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英语笔译 王亚娟 Wang Yajuan 202170081598

On the Overseas Transmission Paths of Journey to the West Wang Yajuan

Abstract

The continuous development of Internet technology has not only changed the way of reading classics, but also the path of classical communication. According to American scholar Harold Lasswell's 5W communication model, medium is the basic component of the communication process. And in the present time of continuous media convergence, the multidimensional transmission paths of classical works are formed. It is necessary to study the development of communication paths. As one of the Four Great Works of China, Journey to the West has been disseminated overseas for hundreds of years. It has not only been translated into many languages such as English, French, German, Italian, and Russian, but also a large number of film and television dramas, stage plays, animation, video games and other works of that adaptation have been derived.

This paper takes the overseas transmission path of Journey to the West as the research object, first discusses the reasons why it was spread from the perspective of its value, and then clarifies the transmission path of Journey to the West in overseas by analyzing relevant books and papers, and finds that the print publication path mainly relies on paper media to publish translated works; with the evolving of transmission paths with help of new media, the multidimensional transmission path has emerged. And then talks about the incluence of elements in 5W on tranasmission paths according to 5W. Then studies opportunities for the innovation of classics transmission paths brought by the times, hoping that analysis of the transmission paths of Journey to the West, can provide reference for the continuous dissemination of other classic works.

Key Words

Journey to the west; transmission paths; classic dissemination; medium; 5W

Introduction

In the 21st century, with the trend of multiculturalism, different nations are learning from each other. In China, the “Go Global" strategy(走出去战略) and the Belt and Road Initiative（一带一路） are constantly developing, and "telling the Chinese story well and strengthening international communication capacity"（讲好中国故事，传播中国声音） are of high concern to the state and society. In essence, the "Go Global" of Chinese cultures is closely related to the dissemination of Chinese classics and traditional culture. This requires us to give full play to the role of literature as a medium and to further enrich the dissemination path of classics.

Journey to the West, the pinnacle of ancient Chinese divine and magical fiction, spread overseas to Eastern countries far earlier than in Western countries, reaching Japan in the Ming Dynasty (Li Sunhua 2001(1): 113) and beginning to circulate to Britain and the United States in 1895. With the continuous development of digital technology, the dissemination path of Journey to the West has also been changing. The print publication path of publishing translated works is no longer the only one. In view of this, this paper takes the overseas dissemination path of Journey to the West as an entry point to study from the means of traditional media to the current new media context, so as to understand more clearly the dissemination in overseas.

Literature Review

The research on the overseas dissemination of Journey to the West is mainly domestic, and mainly includes the following aspects:

First, the translation of the text of Journey to the West. Zhu Mingsheng discusses the influence of the English translation of Journey to the West on its overseas dissemination. Wang Zhen discusses the significance of "symbolic communication" and "textual communication" on the cross-cultural dissemination of Journey to the West, and believes that the English translation of Journey to the West has gone through the process of cultural symbol deficiency to cultural symbol specialization.(Shenchen, Yuan Xilin 021:124)

Second, studies on the communication effect of Journey to the West. Wang Yihan explores the overseas dissemination effect of traditional classic culture from the perspective of the film adaptation. Zhu Mingsheng et al. reproduce its spread of in the English-speaking world by searching the New York Times' coverage of the Journey to the West. Zhang Li et al. explore the impact of the dissemination of the Japanese 1978, 1993 and 2006 versions through an analysis of their film and television productions.

Third, studies on the variation of the overseas transmission of Journey to the West. By analyzing the British adaptations in the East, Liu Jun points out the problem of cultural parasitism in cross-cultural communication. He Shuyan analyzed the American translation of Journey to the West on three levels: cross-linguistic, cross-cultural and cross-civilizational. Zhang Li et al. compare the Chinese CCTV version and the Japanese Fuji version and find that the Japanese adaptation suffers from localization in character design, Chineseness in environment while Westernization and modernization in setting. Kan Zehui, on the other hand, explores the variation of the theme and artistic image in Japanese film and television.(Shenchen, Yuan Xilin 021:124)

These studies make full use of various resources such as text, audio and video, mainly studying the transmission process, motives and subjects of Journey to the West. (Yu Chengfa, Zheng Jianwei 2021: 83) These studies mainly focus on the dissemination of one or several translations and film adaptations in a certain country or region, but there are relatively few studies on the development of the overseas transmission path of Journey to the West over time. Therefore, this paper focuses on it.

Methods and Theories

Communication comes from the Latin word communis, which has the characteristics of exchange and subject-object bi-directionality. 1948, American communication guru Harold Lasswell proposed the 5w communication model in his article The Structure and Function of Social Communication, arguing that human communication consist of five aspects : who, say what, which channel, to whom and with which effect (Harold Lasswell 2015). The 5W theory outlines the five key elements involved in the communication process, namely the relationship between the communication subject, the communication content, the communication channel, the communication audience and the communication effect. The elements are interrelated and function together. Among them, the communication channel is the basic component of the communication process and the means by which the communication behavior is realized, including newspapers, magazines, radio, television, movies, books, etc.

This paper analyzes the changes in the communication path of Journey to the West, revealing the development of the paths from the traditional communication path to the current communication path in the digital multimodal field, analyzing the new opportunities brought by external factors such as social environment changes and technological innovations and the relationship between the widening of the communication path and other communication elements brought by the development of the communication media in accordance with the 5W model, hoping to provide reference for more effective communication of Chinese traditional culture.

One of the major controversies of the 5W communication model is that it does not mention feedback, which is an equally important part of the communication process, and in 5W, and the role of the sender and the receiver of the message are fixed(Yilidana Ilhamu 2021: 25). Combined with the view of some researchers that "paths" better reflect the literary reception perspective of a work-paths means "routes to a destination," while "channel" is a term for the physical vehicle of literary communication from the perspective of the communicator. At the same time, transmission paths emphasize the process and trajectory of literature in transmission (Wang Ying 2015:7). Therefore, this paper makes more extensive use of transmission paths than channels in the original theory.

The Reasons for the Spread of Journey to the West

Literature is an important carrier of culture, and China's classical works are rich in national emotions, ethics and customs, and their foreign translation and dissemination "not only involve whether the essence of Chinese traditional culture can provide new ideas and contribute to the prosperity of world culture, but also whether China can participate equally in the dialogue of world civilization" ( (Zhang Boran, Xu Jun 2017(5):26). Some classic Chinese literary works, represented by the Four Great Works, have been translated and adapted. Among them, the translation and dissemination of Journey to the West is one of the literary works that have received some attention from domestic and foreign academics and media.

Journey to the West is the peak of ancient long romantic novels, and in the history of world literature, it is also one of valuable work of romanticism. The Encyclopedia Americana considers it "a mythological novel rich in content and luminous ideas," and the Encyclopedia Britannica says that Journey to the West is "one of China's most precious and magical novels” (Wang Lina 1999:4). René Etiemble, a French sinologist, even praised this work highly, saying that "Europeans who have not read Journey to the West are like those who have not read the works of Tolstoy and Dostoevsky and cannot talk about the world's novels." (He Xizhang 1999: 246)

Although cultures are diverse, and there are conflicts between different cultures in terms of concepts and customs, there are always works that resonate. Ge Haowen once said, "Despite our different backgrounds, lifestyles, philosophies and political systems; as human beings, we have many common, fundamental beliefs, hopes, emotions and needs."（Ge Haowen 1984: 200）.The spread of Journey to the West overseas is closely related to its own literary value. The author Wu Cheng'en used an extremely romantic approach to reflect realistic thoughts and feelings, skillfully combining good-natured ridicule, biting satire and serious criticism, opening up a new genre of long chapter novels of gods and demons.

The storyline of Journey to the West unfolds in a typical Chinese narrative manner, but the behavioral qualities presented in the story, such as the harmony between human beings and nature, the courageous pursuit of truth, and the elimination of evil and the promotion of good, are all universal values pursued by readers from different regions and different social and cultural backgrounds. Take the main character, Sun Wukong, as an example, his thirst for freedom and pursuit of individual liberation are symbolic of the process of individual self-development through struggle. In addition, although the author sets the story in the world of gods and demons, which is extremely romantic, the main character's words and actions are taken from the daily life of ordinary people, thus the work is full of brilliance of human beings. Therefore, although Journey to the West has different readers, it can bring readers the process of self-reflection. Journey to the West has been accepted by readers of different cultural levels; its ideology and artistry transcend the boundaries of society and time, making it a masterpiece of romanticism "from and for the whole world". (Hu Chenyao, Liu Yunhong, 2019: 145) The value of Journey to the West itself is an important reason why it has been spread overseas.

Multi-paths of the Overseas Transmission of Journey to the West

With the development of technology, the transmission paths of Journey to the West are diversifying, mainly based on paper-based publication paths and multi-dimensional audiovisual paths.

1.Paper-based Transmission Paths

The publication path, that is, the paper-based medium of transmission, has played an important role in the overseas transmission of Journey to the West. Worldwide, the translation of Journey to the West is the main way of its overseas dissemination, and it is also the basis for film and television adaptations. According to scholars' statistics, foreign translations of Journey to the West have been published in English, French, German, Italian, Spanish, Esperanto, Swahili, Russian, Czech, Luo, Japanese, Korean, and Vietnamese (Wang Lina 1980:4). In most target languages, the path of translation dissemination has gone through from fragmentary abridged translations, retranslations, and then full translations. The official translation and dissemination of Journey to the West may have begun in 1758, in the twenty-third year of the Qianlong reign of the Qing dynasty, by the Japanese novelist Nishida Wiser, and was completed in 1831, after 74 years of work by three generations. Thus, Journey to the West entered the Eastern world with a bang and lasted for a hundred years. To this day, there are many Japanese translations, and it was already brought to the screen by Japanese television as early as the 1980s. In addition to Japan, Journey to the West is also relatively popular in Korea, Thailand, Myanmar and other Eastern countries, which is related to the regional, religious and cultural backgrounds.（Cao Huimin 2020:130）

There are a large number of English translations, with the earliest English translations of fragments appearing in the late 19th century. in 1895, North China Herald published Samuel I. Woodbridge's pamphlet The Golden-Horned Dragon King; Other people, such as James Ware, Wanner, had also translated fragments of Journey to the West. In addition, there are several selected translations. The earliest English translation of Journey to the West, entitled A Mission to Heaven, was published in 1913 by the Shanghai Christian Literature Society. 1942 saw the publication of Arthur Wiley's English translation of Journey to the West in New York under the title Monkey, which was accurate and successful that it has been reprinted several times since its publication. The first volume of the first full translation was published by the University of Chicago Press in 1977, and the translator was the Chinese-American sinologist Yu Guofan. The translation was highly praised and affirmed by the Western academic community, but unfortunately, due to changes in the book market and readers' psychology, Yu was not as popular with the general readers as the Wiley translation was back then.

In addition to the English translation, the translation began in France as early as the middle of the 19th century; the German translation began with the book Chinese Popular Fiction compiled by Wei Lixian; the translation was also extensive in Russia and Eastern European countries; in 1959, the Moscow State Literary Publishing House published a full translation of Journey to the West, translated by the famous Soviet sinologist Luo Goshou.

Translations of this book is uninterrupted. Even in the current era when the paper-based media are under the fierce impact of mass media, the translation of the text still constitutes the most basic dissemination paths of Journey to the West overseas, and its completeness, systematization and accuracy are unparalleled by other dissemination channels （Hu Chenyao, Liu Yunhong 2019: 145）. Looking at the publication paths of the Journey to the West overseas, the translation business as a whole is constantly moving forward. From the initial fragments to the present full translation, it has been transformed from "nothing" to "something" through the paper medium overseas. The path of publication in overseas has also been broadened, making it move toward the world(Xie Tianzhen 2009: 238).

2. Multidimensional Transmission Paths

The transmission paths of literature is not static. For the shortcomings of traditional publication path, people have taken the initiative to update it, the PC paths based on digital text, the film and television are developed. One literary work can take a variety of communication paths, making the dissemination of literary works present a cross-platform and cross-media multi-dimensional communication path. In the process of literary communication path evolution, as in the case of technological revolution, the phenomenon of path dependence at the technical and institutional levels is reflected, that is, the new communication era can be compatible with the previous communication forms, and at the same time the old literary communication forms are transformed into new forms in the new communication context (Wang Ying 2015: 18). The overseas dissemination of Journey to the West was not only by means of printing books, but also in combination with new media.

In July 2016, the 1986 version of the domestic television series Journey to the West (in Nepali) was screened in Nepal, triggering a ratings boom and "becoming a topic of conversation on the streets of Nepal and generating enthusiastic reviews in the local media." The popularity of Journey to the West TV series in Nepal reflects a major trend in the overseas dissemination of China's classics: with the rapid development of science and technology, cultural dissemination is no longer limited to the translation of literature from text to text, and classical literature has reached a wider audience outside the country through three-dimensional and diversified forms of dissemination, such as movies, TV series, operas, animation and video games. In the United States, Japan, Vietnam and other countries, Journey to the West has been brought to the screen in the form of movies or TV dramas; Japanese cartoonist Toriyama Akira's comic Dragon Ball, which is based on Journey to the West, has become popular all over the world and has been turned into animation, movies and a wide variety of video games. After the film and television adaptation, the cultural products have incorporated a large number of modern and contemporary elements and cultural characteristics of the recipient countries, presenting a distinctive contemporary nature in content and form. (Hu Chenyao, Liu Yunhong 2019: 145) The advancement of electronic technology has brought viewers more impactful visual effects and psychological experiences.

Relationship Between Transmission Paths of Journey to the West and Other Communication Elements of 5W

Translation paths was influenced by other elements in 5W. 5W includes Who, Say what, in which channel, to whom and with what effects. Among them, the communicator is the sender of the message. The emergence of the communication subject means the beginning of the communication activity. The content of communication is the core of the whole communication process. The sender and the audience interact in both directions in the process of information dissemination. And only by relying on the communication media, the dissemination of information can be completed. The communication audience is the receiver of the information. And the communication effect is the effective result after the audience receives the information (Yilidana Ilhamu 2021:28). The 5W model analyzes five elements in the process of communication and the complex relationship among them. In fact, these five elements are closely connected. This part focuses on the relationship between the transmission paths and other elements in 5W model.

1. Transmission Paths and Communication Subjects

People is an abstract concept, only "people" engaged in specific communication social activities, with independent personality and extensive participation consciousness, can become the transmission subject. As different dissemination subjects must have different subject consciousness, the choice of the path of dissemination must be different. The overseas dissemination process of Journey to the West has a specific purpose, that is, to spread Chinese traditional culture and improve the international influence of Chinese culture, therefore, different dissemination subjects and dissemination paths are also based on this criterion. The process of overseas dissemination of Journey to the West is to a certain extent in accordance with the will of the subject. The subject itself have their own preferences. Although the communicator is active, the audience is not necessarily the passive one to receive it (Pan Dandan 2018:80). In the process of the communication object starting from the subject and reaching the audience through different media and paths, when the communication object, Journey to the West, does not spread with communication effect expected by the subject, the communication subject is able to adjust and reflect on the existing way of thinking, and then adjust the way of communication and integrate the communication paths and means in order to achieve better communication effects.

2. Transmission Paths and Communication Messages

Communication messages are an important part of communication. The communication path of translation and publication mainly relies on textual language to disseminate information; while the communication path of film and television media mainly uses more complex language to disseminate information. The language of video uses audiovisual language such as scenes, shapes and music to describe characters, emotions and society. The visual language of color and light is used to show the image of characters and social reality, so that the audience can understand Journey to the West more intuitively. As George Rushton described in his book From Novel to Film, "Change begins when one transitions from one set of variable, yet under certain conditions identical in nature, to another form; change is inevitable from the minute one abandons the verbal means and adopts the visual means. " (George Brusco, Gao Junqian 1981:6) This also illustrates in the process of change in the communication path from text to film and television, the communication message changes.

When the transmission paths of Journey to the West broke through the limits of language, media began to seek its own independent identity. It takes the plot and emotions from the text of the novel, but in order to express the unique charm of the language of images, it often changes course and looks for entry points that are more suitable for the characteristics of video expression (Li Ping 2012:125). In the American version of Journey to the West, in order to make the TV series more attractive, there is a big adaptation of the original text, and the Tang monk is no longer a monk, but an ordinary American who takes on the task of saving the world. The monsters are no longer the traditional insects, animals and ghosts, but various monsters of modern society with science fiction.

In short, in the process of changing transmission paths based on from the linguistic and textual path of transmission to the film and television media, the adaptation of Journey to the West is rarely subject to relatively fewer culturally stereotyped images in the cross-cultural transmission, and the video language is thus more likely to exert its artistic potential and representational function (Li Ping 2012:123). As a result of this change in expression ways, the content of the original text inevitably mutates as well.

3. Transmission Paths and Communication Receivers

Due to the development of communication paths, transmission paths based on film and television media communication paths have become more diverse in their presentation of language and culture in the process of communication.

In the process of remaking, the film Journey to the West is often "implanted with the connotation of the national culture" because it is intended for audiences of different countries. Therefore, the remade film often has to be adapted according to the aesthetic taste and viewing habits of the national audience, adjusting the cultural differences between East and West to make it more suitable for the national audience and look more like "made in American", so that it can appear in front of the national audience with a fresh face again. " (Wang Xianping, Wang Ping 2007:106).

In the face of different receivers, there are also certain differences in different communication paths. As the producer of the Japanese version of Journey to the West, Yoshihiroko Suzuki, did, they gave it a definition that would delight families, so the characters were designed with a focus on making them resonate with children. Compared to similar productions in China, the biggest difference in this "Journey to the West" is the weakening of Wukong's abilities and Venerable Sanzang's character in order to bring them closer to the audience and make it easier for them to feel the characters' anguish and struggle.

4. Transmission Paths and Communication Effects

Different transmission paths have different effects. Taking the dissemination of Journey to the West in Britain as an example, the study found that among more than 20 translations, the most popular ones are still the classic translations of the 1970s and 1980s: one is Arthur Wylie's Monkey, and the other is Zeng's full translation of Journey to the West. The former is interesting and suitable for general readers; while the latter is faithful to the original and suitable for academic research. The reader reviews of Journey to the West on Amazon.com show that some people read the book because they like the Dragon Ball, an anime work related to Journey to the West, while others are interested in the story of Journey to the West and even traditional Chinese culture due to the influence of film and television works, and then read classic literary works. The transmission paths of literary works may be different and their effects may vary, but the different paths sometimes complement each other.

The Influence of External Factors on the Transmission Paths of Journey to the West

In addition to other internal factors in 5W , the transmission path is also affected by other external factors such as science and technology, policy and so on.

One the one hand, innovation of transmission paths fits in with the background of our times of inheriting and promoting the Chinese traditional culture. In recent years, the country has advocated the strategy of going abroad for culture. The Outline of the National Cultural Development Plan for the Eleventh Five-Year Period proposes to grasp the implementation of major projects and programs for cultural outreach, strengthen foreign cultural exchanges, and form a cultural opening pattern of going out with national culture, absorbing foreign beneficial culture, and promoting Chinese culture to the world. The main measures in foreign cultural exchange include: broadening the channels of foreign cultural exchange and dissemination, and implementing major projects of "going global". It is in this context that the innovation of the transmission path of classics such as Journey to the West is in line with the times.

One the other hand, technological innovation helps the innovation of the transmission paths of Journey to the West. The development of electronic technology has promoted the transformation of literary dissemination paths, and with the continuous integration of literary carriers, the literary transmission path based on films, televisions or sound has become more popular among audiences. A representative one in Eastern countries is Japan, where the Japanese have brought Journey to the West to the screen four times since 1978. The series Journey to the West, broadcast by Fujitsu TV in 2016, ranked fourth in the station's ratings history. And a film version was also released in 2007. In the West, The Monkey King was produced by NBC in 2001 and was introduced by German television during New Year's Day 2009. Hollywood has also released blockbuster movies in recent years, such as King of Kung Fu and Dragon Ball: Evolution, which also had similar theme or characters from Journey to the West. (Li Ping 2012:123)

However, with the innovation of the overseas transmission paths of Journey to the West, from the path of text publication to the path based on film and media, the content of the original text inevitably mutates due to the change of expression. For example, the "hero in doom" in the American and German versions has typical Western cultural characteristics. In several Japanese versions, there is a female monk character. At this stage, although Westerners are willing to learn about Chinese cultural traditions, they are still relatively unfamiliar with Chinese culture in general. Under such circumstances, we should be tolerant of such distortion of communication effects. At the same time, we should be wary of excessive "deformation", and the outward dissemination of Chinese culture should not be at the expense of the national characteristics of Chinese culture. It is important to seize all kinds of opportunities to innovate overseas transmission paths of Journey to the West, so as to achieve better communication effects.

Conclusion

Culture is the soul of a country and a nation. As one of the Four Great Masterpieces of China, Journey to the West plays an important role in promoting Chinese culture to the world and to communicate with the world on an equal footing. Looking at the overseas transmission paths of Journey to the West, the traditional publication paths of text translation constitutes the basic way of dissemination, while the development of information technology and the popularization of mass media further broaden its dissemination channels and enrich its contents and forms. On the whole, the various dissemination channels are not mutually exclusive, and while preserving the essence of "classics", the differences in acceptance of different groups should also be considered. However, the "Go Global" strategy of culture in a multicultural context is both an opportunity and a crisis of losing one's own identity. In the future, the overseas dissemination of Journey to the West should be based on its universal value. At the same time, in the process of dissemination, attention should consider to the relationship between the dissemination path and other dissemination elements, and the close connection of each element can promote the dissemination effect. At the same time, the overseas dissemination of Journey to the West is expected to play a role as a reference for the dissemination of other Chinese classical works.

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英语笔译 肖冬晴 Xiao Dongqing 202170081599 CE

On C-E Translation of Lexical Gaps in Teahouse from the Perspective of Reception Aesthetics Theory Xiao Dongqing

Abstract

Representing as a masterpiece of Lao She, Teahouse works as a monument in the history of Chinese drama. From the perspective of reception aesthetics theory, this paper studies the translation of lexical gaps in Teahouse translated by Ying Ruocheng. It briefly introduces the content of reception aesthetics and its main concepts, expounds the basic conception of lexical gaps and classifies them into four types. In this thesis, the author mainly focuses on the translation strategies adopted by the translator to deal with the lexical gaps in Teahouse. It is found that in the translation of lexical gaps the translation strategy of domestication dominates while foreignization works as a supplement, a tactic which caters to its reader’s expectation horizon.

Key words

Reception aesthetics theory; Teahouse; lexical gaps

Introduction

Teahouse is a work of monument in the history of Chinese drama and a sensational one in the world. The key to investigating its reception overseas lies in the studies on its translated versions. Currently, there are two impactful translations in the literary community: the one translated by Chinese scholar Ying Ruocheng and the one translated by the prestigious American sinologist Howard Goldblatt. Over the years, researches and studies on Teahouse have never ceased. For instance, Lu Jun and Ma Chunfen (2009) studied from the perspective of cultural translation theory the translation of names and idioms in the two translated versions mentioned above, Yu Yanqing (2016) investigated the metaphors in the source text and elaborated on their translation in the two different versions as she deciphered some of the special connotations in them, while Jin Yan (2022) focused on some of the mistranslation phenomena in the English and Korean translated books based on cultural amnesia and memory reconstruction.

In cross-cultural communication, cultural vacancy occurs when some linguistic phenomena or cultural items which exist in one language fail to find their equivalents in the language of the other culture due to cultural differences in historical background, social customs, religious beliefs and ideology (Gao Fengxia, 2010:112-115). Representing as the result and reflection of cultural vacancy on the lexical level, lexical gaps emerge as the absence of a lexeme at a particular place in the structure of a lexical field. Researches on the theory of vacancy and lexical gaps were initiated in the west when the distinguished American linguist Hockett put forward the idea of “random holes in patterns” (Hockett, 1954:106-123) in the comparison of the linguistic models between two languages. In the 1970s, the discussion over cultural vacancy attracted more scholars, among whom the American cultural anthropologist Hall took the lead. He used the term of “gap” (Hall, 1959:32) to describe the kind of absence in the study of the colour words of the aborigines when he noticed a lack of necessary colour words in the culture of those natives. In the 1980s, vacancy theory was officially put forward by Russian psycholinguists Jurij Sorokin and Irina Markovina as they conducted their research on the discourse and the characteristics of its national culture, dividing vacancies from the perspectives of linguistics, culture and discourse (Xu Gaoyu & Zhao Qiuye, 2008).

Reception aesthetics theory was first proposed in the 1960s in Germany. Unlike previous theories, it shifted its focus from the author and the original work to the role that the audience play in the process of cultural reception. The traditional translation view holds that translation is to convey the "meaning" of the original text into the target language. Reception aesthetics believes that the meaning of the text is uncertain, and it needs to be made concrete in reading by readers (including translators here). The most direct philosophical basis of reception aesthetics is philosophical hermeneutics. In China, many scholars have also worked a lot on this topic. For example, Qu Suwan (2019) studied on the translation of dialect words under the guidance of the reception aesthetics theory while Yu Shan (2015) conducted a comparative analysis of the translation strategies of culture-loaded terms in the two mentioned English versions.

From all the above, it’s clear that efforts have been made in the search of Chinese culture and Chinese classic translation based on aesthetics theory. Inspired by all the predecessors, this thesis is going to adopt the reception aesthetics theory to investigate the translation of lexical gaps in the English version translated by Ying Ruocheng. It will cover the basic outline of the theory itself, classify the lexical gaps in the work as it gives an overview of all the lexical gaps in the book and finally discuss the translation strategies used in Ying’s processing of the lexical gaps.

Reception Aesthetics Theory

Reception aesthetics is a theory of literary criticism raised by the German literature theoretician and aesthetician Hans Robert Jauss in the 1960s, in which the focus of literary studies is shifted from the author and text to the reader. It emphasizes reader's participation and acceptance during the text understanding, by shifting the central position of studies from the author and work to the reader. It claims that only the works that have been comprehended and delivered by readers possess artistic value and meaning.

2.1 The Role of Readers

“Literature and art only obtain a history that has the character of a process when the succession of works is mediated not only through the producing subject but also through the consuming subject, through the interaction of author and public” (Jauss 1989:43). Here the "consuming subject" refers to readers. Reader-centred status is underlined and more attention should be paid to reader's active role, subjective reception ability and creativity in literary works.

Reception aesthetics believes that the reader is an active or determinant factor in the process of text interpretation. In the process of translation, translator, as a reader, can only enter the world of text based on the vision developed by his pre-understanding and abilities. In the process of realization, the translator's pre-understanding plays an important role. The translator's pre-understanding and ability determine his understanding of the text world. It can be seen that in order to promote the meaning of the text, translators must pay attention to their own pre-understanding and the horizon of expectations of the reader. The translator must deeply understand the similarities and differences between the two languages in terms of language, history, and culture. They should use their subjective initiative and appropriately adjust their translation strategy to fill the gap in text understanding. After entering the text world, translators begin to analyse, judge and summarize until they are integrated with the text horizon. Iser believes that literary texts have a structural "blank". The so-called "blank" is the unwritten or unclear part of the text. Only in the specific process of reading and the reader's participation, these “blank” can be filled or explained.

To sum up, three points should be paid attention to in the process of translation. First of all, the interpretation of the original text is open. Secondly, the translator as a reader has a subjective position during the translation process. Thirdly, target readers' responses should be taken into consideration. Reception Aesthetics enables the translation work to centre on readers instead of texts. Therefore, the translator believes that the excerpts of this book can achieve its translation goal under the direction of reception aesthetics theory.

2.2 Blank

Reception aesthetic theory advocates the openness of the text, which undoubtedly helps to define the text in the process of translation. The text of literary works is a complex system full of blanks and uncertainties, which resonates well with the concept of “vacancy” or “gaps” this thesis is going to talk about. And according to Iser, the meaning of the works is not included in the text itself, but is obtained during reading.

Due to the uncertainty of the meaning of the text, there is no definite answer to the understanding of literary texts, so there is a saying that "a thousand readers have 1000 Hamlets". As far as translation is concerned, the uncertainty and openness of the text are the important reasons that lead to interpretative interpretation. It provides a broad space for translators to give full play to their imagination in the translation process, so that translators can interpret the text from different perspectives, thereby forming different translations.

