A Hermeneutic Interpretation Of James Legge’s English Version Of The Analects Of Confucius

The Analects of Confucius,as a collection of the moral and political ideas and ethical thoughts of Confucius,contains fragments of dialogues between the great Chinese philosopher and his disciples in the form of quotations.Written during the Period of Spring and Autumn and Warring States Period,The Analects of Confucius is considered as the most representative works of Confucian thought and Chinese classic academics and still has a great influence both on China and the whole world.The study of the translation and introduction to Confucian classics represented by The Analects of Confucius has become an important and urgent issue in order to improve its cross-cultural communication effect,promote the excellent traditions and characteristics of Chinese culture and the development and prosperity of world cultures.As a famous British Sinologist in the 19 th century,James Legge has kept a landmark figure of the research and study of Western Sinology.His English version of The Analects of Confucius represents the highest achievement in translation of Confucian Classics,which is written with exquisite technique and delicate strokes,entirely faithful to original texts,and is attached by fully exhaustive and highly academic notes and indexes with Confucianism academic traditions.With these prominent characteristics of “interpretation of Chinese cultures with western thoughts” and “interpretation of the Confucianism by Christianity”,it has been regarded as a standard translation in the West.Not only can it help foreign readers to gain a deeper understanding of Chinese culture and classics,but also can arouse a profound effect on the promotion of “Going global” for Chinese culture.By taking James Legge’s English version of The Analects of Confucius as a case study,we can find that in the “trust” step,Legge starts his translation of The Analects of Confucius for the purpose of preaching and promoting Chinese culture to the West.His proficient language skills and rich cultural heritage give him a strong push to promote his research on The Analects of Confucius.In the “aggression” step,Legge interpreted the Analects of Confucius with his own Sinological cultural thoughts,so as to achieve the purpose of cultural dissemination.In the “incorporation” step,Legge adopts the translation strategies of domestication and foreignization,which better promoted Western readers’ understanding of ancient China’s long history and culture.In the “compensation” step,Legge made detailed and appropriate interpretation on some contents with amplification and annotation that provided indispensable background knowledge for studying Chinese classics.Through a deep discussion about translator’s subjectivity on the process of translation from the perspective of George Steiner’s Hermeneutic motion,the thesis draws the following conclusions.On the one hand,James Legge possesses skilled language competence both in English and Chinese,and solid theory basis in Sinology.He selected The Analects of Confucius as the original text according to his own language competence and cultural quality.In the process of translation,he employed domestication and foreignization with amplification and annotation,which fully reflects the translator’s subjectivity.On the other hand,the target readers in Legge’s mind were Western missionaries,who understand China a litter but wished to understand China by reading Chinese classic works.So,the translator-Legge full displayed his translator’s subjectivity under the premise of “trusting” the original text,and dealing with “aggression”,“incorporation” and “compensation” reasonably and appropriately,which achieved a balance between the original text and the English version.It’s easy to find that James Legge’s English version of The Analects of Confucius properly conveys the Chinese traditional culture and Confucianism contained in the original text.For one thing,it is of great significance to promote Chinese culture and Confucianism to the world widely.For another thing,it provided reliable guidance and reference for the subsequent English translation of The Analects of Confucius.