关键词: 《十二楼》, 李渔, 法国汉学, 中国古典文学法语译介

Abstract: Since its introduction into France in the early 19th century, Li Yu’s imitated huaben collection Shi’er lou has undergone over two centuries of French translation. Throughout this journey, Li Yu’s literary works, centered on the core concept of “creativity,” have been continuously interpreted, reworked, and transformed within a cross-cultural context, achieving multiple layers of “re-creation.” Early French professional sinologists treated Shi’er lou as a “cultural archive” for interpreting China, systematically presenting knowledge about Chinese society through translation supplemented by detailed annotations. The writer Théophile Gautier adapted “Heying lou” into his novel Le Pavillon sur l’eau, infusing it with his personal aesthetic ideals of aestheticism. Contemporary French sinologists, on the other hand, focus on capturing the artistic uniqueness of Li Yu’s texts, promoting the rediscovery of the literary value of Shi’er lou and facilitating a paradigm shift in sinological research toward cross-cultural dialogue. By tracing the French translations from different periods and their intertextual connections, it becomes evident that Shi’er lou has undergone multiple transformations during its dissemination, with its textual form and meaning continuously generating new significance in the foreign cultural context.

Key words: Shi’er lou, Li Yu, French sinology, French translation of Chinese classical literature