2.3 Horizon of Expectation

Horizon of expectation is another important concept of reception aesthetics theory, which includes three kinds of meaning. Firstly, based on the readers experience, the horizon of expectations can be formed before reading. Secondly, even a literary work appeared in a new form, it cannot be regarded as absolutely new in the information vacuum. It reminds readers of the past reading memories and brings readers to a special feeling, and then calls for the expectations. At last, the horizon of expectations is changed accordingly.

There are two reception activities in the process of translation. The first one is the translator and source text communication. The translator fuses her horizon of expectation to the source text, and the reception level of horizon of expectation has a great influence on the quality of the translation version. Therefore, Translators should strive to improve their translation literacy and cultural level, consider the acceptance level of target readers and make the translator and the text achieve the first vision integration. The second is the target readers and target text. As the source text is Chinese drama aimed for a larger audience abroad, more attention should be paid to its audience.

An Overview of Lexical Gaps in Teahouse

Teahouse, a three-act play, is one of Lao She's most successful plays which represent the highest artistic achievement of Chinese drama writing. At that time, a teahouse is not only a place for the customers to kill time, but an epitome of Chinese society. The dialogue between characters has the unique national characteristics. It summarizes the sharp antagonism and conflict of various social strata and forces in China, and reveals the historical fate of semi-feudal and semi-colonial China.

3.1 The Definition of Lexical Gaps

As was mentioned in the first chapter, cultural vacancy occurs when some linguistic phenomena or cultural items which exist in one language fail to find their equivalents in the language of the other culture due to cultural differences in historical background, social customs, religious beliefs and ideology (Gao Fengxia, 2010:112-115). Representing as the result and reflection of cultural vacancy on the lexical level, lexical gaps emerge as the absence of a lexeme at a particular place in the structure of a lexical field. Lexical gaps, therefore, are in essence the embodiment of cultural vacancies at the vocabulary level.

3.2 The Classification of Lexical Gaps

Inspired by Nida’s classification of culture, this thesis divides lexical gaps into four kinds, namely material lexical gaps, social lexical gaps, religious lexical gaps, and linguistic lexical gaps. Here we will have a detailed discussion on them respectively.

Material lexical gaps refer to those words reflecting certain ways of life of a certain society, including things as daily material, tools of production and transportation, household appliances, products, food and so forth. For example, in Teahouse, “盖碗茶” is unique to Chinese culture. Before the invention of this teacup, people could easily be burned or hurt when trying to drink from the tea bowl which was made of porcelain, and it could transmit heat quickly. To prevent getting hurt while drinking tea, ancient Chinese invented something similar to a wooden plate to support the tea bowl, which was becoming more and more delicate and eventually developed into the shapes and size that we see today. Obviously, “盖碗” is very culturally specific. The unique material life will produce the unique material culture. Here is a list of material lexical gaps appeared in Teahouse:

盖碗茶 lidded cups of tea

绫罗绸缎 brocades

小叶茶 a cup of very best tea

马褂 jacket

满汉全席 imperial-style banquets

杂和面儿疙瘩汤 a bowl of dough drop soup with maize flour

五供儿 incense burner

纸钱 paper money

Social lexical gaps are the reflection of customs, ways of life, social life, historical background and behaviour of a nation or a country, including address and folk adage. The address can be a direct reflection of the personality of character. In Teahouse, “唐铁嘴” is a fortune teller and a regular at the teahouse. His way of life was to persuade people to believe what he said, and to some extent he had to lie to make a living. “铁嘴” is literally a personal mouth made of iron, which is also a metaphor for the eloquent and plausibility of Mr. Tang. The list below provides an overview of social lexical gaps in the translated work:

相面/算命 fortune-telling

善扑营 Imperial Wrestler

说媒拉纤 go-betweens and pimps

庞太监 Eunuch Pang

唐铁嘴 Tang the Oracle

说评书的 story-teller

数来宝 improvised doggerel recitation

蹓鸟 strolling about with caged birds

北衙门 Northern Yamen

手相 palm-reading

“爷” master

旗人 bannerman

请安 bow

三教九流 people from all walks of life

Religious lexical gaps are those expressions relate to religion, for Chinese especially those words relate to Buddhism and Taoism. In Teahouse, there are many lexical gap words related to the religious beliefs, for example, “念佛” means expressing sincere thanks to Buddha for all the good luck in your life. In Buddhism, “佛” refers to Buddha, an immoral person who is regarded by the Buddhists that can offer blessings to the human being. The following is a list displaying further religious lexical gaps in the work:

造化 a lucky fate

天师 Heavenly Teacher

“醉八仙” intoxicated eight immortals

财神龛 shrine of the god of wealth

念经 chanting Buddhist scriptures

八卦仙衣 special robes

Linguistic culture-loaded words and phrases reflect the characteristics of the phonetic, grammatical and formal systems of a certain language including pun and idioms. For example, in Teahouse, the suffering Chinese drinkers who frequent Yutai always use “好死不如赖活着”(meaning “it is better to live in this world than to die under terrible circumstances”) to comfort themselves or others to show them the bright side and to endure seemingly persistent bad conditions. It is an idiom well reflects the wisdom and unremitting hope of the Chinese people in the act play, even when it was during the darkest times. Here are more examples of linguistic lexical gaps translated in the book:

化干戈为玉帛 restore peace

拿刀动杖 spoil for a fight

八仙过海，各显其能 try one’s best

“好死不如赖活着” a dog’s life’s better than no life

改良,改良,越改越凉!冰凉！ Reform indeed! Soon you’ll have nothing more left to reform!

“包圆儿” “it's all yours.”

According to calculation, there are altogether 34 lexical gaps in various in Teahouse, of which the 14 social lexical gaps take the lead, accounting for about 41%, followed by 8 material lexical gaps which take up about 23%. There are only 6 religious and linguistic gaps, each of the two categories covering about 18% of all.

The Translation Strategies of Lexical Gaps

In 1995, American translator Lawrence Venuti discussed hand in hand invisibility in his work The Translator’s Invisibility: domestication and foreignization. He (2008:15) bemoans the phenomenon of domestication since it involves ‘an ethnocentric reduction of the foreign text to receiving cultural values.’ Venuti allies it with Schleiermacher’s description of translation that ‘leaves the reader in peace, as much as possible, and moves the author toward him.’ Foreignization, on the other hand, ‘entails choosing a foreign text and developing a translation method along linnes which are excluded by dominant cultural values in the target language.’(ibid;242) From then on, domestication and foreignization were borrowed into the field of translation as two translation strategies.

According to calculation, of all the 34 lexical gaps in Teahouse, only three were translated using foreignization strategy, accounting for about 9%; the rest 31 lexical gaps taking up around 91% were translated under the guidance of domestication. Taking a closer look, there are 7 material lexical gaps out of 8, 13 social lexical gaps out of 14 and 5 religious lexical gaps out of 6 translated using domestication. All of linguistic lexical gaps were translated under the guidance of domestication strategy. Given the translation by Ying Ruocheng was published and put into the market in the opening stage of the reform and opening-up in 1979, the sweeping domestication strategy applied in the translation is understandable.

4.1 Domestication

In the translation of lexical gaps, the translator adopted domestication strategy the most of times, which was especially true when it comes to the translation of linguistic lexical gaps. For example:

(1) ST：那总比没有强啊！好死不如赖活着，叫我自己去谋生，非死不可！

TT：Still that’s better than nothing! A dog’s life’s better than no life. If I were to earn my own living, I’d surely starve.

In this example, when dealing with the idiom“好死不如赖活着”，the translator didn't take it at face value reproducing it into“it is better to live in this world than to die under terrible circumstances”. Instead, he translated it based on his own pre-understanding as he took the readers’ expectation horizon into consideration. In selecting the similar expression“to live a dog’s life”from the target language, the translator managed to achieve fusion of horizons.

The phenomenon of homophones in Chinese linguistics is partly determined by the four tones in the language, each one containing a large collection of words capable of creating “puns” in daily use. For instance, the following marks a quotation taken from Teahouse:

（2） ST：改良，改良，越改越凉！冰凉！

TT：Reform indeed! Soon you’ll have nothing more left to reform!

In the excerpt above, the Chinese characters“良”and“凉”are homophones with completely opposite connotations. Concerning this example, there was no equivalents in the target language able to convey exactly the same meaning. As a result, the translator dealt with the idiom liberally and represented the irony in the sentence thereby.

Unlike foreignization, domestication is more audience-friendly when it comes to understanding. However, this thesis believes that if the translator adopted the strategy of “overwhelming domestication” and used some expressions in the target language which failed to be the equivalent of the original, the meaning of the source text would be distorted, making it even harder for the translator to secure the readers’ horizon of expectation.

The following is an example taken from the translation of a material lexical gap “五供儿”:

（3）ST：娘娘，我得到一堂景泰蓝的五供儿，东西老，地道，也便宜，坛上用顶体面，您看看吧？

TT：Your Imperial Majesty, I managed to get hold of a set of cloisonne incense burners, five pieces in all. Antiques! The real thing! Dirt cheap too! Just right for the altar of our secret society. Why not have a peep of them?

Known as a set of vessels carrying the sacrifice during worship rituals in ancient China, “五供儿” first got its name from the amount of pieces of wares. In Teahouse, although the translation of “incense burner” kept some of its sacrificial usage, the actual meaning of the phrase was lost. After some research, therefore, the author believes it is more accurate if the translation would be changed into “sacrificial vessel”.

4.2 Foreignization

When it comes to the translation of “vacancy” or “gaps” in cross cultural communication, foreignization could help to narrow a bit through retaining the exotic feelings and traces of the original. However, little of lexical gaps in Teahouse were translated under the guidance of this strategy, which is partly due to the fact that most of the lexical gaps in the work were members of “absolute vacancy” which were unable to find their corresponding or even similar equivalents in the target language society. For instance, the material lexical gap“杂和面儿疙瘩汤”was translated literally into“a bowl of dough soup with maize flour”, an expression showing the ingredients of the snack. Meanwhile, the social lexical gap “北衙门” was translated into “Northern Yamen”, which combined both literal translation and transliteration conducive to meeting the innovative expectation of the audience of Beijing in modern China.

Conclusion

Drama is a unique literature genre with dual identities, both on the page and on the stage. The dual characteristics of dramatic text make drama translation distinct from other forms of literary translation. Reception aesthetics theory has practical guidance for the translation of drama works. Through the analysis of the translation strategies of various lexical gaps in Teahouse, it has been found that at the early stage of reform and opening up when the Chinese literature was eager to go abroad and be well-received by the audience overseas, the translator had to adopt the strategy of domestication most of the time so as to cater to their horizon of expectation, even when it came to the translation of lexical gaps which may find no natural equivalents in the target language. Therefore, it could be concluded that translation literature is closely linked with politics, a notion echoing with the background witnessing the birth of reception theory.

The contents and key notions of reception aesthetics theory are discussed in this paper, which is helpful to have a more comprehension understanding of this theory. Then there is the definition and classification of lexical gaps in Teahouse. As the treasure in the history of Chinese modern drama, the study of Teahouse is arousing more and more attention and academic interest both in China and abroad. Translation strategies --- foreignization and domestication in translation are highlighted in this paper, which has been elaborated by examples. In translation practice, only when the conceptual meaning and cultural meaning of lexical gaps are taken into account can the translator convey the meaning of words accurately and meet the readers’ horizon of expectation.

However, limitations are inevitable in this thesis due to the pressing time. Due to the writer’s limited knowledge and capacity, the analysis of the lexical gaps of Teahouse can never be all-inclusive. Yet it’s worth noting that researches on the Chinese drama Teahouse and the reception aesthetic theory should never come to a halt now that the background has changed from the way it used to be more than 40 years ago.

References

• Hall, Edward (1959). The Silent Language[M]. Garden City: Doubleday.

• Hockett, Charles (1954). Chinese Versus English: An Exploration of the Whorfian Theses[A]. Harry Hoijer(ed.). Language in Culture[C]. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

• Jauss, Hans (1989). Question and Answer[M]. University of Minnesota Press.

• Venuti, Lawrence (2008). The Translator’s Invisibility: A History of Translation[M], London and New York: Routledge.

• Gao Fengxia 高凤霞. (2010). 跨文化交际中的文化空缺现象探讨[A Study of Cultural Vacancy in Intercultural Communication]. 社科纵横Social Sciences Review (03): 112-115.

• Lu Jun, Ma Chunfen 陆军, 马春芬. (2009). 从文化翻译观的角度看老舍《茶馆》两个英译本中文化信息的处理[Cultural information processing in Lao She's Two English versions of Teahouse from the perspective of Cultural Translation Theory]. 安徽文学Anhui Literature(10): 293-294.

• Jin Yan 金艳. (2022). 老舍《茶馆》翻译的文化记忆再现研究[A Study of Cultural Memory Representation in the Translation of Lao She's Teahouse ].中国朝鲜语文Korean Language in China(02): 83-89.

• Qu Suwan 渠苏婉. (2019). 接受美学视域下《茶馆》两译本中方言词汇的翻译[Study on the Translation of Dialect Words in Teahouse from the Respective of Reception Aesthetics]. 齐齐哈尔师范高等专科学校学报Journal of Qiqihar Junior Teachers' College (05):62-64.

• Xu Gaoyu, Zhao Qiuye 许高渝, 赵秋野. (2008). 俄罗斯心理语言学和外语教学[Russian Psycholinguistics and Foreign Language Teaching]. Beijing: Peking Univesity Press北京大学出版社.

• Yu Shan 于杉. (2015). 接受美学视角下《茶馆》两译本中文化负载词的比较研究[A Comparative Study of Culture-loaded Terms in Two English Versions of Teahouse from the Perspective of Reception Aesthetics].吉林大学Jilin University.

• Yu Yanqing 于艳青. (2016). 老舍作品《茶馆》的隐喻研究和文化解读——以霍华和英若诚英译版本为例[A Study of Metaphor Translation of Lao She’s Teahouse and Its Cultural Interpretation——A Case Study of Howard and Ying Ruocheng’s Versions]. 济宁学院学报Journal of Jining University(06):93-97.

Terms and expressions

Reception aesthetics theory 接受美学

Blank 空白

Horizon of expectation 期待视野

Fusion of horizons 视域融合

The Translator’s Invisibility 《译者的隐身》

Material lexical gaps 物质类词汇空缺

Social lexical gaps 社会类词汇空缺

Religious lexical gaps 宗教类词汇空缺

Linguistic lexical gaps 语言类词汇空缺

Questions

1. How does the two reception activities work in the process of translation?

2. What is the definition of lexical gaps?

3. How many categories did the thesis divide the lexical gaps into?

Answers

1. There are two reception activities in the process of translation. The first one is the translator and source text communication. The translator fuses her horizon of expectation to the source text, and the reception level of horizon of expectation has a great influence on the quality of the translation version. Therefore, Translators should strive to improve their translation literacy and cultural level, consider the acceptance level of target readers and make the translator and the text achieve the first vision integration. The second is the target readers and target text.

2. Representing as the result and reflection of cultural vacancy on the lexical level, lexical gaps emerge as the absence of a lexeme at a particular place in the structure of a lexical field.

3. Inspired by Nida’s classification of culture, this thesis divides lexical gaps into four kinds, namely material lexical gaps, social lexical gaps, religious lexical gaps, and linguistic lexical gaps.

英语笔译 肖佳莉 Xiao Jiali 202170081600 MW

The Canonization of Tao Te Ching Xiao Jiali

1.Abstract

Tao Te Ching can be divided into two parts. The first part is called Taoist chapter, and the second part is called moral chapter. The philosophical works written by Laozi in Luoyang during the Spring and Autumn period. Taoism inclines to the outlook on the universe and nature, while morality focuses on the social outlook and outlook on life. All the pre-Qin schools in China pay attention to the sociology of interpersonal relations, and almost no one cares about natural problems, which is in sharp contrast to ancient Greek philosophy. This paper will be divided into three parts, first introduce its author Laozi, then preach the sutra, and finally talk about the moral sutra. It is hoped that the study of this paper will bring enlightenment to the solution of modern social problems.

Key words

Tao Te Ching; Lao Tzu World outlook; Outlook on life

2.1Why Lao Tzu is the ancestor of Chinese thought

Lao Tzu is the ancestor of Chinese ideology and culture. There are hundreds of schools of thought in pre-Qin China, including not only scholars, but also politicians, strategists, diplomats and so on. In terms of chronological order, the first of the hundred schools is likely to be Guan Zhong, the prime minister of the Duke Huan of Qi, the head of the five hegemons of the Spring and Autumn period. Well, the reason why we say that Lao Tzu is the ancestor of Chinese ideology and culture is that Lao Tzu, as a literati thinker, ranked first among the hundred schools of thought in the pre-Qin period in China.

The book of Lao Tzu is the most difficult to read among the ancient Chinese book. The thought of Laozi is profound, and compared with all the scholars and scholars in China, the height he has reached is beyond the future generations. Laozi's book, Tao Te Ching, is not the original name of the book. During the pre-Qin period, the name of books of various schools marked his surname and followed by a sub-word. For example, Meng Ke's book is called Mencius, Zhuang Zhou's book is called Zhuang Tzu, and Han Feizi's book is called Han Tzu. So Laozi's book is called "Laozi”(or Lao Tzu). According to Historical Records, Lao Tzu’s book is divided into two parts. Moreover,Tao Te Ching is definitely not about human ethics in our general sense, Tao means morality, but the”morality" has a different meaning. Lao Tzu is the only philosopher in the history of Chinese. Lao Tzu expresses some deep characteristics of narrow philosophy， so we say that Laozi's vision is unique and far-reaching.At present, there are 81 chapters in Laozi's Tao Te Ching, which is divided into two parts. The core idea of the first part is Tao, which is the theory of the origin of the universe, while the second part focuses on Laozi's political thought of governing by doing nothing.(刘玉增，2017)

Many people are not clear about what Tao is. The tea has the tea ceremony, the wine has the wine way, the text has the culture, the martial arts, even the rice has the taste. But what exactly does Lao Tzu mean by Tao? Few of us can explain it clearly.

In the late Qing Dynasty, there was a famous scholar, a friend of Lin Zexu, named Wei Yuan. He once had a comment on Laozi's book. He said, “Tao of Laozi means Tao of Taikoo; We could call it Taigu Book." We should pay attention to the word "Swire". In Chinese culture, the word "Swire" only refers to the period at the beginning of the ancient world, and the concept of Swire, in Western paleongeology, refers to the birth period of the ancient earth and the most primitive paleontology-- called Archean. We know that Laozi, as a teacher of Confucius, lived in the late Spring and Autumn period. Confucius was born in 551 BC. According to Hu Shi's textual research, Laozi should be only about 20 years older than Confucius. That is to say, Laozi should be born in 570 BC. How could he use the word Swire?

This expression of Laozi obviously could not have happened in the era when Confucius already proposed the distinction between men and women at the end of the Spring and Autumn Period, which was later expressed by Mencius as "men and women are not related", but only in the era of primitive human fertility worship, when such a text would appear. By the end of the Spring and Autumn Period, it was clear that such a crude expression would no longer be found.

There is a sentence in the sixth chapter of Laozi's Tao Te Ching, which is called "the gate of Xuan Pin, it means the root of heaven". What is the root of heaven? Which word did he use to describe the Tao he cherished most? It is the word "Xuan Pin" .

Let's take a look at the oracle bone inscription of the word "Xuan Pin". In the oracle bone script, the character "xuan" is drawn with an umbilical cord. As you know, the character xuan has two meanings in Chinese. First, the meaning of darkness, such as wearing black clothes in ancient times, called wearing xuan-colored .second, it means far-reaching and distant. So why draw an umbilical cord to represent these two meanings? Because a pregnant woman has a baby. When the baby is born, the placenta connected by the umbilical cord is still in the womb, and the place where the umbilical cord goes deep is a dark and distant place, so it has its corresponding meaning.

Let's look at the oracle bone inscription for "牝". The character 牛 is a drawing of a bull's horn, a bull's horn, and the character 牝 is a drawing of a bull's tail next to the bull, and then a sign on it, and this character is "牝". The word "mare" is a common Chinese word, and its counterpart is called "牡", which is the character for 牡. The word refers only to bulls in ancient times, and later refers to all male animals; the word "牝" refers only to cows in ancient times, and later refers to all female animals. What is the meaning of "牝"? If you uncover the tail of a female cow, you can see her genitalia - black and red genitalia, so it is called Xuan Pin, "the door of the Xuan Pin is called the root of heaven". Lao Tzu means that, the Tao, as the root of heaven, gives birth to all things in heaven and earth, just as the reproductive organs of a mother cow are constantly able to give birth to calves.

2.2The experience of Lao Tzu

Let's look at Laozi's historical traces. Since Laozi's family had been historians of the Zhou dynasty for generations, they moved with the dynasty, from Hao Jing in GuanZhong to LuoYi in the Eastern Zhou. It is said that in the 22nd year of Duke Zhaogong of Lu, that is, 520 B.C., a great event occurred. At that time Prince of Zhou called King Zhoujing. Due to the succession problem, his dozen children fought for the throne, and serious royal infighting broke out, resulting in a tug-of-war for more than a decade, known as the Prince Chao Rebellion, finally Prince was defeated .It is said that he fled to the State of Chu with a large number of Zhou royal books. And Laozi, a historian of the Zhou royal family, is equivalent to the current director of the National Archives Library. if all books and documents are taken away, Laozi will naturally lose his job, so Laozi resigned to travel around the world. In the end, Laozi returned to Qin and died in Shaanxi. This is the historical site of Laozi.

2.3The relationship between Lao Tzu and Confucius

There is no doubt that Confucius is a student of Laozi. Although many scholars are skeptical about this, it is recorded in many ancient books, including the Notes of Shuijing, including some of the things edited. Confucius had visited Laozi at least three times in his life. For the first time, when Confucius was about 17 years old, he met Laozi and asked about the ceremony. The second time is recorded in Historical Records that when Confucius was 34 years old, he was appointed by the Duke of Lu Zhaogong to LuoYi, the capital of the Eastern Zhou Dynasty, then he come to visit Laozi. For the third time, it was recorded in Zhuangzi that when Confucius was about 50 to 51 years old before he became an official. Therefore, there is no doubt that Confucius is a disciple of Laozi.

However, the characters of Confucius and Laozi are diametrically opposed. Confucius is extremely positive, and the most representative of Confucius' cultural tone is a sentence in the Analects of Confucius, which is called “know it is no use, but keep on doing it.”It is the original saying that we usually say ——do what obviously is impossible.It means that I will try my best to do it even though I know I can't do it. It expresses a cultural attitude of actively participating in social transformation. Therefore, later when scholars summed up Confucius' theory, they used “ entry into the world”. Laozi is just the opposite. His cultural character is very negative, and what best represents the cultural character of Laozi is the saying that appeared constantly in the Tao De Ching, which is "doing nothing without doing nothing". It means that I do nothing but do everything. In other words, I didn't do anything but got everything done. Today, it sound like this sentence is absurd. But what Laozi means is that Tao has derived from heaven and earth, but no one has ever seen Tao have any superfluous action. This is called inaction. However, we can see from this sentence that Laozi's cultural character is extremely negative.Laozi believes that all things in heaven and earth originally developed harmoniously like Tao, but human beings gradually deviated from Tao because of their pursuit of selfish desires, resulting in conflicts between man and nature, man and society, man's body and mind and so on.（黎千驹，2022：93-101）

Therefore, future generations made a summary of the cultural tone of Laozi, which is just the opposite of Confucius' summary, it is that being born and leaving the world. This is why Si Maqian added in the Biography of Laozi in Historical Records——Do not attempt to work with people whose way is not your way. It means that the Tao between Confucius and Laozi is different, although the two are master-apprentice.

When Confucius was 34 years old, it was recorded in detail by Si Maqian that he went to LuoYi to worship Laozi as his teacher. There is a passage in the Historical Records from which we could see the dialogue between Laozi and Confucius. Of course, how does Si Maqian know about this conversation is a very strange question. As we all know, Si Maqian's history books are all biographies of characters, with vivid dialogue, which can almost be regarded as a model of literature. So its historical authenticity is of course very questionable. However, the records of Si Maqian's Historical Records have been verified, they are often accurate. Therefore, the spirit behind the language expressed by Si Maqian could be true. Si Maqian recorded the dialogue between Confucius and Confucius when he met Laozi at the age of 34. Laozi said, "The man you are talking about is already dead and his bones are decayed." What he means by this paragraph is that why are you talking about him? What Laozi said to Confucius was full of reprimanding and criticism.

Confucius spoke highly of Laozi. It has been recorded that Confucius commented on Laozi like this: "For the dragon, I don't know, it can ride the wind and clouds and go up to heaven. I see Laozi today, he is like a dragon!" This is the famous saying of Yulong. He said that when I saw Laozi today, I finally knew what the dragon looked like. It can be seen that Confucius spoke highly of Laozi.

Summed up two points: first, Laozi did not think too highly of Confucius , and what he said to him was full of criticism. Confucius, on the other hand, had great respect for the teacher Laozi and regarded him as a dragon. Confucius once said, "if you smell the Tao in the morning, you can die in the evening." There is a different meaning in this remark, that is, Confucius has not figured out what Laozi Dao is talking about all his life. From this we can see the depth of Laozi's thought.

3.Tao Te Ching

Mr. Qian Mu said that as an intellectual today, he should read four books, one is the Analects of Confucius, the second is Mencius, the third is Laozi, and the fourth is Zhuangzi.（钱穆，1986) Laozi's book is divided into two parts. The first part is called the Taoist chapter, and the second part is called the moral chapter. Taoism focuses on the view of the universe and nature. “Moral chapter” focuses on social outlook and outlook on life. What does this sentence mean? First of all, we should know that all the schools of pre-Qin in China are concerned about the sociology of human relations, and almost no one cares about the problems of nature. This is in sharp contrast to ancient Greek philosophy. With the exception of Socrates, all the ancient Greek philosophers were concerned about the view of nature and the universe. Thales, the first philosopher in ancient Greece, left famous allusions, which were summed up by later generations into four words, called "looking up at the starry sky". However, it is strange that all the hundred schools in the pre-Qin period in China are all concerned with the sociology of human relations. The view of nature, the view of the universe and the science of nature are abandoned.

What's the reason? Agricultural civilization has led to a surge in population, which has led to particularly strained interpersonal and resource relations. As a result, all the Chinese sages were concerned about the sociology of human relations. However, there is a problem here. When they discuss the issue of human relations and society, that is, the issue of humanity, they lack a deep basis. For example, Confucius talked about "the way of a gentleman" and what people should do, but he never said it. Where should his derivation come from? Laozi's thought is very profound, and he wants to ask the ultimate cause of the world. So when you read Laozi, you should pay special attention to two groups of vocabulary. One group is called "the way of Heaven" and the other group is called "the way of Man". The humanitarianism and the word "humanity" we are talking about today are derived from Laozi's "way of Man". "the way of Heaven" is the view of the universe and the view of nature. It is the general rule of heaven and earth. "the way of man" is the way of human civilization, the way of human society and the way of human behavior. Laozi believes that if you only talk about "the way of man", what is the basis of your "way of man". You must first investigate and derive the laws of the operation of heaven and earth and even human beings. Then you are qualified to discuss how the "way of man" should be operated. We regard this process as the ultimate pursuit, which is one of the three ideological features of ancient Greek philosophy in a narrow sense. So Laozi is a philosopher in the history of Chinese thought.

