The Holism Contemplation "Wenxindiaolong" English Translation

Holism is a primary philosophical conception that foregrounds the integrity and inherent systematicness of the object to be perceived, and emphasizes the mutual compatibility between the constituents of the object, a conception that characterizes the literary theory constructed in Wenxin Diaolong, a monumental literary critic masterpiece created by Liu Xie of China during the 6^th century, and is taken as the basic theoretical conception of the work itself. Philosophical holism is crystalized in Wenxin Diaolong as to be accentuating the integrity of a literary piece as an organic whole, as well as the compatibility between literary formal elements and contents. Wenxin Diaolong has long been revered as the apotheosis of the traditional Chinese literary criticism, whereas its theory has scarcely been exploited and absorbed even in the most likely areas, while new criticism, mythological archetype, receptional aethetics, deconstructionism and many other western literary critic theories have been exploited in translation study, and taken as important means to widen the horizon and diversify the methodology of researches in the field. The interpretation of the theory proposed in Wenxin Diaolong and its exploitation in translation study, therefore, is a must of the modern decoding of theory, and a possible approach to utilize it as well.This dissertation makes a research that consists of three successive phases. The first phase is devoted to "theory decoding", in which a synchronic survey is made on the diversified theoretical statements of holism both in the field of philosophy and of literary criticism, as to the focus of different holistic approaches emerging in the western philosophical history, the divergence between western and Chinese versions of holism, and to the holistic views in the field of literary criticism, on the basis of which a specific analysis is allocated to the search of the basic theoretical concepts from the diversity of holistic statements.This dissertation starts with analysis of the holistic thinking characterizing the literary critic theory proposed in Wenxin Diaolong, and then of the origin of holism in western and Chinese philosophy, with special focus on the origin theory, constructionism, dynamism, etc. and the succession and development of modern holism on the basis of its traditional antecedents, and then to reveal the essence and basic appeals of different approaches of holism, which is best summarized into emphasis on the integrity and interior compatibility of the components of the object. Meanwhile, literary criticism has from its start been influenced by philosophical holism, which is especially the reality of the traditional Chinese literary criticism, traited by holistic thinking from its earliest stage in Qin Dynasty, with an emphasis on the wholeness and integrity of literary pieces, and the compatibility between literary form and content. The western critic tradition has also been characterized by holistic thinking from Aristotle to some of the contemporary critic theories. The critic theory proposed in Wenxin Diaolong is a succession and a crystalization of philosophical holism, and thus develops its own holistic approach, represented by focus on the wholeness of literary creation as the origin of literary aesthetic value, as well as the compatibility between literary forms and content, with content as the primary element.The successive phase of the dissertation is devoted to a reflection of a variety of theoretical paradigms in translation study. The emphasis of philosophical holistic approach on the integrity and intrinsic compatibility of the object and focus on the compatibility between literary form and content tallies with the relationship between form and content in translation study, and a variety of translation theoretical paradigms take the relationship as their basic problematic to be discussed: the traditional Chinese literal approach lays stress on maintenance of the formal elements of the source text, while the liberal approach on the transmigration of the "soul" of the source text in the translation process. The western translation approaches can be either identicalness-oriented or discrimination-oriented: the former laying emphasis on the identicalness of the target text to the source text or ad verse, while the latter on the peculiarity of the source text. The literal approach is inclined to the formal elements, while the liberal approach to the content; the identicalness-oriented approach can be either inclined to form or to content, while the discrimination-oriented approach to form. In these two approaches, one polarity is always overvalued while the other always ignored, with or without deliberation, thus the two polarities are held antagonistic, as a result of which the literal approach induces the invisibility of the translator, translation and source culture, and to kidnap translation as a tool of cultural colonization and hegemony, and the liberal approach to reduce the receptibility of translation in the target culture. After the holistic reflection, the dissertation moves into an argument of the feasibility and methodology of the application of holistic approach to the study of translation. The holistic emphasis on the integrity and compatibility of the elements in a literary piece is at least enlightening in two dimensions in translation study concerning the relationship between form and content, the first being that the transmission of integrity of the thought constructed in the source text is to be maximized, otherwise the cultural purpose of the translation could by no means be realized; the second being that the desirable formal elements of the source text have to be reserved in translation, on condition that these elements are beneficial to the maintenance of the integrity of the source-text thought.The third phase of the research is first allocated to an analysis of the double-fold inadequacy of the English translation of Wenxin Diaoling and of the research of the translation. Here the Wenxin Diaolong translations are categorized into interpretation-oriented and research-oriented translations by their respective translation purposes and stylistic inclination. Holistic approach is applied here to the analysis of the two categories of Wenxin Diaolong translations, concerning the purposes, discursive strategies, text inclinations of the translations. The interpretation-oriented translations are intended to decode the classic critic theory of Wenxin Diaolong into current western literary critic terminologies and discourse for the benefit of readers out of the sinological circle, while the research-oriented translations to represent the quondam of the Wenxin Diaolong critic theory, thus professional scholars are taken as the intended readers. However, the research of this dissertation brings the fact to light that the research-oriented translations are crippled with an omission of the original thought, which in turn induces a contradiction between their discursive strategies and translation purposes, and the research-oriented translations are preoccupied by the search of the original meaning of the quotations pervading the source text from Chinese classics of philosophy, history and literary critic works, and thus flawed with an omission of the intrinsic logic of the thought conceived in Wenxin Diaolong. The two categories of Wenxin Diaolong translations, therefore, are found missing their purposes, thus further intensive researches are much expected, and reflection desired.After applying holism to translation study and the analysis of the Wenxin Diaolong translation, this dissertation makes two arguments: first, the maintenance of the integrity of the thought and the meaningful formal elements in source texts are essential to the construction of cultural identity of the source text, and thus are of vital importance for translation oriented to the realization of cultural representation, and this is especially true for translation of works with classic eminence; second, the study of translation of classic works is to focus on not only the discursive strategies applied, but their likely cultural effects backgrounded by cultural convection, to unveil the relationship between the discursive strategies and possible cultural effects, thus to formulate a translation critic theory desirable for the construction of genuine cultural identity of the source culture.