Zhou Zuoren and Zhang Taiyan's Indirect Translation of Max Müller's Idea "Mythology is a Disease of Language"

By comparing Max Müller's original texts on "mythology is a disease of language" with Zhang Taiyan's "Illustration of Literature" and Zhou Zuoren's relevant essays, this paper reveals several key features of indirect translation of Max Müller's idea. Generally speaking, as a philologist, Zhang Taiyan embraces Max Müller's idea. Meanwhile, Zhang Taiyan creatively misunderstands the logic in this idea. Although, from the perspective of a pioneering mythologist, Zhou Zuoren reveals weaknesses in this idea, he is unaware of Max Müller's insight into the metaphoric nature of language and the evolution of language giving rise to misunderstandings of words' original meaning(s). Thus Zhou Zuoren draws on Evolutionary Anthropology, discarding Max Müller's theory of mythology. Zhou and Zhang's indirect translation not only reflects the interdisciplinar and multi-dimensional scope of "mythology is a disease of language", but also illustrates a mixed feature of indirect translation of western scholarship—combining misunderstanding with innovation—in the late Qing Dynasty and early Republic of China.