| Xu Yuanchong'literary translation theory has once triggered great repercussions and controversy in the Chinese translators'community partly due to the fact that his literary translation theory has, in a sense, overstepped the ontological boundary of the translation theories in Chinese tradition that prescribe"faithfulness"to the original as essential and the original text as the only starting-point and destination in translation practice. The author of this dissertation holds the general view that Xu Yuanchong'literary translation theory is a sublation and development of the translation theories in Chinese tradition, and a creative translation theory which , in the main, conforms to the aesthetical principles despite its"radicalness", for it is argued that literary translation, in its final analysis, is an aesthetical activity , and reproduction, even active expression on the part of the translator of the aesthetic connotations of the original literary work of art constitute the basic attributes of this activity. Consequently, the translator's creativity shapes the essential character of literary translation since he is the aesthetic subject of the original literary text. However, it should be recognized that like any other theories that cannot be perfect, Xu's translation theory is not perfect either. In fact, there are limitations and deficiencies about his translation theory, particularly about his"Theory of Rivalry". But viewed as a whole, his translation theory is theoretically fore-sighted and featured with creativity. Moreover, as it turns out to be theoretically quite convincing, his theory can be termed an original system of the thoughts of Xu Yuanchong as an individual translator. Being operational and practical (for almost all his theory comes from his translation practice), the author believes, his theory can play a role in guiding literary translation in one way or another.This dissertation adopts an aesthetic perspective to undertake a study of Xu Yuanchong's translation theory and practice because aesthetics and art are innately closely-related; and as a rule, art is one of the key research objects of aesthetics. Furthermore, the above perspective is chosen because Xu Yuanchong consistently holds the view that literary translation is an art; needless to say that his translation theory covers a large amount of aesthetic content. Therefore, an exploration of Xu's translation theory and practice in an aesthetic perspective can help us to identify the aesthetic rationality and foundation of his theory and practice. Accordingly, this study makes a comprehensive examination and contemplation of his translation theory and practice in an aesthetic perspective. After conducting an empirical research into his translation theory and practice, the author of this dissertation draws the conclusion that based on some traditional Chinese aesthetic theories, particularly the Chinese aesthetic theories of literature and art which Xu Yuanchong has absorbed and some rational Western aesthetic elements which he has aptly drawn on, Xu Yuanchong's literary translation theory is a creative translation theory derived from the combination between his creative translation thinking and the translation theories in Chinese tradition which he has sublated and developed; an observation of his translation practice in aesthetic perspective reveals that by exerting his self-motivation to the full as the aesthetic subject, Xu has made a creative rendition of the aesthetic object( the original text) in his literary translation, reproducing quite successfully the intrinsic aesthetic features of the original literary text and fulfilling the transition from literary translation to translated literature which in turn helps him to serve his translation purpose of disseminating Chinese culture.As for the research methodologies of this study, an integrated approach, with the aesthetic perspective as the primary and the other theories as the secondary, is adopted in this dissertation. As Xu Yuanchong's translation theory is rich and somewhat complicated in its content and framework, it would be hard to expound its rationale on the strength of one and single perspective. Thus, this study draws support from other translation theories such as hermeneutics, cultural translation and translator subjectivity to expound and prove the validity or limitations of Xu's translation theory and practice and the correlation between them.In order to establish the grounds for the above-mentioned argument, this study has made detailed analysis of Xu Yuanchong's translation theory and practice in the following respects. To begin with, the dissertation reviews briefly the conflicting critical opinions on Xu's translation theory and practice so that an objective presentation is made to give readers a true picture of the Chinese translators'community's opinions on the translator under discussion. The author of this dissertation holds that though the two opposing schools'critical opinions on Xu's translation theory and practice are justified in some points, their criticism or approval, taken as a whole, is biased or even emotional since the majority of the opinion holders have failed to evaluate Xu's translation theory and practice