知识翻译学将学科术语、概念和知识的翻译研究有机结合,为翻译史研究提供了新的理论视角。曾为地方性知识的西方语词“自由”最早由晚清时期的《申报》译介入华,历经各种报刊的积极和消极知识建构,其意义最终在辛亥革命之后得以确立,并在大众舆论中广泛流通。本研究采用可视化工具Voyant Tools分析晚清报刊中“自由”一词出现的频次及场域,发现“自由”在晚清报刊中的流通途经萌芽阶段(1896年~1898年)、稳增阶段(1899年~1910年)和激增阶段(1911年),通过挖掘“自由”语词的文本内流通情况及文本外思想论争,呈现“自由”在晚清语境下知识建构和知识流通的历史图景。

Transknowletology incorporates disciplinary terms, concepts and knowledge organically, which provides a new theoretical perspective for the study of translation history. The term “liberty”, which originally belonged to Western knowledge, was first translated and introduced to China by Shun Pao in the late Qing Dynasty, and encountered both positive and negative knowledge construction of various forces. Its connotations finally gained recognition after the Revolution of 1911, and were established and circulated in the public opinion. The visualization tool “Voyant Tools” is applied to analyze the frequency and fields of the term “liberty” in the newspapers and journals in the late Qing Dynasty. It is found that the translation and introduction of “liberty” in the newspapers and journals in the late Qing Dynasty can be divided into three stages: the embryonic stage (1896-1898), the steady-growth stage (1899-1910) and the rapid-growth stage (1911). The close reading of the text is also applied to explore the circulation of the term “liberty” within the texts of the newspapers and journals, and the ideological competitions outside the texts, thus presenting the historical picture of the construction and circulation of new knowledge on liberty in the context of the late Qing Dynasty.