Wang Yanan and the Studies of Classical Political Economy in China

Abstract

The article focuses on research in the history of dissemination of classical political economy in China through the activities of Wang Yanan and Guo Dali who translated in the 1930s the works of Smith, Riсardo, Malthus and Mill into Chinese. The translators’ plans were connected with ideological tendencies of the epoch and aimed at creation of conditions for the propagation of Marxism while taking into account the specifics of the perception of Western thought in China. Key attention is given to Chinese translation of the Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith published in 1931–1932 and its differences from the first Chinese translation of this book at the beginning of the 20th century by Yan Fu. The aspiration of translators to subordinate publications to broader programs of popularization in China of different trends of Western social thought was the specific feature of Chinese translations of the Wealth of Nations. Refs 32.