Abstract

This study examines Fu Guo Ce (1880), the first translation work of Western political economy into China. By employing Niklas Luhmann’s social systems theory, particularly the concepts of structural coupling, the study investigates how translation functioned as a constitutive mechanism of knowledge reorganization.Three key translation strategies in the book are identified: terminological innovation, textual restructuring, and discursive adaptation. The translators selectively introduced Western economic concepts, while filtering politically sensitive content and embedding economic theories within a Confucian moral framework. The findings demonstrate that the translation operated as a mechanism of structural coupling among various subsystems: it served as pedagogical material in the educational system, a resource for governance in the political system, and a tool for modernization in the economic system. In doing so, translation not only facilitated the circulation of new concepts but also reshaped China’s intellectual landscape by integrating foreign knowledge into local discourses.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.