)", which was constituted of Japanese-English and English-Japanese, and in the latter part, society was put into nakama, kumi * (a gang), renchu * (a group),shachu * (a clique). In 1873, in the English-Japanese dictionary by Shibata Shoukichi * and Koyasu Takashi * ,"Eiwa jii * (English-Japanese words collection)", society is replaced by nakama * , kumiai * (a party), renshu * (a group), kousai * (intercourse), itchi * (a union), shachuu * (fellows). This dictionary was widely used in the first half of the Mieji era.
Looking around the translating words mentioned above, we notice that society or equivalent meaning of Western words were expressed in Japanese by words indicating narrow personal relations.
On the other side, what was the meaning of society or the other Western words equivalent to it? In "Oxford English Dictionary" (OED, 1989), society is interpreted as follows:
(1) Association with one's fellow men, esp. in a friendly or intimate manner; companionship or fellowship.
(2) The state condition of living in association, company or intercourse with others of the same species; the system or mode of life adopted by a body of individuals for the purpose of harmonious coexistence or for mutual benefit, defense etc.
The meaning of translating words mentioned above are all fairly close to the meaning (1), but hardly the meaning (2). There had been such personal relations as explained by the meaning (1) to some extent at that time in Japan, speaking of latter part of meaning however, there had never been such wide range of personal relations, and so there had never been any word expressing them. There had been words such as kuni (a feudal domain) and han (a feudal clan), but society means as explained above, personal relations which are made up of 'individual', not only in its narrow meaning but in its wide meaning too. In kuni and han people existed as their status, not as individuals. The greatest problem of translating society must have been hence, how to translate the meaning (2) of wide personal relations into Japanese.
In 1868, Fukuzawa Yukichi * published "Seiyo jijyo, gaihen (on the
Western world, the latter part)", which was as he wrote in the preface of this book, the translation of "Political Economy, for use in schools, and for private instruction (author, publication year unknown). Since it was a treatise on political economy, the word 'society' was frequently used there. The following is one sentence of the source text and its translation by Fukuzawa.
Society is, therefore, entitled by all means constituent with humanity to discourage, and even punish the idle.
For the purpose to hold ningen kousai (personal intercourse) completely, we should control and get the idle stop to be idle. Even punishing her/him can be said charity. (Fukuzawa)
Here we can see the translating word of 'society' was 'ningen kousai'. In this book Fukuzawa substituted society for several words, kousai (intercourse), ningen kousai, majiwari (company), kuni (country),sejin (all around), above all ningen kousai was most frequently used, and he used it even afterwards, still more, it became to be widely employed by many people in those days. In "Eiwa jii" mentioned above, there was also the term ' kousai' as translating word of society, which seemed to be influenced by Fukuzawa's translation.
In Fukuzawa's writing above, I would notice the way of manipulating the translating word in his writing style. Society in the source text is a subject,in Fukuzawa's translation however, ningen kosai is not a subject, in his translation of this sentence, there is no subject. In Japanese it is not unusual that a sentence does not have a subject in general. That the translation of society was ningen kousai is thereby, does not signify the replacement of society as it is with any Japanese word such as shakai, but the the phrase of 'For the purpose to hold ningen kousai completely' signify roughly the phrase of 'society is entitled' in source text, in other words, about somewhere society was applied ningen kousai was put down. That is, while Fukuzawa was surely conscious of ningen kousai as the translating word of society, so long as making use of ningen kousai, he used it keeping the meaning as Japanese word and thinking about the context of this word.
Today when we translate society as shakai, we can use it not thinking so much of its meaning, so to speak entrusting the meaning of society to shakai and as if being exempted from responsibility for the meaning. Of course the user of a word not always think of the meaning of a word, but there had not been any Japanese equivalent to society at that time, and once having coined the translating word shakai, even if not being a appropriate Japanese, people can use it as a term being able to substitute for society as if being exempted from responsibility for the meaning. shakai was such a sort of translating word, which Fukuzawa's translation 'ningen kousai' makes us notice.
Fukuzawa made use of kousai or ningen kousai as the translating word of society afterwards, he also used them frequently, in other writings than translation. And he used these terms as traditional Japanese at the same time as translating words of society in his characteristic way of using words, that is, the traditional meaning of kousai in Japanese was nearly the same as that OED (1) mentioned above, but starting from this meaning and devising the way of using words, Fukuzawa would make the meaning of wide personal relation of that OED (2). This way of thinking seemed to be expressed in "Bunmeiron no gairyaku (outline of critique of civilization)" published in 1875.
