ABSTRACT
The dissemination of Adam Smith’s thought and relevant scholarship in China can be traced back to 1901, when the first Chinese version of WN, translated by Yan Fu with the title 原富 Yuan Fu (The Origin of Wealth) was published. As is well known, Yan Fu emphasized the need for faithfulness (to ensure precision), expressiveness (to ensure fluency), and elegance (to ensure readability) during translation. Of these, the first is undoubtedly the most important, yet Yan Fu’s translation of WN fails to meet this criterion, because there are numerous differences between the original English text and his Chinese version as far as content is concerned. It would be absurd to attribute such a lack of correspondence to the translator’s poor grasp of English. A more reasonable explanation is that his version is based on his own interpretation of WN. To be more specific, Yuan Fu is not a translation of WN, but a rereading of WN.1
