本文是一篇英语论文，本文以描写译学为理论视角,采用统计方法和历史文献法,探究书目所载汉语典籍英译、翻译目的及文化背景。经过语料收集和研究准备,从王尔敏书目中最终获得汉语典籍译书信息1042条。对特定历史时期出现的翻译现象进行多维度统计,选取原著类型、原著出版年、原著作者、英译出版时段、译者、译者国别等方面进行统计。
1. Introduction
1.1 Significance of the Research
China is an ancient country with splendid culture, the essence of which is contained in numerous Chinese classics. Translating Chinese classics plays an important role in spreading excellent Chinese culture all over the world. Research in this field doubtlessly serves to promote the process of cultural communication. However, there exist some deficiencies in previous research in that the perspective of study is singular and most studies focus on a small number of specific texts. What’s more, most of these studies only concentrate on some special aspects such as translation strategies, culture-specific items or contrasts between words and phrases, while few of them adopt descriptive study on a large scale.
More than 400 years since late Ming Dynasty and early Qing Dynasty, western countries have published a large number of sinology works and translated Chinese Classics. According to the publication time of related bibliography, there are three primary bibliographies, that is, the five-volume edition of Bibliotheca Sinica (1878-1921) by Henri Cordier, China in Western Literature (1958) by Yuan Tongli and A Bibliography of Western Translations of Chinese Works (1975) by Wang Ermin. Different kinds of Chinese documents were included in Bibliotheca Sinica, which were published from the mid-16th century to around 1920. Over 18 thousand kinds of documents from 1921 to 1957 were included by Yuan Tongli. Wang Ermin’s bibliography is the earliest of its type after that by Yuan Tongli in Chinese academic circles which systematically collects information of Chinese Classics translated into the western world. Wang Ermin (1975: note 1) said that the book was focused on the sections or chapters of Chinese historical literature translated into western languages. In pursuit of entirety, the included documents were from ancient time to modern time. No matter how long the length was and whether the context was refined or popular, all kinds of literature would be included as long as they covered some opinions or knowledge.
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1.2 Purpose of the Research
The study is based on A Bibliography of Western Translations of Chinese Works by Wang Ermin. First, we should get to know and understand the current situation and research findings of the study on the English translation of Chinese Classics by studying Wang Ermin’s bibliography.
By means of the statistical study on the English translation of Chinese Classics, the research is aimed at providing the research data for the English translation of Chinese classics in a specific historical period. The study is to explore different features of the English translation of Chinese Classics by statistics of different categories, including publication time and author of the original works, translator, nationality of translator and publishing year of the English translations, which will show the characteristics of the English translation of Chinese Classics during each historical period.
Based on Descriptive Translation Studies, the paper will analyze different categories of Chinese classics translation from the descriptive perspective. The descriptive study of the certain translated Chinese Classics is helpful to understand them objectively, which also lays the foundation for further research on the Englishtranslation of Chinese Classics. We hope to catch more attention to the study of bibliographies and think about how to further spread Chinese culture to the world.
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2. Literature Review
2.1 Researches on the English Translation of Chinese Classics
Chinese Classics is a presentation of Chinese culture. The study on the English translation of Chinese Classics can to some extent reflect the development and prosperity of Chinese culture. There are various types of Chinese Classics. According to Wang Ermin’s bibliography, they are pided into 13 fields, which are literature, philosophy, history, religion, geography, art, science, society, law, agriculture, education, economy and military affairs. The literature review will focus on the current situation of English translation of literary and philosophical classics, which account for the two largest proportions in the bibliography.
2.1.1 Researches on the English Translation of Philosophical Classics
Investigation shows that the study at home on English translation of philosophical classics is mostly concentrated on the Confucian classics, which regard the Four Books and Five Classics as the main study objects. As the Confucian classics, the Four Books include Analects of Confucius, Mencius, Great Learning and Doctrine of the Mean. The Five Classics involve I Ching, Shang Shu, Shi Jing, Book of Rites and Spring and Autumn Annals. The domestic research on the Confucian classics translation starts early and has become an upsurge in recent years. Most domestic scholars focus on exploring the origin of the English translation of the Confucian classics, researching the development of translation, contrasting the characteristics of typical translation versions and probing into the significance of English translation of Chinese Classics to the spread of Chinese culture in the future. Some scholars also put forward some suggestions on the basic principles to be followed in the English translation of Chinese Classics and how to grasp these principles in the translation practice. Wang (2006:178-181) analyzed the 43 papers in the study of the Analects of Confucius in the past 20 years, and made an objective evaluation of the achievements and present situation of the English translation of Analects of Confucius in China, which have provided reference for the further study of English translation and the new translation versions. Chen et al. (2013: 21-25) reviewed the studies on the translation of the Doctrine of the Mean by domestic scholars in recent years, summing up the main features and inspirations of the study of English translation of the Doctrine of the Mean.
