A Hermeneutic Study On Paul White's Tending The Roots Of Wisdom

Cai Gen Tan is a book of aphorisms written by Hong Yingming in Wanli period of the Ming Dynasty. This precious Chinese classic consists of the wisdom of Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism as well as the philosophy that helps us to conduct and improve our life, and it therefore has enjoyed tremendous popularity among a wide range of readers at home and abroad. Many researches have been carried out on the Chinese version of Cai Gen Tan whereas the English versions in China have not appeared until the 21st century, and the corresponding studies on its translation have not aroused much attention.As a branch of Western philosophy, hermeneutics is inseparable from the translation due to their common concern about understanding and interpreting the meaning of a certain text from the very start. The research of hermeneutics, especially the concepts of fore-understanding and fusion of horizons, provides a new point of view to deal with the problems of translation.The present author aims to apply Steiner's hermeneutic motion and some significant hermeneutical concepts as the theoretical basis, and make a tentative study and analysis on how the fourfold hermeneutic motion embodies in Paul White's Tending the Roots of Wisdom. The following is an outline of the thesis:At the beginning of this thesis is an introduction, in which the present author briefly introduces the research background and brings up some research questions. In addition, the purpose, methodology and layout of this thesis are listed in this part.Chapter one is literature review about the studies on Paul White's Tending the Roots of Wisdom and the application of hermeneutics in translation.Chapter two presents the theoretical framework of the whole thesis. Some main hermeneutical notions related to translation, and Steiner's fourfold hermeneutic motion, namely trust, aggression, incorporation and compensation, are introduced and discussed.The research emphasis is put in chapter three. The present author first makes a brief introduction of the original text Cai Gen Tan and Paul White's Tending the Roots of Wisdom, and then makes a detailed study and analysis on this English version from George Steiner's fourfold hermeneutic motion. At the same time, by applying the concepts of fore-understanding and fusion of horizons, the reasons behind the translated text that lead to the different comprehension and interpretation are explained.The last part is a conclusion of the major findings of the thesis, and some suggestions are provided for further study. The translator exerts his creativity and initiative in each part of the fourfold motion. Moreover, his trust, aggression, incorporation and compensation towards the original text are affected by his fore-understanding. The translator should keep learning to broaden his horizon, and accordingly he can make the nearest translation of the original text.