On the Legal Translation in the Late Qing Dynasty

During the middle and late 19th-century, China faced great social upheavals, economic stagnation inside and foreign invasions outside, which brought a disastrous blow to the late Qing government. In order to change the situation and prevent the dynastic decline, the Self-Strengthening and Westernization Movement was carried out, which stressed the principle of Zhong Ti Xi Yong (studying the western science and technology under Chinese Traditional Culture) by learning from the advanced science and technology from the western countries, which had, in turn, resulted in an unprecedented upsurge of legal translation during this period. The paper analyzes the social background, process, features, achievements and significance of the legal translation and concludes that the legal translation during this period is an important event in Chinese legal history because it exerted great influence on the legal revision in the late Qing Dynasty, as well as judicial reform in the beginning of the 20th century. It has also led to the establishment of the Chinese modern legal system by modeling on the frames of the continental legal system.