論及17至18世紀傳入歐洲的中國文學時，不能不提到法國耶穌會士杜赫德（Jean-Baptiste Du Halde, 1674-1743）主編的《中華帝國全志》（Description géographique, historique , chronologique, politique, et physique de l'empire de la Chine）。該書的兩種法文版本在巴黎（1735）和海牙（1736）出版後，陸續被譯成英、德、俄等三種語言，並對於啟蒙時代歐洲的中國觀起了劃時代的作用。《中華帝國全志》收錄了由傳教士殷弘緒（François Xavier d'Entrecolles, 1664-1741）翻譯的三篇話本小說：〈莊子休鼓盆成大道〉、〈呂大郎還金完骨肉〉和〈懷私怨狠僕告主〉。學者一直認為這三篇譯文是迄今為止我們所知道最早譯成西文的中國小說。然而，隱沒於《中華帝國全志》中還有另一篇話本小說。此篇題為“Diologue où un Philosophe Chinois moderne nommé Tchin, expose son sentiment sur l'origine et l'état du monde　”的譯文一向被誤解為一種出處不詳哲學性的對話錄。但本文將以文獻考證，證明其確為清初擬話本集《豆棚閑話》中的第十二則〈陳齋長談天論地〉，本文同時將對譯文文體轉換問題以及中西小說之間「假設的等值關係」（劉禾教授之語）進行討論和分析。

When discussing the transmission of Chinese literature to Europe during the seventeenth- and eighteenth-centuries, one cannot avoid mentioning the Description géographique, historique, chronologique, politique, et physique de l'empire de la China. Edited by the French Jesuit Jean-Baptiste Du Halde (1674-1743), the first edition of this work was published in Paris in 1735, followed almost immediately by a pirated edition published in The Hague in 1736. Both in the original French and in English, German, and Russian translations, Du Halde's Description had a profound impact on the European Enlightenment view of China. Included in the Description are translations, attributed to the Jesuit missionary François Xavier d'Entrecolles (1664-1741) of three Ming Dynasty vernacular short stories: "Zhuang Zhou Drums on a Bowl and Attains the Great Dao," "Lu Yu Returns the Silver and Brings about Family Reunion," and "An Aggrieved Servant Presses Charges Against His Master." Until now, scholars have generally agreed that these three translations are the earliest renderings of Chinese vernacular fiction into a Western language. Nevertheless, hidden in the Description is yet one more example of a translation of a vernacular short story. Entitled "Diologue où un Philosphe Chinois modern nommé Tchin, expose son sentiment sur l"origine et l"état du monde," this text has long been erroneously assumed to be the translation of an unidentified Chinese language philosophical dialogue. The research presented in this essay, however, establishes the source text as "Scholar Chen Discusses Heaven and Earth," the twelfth story from the early Qing story collection Idle Talk Under the Bean Arbor. This essay investigates the process of cultural translation that enabled this change in genre to occur. It also explores the historical conditions under which the "hypothetical equivalence" (to use the words of Lydia Liu) between Chinese vernacular fiction and the Western novel were first tentatively established.