Abstract: Qian Zhongshu’s translation idea and deconstructionist translation theory are respectively regarded as one of those important developments in Chinese and Western translation theory. As deconstructionism got increasingly popular in China around the turn of 21st century, some scholars in translation studies tried to associate Qian Zhongshu’s translation idea with it. Whether the two are identical thus became an issue causing long-term debate. This paper believes that this debate was actually based on insufficient understanding of some basic but critical terms like “uncertainty of meaning”, “hua” and “e”. “Uncertainty of meaning” in Qian’s theoretical framework is quite different from that term in deconstructionists’ which indicates a contrary idea in meaning conception. In addition, Qian’s illustration of “hua” and “e” in translation indicates the dominance of the original work over the translation. His advocation of smooth translation further betrays a kind of translation violence which deconstructionists work to break up. An improper association of the two will lead to misunderstanding of deconstructionist tranlstion theory as well as of the development of Chinese translation theory. This paper is expected to help in putting the two translation ideas in their right position and this long-term debate to an end.

Keywords: uncertainty of meaning; transmigration of soul; deconstruction; faithfulness; betrayal

摘要： 钱钟书的“化境”说和解构主义翻译观分别被视作中西方翻译理论发展史上的重要成果。20世纪末21世纪初，随着西方解构主义在中国广泛传播，一些学者开始将钱钟书的翻译观和解构主义翻译观相联系，而两种翻译观是否具有一致性则成为一个争论已久的话题。本文认为，这场争论的关键在于研究者对“意义不确定性”“化”“讹”等基本的核心概念缺乏深入讨论。两种翻译观中的“意义不确定性”背后隐藏着截然不同的意义观，钱钟书对“化”与“讹”关系的阐述更是证明了他将原作奉于译作之上的立场，而对于流畅译文的推崇更是蕴含着解构主义翻译观所要打破的翻译暴力。将“化境”说与解构主义翻译观相类比甚至等同不利于我们正确理解解构主义翻译观的精髓，也会让人对中国翻译理论的发展历程产生误解，本文或有助于我们正视两种翻译观并结束这一系列不必要的论争。

关键词: 意义不确定性, 化境, 解构, 忠实, 讹