严复

严复

严复（1854年—1921年）是中国近代杰出的启蒙思想家和翻译家，是晚清推动西学在中国传播的代表性人物。年轻时代的严复先后毕业于福建船政学堂、英国皇家海军学院，甲午战争（1894年—1895年）后，他弃武从文，投身思想启蒙和文教事业，曾先后出任京师大学堂译书局总办、复旦公学校长等职，还曾短暂担任过北京大学校长。

严复面对积贫积弱的近代中国，提出“救亡图存”的口号。他精心挑选了他认为对当时中国进行思想启蒙亟需的西方经典著作，以精美的文言文向国人译介，内容涵盖了生物学（进化论）、经济学、政治学、社会学、法学、逻辑学和文艺美学，在当时渴望了解西学的知识界中产生了广泛而深刻的影响。他还首次提出“信、达、雅”的翻译原则。

作为晚清中西文化交流的代表人物，他积极探索既立足本国又充分吸收世界文化优秀成果的文明互鉴路径，反对文化交流过程中的自大和排外，晚年还对西方文化的弊端作出了深刻反思。

Yan Fu

Yan Fu (1854-1921) was an outstanding enlightenment thinker and translator in modern China. He was a representative figure devoted to the spread of the Western knowledge in China in the late Qing Dynasty.

Yan graduated from the Foochow Shipbuilding Institution in China and the Royal Naval College in Britain. Following the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1895, he gave up a military career and threw himself into enlightenment and education undertakings. He successively served as director of the translation office of the Imperial University of Peking, principal of the Fudan Public School, and president of Peking University.

Concerned about China's poverty and weakness, Yan Fu coined the slogan "national salvation". He selected some Western classics that he considered to be urgently needed by China's enlightenment movement and translated them into Chinese in literary style. The subjects involved biology (theory of evolution), economics, politics, sociology, law, logics, and aesthetics, and these books had an extensive and profound influence on the Chinese intellectual circles that were eager to acquire the Western knowledge. As an experienced translator, Yan Fu was also known for identifying "faithfulness, expressiveness, and elegance" as the three biggest challenges in translation.

As a representative figure in the cultural exchanges between China and the West in the late Qing Dynasty, Yan Fu sought effective ways to draw upon the merits of other cultures while preserving the best of the Chinese culture. He opposed arrogance and xenophobia in cultural exchanges, and in his late years, he engaged in sober reflection on the shortcomings of the Western culture.