3.1.1The essence of philosophy

The only channel for human beings to obtain external information and external knowledge is the facial features, that is, vision, hearing, smell, taste and touch. Besides, we do not have any sources of external information. But Laozi said, “With this channel, you can't have any capture and perception of Tao. It's called seeing without seeing, hearing without hearing, and fighting for it." This shows how difficult it is for me to talk about "Tao"! He wanted to go beyond the channel of human perception to capture the root of all things in heaven and earth. This mysterious expression, which lacked proof of connection, later became an important ideological source of mysterious Taoism in China.Tao Te Ching describes Dao (or Tao, meaning the Way) as the source and ideal of all existence: it is unseen, but not transcendent, immensely powerful yet supremely humble, and it is the root of all things. （庞恋蕴，2019:4-5)

Laozi said, "Use the truth that already exists to control the concrete things now." That is, if you want to master the way of operation of today's human civilized society and civilized people, you must first adhere to the ancient way and grasp the way of heaven. He said that only by grasping the way of heaven can you discuss the way of man. Therefore, the core of Taoism is cosmology. Only by grasping the cosmology can you grasp the outlook on life, humanism, society and life. In Laozi's view, Tao is the origin of all things in the universe and exists independently of everything. At the same time, he uses this core spirit to guide production, science, military, politics and dealing with people.（谭地洲，2001）

Laozi said in the 16th chapter of Tao Te Ching, "Nature is the Tao, and following the Tao can last for a long time, and it will not bring harm to your life at all. "He said that nature is closest to Tao. So what is its characteristic? Tao could last for a long time is because its balance, stability, immutability and indivisibility.The literal meaning behind this sentence is: Laozi wants to investigate the origin behind the erratic world in front of him. In the early years of ancient Greece, some people investigated existence and Noumenon, and what people said about existence was by no means the presentation of everything in front of us. He thinks these things are illusory because they are constantly changing. In his opinion, all real existence must be eternal existence, immutable existence, inseparable existence, and that existence is called existence, and it is that thing that supports or dominates this illusory world, which brings about the deepening of ancient Greek philosophy. Therefore, Laozi's sentence is very similar to the object of ancient Greek philosophy, expressing the same state of mind of both the East and the West in the axis era.

Laozi then said, "it is as good as water", which we are very familiar with. Its original meaning is that "superior goodness" refers to the best state, and "if water" is like water, and the whole sentence means that the best state is like water. So what does Laozi mean when he says that Tao is as good as water? He uses the figurative thing of water to compare the natural way and natural state of the operation of the way of heaven. Water nourishes all things and does not compete with them because he wants to criticize human civilization as a competitive structure. As we all know, when mankind was in primitive gentile society, it was real public ownership and the only communism in human history, called gentile commune. There was no private ownership and there was no competition between human beings. Then after the civilization of human beings, private ownership occurs, and the tense social relations between human beings form a fierce competition pattern, which brings about a situation of disorder in the world and unrest in life. Therefore, Laozi said, "Water is good for all things and does not dispute." The meaning of this sentence is to criticize the operation of human civilized society in violation of the way of heaven.

3.1.2Advocate point of view

The most important sentence in the central chapter of Laozi's Taoism is the second sentence. The meaning of "the use of the Tao of the weak" is worth discussing. Most scholars interpret it as or annotate that weakness is better than strength and softness overcomes strength. Of course, this is also Laozi's original words, but this sentence has another profound meaning.

Because there is an allusion recorded in the ancient literature that when Laozi was young, he once worshiped a man called Chang Fong. When his teacher was old , Laozi went to see the teacher. The teacher opened his mouth and asked him, "Do you see if my teeth are still there?" he said no. Chang Zong asked again, “Is my tongue still there?" He said yes. What does Chang Zong ask? Laozi said, "the strong perish, but the weak last forever." This is the source of the allusion of "to be soft and strong", so most people interpret it in this way. But I think this interpretation is insufficient. Because Laozi tends to the theory of evolution, then Laozi's "the use of the weak Tao" is not a static expression, it must be a dynamic expression. Then if he is dynamically expressing "the use of the weak Tao" and “Nature is Tao, Tao is long", it shows that it pursues stability, which is likely to express such an implication: weakening phenomenon is the way of realization of Tao.As Liu Xiao dared to say: "the topic of 'Tao and nature' clearly marks the status of nature as the highest principle and the highest value, so its spirit permeates all aspects of Laozi's thought, without mentioning the word 'nature' everywhere.”（刘笑敢，1995）

Weakness is the summary of Laozi's Taoism. Please note that he does not sum up anything, but actually sums up the word weak, which is a very strange phenomenon, which is understood by most people as being weak in behavior. The word soft and weak appears as many as 11 times in Laozi's 5000-word text, which shows that it is Laozi's basic summary of Taoism. It has many expressions, "the world is weaker than water, and the strong can never win." he constantly demonstrates the problem of weakness in a variety of ways, including with the help of water and human beings. Therefore, the core of the "Taoist theory" boils down to the word weakness.

3.2.1The essence of social view

Let's move on to Laozi's theory of morality. The central idea of your moral chapter is to talk about social outlook and outlook on life, and it is a discussion from the way of heaven to the way of man. In fact, strictly speaking, Laozi is also more concerned about human relations and social issues, which is the commonness of all thinkers in the pre-Qin period of China. Therefore, the moral chapter is the focus of Laozi's book, so in the Silk Book, the moral chapter comes first and the Taoist chapter comes later.Te(means virtue) is the personification of Tao. (周静红，2022：43-46)

So, "what does morality mean? We have to read its oracle bone inscriptions. " The word "德" in oracle bone inscriptions, first draw a road with a fork in the road, then draw a very concrete big eye next to it, and then draw a straight symbol on it, this word is the de in oracle bone inscriptions. When it comes to Jinwen, people add a heart to it below, and this word is the origin of the word "德". What does it mean? Read this character first. Walking on the road with a fork in the road, staring straight ahead and moving forward wholeheartedly, is called "德" . In other words, walking along the way is virtue. Follow what path? To follow the path of heaven is virtue. Therefore, we must pay attention to the fact that the morality that Laozi is talking about is not our daily so-called morality of human relations, but that following the way of heaven is Tao and virtue.When we advocated virtue, we had already lost the Tao, so we began to talk about benevolence, and then we could not even protect the heart of benevolence, so we could only give handouts, and finally lost all Tao, virtue, benevolence and righteousness, and could only give etiquette. Etiquette is the summation of national political law and folk etiquette. It was only when we discarded all these that human civilization began the violent control of severe punishment and draconian laws.In other words, the rulers regulate the world with benevolence and righteousness, and people all over the world run for benevolence and righteousness, abandon their own nature and disguise themselves with benevolence and righteousness.（陈霞，2017）

We are very familiar with a word, once as a famous school motto, "virtuous carrying things" is actually derived from here. But many people have misinterpreted it, interpreting "things" as characters and "virtue" as ethics. What Laozi is talking about is virtue. "carrying things with virtue" means that virtue is obeyed by all things, and all things can be nurtured. So, what does Laozi mean by saying this? It implies that all things have virtue, but people do not have virtue. Therefore, this sentence implies Laozi's criticism of civilized human beings, which is why he said, "Man and earth, earth and heaven, heaven and nature." The Dharma here means imitating, saying that man should imitate the earth, the earth should imitate the heaven, the heaven should imitate the Tao, and the Tao imitates nature. Pay attention to the nature here, the concept of nature here is not the meaning of nature, the concept of nature was introduced into China from the West in modern times. The meaning of nature here is natural, which refers to the evolution and evolutionary state of Tao, which is called nature. In fact, he is further criticizing civilized human beings, violating the way of heaven and losing material morality.

3.2.2The proposition of inaction

Laozi described virtue as "the appearance of Comte", and "the appearance of Comte" refers to the state of a person, who looks like a baby on the surface, looks stupid and vulgar, but has an extremely full heart. In other words, Laozi always believes that virtue has no concrete form. Therefore, when Laozi expounds what virtue is in the central chapter of virtue, the expression used is "doing nothing but doing nothing". Sum up the following by two words: inaction. Just like in Taoist scroll, the summary word is weak.

The key here is what does inaction mean? We have heard most scholars talk about inaction, saying that there is something to do and what not to do, and that this thing is inaction. Right? Obviously not. Laozi opposes the use of human intelligence. Laozi opposes the process of mobilizing intelligence in a civilized society. And what to do and what not to do is a wise choice for the thing of “为“, so inaction cannot mean doing something and not doing something.

What do you mean by inaction? Laozi opposes all civilized actions called inaction. The word "inaction" appears as many as 10 times in the 5000 words of Laozi's Tao Te Ching. He said that “Doing nothing, doing nothing, and tasteless" means to do something with an inactive attitude, to deal with things in a non-troublesome way, and to regard insipidity and tastelessness as taste. Because Laozi believes that all the actions done by civilized people are superfluous and immoral, but think about it: Before human civilization, eating would not be mixed with soy sauce and vinegar, so "tasteless" still expresses a thorough state of pre-civilized existence.

The social outlook of Laozi is very negative. The Tao Te Ching mentions that a country should not have a large territory and a small population. Even if there are all kinds of instruments, they are not used. What does the first sentence mean here? Primitive society. It is the state of community organization before human civilization, which is no different from the kinship society of animals. As we all know, in the primitive society, the average social population was 30 to 80. This is called a small country with few people. When we talk about country, everyone immediately thinks of a big country, but we should know that when the word "country" appeared in oracle bone inscriptions, that is, during the occurrence of oracle bone inscriptions, or even during the occurrence of oracle inscriptions, the state has never appeared in the world, because the Shang Dynasty can only be regarded as a confederation of clans and tribes, not a state. What's more, there was no country in the clan era, in the tribal era. Therefore, the concept of a small country with few people mentioned by Laozi is by no means the concept of a state in a later sense.

What do you mean by "Shibai's weapon"? It is a civilized instrument invented by civilized people, which can replace ten people, dozens of people and hundreds of people. For example, the ancients built an ox cart, which could carry several tons of things, which dozens of young and strong young men could not move, and it was pulled away in one cart. This is called "Shibai's weapon". What Laozi means is that with these civilized instruments, you dispose of them.

He went on to say that "make people value death rather than migrate far away". The ancients lived in their clan territory of more than ten square kilometers and never traveled far to make a living. To value death means to be afraid of death. You know, all animals, including human beings, must be afraid of death by nature. Because the neural construction and mental system of all animals, including human beings, are based on the principle of seeking advantages and avoiding disadvantages. Therefore, fear is a protective mechanism. Therefore, the nature of all living things, all animals, including all animals, including human beings, must be afraid of death. Only civilized people will create a lot of beautiful words, what bravery, dedication, and then throw you on the battlefield as cannon fodder.

He said, "the ultimate governance", that is, what is the best state of social management in a humane society? He used four groups of words called "willing to eat, to dress, to live comfortably, and to enjoy the vulgarity". If you drink blood and eat raw meat, you will feel very sweet; if you wear an animal skin skirt, you will feel beautifully dressed; if you dig a nest to live in, you will feel very peaceful; and you will feel very happy when you shout rough chants and twist your body in an ugly dance.

Then he said, “Neighboring countries look at each other, the voices of chickens and dogs hear each other, and the people do not communicate with each other until they die of old age." What does this passage mean? You know, the human primitive society is no different from the kinship society of all animals. In that case, all animals must form a consanguineous social unit in estrus, then occupy a certain territory and begin the survival process of breeding their own offspring. Animals of the same kind will never invade this territory, and animals will make some scent marks around this territory. In that case, this state of cannibalism never occurs among all animals of the same kind. Although wolves eat sheep, wolves never eat wolves, even if they get along with each other in a group state, they are separated.

So, this is the state in which Laozi talks about human primitive gentile society. Before civilization, the survival model and social state of human beings were no different from those of all animal kindred society. therefore, before civilization, human beings never had conflicts, let alone wars. This is Laozi's highest social ideal.

4.Conclusion

In order to understand the thought of Laozi, we can only start with his Tao Te Ching. Laozi's morality is very different from our literal meaning today. Tao is the general law of the operation of heaven and earth, and virtue conforms to the Tao of heaven. Te (means virtue) is a part of Tao.（张岱年，1982，24）The core of Taoism is weakness, and the core of moral theory is inaction. Laozi constantly criticizes that the development of human civilization is a process of deviating from the way of heaven and losing material morality. The process of human cultural history is a process of continuous development from low level to high level. At present, our country is facing new problems. In this case, we should not only continue to move forward, but also trace the essence of history to learn from it. Tao Te Ching left by Laozi, a great philosopher and thinker in ancient China, has many contents in line with our socialist core values, which is of enlightening significance for the construction of a socialist harmonious society.

5.References

• [1] 刘玉增. 浅谈道德经的哲学思想[J]. 南京大学哲学系, 2017：526-536.
• [2] 黎千驹. 老子的人生哲学及其价值研究[J]. 贵州工程应用技术学院, 2022.
• [3] 钱穆. 从 中 国 历史来看 中 国 民 族性及 中 国 文化 [M]. 台湾联经出版事业公司,1986.
• [4] 陈霞. 道家哲学引论[M].，北京: 中国社会科学出版社，2017：132。
• [5]庞恋蕴. 老子道与人生[J].神州学人, 2019（03).
• [6]谭地洲主编. 国学名著导读（ 上）[M].台湾华文网股份有限公司, 2001.
• [7]周静红. 《道德经》中“道”“德”的本体认知[J].牡丹品评, 2022：43-46.
• [8] 张岱年.中国哲学大纲[M]，北京: 中国社会科学出版社,1982：24.

Terms and expressions

• Tao Te Ching 道德经
• Oracle Bone Inscriptions甲骨文
• Confucius孔子

Questions

• 1.Who created the Tao Te Ching?
• 2.Why did Laozi use water as Tao?
• 3.What kind of governance does Laozi advocate?

Answers

• 1.Lao Tzu
• 2.He uses the figurative thing of water to compare the natural way and natural state of the operation of the way of heaven. Water nourishes all things and does not compete with them because he wants to criticize human civilization as a competitive structure.
• 3.He advocates governing by doing nothing.

英语笔译 谢晓莹 Xie Xiaoying 202170081601 CE

On the English Translation of The Analects in the Contemporary Era 谢晓莹

Abstract

With the rapid development of globalization, international cultural exchanges and interactions are increasingly frequent nowadays. As cross-cultural and interdisciplinary studies get more and more popular, new translations of The Analects continue to emerge, and there is growing calls for retranslation of Chinese classics, which reflects the inherent demand of Western sinology to re-understand Chinese culture and Chinese academia to reconstruct its own culture. The Analects, one of the classics of Confucianism, concentrates on the thought of Confucius. Its translation and dissemination is not only a unity of translators, translation process and readers, but also a process of establishing connections with contemporary culture, ideology and social life through translation. Based on a brief review of the history of the translation of The Analects, this paper gives an analysis of contemporary translators' translations of it in the context of the Chinese and Western cultural exchanges, and discusses the main innovative ways of the translation and dissemination of The Analects in the new era. It is aimed to seek better ways to interpret The Analects and provide new perspectives and ideas for the English translation and intercultural communication of Chinese classics.

Key words

The Analects; Confucius; Contemporary Era; English Translation

Introduction

Confucius, a famous thinker, educator and politician in ancient China, plays an important role in the history of Chinese ideology and world culture as the founder of Confucianism. Confucius was known as an omniscient sage for his knowledge and concern about world affairs, traveling around the world with his disciples for 14 years. Confucianism has evolved through dynasties and become the essence of Chinese traditional culture, not only as the tool of ideological domination, but also as the main body of Chinese feudal culture, preserving a rich cultural heritage and exerting a profound influence on both China and the world.

The Analects, compiled by the disciples of Confucius and his disciples, is one of the classical works of Confucianism. It is a record of the words and actions of Confucius and his disciples, mainly in the form of discourses and dialogues, concentrating on Confucius' political ideas, ethical thoughts, moral concepts and educational principles. The Analects, together with the Great Learning, the Golden Mean and the Mencius, are known as the Four Books. It consists of 20 chapters with concise language and profound meaning, being an excellent collection of quotations and essays in the Spring and Autumn Period of China, many of which are still regarded as reasonable by the world today. Undeniably, The Analects is an embodiment of ethics, morality, and wisdom accumulated over thousands of years in ancient Chinese society, playing a great role in enlightening wisdom and passing on civilization (Lv Pengfei 2021: 61). Even today, many of the ideas in The Analects are still useful and valuable for the times.

In today's world with complex and changing international situation, national strength is not only reflected in hard power such as political, economic and military power, but also in soft power such as cultural attraction and influence. The English translation of classics has always been an important way to export Chinese traditional culture, and the change in China's overseas cultural image is also reflected in the study of English translations (Qiu Hemin 2019: 87). Therefore, focusing on the issues of translation strategies of The Analects and its dissemination paths in a new era in an ephemeral and dialectical manner can help us recognize the trend of translation, grasp translation strategies, promote the foreign dissemination of Chinese culture, and provide reference for further promoting the overseas dissemination and acceptance of Chinese classics.

This paper consists of three chapters. Chapter one gives a brief overview of the translation history of The Analects, including the translation of The Analects in the late Ming and early Qing Dynasties and the English translation of The Analects in modern times. Chapter two discusses the English translation of The Analects under the contemporary cultural exchange between China and the West, taking the translation of Roger T. Ames and Henry Rosemont Jr., the translation of D. C. Lau and the translation of Xu Yuanchong as the main objects of study. Chapter three analyzes the innovative ways of translation and dissemination of The Analects in the new era, that is, retaining Chinese cultural characteristics, adopting translation strategy of foreignization appropriately, adapting to the needs of readers in the new era, and enhancing the functions of communication media.

Literature Review

In recent years, scholars at home and abroad have shown a tendency to strengthen their studies on the translation of The Analects with different methods and perspectives respectively. The following paragraphs will clarify the development of the translation studies of The Analects.

Domestic research on the English translation of The Analects can be traced back to the early 20th century. However, after the founding of The People's Republic of China in 1949, there was a brief lag in the study of The Analects due to the tense domestic and international situation. It was not until the late 1990s that the study of the translation of The Analects developed rapidly and research papers continued to appear. In the past two decades or so, research on the English translation of The Analects has mainly focused on four aspects: translation study, translator study, Confucian terminology study, and comprehensive study (Lin Lin 2013: 2). For example, Huang Xuexia makes a comparative analysis of James Legge's translation and Ku Hung-Ming's translation under the guidance of Nida's functional equivalence theory; Yue Feng gives a comprehensive account of James Legge's attainments in sinology; Yang Ping compares and analyzes the translation of "仁" and its rationale in several translation versions of The Analects; Li Yuliang and Luo Gongli introduce the dissemination of Confucianism by Western missionaries and Sinologists since the 19th century and analyze the dissemination strategies of Confucianism in the future.

Foreign translation studies of The Analects have been conducted over a long period of time, mainly in the commentaries, book reviews, and academic papers in the prefaces of the translations. Among them, book reviews were mainly published in journals and magazines of philosophy and sinology, and most of the early book reviews were brief descriptions of the publication. In recent years, book reviews and scholarly essays have become more wide-ranging in scope and diverse in perspective. For example, Jonathan Spence comments on Simon Pierre Ryckmans's translation of The Analects as beautiful, clear, and of great practical significance to addressing various issues in today's society; Lionel Giles points out that Arthur Waley's translation of The Analects was based on speculation rather than established fact, but his theory is reasonable and convincing; Stephen W. Durrant, an American Sinologist, deeply studies D. C. Lau's English translation of The Analects, including the translation of specific words, the academic value of the preface and the lack of annotations in the translation. In addition, he also discusses the problems that should be paid attention to in the translation of Chinese classics.

The research on the translation of The Analects guides the translation of The Analects and makes it more and more mature. However, there are some shortcomings in the English translation studies of The Analects both at home and abroad: (1)The research objects are relatively concentrated. At present, translation studies on The Analects is excessively focused on the translation and the translators, among which the study of the translation is excessively on the translation of James Legge, Ku Hung-Ming, Arthur Waley and others. (2)The research perspective is relatively single. At present, most studies on the English translation of The Analects focus on the linguistic level or the translation techniques, but little on philosophy, history and culture, etc. (3)There is a lack of primary sources in domestic research. Most of the research on the English translation of The Analects in China focuses on the abridged version without annotations, appendices and introductions of the original text, which makes it difficult to accurately grasp the original meaning (Lin Lin 2013: 4).

Methods and Theories

As a masterpiece of the Confucianism, The Analects is a combination of history, culture, thought, and philosophy. There are numerous translations of it from a variety of perspectives, so the research methods should also be diversified. First of all, The Analects is a historical work, so it should be analyzed with historical methods. The historical background and the author's writing motivation should be taken into full consideration, and the profound connotation of the original text should also be explored. For example, do a textual research with the method of historical exegesis; explore the influence of the author's life experience and the background of the times on the translation with the historicity of the translator as the highlight; make vertical and horizontal comparisons of the purposes of English translations of The Analects in different times and by different translators; explore the meaning of key words such as "gentleman (jun zi)" "small man (xiao ren)" "benevolence (ren)" "wisdom (zhi)" in The Analects with the method of category studies, etc. (Liu Wenna 20). Secondly, it is necessary to use interdisciplinary research methods such as linguistics, history, and translation studies. Finally, we should give an objective and fair evaluation of different translations of The Analects by means of comprehensive induction.

Translation History of The Analects

1.Translation of The Analects in the Late Ming and Early Qing Dynasties

In the history of cultural exchange between China and the West, the late Ming and early Qing dynasties is a very important historical stage with special significance. During this period, the economic development level and national strength of China and western countries bore little difference, and the cultural exchanges between China and the West took place in a relatively peaceful international context, so the cultural exchanges in this period happened in an equal and bilateral way (Lin Lin 2013: 10). Jesuits with higher cultural quality and educational level carried out extensive exchanges with the Chinese scholars. They recognized the profundity of Confucianism and its dominant position in Chinese culture in the process of preaching, and wrote a large number of notes and letters, devoting much effort to studying and translating the Chinese Confucian classics.

Mirror of the Mind, compiled by Fan Liben, is the first Chinese book translated to the West, which was written in the late Yuan and early Ming dynasties, recording the aphorisms and treatises of many philosophers such as Lao-Tzu, Confucius and Mencius; Michele Ruggieri was the first missionary to China to translate Chinese classics, who translated the Confucian classics into Western languages for the first time; In 1593, Matteo Ricci first translated the Four Books into Latin and named them Tetrabiblion Sinense de Moribus, which had a great influence on European literature, religion and politics. The most widely influential translation of The Analects in the late Ming and early Qing dynasties was the Latin version Confucius Sinarum Philosophus, which was edited by the Belgian Jesuit Philippe Couplet and published in Paris in 1687. Although there were few English translations of The Analects during the late Ming and early Qing dynasties, these translations created a "Chinese fever" in Europe and laid the foundation for later English translation of Confucian classics.

2.English Translation of The Analects in Modern Times

In the modern period, China was forced to open the door under the strong ships and cannons of Western invaders, so the second large-scale cultural exchange between China and the West was no longer as equal as in the Ming and Qing dynasties. In this period, Western culture was exported with an absolute advantage, and the cultural exchanges between China and the West were more extensive, richer in content and diversified in forms.

James Legge was the first person to systematically study and translate Chinese classics. He began his the translation of The Analects in 1840, translating the Four books and Five Classics into English and introducing them to the West for the first time, which was the earliest milestone in the history of English translation of Confucian Classics (Wang Yongqiang 2009: 25). His translation was elaborately annotated and heavily religious. Arthur Waley is one of the most distinguished British sinologists of the 20th century. His English translation of The Analects is the most popular in the English world, which is concise, clear, and easy to understand, suitable both for general readers and for scholarly to refer to because of its extensive quotations and detailed paraphrases.

Ku Hung-Ming was the first Chinese to independently translate The Analects into English, breaking the monopoly of missionaries and Western sinologists. He adopted flexible free translation, which inclined the language style, ideological connotation and unique cultural factors of the original text to the cultural system of the target language, so as to arouse the interest of western readers (Li Gang 2012: 79). Lin Yutang was a famous Chinese scholar, writer and translator whose translations focus on traditional Chinese classical culture. He translated parts of The Analects that he considers important with the pursuit of free translation and beautiful translation. He compared Confucianism and Western culture with each other from the perspective of internationalism, and gained a broad market and readership effect abroad with his popularization approach (Yang Liu 2005: 177).

The English Translation of The Analects under the Contemporary Cultural Exchange between China and the West

1.Contemporary Cultural Exchanges between China and the West under the Globalization

The culture of any country in the world cannot be developed in isolation. Instead, it should be communicated and exchanged with the culture of other countries, influence and complement each other, learn from and absorb the essence of other cultures, so as to better improve and develop itself (Lin Lin 2013, 28). With the advent of the era of globalization and the wide application of modern science and technology in the fields of transportation, communication, tourism and other fields, exchanges and cooperation among different cultures around the world have been increasing. The development of remote sensing technology, optical fiber communication technology and electronic computer technology make it possible for the unimpeded mass communication of information. The exchange between different cultures has broken through the restrictions of nationality, region and country, and the speed of cultural exchange has been greatly accelerated. Moreover, contemporary Chinese and western cultural exchange is not only related to literature, drama, art, education, tourism, and other aspects of communication, but also involves philosophical, religious and other aspects of communication, in the form of exchanges between governments, as well as cultural exchanges among academics, cultural circles and people, with unprecedented wide extent and deep degree.

However, the contemporary cultural exchange between China and the West is not only a rare opportunity but also a severe challenge for the cultural construction of China. On the one hand, the modern cultural exchanges between China and the West provide a broad vision for China's cultural construction, enabling Chinese culture to constantly absorb advanced western ideas, theories and experience, so as to realize its own perfection and development. On the other hand, the West is infiltrating China with its strong cultural power. In contemporary society, Western material civilization has been localized in China and integrated into the Chinese culture. The western system and culture are gradually understood and accepted theoretically. Their worldview and values are exerting a profound impact on the Chinese people, with the mainstream Chinese culture being sidelined and ignored. In this situation, it is a great challenge for today's cultural construction whether Chinese culture can absorb the essence of heterogeneous cultures, and take what benefit us and remove what we are redundant. We are required to make efforts in formulating a new type of "going out" culture, to vigorously promote and carry forward Chinese traditional culture, and to strengthen the ability of cultural innovation to improve its own competitiveness, so that Chinese culture can be invincible in the cultural exchanges between China and the West.

Therefore, in the contemporary era of increasing economic globalization, cultural diversity are becoming more and more prominent. The current situation of Chinese society leads to an urgent need of creative transformation of traditional culture, with growing call for foreign translation of Chinese classics (Li Bingquan 2015, 62).

2.Study on the Translations of The Analects by Contemporary Scholars

There has been a long history of the translation and study of The Analects by Western scholars. In contemporary times, with the ups and downs of the international situation and the gradual deepening of cultural exchanges between China and the West, the important value of Confucian classics has received more and more attention from Western scholars. They have begun to recognize the profound connotation and practical significance of Confucianism, whose translations of The Analects are often more faithful to the original text. For example, James Ware's translation of The Analects is in an extremely modern style, and he believes that "Confucius will one day once again be regarded as a model of social stability and national etiquette, and the teachings of The Analects will once again establish norms of behavior and the ideal of social harmony among all Chinese citizens" (Yang Ping 2011, 143).

Moreover, contemporary Western translators tend to highlight the differences between Chinese and Western cultures and avoid applying western religious and philosophical terms to the translation of The Analects. In this regard, no one has contributed more prominently than Roger T. Ames and Henry Rosemont Jr., who advocated transliteration of Chinese philosophical terms, such as "仁" as "ren", "天" as "tian", and "道" as "dao". They try to make a new interpretation of Confucius' thought from the tradition of Chinese culture itself, trying to introduce the "original" Chinese thought to the Western world (Li Gang 2012, 134). The translation of The Analects by Roger T. Ames and Henry Rosemont Jr. better preserves the cultural connotations of the original text, reflects the differences between Chinese and Western cultures, re-establishes the status of Chinese philosophy, and makes an important contribution to correcting the cultural hegemony that has long existed in the western translation circle.

Immersed in and influenced by Chinese culture, Chinese scholars at home and abroad have a profound understanding of Chinese philosophy and ethics, so their translations of The Analects can more faithfully and accurately convey the spiritual essence of Chinese culture. Among them, D. C. Lau's English-Chinese bilingual translation of The Analects published in 1979 has received high praise from western scholars. Rigorous in his academic research, D. C. Lau carefully studied the exegesis of Chinese classical words and even the idiomatic usage and grammatical structure of each word in the sentence, and then translated it into English as accurately as possible (Liu Wenna 2012, 33). His translation of The Analects focuses on the connection between Chinese and Western cultures, with western philosophical and religious terms used to translate the core concepts, which receives warm welcome among readers. What’s more, Xu Yuanchong, a famous Chinese translator, also translated The Analects in order to promote Confucius' idea of governing the country with rites and music. His translation mainly adopted free translation, which is smooth, concise, literary and easy to understand, thus favored by many readers.

