亞當史密斯的《國富論》（1776），在1902年有了第一次的中文翻譯，嚴復在譯此書時寫了310條共約六萬餘字的案語。本文從這些案語內挑選一些例子，來說明嚴復對《國富論》的理解方式。他的案語中有些甚有主見，對中文讀者理解此書很有助益，但也有一些案語顯示他對史密斯的論點有所誤解。最大的缺失，是他對《國富論》的一些基本學理（例如「看不見的手定理」、「鑽石與水的矛盾」、「自利說」），都略過未譯。這顯示嚴復的閱讀角度，較著重在國家富裕的原理，認為純學理性的經濟分析，對中國讀者的意義較小。

　　　　　Adam Smith's The Wealth of Nations (1776) was translated into Chinese by Yen Fu in 1897 and published in 1902. Yen Fu wrote 310 copious translator's notes which count about 60,000 Chinese words. I select some representative samples from these 310 notes to show the particularities of Yen Fu's understanding of this famous book. Some of Yen Fu's notes are quite opinionated, they are helpful for Chinese readers to see the defects of Smith's arguments; they also provide useful hints to see Yen Fu's own economic ideas. Some other notes also show that Yen Fu misunderstood Smith's arguments either by way of misreading or due to his insufficient knowledge in political economy. A major imperfection is that he omitted some essential concepts of Smithian economics, such as the notion of "self-interest", the "invisible hand theorem" and the "diamond-water paradox". It is argued that Yen Fu's reading emphasized more on the aspect of "wealth of nations", and considered that theoretical economic analysis are less relevant to Chinese readers.