Research On Translation Ethics During The "Cultural Revolution"Period In China

"Ethics" refers to certain principles or criteria that need to be observed when dealing with the mutual relationships between man and man, man and society as well as man and nature. It guides humans’concept and meanwhile standardizes their behaviors. Similarly, translation involves many kinds of relationships between man and man. Thus, translation is also a kind of ethical activity which needs to be restricted by translation ethics, which refers to a series of moral rules or codes that translators need to observe in the process of translation.In the history of western translation, translation ethics can be roughly classified into three kinds, that is, ethics of "respect for differences", ethics of "responsibilities" and the integrated modes of translation ethics by Chesterman. In comparison, though Chinese translation ethics is not as systematic as that of the western countries, yet in practical translation activities, Chinese translators unconsciously stick to certain ethics. This thesis intends to summarize the special translation ethics that Chinese translators observed during the period of the "Cultural Revolution" through an analysis and. study of the translation activities within that time.The "Cultural Revolution" is a special period in China. Due to its particular political background, there lacked certain subjectivity in translators’activities during this period compared with those in other historical stages in China. During this time, as translation activities were severely restricted by the superstructure and social ideology, the translation works were obviously characterized with "class nature", which was well manifested in the existing forms and features of translated works as well as the relationships between translators and other factors in translation. Patrons played a dominant role in the translation activities during the period of the "Cultural Revolution". They manipulated nearly the whole process of translation in disguise, reducing translators to be merely "translation robots" under their orders.The special historical background of the "Cultural Revolution" fostered its special translation ethics. During this period, the ethics that translators needed to observe in their translation were mainly "compliance" and "faithfulness". The former referred to translators’"obedience" and "compliance" to the patrons and a part of target readers; while the latter meant that translators needed to be "faithful" to the original author and source text, all of which were best manifested in the open translations, restricted translations as well as unpublished translations. The translation ethics of "compliance" and "faithfulness" comprehensively reflected the convergence of translation with politics, which meant that the translated works would not survive and develop during the special period of the "Cultural Revolution" unless they stuck to the translation ethics that were consistent with the mainstream political ideology.