《禮記》是中國禮儀之爭的關鍵文獻之一，更是理解西方如何定位中國禮儀屬性的重要文獻。早期的《禮記》翻譯對探索中西思想中有關「宗教」概念以及中國的禮如何在近代學術交流中被傳播與理解，扮演著敲門磚的角色。西文的“religion＂與中文的「宗教」，它們在翻譯上應該要特別關注其間的雙向迻譯關係與發展，亦即在概念的互譯過程中去尋繹：是哪些中文語詞被翻譯為“religion＂？以及這個關鍵概念或詞彙如何構成為一種雙向溝通的轉譯過程。不同於探討十九世紀如何將religion藉由「和製漢語」轉譯為「宗教」此一對應新詞的研究，本文研究將時間向前推進兩個世紀，以耶穌會士韓國英的〈禮記摘錄－有關孝道〉（“Extraits du Li-ki, sur la Piété Filiale＂）作為主要文本來探索這個跨文化翻譯的問題。本文聚焦於韓國英翻譯《孝經》時所摘錄的《禮記》內容，觀察中國禮儀，尤其是中文「禮」字與「敬」字，它們如何在歐洲基督教神學理解下的religion脈絡中被詮釋。本文也討論在韓國英譯本之後，十九世紀「宗教」譯詞確立以前的歷史脈絡，用以考察各種對宗教問題的不同翻譯與見解，並說明新名詞如何帶來新觀念，使原本並未二分的聖俗關係，在引入以基督宗教為基礎而建立的宗教觀念之後，影響了中文世界在相關領域的概念變化。原本不特別去切割宗教與公民兩者，而是側重倫理面向去理解並認知的祭祀典禮，在十九世紀末卻被視為屬於「宗教」的範圍，並逐漸影響甚至形塑後續中文世界對宗教的認知與論述。透過在中西文脈裡重新檢視以及反思「禮」、「宗教」等概念的雙向翻譯，我們對近代宗教觀念的內涵如何在雙向傳播與互動中演變與型塑，得以達致更深理解。

The present article analyzes the French Jesuit Pierre-Martial Cibot's (1727-1780) abridged translation of Liji 禮記 (Book of Rites), entitled “Extraits du Li-ki, sur la Piété Filiale” (1779), by focusing on the “bilateral” translation of the key terms li 禮, jing 敬, zongjiao 宗教, and “religion.”Are Chinese rites religious or civil? This question and its related debates, namely the Chinese rites controversy, remained unsolved even after a papal prohibition in the 1740s. Instead of dicussing how the term zongjiao, a “wasei kango” 和製漢語 neologism (lit. Japanese-made Chinese term), was introduced into China and later became the most popular translation of “religion” during the nineteenth-century, the author closely examines Cibot's surprising translation of li as “religion” along with other terms such as rite, honesty, and ceremony. This article also discusses the historical contexts regarding some of the later publications by missionaries and Orientalists penned in Chinese, English, and French after Cibot's translation. Remarkably, following the introduction of religious concepts based on Christian doctrine, sacred-secular and religious-civil dichotomies were gradually applied to the understanding of Chinese ancestral rites, which were eventually regarded as falling under the scope of religion. In the processes of mutual transmission when the term “religion” and li were being translated, we can see how Chinese traditions, especially rites, were understood and interpreted in the context of European Christian theology, as well as how they were introduced to European academic audiences. Furthermore, we can note how the translation of crucial concepts gradually evolved and were shaped during the exchanges and interactions of language and culture in both the Chinese and the Western contexts.