近現代「慈善」新詞考源

A Study of the Origin of the Term “Charity”（慈善）

古代中國文獻中不乏「慈善」兩字連用的例子，而其涵義多為形容仁慈、善良的個人品性。近現代的「慈善」是新出的二字詞，意指扶助弱者的社會性行為和事業，與古代用法有明顯差異。漢語「慈善」新詞源自日語同形漢字詞，日語中該詞的今義大約產生於19世紀80年代，19世紀90年代建立與英語“charity”等詞的對譯關係。中文「慈善」新詞在20世紀初開始被大規模使用。

"There are many examples in ancient Chinese literature where the words “ci 慈” and “shan 善” are used together, and its meaning was mostly to describe the benevolent and kind-hearted personal qualities. “cishan 慈善” in modern times is a new two-character term, which means social behaviors and careers of helping the weak, which is different from the ancient usage. The new word “cishan 慈善” in Chinese originates from Japanese homographs of Chinese characters. The current meaning of the word in Japanese originated in the 1880s and was established as the Japanese counterpart of “charity” and its synonyms in English in the 1890s. The new word “cishan 慈善” in Chinese began to be used on a large scale in the early 20th century."