The Innovative Ways of Translation and Dissemination of The Analects in the New Era

1.Retaining Chinese Cultural Characteristics In today's society, the main purpose of translation is still cultural exchange. Only by constantly absorbing new nutrients from other cultures can the culture of a country or a nation maintain its vitality and healthy development. If the translator blindly caters to the target language culture, his translation will lose the original meaning of literary works and fail to achieve the purpose of cultural exchange and dissemination. When translating cultural texts, especially those with distinct cultural representativeness, we should try to retain the cultural characteristics as much as possible.

As one of the most important classical works of Confucianism, The Analects has a profound cultural connotation. How to reflect the national characteristics and spirit of Chinese culture while conforming to the aesthetics of the world in the foreign cultural communication of The Analects has become a problem faced by traditional Chinese culture to the world. President Xi Jinping pointed out that the promotion of traditional culture should be organically unified with the development of practical and a correct choice should be made in combination with new practices and the requirements of the times. We’re supposed to learn from the past, strive for the creative transformation and innovative development of traditional culture, and endow it with new connotation of the times(Xi Jinping 2017, 313). Accordingly, in the process of translating and disseminating The Analects, we should discard the negative elements of traditional culture and transmit the outstanding culture meaning in The Analects and the connotation of people-oriented spirit of the times to foreign countries. To this end, translators need to maintain their national characteristics based on their own culture, and translate and disseminate traditional Chinese culture with cultural consciousness. At the same time, translators also need to improve the translation and dissemination strategy of The Analects and spread the traditional Chinese culture across space and time, so that the world can know the Chinese discourse and help the Chinese translation discourse system go global (Fan Min 96).

2.Adopting Translation Strategy of Foreignization Appropriately

The translation of Chinese classics is not only a translation of texts, but also a process of cultural exchange and communication. Therefore, when translating Chinese classics, translators should consider the selection of translation strategies and methods from a historical and cultural perspective. In 1995, Lawrence Venuti first proposed the translation strategies of "domestication" and "foreignization" in his book The Translator's Invisibility. The use of foreignization refers to "accepting the language and cultural differences of foreign text and bring readers into a foreign environment" (Liu E 2004, 98). In today's global culture communication, we should better understand and tolerate different cultures and pay more attention to their differences. Foreignization helps highlight cultural differences and enables readers to appreciate the distinctiveness of foreign cultures, thus strengthening their cultural identity.

The translation strategy of foreignization generally includes the following three methods: Firstly, transliteration. For example, the word "仁" in The Analects refers to a broad moral category with rich cultural connotations, so it is difficult to find a word perfect corresponding to it in English. Some scholars transliterate it directly as “ren”, which can not only accurately convey the cultural meaning of "仁", but also enrich the culture of the target language, preserving the cultural characteristics of the original language. Secondly, word-for-word translation. For instance, when translating “子曰：兴于诗，立于礼，成于乐” in The Analects, Ezra Pound strictly followed the syntax of the original language and omitted both the subject and the tense verb, translating it as "He said: Aroused by the Odes. Established by the rites. Brought into perfect focus by music". Thirdly, word creation or paraphrasing. Matteo Ricci, for example, first translated "儒士" as “letterati”, which later became “literari” into English. And American sinologist James Ware translated "仁" as "manhood-at-its-best", which is also a good example.

Foreignization in translating The Analects is advocated. It doesn't mean that we should blindly pursue word-by-word translation or completely alienate the original text, but try our best to retain Chinese cultural characteristics while translating the text into fluent and authentic English. Especially when some core concepts with rich cultural connotation are involved, it is better to use the translation strategy of foreignization. Domestication and foreignization are not completely opposite, but complementary and indispensable to each other. Translators should recognize the differences between the two translation strategies and make full use of them in translations.

3.Adapting to the Needs of Readers in the New Era

The purpose of the reinterpretation of contemporary Confucian classics is to meet the needs of readers in the new era. And readers' acceptance is an important criterion to judge whether Chinese culture has successfully gone global. Studying the overseas dissemination and feedback of The Analects and focusing on the reinterpretation of Confucian philosophy helps to improve the exotic acceptance of The Analects in the context of world cultural diversity and promote the interaction and identification of global cultural convergence and localization. By using quantitative and qualitative methods, A Survey of Overseas Discourses on Chinese Discourse released by China International Publishing Group (CIPG) in February 2018 drew the characteristics of the top 100 words in terms of recognition: some traditional Chinese cultural words have entered the English discourse in the form of Chinese pinyin (Fan Min 97). This indicates that as China grows stronger, the current awareness and understanding of Chinese discourse among overseas people has increased dramatically, the international community's demand for knowledge about China is getting stronger, and the Chinese way of thinking is gradually influencing the world. The translation of Confucian philosophical concepts with Chinese characteristics in The Analects often becomes a difficult point of translation and dissemination because of cultural gaps and reader differences. Therefore, the translation trend of The Analects in the new era should also construct a discourse expression of Chinese and foreign integration, so as to help Chinese culture go global.

Take the translation of "德" as an example, James Legge translates it as “virtue, what is good”; Ku Hung-Ming translates it as “moral feeling, moral sentiment”; D. C. Lau translates it as “virtue, benign rule”; Roger T. Ames and Henry Rosemont Jr. translate it as “virtue (de 德), excellence (de 德)”; Edward Slingerland translates it as “kindness( de 德), character(de 德)”. The translation is kindness (de de), character (de de). Comparatively speaking, Roger T. Ames and Henry Rosemont Jr. and Edward Slingerland adapt to the requirements of readers in the new era, taking cultural communication as the starting point and adding the strategy of "Chinese Pinyin and Chinese characters" through constructing cultural identity and interpreting the connotation of cultural philosophy, so as to help the cultural implication of The Analects to be accepted by readers in the foreign cultural context.

4.Enhancing the Functions of Communication Media

Enhancing the functions of communication media makes great contributions to helping reinterpret the philosophy of Confucianism. Specific measures are as follows: 1)Enhance the cultural education of The Analects and strengthen the construction of the discourse system of The Analects for foreign communication as the national cultural soft power, integrating the mainstream values and national spirit and internalize them into their own needs, so as to strengthen people's identification with the country and the nation and thus unite people's hearts and enhance their strength; 2)Pay attention to the cultural interpretation strategy of the translation and dissemination of The Analects and the expression and influence of Confucian culture for foreign communication, so that the world can identify with the values of Confucian culture and promote China to become a culturally strong country; 3) Attach importance to the dissemination of the international output of The Analects with the development of information technology, and give full play to the important role of modern social media such as the Internet and government sponsorship in the translation and dissemination of The Analects; 4)Focus on the cultural export of The Analects, build the classic culture brand and market pattern of The Analects in the form of foreign language websites, picture books, quoted lines in films and television, etc. In this information society, the ability of cultural communication has become an important factor of a country's cultural soft power. Therefore, we should attach emphasis to improving the translation and dissemination ability of The Analects, and make traditional Chinese culture go international with the help of the cultural influence of The Analects.

Conclusion

The Analects has been translated into foreign languages for more than four hundred years, which is the most translated Chinese classic into Western languages except for Tao Te Ching. Its translation has shown different characteristics at different historical stages of Chinese and Western cultural exchanges, playing an important role in promoting Chinese and Western cultural exchanges and spreading Chinese culture. With the enhancement of Chinese cultural communication to the outside world, the translation and dissemination strategy of The Analects should also keep pace with the times. Therefore, we should pay attention to the reinterpretation of modern Confucian philosophy in the process of translating and disseminating The Analects, not only to respect the historical origin of the text and faithfully convey the spirit of the original text, but also to take into account the differences between Chinese and Western languages and cultures, so as to improve English readers' awareness and acceptance of The Analects culture and help Chinese traditional culture go global.

References

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Terms and expressions

Confucianism 儒家学派

D. C. Lau 刘殿爵

James Legge 理雅各

Ku Hung-Ming 辜鸿铭

Mirror of the Mind 《明心宝鉴》

Matteo Ricci 利玛窦

Tao Te Ching 《道德经》

Questions

1.Who is Confucius?

2.What's the significance of The Analects in Chinese history?

3.Who is the first Chinese to independently translate The Analects into English?

4.What are the innovative ways of translation and dissemination of The Analects in the new era?

Answers

1.Confucius, a famous thinker, educator and politician in ancient China, plays an important role in the history of Chinese ideology and world culture as the founder of Confucianism. Confucius was known as an omniscient sage for his knowledge and concern about world affairs, traveling around the world with his disciples for 14 years. Confucianism has evolved through dynasties and become the essence of Chinese traditional culture.

2.The Analects, compiled by the disciples of Confucius and his disciples, is one of the classical works of Confucianism. It concentrates on Confucius' political ideas, ethical thoughts, moral concepts and educational principles. The Analects, together with the Great Learning, the Golden Mean and the Mencius, are known as the Four Books. It is an embodiment of ethics, morality, and wisdom accumulated over thousands of years in ancient Chinese society, playing a great role in enlightening wisdom and passing on civilization.

3.Ku Hung-Ming. He broke the monopoly of missionaries and Western sinologists. He adopted flexible free translation, which inclined the language style, ideological connotation and unique cultural factors of the original text to the cultural system of the target language, so as to arouse the interest of western readers.

4.1)Retaining Chinese cultural characteristics;

2)Adopting translation strategy of foreignization appropriately;

3)Adapting to the needs of readers in the new era;

4)enhancing the functions of communication media.

英语笔译 熊嘉玲 Xiong Jialing 202170081602 CE

On the C-E Translation of The Book of Songs

On the C-E Translation of The Book of Songs Xiong Jialing

Abstract

The traditional culture of the Chinese nation is a cultural treasure house with long history. In this treasure house, the variety of classical literature, especially the elegant, beautiful and profound ancient poetry, is undoubtedly the most dazzling pearl. As the source of Chinese literature and the prototype of classical poetry, The Book of Songs is one of the oldest collections of poetry in the world, dating from about the same time as Homer's Epics (about 8th to 6th centuries BC). The Book of Songs "embodies the Confucian thought of cultivating one's moral character, putting one's family affairs in order, and governing the country with rites and music" (Wang Rongpei, Ren Xiuhua,1995: Preface 1). As one of the Confucian classics and the oldest textbook in China, The Book of Songs plays a very important role in Chinese culture, so its English translation is bound to build a bridge for westerners to understand and appreciate traditional Chinese culture.

Key words

The Book of Songs; poetry; traditional Chinese culture

Introduction

The Book of Songs, the earliest collection of poems from the beginning of ancient Chinese poetry, has collected 311 poems from the early Western Zhou Dynasty to the middle of spring and Autumn Period (11th to 6th century BC), among them 6 for sheng poems, namely the title only, no content, known as sheng six poems. Some scholars argue that the poems actually date“from 1713 BC (hymn 304 'Rise of the House of Shang') to 505 BC(song 133 'Comradeship')"”(Xu,1994:17). The authors of The Book of Songs are unknown, and it is said to have been collected by Yin Jifu and compiled by Confucius. In the pre-Qin period, The Book of Songs was called Shi, or Three Hundred Poems. In the Western Han Dynasty, the Book of Songs was regarded as a Confucian classic.

Whether Confucius was in charge of the compilation of The Book of Songs is difficult to be verified, but it is true that this anthology was highly admired by him and has an indispensable position in Confucian classics. In The Analects of Confucius, he says that a man ignorant of the“three hundred poems”was “like one who stands with his face towards a wall，limited in his views, and unable to advance”(Legge,1960a:prolegomena 7). In his opinion, reading the songs can "enable us to incite other men to desirable courses, help us to observe accurately their inmost feelings and to express our won discontents, to do our duty both to parent and prince, and finally to widen our acquaintance with the names of birds, beasts, plants and trees”(Waley，1960:335). Thus, it was applied as one of the major textbooks by Confucius and his followers for moral educations.

To some degree, classical Chinese poetry is the most expressive and the most charming literary form in Chinese literature. The charm of ancient Chinese language comes from classical poetry, which mainly refers to Shi of the Tang Dynasty (618-907 AD), Ci of the Song Dynasty (960-1279 AD), and Qu of the Yuan Dynasty(1206-1368 AD). All these three forms had their origins in The Book of Songs. There appeared many prominent poets who have won immortal fame, such as Li Bai, Du Fu, and Bai Juyi, and the poems written by them have become the most precious literary relics in Chinese history.(Yan, 2006)

Besides its educational and literary function ,The Book of Songs is also like a window through which we can appreciate the splendor of Chinese civilization over 2,500 years ago. Those poems reflect various aspects of Chinese life at that time. Some depict emotion and feeling of people of different classes of the society, and some describe events and issues of state. Different kinds of buildings, food, musical instruments, metals, clothing, etc. are frequently reported by those poems. It is an invaluable resource for those who long to get a deep understanding of the ancient Chinese civilization.

In terms of content, In The Great Preface of the Poetry of Mao, there is the following statement: "Thus it is that in the [Book of] Poems there are six classes:-- first, the Fung; second, descriptive pieces; third, metaphorical pieces; fourth, allusive pieces; fifth, the Ya; and sixth, the Sung.(故诗有六义焉，一曰风，二曰赋，三曰比四曰兴，五曰雅，六曰颂。)(Legge,1960a:prolegomena 34)And in the same page, he adds,"... the names Fung, Ya, and Sung are those of the three Parts into which the She-king is divided，intended to indicate a difference in the subject-matter of the pieces composing them; while Foo, Pe, and Hing are the names applied to those pieces,intended to denote the form or style of their composition. They may, all of them, be found equally in all the Parts. (ibid.)

This is a common opinion held by most scholars. In other words, Feng, Ya and Song refer to the three sections of The Book of Songs; while Fu,Bi and Xing are the artistic features used by the poets in composing those poems.(Yan, 2006)

The History of English Translation of The Book of Songs

Though Chinese poetry has a tradition of about 3,000 years, the time when Chinese poetry was introduced into the english-speaking world, dating back to the late 16th century. The book written by G. Putenham, published at 1589, was the first to introduce Chinese poetry and translated two poems.(Huang,1997:50).

Since the 17th century, Christian missionaries in China have become the earliest messengers of cultural exchanges between the East and the West. These missionaries, in order to make the west understand and learn more from China, but also to promote Christianity, began to translate Confucian classics. As a Confucian classic and the source of Chinese literature, the Book of Songs is highly paid attention to.

In 1626, the Belgian Nicolas Trigault translated the Five Classics, including the Book of Songs, into Latin. It is the earliest known Western translation of the Book of Songs. A Frenchman, J. H. Mariede Bremare, came to China in 1698 and translated eight poems from the Book of Songs. The translation was collected by French missionary and Sinologist Du Haldle and published in Paris in 1735 in The General Annals of China. It was translated into English by R. Brokes in 1736 and E. Cave in 1738 respectively. In 1829, J. F. Davis, a British Sinologist, took the Book of Songs and the folk songs of the Qin to The Six Dynasties as examples to discuss the Chinese poetry pattern in his monograph Interpretation of Chinese Poetry, creating the first translation of source text of the Book of Songs into English.

In the 19th century, with the expansion of Britain, France and other capitalist countries to China's power, The European "sinology fever" further heated up. People's understanding of the Book of Songs gradually got rid of the shackles of early church scholarship and began to explore the value of this ancient poetry collection from the perspective of culture and literature. At this time, the translation of the Book of Songs flourished, with complete translations available in all major European languages.

In 1871, British Sinologist James Leggle (1814-1897) published his The She-King in London. It was The first complete English translation of The Book of Songs, and it was a milestone in The history of The English translation of The Book of Songs. With a solid foundation in Chinese and the help of Wang Tao, a Chinese scholar from Jiangsu province, He was able to translate the poem faithfully. Leggle's translation not only provides the text for English readers to read the Book of Songs, but also shows the rich connotation of the Book of Songs. It has a great influence in Europe and has become the English classic of Sinology. Many later translations have drawn on it.

The Shi King by William Jennings, a Briton, was published in 1891. He was inclined to rhyme translation, and The translated poems adopted The form of ballads with interlaced rhymes, which had a quaint flavor of traditional English poetry. In 1891, Alan (C. F.R. Allen published his English translation of The Book of Songs (The Shih-ching) in London. He also adopted rhyming translation, but in order to harmonize rhyming, he often adopted some flexible methods, such as replacing biological proper names with general reference. His translation makes many changes to the original, with additions and deletions, bordering on rewriting.

In the late 19th century, a certain number of selected translations of The Book of Songs were published. A typical translation is by Herbert A. Gilles (1845-1935). Gilles Is a famous British Sinologist and former British Consul in China. He is familiar with Chinese language and fond of Chinese literature. He has long devoted himself to the translation and research of Chinese literature.

In the first half of the 20th century, the English translation of The Book of Songs flourished and appeared in large number of full and selected translations. These translations were more and more faithful, elegant and expressive. One of the most representative works is the translatitons of Arthur Walley, 1889-1966) and Bernhard Karlgren (1889-1978).

Walley is a famous British Sinologist. He began to study and translate the Book of Songs in 1937 and published it in London. Walley focus on the literariness of the Book of Songs. Therefore, fifteen political plaintive poems with little literary interest were deleted in translation. The rest of the works were broken the original Feng, Ya and Song to the arrangement of the order, according to the theme rearranged, divided into courtship, marriage, warriors and wars, farming, feasting, singing and dancing. This is convenient for readers to understand the ideological and artistic nature of the original poem from the literary perspective.

As a world-renowned Swedish Sinologist and linguist, Karlgren came to China to study Chinese for six years and has a profound knowledge of ancient Chinese books. He believed that the book of Songs was produced in a long time, and the text was complicated. Only by mastering the traditional Chinese exegesis and phonology methods, supplemented by the scientific methods of modern linguistics, and really understanding the text, can the book of Songs be translated better. For this reason, he spent a lot of time on the interpretation of the book of Songs, and annotated the book with a rigorous and scientific attitude. In 1946, he published Commentaries on the Book of Songs in Stockholm. It represents the highest level of research on the Book of Songs in The Sinology circles of Europe at that time, and is still the classic of English annotations on the Book of Songs until today.

In the second half of the 20th century, international poetics research centers moved from Europe to the United States. The study of the Book of Poetry in The United States can develop comprehensively and deeply from a higher starting point due to its advantages in capital, talents and materials, as well as the input of Chinese American scholars and the application of new theories and methods. Many scholars of the Book of Songs, such as J. R.Hightower and W. McNaughton, have been translating the book into English simultaneously.

Ezra Pound (1885-1972), a famous American poet and translator, was the representative figure in translating the Book of Songs into English in this period. In 1908, he went to England and became the leader of modern poets in London. He loved ancient Chinese culture all his life. As early as 1915, when Pound could not speak Chinese, he translated 19 ancient Chinese poems, including the Book of Songs, on the basis of the will of American orientalist Ernest Fenollosa (1853-1908). The publication of Cathay was not faithful to the original in translation and was largely a re-creation of the author. This book has become the representative work of Imagist poetry in Britain and America, and has far-reaching influence. (Bao Yanxin, Meng Wei, 2002)

Compared with the various translations of the Book of Songs in Europe and America, there are not many local translators and translations in China. There are two complete English versions of The Book of Songs translated by native Chinese scholars: one by Prof. Xu Yuanzhong, and the other by Prof. Wang Rongpei and Prof. RenXiuhua. The former was published in 1994 by the Chinese Literature Press, and the latter in 1995 by the Liaoning Education Publishing House.(Yan, 2006)

An Introduction to Four English Translations of The Book of Songs

The four translation versions analyzed in this paper are ：Firstly, The She King: Or The Book of Ancient Poetry by James Legge; Secondly, Shih-ching: The Classic Anthology Defined by Confucius by Ezra Pound; Thirdly, The Book of Poetry by wang Rongpei; And a 1993 translation of Xu Yuanchong's Book of Poetry.

The She King: Or The Book of Ancient Poetry by James Legge were published in 1871, 1876 and 1879 respectively. The 1871 edition is a complete translation of blank verse, and its style features are mainly reflected in three aspects. First, the introduction is detailed and lengthy. The 182-page introduction includes five chapters, seven sections and seven appendages, which respectively introduce the compilation, contents, annotations, rhyme and rhythm of the Book of Songs. Secondly, the text part has corresponding translation and critical notes. On each page of the text, the Chinese original text is listed first, in the form of vertical song style sections, with the Corresponding English original text in the middle and the comments at the end. In addition, the translator's treatment of "preface" adopts the form of appendix and explanation, or occasionally add personal understanding. In addition, the translator also compiled three indexes after the main text, namely, the English subject index, the English proper noun index and the Chinese phrase index, which provided great retrieval convenience for overseas researchers of the Book of Songs. The 1876 version is different from the 1871 version in style and many other aspects. The 1876 translation is a complete version of the rhyme system, showing a strong English poetic style. Although there is an introduction to this edition, it has been simplified. The translated contents of the main text are still arranged in the traditional order of the Book of Songs, but the answers to the questions are generally shortened. The original text and lengthy notes of the Book of Songs are missing, and there are only two parts left in the index: the English subject index and the English proper nouns index. The 1879 edition is an selected translation of the prose style, and its influence is relatively small.(Liu, 2016）

James Legge spent more than fifty years, built a bridge between Chinese and western, his life is from the missionary to the Sinologist's life, his life activity, began to preach Christianity to the east, but is prominent in the dissemination of Chinese culture to the western has more than one hundred years, his translations is still considered the standard translation of Chinese classics, He ended the amateur study of Chinese literature by western scholars and embarked on the road of specialization. Pound's English translation of The Book of Songs came into being with the second World War. The outbreak of the Second World War made the poet Pound realize the collapse of the western moral system, so he eagerly hoped to introduce Chinese Confucianism to the West through translation, and rebuild the western moral system.

His translation of The Book of Songs not only reproduces the image of Chinese poetry collected in Cathay , but also shows his strong appreciation for the sound effects and phonological masks of ancient Chinese poetry. Pound's English translation of Chinese classical poetry not only introduces Chinese culture well, but also properly applies the essence of Chinese poetics to the development of Modern English poetry, and at the same time shows his creative translation method. This creative English translation has formed a translation trend in the United States for a period of time.(Wang, 2005)

Pound's translation has two main characteristics: one is to make use of the past to compare to the present to spread Confucianism, and absorb the essence of Confucianism to rebuild the value system of the West. The other is to promote the development of imagist poetics. Pound's translation follows the principles of imagist poetics and adopts a highly imagistic translation method to make the translation full of poetics, thus becoming the first choice in the study of poetic image.

In 1995, the Liaoning Education Publishing House published The Book of Poetry (Chinese-English bilingual version) by Prof. Wang & Prof. Ren. It is a thick book of 1657 pages, divided into four parts: prefaces, verses, appendices and references. There are two simple prefaces of 10 pages, one written by X.Y.Z. in Chinese, and the other by the authors in both Chinese and English. The poems are written according to the original sequence in both Chinese and English,and after each poem, there is a very brief annotation concerning the contents of it. The unique point of Wang's version is that under each Chinese character, there is the Chinese Pinyin to show the pronunciation of the character. In the Appendices, there are three kinds of indexes of first lines: English-Chinese, Chinese-English and in order of Pinyin.This makes it very easy for the reader to locate the poem.Wang's English version is a plain and natural one, close to the simple style of the original songs.(Yan, 2006)

The English translation of The Book of Songs by Wang Rongpei and Ren Xiuhua is the second complete English translation of the Book of Songs by A Chinese author after Xu Yuanchong. Wang and Ren were among the first scholars to emerge from new China. Wang Rongpei graduated from Shanghai International Studies University in the early 1960s. He studied postgraduate courses under ge Chuan, a famous scholar of the older generation in China. He is a well-known contemporary translator with extensive knowledge and abundant writings. On the basis of summing up the gains and losses of previous translators, their translation of the book of Songs and the culture of The Times, combined with their own unique aesthetic observation, makes the translated poems present a fresh, natural and smooth style. The flexible and ingenious art of translation reveals the translator's unique artistic ingenuity in the reconstruction of images, the transmission of beauty and the elucidating of meaning and interest. After that, this translation does have new pursuit and improvement in artistic aspect.(Bao Yanxin, Meng Wei, 2002)

Wang Rongpei's translation of The Book of Songs is deeply influenced by the theory of traditional Chinese artistic realm. He attaches importance to the "verve" of ancient Chinese poetry and tries to reconstruct the unique form characteristics of the Book of Songs in his translation, which reflects the cultural consciousness of the Chinese translators to explore the translation theory of Chinese classic books based on the standpoint of Chinese culture.

"The Three Beauties Theory” is the ontology of Xu Yuanchong's translation theory, which is also the highest standard of poetry translation proposed by Xu Yuanchong. The "three beauties" refer to "beauty in sense", "beauty in sound" and "beauty in form" respectively. "beauty in sense" mainly means that the translated poem should be as touching as the original poem, and the translated poem should be consistent with the original poem in spirit or substance. "beauty in sound" means that poetry should be well-tuned, rhymed, smooth and easy to listen to; "beauty in form" mainly refers to the "antithesis" or "general orderliness" of poem lines (Xu, 1984).

Xu yuanchong graduated from Southwest Associated University in his early years, and later went to Paris University to study. After returning to China in 1950, he taught English and French in foreign language schools in Beijing, Zhangjiakou in Hebei province and Luoyang in Henan Province. In 1983, he was transferred to Peking University. In the past 20 years, he has published more than 40 translated works, starting from "The Book of Songs" and "Ci of Chu", to the modern huang Xing, MAO Zedong and other people's poetry selected into English verse and French verse published. The translation of Chinese and foreign literary masterpieces and the promotion of Chinese culture are his persistent goals.(Bao Yanxin, Meng Wei, 2002)

Xu Yuanchong's translation of the poems strictly follows the theory of "three beauties", striving to achieve beauty in sound, meaning and form, which not only effectively conveys the meaning and rhythm of the original poem, but also preserves the rhythm and rhetoric of the poem, reproducing the beauty of the original poem, making it catchy and memorable to read. Xu Yuanchong's translation practice illustrates the translatability of poetry, with beauty in sense, sound and form being the criteria for poetry translation and the goal to be pursued. The sense is the soul of the poem, the essence of the poem. Sound and form are also essential to poetry, so in translating poetry, it is important not only to pursue the beauty of sound and form, but also to attach importance to the subjectivity and creativity of the translator.(Wang, 2011)

In his translations, Mr Xu partially adopts domesticating translation. As the source language and the target language are of different times and cultural backgrounds, the translator must also translate the original poetry from the reader's perspective, so that the reader can grasp the understanding of the original text, while at the same time being faithful to it. The translation of the Poems by James Legge mostly adopts the literal translation method, faithfully preserving the original cultural imagery and adding detailed notes and commentaries, without considering the domesticating translation method and the rhythmic beauty of the original poem, which makes it difficult for readers who do not understand their own culture to understand the contextual beauty of the original poem. Both translations are of great academic value to the study of The Book of Songs.

Xu Yuanchong's translation of The Book of Songs aims to promote the excellence of traditional Chinese culture and to develop literary translation into translated literature in the target language. Xu Yuanchong was very concerned with the 'Western transmission' of The Book of Songs, and since the Western reader was an important force in the spread of culture, he adopted a translation strategy based on domesticating translation. Xu Yuanchong's profound knowledge of Chinese and English and his poetic sensibility enabled him to regenerate the cultural ideas and artistic values of The Book of Songs in a foreign soil.

