20230630 final exam 04

202270081682 周晓兰 Zhou Xiaolan 英语笔译(English translation)

On the Communication Effect in the English Translation of the Analects of Confucius

Zhou Xiaolan, 202270081682

Abstract

The translation of the Analects of Confucius, which is the embodiment of Confucian ideas, aims to disseminate traditional Chinese thought and profround Chinese culture, and promote communication and exchanges between different cultures in the world. In recent years, China's "going out" policy has become an important window for China to enhance its international communication capacity and highlight its cultural influence. As one of the important ways for Chinese culture to go global, Chinese classics translation has become an essential part of cultural exchanges between China and the West. As a symbol of the dissemination of Chinese classics, the Analects of Confucius, rooted in tranditional philosophy, serves as a powerful tool to spread Chinese wisdom to the world. Therefore, on the basis of introducing the Analects of Confucius and its English translation, this paper discusses the communication effect in the English Translation of the Analects of Confucius, and points out that the English translation of the Analects of Confucius plays a vital role in the implementation of China's "going out" policy and in Chinese classics translation, which is conducive to promoting the globalization of Chinese culture.

Key Words

English Translation of the Analects of Confucius; Chinese Classics Translation; Communication Effect; China's "Going out" Policy; Cultural Identity

摘要

《论语》是反映中国古代儒家思想的经典之作，其翻译目的是传播中国传统思想和博大文化，促进世界不同文化之间的沟通和交流。《论语》在西方世界的传播历史也是中西文化交流历史的见证。近年来，中国文化走出去已然成为我国提升国际传播能力，彰显文化影响力的重要窗口。作为中国文化走出去的重要形式，中国文化典籍的译介成为中西方文化交流的重要内容。作为中国文化典籍的代表之作，《论语》根植于传统哲学思想，是传播中国智慧的有力工具。因此，本文在介绍《论语》及其英译状况的基础上，探讨《论语》英译的传播效果，指出《论语》英译对中国文化走出去战略以及典籍英译有着重要的研究价值，有助于推进中华民族文化的全球化。

关键词

《论语》英译；中华典籍外译；传播效果；中国文化走出去；文化身份

Introduction

Culture is crucial for a nation because it affects not only the mindset of the nation, but also the thought and behavior of every member of the nation. In the process of cross-cultural communication, it is of great practical significance to fully understand the roots, inheritance and development of different cultures (Miao Ruixue, 2022). As an important carrier for the inheritance and development of Chinese culture, Chinese classics embody the essence of China's splendid culture for more than 5, 000 years and present the values in Chinese traditional culture. Chinese classics translation is an important part of the dissemination of Chinese culture and one of the important methods to improve China's international communication capacity (Wang Yuan, 2022). As an important component of Chinese classics, the Analects of Confucius has exerted profound influences on Chinese civilization. Compiled by Confucius and his disciples, the Analects of Confucius is a collection of aphorisms and historical anecdotes, embodying the basic values of the Confucian tradition: learning, morality, ritual decorum, and filial piety. Along with other intellectual achievements that have been generated in the formulation and development of the Chinese nation, the Analects of Confucius records the Chinese nation's spiritual activities, rational thinking and cultural achievements in building their homeland, reflects spiritual pursuits of the Chinese nation, and provides a key source of nutrition for the survival and continuous growth of our nation. At the opening ceremony of the International Conference in Commemoration of the 2,565th Anniversary of Confucius' Birth and the fifth Congress of the International Confucian Association, President Xi Jinping said that studying Confucius and Confucianism is an important approach to understanding the national characteristics of the Chinese as well as the historical roots of the spiritual world of the present-day Chinese. The translation of the Analects of Confucius, which is the embodiment of Confucian ideas, aims to disseminate traditional Chinese thought and profround Chinese culture, and promote communication and exchanges between different cultures in the world. In recent years, China's "going out" policy has become an important window for China to enhance its international communication capacity and highlight its cultural influence. As a symbol of the dissemination of Chinese classics, the Analects of Confucius, rooted in tranditional philosophy, serves as a powerful tool to spread Chinese wisdom to the world. Therefore, this paper focuses on the communication effect in the English Translation of the Analects of Confucius and discusses how the English translation of the Analects of Confucius spreads Chinese culture on the basis of being accpted by Western readers.

Literature Review

The translation of the Analects of Confucius followed the mission, trade, and foreign expansion of Western countries. Western missionaries who came to China at the end of the 16th century were the first to translate the Analects into Latin, ans the Latin transaltion was later translated into English and French. With the deepening of cross-cultural communication, the Chinese wisdom in the Analects of Confucius has been noticed by the world. As the essence of Chinese thought, the Analects of Confucius has exerted significant influence not only on the thoughts and culture of Chinese nations, but also on world civilization. In recent years, more importance has been attached to the translation of Chinese classics and their translation studies due to the rising attention on Chinese culture and the enhancement of China's international status. It is also ture of the research on the English translation of the Analects of Confucius (Xu Suxian, 2022).

Through the search on the English translation of the Analects of Confucius as its title, it can be concluded that foreign studies are mainly on keyword translation, comparative research and the introduction of book review.

