知识翻译学将翻译界定为“地方性知识的世界性再生产”。以此审视林纾翻译,发现一个看似悖论的现象:最“不忠实”的翻译却成为最具知识生产力的翻译。以“行为—知识”为框架,将译者行为视为知识重构的显性表征,通过分析行为选择,揭示知识在跨语际旅行中被识别、筛选、转化并植入异域文化的过程,实现从行为描述到知识分析的跃升。林纾通过对《黑奴吁天录》《迦茵小传》《孝女耐儿传》译作的主题重构、文体归化、伦理调适,将西方小说的叙事知识、价值知识、信仰知识进行系统性的“在地化加工”,在晚清中国社会语境中获得新的生命形态。这一实践可概括为“林纾范式”:社会需求为选择优先,文化尊严为坚守底线,读者接受为检验标准,为理解翻译的知识重构功能提供历史参照,也为知识翻译学与译者行为批评的对话创造了可能。

Transknowletology defines translation as “the worldwide reproduction of local knowledge”. Examining Lin Shu’s translations through this lens reveals a seemingly paradoxical phenomenon: his most “unfaithful” translations turned out to be the most knowledge-productive. Using “behavior-knowledge” as a framework, this study views translator behavior as the observable manifestation of knowledge reconstruction. By analyzing behavioral choices, it uncovers the process through which knowledge is identified, selected, transformed, and embedded into a foreign culture during its cross-linguistic journey, thereby achieving an ascent from behavioral description to knowledge analysis. The study finds that in his translations of Uncle Tom’s Cabin, Joan Haste, and The Old Curiosity Shop, Lin Shu systematically “localized” the narrative, ethical, and belief knowledge embedded in Western novels through strategies such as thematic reconstruction, stylistic domestication, and ethical adaptation, granting them new forms of life within the social context of late Qing China. This practice can be conceptualized as the “Lin Shu paradigm”, wherein social needs serve as the primary selection criterion, cultural dignity acts as the guiding principle, and reader reception functions as the ultimate measure of effectiveness. This paper provides historical insights into the knowledge-reconstructive function of translation and opens up possibilities for dialogue between transknowletology and translator behavior criticism.