The Significance of Translating the Book of Songs into English

The Book of Songs is the earliest collection of Chinese poetry, which contains more than 300 classical Chinese poems in the five hundred years since the western Zhou Dynasty. It is famous at home and abroad for its unique beauty of rhythm and occupies an important position in traditional Chinese culture. In order to promote more effective, diversified and multi-perspective dissemination of China's excellent traditional classics, it is necessary to increase the multi-perspective research on the translation of classic books, which is an important part of Chinese culture going abroad. Therefore, the in-depth study of the Book of Songs and its English translation is of great significance and value. The theoretical value of The Book of Songs is also reflected in the fact that its 305 poems contain abundant images of animals and plants. According to the statistics of Mr. Hu Miao, a famous agronomist, there are 141 mentions of animals, a total of 492 times, involving 133 species; 144 articles mentioned plants, 505 times in total, involving 152 species. In addition, the classification of names is very fine (Chen, 2017 (3) : 61). Some medicines recorded in The Book of Songs are still commonly used in traditional Chinese medicine today, which is undoubtedly a model reflecting the value of traditional Chinese medicine. Li Shizhen, a famous ancient doctor, widely quoted The Book of Songs in Compendium of Materia Medica, and the Book of Songs became the best evidence for Li Shizhen to explain the medicinal names of plants and animals (Zhou, 2010 (12) : 3369). The medicinal names in The Book of Songs are also of great literary value, which reflects another unique phenomenon in traditional Chinese culture, that is, the ancient literati's "combination of Confucianism and medicine". Since ancient times, the ancient scholars of our country have "not for good to save the country, but for good doctors to save the people"（不为良相救国，便为良医救民）, so there is no lack of traditional Chinese medicine content in the literary creation of the ancient literati "patriots". According to the statistics of scholars, there are 41 kinds of medicine names quoted in the Book of Songs, thus it can be seen that the Book of Songs is not only the source of Chinese poetry, but also the cultural source of integration with traditional Chinese medicine culture.(Qu, 2018)

The so-called historical culture refers to the culture formed by the specific social development process and the accumulation of social heritage. Different nations and countries have different historical backgrounds and different historical cultures accumulated in their long history of development. Poetry is one of its important forms of expression. It can be said that poetry is the treasure of history and culture. It has a strong national culture personality, contains rich historical and cultural information, and can best reflect the characteristics of different history and culture. However, due to the unique wording and profound cultural connotations of Chinese classical literature works, there are many obstacles in the process of foreign language translation, such as language, rhetoric, cultural concepts, etc. In order to translate these poems properly and reasonably, we must understand the rich historical and cultural connotations hidden behind them and master appropriate translation methods.(Huang, 2008)

As treasures in the history of Chinese national literature, Chinese classical literary classics have been translated into various languages by Chinese and foreign translators and spread to all over the world with their unique linguistic art and cultural accumulation, and are highly respected by literature lovers in different countries. Among the excellent Chinese classics, there are many chapters explaining the excellent cultural genes such as "fraternity" and " harmony". The Book of Songs is the classic of Chinese culture, which contains rich national spirit and culture. These precious cultural wealth is a powerful magic weapon to enhance China's comprehensive national strength and improve China's coping ability. Translating traditional Chinese classics is a good opportunity to spread Chinese stories and propagandize Chinese ideas. We should pay attention to the translation of The Book of Songs, tell Chinese stories well, and let the world hear the voice of Chinese culture.

The English translation of The Book of Songs has come a long way. In the future, while continuing the previous studies, we should conform to the needs of the development of The Times, explore the value of The Times from different aspects of the Book of Songs, and promote the diversified interpretation of the Book of Songs into English.

Poetry, as a kind of literary form expressing human emotions and thoughts, can have deep cultural roots in the specific object of expression, and is a highly condensed language artistic expression that embodies the essence of a specific culture. Cross-cultural translation of Chinese poetry is of great guiding significance.(Huang, 2008)

Conclusion

This paper gives a general description of The Book of Songs, from the overall introduction of the Book of Songs, the historical development of the English translation of the Book of Songs, the characteristics of the four English translations of the Book of Songs, to the significance of the English translation of the Book of Songs. We can better understand the history of the Book of Songs and its translation into English, as well as its important role in promoting the spread and development of Chinese culture. The poems written by ancient people are full of the historical and cultural connotation and local customs of that era. As precious cultural heritage, they are worth our careful reading, savoring and appreciation.

References

• Legge, James(1960a). The Chinese Classics,Volume 4. Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press,prolegomena 7
• Waley, Arthur(1960). The Book of Songs. New York: Grove Press,Inc, 335pp.
• Xu, Yuanzhong(1994). An Unexpurgated Translation of Book of Songs. Beijing: Chinese Literature Press, 17pp.
• Bao Yanxin, Meng Wei包延新, 孟伟(2002). 《诗经》英译概述[Overview of English Translation of The Book of Songs]. 晋东南师范专科学校学报Journal of Southeast Shanxi Normal College(06): 36-38.
• Chen jia, zhang ling陈佳, 张凌(2017).《诗经》动植物英译生态翻译探微[On the Ecological Translation of The Book of Songs into English]. 河南机电高等专科学校学报Journal of Henan Mechanical and Electrical College3(25): 61-65.
• Huang Mingfen黄鸣奋(1997)．英语世界中国先秦至南北朝诗歌之传播[The Spread of Poetry from Pre-Qin to Northern and Southern Dynasties in The English-speaking World].贵州社会科学Guizhou Social Sciences(2): 50pp
• Huang Xianwen黄贤文(2008). 跨文化对中国诗歌英译的指导意义[The Guiding Significance of Cross-cultural Translation of Chinese Poetry]. 福建商业高等专科学校学报Journal of Fujian Commercial College(01): 116-119.
• Liu Yongliang刘永亮（2016）. 理雅各《诗经》翻译出版对中国典籍走出去之启示[The enlightenment of The translation and publication of James Leggett's Book of Songs on the going abroad of Chinese classics]. 中国出版China Publishing Journal(13): 63-65.
• Qu Qianqian曲倩倩(2018). 《诗经》的文学价值及其英译[The Literary Value of The Book of Songs and Its English Translation]. 青年文学家Youth Literator(29): 96pp.
• Wang Guiming王贵明(2005). 论庞德的翻译观及其中国古典诗歌的创意英译[Pound's View on Translation and His Creative Translation of Chinese Classical Poetry]. 中国翻译Chinese Translators Journal(06): 20-26.

Terms and expressions

Homer's Epics 荷马史诗

sheng poems 笙诗

Five Classics 五经

The General Annals of China 《中国通志》

sinology fever 汉学热

Cathay 《神州集》

Compendium of Materia Medica 《本草纲目》

Questions

1. When did the British Sinologist James Leggle (1814-1897) publish his The She-King?

2. What are the main characteristics of Pound's translation?

3. What theory did Xu Yuanchong's translation of the poems strictly follows?

Answers

1. In 1871, British Sinologist James Leggle (1814-1897) published his The She-King in London.

2. One is to make use of the past to compare to the present to spread Confucianism, and absorb the essence of Confucianism to rebuild the value system of the West.The other is to promote the development of imagist poetics. Pound's translation follows the principles of imagist poetics and adopts a highly imagistic translation method to make the translation full of poetics, thus becoming the first choice in the study of poetic image.

3. Xu Yuanchong's translation of the poems strictly follows the theory of "three beauties", striving to achieve beauty in sound, meaning and form, which not only effectively conveys the meaning and rhythm of the original poem, but also preserves the rhythm and rhetoric of the poem, reproducing the beauty of the original poem, making it catchy and memorable to read.

英语笔译 杨心怡 Yang Xinyi 202170081604 MW

The source of China Children’s Literature and the Dilemma of its Translation Yang Xinyi

Abstract

As China’s international status continues to rise, chinese literature is used for clutural transmission to foreign countries, so that more foreign friends can understand the excellent quality and spirit of Chinese people. Under the background of "going out" of this culture, excellent works of Chinese children's literature begin to emerge constantly. The high-level original works and translated works of Cao Wenxuan and Yang Hongying are undoubtedly the most successful examples of overseas cultural dissemination.As the translation of China children's literature is still in its infancy, there are also many problems in the study of children's literature translation. The development of excellent English translation of Chinese children's literature is slow, and it cannot be popularized in the world like English children's literature. To expand its international influence, literary translation is the most important factor of all.This paper introduces the origin of China children's literature, the difficulties it is facing at present, the translator's work criticism and the commonly used translation theories.

Key words

Children's literature; Translation; English translation

Introduction

“Childrens’ literature is considered to be the most cosmopolitan literature and the most easily 'going out' cultural product.”(c.f: Zhang 2020:21) The study of the history of China children's literature translation, national style, translators and so on ,which all the blank fields that need to be filled.Dynastic history research can be divided into the following stages: Late Qing Dynasty; May 4th Movement; The 1930s and 1940s; the beginning of reform and opening up; The 21st century, etc.The existing studies on the translation of children's literature mainly focus on European and American countries, and the later studies can be extended to Japan, France, Germany, Russia, Spain, Korea, Italy and other countries.The study of translators is also an important area of translation studies. Due to the particularity of the target language readers, children's literature translation is not easy.

Literature Review

2000-2016 In the past 16 years, the number of documents on the theme of children's literature translation has been on the rise, nearly 200 articles published in 2016. Among the 14 papers in total, Qin Gong from the Institute of Literature of the China Academy of Social Sciences published 4 papers in the series of "Translation of Children's Literature during the May 4th Movement." In the same year, Xu Derong of Ocean University of China published "On the Translation of Children's Literature" in the core journal of foreign language, China Translation, which pondered on several basic problems of children's literature translation such as stylistic features, children's taste and cross-cultural communication.Since then, the domestic foreign language circle has strengthened the research on the translation of children's literature, and the number of papers has increased substantially almost every year.In 2006, the number of papers published increased to 45, and in 2013, the number of papers published reached an unprecedented 181.From 2014 to 2016, the research on children's literature translation has increased steadily. The retrieval results show that the translated papers of children's literature in 2000-2016 come from China Academic Journal Network Publishing Database, Characteristic Journals, China Doctoral Dissertation Full-text Database, China Excellent Master's Dissertation Full-text Database, China Important Conference Papers Full-text Database, International Conference Papers Full-text Database and China Academic Periodical Full-text Database.It can be seen from the sources of papers that the master's degree thesis accounts for the largest proportion, with 168 papers (56.9%), followed by academic journal papers with 121 papers (41%), and only 1 doctoral thesis (0.3%).At the same time, there are 25 core journals in academic journal papers, accounting for about 20% of the total number of journals. The above data show that the translation of children's literature research is mainly concentrated in the master's thesis part, the number of high-level core papers and doctoral dissertations is not much, especially the number of doctoral dissertations can be counted on one hand, the overall level of research still needs to be improved. According to the types of translation studies of children's literature, according to the journal articles published in HowNet 2000-2016, they can be mainly divided into the following categories:

(1) The dynastic history of children's literature translation

The early years of the republic of China in the late qing dynasty (Li li); Anti-Japanese War (Wen Jun, 2008); Translation of Chinese and Children's Literature from 1919 to 2012 (Wei Xuemei, 2013).Ten years of the new century, since the reform and opening up.The current history of children's literature translation studies are mainly to study the translation of a certain period of time, such as during the May 4th Movement and the Anti-Japanese War, the study of the translation history of children's literature from the founding of the People's Republic of China to the beginning of the Cultural Revolution, during the Cultural Revolution and the thirty years of reform and opening up has not been paid attention to.

(2) Translation and Introduction of Children's Literature in Other Countries

Children's literature translation studies in other countries. Including Japan, Korea, the United United States, Europe and other countries, the translation of children's literature translation. For example,'Japan's early translation of children's literature Glimpse '(Jiang Qunxing, 2005), Translation and Introduction of United States Fairy Tales in China the 20th Century (Niu Rui, 2011) respectively introduce the translation and introduction of works of Denmark fairy tale master Hans Christian Andersen, Germany fairy tale works of the Brothers Grimm, and Ireland fairy tale master Oscar Wilde in China. Chen Xiu, 2013) and Translation of Korean Popular Science Children's Books (Wisdom, 2015) mainly introduce the translation principles and methods of Korea popular science children's books. As of 2016, there are few translations and introductions of children's literature works from other countries, which is also worthy of in-depth discussion and research.

1 The origin of Chinese children's literature

1.1The Spontaneous Stage

In ancient China, although there was no 'children's literature', there was 'children's literature' everywhere, and specific works of children's literature abounded. Children's literature includes nursery rhymes, children's songs, sacred myths, legends and folklore, as well as classical literature that children have taken ownership of. These valuable resources have laid a solid foundation for children's literature to move from spontaneity to self-awareness. The earliest recorded children's rhyme in ancient literature is the Kang Qu Nursery Rhyme from Lie Zi Zhong Ni: "The people of the city are the most important people in the world. The first collection of folk children's songs in the history of Chinese literature appeared during the Wanli period of the Ming dynasty, the Yanyu Xiaoyu (Performing Children's Words) compiled by Lü Kun. This is arguably the first true collection of folk children's songs in China, pioneering the creation of children's songs and rhymes for children's education. And works such as Journey to the West and Liao Zhai Zhiyi were appropriated by children for their storytelling and fun. Although the child may not be able to say exactly what it is about these works that captivates him or her, this phenomenon inspires us to consider the unique status of classical literature for children. In the case of Journey to the West, the magic of the 72 transformations, the spirit of eternal struggle, the witty, brave, tumbling, humorous and cheerful figure of Sun Da Sheng is not only a classic character in Chinese children's literature, but has also left a strong mark in the history of children's literature worldwide. "Before the birth of children's literature produced exclusively for children as a separate literary sector, there had been children's literature that was actively chosen by children as their own. The accumulation of this type of children's literature was bound to create a striking and unique literary phenomenon at a certain point in time, not only providing public opinion for the self-consciousness of children's literature not only prepared children's literature for self-consciousness, but also directly laid the literary (in terms of subject matter, expression, etc.) It is also an indispensable foundation for the development of children's literature." The significance of folklore for modern children's literature lies not only in the variation of genre forms and their homogeneous correspondence, but also in the fact that folklore is received by children. Folklore has a special significance in the reception of literature by children because of its unique mode of transmission. “Listening” and “reading” are the two main ways in which children receive literature, and “speaking”, after listening and reading, is the way in which folk literature is transmitted. Mr Zhu Ziqiang also believes that "folk literature played an extremely important role in the origin and development of children's literature". Folk literature is the cradle of children's literature, and the richness and breadth of folk literature gives children's literature a deep historical deposit and cultural connotation. Secondly, folk literature has a great influence on the creation of children's literature. This is demonstrated by the fact that writers will consciously or unconsciously draw from folk literature and apply it to their own works. For example, Lu Xun was able to obtain the nourishment of folk literature from works such as One Thousand and One Nights, A Collection of Grimm's Fairy Tales and An Introduction to Mythology, before completing his works such as The Flowers of the Morning and the Night and New Stories. The New Tales" and other works. It can be said that the influence of folklore on children's literature is profound and long-lasting, and this subtle influence has brought The influence of folklore on children's literature is profound and long-lasting.

1.2 Awakening Stage

The end of the Qing Dynasty and the beginning of the Republic of China was a crucial period for breeding innovative forces in "great changes that have not occurred in thousands of years.Paying attention to individual value, attaching importance to individual strength and penetrating into children's hearts directly reflect the transformation of people's view of children, so the late Qing Dynasty and the early Republic of China are the awakening stage of the development of China children's literature.

(Sun Jianguo:2010) said: "The end of Qing Dynasty and the beginning of Republic of China was a historical period in which profound changes took place China's social, political and cultural life. It was also an indispensable transition period for Chinese children's literature to move from the ancient spontaneous and natural state to the modern conscious literary age."

At this stage, the enlighteners actively advocated children's literature, regarded children as the masters of the country, began to pay attention to children's growth and education, and actively explored the improvement of children's books. Kang Youwei, Liang Qichao and other people in the leadership of the bourgeois reform movement at the same time the rise of reformism literature movement, they promote the reformism literature movement also includes the attention of children's literature. From this period of children's books we can clearly see the era of children's expectations and great trust: "My boy, my boy, quickly invigorate your spirit to restore my ancestral inheritance and return my public property, so that you will not be buried in a dream again.""My brother Washington, my brother Napoleon. Although the heart is small, the blood is white hot, but the head is small, and the courage is not frightened." The China children's literature activities in the late Qing Dynasty and the early Republic of China are beneficial explorations with national and national characteristics based on "children's discovery,"and are an indispensable part of the modernization process of Chinese children's literature.

1.3 conscious stage

The period of May 4th was a conscious stage of the development of children's literature, that is, to establish the concept of "children's literature,"and to create children's literature, while forming a theory.(Mao Dun,1935) once said that "the name of children's literature, began in the 54 era large number of foreign children's literature has been translated or retranslation to China Hans Christian Andersen and his fairy tale works first cause the attention of the Chinese people."New youth" in 1918 to Hans Christian Andersen has carried on the special introduction, at the same time, translation and published his fairy tale "the small match In 1925, the novel Monthly published two albums of Andersen in August and September, which set off a "Andersen fever" in China.And like France's "mother goose's story," Italy's "love education,"The classic works such as Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Wilde's Fairy Tales in United Kingdom and the Brothers Grimm's Fairy Tales Germany have also been introduced into China one after another and have exerted great influence. The active advocacy of the cultural pioneers of the May 4th Movement and the prosperity and development of the press are the important reasons for the "translation fever" of children's literature.Lu Xun, Zhou Zuoren, Zhao Jingshen, Zhao Yuanren and Xia Mianzun have done a lot of translation work. Zhou Zuoren once translated Grimm's fairy tales, such as Straw, Coal and Broad Bean and Big Radish; Xia Mianzun once translated Amiches 'educational novel Education of Love; Zheng Zhenduo translated Prince Anle, Young Emperor and Selfish Giant; Zhao Jingshen translated Famous Flowers. These translations not only provide reference for the creation of children's literature in China, but also broaden the horizons of our children's readers.'Children's World 'and' children ' is the most important translation of children's literature during this period, then the editor of "children's world "zheng zhenduo once said: "If all the children's literature materials from other countries in the world cater to China children, we will try our best to use them."

2 The Dilemma of Chinese Children Literature

Nowadays, the characteristics of children's literature are very simple, domestic scholars pay little attention to it.There are few works on children's literature translation in China, and few papers can arouse special attention to children's literature translation.especially in international and regional organizations, in authoritative journals, China scholars rarely publish their views.The translation studies of children's poetry and drama, picture book, reading text and subtitle of children's movies are rare in China.On the Translation of Children's Literature, the study of translation strategies and the rules and characteristics of children's literature translation has also received less attention from China scholars.In addition, the researchers pay insufficient attention to the translation of children's literature in other languages, so far there is no domestic the overseas translation of China children's literature works has been systematically studied, so it is obvious that Chinese excellent children's literature has no influence abroad, and there are abundant studies in this field abroad.Children's Literature Translation Although the text and the content of the expression of ideas are very simple, but in order to fully achieve the understanding of foreigners, this is actually not a simple matter, the translator will be very demanding, not only for China culture to understand thoroughly, for the target language must also be proficient.And we all know that due to cultural and lexical differences, but also to consider the unique characteristics of children's literature, so that complex content translated into children's acceptable way is not simple even more difficult than adults.Therefore, the translation of children's literature on the translator has a higher demand.

2.1 Translators need to understand the characteristics of children's literature language

The language in children's literature is mainly short sentences, short and pithy, grammar is also very simple, easy to be understood by children, in line with children's nature. in children's work, especially in nursery rhymes and vulgar children's story, often use a refrain. Repetition can make children feel the charm of literary language, such as antithesis, parallelism, repetition, etc.because of that age and psychological characteristic of children, the language of children's literature works has the colloquial style, which is mainly characterize by flexibility, brevity and variety.It is these three characteristics to enhance the readability of children's literature, in line with the children's psychological reality, improve the children's interest in reading and interest in the article, promote the children's understanding of the work, has played a due role in education.The translator must carefully analyze the experience of language features, in the translation of children's literature in order to be able to play outside the classroom teaching function, develop and improve children's language ability to broaden children's vision, knowledge and understanding of the world, while allowing children to develop the ability of imagination and fantasy, so that in the translation of these functions should be reflected.

2.2 Translators need to understand children's unique psychological characteristics

Children are in a unique age of growth, the psychological characteristics of this age are very obvious.Translators must understand the psychological characteristics of children in order to understand the interests of children, to understand the psychological needs of children, translation of children's readers love the work.Children of different ages, their understanding ability and language ability are different, children read the contents of the works are also different, for example, Little White Rabbit is for young children to see, the story is simple, the text is also simple, children like, can not give high school students to see.The translator also understand the gender difference, boys and girls in the physical difference, so psychological will be different, so also want to pay attention to.The translator is required to make clear the target group of children's works, fully understand the psychological characteristics of children's works, so that the translation can be better accepted, achieve better results, and grasp the characteristics and interests of children to create.

2.3 Translators should be child-centered

The translator should not only try to figure out the understanding, interpretation and expression of the original, but also pay close attention to the reader's cultural level, intelligence level, understanding ability, aesthetic tendency and aesthetic appreciation. Therefore, the ultimate goal of translation is to make the recipient benefit or achieve the ultimate effect children, in the translation should be child-centered. We should analyze the problem itself from the perspective of children, with children's thinking to think, with children's language to express the idea of the original work. Translation is good, to children whether to understand, whether to like the implementation of the standard. If the translated works of children themselves do not want to see, then the translator's translation is not successful, need to find out why, in practice, to make adjustments.

2.4 Translators should have a rigorous attitude to translate fairy tales

Ye Junjian is a famous translator of fairy tales. He began to translate Hans Christian Andersen's fairy tales in 1946. In order to convey the spirit and characteristics of the original works more accurately, he specialized in Danish. Every summer and winter vacation, he would go to Denmark to learn about Danish customs and habits, make Danish friends, discuss with them the artistic conception of Hans Christian Andersen's fairy tales, and accumulate experience of Hans Christian Andersen and his fairy tales. His attitude in translating Andersen is serious and accurate. China's children's literature should also have such a rigorous attitude, for the translation into the country's children's fundamental need to translate China children's literature. This is virtually the personal qualities of the translator has a high demand, a solid language skills and rich cultural connotation, is essential.

Conclusion

The origin of China children's literature is a dynamic process, children's literature has gone through a period of "spontaneous,""awakening,""conscious" and finally in the May 4th period of the process of stereotypes.Due to the particularity of the target language readers, it is not easy to translate children's literature.Due to the lack of systematic guidance from standardized theories on the translation of China children's literature into foreign languages, the number of translated works of Chinese children's literature into foreign languages is uneven. It is hoped that more high-level translation experts and scholars can participate in the standardization and development of the translation practice of Chinese children's literature into foreign languages and promote the research on the translation of Chinese children's literature into foreign languages.Through the construction of a scientific and effective translation model, China will promote the overseas dissemination of Chinese children's literature and help Chinese children's literature to firmly land and take root in foreign markets.

References

[1]张云[Zhang Yun].中国儿童文学“走出去”研究[J][Research on "Going Out" of Chinese Children's Literature].合作经济与科技[Cooperative Economy and Technology],2020(8):21-23.

[2]肖辉,罗思宇[Xiaohui, Luosiyu].翻译美学视角下曹文轩作品英译的审美再现[J][The Aesthetic Representation of Cao Wenxuan's Works in English Translation from the Perspective of Translation Aesthetics].南京理工大学学报:社会科学版[Journal of Nanjing University of Science and Technology:Social Science Edition],2017,30(2):72-75,80.

[3]孙茜[Sun Qian].中国儿童文学英译现状及“走出去”的障碍和策略研究[J][Research on the Status Quo of English Translation of Chinese Children's Literature and the Obstacles and Strategies of "Going Global"].成才之路[The Road to Success],2019(14):18-19.

[4]赵继荣[Zhao Jirong].中国儿童文学“走出去”:对外译介现状分析[J]["Going out" of Chinese children's literature: Analysis of the current situation of foreign translation and introduction].广东外语外贸大学学报[],2020,31(2):128-138,160.

英语笔译 杨紫微 Yang Ziwei 202170081605 CE

The English Translation of the Names in A Dream of Red Mansions from the Perspectives of Domestication and Alienation Yang Ziwei

Abstract

"A Dream of Red Mansions" is a great work of high ideological and artistic quality. There are many characters in the book, including more than 300 people with names. Some of the names of these characters are allusions to classics, and some borrow homophonic techniques, and these names also suggest backgrounds, identities, characters and fates of the characters. Cao Xueqin is unique in naming characters. However, due to the cultural background differences in the translation process, it is often difficult for translators to accurately translate the true meaning hidden behind names. Based on this, this paper intends to analyze the characteristics of people's names in A Dream of Red Mansions and explore the translation art of people's names in its English version. In addition, this paper compares Hawkes and Yang Xianyi's translation methods and rules in name translation from the perspective of domestication and alienation, so as to increase its fluency and readability and promote the spread of Chinese culture.

Key words

A Dream of Red Mansions;Domestication and Alienation;Name translation.

Introduction

A Dream of Red Mansions is one of the four great classical novels in ancient China. Written in the late feudal society, it systematically summarizes the cultural system of Chinese feudal society, deeply criticizes all aspects of the feudal society, and reaches the peak of ancient Chinese literary creation in terms of language and artistic aspects. On the one hand, the English version of A Dream of Red Mansions has provided western readers with an opportunity to understand Chinese culture, and on the other hand, it has made remarkable contributions to the cultural exchanges between China and the West. There are many characters in A Dream of Red Mansions. Cao Xueqin, the author, gives the characters distinctive characteristics with his ingenious naming techniques. Some of them quote ancient poems and some use homophony. The identity, character and even the whole life and destiny can be seen from the names. It is indispensable to understand the deep meaning of characters' names for grasping the connotation of literary works and letting English language readers understand the feudal culture of China. In the 1980s, there appeared a complete English translation of A Dream of Red Mansions, the two most famous English translations nowadays which from Yang Xianyi and Hawkes. When translating the names of people in books, Yang xianyi and his wife mainly use transliteration of names, while Hawkes adopts the strategy of transliteration of main characters and free translation of secondary characters. Based on this, this paper analyzes hawkes and Yang Xianyi's translation of names from the perspective of domestication and alienation in order to explore the gain and loss of their translation of names.

Literature Review

To promote intercultural interaction, introducing Chinese culture to the world is important and urgent. Due to differences in cultures and languages in different countries, the most feasible and efficient way is to translate Chinese books for foreign readers. Chinese Classic literature is an insignificant part of Chinese culture, which plays an important role in this cultural communication, so translation of literary works is in desperate need. Among all the literary works, A Dream of Red Mansions, as the Four Greatest Classic Novels, draws more and more attention from translators because of its artistic language, significant cultural values concerning aspects such as culinary, clothing, building, economy, politics, morality and so on. According to the view in Translation Strategies of Chinese Names in A Dream of Red Mansions, it is a rare book that deepens one’s understanding of the meanings of being human. Thus the translation of it is indisputably the greatest work among all the classic Chinese novels. Acknowledged as a pinnacle of Chinese novel, A Dream of Red Mansions is a mixture of realism and romance, psychological motivation and fate, daily life and supernatural occurrences and the more than 400 names of characters in this novel represent the artistry of Chinese naming. Cao Xueqin deliberately located connotations and special functions in these names through their sounds and forms, giving them evocative and associative meanings and communicative functions. As the symbol of human life, a name reflects elements of culture. As carriers of the writer’s values, ideas, artistry and creativity, names in literature which are associated with theirs scenarios, play active parts in the development of the story. In other words, naming is a kind of writing device to describe characters and present the theme. As a matter of fact, writers can give characters names which characterize them with associative cultural allusions. Because of its uniqueness, a personal name is a sign which distinguishes one person from the others. In addition, names especially those of literary figures possess special connotations concerning identity,status, personality physical features, fate and the theme. But it also brings great difficulties for translators to do translation. To solve this problem, I choose name translation of this novel as my research target and compare translation strategies of Yang Xianyi and David Hawkes in the process of translating names in A Dream of Red Mansions.

Methods and Theories

This paper uses a text comparison analysis method, from the perspective of domestication and alienation, compares and contrasts the two English translation versions of Hawks and Yang Xianyi to analyze their translation methods and effect in name's translation of A Dream of Red Mansions. And this paper also compares the advantages and disadvantages of the two versions to explore how to output a high quality of the translation of Chinese classics as well as promote foreigners' understanding of Chinese classics. This thesis applies the theories of domestication and alienation in translation.

Subtitle 1

1. Significance and Characteristics of Personal Names

As an important form of cultural carrier, name has a long history of development and rich cultural connotation. The etymology of people's names is very extensive, and there are many allusions involved in it. The cultural capacity is huge and changeable, so the study of name's culture and translation of it is of great theoretical significance and practical value.

Literature, in essence, is also "human studies". The creation of literary works has always been centered on the description of "characters", which reflects the social reality through the characterization of characters. In general, in order to describe the characters' personalities more deeply, and to hint at their experiences, fates and endings, the author always chooses the names of the characters carefully. To some extent, text or narrative analysis usually follows a basic principle, that is, choosing names is an important technique in shaping characters' images, and each name has the function of showing characters' personality, vitality and fate.