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2.2 Researches on Descriptive Translation Studies
Descriptive translation studies is target culture oriented and focuses on the study of the specifications for controlling translational action. The concept of Descriptive translation study was first put forward in 1972, when James Holmes published The Name and Nature of Translation Studies. He pointed out that translation studies include pure translation and applied translation. Pure translation studies include two aspects: one is to describe translation activities and translated texts in empirical world; the other is to establish basic principles that can explain and predict these phenomena. Accordingly, pure translation studies are pided into two branches: descriptive translation studies and theoretical translation studies. After that, some scholars pushed the development of the theory, which were Itmar Even-Zohar, his student Gideon Toury and the Belgian scholar Andre Lefevere.
The most representative was Gideon Toury. In 1977, he made a sociology analysis of the Hebrew translations of English, French, German, Russian and Yiddish published between 1930 and 1945. On this basis, he carried on a more comprehensive theoretical study. In 1980, he published In Search of a Theory of Translation, which indicated that the focus of translation studies had shifted from theoretical translation studies to descriptive translation studies. He put forward the research idea of combining theoretical model with case study (Wen et al., 2010: 131). In 1995, Toury published thenew edition Descriptive Translation Studies and Beyond, providing a new research strategy of placing the target text in the culture of the original text system.
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3. Research Methodology .................................. 17
3.1 Research Questions ....................................... 17
3.2 Research Hypothesis ......................................... 17
4. A Statistical Analysis of Chinese Classics Translation in the BWTCW ............ 20
4.1 A Category-based Statistical Analysis ................................ 20
4.2 A Time-based Statistical Analysis .................................. 23
5. A Descriptive Study of Chinese Classics Translation in the BWTCW ............. 43
5.1 A Description of Literary Classics Translation ............................... 43
5.1.1 Translation of Poems ................................. 43
5.1.2 Translation of Novels .......................................... 47
5. A Descriptive Study of Chinese Classics Translation in the BWTCW
5.1 A Description of Literary Classics Translation
5.1.1 Translation of Poems
Shi Jing began to be translated into many languages more than three centuries ago, but its English translation was late. The earliest English translation was published in Chinese Repository, just selecting two of them. The translator was the American missionary Walter Macon Lowrie. After that, a number of sinologists translated this into English, such as James Legge, Herbert Giles, Arthur Waley, Ezra Pound, Bernhard Karlgren, and so on.
James Legge finished the complete translation in 1871 and re-translated it with rhyme in 1876. The 1871 edition was out of rhyme and had a 182-page preface including five parts, which were the history of Chinese poetry, the current versions, the source and metre of ode poems, the relationship between Shi Jing and factors such aspolitical status or religion and other works referred in the text. The translation paid attention to the correspondence of literal meaning, essentially retaining the form of the original text. The text consisted of the translation and the Chinese original text. The translation was annotated, which was pided into two parts, one was the interpretation of the poems, but often existing the reconciliation between the Han school and Song school of classical philology, the other was the interpretation of the text, where there existed disagreement with the traditional interpretation, the translator generally made a clear explanation of his choice. The 1876 edition was co-translation between James Legge and others, based on the 1871 edition. The translation adopted rhyme and deleted the long preface and annotation. In order to fit the rhyme, the translator adopted the explanation method, so the accuracy was lower compared with the first translation. But in a word, the translations were rigorous and faithful. In the process of translation, the translator showed respect for Chinese culture and a strong sense of being intermingled into it.
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6. Conclusion
6.1 Major Findings
The paper adopts a quantitative method and a descriptive translation studies approach, conducting classification and statistical analysis of 1042 items of information about English translation of Chinese Classics in Wang Ermin’s bibliography, observing the characteristics and exploring the reasons behind them. The paper innovatively pides the periods between the first English translation of Chinese Classics in 1810 and the period before the book was completed, on the basis of which data statistics are made. Then, a contrastive and statistical study is made on English translations of Chinese Classics in England, America and China separately. Next, an analysis is made about the development of sinology in western countries and a descriptive approach is adopted to study some English translations of Chinese classics before conclusions are reached. Some major findings are as follows.
Firstly, totally 1042 items of Chinese classics translation are finally obtained from Wang Ermin’s bibliography, which fall into such main categories of literature, philosophy and history of Chinese classics.
Secondly, among all the 1042 translated texts collected from the bibliography, classics of literature, philosophy and history account for 48.75%, 16.31% and 15.74%, respectively; the average annual publication of English-translated works reached the highest level (36.95%) during the period of 1912-1948; translators mainly come from Britain, China and the United States, reaching 30.82%, 14.79% and 14.59% respectively.
Thirdly, using statistical analysis in the descriptive study reflects the overall tendency of some translation behaviour or phenomenon. Since the outbreak of the Opium War in 1840, the number of translated classics into English has gradually increased. From 1912 to 1948, the annual average translation of books reached the highest level in the Republic of China, which is closely related to the development and 66flourishing of world sinology, publishing agencies and periodicals. From the early period when western missionaries came to China to the later stage that Protestantism spread in China, the missionaries translated a large number of Chinese Classics. The original motivation was to provide Chinese information to churches to meet their own needs, while the essential purpose was to promote the spreading of Christianity. The English translation by British translators reached a peak in the 17 years between the May 4th Movement and the War of Resistance against Japan, which was related to the relatively stable social environment and the prosperous cultural environment at that time. American translators paid more attention to the reality in China, so they focused on the historical classics. At the turn of the 20th century, a large number of Chinese translators appeared.
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