In Bunmeiron no gairyaku, Fukuzawa coined several compound words which may feel unfamiliar and uneasy for Japanese people, such as kazoku no kousai (the intercourse in a family) and kunshin no kousai (the intercourse of monarch and subjects). Kazoku (family) was a word of which Japanese people had never thought to be joined with a word of kousai, Fukuzawa dared to joined them together however, then some change must have occurred in the concepts of these words. Kazoku (family) meant the whole in which each member was not so clearly treated as an individual, which circumstances may be to some extent the same in Japan today. On the other hand the meaning of kousai even in Japanese presupposed the existing of independent and equal persons to some extent. The word kazoku no kousai therefore might have made people conscious that kazoku ought to do kousai, which consciousness Fukuzawa created.
'Kunshin no kousai' must have been more unfamiliar, so to speak more contradictory way of using words, through which Fukuzawa would modify the meaning of kunshin (a monarch and subjects) and abstract more the meaning of kousai. Before these days, in the content of the concept of kousai there had never been the meaning of kunshin. Fukuzawa's kousai, having taken in the meaning of kunshin, offered the new prospect of kousai. There, kousai was abstracted as the upper class concept which could be common to ningen, kazoku and kunshin.
Based on such meaning of kousai (human intercourse), there appeared clearly the characteristic feature of kousai in Japan. That was the real circumstances of 'kenryoku no hencho' (partiality of power). Fukuzawa described it as follows:
In Japan, 'kenryoku no hencho, is penetrating everywhere into ningen kousai ccToday many of scholars, when they criticize the matters of kenryoku (power), dealing with only the government and people contrasting each other, and either being angry at the despotism of the government or blaming for violence of people, however, once think of the matters in detail,ccwherever there is kosuai, there never fails to be kenryoku no hencho. Those circumstances can be described as follows: if we weigh in the balances everywhere in Japan, they will be certainly out of balance inclining to one side, c provided there is kousai of woman and man, there is surely kenryoku no hencho of woman and man, provided there is kousai of parents and children, surely kenryoku no hencho of parents and children, of sisters and brothers, also the same, of older and younger, also the same, provided out of family and looking around the world, surely the same everywhere, teacher and student, the rich and the poor, new comer and veteran, main family and trivial one, surely everywhere kenryoku no hencho.
Quite a shrewd criticism of Japanese culture is here. It seems to appeal to us of even after over a century. At the basis of this analysis of Japanese reality, there is the concept of Fukuzawa's kousai (intercourse), the meaning of which was extended by Fukuzawa's using way of words, he pulled hence the opposite meaning of word hencho, which exposed the deep structure of Japanese culture.
Beyond such Fukuzawa's word kousai, there was evidently society. However, his way of thinking was not such way of criticism or analysis as presupposing 'society' first and saying like 'in the first place, modern civil society should be cc', so to speak not deductive way of criticism or analysis. On the contrary, grounded in the concept Japanese could understand with feeling of ordinary language, departing from there, and through devising using words, Fukuzawa dragged out the contradiction of meaning, by which he would originate the new meaning. This is not a device of only language, but manipulating and constructing language living in reality, over there he would look for a prospect of kousai comparing with society.
In 1872 Nakamura Masanao published the translation of J.S.Mill's "On liberty". In this book various words were employed to substitute for society, for examples seifu * (government), nakama renchuu * (fellows of a group), sezoku * (vulgar), nakama (companion), jinmin no kaisha * ,namely seifu (a company of people, namely government), nakama seifu, namely seifu, kaisha, soutaijin * (all persons), etc. Looking around
these words, the difficult problem of translation in the circumstances where there is no word equivalent to society may be supposed. Above all what must be strange for us today is that the word government was put to translate society, why was it used?
The first theme of the source text was of course 'liberty', however what was its rival, the opponent of liberty was also important theme of "On liberty". For Mill, the greatest rival of liberty in this book was society. In the advanced nation, Britain, ages when the political power was the greatest rival of liberty had once passed by through several revolutions. Noticing society as the opponent of liberty was a discovery by Mill, which was the achievement of the pioneer of the times, Mill. On the other side, in Japan in nearly the same period, having awakened however from the national isolation of feudal era, the equivalent idea to society should be established thereafter, there had been neither term nor reality equivalent to society. Against liberty which should be created thereafter, the government or the groups near the government must have been thought as its opponent in those days. Nakamura dared to replace society with Japanese words of that time, and rendered it reconstructing the source text.