as an organic whole, or in an empirical way. As a result, their criticism always falls short of enough evidence and is blind to the aesthetic dimension of Xu's translation theory. A probe into Xu's consciousness of native Chinese culture and his outlook of the integration of Eastern and Western cultures plus a contrast of the value system of Eastern culture with that of the Western makes the author convinced that his pursuit of beauty in his literary translation can be attributed to his passion for the cause of literary translation and Chinese culture on the one hand, and is a necessary option for him to convey to the outside world the beauty and charm of the Chinese culture embraced in the Chinese literature which he translates on the other. Subsequently, the dissertation focuses on addressing the major research problems of this study---Xu Yuanchong's translation theory and practice, expounding their merits and demerits. His original translation theories such as"Three Beauties"(ie. the beauty in sense, beauty in sound and beauty in form, namely, his criterion for verse translation),"Theory of Optimization"and"Theory of Rivalry"in language and culture, including the ontology, epistemology, methodology and skopos which constitute his translation philosophy , are traced out and contemplated aesthetically. At the same time, his other translation theories like"Theory of Recreation","Theory of Clone"and"Theory of Superconductor"are given due analysis. While proving that his verse translation criterion of"Three Beauties"holds water aesthetically, the author also points out that it is but an unfulfillable ideal to convey all the three beauties simultaneously in verse translation. By comparison, as one of Xu's methodologies of his translation philosophy, his"Theory of Optimization"(i.e. maximizing one's strong points but minimizing one's weak points in doing one's translation) is logically sound and highly operational. If applied properly, it is an effective way to improve the quality of literary translation. In the author's opinion, his"Theory of Rivalry"should be understood in two ways. If it means the contest between translators at linguistic level for giving a full play to the translator's advantage in vying for the best expressions for the target language to convey the aesthetic connotations of the original literary work, it is worth advocating; if it means the contest of a translation with its original text or the contest between translators or even between two cultures with the hope of overcoming each other's cultural weak points by learing from each other'cultural strong points so that the cultures involved in the translation will be improved jointly, then, the cultural items and the range of the contest should be defined. Otherwise,"Theory of Rivalry"in culture would be hardly applicable and it would be difficult to judge who is the winner of the contest due to its ambiguity. The author affirms its theoretical foresightedness, but holds that its proponent needs to further expound and define this theory to make it both theoretically and practically significant. Xu's"Theory of Recreation"is a translation theory developed from Xu's borrowed ideas of the aesthetics of literature and art from his predecessor translation experts such as Mao Dun, Guo Moruo and Zhu Guangqian and from his own first-hand translation experience. It is proved to be valid both theoretically and practically on the condition that when applying this theory to translation practice, the translator should see to it that his translation is faithful to the ideas and spirit of the original. The"Theory of Clone"and"Theory of Superconductor"are the theoretical fruits of Xu who is inspired by modern scientific concepts and utilizes them to describe the art of translation, which gives his translation theories a scientific note. Indeed, they can be regarded as supplementary to his"Theory of Rivalry".This dissertation chooses the two of Xu's most disputable translation theories---"Three Beauties", the"Theory of Rivalry"---and the widely-acclaimed"Theory of Recreation"to examine them against his translated Chinese classics to explore and prove empirically the efficacy and applicability of his translation theories in translation practice and address the theoretical issue that to what degree his theory is correlated with his translation practice. The translation examples for expounding the"Theory of Recreation"come from Xu's translated classic Chinese poetry ,which occupies most of his C-E/or C-F literary translation, that is, from The Book of Poetry, The 300 Tang Poems, The 300 Song Lyrics and The 300 Dramatic Songs of the Yuan. The empirical case study indicates that Xu's application of his"Theory of Recreation"to his translation of the above classic Chinese poems enables him to reproduce quite fully the artistic charm of these translated poems. Moreover, examined in an aesthetic perspective, his translated classic Chinese poems have retained the beauty of the imagery and artistic conceptions of the original. Therefore, his"Theory of Recreation"bears a convincing evidence of holding water both theoretically and practically. His"Three Beauties"are tested against his translated Mao Zedong's regulated verses of different genres. The