A Study Of Liang Yuchun's Translation

In the 1920s and 1930s,the impact of Literature Revolution could still be felt distinctly when the mainstream of May Fourth Movement had subsided.Various genres of Chinese literature were all without exception experiencing a process of modernization.While selectively inheriting the domestic tradition,modem Chinese prose also drew heavily upon the fresh nutrition of foreign prose through translation, the main approach to such outside sources.With the notion of"literature for life"becoming the call of the age,more and more attention was paid to the fact that prose was characteristic of expressing personal thoughts,which had found typical realization in foreign essays that originated in France and flourished in England. Thence,the introduction and translation of theories and writings of foreign essays formed a climax during that period.Of many participants in the endeavor,Liang Yuchun was the one who made the greatest effort to introduce and translate English essays.In the history of modem Chinese literature,Liang Yuchun has been renowned as an essayist.But in fact,what Liang translated in his short life is far more than what he created.It is even rightly believed that it was by virtue of translation that Liang Yuchun embarked on the path of literature production.For his part,translating activities had not only penetrated through his whole literary career,but also helped shape his outlook on life and the world.To a great extent translation laid a solid foundation for his literary status.All this indicates that a study of Liang's translation will be of great import.However,a review of the literature shows that relevant research has little been done up to now.Even if occasionally mentioned,Liang's translation has been mostly sketched in no detail.It was until the beginning of the 21^st century that the research specializing in Liang Yuchun's translation began to exist. Nevertheless,its results were only a few papers far from adequacy in depth and width. In view of the status quo,the present treatise,taking"A Study of Liang Yuchun's Translation"as its thesis,is to do a comprehensive and systematic research on Liang's translating activities and translations on the basis of a proper absorption and utilization of those previously conducted studies. The treatise consists of the text proper and the appendix.The text proper is composed of six chapters,treating of in turn Liang's life experiences,the social background in which he conducted translating activities,what he translated,his views on translating and translation,chief linguistic features of his translations,and the impact of translation upon his literary creation.Chapter 1,titled"Introduction",first briefly introduces Liang Yuchun's life experiences,then gives a comprehensive exposition of all the literature concerning Liang Yuchun,and finally expounds on the previously conducted research into Liang Yuchun's translation with both advantages and disadvantages clearly pointed out, which provides a kind of supportive foundation for the discussions to follow.Chapter 2 gives an account of the social and personal backgrounds to Liang Yuchun's translating activities,touching upon in turn the social and cultural contexts that enabled Liang to have an excellent mastery of English language(the rise of new-style education and the development of English teaching in modem China),the poetics of the times when Liang embarked on the path of English-Chinese translation (the drive of literary revolution and the introduction & translation of foreign literature),and the socioeconomic conditions and Liang's personal preparations that made possible the publication of his translations(the thriving of communication medias and the preparation of personal aptitude & interpersonal relations).Of those, the introduction & translation of foreign literature makes the keystone,which outlines the translation environment of that epoch when Liang Yuchun undertook his translating activities and provides a necessary referential setting for an objective and impartial appraisal of Liang's translation.Chapter 3 summarizes Liang's translation works and his views on certain issues concerning translation.It first introduces Liang's translations in terms of different genres,namely prose,poetry,fiction and other types of writing,stressing the status and significance of Liang's translations in the target-language literary system.The second part of this chapter gives a summary of Liang's views on four basic issues in translation studies,treating of purpose of translation,approaches to translation, translation criteria and style issues of translation respectively.Chapter 4 examines the linguistic features of Liang's translation works due to the adoption of certain strategies.In all of Liang's translations,literal translation dominates and leads to the high degree of linguistic hybridity of the translations.A brief introduction of the research on linguistic hybridity of translations is first given to illustrate the fact that hybridity is the essential characteristic of any translation,which is followed by a concrete examination of the hybrid features of Liang's translations, namely transliterated proper names,frequent appearance of pronouns,use of a typical Chinese quantity-noun structure,use of self-made character