Kaisha (a company) which was used in Nakamura's translation was a word which communicated the narrow meaning of society mentioned above to some extent. It may have been influenced by Medhurst's * "Eika jiten * (English-Chinese dictionary 1847-48)", in which society had been substituted with ο (a meeting), Π (a group), quoting examples such as @ο (the group of Hakuren), @Π (the meeting of Hakuren).
Before modern era, 'sha' had been used in Japan signifying a group of people for same purpose. In the beginning of Meiji era, this sha was a fashionable word, for instances, a group of intellectuals named 'Bungaku sha # (a group of scientists)', a relief group at Seinan civil war (1878) called 'Hakuai sha * (a charity group)', and everywhere people of the day formed sha and named it so-and-so sha, a term of 'shinbun sha # (a newspaper office)' also began in those days.
And at the center of such fashion of sha there may have been 'Meiroku sha # ', the members of which were Fukuzawa Yukichi, Nishi Amane # , Kato Hiroyuki # , Mori Arinori # , Nakamura Masanao and others who were the typical intellectuals of those days. It held conferences, publishing the magazine named "Meiroku zassi (Meiroku magazine)" strove to enlighten Japanese people about the newly imported Western thinking and lead the van of the new era.
In this "Meiroku zassi", I would examine the corresponding relation between society and kanji (Chinese characters used in Japan) of sha (Π) and kai (ο).
In 1874, Nishi Amane wrote in his article 'On the role of non-scholars' in this magazine No. 2:
It is quite good that the moral of citizen is stirred up and shakai is held. It is quite bad that cliques are formed, and at last riots raised.
Here the predicate tatsu (hold), which would have often used with sha or shakai, shakai in the phrase 'shakai no tatsu (society is held)' thereby seemed to mean that a group of people assembled having the same intention such as Meiroku sha.
Nakamura Masanao who had translated society into variety of Japanese words in "Jiyu no ri" mentioned above, wrote in "Meiroku zassi" No.16 in 1874:
It is said to be sosaiti ('society' pronounced in Japanese and written in kana) that people found kaisha, and work for the public good. Soshiaru ooda ('social order' in Japanese) means therefore, that army, agriculture, industry, commerce, art, company, all are keeping order in well harmony.
Here kaisha seems to be contained in society, but a little wider than the narrow meaning of 'association with one's fellow men' of OED.
In 1875 Mori Arinori wrote in this magazine No.30:
This building can be used for meetings of music, religion, painting, commerce, lecture, discussion or many others.
Since last winter, the event of shakai speach have begun and the appearance of sosaeti ('society' pronounced in Japanese) has made up. But after having heard the speech, people do not yet discussing and criticizing.
This shakai seems to mean kai (a meeting) of sha (a group), because there are instances of word kai (written in English 'meeting') just in the preceding sentence. And 'sosaeti' in this writing is of that narrow meaning.
Among people assembled in Meiroku sha, thus kai, sha and shakai became to be used as fairy similar meaning terms to society at that time. Being nearly equivalent to the narrow meaning put above however, they were not easily able to reach that wider meaning.
And in 1876, a member of Meiroku sha, Fukuzawa Yukichi wrote in his famous book "Gakumon no susume * (The recommendation of sciences)":
It may be admired that virtuous person would not hope to be honored in 'seken (the vulgar world)', we must explain the nature of being honored at first however, before deciding to hope it or not. If the the honor is rather a empty name such as the entrance hall of a doctor or the sign board of a pharmacy, surely we should keep it away and avoid it. On the other side, personal relations in shakai is not always empty, while intelligence and virtuous persons are like trees, their honor and fame are still more like flowers.
Here shakai is used being opposed to seken as I will explain in the following chapter, and its meaning can be said to be similar to the wider one of society. Perhaps in those days, shakai became used as the translating word of society or, even though not used as translating word, its meaning became similar to that of OED (2) put above.