test demonstrates that"the beauty in sense"and"the beauty in sound"are conveyed most fully in his translated Mao's poems, but the conveyance of the"beauty in form"is not very successful. It should be acknowledged that success in conveying all the three beauties in the one and same Mao's poem is a matter of happenstance, which accounts for the limitations of Xu's theory of"Three Beauties"in translation practice and the disparity between this theory and its application in translation practice. In other words, Xu's theory of"Three Beauties"as a verse translation criterion is not closely correlated with his practice. By measuring Xu's"Theory of Rivalry"against some translation examples from his versions of the two translated Chinese cultural classics Lun Yu ( or Confucius Modernized by Xu, and The Analects by Arthur Waley, a British sinologist) and Dao De Jing ( or The Old Master Modernized by Xu and Tao Te Jing by Waley respectively) and those from Waley's versions of the same two Chinese cultural classics, the author"engages"the two translators ,one of whom is a Chinese native and the other of whom a foreigner, in a translation contest to see which translator can convey better the ideas of the original cultural discourse and who can give a better play to his advantage in vying for the optimal expression for the target language as proposed by Xu Yuanchong. A comparative study of the two translators'versions of the above two Chinese cultural classics reveals that as Xu not only gives a better play to the advantage of his native tongue but also to the advantage of the target language, he wins the contest in terms of a better understanding and expression of the cultural quintessence implicit in the above two Chinese cultural classics, though Waley's versions are not without their own values and strong points. However, it should be noted that the above translation contest is confined to linguist level. As far as cultural contest in translation is concerned, Xu's"Theory of Rivalry"is limiting and deficient in its application in translation practice.Next, with an aesthetic perspective as the point of entry, this dissertation makes a contemplation of the whole construct of Xu Yuanchong's translation theories in the three dimensions of aesthetics, aesthetics of literature and art, aesthetics of literature, and traces his translation theories back to aesthetics to prove their aesthetic rationality. For this reason, the author reviews chronically the aesthetic views of the leading aestheticians from the East and the West, making a contrast between Western aesthetics and Eastern aesthetics in an attempt to locate the similarities and differences in their aesthetic manner and aesthetic preferences with the purpose of clarifying some key aesthetic concepts, categories and traditions to facilitate the discussion of Xu Yuanchong's aesthetic ideas on translation. An observation of the Western aesthetics, in particular, the Western aesthetics of literature and art and the aesthetics of literature, leads to the discovery that Xu Yuanchong's aesthetic ideas are most deeply influenced by Keats and Schopenhauer, which can be witnessed in his outlook of aesthetics of translation. But comparatively speaking, the aesthetic ideas, including those of the aesthetics of literature and art, and of the aesthetics of literature native to China constitute the cornerstone of Xu's outlook of translational aesthetics. It is worth mentioning that the aesthetic ideas of the ancient Chinese philosopher like Confucius and of modern Chinese aestheticians like Wang Guowei, Lu Xun and Zhu Guangqian have produced a direct impact on Xu's outlook of translational aesthetics. For example, his outlook of translational aesthetics---Pursuit of beauty as a high translation standard, seeking perfection (as exemplified by"Three Beauties") and the artisitc conceptions in translation---is a direct product from his drawing on the aesthetic ideas of the above-mentioned Chinese sage and aestheticians. As Xu Yuanchong follows a spiral course of evolution from inheriting, sublating, developing to innovating the translation theories in Chinese tradition, pushing them to a theoretical height of synthesis that cannot be synthesized any further, he has become a terminator of them. This study also briefly reviews Xu's literary translation theory from the angle of translation thinking, Eastern and Western ways of thinking with the aid of aesthetics to confirm that his theory is based on his artistic conceptions in translation and his outlook of translational aesthetics of seeking"perfection". As most of Xu Yuanchong's literary translation theories are in conformity with Chinese aesthetic ideas, have absorbed the quintessence of the Western aesthetics , and have reflected the essence and laws of reproducing and expressing beauty of literary translation, they are aesthetically tenable.Afterwards, having made an analysis of the aesthetic origin of Xu Yuanchong's literary translation theories and with Xu's consciousness of native Chinese culture in mind, the author deduces that Xu's purpose of pursuing beauty in his literary translation is for a smooth dissemination of Chinese culture, and it is a reflection of his outlook of translational aesthetics