combinations,and overt reliance on the original sequential arrangement.The chapter ends up with a tentative discussion of the cause of such hybrid features of Liang's translations in terms of translation environment of that epoch and the translator's subjective factors.Chapter 5 analyzes the influence of Liang Yuchun's translation.It first probes into the impact of Liang's translation upon his own essay writing,which can be felt in two aspects,namely the fact that Liang Yuchun has formed a set of systematic thoughts on essay writing in the process of conducting translation and that the themes and linguistic expressions of Liang's essays possess distinct tints resulting from the impact of translation.Then the author tentatively discusses the impact of Liang's translation upon the literary tradition of his epoch,holding that it is under the strong influence of translation that Liang's prose writing made a new unique genre that consequently made great contribution to the diversification of modem Chinese prose.Chapter 6 first discusses some revelations we have obtained from the present study,treating of how to look at the value of linguistically-highly-hybrid translations like Liang's and how to make a scholar translator like Liang Yuchun,which are all issues closely related to translation practice.Then it illustrates the significance of the present study and the prospects for the future work.Besides the text proper,there are four appendices.Appendix 1 is a chronological record of Liang Yuchun's life,which,being the first attempt of its kind,includes all Liang's life experiences and his works.Lists of contents are given when his works are involved,and Liang's own accounts or others' narrations concerning the works in question are also quoted as both the evidence for the editor and the reference for the future researchers.In addition,persons,events,societies,books or magazines related to Liang have all been compiled into the chronology attached with brief introductions or illustrations.Appendix 2 is a collection of all the publications concerning Liang Yuchun studies,which includes a complete list of Liang's literary creations and translations,a catalogue of English Series printed and published by Beixin Publishing House,and a collection of all the publications of Liang Yuchun's works(including prose,translations,and book reviews) ever since the 1980s.Of those three,the first two are made to provide grounds of argument for the relevant discussion in the text proper,while the third is made to exhibit the ratio of Liang's translations in all the publications of Liang's works since the Liang Yuchun studies in the true sense came into being,which can to some extent reflect the want of research into Liang Yuchun's translation at present.Appendix 3 includes three parts.Part 1 is an article about two misinterpretations in the editor's annotations of Complete Works of Liang Yuchun,a key reference book in Liang Yuchun studies.Part 2 is a newly found short story translation by Liang Yuchun that has been excluded in Complete Works of Liang Yuchun.Part 3 contains three translation prefaces written by Liang and also neglected by the abovementioned key reference book.All these materials are compiled in order to enrich the existing literature and lay a more solid and comprehensive foundation for the future study.Appendix 4 is a paper specializing in all the prefaces of Liang's translations,which is complementary to the contents of Chapter 3 & 5.To sum up,this treatise is an original endeavor in the sense of filling up the blank of essayist and translator research in the fields of both modem Chinese literature and Chinese translated literature.As for its general theoretical framework,the treatise borrows some ideas of Anthony Pym,an Australian scholar,in terms of the divisions of translation history research,namely translation archaeology and explanation.That is to say,the chapters and sections are basically arranged in the logic sequence of first excavation of historical facts and then analysis plus explanation.The treatise first adopts an all-orientation perspective to examine Liang Yuchun's translating activities & translation works and gives some original insights when dealing with Liang's contributions to the introduction of English literature into China,the cause of the linguistic hybridity of Liang's translations and the impact of Liang's translation upon his own literary creation and the modernization of Chinese prose.Falling into the category of translation history in translation studies,the present study is of great significance in the sense that it systematically treats of the actions and contributions of Liang Yuchun,a writer and translator,in the process of the modemization of Chinese literature(prose in question) that relies heavily on translation.Apart from being of such theoretical significance,the present study is also of practical reference value to the literary criticism practice as far as the discussion of the linguistic hybridity of Liang's translations is concerned.Owing to the lack of materials about Liang's life and the weak foundation of related research,the treatise writer has invested plenty of time and energy in collecting Liang's original translations and perusing all his writings,which can be well evidenced by Chapter 3 to 5 and the four appendices.