A Comparative Study Of English Translations Of Shitao’s Huayu Lu

In recent years,with the continuous advancement of the Chinese culture “going out” as a state strategy,Chinese cultural classics translation and the studies thereof have received more and more attention from the translation academic circle of China.The translation studies of traditional Chinese painting classics constitute an important domain in the map of Chinese classics translation studies.There is a characteristic discourse system in traditional Chinese painting theory which is simple in language and rich in meaning and meanwhile textually distinctive in artistic features.Therefore,there is much difficulty in translating traditional Chinese painting theory classics into English.To study the English translations of traditional Chinese painting theory classics,sum up relevant research experience,analyze the problems with them,and further reveal the characteristics of such translation,is beneficial to promoting the contemporary international communication of traditional Chinese painting theory and ultimately conducive to the “going-out” of traditional Chinese culture.The objects of this study are the painting classic Huayu Lu written by Shitao,an accomplished Chinese painter of the Qing Dynasty and Lin Yutang’s and Wang Hongyin’s English versions of Huayu Lu.The key research questions of this study are:What are the main textual differences between Lin Yutang’s English translation and Wang Hongyin’s English translation of Huayu Lu? What are the main differences between the two translators in their interpretations of Huayu Lu and translation strategies of translating it? What are the main reasons for these differences in their interpretations and strategies? To answer these research questions,the author,drawing on the basic theories of Chinese classics translation and taking Liu Zhongde’s xin-da-qie translation criteria which is developed from Yan Fu’s xin-da-ya as the theoretical basis,designs her main research framework for her tripartite comparison of the two translations and,by adopting such research methods as literature research,statistics,classification research,and comparative research,carries out this study in three stages.First,the author analyzes the original text of Huayu Lu and the corresponding translated texts of the two translators,and describes the textual features of their versions,mainly with regard to their textual differences on the level of translational phenomena.Second,under the research framework,she conducts a comparative study of the two translated versions,highlighting the original informative components and expressive components in Huayu Lu,on the three levels of xin(faithfulness),da(expressiveness),and qie(closeness).Finally,she considers the possible reasons for the differences between the strategies of the two translators.The main findings of this study are as follows: The two translators’ English translations of Huayu Lu show striking textual and paratextual differences.Compared against the original text and against each other,the two translations are obviously different on the three levels.On the level of xin(faithfulness in content),when translating the core concepts and propositions expressing the philosophical thought and painting theory in Shitao’s Huayu Lu,Lin Yutang mainly uses the translation approach of literal translation and applies free translation as a supplement,providing some in-text annotations.His translation,displaying the inclination to maintain the language features of the original text,falls somewhat short in its overall adequacy of meeting the faithfulness requirement.By contrast,Wang Hongyin mainly tends to apply the approach of free translation,adaptation,and editing treatment to make a systematic interpretation of those core concepts and propositions.Thus,his rendering of the conceptual content of Huayu Lu is relatively complete and objective on the whole,which meets better the requirements of xin.On the level of da(idiomaticity in language use),on the whole,either translator is adequately idiomatic in choice of words,making of sentences,and textual development,and their translations of Huayu Lu are generally accurate,fluent,and concrete,which conforms to the reading habits of native English speakers.On the level of qie(closeness in style),Lin Yutang’s translation distinction between the expressive text parts and informative text parts in Huayu Lu is not very obvious.He displays an obvious inclination towards literary translation of Huayu Lu as far as his translation of the overall language style of the original text goes.The syntactic structures in Lin’s version are more simple and well-proportioned,neat and rhythmic,with more emphasis on closeness to the beauty of sound,form and meaning of the original text.In Wang Hongyin’s translation,his distinction between the expressive text parts and informative text parts is clearer,rendering them with different stylistic features.On the basis of his unification of the overall style,his translation of the informative text parts conveys more accurately the thoughts and theories contained in them.On the whole his translation in this regard is more coherent,compact,and informative.In his treatment of the expressive parts of the original text,his version appropriately reflects the beauty of the original in sound,form and meaning.As regards their overall tendencies in translation strategy,Lin Yutang tends to adopt literary translation,and Wang Hongyin prefers cultural translation.Both translators,each in his own way,show strong subjective creativity in their English translations of Huayu Lu.As for the main reasons for their translational differences,first,the two translators conceived their different translation viewpoints and principles and developed their different translating styles on the basis of their long experiences of translation in different times;second,their focuses in academic study and understandings of Huayu Lu were different;third,they translated Huayu Lu for different purposes.These main factors account for their different phenomenal inclinations in their translations of Huayu Lu.