Shisheng Lyu

Did Yan Fu Make the “Invisible Hand” Visible? Translation, Omission, and the Conceptual Reception of Smithian Economics in Late Qing China

This article revisits the longstanding question of why the “invisible hand”—now often considered emblematic of Adam Smith’s thought—was omitted in the Chinese enlightenment thinker and translator Yan Fu’s 1901 translation of The Wealth of Nations. Rather than interpreting the omi...