Enlightenment thinkers of the Meiji Period devised a number of concepts using Chinese words in order to fully influence the civilization and enlightenment and to express the new academic ideas. The new Chinese words often included the words of abstract concepts such as "Philosophy", "Psychology", "Democracy", and "Science" and also included technical and scientific terms such as "Electricity." These newly devised Chinese words were called the “Modern Chinese Words” in this study, referring to the process of implanting the modern Western civilization. Here, the term “Modern” means “Modern Western” instead of “Modern Japanese.” There three basic problems relating to the examination of the "Modern Chinese.” They are the problem of the word structure, and the formation and the change of the word’s meaning. In addition, if there were borrowings of words between Japan, China, and Korea, the borrowing relationship becomes another important problem. This study focused on “Electricity”, an important term representing the concept of science and technology.
For "electricity", there is an established theory that "electricity" was transmitted to Japan from the Chinese as a translation of electricity. Still, however, there are few problems. One is that "electric" is regarded to have the same meaning as “Ereki”, the Dutch translation that corresponds to “electricity” before “electricity” was introduced to Japan. Another one is the problem of whether “electricity” at the time meant the “electricity” today.
Ayao Kuwaki (1935: 4) argues in "Erekiteru Story" that "As you are well aware of, the term ‘electricity’ was introduced from China later." Takao Yamada (1958: 420) classified the term to have been "introduced through Western books translated into Chinese." For this, when I had a presentation at the Society of Japanese Linguistics in 2001 where I classified "electricity" as the modern Chinese word of Japan, I was rectified by the questioner, "It has been established that it is Chinese." However, it is not necessarily clear how it became established by which criteria. Particularly for the scientific and technical terms that reflect modernity such as “electricity”, it is necessary to apply the “Three Stages Law” of A. Comte or the criteria of science history rather than determining it only by the order of textual appearance.
The view that the term, “electricity”, was derived from Chinese existed for a long time; Koumin Kawamoto (1857: 3) indicated in “Kikai Kanran Kougi” that the Chinese translated the word that corresponds to the Dutch word, “Erekiteru”, as “electricity” recently. The theory of “electricity” coming from Chinese by Koumin Kawamoto (1857) or Ayao Kuwaki (1935), and Takao Yamada (1958) does not mention specific Chinese literature. On the contrary, Toshihiko Matsui (1983) clearly indicates that the term "electricity" was found in the “Universal Geography (1853~54)” by the English missionary, William Muirhead by indicating the specific literature. In addition, Yatsumimi Toshifumi (1992: 118) discussed “Hakubutsu Tsusho (1851)” translated by the American missionary, D.J. MacGowan in detail and argued that the origin of the word "electricity" is the "Hakubutsu Tsusho" by MacGowan. However, the argument that the modern term of the "electricity" was originated from China solely based on the fact that the translation of "Hakubutsu Tsusho" was dated the earliest somewhat lacks credibility, because the meaning of the word translated into "electricity" at the time does not necessarily square with the meaning of modern day "electricity." As it was suggested in the description of "Hakubutsu Tsusho", the term was also used to indicate "frictional electricity" or "electrostatic.” This is far from the concept of modern “electricity” which is understood as a symbol of the Second Industrial Revolution. Yatsumimi Toshifumi (2007: 93) also argued that, "China uses “电(電)” as “electricity” is not “気” whereas Japan still uses “電気" and Korea also uses the Hangeul notation for "electricity." Although he did not clearly argued here, it can be interpreted that the term, “電気” had not been used in China since then. However, "电气/ electricity" has been widely used in the form of “电气化 (Electrify)”, “电气工程学 (Electric Engineering)”, and “电气工程师 (Electric Engineer).” Contrary to the argument that the term "electricity" was derived from the Chinese, some Chinese researchers recognize it as the modern Chinese word of Japan. For example, Li Wong (1980: 526) said all compound words prefixed by “电” were originated from the Japanese.” Recently, Houquan Zhang (2006: 58) said "Hakubutsu Tsusho" (the 1851) is perhaps the earliest Chinese literature that used the term “electricity” and argued that “电气 (electricity)” is the compound word of “电 (thunder)” and “气 (energy)” where “气 (energy)” reflects the concept of ancient Chines philosophy and that the instant communication of wired telegram accelerated the formation of the word, “electricity.” “Ereki” and “Erekideriseiritei”, the Japanese transliteration of the Dutch word, ‘Elektriciteit’ already had the meaning of “器 (device)” before the Chinese word “電気 (electricity)” was transmitted to Japan. Rishun Goto described “Elektriciteit” as the “device which takes fire from the pain of all suffering patients” and “Erekiteri” is the “name of the person who developed this device and the name is now used to indicate the device” in “Dutch Tale” (Vol. 2) (1765). Churo Morishima also recorded in “Komo Zatsuwa (Vol. 5)” (1787), “This is a rarer object among the toys that Western people built for the first time using the principle of electric lightning”, regarding it as a “device (medical equipment)” or toy. The two literatures above were mentioned in “Dutch Influence on Japanese Language” by Sei