Adam Smith in Imperial China: Translation and Cultural Adaptation

Abstract

This paper focuses on the problems of adapting Western economics to the Chinese cultural context using the example of the 1902 translation of Adam Smith’s The Wealth of Nations by Yan Fu. The aim is to analyse the influence of Chinese tradition and literary style on the transmission of economic ideas. The paper presents Yan Fu’s views on the relationship between economic science and Confucian ethics. Although his intellectual research was influenced by British liberalism and evolution theory, he placed interests of the state above the interests of the individual. The paper examines the cultural adaptation of the notions of an “invisible hand” and monopoly, and special attention is given to the translator’s criticism of Smith’s labour theory of value. This paper argues that Yan Fu attempted to produce his own definition of economic science under the influence of John Stuart Mill.

Keywords

• translation
• cultural adaptation
• Fu (Yan)
• Chinese tradition
• Wealth of Nations
• Smith (Adam)