The Origin of "xian tian" "xian yan" and "chao yan"

The three key concepts in Kant's philosophy,a priori,transcendental and transcendent,have long been translated as xian tian,xian yan and chao yan in Chinese.However,most Chinese scholars may not quite know who began the tradition and when.This article tries to explore these issues by tracing back to the time when Kant's philosophy got studied in Japan,and the time when these translated words were introduced into China.It also gives a brief account of the debates on the acceptance of these words in China during 1920-1940.