Saito (1967) or “Translators of Edo” by Tsutomu Sugimoto (1995). The fact that it was recorded as the “device to take fire”, “~ made a variety of types of Erekiteru ~”, and “a rarer object among the toys~”, shows that the scholars of Dutch studies have regarded the Dutch word, “Elektriciteit”, as “器 (device)” instead of “電気 (electricity).” Later, Erekiteru was described to be ”amber" in “Oranda Erekiteru Kumoritoki (1811)” by Soukichi Hashimoto, a pupil of Gentaku Otsuki. Also, is also translated as weather instrument (Erekiteru) in “天氣器製造並名義” of the same book. However, It does not mean Soukichi Hashimoto did not use the term "electric." The list of "Kumoritoki (Vol. 1)" shows the trace of using “電” in the “Diagram or figure that makes people greatly surprisesd with the water in the flask” in its list. On the other hand, the natural science terms called "electricity" was a term that faced considerable resistance in its use even for Chinese enlightenment thinkers such as Fu Yan until the beginning of the 20thcentury. Songtao Guo (1905: 29), a diplomat before Fu Yan, described that “all electricity comes from coal” his report on the visit to a power generation plant in England in <London and Paris Diary> dated September 12, 1877. Songtao Guo arrived in England in December 1876 and frequently exchanged with Japanese consul Kagenori Ueno and Kaoru Inoue from February of the following year and he wrote in his diary that he received "Tokyo Kaisei School List" as a gift from Kagenori Ueno with explanation in January 1878. The "Tokyo Kaisei School List" mentions the names of 39 subjects including "Atmospheric Electricity." In contrast to Fu Yan, it is possible that the “electricity” used in Songtao Guo’s diary could have been influenced by Japanese diplomats such as Ueno although it cannot be affirmed as so.
Needless to say, Tokyo Kaisei School established in 1874 is the predecessor of the University of Tokyo, and is a modern school which was composed of three departments including law, chemistry, and engineering. Although it was unable to find "electricity" in the curriculum offered by Tokyo Kaisei School, the credibility of the contents of Songtao Guo’s diary is quite high considering the descriptions such as “The most precious one of all machines for electrical science is Mr. Ramsden’s large electric machine called ‘Plate’ … (p. 27)”, “Second Year Physics – Electrical Flow Theory” (p. 47), and “Electricity in Atmosphere” in “1. General” (p. 59) in Article 2 of Chapter 10 of the <Tokyo Kaisei School List> written in Meiji 9 (1876). In addition, the <First Year Elementary Physics> used terms like "Static Ereki (Electricity) Science, Dynamic Ereki (Electricity) Science." For "electricity", Amane Nishi (1870: 58) also explained the relationship between thunder and “electricity” in a simple manner using the “Three Stages Law” of A. Comte., the French philosopher in the “Introduction” of the <Encyclopedia>. Amane Nishi has been described the process of change from the "thunder" to "electricity", and it is clear that he explained “electricity” as a metaphysical concept in the second stage while it had been interpreted as the concept of “Zhougong’s Logic of Change” or the "Struggle between Yin and Yang." This was clearly the "electricity" imported from Chinese translation that the scholars of Dutch studies such as Koumin Kawamoto contacted. A. Comte stated that human intellectual development is completed as it passes through three “stages” = “places” (steps, states) such as theological, metaphysical, and empirical stages. Therefore, I wish to argue that verifying whether the meaning of "electric" in different times is in the second or third stage based on the "Three Stages Law" of knowledge by A. Comte. is an important issue of this study.
If you define the meaning of the science and technology terms in accordance with this law, the modern Chinese words must naturally include the meaning of modern Western civilization. In other words, "electricity" as a modern Chinese word is the word in the third stage insisted by A. Comte. and has to be considered that it reflects the meaning of the industrial revolution from the perspective of the history of science. Although the common view of the second industrial revolution (electricity and petroleum) is somewhat different depending on the country, they all agree that it took place in the late 19thcentury. In other words, it is the word of the concept that came after the invention of telephone and phonograph (1877), light bulb (1879), and generator (1880).
According to the discussion above, it is clear that China's translation of Western books identified the essence of the "electricity" earlier while Japan started to understand "Ereki" as a “device” or “mechanical device” from Dutch studies. For that, the meaning of “electricity” in Chinese and that of “Ereki” in Japanese already had different area of meaning at the time China acknowledged “electricity” as it was described with the Yin-Yang theory or the Five Elements theory in Western books translated into Chinese. Later, Japan borrowed “electricity” in Chinese in the second stage of knowledge and used it instead of “Ereki” and it is conceivable that “electricity” in the third stage of knowledge could be exported back to China through diplomats.
A controlled study inquiring whether a word is Chinese or Japanese by thoroughly reviewing the literatures on "Modern Chinese" is of course necessary; however, clarifying whether the meaning and usage of the word at the time were the same as the current meaning and usage of the word is all the more important. In other words, exploring how the use of the word influenced the modernization of Japan, China, and Korea is the very purpose of studying “Modern Chinese Words.”