As for siginificance of names in the work, Cao Xueqin's characters in A Dream of Red Mansions can be divided into three categories: the first category is the name indicates the development of the story. These symbolic names are usually named with homonym, that is, the sound of name reveals the connotation meaning of it which is the combination of sound and meaning. Such as “甄士隐” in the work, its homophonic meaning is "true things hidden"; “贾雨村”, that is "false language exists ", means to compile a story with false language. The second type is the name of the character indicates the fate and outcome of characters. Such names often indicate the author's laments for the tragic fate of the characters in the stories. For example, the names of “元春”，“迎春”，“探春”and“惜春”in Jia Family adopt the artistic technique of hidden pun, and the homonym of them when they are read together is “原应叹息”(Yuanyingtanxi) which means one should sigh(Qin Qiyue,2016). The third one is the personality and image implied by the name of the character. Cao Xueqin also used characters' names to introduce the characters' images and personalities suggestivingly. At the same time, through the names of these characters, readers can feel the author's basic attitude towards these characters, such as “贾敬” in the work, its homonym is "false dignity", suggesting that the character does not care about the world's psychological state; There is also “贾赦”, homophonic for "lustfulness", suggesting its lustful personality characteristics. It can be seen that names have irreplaceable functions and values in A Dream of Red Mansions.

In the aspects of characteristics, there are also three types of names: the first one is using homophonic names. For example, the homonym of “贾雨村” is "False language exists"; “甄士隐” is "truth hidden", which means that the truth of the matter is hidden; “英莲”means "should pity" which expresses that this character is worthy of sympathy and the homonym of the maid “娇杏”（侥幸） is "lucky". The second type is named after an anecdote. A typical example is the origin of Jia Baoyu. When he was born, there was a psychic treasure jade in his mouth which also engraved words: Never forget; Long expectancy(莫失莫忘，仙寿恒昌)(Duan Ruifang,2016). The Jia family therefore regarded him as a gifted child who could honor his family. The third is named after jade and jewelry. The name is not only an appellation symbol, but also reflects the identity, background, status, personality, vision and hobbies of the characters. Several large families in A Dream of Red Mansions naturally hope to have a prosperous family and a bright fortune, so many characters are named after gold and jade. Such as Baoyu, Baochai, Jia Zhen, Jia Zhu, Pearl, Amber and so on.

Subtitle 2

2.Translation Theories

The terms of domestication and alienation or foreignization were put forward by Lawrence Venuti, a famous American translation theorist, in his book The Invisibility of the Translator in 1995. As two translation strategies, domestication and alienation are opposites but complement each other. Absolute domestication and absolute foreignization do not exist. Historically, foreignization and domestication can be regarded as the conceptual extension of literal translation and free translation, but they are not completely equivalent to literal translation and free translation. The core problem of literal translation and free translation refers to how to deal with form and meaning at the linguistic level, while foreignization and domestication break through the limitations of linguistic factors and expand their horizons to linguistic, cultural and aesthetic factors. According to Venuti, the law of domestication is "to bring the original author into the target language culture", while the law of alienation is "to accept the linguistic and cultural differences of a foreign text and bring the reader into a foreign situation. It can be seen that literal translation and free translation are mainly value orientations limited to the language level, while foreignization and domestication are value orientations based on the cultural context. The differences between them are obvious and cannot be confused.

2.1 Domestication

Domestication is to localize the source language, take the target language or target readers as the destination, and convey the content of the original text in the way that the target language readers are accustomed to(Yang Yujie, Liao Ying,2014). It requires the translator to be close to the target language reader. The translator must speak like the native author. In order for the original author to speak directly to the reader, the translation must become authentic in the native language. Domestication translation helps readers to better understand the translation and enhance the readability and appreciation of the translation.

2.2 Alienation

Alienation means "the translator as little as possible to disturb the author, and let the reader close to the author"(Yang Yujie, Liao Ying,2014). Translation is to accommodate the language characteristics of foreign cultures and absorb foreign expressions which require the translator to be closer to the author and adopt expressions corresponding to the source language used by the author to convey the content of the original text, that is, to turn the source language into a destination. The purpose of using alienation is to consider the differences of national culture, preserve and reflect the characteristics of foreign ethnic and language style as well as the exoticism for target readers.

Since translation requires us to faithfully reproduce the original author's thoughts and style, which are highly exotic, so it is inevitable to adopt alienation; At the same time, the translation must take into account the readers' understanding and the fluency of the original text, so the adoption of domestication is necessary. It is not desirable or realistic to choose one strategy to the exclusion of another. Each of them has its own advantages and disadvantages, so the final translation cannot be achieved by focusing on one and losing the other.

In translation, we are always faced with the choice of foreignization and domestication, so that we have to find a "fusion point" of translation(Wang Wenting,Xuan Zhifeng ,2016). This "fusion point" sometimes closer to the author, sometimes to the reader. In other words, foreignization does not hinder the smoothness and understandability of the translation, and domestication does not lose the flavor of the original text. At the same time, we should stick to the strategy of domestication of the language form, and carry out foreignization of its cultural factors. In this way, translation works can combine the advantages of the two strategies and avoid the disadvantages. Therefore, domestication and foreignization should have a complementary dialectical unity relationship in the actual translation process.

Subtitle 3

3.Contrastive Analysis of Name Translation from the perspective of Domestication and Alienation

3.1 Name System in A Dream of Red Mansions

There are more than 400 names in the book. Every name has its own connotative meaning and special function. The use of semantic puns can be found everywhere in A Dream of Red Mansions from the naming of the rich to the servants. In this paper, I divide it into four types to analyze its translation in a clear way.

3.1.1 Names of People of High Social Status

The author used different Chinese character components or radicals to distinguish seniority in the family when naming nobles. For example, from the word "代" of names "贾代善" and "贾代化", we can know that they belong to the same generation, the same with "贾赦" and "贾政" according to Chinese character component "反", "贾琏" and "贾珍" with radical "王", "贾蓉" and "贾菌" with"草"(Chen Ying,2016). However, the author did not adopt this rule when naming Jia Baoyu（贾宝玉）, mainly to highlight the particularity of him and his special status in Jia family. In addition, the naming of four noble women in Jia family also has a unique charm. The four daughters are 贾元春,贾迎春,贾探春 and 贾惜春, their name of the first word is just four words homophonic “原应叹息” which means "should sigh". After entering the palace, Yuanchun was appointed as an imperial concubine. She sighed and wept when in matrimony. although enjoy all the glory and wealth in palace but she always difficult to flat the pain of her mind because of departure with family members; Although Yingchun was coward, she had a pure and kind heart. Unfortunately, she was betrothed to Sun Shaozu and had been abused quite often after married and died miserably. Tanchun was both talented and beautiful. However, as the family decayed, she had married far away and cut off contact with her relatives. It was really pitiful. Xichun's mother died early and her father did not take good care of her, and she was brought up by Grandmother Jia. Later on, the decline of four big families and the tragic fate of her three sisters made her decide to be a nun. From all of these, we can see that the author intends to use homophonic technique to express his deep sympathy wit their unfortunate fate with “原应叹息” or "should sigh"(Chen Ying,2016).

In addition, formerly known as "Zhen Yinglian" or "Xiang Ling", she was the daughter of Zhen Shiyin originally, who was abducted by a human trafficker. She thought her fate would turn around when she met Feng Yuan, but Xue Pan snatched her away and she was beaten and cursed by a bad woman Xia Jingui. The author named her "Yinglian" whose homophonic meaning was "should pity" to express his deep sympathy and regret.The woman with real power of the family is named “王熙凤”.“王”is a homophone to “亡” which means “to die and vanish”,“熙” means “brightness and property”and “凤”refers to “phoenix” which is the symbol of“nobility, dignity, power and wealth” Therefore, the whole name suggests that “prosperity, dignity and power will be gone”. "林黛玉" has a sense of weakness, bitterness and sensitiveness, because the family name“林”originated from a tragic story. In Shang Dynasty, the chancellor named Bigan was killed with his heart being gouging out and his wife escaped into a cave covered with forest and luckily, she gave birth to a son and survived. Since then, her son was bestowed with the family name“林”by the next brilliant king -Wu king of Zhou Dynasty. As a consequence,“林”,as a family name suggests eventful fate and life. “黛” means “black” which gives a sense of “bitterness and misery”and “玉”means "jade" which is fragile and easy to break. Another one in the novel is called“薛宝钗”.“薛”is the homophone of “削” which means “getting rid of or discarding”;“宝钗”is actually“宝钗楼”which is the place where prostitutes live it is a living hell to virtuous girls. Accordingly. the name owner is doomed to be abandoned and live in misery.

3.1.2 Names of Maids

There are many servants in the rich and powerful Jia family and their names have different functions in the story. I have chosen some of them to analyze and explain their functions.

In ancient China, the status of servants was so low that they could not be named by themselves, but their masters gave them the name(Duan Ruifang,2016). Therefore, the name of a servant largely represents the interests and cultural accomplishment of his or her master. Some of the maids' names indicate the status of their masters. For example,“琥珀” and “珍珠” are both Grandmother Jia's personal servant girls, since amber and pearl are precious jewelries, their names reflect that Grandma Jia occupies the highest status in Jia family. And as the daughter-in-law of Grandmother Jia, Lady King had her maid named “金钏” and “银钏”, which was not arrogated but prosperous.

Some of the maids' names show the personality and interests of their masters, such as those of Baoyu: “袭人”，“晴雯”，“锄药”，“焙茗”. The author named the servant girls around Baoyu with plants in their names, which reflected Baoyu's wildness and unwillingness to be bound by feudal etiquette and customs. The servant girls around the four girls in Jia family are “司棋”，“侍书”，“抱琴”，“入画”, which reflect the interests of the four girls as well as their personal expertises. Other servants' names reflect the expectations of the master. For example, Wang Xifeng's servants named as “平儿”,“封儿”,“兴儿”and“隆儿”.As Jia's financial housekeeper, Wang Xifeng was in charge of Jia's financial expenses, she was careful in budgeting and valuing money very much, so she was eager to be prosperous,and names of her servants mapped her aspiration.

In addition, there are also some servants' names reflecting the character of their masters. For example, Li Wan's two servant girls “素云” and “碧月”. Though li Wan became a widow when she was young, she craved neither money nor power and devoted herself to taking care of her mother-in-law and father-in-law and her son. Her heart was as pure and white as the maids' names around her.

3.1.3 Names of Performers

In Jia Family, there are entertainers named“宝官”，“棋官”“玉官”，“藕官”，“葵官”，“艾官”,“豆官”，“药官”，“茄官”，“蕊官”，“文官”，“芳官”and“龄官”(Cao Xue, Yin Xiaotang,2020).These names can be divided into three types: (1)Names related to jewelry: “玉官”，“宝官”and“棋官”. These names show the nobility and high dignity of their masters; (2)Names connected with flowers and plants: “藕官”,“葵官”、“艾官”，“豆官”,“药官”,“茄官”and “蕊官”.This indicates temperament and personality of the actresses who are tender and delicate; (3)Names associated with personality: “文官”,“芳官”and“龄官”. And the last one indicates personal talents and charms of the actresses.

3.1.4 Names of Monks,Immortals and Nuns

Names of nuns include “静虚”,“智能”and“妙玉”which implicate meaning of tranquility, wisdom, capability and so on. These are all desirable virtues to people who believe in Buddhism. Names of immortals are“茫茫大士”,“渺渺真人”,“空空道人”,“警幻仙子”,“神瑛侍者”and“绛珠仙子”. As long as these immortals show up, there will be a turn of development of the story. All these names of immortals have a sense of mystery and extraordinariness(Cao Xue, Yin Xiaotang,2020).

3.2 Constractive Analysis of Translation Strategies of Yangxianyi and David Hawkes

3.2.1 Transliteration

Transliteration is to translate the source language through pinyin according to the pronunciation of Chinese, reserving only the pronunciation of the source language but not the content, meaning and writing form of the original text.

At present, transliteration is the most commonly used method in the translation of Chinese names. Yang Xianyi's version and Hawkes' version mostly use this method in the translation of main characters’ names, but there are subtle differences in the details. Yang's translations often use the phonetic transliteration of Wei's(韦氏音标音译). For example: 甄士隐, Chen Shih-yin；贾雨村，Chia Yu-tsun；贾宝玉， Chia Pao-Yu；林黛玉，Lin Tai-Yu；贾政，Chia Cheng；贾雨村，Chia Yu tsun；薛宝钗，Hsueh Pao chai；元春，Yuan-chun；迎春，Ying chun；惜春，His chun；探春，Tan chun；金钏，Chin Chuan； 袭人，His jen；宝官，Pao Kuan. This translation is more in line with the common pronunciation habits of English and more acceptable to foreign readers. Hawkes mostly uses Chinese pinyin, for example: “甄士隐” is translated as Zhen Shiyin, “贾雨村” as Jia Yucun, “贾宝玉” as Jia Baoyu and “林黛玉” as Lin Dai-yu. This translation method retains the original taste of the original work to a large extent, making it easier for foreign readers to understand the most authentic Chinese culture.

From the perspective of domestication, Yang's translation retains the naming rules of the original text for the convenience of Chinese readers. From the perspective of alienation, Hawkes chose the easiest translation method, and such transliteration of names can be regarded as the introduction of a unique name culture for the West. On the other hand, although the translation is simple and straightforward, it only preserves the pronunciation and writing form of the source language, but loses the profound connotation of the original text.

3.2.2 Free Translation

Free translation is to translate according to the general meaning of the source language. It is neither word for word nor limited to the form of the source language, but more focused on connotation expression(Duan Ruifang,2016). Hawkes usually uses free translation when translating many metaphorical and homophonic names. Free translation is embodied in the following three ways: (1)Literal translation of the original language. It largely preserves the literal and imaginary meanings behind it, such as the two maids of Grandmother Jia, “珍珠”and “琥珀”, which are translated as "Pearl" and "Amber" respectively. It highlights the Grandmother Jia’s prominent status in family. (2) The original name is explained and extended according to the meaning of the target language. This is a way to enhance the readability of the translated text and make the foreign language readers easily accept the strange and obscure traditional Chinese culture. For example,“晴雯” is translated as "Skybright", which means "clear sky". The clear sky after rain fits the image of Qingwen as lively, cheerful and intelligent, which can enhance readers' impression of her. (3) Adjust the original name and reconstruct the image. For example, the name of Daiyu's servant girl is “紫鹃”, which originally means "cuckoo". This kind of bird often expresses the meaning of "sorrow" in Chinese classical literature, which can easily remind people of the tragic fate of its owner. However, in English, cuckoo can not express this meaning. Therefore, Hawkes changed it into "Nightingale". And “袭人” was translated into Aroma, but it did not show the kindness and thoughtfulness of Aroma in her name.

As for Yang Xianyi, in order to keep the characters' names connected with the original story, he adopts free translation in the names of deified figures, such as monks. For example, “空空道人”was transalated as “The Reverend Void”, “渺渺真人” as “Boundless Space” and “茫茫大士”as “Buddhist of Infinite Space”. In Chinese feudal society, married women were addressed with their husband's surname, such as “贾氏”，“尤氏”and“封氏”. Yang's translation did not directly transliterate them but translated “尤氏” into "Madam Yu", indicating her position of the household steward. “贾氏”was translated as "Mrs.Jia," implying that she was the mistress of the family. .“贾母” was translated as “Lady Dowagers” and “刘姥姥”was Granny Liu(Chen Ying,2016).

3.2.3 Annotation

Due to the huge differences between Chinese and Western cultural backgrounds, it is difficult for target language readers to accurately comprehend the special meanings behind names as the source language readers do. Based on this situation, Yang Xianyi used pinyin in the translation, but in order to truly translate the original work, it is necessary to interpret or remark the cultural connotation implied by the name in the original work. This is because a few words can not fully explain the inner meaning, adding annotations is a crucial tool. There are two main reasons for the use of annotation method. First, annotation is not limited by the number of times and sentence length, so it can better fill the deficiency of free translation and literal translation. The other is that annotation will not interfere with the integrity and structure of the original text. According to these characteristics of annotation method, it can be concluded that all character names can be properly and accurately translated through annotation. Hawkes’s and Yang's versions have adopted appropriate annotations to facilitate readers' understanding. For example, Yang translated “甄士隐” as Zhen Shiyin. Homophone for "true facts concealed." while Hawkes translated it into Zhen Shi-yin(the Zhen-another word-play (who are a sort of mirror-reflection of the Jia family). Annotations are used in both translations to further explain the inherent meaning contained in character names. However, too simple annotations cannot effectively achieve the purpose, and too detailed translation will load redundant cultural information into the target language, causing reading barriers for readers and making it difficult for them to reproduce in the target language. Therefore, learn how to use annotation properly is hard but significant.

Subtitle 4

4.Influence of Name Translation in A Dream of Red Mansion

The translation purpose of Yang's translation is given by the Foreign Languages Press, so when facing translation problems, he chose the strategy of transliteration and try his best to be faithful to the original text(Chen Ying,2016). It is precisely because this translation mostly retains the original information of A Dream of Red Mansions and respects its cultural characteristics to a certain extent. With the development of China's soft power, Yang's translation has attracted more and more Western readers who are trying to understand with the help of Yang's translation the original ideas and cultural essence conveyed in the book. Similarly, Hawkes' translation should not be underestimated, especially for western countries. First of all, as a foreigner, he was able to complete the huge task of translating A Dream of Red Mansions. In addition, he gave full play to his initiative in translating characters' names. Getting to know hundreds of characters is a big problem for Western readers, who can't understand the deep meaning of the names. Hawkes used different translation strategies to give them English names and tried to help readers get a clear picture of the characters. It can be said that Hawkes's translation can make it easier for foreigners to understand Chinese culture, thus it plays an important role in the process of Chinese culture going to the world.

All in all, A Dream of Red Mansions represents the profoundness of Chinese classical culture. With the rapid rise of China's economy and the increasing curiosity of western countries about Chinese culture, it is a good opportunity for China to show its long history and culture to the world. We should strive to improve the translation of "A Dream of Red Mansions", and use a variety of methods to reduce readers' reading barriers and promote the spread of Chinese classical culture.

Conclusion

Hawkes uses transliteration of the main characters and free translation of the minor characters which better let English readers understand the connotation of the name, but also to reveal and predict the fate of the character. But on the whole, there are still some shortcomings in the translation(Wang Wenting,Xuan Zhifeng,2016). This kind of translation can help spread the original works to the West, make the target language readers better understand Chinese culture, and correct the mistakes in other English translations. However, because of direct transliteration, it is difficult for the target readers who do not know the Pinyin of Chinese characters to understand original text. If the annotation method is used to assist the translation and the annotations are added after transliteration, the target readers can understand the exact meaning of the original text. For girl servants names' translation, Hawkes mainly adopts the free translation strategy to translate the name according to the character's personality and fate, but this kind of translation is too generalized, which hinders the cultural communication between source language and target language, resulting in the reader can't fully understand the original meaning and losing the elegant charm of the original language.

Although the transliteration strategy adopted by Yang Xianyi failed to translate the pun, it also conveyed the original information to the maximum extent. His free translation based on his understanding of Chinese culture, which not only respects the literary context of the original work, but also smooth the understanding of English readers, and effectively reproduces its literary meaning.

By analyzing the English translation of names of Yang Xianyi and David Hawkes, we know that there is not fixed rules or uniform patterns in the translation of names. Whether transliteration, free translation, transliteration listed, or some special translation approaches, they require the translator, according to the specific style, the rhetoric and content of works, to convey the original meaning.

References

• Qin Qiyue秦启越(2016).《红楼梦》人名翻译艺术再探讨[On the Translation of Names in A Dream of Red Mansions].Chinese National Expo，200-201.

• Duan Ruifang 段瑞芳(2016).《红楼梦》英译本中的人名翻译艺术[The Art of Name Translation in the English Version of A Dream of Red Mansions].Overseas English(15):101-102.

• Lin Yao林瑶(2020).从功能翻译理论对比分析《红楼梦》的杨译本和霍译本的人名翻译[A Comparative Analysis of the Translation of Names in Yang's and Hawkes's versions of A Dream of Red Mansions from the Perspective of Functional Translation Theory].中外文学[The Chinese and Foreign Literature],4-5.

• Wang Wenting,Xuan Zhifeng 王文婷,轩治峰(2016).从异化和归化角度浅析《红楼梦》英译本的人名翻译——以霍克斯版为例[On the translation of people's names in the English version of A Dream of Red Mansions from the Perspective of foreignization and domestication -- a case study of Hawkes' version].唐山文学[Tangshan Literature],133-134.

• Yang Yujie, Liao Ying 杨玉洁,廖颖(2014).从归化与异化角度对比研究《红楼梦》人名 翻译[A Comparative Study on the Translation of People's Names in A Dream of Red Mansions from the Perspective of Domestication and Alienation].Cultural Highlands,283.

• Li Shide李仕德(2015).功能翻译理论下《红楼梦》的人名翻译[Translation of people's names in A Dream of Red Mansions under the Theory of Functional Translation].语文建设[Chinese Construction],62-63.

• Chen Ying陈颖(2016).杨宪益《红楼梦》译本双关人名的翻译探讨[On the Translation of Pun Names in Yang Xianyi's Translation of A Dream of Red Mansions].陕西学前师范学院学报[Journal of Shaanxi Xueqian Normal University],(3):73-76.

• Cao Xue, Yin Xiaotang曹雪,尹晓棠(2020).《红楼梦》中人名的翻译策略[Translation Strategies of Chinese Names in A Dream of Red Mansions].作家天地[For Writers](8):17-18.

英语笔译 张国浩 Zhang Guohao 202170081606 MW

A Brief Analysis of Strategies of Promoting the Translation of Chinese Classics "Going Abroad" Zhang Guohao

Abstract

Chinese culture is broad and profound, which has a long history about 5000 years. Classics culture is one of the most representative characteristics of Chinese culture. In the course of China’s five thousand years of civilization, a large number of ancient classics have been formed by the inheritance of Chinese culture and the creation of its spiritual connotation. These Chinese cultural classics contain a lot of wisdom, which is of great significance to solve the problems faced by human society today. With the increasingly close ties between countries in the world, cultural exchanges have become more frequent. Promoting the culture of Chinese excellent classics to go abroad is an important means to enhance the soft power of national culture. However, the translation of Chinese classics is still facing many difficulties at present. Chinese cultural classics are voluminous and rich in connotation. In the process of foreign translation and communication, it is necessary to improve the training mechanism of professional translators, build a market-oriented external publishing mechanism, and build a high-quality system of foreign translation of Chinese cultural classics.

Key words

Chinese cultural classics; Foreign translation strategies; Communication of Chinese culture

Introduction

China is one of the four ancient civilizations in the world and the only one among the four ancient civilizations whose traditional culture has been continued without interruption. The long history of Chinese culture is mainly due to the passing down of a large number of cultural classics. In the new era, China’s comprehensive national power and international influence have increased significantly, and there is a greater demand for spreading Chinese culture to the outside world and for the world to understand Chinese culture. Under this background, the translation of Chinese cultural classics has become inevitable. Under the circumstance of fierce cultural competition in today’s world, it is an important problem to be solved urgently that how to spread excellent Chinese classic culture to foreign countries and obtain important results. Culture is open and can only be inherited and developed in mutual exchanges. As the carrier of Chinese culture, the translation and dissemination of Chinese cultural classics are closely related to the improvement of China's international status and international influence. While the comprehensive national strength and international influence are greatly improving, China should further strengthen its cultural self-confidence, and strengthen the protection, inheritance and promotion of Chinese culture in the construction of socialist culture with Chinese characteristics, so as to maintain the Chinese style in the forest of nations in the world and highlight the Chinese style. To make China's voice heard requires not only telling the story of contemporary China, but also letting the people of the world know China from the depths of their soul and spiritual essence. In this context, Chinese cultural classics have become the basis for inheriting and carrying forward Chinese culture, and the dissemination of Chinese culture through traditional cultural classics has also become an important way to promote Chinese culture to the world. This paper will discuss the connotation of the culture of classics, the current situation and difficulties of the foreign translation of Chinese cultural classics and the significance of the foreign translation of Chinese cultural classics. Finally the author puts forward feasible strategies and schemes to promote the foreign translation of Chinese cultural classics, so as to provide reference and guidance for the translation of Chinese cultural classics in the future.

1. The Defination of Chinese Cultural Classics

According to Li Zhengshuan, cultural classics refer to ancient books or documents that record natural, humanistic and philosophical ideas as well as important laws and regulations (Li, 2012: 42). Generally speaking, classics mainly refer to the carving copies, hand-copied books, manuscripts and books of rubbings etc. of the previous dynasties before 1911. The concept of Chinese cultural classics have two meanings. Firstly, it refers to the important ancient documents and books-classical works in various fields of social sciences and humanities and natural science in China. Secondly, it refers to ancient Chinese codes and systems. As far as the value of cultural classics is concerned, it refers to the literature and classical books that have withstood the test and selection of time and played an important role in promoting the progress of national civilization and even the world civilization. In terms of its subject, the cultural classics include classics of ancient Chinese philosophy, religion, literature, military science, history, science and technology, law and so on. No matter in which era, cultural classics have always been studied, enriched, annotated, interpreted and used by scholars of all dynasties. They are the spiritual wealth shared by all mankind. As the prototype symbol of national culture, they have the function of continuous regeneration and inheritance.

2. The Significance of Translation of Chinese Classics

Firstly, the translation of Chinese classics has always been an important part of cultural exchanges between China and the west, and it is also an important way for the dissemination of Chinese history and culture. Chinese classics not only have important ideological value, but also contain rich cultural information, which makes them more difficult to understand and translate. Therefore, the accurate and complete transmission of the cultural information in the classics is of great practical significance for carrying forward Chinese culture and carrying out cultural exchanges between China and the West. However, due to historical reasons and the particularity of Chinese characters, the excellent culture accumulated in the process of Chinese civilization for thousands of years is rarely introduced to the world, so that the world lacks a comprehensive and in-depth understanding of China’s long and splendid history and culture. Therefore, the translation of Chinese classics is particularly important in the context of economic globalization.

Secondly, we have entered an era of globalization nowadays. If any nation or country wants to remain invincible among the world’s nations, it must learn from others. While learning from other nations, we should also know how to introduce the excellent translation of Chinese classics abroad, so that the world can better understand China. Only in this way can we enhance our competitiveness on the international stage, which is also the need of our reform and opening-up policy. As Chinese people, we have the responsibility and obligation to spread the excellent culture of Chinese nation to all parts of the world. Culture is not only the embodiment of national cohesion, but also the cultural soft power has become an important factor in the competition of comprehensive national strength. As the core content of traditional culture, the translation of Chinese classics is one of the important contents of cultural output.

Thirdly, from the perspective of modern history, the Chinese culture compared with the culture of other nations is in a “weak culture” state. In this case, most foreign translators will inevitably reflect the features of their own class when translating and introducing Chinese cultural classics for the benefit of the rulers they serve. Therefore, it is necessary for Chinese translators to provide the world with more comprehensive, systematic, complete and original versions of Chinese classics.

3. The Foreign Translation Process of Chinese Cultural Classics

The translation of Chinese culture classics began in the Ming and Qing dynasties, and the translators were mostly Western missionaries and sinologists at that time. For example, the Italian priest Matteo Ricci translated The Four Books into Latin around 1594. The French priest Joseph de Prémare translated Sacrifice into French around 1735 and the British sinologist James Legge translated The Four Books and The Five Classics into English between 1861 and 1886. These foreign translators completed these translations with the assistance of Chinese assistants. Until the early 20th century, Chinese scholars began to undertake the translation of Chinese cultural classics independently.

Since the founding of the People’s Republic of China, Western sinologists and Chinese scholars have continued to work in foreign translation Chinese cultural classics. Among them, the representative foreign translation project was the English version of Chinese Literature, founded by Ye Yongjian in 1951, which was the only official foreign translation that translated and introduced Chinese contemporary literature at that time. Since initiating reform and opening up, the first milestone in the foreign translation of Chinese culture classics was the Library of Chinese Classics project launched by the Chinese government in 1995. it was the first major national publishing project in China's history to systematically and comprehensively introduce foreign versions of Chinese cultural classics to the world. The Library of Chinese Classics project selected 100 most representative classical works in the fields of culture, history, philosophy, economy, military affairs, science and technology from the pre Qin period to modern times and expert would collate and sort out the topics and versions in detail, and translate them from Writings in Classical Chinese to vernacular, and then from vernacular to English. Chinese leaders have given great support and high praise to this translation project, and have repeatedly presented this series of translated works as an official gift to foreign dignitaries on important occasions. In addition to English translation, the second phrase the Library of Chinese Classics project started in December in 2007 has published Chinese-French, Chinese-Spanish, Chinese-Arabic, Chinese-Russian, Chinese-German, Chinese-Japanese, Chinese-Korean versions in an effort to achieve multilingual publication of Chinese culture classics.

