Realization Of “Three Beauties” In Translating: A Comparative Study Of Two English Translations Of Sanzijing

Sanzijing is one of the most representative classic works for Chinese elementary education. The original work has gained considerable fame for its rich ideas and profound cultural implications in all ages. Meanwhile, its translation has been published in different languages by scholars of various origins(e.g. Elementary Chinese: San Tzu Ching by Herbert Allen Giles), which helps to spread the wisdom and spirit of ancient China in 1910 s. When the translation by Zhao Yanchun was published in 2014, his followers enjoy the language and the style very much. This translation helps to infuse new blood in the translation of Chinese classics.This thesis aims to show how “three beauties” of the source text are realized by analyzing the transitivity presented in the English translations by Zhao Yanchun and Herbert Allen Giles. In other words, the Three Beauties principle proposed by Xu Yuanchong and systemic functional linguistics are adopted as the theoretical basis for the thesis.Qualitative analysis will be given with evidence from the quantitative data. As is known to all, transitivity system is adopted to construe experiential meaning in texts, that is how people use language to represent their experience of the world, including the inner and external worlds. From this perspective, a transitive analysis of target texts helps us to find that the similar and different representations of beauty in sense as well as the different ways they choose to express the source text. From the beauty in sense, the transitive processes and analysis of images of the source text are compared.The strict rule of rhyming is differentiated from languages but the rhythmical effect of both Chinese and English poetic composition is indispensable in the emotional convey by poets. In the Chinese or English poetry, it is always one of the fundamental elements and it bears aesthetic information of language. The resemblance of rhyme schemes and the reproduction in phonological rhetorical devices are presented when analyzing the beauty in sound.In general, the beauty of form is the most difficult to achieve according to many scholars. Good translations should not only keep the coherent meaning, but also realize the harmonious sound and rhythm. So we will also analyze the aspect of beauty in form and the rhetorical devices.The main findings of the thesis center on the “three beauties”:(1) As the data shows, in terms of Beauty in sense, the target text of Zhao has selected more similar images, and its process types are closer to the source text than that of Giles.(2) On the whole, Zhao’s translation is a better representation of the beauty in sound which employs multiple rhetorical devices for phonetic compensation so as to achieve auditory beauty. His creation of similar rhyme schemes and phonological techniques help to achieve aesthetic enjoyment and visual beauties for readers.(3) Zhao achieves Beauty in form better than other translations.In Giles’ translation, the rhythm is often broken by sudden changes caused by different length of lines and the whole text seems to become merely a plain explanation of the source text. From the perspective of being a renowned Sinologist, his translation has contributed much. However, as a poet, what he has done in the target text is no better than Zhao’s concise and melodious translation.The thesis is organized in six chapters on the following topics: introduction; literature review; comparative analysis with functional methodologies of the beauty in sense; comparative analysis of the beauty in sound; comparative analysis of the beauty in form, and conclusion. The thesis may arouse the attention on the ideational level of language in the process of Chinese classics translation.