從翻譯官公所到譯務署──澳葡政府翻譯機構沿革考論

The present paper, based on the primary documents in Portuguese, investigates the institutional evolution of the official translation agency of the Macau Portuguese government in its early stage. With the growing demand for translation regarding the administration of the Chinese community in Macau and the development of a Sino-Portuguese relationship, the then authorities funded, under the approval of Macau Portuguese government, the Corpo de Intérpretes da Língua Sínica in 1865, afterwards transformed it into Secção do Expediente Sínica of the Procuratura dos Negocios Sinicos de Macau, and then in 1885, established a special translation agency – the Repartição do Expediente Sínico in 1885, and finally, incorporated it into the Direcção do Serviços de Administração Civil in 1926. This paper systematically examined several important aspects related to its evolution, such as the background, personnel organization, organizational commitment, division of responsibilities, change of name, division of jobs, personnel training, and functional transformation, thereby clarifying some mistaken affirmations in the already-published studies, and amplifying knowledge of the early developmental process of the translation agency of the Portuguese Government in Macau.