In addition, over the past ten years, there have been many foreign translation projects of Chinese cultural classics which were vigorously promoted by Chinese government. The above-mentioned translation projects at the national level have enhanced the cultural confidence of the Chinese people and improved the soft power of Chinese culture. This is due not only to the importance of national support for traditional culture and translation, but also to the hard work of translators and publishers.

4. The Current Status of Foreign Translation of Chinese Cultural Classics

Under the background of economic globalization, the translation of Chinese cultural classics has made great progress with the great attention of the Chinese government and the joint efforts of many Chinese scholars and translators in recent years. In 1995, China began to launch the “Library of Chinese Classics” project, which was the first major publishing project in China to comprehensively and systematically introduce Chinese traditional cultural classics to the world. “Library of Chinese Classics” projects not only accurately translates China’s historical and cultural classics to the world, but also shows the world great Chinese culture. But even so, the current translation of Chinese classics is still facing many difficulties.

The first problem refers that there is a shortage of professional translation talents, and the coverage of translation talent education is also narrow. In the new era, China will unswervingly open wider to the outside world and strengthen its cultural self-confidence. Obviously, China is required to make efforts to promote Chinese culture to the world. The translation of Chinese cultural classics is one of the basic ways to promote the spread of Chinese culture to the world. The external translation and dissemination of cultural classics can not be separated from high-quality translation versions whose key lies in the cultivation of translation talents. At present, China lacks professional translation talents, and the coverage of translated language is narrow. Although China regards English as the basic content of national education and has basically established a higher education system covering the world’s major applied languages, the translation of Chinese cultural classics is a highly specialized translation work, which requires translators to be familiar with Chinese culture and have a deep understanding of the history and culture of the target-language countries This kind of integrated talents is relatively scarce, and it is difficult to cultivate a large number of such talents in a short period of time under the existing translation talent education mechanism.

In addition, the selection of translation materials of Chinese cultural classics is concentrated and single. The word “classics” in Cihai means “important national documents”. Professor Wang Hongyin clearly put forward the concept of “Chinese cultural classics” and limited its scope from three aspects. Then professor Zhao Changjiang also explained its definition in detail. In summary, we can draw the conclusion that Chinese classics involve the three disciplines of literature, history and philosophy, Confucianism, three religions of Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism, as well as Chinese military classics, scientific and technological classics and so on. Among the vast Chinese classics, the ones that are truly translated into foreign languages are mostly concentrated in philosophical works such as “ The Four Books and The Five Classics” and ancient literary classics such as “Dream of the Red Chamber”. However, the foreign translation of prose and drama is very rare. The foreign translation of cultural classics of other nationalities in China is rarely involved, while the translation of scientific and technological classics is almost ignored. Therefore, it is very necessary to expand the scope of selection for classics translation in order to spread Chinese excellent culture through classics.

Facing the strong competition of Western culture, the market-oriented communication mechanism is not perfect. The translation and dissemination of Chinese cultural classics should rely on the market-oriented publishing mechanism, while the cultivation of foreign audiences’ reading demands mainly depends on the improvement of China’s international influence, especially the improvement of China’s international status in the process of economic globalization. At present, in the face of the strong position of the West in the international discourse system, the translation and dissemination of Chinese cultural classics in the market publishing face the strong competition of Western culture. At the same time, the market demand for the publication and distribution of Chinese cultural classics also lacks effective integration, and it will be difficult to obtain lasting impetus to promote the dissemination of Chinese culture by relying too much on national financial investment or incorporating the translation and dissemination of Chinese cultural classics into the cultural exchange mechanism under the national financial burden. The imperfect market mechanism for the translation and dissemination of Chinese cultural classics, the lack of scientific evaluation of the international publishing market demand and targeted marketing mechanism are important problems in promoting the translation and dissemination of Chinese cultural classics.

On the other hand, the quality of translation is uneven, and the adaptability of local culture in target-language countries needs to be improved. The development of the foreign translation market of Chinese cultural classics not only needs to cultivate the reading needs of foreign audiences and incorporate them into the construction of the publishing market, but also needs to establish the awareness of quality and build a quality system. Nowadays, although some high-quality versions have been formed in the foreign language translation of cultural classics in China, the quality of some translation works is not satisfactory. It is difficult to accurately transform the classics into the local culture of target-language countries. Especially for some minority-language countries and ethnic groups, it is difficult for China to engage in high-quality foreign language translation and form an optional quality system due to the lack of professional translators. At the same time, when translating Chinese cultural classics into foreign languages, China needs to improve the localization of text content. Whether the translated works of Chinese cultural classics can be compatible with the history and culture of target-language countries will have an important impact on the dissemination ability of Chinese cultural classics.

At the same time, the translation of Chinese cultural classics is still unevenly distributed. At present, the translation of Chinese cultural classics mainly focuses on the cultural classics of the Han nationality, while the foreign translation of cultural classics of other nationalities are in the dilemma of “small quantity”. Due to their uniqueness, the foreign translation and dissemination of them are relatively more complex. According to statistics, there are less than 20 foreign translations of cultural classics of other nationalities in China since the late Qing Dynasty, and only a few ethnic cultural classics such as Tibetan, Mongolian, Zhuang and Kirgiz have been translated into English. Compared with the 1000 volumes of ethnic minority ancient books or Han cultural classics in the Catalogue of National Rare Books in China, there is a fact that there is a small amount of foreign translation in other ethnic cultural classics. And due to the factors of Chinese local translators, the languages of translation and introduction are relatively single. The translated cultural classics of other nationalities in China are mainly focused on literary subjects, while other fields such as medicine, agriculture, science and technology are often ignored. Therefore, the number of foreign translation of them is even less.

5. Measures to Promote Foreign Translation of Chinese Classics

Targeted measures are needed to solve the above problems. Firstly, foreign readers’ reading demands should be guided and cultivated and a market-oriented foreign publishing mechanism should be built. At present, China’s comprehensive national strength has improved significantly and it occupies an important position in the global trade system. The exchanges and interactions between China and other countries in the world are becoming increasingly frequent, and the demand for countries in the world to understand Chinese culture is increasing. China should further guide and cultivate people’s cognitive needs of Chinese culture, and promote the construction of market-oriented foreign publishing mechanism with high-quality translation versions of Chinese cultural classics. China should encourage domestic publishing enterprises with strong strength to go out. On the basis of scientific evaluation of other countries’ demand for Chinese cultural classics reading, effective marketing strategies should be determined. Meanwhile, China also need to establish sound sales channels, and form a positive interaction mechanism between the cultivation of foreign Chinese classics reading market and the overseas publishing industry for spreading Chinese culture.

Secondly, China should build a system of excellent translation of Chinese classics to improve the local adaptability of the translated versions. As the carrier of Chinese culture, the humanistic spirit of Chinese classics should go to the world with the development of our country. China should actively promote the construction of an excellent translation system of Chinese classics. While providing guarantee in terms of talents, funds and policies, the government should also establish a standard system for the translation of excellent classics, and form several alternative high-quality versions for different countries and nationalities. In the construction of the excellent system of translation of Chinese classics, China should strengthen the exchange between the translated versions and the local culture of the targeted-language countries and select different classics according to the historical culture and religious customs of different countries and nations, so as to avoid the conflict between the contents of classics and the historical culture and religious customs of relevant countries.

Thirdly, the government should improve the training mechanism of professional translation talents and increase the number of foreign language for education. China should actively promote the construction of professional translation talent system, and construct the corresponding talent training mechanism based on the principle of specialization in the translation of Chinese classics. For example, China should set up the translation major of Chinese classics in the current translation major and integrate it with the study of various languages. In the process of learning foreign languages, China can take the translation of Chinese classics as the basic teaching content. At the same time, China should also cooperate with the implementation of the Belt and Road Initiative to carry out targeted translation education of Chinese classics.

The the Belt and Road Initiative is the direct driving force for the foreign translation of Chinese cultural classics. Since the advent of the new century, the Chinese government has paid more attention to cultural exchanges with other countries in the world. The proposal of the “the Belt and Road” Initiative in 2014 further demonstrates the determination of Chinese culture to go global. The translation of Chinese classics is the most direct means for Chinese culture to go global. As a corridor for cultural exchanges, the the Belt and Road Initiative provides a new opportunity for the translation of Chinese cultural classics and will directly promote the development of Chinese cultural classics translation. The Library of Chinese Classics project is the most prominent project in the national assistance to the foreign translation of Chinese cultural classics, even though these translation versions are not sold well abroad. However, these works condense China’s long history and splendid culture, and enhance the foreign dissemination of Chinese classics. In addition, works of the Library of Chinese Classics project are not only sold in bookstores, but also presented to foreign leaders as official gifts, which is of great benefit to the dissemination of Chinese culture. Buddhism and Buddhist classics were introduced to China through the ancient Silk Road. Nowadays, Chinese Confucianism and Confucian classics will spread to the world through the Belt and Road Initiative. First of all, in the process of the Belt and Road Initiative construction, the builders sent by China to countries and regions will spread Confucianism and Chinese culture in daily exchanges with local people. In addition, China actively promotes Confucius Institutes in the process of the Belt and Road Initiative construction, which directly promotes the external dissemination of Confucianism and classics. Finally, the construction of the Belt and Road Initiative can also increase the public’s recognition and understanding of Chinese cultural classics and promote the development of the English translation of these cultural classics.

Conclusion

Chinese classics are the crystallization of the wisdom of the Chinese nation and still have important guiding value for the problems confronted by human today. With the continuous enhancement of China’s comprehensive national strength, the translation of Chinese classics is imperative. In the process of translating classics, we should improve the training mechanism of professional translation talents, build a market-oriented external publishing mechanism, and build a system of excellent translation of Chinese cultural classics, so as to promote the better dissemination of Chinese culture abroad and enhance China’s cultural soft power.

References

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Terms and Expressions

• Matteo Ricci 利玛窦
• Joseph de Prémare 马若瑟
• James Legge 理雅各
• The Four Books and The Five Classics 四书五经
• the Library of Chinese Classics project 《大中华文库》项目
• The the Belt and Road Initiative 一带一路
• Kirgiz 柯尔克孜语
• Writings in Classical Chinese 文言文
• vernacular 白话文

Questions

• 1. What does cultural classics refer to according to Li Zhengshuan?
• 2. The word “classics” in Cihai means “important national documents”. (T/F)
• 3. When did the foreign translation of Chinese culture classics begin?
• 4. What project did Chinese government launch?
• 5. The Library of Chinese Classics project is the direct driving force for the foreign translation of Chinese cultural classics. (T/F)

Keys

• 1. According to Li Zhengshuan, cultural classics refer to ancient books or documents that record natural, humanistic and philosophical ideas as well as important laws and regulations.
• 2. T
• 3. The foreign translation of Chinese culture classics began in the Ming and Qing dynasties.
• 4. The Library of Chinese Classics project
• 5. F

英语笔译 张姣玲 Zhang Jiaoling 202170081607 CE

On movie adaptation of Chinese classics - The example of Yu Hua’s To Live 张姣玲

Abstract

In recent years, the movie and television adaptation of literary masterpieces has become a trend and has attracted people's attention. As the “Four Literary Masterpieces” have been successively put on the screen, which have aroused hot comments from the society. Although people have mixed reviews of works adapted from literary classics, they still have a great interest on those adapted woks. After entering the twenty-first century, China's film and television industry has become more prosperous, while the adaptation of classic literary works has also gained increasing popularity, and both film and television industries have recognized the value of classic literature to their development. The novel To Live is one of the representative works of the avant-garde writer Yu Hua, and it is also his attempt to explore the theme of death. In the novel, there are obvious imprints and scratches of the collision and docking of Chinese and Western cultures. Yu Hua aims to make interpretations and reflections on death in a metaphysical sense, reflecting his understanding and depicting of modern life philosophy in this novel. The film adaptation of “To Live” directed by Zhang Yimou is the complete opposite of the content expressed in the novel, as the film focuses on realistic criticism and historical reflection that is closer to life. This paper will take Yu Hua's work “To Live” as an example to explore the differences between novels and film adaptations from the following three aspects: storyline, narrative perspective, and connotation.

Key words

Movie Adaptations; Chinese Clasisics; To Live; Differences

Introduction

Generally speaking, classic novels have the advantage of plot and narrative framework, and consequently have a profound influence on the choice of techniques and innovative concepts of movie. Movie, on the other hand, has outstanding features in spatial modeling, and its distinctive spatial characteristics can in turn promote the innovation of novel structure, bringing irreplaceable influence to the writing techniques and innovative development of contemporary literary masterpieces. In the interaction between the two, the narrative structure and temporal consciousness of literary works are weakened, but the aesthetic features become richer as they are strengthened in terms of stylistic and spatial consciousness. Films adapted from masterpieces, on the other hand, add various audiovisual elements to the original plot, opening up a broader artistic space. At the same time, literary masterpieces provide films with rich and deep materials, and films reflect them with more diversified expressions and stronger expressive power, and reinforce their fame through wider publicity, thus realizing the wide dissemination of masterpieces. Thus, literary classics and film adaptations complement each other.

To Live has brought its writer Yu Hua high honors, winning him the top prize of the Italian Grinzana Carver Literary Award, the Chevalier de l'Ordre des Lettres et des Arts de France, and many other awards. It has become a myth of contemporary pure literature texts, with a staggering number of copies in print every year. Zhang Yimou adapted it for the big screen in 1994, and the film attracted great attention and discussion, and brought Zhang Yimou a series of honors, such as the Spirit of Humanity Award at the 47th Cannes International Film Festival, the Best Foreign Language Film Award at the 48th British Academy of Film and Television Arts, and the Best Foreign Language Film by National Society of Film Critics Awards.

As one of his best novels, Yu Hua's To Live is a modernist philosophical poem, based on the principle of "writing for the heart" and extremist writing in pioneering literature, and through a series of descriptions of "death", it condenses life consciousness and philosophy of Fu-gui style, showing a metaphysical philosophical character. Its film adaptation is based on the literary view of realism, focusing on the display of metaphysical suffering and the irony of modern history, brilliantly interpreting the "suffering" story of the original, but its "happy ending" and the aesthetic principle of gentle and generous, resentful but not angry, have dissipated the ideological meaning of the original and weakened the social criticism. Zhang Yimou's films have distinctive national and personal characteristics, and are characterized by a distinctive "Zhang Yimou style" of narrative art. Zhang Yimou's works have won numerous domestic and international awards and critical acclaim, but in contrast, there is no shortage of critical voices. The film version of To Live is one of Zhang Yimou's most popular and controversial works. This essay will analyze the differences between the novel and the film adaptation from three aspects: storyline, narrative perspective, and connotation.

Literature Review

Most researchers believe that the novel "To Live" and its adapted film show significant differences in theme or aesthetic meaning. Centering on this core issue, researchers conducted comparative studies on many similarities and differences between the two versions and made their own aesthetic value judgments. To sum up, there are three main views:

The first view is that the film "To Live" is superior to the original novel in artistic achievement and aesthetic value, and that "Zhang Yimou's film adaptation of "To Live" is more enjoyable, dramatic and impactful than the novel, and has a stronger tragic beauty. From the perspective of art history, some people speak highly of the film "To Live": "This film is a lofty monument in film industry since China's reform and opening up, and an artistic peak that Zhang Yimou himself has not been able to surpass so far. "Browsing through Zhang Yimou's entire oeuvre, we can see that it is in fact a monumental work that can represent the new era of Chinese movies, and it is also the peak work of Zhang Yimou, the leading figure of Chinese movie in the new era."

In the second view, more commentators focus on the basic characteristics of the two art forms of novel and film, objectively comparing the similarities and differences between them in terms of the spirit of the subject matter, narrative perspective, narrative style, characters' fate, and artistic imagery, and exploring Zhang Yimou's artistic recreation in the process of adaptation, while trying not to make an overall ideological and aesthetic implication value judgment on the two art forms of To Live.

The third view is that Zhang Yimou's film To Live is inferior to Yu Hua's novel in terms of ideological significance and aesthetic value: "Both Yu Hua's novel and Zhang Yimou's film are successful", each with its own characteristics in terms of narrative perspective, character design, time and space setting, and aesthetic style. However, it is Zhang Yimou's artistic re-creation of certain aspects, especially the happy ending, that has "flattened the novel's 'depth pattern'" to varying degrees. Some people believe that the film adaptation has weakened the artistic charm of the original novel compared to the original; from the literary text to the film script, many changes are inevitable to be made, but no matter how the changes are made, the inner spirit of the work cannot be altered. The movie "To Live" is misaligned with the original in terms of theme and intent, making its aesthetic and artistic value far from reaching the height of the original novel.

The Differences in Storyline

1.Novel To Live: About the absurd fate and inevitable death of human beings

The style of Yu Hua's novel To Live is quite absurd and cold.

What Yu Hua explores and expresses in his book is in fact the ultimate concern for human life and fate. What Yu Hua writes about is a mysterious force of fate that is beyond human control, just as the existence and death of Fugui's family are metaphysical presentations of the word "absurdity". The title of the novel is "To Live", but the book is filled with the demise of life around the main character, that is, "dead", which is the exact opposite of "live". In Yu Hua's novel, the demise of Fugui's family is more like a symbol, a natural and irreversible flow of life, while the realistic background is only to serve the context.

In Yu Hua's novel, according to Fugui's recollection, he was so addicted to gambling in his youth that he lost his family's fortune, and his family's house was taken away by Long Er, so the family had to move to a dilapidated thatched hut. Since then, Fugui's family seemed to be caught in a whirlpool of cruel reality and absurd fate. With his father dead, Jiazhen taken away by his father-in-law, and his family shattered, Fugui still had to try every means to earn money to make ends meet and provide for his mother. Life was hard, but there was a glimer of hope for Fugui. Jiazhen's return to the family gave Fugui a little hope and warmth in life, and then he worked as hard as he could. He thought he could live a peaceful life despite the hardships, but then a unexpected change happened, and Fugui was suddenly conscripted as a soldier and left for a few long years. It was a miracle that Fugui came back alive as no one knows when they might be shot to death while in the army. When Fugui returned home, he found his mother dead and his daughter mute after a high fever. At this point in the story, the fate of Fugui and his family shows a certain pattern of ups and downs, that is: once a little brightness is seen in life, the next thing that follows is grayness and misery.

Fugui lost his family's fortune due to gambling and his house was given to Long Er, but he accidentally avoided being shot during the Land Reform and was given five acres of land that he used to plant. When the family was rich, Fugui gambled all day long when Jiazhen washed her face with tears all day long. When Fugui was stubborn and did not listen to her advice, Jiazhen went back to her mother's house, but returned to the family with her son after Fugui ending uo of living in a hut, and supported her mother together with him ......

In all these cases, we can see that it is as if the destiny that can never be defined and controlled, or is called "fate".

Although "luck" and "misfortune" seem clear in the present, but as time goes by, no one can accurately predict what the future will look like. After that, the fate of Fugui's family changed dramatically. The son died prematurely due to excessive blood drawing, which was used by the wife of the governor, who was Fugui's friend Chunsheng in the army; his daughter Fengxia died of a hemorrhage in childbirth; his son-in-law's death was even more shocking - crushed to death in a concrete slab; His grandson Kugen died of eating too much boiled edamame. Almost all of these deaths around Fugui were unexpected disasters, except for his mother and wife, who died of illness. Suffering comes with a gray tone and a sorrowful destiny that leaves one in silence.

At the end of the novel, almost all the people are dead, but only Fugui is alive.

Depression and absurdity are the most intuitive experience and feeling brought by the novel "To Live", which is also the style and tone of the whole novel. Everyone is dead, but the main character Fugui. The fact that Fugui is still "alive" echoes the title of the novel, but it also conveys the sadness of "living for the sake of living". The thematic meaning of survival and death in To Live shows a certain overlap with Heidegger's existentialist philosophy, and Fugui's life actually has a certain philosophical revelation. Heidegger once said, "As a being toward its death, this is actually dead, and remains dead as long as he does not reach the moment of death." Behind Yu Hua's cold words is a complex imagination of the boundlessness of human death, a portrayal and writing of an absurd, uncontrollable fate.

2.Film To Live: A film about an individual's survival in harsh reality

While preserving the main characters and relationships of the novel, Zhang Yimou has adapted To Live in many ways, and the adaptation of the plot gives the film a completely different tone from the novel. Therefore, compared with the novel, the aesthetic and ideological connotations displayed in the film have also changed.

Taking 1949 as the time boundary, the plot of the movie is basically similar to that of the novel. But we mainly focus on the differences between the development of the story in the movie after 1949 and that of the novel plot.

The first episode about "death": Youqing's death.

After the Great Leap Forward begins, Fugui forced Youqing, who has stayed up all night, to go to school, but Youqing ended up being crushed to death by the collapsed wall, and the district head of the collapsed wall was the Chunsheng who had shared the hardships with Fugui back in the army. In the novel, the death of Qing was caused by excessive blood donation, which is already absurd, coupled with Yu Hua's cold and dreary writing style, will bring the reader into a spine-chilling sense of absurdity when reading. Although both of them were accidents and the cause of death was related to Chunsheng, we obviously felt that the death of "being killed by a wall" actually made the audience feel less absurd than the death of "dying from excessive blood donation".

The second episode about "death" : the death of Fengxia, Fugui's daughter.

In both the movie and the novel, Fengxia died of a massive hemorrhage during childbirth. The only difference is that in the movie, Fengxia died because no one was able to diagnose and treat her. Here, Zhang adds a more epochal touch to Fengxia's tragic death, which the film tries to highlight: the impotence of small individuals in the harsh reality of the times. The film's prominent historical background is not the main theme of the novel.

The third episode about "death": the end of the story.

In the novel, only Fugui survived at the end of the story. Perhaps Fugui was the one who was most likely to be taken away by death, but he was the only one who survived when everyone else dies. Fate is unpredictable, and this meaningless "living" is also a form of death in a sense.

The end of the movie is completely different from the novel.

At the end of the movie, there was a scene of many years later: the warm sunshine was shining on Fugui and his family. Fugui, his son-in-law Erxi and his grandson gathered around the bed of the sick Jiazhen, chatting with each other in a relaxed atmosphere. Fugui's family has gone through so much suffering, but still have the opportunity to sit around and chatting. The film's images also became slightly brighter, no longer in a completely somber and gloomy tone. The three characters Zhang Yimou chose to keep are very important to the meaning of Fugui's life. Jiazhen, as Fugui's wife, accompanied him through all his suffering, Erxi, as Fugui's son-in-law, was the sustenance of his deceased son and daughter, and Mantou, as Fugui's grandson, was a symbol of hope. The family pattern of three generations is preserved, as well as the few good things that can be experienced by people who bear the hardships of various stages together. In the film, we can see a little light in Zhang Yimou's camera. The fate of the Fugui family did not end in tragedy like it in the novel, and a glimmer of hope is preserved.

The Differences in Narrative Perspective

1.The novel To Live: a cold, calm narration in the first person

The novel To Live actually has two different narrators, one is the folk song collector at the beginning of the work, that is, "I". "I" wandered through the countryside and fields, originally to collect folk songs, but I met an old man, that is, Fugui, the main character of the story. The old man, Fugui, is full of vicissitudes and told "me" stories about his past. The main plot of the novel then unfolds, with the narrator switching between "me" and Fu Gui. The story of To Live is mainly about Fu Gui and is narrated by him. As a young man who came to the countryside for a ramble, “I” was more often than not a listener, independent of Fugui's story.

In the old man's calm recollection and narration, the reader sees the absurd and cruel past of the former Fugui family, all of which is saddening. The old man's eyes are gentle and indifferent, and his narrative is slow and easy. Some of the memories are absurd, some of the memories are extremely sad, but the old man is very calm, as if these things did not happen to him. In the process of the old man Fugui's narration, "I", as one of the narrators, will also reflect with the old man's memories. When "I" think, the readers are also separated from the story, so that they can think rationally as they read. This is a kind of "alienation" effect, that is, let the reader and the text have a certain distance so as to guide the reader to think independently and calmly. The reader, like the "me" in the book, is shocked and saddened by these memories, but is able to detach oneself and to think.

Yu hua's writing brings a sense of alienation and calm, and is filled with wisdom of life. Coupled with the novel's first-person limited angle of narrative perspective shift, the novel gives its reader a whole touches without drowning them in the story, thus allowing them to think independently about what Yu Hua really wants to convey - the theme of life and fate.

2.The film To Live: a moving, detailed narrative in the third person

Zhang Yimou is a photographer originally, and he is good at controling the camera with a distinctive characteristics; in the film To Live, his unique sense of lens art is expressed to the fullest. The overall tone of To Live is not bright and clear, but it does give us a glimmer of hope, not only because of Zhang Yimou's adaptation of the plot, but also because of the film's unique narrative rhythm and perspective.

The film records the story with the lens, and the lens itself is independent of the characters in the picture. When Zhang Yimou shot the film, he did not use the first-person narrative perspective of the novel, but eliminated the role of "I" as a folk song collector in the novel, and simply told the experiences of Fugui's family in chronological order. By eliminating the narrative perspective of "I", the viewers cannot feel the "separation" brought by the novel in the film, instead, they can follow the camera deeper into Fugui's story and get a more direct emotional experience.

There are many scenes of life and death in the film, but Zhang Yimou does not let them become monotonous or uniformed. Whether it is the body language of the characters on the verge of despair or the sad and passionate background music greatly enhance the artistic impact of the scenes of life and death, making the audience feel as if they were on the scene. The audience experiences the intense grief in these images, their emotions fluctuating thereby, and the sense of despair penetrates into the hearts of everyone behind the camera. That's why, at the end of the movie, when Fuguei's family gets together to talk, the dull but warm atmosphere will move the audience and make them feel a sense of gratitude for Fuguei's family and for the fact that there is still a glimmer of hope in the story.

The Differences in Connotation

1.The novel To Live: a philosophical inquiry into the meaning of human existence

Yu Hua's novel is titled To Live, but a large part of it is about death. The old man Fugui had experienced the death of too many people around him, and finally only an old cow was left with him. He reminisced about the past, when the progression of life stages was almost always accompanied by the death of loved ones. The suffering and the sad fate made people feel absurd, but did not destroy the old man's spirit, and he became calm and uncontested, still insisting on living. What is the purpose of this "living" and what is the meaning of it when all reasons for survival are lost? This question actually has the meaning of Heideggerian existentialist philosophy. In asking such a question, Yu Hua is thinking about the meaning of life, and he also wants to convey this kind of thinking and perception of existence of life to us.

The novel To Live has a deep and grand narrative structure. Yu Hua is always focused on the ultimate reality of human life, hoping to show us a certain normality of life's sorrow through the protagonist's absurd life. The novel is not as angry and cruel as Yu Hua's previous works, as the protagonist recalls these events with a calm and serene mood, as if he has transcended the fear of death and entered a state of philosophical detachment.

The academic circle has been debating Yu Hua's plot setting that leads Fugui to such a transcendent situation. Some scholars have given it a positive assessment, saying that it is Yu Hua's positive dissolution of the tragedy of life, a spiritual power that transcends death; others believe that Yu Hua hereby chooses to dissolve suffering and escape from it, and that this has become his limitation.

As we delve into the text and thematic ideas of the novel, we find that the rendering of the themes of death and existence in the work is not powerful enough. But we can hold a certain tolerant attitude towards this, because the novel To Live has shown that contemporary writers have shifted from the level of politics as the theme to the level of thinking about human nature, life and other values, which deserves our more attention.

2. To Live: Individual survival tragedy and social tragedy in a specific time and space The movie To Live shows the life and death of the Fugui family, and emphasizes the political elements behind the story. What the film is about is very simple: the tragic experiences of a family in a specific historical era, using the family's suffering as an entry point and perspective on Chinese history and culture. In Zhang Yimou's film, the retrospection and reflection on a specific history are intensified, and the philosophical thoughts on human existence in the novel are weakened.