We would think about shakai in "Gakumon no susume (The recommendation of sciences)" mentioned above more closely. We have said this word was opposed to 'seken', then how was it opposed? At first frankly speaking, the meaning of shakai was good, while that of seken was bad, which is understood through the context of these words, namely Fukuzawa wrote like this; 'personal relations of shakai is not empty', while 'ccbe admired that virtuous person would not be honored in seken'. Secondly, the meaning of shakai was abstract and that of seken was concrete, which can be seen through the sentences developed just after these words; in the sentence following the word shakai, the phrase of abstract meaning followed, 'intelligence and virtuous persons are like trees', while in the writing after seken there was concrete description, 'the entrance hall of a doctor or the sign board of a pharmacy'.
That the meaning of shakai was as opposed to seken, affirmative and abstract was typically expressed in Fukuzawa's writing of his earliest days, we can see however, afterwards everywhere in the writings of our country similar instances. For example, in 1887-89, in Futabatei Shimei's * novel, "Ukigumo # (Floating clouds)" he wrote:
First of all, let's see girls in seken,ccbeing seized with sexual desire and so on, paying no attention to sciences and the like,cc
Government officials, the so-called kanin sama (bureaucracy), who may be named public servants of shakai and so on in the future,cc
In brief these are 'girls in seken' and 'public servants of shakai', paying a little attention to these phrases, we can see the same sort of opposition.
The word seken, different from shakai, having more than a thousand years of history, and also being a word of ordinary language today, it has quite abundant meaning in the life of Japanese language. Thinking of its meaning, it is fairly similar to society, for example when consulting Japanese dictionaries today, in the explanations of shakai we can see often the word seken, and in the explanations of seken the word shakai too.
This word seken has unexpectedly rarely used as translation of society. And once a translating word shakai came to stay, seken became in contrast to it, rejected in translating writings. Hence conversely, some important features of shakai appeared as explained above, namely having affirmative value and abstract meaning.
This matter was not only for shakai, but generally the feature of our translating words, which have been thought to be those of quite high quality having the background of the advanced civilization, and in contrast to the ordinary words of the same sort of meaning, they have been sustained with sense of being vaguely superior and higher. This was nevertheless among people who were eager to accept imported culture, and in the times when people were eager to accept it, while in the opposite circumstances, the value of these words became not only nothing but negative. For instance, the time would soon come when even using these words was regarded as dangerous thought.
That translating words are abstract is derived from being short of meaning and difficult to understand, since they have been in many cases imported but as knowledge and not through concrete instances.
Translating words are lacking in meaning, nevertheless being regarded vaguely as words of affirmative and superior meaning thus, they become abused and in fashion for some period. For instance, in 1876 when translating word shakai just began to be used, in Nakajima Katsuyoshi and Seki Shingo's "Zokumu kyoudan (The big stories of popular dream)", shakai was repeatedly used, as follows:
The meaning of the word 'traitor' or 'rebel' is mistaken to understand, even in these civilized days, not only by uneducated people of lower shakai, but also by scholars and intellectuals who read books and teach people of upper shakai,cc
The meaning of the word shakai in this context is apparently very scanty. Even if these words are taken away, the whole meaning of the writing might not be changed. There are lot of such sort of using word shakai in this treatise.
Scantiness of the meaning of a word in some cases causes to use it well, rather than not to use it, the writing above seems to show this truth. Not only this writer, but many of scholars and students desiring to get the new knowledge of the times would have used the new translating words in the similar way.
Why, then, only this scanty word shakai has survived afterward as the translating word of 'society'? It seems to be rather reasonable that traditional Japanese 'kousai', 'seken' and so on were different in their meaning from society, but surely they had also the same meaning as society in some part. On the other hand, shakai was almost a new coinage word for translation, it had thereby hardly meaning. Though it had been an old Chinese character, there had been scarcely used in Japan. The translating word shakai was said to be rather constructed with 'sha' and 'kai' anew. In the coinage shakai, there is scarcely any sense of either sha or kai, shakai and society have almost no common part of meaning.
The translating words coined in those days were mostly made of two Chinese characters, particularly so in technical terms of sciences and thoughts. For the words of imported new meaning, it may have been thought to be adequate method to apply not traditional words but new coined words in order to avoid the conflict of meaning. Just for this reason however, words of almost no meaning became coined.
And the words once have been coined, not being treated as those of no meaning, they are naturally treated as having sufficient meaning. Even if a user does not know the meaning of just using words, they are regarded as if words themselves originally had their meanings. Just because the meanings are not known, the words are abused. When they are put in the context, even though lacking for concrete relations with other words, they are used only through the relations of abstract meanings.
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