in translation practice. His integrated educational experience of both Chinese and Western learning and his insight into the contrastive nature of the Eastern and Western cultures have formed the basis of his outlook of translational culture which advocates Eastern culture and Western culture communicate with and integrate to each other. It is argued that Xu plays a role as a translator as the subject in his literary translation to effectively bring out the beauty of Chinese culture and realize his outlook of translational culture. To expound the above view, with the aid of the core concepts of cultural translation such as the subject's self-motivation and cultural interpretation, the author makes an analysis of the motivation and cause for the translation direction (overwhelmingly from Chinese to foreign language/ English, for example), the kind of the texts which Xu selects for translation and his interpretative behavior in his translation of Chinese classics. To a certain degree, this phenomenon results from Xu's opinion that the ultimate aim of literary translation is to make it a translated literature. Taking his above opinion as a starting-point, the author holds that to reach that aim the translator should renounce word-for-word translation and give a full play to his self-motivation as a subject who actively interprets and recreates the text to make it a literary work of art with an independent value. And accordingly, Mr Xu's above motivation is found to be closely related to his intention to spread Chinese culture and to his consciousness of cross-cultural communication, for cultural communication and dialog in the process of cultural communication will afford the cultures involved an opportunity to learn from each other and absorb each other's"optimal genes"so that a brand-new vigorous world culture may emerge thereupon.The reflection of Xu Yuanchong's outlook of translational culture in his translation practice lies in the fact that he spares no efforts to tailor his translation to the English readers'aesthetic expectations by observing the expressional norms of the target language to the maximum. As the reproduction of the beauty of Chinese culture is preconditioned by the link-up of a discourse between Chinese culture and the world culture, Chinese culture will undergo the process of the translator's active interpretation and a full integration with other heterogeneous cultures represented by the Western culture before it can become an integral part of the world culture. That explains why Xu applies both his outlook of native culture and outlook of cultural involvement (the two combined form his outlook of cultural integration between the Eastern culture and Western culture), namely, his outlook of translational culture, which spurs him to adopt a Chinese's perspective to actively interpret the text when translating Chinese cultural classics into a foreign language. His outlook of native culture calls him to give a full play to his advantage of native culture. As a result, he takes the initiative to interpret the cultural information of the two Chinese cultural classics, Lun Yu or Confucius Modernized and Dao De Jing or The Old Master Modernized, conveying to the maximum the cultural connotations therein. Similarly, his outlook of culture involvement urges him to apply the translation method of"domestication"in C-E rendition to produce idiomatic target language features; in other words, he often selects the idiomatic modern expressions favored by English native readers. Consequently, he realizes quite successfully the integration of Chinese cultural content with Western/English linguistic form in his translation.Finally, this dissertation discusses the significance and academic value of this study of Xu Yuanchong's literary translation in an aesthetic perspective, pointing out some possible limitations and deficiencies of it and looking ahead to the prospects of the follow-up study of this research in the concluding part. The author believes that this study may provide new clues in decoding Xu Yuanchong's translation theories and practice in aesthetic perspective. It is acknowledged that there exist some deficiencies in the language range and research materials of this study. As Xu's translation of Chinese classics is multitudinous, and his translation theories and thoughts are abundant, rich first-hand research materials will be easily available to the subsequent in-depth study of his theories and practice in aesthetic perspective. Therefore, it can be foreseen that the prospects of the research into Xu Yuanchong's art of literary translation in aesthetic perspective are great. Considering that this study is an initial interdisciplinary research across aesthetics and translatology in an aesthetic perspective, the present research achievement is not final. Its final achievement awaits further research in the days to come.In short, with an integrated approach---in an aesthetic perspective and other dimensions (translator as the subject, hermeneutics and cultural translation), the above-memtioned conclusion is drawn after the author makes an analysis and examination of Xu Yuanchong's translation theories and practice.
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