Although the film To Live retains the main characters and part of the plot in the novel, its connotation has taken on a completely different direction from the novel text. If the novel is a philosophical reflection and inquiry on the whole human life, then the film To Live is a statement of social tragedy in a specific time and space in China. Zhang Yimou's film adaptation of the original work is actually a second creation after deconstructing and reconstructing the novel, so the overall artistic style and theme connotation of the film are fundamentally different from that of the novel.

In the film, both the cause of death of the main characters and the spatial location of the story reflect the values that Zhang Yimou wants to express, which is to look back and reflect on history, and to look at the tragedies of the lives of the little people in a particular time and space. Zhang Yimou's adaptation leads the story in a direction closer to real life and history, and what he wants to highlight is the retrospection and reflection on a specific historical period. This is a tragedy of a specific historical era, a tragedy in the culture and history of the nation, and this adaptation of the film embodies Zhang Yimou's courage to face history and reflect on it.

Conclusion

In the process of the film adaptation of novels, there must be some deletion and modification. In different historical backgrounds, the characteristics of film adaptation are not the same. Although the novel To Live and the film have similar characters and some similar plots, in fact, they are two texts with very different connotations no matter from the overall style tone, narrative technique or thematic meaning. The novel has a somber tone, while the film has a brighter tone; the novel is narrated in the first person, which creates a certain effect of "separation", while the film is told in the third person, which makes it easier to create a certain effect of "empathy"; he novel is intended to ask questions about the fate and meaning of life as a whole, while the movie focuses on the social tragedy and personal tragedy in the context of a specific era.

Whether reading the novel or watching the movie To Live, readers and audiences will be deeply shocked and moved, which is cause by the heavy weight carried by the words "to live".

Terms and Expressions

the avant-garde writer: 先锋作家

the top prize of the Italian Grinzana Carver Literary Award: 意大利格林扎纳·卡佛文学奖最高奖项

the Chevalier de l'Ordre des Lettres et des Arts de France: 法兰西文学和艺术骑士勋章

the Spirit of Humanity Award at the 47th Cannes International Film Festival: 第47届戛纳国际电影节人道精神奖

the Best Foreign Language Film Award at the 48th British Academy of Film and Television Arts: 第48届英国电影学院奖最佳外语片奖

the Best Foreign Language Film by National Society of Film Critics Awards: 全美国影评人协会最佳外语片

Land Reform: 土改

Great Leap Forward: 大跃进

Questions

1.Is Yu Hua's novel a deliberate pile of tragedy?

2.What is the difference between the style of the novel and of the film?

3.What are the themes conveyed by Yu Hua and Zhang Yimou?

Answers

1.No, it’s not. All the tradedy happened to the main characters are to reveal a theme, that is, living itself does not have any meaning, what has meaning is life.

2.The novel’s style is more absurd while the film is more ironic.

3.Yu Hua’s To Live is to live for the sake of living, while Zhang Yimou’s is to live for a better life.

References

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• 付丹[Fu Dan].《活着》小说与电影的叙事互文[Narrative Intertextuality between Novel and Film of To Live][J].辽东学院学报(社会科学版)[Journal of Eastern Liaoning University(Social Science Edition)],2021,23(03):97-101.DOI:10.14168/j.issn.1672-8572.2021.03.14.

• 王芳[Wang Fang].现实悲苦与荒诞命运——张艺谋电影和余华小说的两种“活着”[Realistic Misery and Absurd Fate -- Two Kinds of "Living" in Zhang Yimou's Film and Yu Hua's Novel][J].现代交际[Modern Communication],2020(20):135-139.

• 王凌云[Wang Lingyun].论跨文化传播中文学剧本的电影改编方式[On the Film Adaptation of Literary Scripts in Cross-cultural Communication][J].西部广播电视[West China Broadcasting TV],2019(09):105-106.

• 闵易秋[Min Yiqiu].论文学名著和电影改编[On Literary Masterpieces and Film Adaptations][J].戏剧之家[Home Drama],2019(07):135.

• 胡焕龙[Hu Huanlong].两种艺术展现 两种境界的“活着”——余华小说《活着》与同名电影改编作品比较[Two Artistic Expressions, Two Realms of "Living" - A Comparison of Yu Hua's Novel "To Live" and the Film Adaptation of the Same Name][J].海南师范大学学报(社会科学版) [Journal of Hainan Normal University(Social Sciences)], 2018,31(05):58-64.DOI:10.16061/j.cnki.cn46-1076/c.2018.05.011.

• 王晨雨露[Wang Chen Yu Lu].小说《活着》与电影《活着》的死亡叙事比较[A Comparison of the Death Narratives in the Novel To Live and the Film][J].北方文学[Northern Literature],2017(21):280-281+288.

• 王海霞,王达敏[Wang Haixia, Wang Minda].“真实”与“现实”的不同追求——余华小说《活着》与张艺谋电影《活着》比较[The Different Pursuit of Truth and Reality: A Comparison between Yu Hua's Novel To Live and Zhang Yimou's film to Live][J].乐山师范学院学报[Journal of Leshan Normal University],2015,30(09):23-28+75.DOI:10.16069/j.cnki.51-1610/g4.2015.09.007.

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英语笔译 张瑞 Zhang Rui 202170081608 MW

An Analysis of English Translation of Classical Prose Based on the Skopos Theory 张瑞 Zhang Rui

Abstract

The information age has made cultural communication the norm in the world, and transmitting the essence of Chinese traditional culture to the world is not only an important way to show the profound cultural heritage of China, but also a good way to make the world understand China. This paper introduces the theory of cultural translation into the translation of Chinese classical prose. By selecting the classic prose of Han Yu, the first of the Eight Great Masters of the Tang and Song dynasties, as a case study, we analyze the English translation process of Han Yu's prose under the guidance of cultural translation, show the applicability of cultural translation in the English translation of classical prose, and provide new ideas and references for the future translation of classical prose.

Key words

Skopos Theory; Strategies for English translation of classical prose; the classic prose of Han Yu

Introduction

Today's era is not only the era of economic globalization, but also the era of cultural globalization, and the mutual dissemination of culture has become the norm in the world. China is an ancient civilization with a long history of 5,000 years. The Chinese people are industrious and wise, leaving behind a large number of excellent texts, which have made outstanding contributions to world civilization.

As the essence of traditional Chinese culture, the smooth dissemination of Chinese classical literature not only enables China's profound cultural ideas to be transmitted to foreign countries, but also enables countries around the world to understand China and its traditional culture more deeply. In the process of mutual cultural transmission, the role of translation is particularly important. This paper intends to study the English translation of classical prose from the perspective of cultural translation science, and to analyze and try to improve the translation of Han Yu's classic prose in order to enrich the study of English translation of classical prose and to explore the translation theories and perspectives used to guide the English translation of classical prose.

The English translation of classical prose has its unique features and cannot be carried out according to the traditional translation methods. Chinese classical prose generally presents a profound meaning in a concise text, and the language is relatively easy to translate, but the meaning attached to the language is difficult to handle. Han Yu's prose is selected for analysis because, as one of the eight great writers of the Tang and Song dynasties, Han Yu was called by Su Shi as "a writer who started the decline of the eighth generation", and his prose was a fusion of a hundred schools of thought. Han Yu's rejection of pompous forms and his focus on content, which is characterized by a free flow of thought, logical coherence, frankness and forcefulness, had a major impact on the literary creation of later generations.

Literature Review

Skopos translation theory is a relatively new model of translation theory dating back to the 1960s and 1970s, when the linguistic orientation in translation studies was challenged. Some scholars rejected the rigidity of the structuralist translation model that dominated the field. They wanted to inject a new school of thought that would eliminate academic scholarship with a more pioneering attitude, focusing on accessible and meaningful communication. As a different perspective of translation studies, Skopos theory breaks through this rigid model, broadens the field of translation studies, gives more meaning to translation, places translation in the framework of behavioral theory and cross-cultural communication, and opens a new path of exploration for Western translation theorists who are dominated by the linguistic school. In this way, Skopos theory has attracted more attention in recent years. 2.1 Translation Studies from the Perspective of Scopes Theory Skopos theory is a translation theory first proposed by the German scholar Hans Vermeer in the 1970s. There are two main reasons for this: firstly, translation is not only or even mainly a linguistic process; secondly, translation is not only a linguistic process. Secondly, linguistics does not really address the problem of translation difficulties. Therefore, he proposed a Skoposian theory of translation based on the theory of action. In the framework of Vermeer's Skopos theory, one of the most important factors determining the purpose of translation is the audience - the recipient of the translation. Each translation is directed to a specific audience, so a translation is "a text produced for a specific purpose and target audience in the context of the target language". According to Vermeer, the original text is only the source of some or all of the information for the target audience. The central idea of Skopos's theory is that every action has a purpose. The actor chooses the most appropriate way to achieve the desired goal based on the actual circumstances. Since translation is also an action, the translator will be guided by the purpose of the translation. An attempt is made to consider all possible relevant factors. In order to determine the most appropriate course of action, a normative ground rule can be derived from the description of the actual situation: the purpose of the action determines the strategy for achieving the desired goal. In other words, the translation should perform the intended function for the intended recipient. According to the Skopos theory, the first rule that all translators follow is the "Skopos rule": the purpose to be obtained by the act of translation determines the whole process of the act of translation, i.e. the result determines the method. There are three interpretations of this purpose: the purpose of translation (e.g., making money; gaining academic value; reputation); the communicative purpose of translation (e.g., motivating the reader), which is achieved by using special reasons for translation (e.g., the desire to make a direct translation based on the structure of the language in order to illustrate the special features of its grammatical structure). Usually, the purpose of translation refers to the communicative purpose of translation. Skopos theory suggests that the initiator's translation process determines the communicative purpose of the translation, and the initiator determines the need for the translation. Under ideal conditions, the translator will be very clear about the reasons why the translation is needed. These are collectively referred to as translation requirements. These will include the content of the recipient, the use of the translation environment, and the functional reasons for the translation. The translation requirements of the translator indicate what type of translation is needed. The translator does not necessarily accept everything passively and can be involved in determining the purpose of the translation, especially if the originator is unclear about the purpose of the translation due to lack of expertise or other reasons. According to Vermeer, the translation (output appearance) is not the original text (input appearance), but the inner purpose of the translation. The functionalist Skopos theory has attracted a lot of attention from the very beginning. Mona Baker explains the Skopos theory and related concepts in her Encyclopedia of Translation Studies. Monia Cowie's Dictionary of Translation Studies contains the main elements of functionalist purposive theory and related concepts. There are many other introductory articles and books on the theory, and Functional Appmaches Explained (Nord, 2001) is the most representative work to date that introduces the functional translation approach in the most detail. In China, many articles on translation have been written since the introduction of Skopos theory in 1987. The relevant researches mainly cover such topics as translation definition, translation standard, translation criticism, translation teaching, translation strategy, literary translation, non-literary translation (including tourism translation, trademark translation, advertisement translation, film title translation, Chinese medicine literature translation, university website translation, news translation, and legal translation). In recent years, many articles have combined theories such as Scobos Theory with traditional Chinese translation theories and research works, for example, Yan Fu's elegant writing is more abstract, vague and has a certain subjective theory. ovo theory has similarities in the pursuit of fidelity, consistency of translation and reader adaptability. However, there are great differences in the theoretical system, translation standards and the status of translators in the translation teaching research of translation Skopos theory . Noteworthy is the book Skopos Theory in Witness to the Construction of English-Chinese Translation Textbooks (Tao Youlan, 2006)。the author uses the translated Skopos theory to study and analyze translation teaching in China, and draw many suggestions from them. According to Vermeer (1986), the concept of "translation purpose" actually includes three meanings: translation process - the purpose of the translation process, translation result - the function of translation and translation method - the intention of the method used. Vermeer (1989) claims that the Skopos theory makes three main contributions: first, it makes explicit the often denied facts and makes people aware of their existence; second, the concept of task-driven purpose expands the possibilities of translation; it adds alternative translation strategies and frees translators from the constraints imposed on them by often meaningless direct translations; third, it puts the responsibility of translators on the agenda and frees them from the constraints imposed on them by meaningless direct translations; and third, it puts the responsibility of translators on the agenda and frees them from the constraints imposed on them by meaningless direct translations. translators' responsibilities on the agenda and expands their scope. It is clear that the translator must perform the intended function in order to achieve the stated goal. Vermeer (1989) also points out that ignoring the purpose of translation can lead to the serious consequence of misunderstanding or distorting how best to translate a text. With a clear purpose or task, agreement can be reached on at least one macro-strategic choice. The skopos theory has a wide range of pragmatic features, which focus on the characteristics of text types and help to improve the translator's awareness of the communicative functions and linguistic signs of functional translation units and increase the effectiveness of translation. However, kopos theory focuses on the study of the functions of the target text and purposeful rewriting for the effects of the target text, which gives the original text a new purpose to communicate to new times and audiences. In conclusion, Skopos theory provides a new perspective for translation research and facilitates the comprehensive study of various translation variants and the development of translation theory.

Strategies for English Translation of Han Yu's Prose

3.1 Grasp the meaning of the original text accurately

To convert a literary text into a modern one, one needs to have a solid foundation in Chinese, especially knowledge about the language. In addition, the translator is required to pay attention to the specific meaning of the words in the text when converting it to modern. In addition, it is important to understand the phenomenon of word usage in the text. In the conversion. In addition, we must understand the phenomenon of word-appropriation in the text, and in the conversion, we must be flexible in converting words according to the context of the original text, and not stick to the lexical nature of the word that makes the sentence awkward. It is difficult to read or difficult to Dong: for example, the original second paragraph "horse-eaters do not know that they can eat for a thousand miles" where "thousand miles" is a quantity word, but according to the meaning of the text, this should be understood as "traveling a thousand miles a day". Therefore, it belongs to the use of the word "quantity" as a verb.

3.2 Deeper understanding of the emotion of the original text

Without the grasp of the emotion of the original text, the modern text will not be able to convey the original author's thoughts and feelings and the quality of the English translation will also be greatly reduced. The talent is compared to a thousand li horse. The ruler who is foolish and shallow and does not know talent is compared to a horse eater. In the case of the thousand-lipped horse, he was humiliated by the hands of the slave and died in the groove of the stable, and wrote about the fate of talented people who were not used for life. The story is written with the words "not enough food, not enough strength. The author's resentment at the lack of talent and his dissatisfaction with the feudal rulers for burying the talents.

3.3 Mastering appropriate translation skills for conversion

In the process of organizing the modern text, for the omitted sentences in the text, we should add the omitted components in the omitted sentences in the conversion journal, for example, in the second paragraph of the original text, "the horse-eater did not know that he could eat for a thousand miles. For some false words in the text that have no practical meaning and only play a grammatical role can be deleted without translation: for example, in the third paragraph of the original text, the words For example, in the third paragraph of the original text, the word "之" in the phrase "鳴之而不能通其意" plays the role of a supplementary syllable and can be left untranslated. In addition, attention should be paid to the adjustment of language order.

Translation Principles

Yan Fu, a modern Chinese Enlightenment thinker, introduced Western studies and at the same time put forward the standards of translation, letter, reach, and elegance". He said in the "Translation Example" in the "Theory of Heavenly Evolution": "Three difficulties in translation: letter, reach, elegance, seeking its letter has been a great difficulty, Gu letter carry on not reach, although the translation is still not translated, then reach is still absent". The object of literary translation, specifically, is the novel prose poetry and drama works it is not equivalent to the general sense of translation, it is to convey the author's full intention that through the artistic approach to influence the reader's thoughts and feelings. Therefore, it puts forward higher requirements on the literary quality of the translator, who should, on the basis of a deep understanding of the original work, accurately grasp the author's writing style and his feelings. The translator should accurately grasp the author's writing style and the ideas to be expressed, so that the translation is neither too right nor too left, and strive to produce a translation that is not only faithful to the original text but also smooth and fluent.

The processing of adding and subtracting words in the English translation. Some sentences need to add subjects and predicates, while others need to add prepositions, conjunctions and pronouns. Other sentences need to add words that are not specified in the original text in order to make the text flow smoothly. There are many pronouns. In addition, according to the meaning of the original text, words that are not specified in the original text are added, such as "the rider', "he. in order to obtain a complete expression of the meaning of the original text. The difference between Chinese and English syntax is very different between the two languages. Chinese (especially Ancient Chinese) is a language of meaning. Sometimes a sentence in Chinese is composed of several phrases or words placed side by side. There are no formal markers - but they are complete in meaning: unlike English sentences. If there is no connecting word in the sentence, such as a relational pronoun or an adverb, the whole sentence will become logically confused and lack of readability: therefore. Therefore, when translating from English to Chinese, we should try to find something that can better reflect the meaning of the word. We should try to find some words that can better reflect the logical relationship between the sentences so that the relationship between the sentences is reasonable.

4.1 Taking the source language culture as the source and the target language culture as the guide

There are great differences between Chinese and Western cultures, therefore, in the process of translation Therefore, in the process of translation, translators should pay attention to the appropriate preservation and transformation of culture. The "meaning" in ancient Chinese texts is the core, and the translator should pay attention to the proper preservation and transformation of culture in the translation process. "If the translation is blindly transformed into a western culture that is easy for foreign readers to read, then it is bound to be a mistake. If the translation is blindly transformed into a western culture that is easy to read by foreign readers, then the original meaning will be lost. Therefore Therefore, while retaining the core essence of the ancient text, we should adopt the strategy of forignization The translation should retain the core essence of the ancient text, but use the strategy of dissimilation to highlight the "differences" in style and other aspects of the original text. In this way In this way, the linguistic and cultural characteristics of the original text can be preserved in the translation, so that the readers of the translated text can feel the exotic atmosphere and readers to feel the exotic atmosphere and the existence and uniqueness of other cultures. The translation should also take into account the At the same time, the differences between Chinese and Western cultures and the cultural thinking of Western readers should also be taken into account. Chinese culture is accurately presented in the eyes of the readers of the translated language, taking into account the differences between Chinese and Western cultures and the cultural thinking of Western readers. The Chinese culture should be accurately presented to the eyes of the readers of the translation. For example, the famous lines in Han Yu's "The Way of Origin”: “博爱之谓仁，行而宜之之谓义，由是而之焉之谓道，足乎己而无待于外之谓德。” The sentence was translated into:” The universal love is called benevolence, the behaviors which are consistent with benevolence are called righteousness, moving forward from benevolence and righteousness is called Tao, something which you have and do not rely on outer environment is called virtue. ” In ancient China, "benevolence," "righteousness," "Tao," and "virtue" are the basic concepts of Confucianism. The basic concepts of Confucianism are extremely far-reaching. Take "ren" as an example, in In traditional Chinese culture, "ren" is the core of Confucius' doctrine, which embodies respect for father and mother, love for brother and sibling, and respect for the sovereign. In traditional Chinese culture, "ren" is the core of Confucius' doctrine. In traditional Chinese culture, "ren" is the core of Confucius' doctrine, which embodies the basic moral principles of respect for father and mother, love for brothers and siblings, universal love, and the noble character of a gentleman. In the process of translation, we should prevent assimilation and not destroy the integrity of the source language. The translation process should prevent assimilation and not destroy the integrity of the source language. Another example is "Tao", which not only contains the meaning of reason, preaching, and the path, but also contains the ineffable meaning of the word "Tao". It also contains the unspeakable natural laws of heaven and earth. In foreign vocabulary of foreign countries, it is difficult to express these profound meanings in a single word or a few phrases. to express these words with profound cultural meanings, therefore, it is possible to through the phonetic translation method to preserve the essence of Chinese words, so that the western readers can feel the mystery of Chinese culture. Readers would feel the mystery of Chinese culture, and then either to elaborate on it in a separate chapter or find the right place for detailed annotations. 4.2 Making good use of naturalization

With culture as the core of the text, the means of translation should be more flexible, and when appropriate, in order to make the readers of the translated language more In order to make the readers of the translation more aware of the Chinese cultural meanings and connotations of certain languages, it is necessary to make good use of naturalization. Take Han Yu's famous essay "The Teacher's Discourse" as an example: "三人行，则必有我 师焉. Translation: "Among three men who walk with me, there must be a teacher of mine." Here, in order to reflect Chinese culture and let foreign readers better understand the meaning. In order to reflect Chinese culture and let foreign readers better understand the meaning of this famous saying, the word "three" is translated into Chinese. The word "three" is not a precise concept, but an imaginary or metaphorical expression.The translation is more in line with the logic of English thinking and more in line with the meaning of the original text.This way, the translation is more in line with the logic of the English language and the meaning of the original text.

4.3 Focus on interpretation and annotation

In the process of translating ancient texts into English, there are phrases that contain endless meanings beyond the language. The charm of traditional Chinese texts is precisely this, and in order to preserve the meaning in the English translation process, it is often necessary tothe process of English translation to retain the meaning, often through the detailed explanation of key words, so as to achieve a more profound cultural The English translation process can preserve the meaning of the key words, which often requires detailed explanation of the key words to achieve a more profound cultural impact. Take Han Yu's "The Saying of the Horse" as an example: 世有伯乐，然后有千里马。“ The sentence is translated into:” Only after Bole［1］ came into the world were there horses able to gallop one thousand li． ” ［1］ Bole: a legendary figure in the seventh century B.C，Bole was an authority on horses． Here, "Bole" literally means a master who knows how to control horses, but by extension, it means a representative who knows people and reuses them in traditional Chinese culture. The translation should retain the original "meaning" of the text and convey it to the Western readers. Therefore, the meaning of the key words can be added in the translation to facilitate understanding. 4.4 Appropriate sentence adjustment The culture of a country is accumulated over time in the course of national life Different countries in different regions have different development history, different forms of life, different religious beliefs, different ethnic groups, etc. The culture of a country is the result of the process of national life. The culture of a country is the result of the process of national life. The purpose of cultural communication is to spread these personalities. The translator should make the translated culture and the source culture functionally equivalent in the translation, so that the translated text has the same effect on the readers of the translated culture as the source text has on the readers of the source culture. The translator should make the translated culture and the source culture functionally equivalent, so that the translated text has the same effect on the readers of the translated culture as the source text has on the readers of the source culture. Therefore So, when appropriate, the text and sentence structure can be modified to varying degrees in order to preserve the source language culture. The text and sentence structure can be adjusted to varying degrees when appropriate in order to preserve the culture of the source language, highlighting the cultural subject The translation of the text and sentence structure can be adjusted to varying degrees when appropriate in order to preserve the culture of the source language, highlighting the cultural subject. 《马说》中:“故虽有名马，祇辱于奴隶人之手，骈死于槽枥之间，不以千里称也。” ”Such horses are common，but a Bole is rare． So even fine steeds，if mishandled by slaves，will perish in their stables without being known as good horses． ” In order to effectively convey the source language culture in the text, the translation changes the original the sentence structure of the original text, and the English translation process is appropriately The English translation is adjusted appropriately.

Conclusion

Cultural export is the intellectual acceptance by people of other countries of their own system, language, art, history, and other material and immaterial culture. They feel that the culture of their country is The culture of the country is advanced and superior, and people learn about it because they admire it. The Chinese people The Chinese nation has undergone 5,000 years of transformation and has accumulated a brilliant culture, which has left an indelible legacy in literature and philosophy. It has left indelible traces in literature and philosophy. Although mankind's wars have subsided for more than half a century century, there is still constant friction between countries and signs of resurgent imperialism. imperialism is still resurgent, and under the surface of peace, it is engaged in divisive behavior and intends to dominate. Confucianism advocates "peace is precious", and Chinese culture is the most important factor in the current complex and multifaceted The Chinese culture is urgently needed to ensure human peace and development in the current complex and multifaceted world situation. In diplomatic speeches, ancient poetry is often quoted to show the pattern of a great nation. The wisdom in Chinese ancient texts should also be like spring breeze and rain, embracing the task of world culture construction. The translation of ancient texts has become an important medium for cultural export, and whether or not the translation of ancient texts can faithfully convey their unique Whether the translation of ancient texts can faithfully convey their unique contexts becomes the key to effective cultural export. Translation is an important bridge for cross-regional cultural transmission, and classical Chinese Chinese classical prose is another treasure of traditional Chinese culture. The very purpose of translating Chinese classic proses is to spread them to other parts of the world. So, we may stick to following rules to improve the spread of Chinese literature and culture. Stragegies: Generally speaking, there are two ways to translate allusions, one is paraphrase and the other is direct translation with commentary. If allusions are used in the outgoing pairs of sentences, it may be better to use the Italian translation. Of course, the more common way of translation is direct translation with commentary, or Italian translation with commentary. These annotations, which are not limited by the word count and format of the text, can explain the allusions in as much detail as possible and form another story, so they can not only increase the interest of readers, but also achieve the effect of spreading cultural knowledge.

Further efforts:

1. Cultivate local translators and absorb the translation achievements of overseas sinologists. The lack of local translators has slowed down the pace of our traditional literature to the world. Overseas sinologists are Sinology lovers and Sinology researchers, but the cultural environment they live in is different from that of China, and the resulting way of thinking is also different. Cultivating local translators can, on the one hand, have a "filtering" effect, i.e., disseminate works that we consider excellent and can convey a positive image of the country; on the other hand, it can make translation a long-term project and prevent the phenomenon of a talent cliff from occurring. Incorporating the translation achievements of foreign sinologists can In the process, the sparks generated by the cultural collision can also further the study of Chinese ancient proses. 2. Dividing the difficulty level of the readings according to the different Chinese levels of the audience Considering the different learning levels of the audience, the difficulty level of the readings can be divided. The translation of the primary text can be mainly Italian translation, which focuses on explaining the content of the text clearly and conveying the author's thoughts and sentiments. The translation of the intermediate reading book can adopt a combination of Domesticating Translation and Foreignizing Translation, in which the naturalizing approach is used to look at the target language so that the reader can read it smoothly and fluently, and the foreignizing approach is used to emphasize the heterogeneity of the source language culture so as to preserve the characteristics of our traditional The combination of naturalization and alienation For example, in Dream of the Red Chamber, there is a phrase of "Manproposes, God disposes", which is translated by Hawks as "Manproposes, Heaven disposes" and by Yang Xian Yi as "Manproposes, Heaven disposes". The former is just like a translation in accordance with the Christian culture, while the latter is a communication of Chinese Buddhist thought. The combination of the two approaches can reduce the difficulty of reading on the one hand, and give readers the opportunity to understand foreign cultures on the other. The translations by Mei Weiheng and Kang Dawei are suitable as intermediate level readings. The advanced translation of the ekphrasis should no longer be limited to satisfying the general public, but should also have a certain degree of researchability, not only in terms of formal correspondence and formatting, but also in terms of wording and phrasing, striving to match the original text, and involving proprietary vocabulary and allusions that should be clearly marked in the commentary, preferably with the provenance of the canonical texts, in order to provide assistance to overseas scholars for further research. The requirements for translators are that the translator must be deeply involved in the culture of the source language, but must also be comfortable with the incoming language. As exploring In the process, the translatability of ancient texts can certainly be achieved. And according to the idea that "the way can be transmitted and the meaning According to the idea of "the way can be transmitted and the idea can be declared", any idea can be conveyed in language, and the philosophy of translation The philosophy of translation lies in "people share the same heart, the heart shares the same reason", where the same heart shares the same reason can be connected. The philosophy of translation lies in the fact that "people have the same heart, the same mind, the same reason". Cultural differences make ancient languages show temporary Cultural differences make ancient languages show temporary untranslatability, and the creative nature of translation makes translation standards vary, but when the level of human cognition and mastery of language breaks through the present barrier, the relative the level of human cognition and mastery of language break through the current barrier, the relative untranslatability will be transformed into absolute translatability. As China's influence on the world As China's influence on the world grows, Chinese culture will gradually become the culture of the world.

References

Peter, F. (2004). Skopos Theory: An Ethnographic Enquiry. Routledge.

Nord, C. (2001). Translating as a Purposeful Activity: Functionalist Approaches Explained. Shanghai: Shanghai Foreign language Education Press.

Wang Zuoliang 王佐良 . 1989 翻译、思考与试笔 {Translation, reflection and test writing} 北京：外语教学与研究出版社，

Ya Se 雅瑟．(2011) 唐宋八大家散文鉴赏大全集 {The Eight Great Prose Writers of the Tang and Song Dynasties: A Complete Collection of Prose Appreciation}． 北京: 新世界出版社．

Gao Fengpin 高凤平．(2005) 文化翻译观与语际翻译中的文化因素问题 {Cultural Perspectives on Translation and Cultural Factors in Interlanguage Translation}．西安外国语学院学报，