A Study Of Integration In Translation

Chinese culture has gone through two main phases in its integrating exotic civilizations:firstly, "the integration of the three religions" of Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism from the Wei and Jin Dynasties all through the Tang and Song Dynasties; and secondly the integration of Chinese learning with western learning since the late Ming Dynasty. Among these, the integration of western learning into Chinese through translation undertaken by the Ming and Qing Confucian scholar-officials has significantly influenced the cultural introspection, transformation of Confucianism and construction of a new culture, thus proving worthy as a prospective subject of specific research. It claims integration as an academic approach to cultural introspection and reconstruction of Confucianism, and translation integration as translators'integrating the source language and the target language as well as their cultures for cultural transcendence. The purpose and significance lies in attempting to establish the academic position of integration as a paradigm in translation studies, to explore the relationship between translation integration and culture construction, and further to deepen the research on traditional Chinese translation theories, modern translation history and translation criticism. The important theories employed include cultural consciousness, Chinese practical learning, philosophical hermeneutics, Skopostheorie, and translation ethics. The dissertation is creative in research subject with a comprehensive specific study on translation integration based on Chinese ideological, cultural, academic and translation history.This dissertation consists of seven chapters. The introduction reviews the literature on translation integration and then proposes the objectives, significance, methodology, main arguments and contents. The body covers translation integration and its historical echoing, crises in the late Ming Dynasty and the integration with western learning, practical learning in the late Qing Dynasty and translation integration, new learning in the late Qing Dynasty and western learning integration.Translation integration and its historical echoing primarily focuses on the elaboration of the connotation of "integration" as a translation paradigm. Then it employs the theory of cultural consciousness to dig out what has shaped Xu's thought from the following three aspects:the prevailing trend of cultural integration derived from Wang Yangming's philosophy in the late Ming Dynasty, the influence of Ricci's adaptation strategy of integrating Christianity with Confucianism, and Xu's personal integrating translation practice. Finally it presents a diachronic survey of the various translation thoughts of integration from the end of the Ming Dynasty to close modern times. This chapter is helpful to establish the academic position of integration as a paradigm in translation studies, to explore the relationship between translation and culture construction, and further to deepen the research on traditional Chinese translation theories.Crises in the late Ming Dynasty and the integration with western learning firstly discusses Xu's translation of western practical learning and his Christian reinforcement of Confucianism. From such perspectives as "the same mind, therefore the same principle" and fusion of horizons, it then concentrates on investigating the cognitive foundation of Li Zhizao's integrating Confucianism with Christianity, and his strategies applied to his translation of Philosophy of Logic. With a close reading of Illustrations and descriptions of Extraordinary Devices, it goes further to explore various integrations of Wang's native culture with western mechanics to reveal the value and translation ethics of his cultural construction. The above is helpful to disclose the cultural psychology behind the translation integration in the late Ming Dynasty, in hope of providing a reference for current cultural communication and translation integration between China and the west.Practical learning in the late Qing Dynasty and translation integration, starting from the consciousness of "language barrier" in western learning integration, emphasizes the difficulties in translation integration in the late Qing Dynasty, followed by a comment on different thoughts and practices of scholar-officials in breaking language barriers and pursuing translation integration of Chinese and western learning. It then attempts to call attention to the neglected identity, status, function and influence of Chinese text-polishing and recording scholars of the late Qing Dynasty in co-translation practice. After the perusal of some classic texts, it summarizes their main translation integration strategies and finally presents the corresponding features, significance and drawbacks of practical integration of the late Qing Dynasty.New learning in the late Qing Dynasty and western learning integration focuses on a case study of Yan Fu's translation integration. It firstly traces Yan's pursuit of academic"ecstasy"and his corresponding cultural views. Then it explores his mutual invention and analogical imagination between Chinese culture and the west, and his translation strategies of integrating the two, after the perusal of the translated text of Evolution and Ethics. The next is a detailed case study of the integrating nature of the skill of replacing the original English examples with corresponding Chinese ones, which is generally applied to Yan's translation of Primer of Logic, particularly such weaknesses as Chinese language, Chinese logic viewed from the perspective of western logic aimed at rescuing China with western sciences. Annotation is an important strategy employed by Yan Fu for his translation integration, which is characterized by drawing on collective wisdom and absorbing all useful ideas. In the annotation, Yan not only seeks out those similar and different ideas from the original, but also adds his own insights to express himself. Thus the last two parts conduct a descriptive study of Yan's translation integration from the above two perspectives through close reading of his annotations, which is followed by a comment on its value to the present translation.In summary, "The same mind, therefore the same principle" is the psychological foundation of the integration of Chinese learning with western learning in the Ming and Qing Dynasties. The translators attempt to establish similarities between the two heterogeneous cultures through analogical imaginations. As an important translation strategy throughout the modern history of translation, integration is characterized by "application" in understanding and the pursuit of a kind of hermeneutic truth. Based on the social practice of China's modernization, the translation integration is the phronesis of translators'integrating western learning into Chinese for transcendence as well as a good medicine for the current mechanical "technical translation". At last, this chapter presents a descriptive study of the classical Chinese strategy employed in the translation of Selection of Hazlitt's Essays, with a comment on the academic significance and practical value of the notion of "integration" for rethinking the strengths and weaknesses of classical Chinese as a means of translation integration. After the analysis above, this paper concludes as follows:Translation is translators'Dasein cultural and political hermeneutic activity, and translation integration is an academic approach to cultural introspection and reconstruction of Confucianism. The traditional culture was the significant resource of Confucian scholars in the Ming and Qing Dynasties to integrate with western learning through translation, while analogical imaginations were the cognitive basis of Chinese integration with western learning. Moreover, some disadvantages of the dissertation are also necessary to mention:the research subject is expected to expand with more original references to collect and organize. Also, the definition of translation integration and academic exploration has to be promoted theoretically.