Adam Smith and Yan Fu

Description

This English adaption is based on a Chinese version 亞當史密斯與嚴復：《國富論》與中國》，臺北：三民書局，2002；浙江大學出版社，2009. I am grateful to San Min Books (Taiwan), the original 2002 publisher of this book, for the permission of this adaption. I try to render it in a style suitable for Western readers by omitting Chinese-specific issues, and add examples from Yan Fu’s translations and comments, side-by-side with Adam Smith’s original texts. As the main messages remain unchanged and new studies on this topic were limited, I only made minor updates and revisions. Major parts of the first four chapters are taken from the following three papers: 1) Adam Smith and Yan Fu: Western economics in Chinese perspective, Journal of European Economic History, 1989, 18(2):371-82. 2) Translations of The Wealth of Nations, Journal of European Economic History, 1996, 25(2):467-500. 3) Receptions of The Wealth of Nations, The European Legacy, 1996, 1(7):2069-83. These three papers are also appeared in Adam Smith across Nations: Translations and Receptions of The Wealth of Nations, Oxford University Press, 2000, slightly revised as two Overviews and Chapter 1.2. With generous supports from the Harvard-Yenching Institute, in 1992-3 I used the Vanderblue Memorial Collection of Smithiana (located at the Kress Library, Baker Library of Harvard Business School) to work out Adam Smith across Nations (2000). Chapters 2 and 3 in the present monograph are based on its two Overviews. For recent related studies, there is a mini-symposium “Adam Smith in international context” in Adam Smith Review, volume 9, 2017. It contains one paper on Germany and two on China. Google search shows that there are a few new papers on “Smith and Yan Fu” (in English), they are mostly on the cultural and translation aspects, not on economic issues. Acknowledgements 3 List of tables 6 1 Overview 1 Proposition and framework 7 2 Yan Fu studies 10 3 Life and times of Yan Fu 12 4 Translation and publication 13 2 Spread of The Wealth of Nations 1 Adam Smith’s economic doctrines 17 2 Contents of The Wealth of Nation 20 3 Translations of WN 22 3 Receptions of The Wealth of Nation 1 Method of analysis 31 2 Motives for introducing WN 34 3 Methods of transmission 35 4 Receptions 37 5 Objections 44 6 Smith’s impact in retrospect 45 4 Traduttore traditore 1 Motivation of translation 48 2 Misunderstanding and distortion 50 3 The 310 translator’s notes 53 5 Yan Fu’s understanding of The Wealth of Nations 1 General economic arguments 58 2 Criticisms on Smith’s doctrines 65 3 Praises for Smith’s analyses 72 4 Some defects 74 6 Yan Fu’s economic ideas 1 Problems of Chinese economy 76 2 Economic liberalism 83 3 Other comments 88 4 Sources of Yan Fu’s ideas 93 7 Epilogue 1 Response 94 2 Evaluation 99 3 Final remarks 101 Appendices 1 Foreword to the First Chinese Edition of The Wealth of Nations (1901) 103 2 Preface to the First Chinese Edition of The Wealth of Nations (1901) 110 3 Liang Qichao’s comments on The Wealth of Nations (1902-4) 114 References 121