Michael Nylan (2013) surveyed the work of two aesthetes, Arthur Waley and Li Zehou, whose influential translations of the Analects of Confucius ascribed to Confucius have shaped approaches to the subject of myth, ritual, early history and religion for Anglophone and Sinophone readers. Yu Juan (2014) applied redability theory into translations of the Analects of Confucius in Chinese and English versions, explained the readability statistics and compared the different degrees of simplification in the translation from four aspects: word numbers, lexical density, sentence numbers and average sentence length. Li Li (2015) explored the standard and procedures of legal translation form legal culture, vocabulary selection and grammar selection by taking the translation of the Chinese legal concept of "qinqinxiangyin" put forward by Confucius as an example. Fan Min (2015) attempted to explore how the ideological factors influence the cultural transmission of Confucianism through a comparative analysis of the translation of the key concepts in the two versions by James Legge and Ku Hung-ming from the ideological perspective. Xiaojuan Peng (2018) compared different English versions of the Analects of Confucius, investigated the thought model of translating Chinese classics and put forward the commonly used thought model of translating Chinese classics. Benjamin Machael Giaimo (2020) compared the similarities between the saint in the Analects of Confucius and classical characters in American movies and translated "Junzi" in terms of current popular sayings in America.

Against the backdrop of the implementation of of China's "going out" policy, domestic scholars paid more attention to the study of English translation of the Analects of Confucius. Generally speaking, their studies focus on the translation of keywords and translation strategies in different English versions the Analects of Confucius.

Due to different cultural backgrounds and cross-cultural transformation form ancient Chinese to English, the translation of keywords plays a significant role in the translation of the Analects of Confucius and their successful translation serves as a key to understanding the core thoughts and social value in the Analects of Confucius at that time. Qian Yaxu and Ji Mofang (2013) probed into different translations of the Analects of Confucius on the shift translation of "Ren" in the Analects of Confucius by Arthur Waley and that by An Lezhe & Luo Siwen. Zhang Zheng and Hu Wenxiao (2015) analyzed the translation of "Tian" and its enlightenment to the English translation of Chinese culture-loaded words. Han Xing and Han Qiuyu (2016) compared the English translation of Junzi concept in Confucian culture in the Analects of Confucius by James Legge and Arthur Waley. Cai Xinle (2017) explored the Chinese and English translation of "Wen" in the Analects of Confucius with the Dao of Yin and Yang as the methodology in the interpretation of "Ruism in terms of Ruism". And then he (2020) analyzed the representation of the spirit of the sage on the English translation of the Analects of Confucius in the direction of the "Heart-Resources". On the basis of his previous studies, Cai Xinle (2022) discussed the returing of Ruist learning to itself in the English translation of the Analects of Confucius. Dai Wei (2022) focused on the translation of "Tian", "Ming", "Gui", "Shen" in Confucius' religious view.

Translators are the major participants of translation activities and translation strategies they choose have great impacts on their translations which attract many scholars' attention. Liu Baiyu, Hu Qing and Liu Xiaqing (2011) studied translation strategies of Chinese traditional cultural elements by taking the translation of a core word "Ren" in the Analects of Confucius. Tu Guoyuan and Xu Lei(2012) probed into the translation strategies of Ku Hung-ming's discourses and sayings of Confucius from a metonymic perspective based on the revelation of national culture. Liu Xueqin (2013) analyzed the code switching in Ku Hung-ming's, James Legge's, and William Soothill's English versions of the Analects of Confucius. Liu Yanrong (2015) conducted a comparative study of three English versions of the Analects of Confucius from the perspective of Skopos Theory. Shang Yanyan and Yang Ping(2017) illuminated translator's active selection on translational eco-environment to justify the translator-centeredness in the translation process and to clarify one ambiguous point in Eco-translatology. Xu Jun and Xiao Haiyan (2018) compared Legge and Waley's translations of the Analects of Confucius, explored the influence of ideology and poetics on the translation, and analyzed how translators make adaptive decisions in the manipulation of ideology and poetics. Yang Lin (2020) analyzed the choice made by the translators in translating Chinese classics, taking the English translation of the Analects of Confucius as an example. Zhang Xiaoman and Sun Xiaolu (2022) focused on the dialogues in the homogenous Context of the English translation of the Analects of Confucius by Ku Hung-ming.

It can be concluded that the comparative study of different versions of the Analects of Confucius, the translation of key words and translation strategies have always been the focus of domestic scholars. And with the deeping of cross-cultural comminication, domestic scholars began to analyze the English translation from communication. Zhang Meng and Dong Yan (2020) studied the translation and dissemination of the Analects of Confucius in English-speaking countries. To explore a way to promote the external communication of the translation of the Analects of Confucius, Zhang Xiaoman and Bian Zhenxiang (2021) put forward new frontiers of English translation of the Analects of Confucius: from cooperative translation to cross media translation. Chu Changsheng and Gao Luyi (2022) studied the translator's subjectivity and the communication effect in the English translation of the Analects of Confucius. To promote overseas dissemination of Chinese classics, Li Gang, Yue Manman and Li Jinshu focused on mistranslations of the Analects of Confucius by Ku Hung-ming and its enlightment for spreading Chinese culture from a historical and cultural perspective. Against the backdrop of promoting the globalization of Chinese culture, all these studies are conducive to spreading Chinese culture and promoting recption of Chinese culture in Western countries.

To sum up, domestic and foreign researches on the English translation of the Analects of Confucius are mainly focusedd on the translation of keywords and translation strategies. And with the deeping of cross-cultural comminication, the communication effect in the English translation of the Analects of Confucius has attracted much attention. Therefore, on the basis of introducing the Analects of Confucius and its English translation, the next part discusses the communication effect in the English translation of the Analects of Confucius, and points out that the English translation of the Analects of Confucius plays a vital role in the implementation of China's "going out" policy and in Chinese classics translation, which is conducive to promoting the globalization of Chinese culture.

And as mentioned above, translators are the major participants of translation activities and translation strategies they choose have great impacts on their translations. Therefore, according to the cultural identity of the translators, this paper divides the history of the English translation of the Analects of Confucius into three periods, analyzes the choices of translators with different cultural identities in different historical contexts and the communication effects of their translations, so as to discusse how to better promote Chinese classics translation in the new era.