James Legge's Three English Translations Of Shijing

With the development of Sinology abroad and attention to the missionary translation, more and more scholars have focused on their study about James Legge and his English version of Book of Poetry. However, there hasn't been any thorough and deep study on all of his three translations of Book of Poetry, especially with the translation theory of power relations that the dissertation adopts mainly. In the age of globalization, the cultural difference of different nations hasn't disappeared; on the contrary, it has become more apparent. The complicated relationship must be coped with in translation, the major form of intercultural exchange, while the translation of Chinese classics, concerning about different historical and cultural contexts, should lie in the conversation between author and translator, and the fusion of original culture and target culture.James Legge (1815-1897) is regarded as the most important and influential western expert on Chinese Confucianism in 19th century. He was born and educated in Scotland. Legge was sent to Malacca by London Missionary Society and began his foreign mission in 1839. In 1843, Legge, the principal of the Anglo-Chinese College, moved the school to Hongkong. As a devoted priest and diligent translator, Legge stayed in Hongkong for thirty years. The historical background, his childhood experience, educational background and missionary work led to James Legge's typical translation.James Legge translated nearly all of the thirteen classical works of Confucianism, and some important works of Daoism and Chinese Buddhism. He produced three English translations of Book of Poetry, and each of them owns its unique features. With the postmodernism translation theory on power manipulation, which places emphasis not only on the translator's subjectivity but also on the powers-various factors effecting translator, the dissertation analyses these three translations and shows the development of Legge's thoughts in the historical and cultural context.With its heavy translation, James Legge's first tranlstion of Book of Poetry has become the standard English version in the western Sinologue since it was published in1871. In his translation Legge used the figurative comprehension as the Catholic missionaries had done, while he adopted the same severe attitude toward Chinese classics and culture with his Protestant predecessors. Controlled by the authority of the original work, Legge made his version an exact translation line by line and even word for word, which includes the prolegomena of nearly 200 pages, detailed notes, Chinese text above the English translation, attached Chinese proper names and index. In this version the translator attached more importance on the correctness rather than beauty. The version seems to be a foreignizing translation, in which the Chinese traditional interpretation is highly approved, so it is actually a hybrid of foreignizing translation and domesticating translation. James Legge put into the Chinese classics a lot of subjective thoughts including the harsh criticism on Confucius, Chinese classics, Chinese political system, religion, culture and so on, which reflects translator's orientation of serving his nation both in foreign mission and political interests.In Book of Poetry of 1871, Legge harshly criticized Confucius, Chinese classics and polygamy by western value. His initial purpose of study on Chinese classics was to find out any hint of Chinese worship to God, in order to support Protestant mission. In Book of Poetry, James Legge was sure that ancient Chinese knew much about God. Legge viewed Chinese worship to Shangdi as religion, while he regarded their worship to other spirits and ancestors as superstitions.He continued his harsh attitude toward Confucius in the concept of Shangdi. He believed that the terms of Di and Shangdi frequently appearing in Book of Poetry had the features of personal God which could control the heaven and earth, decide human nature and rule over all nations; however, Confucius prefered the term of Tian (Heaven) because in Analects Confucius mentioned nearly nothing about Di or Shangdi. Legge pointed out that Confucius's attitude toward religion directly affects Chinese viewpoint of religion, lead to their atheism and rejecting Christian God in middle ages and modern China. In Legge's opinion, what mattered was not Chinese knowledge of God, but their acceptance of God and Christ. Legge's negative attitude toward the feudalism of Xia, Shang and Zhou dynasties aimed at criticizing Confucius, praising Emperor Shihuang of Qin for his overthrow of feudalism and setting up modern despotic system from Qin to Qing. Legge's praise for the revolutionary spirit of Emperor Shihuang of Qin and his hope for another real revolution in China actually served his justifying the Opium War and defending Great Britain, because by his logic the first Opium War was also a revolution which helps China freed from the old system and head for the new life.James Legge believed that Book of Poetry was not worth translating into metrical poetry in 1871, however, the western readers expected more than that both in style and language, which was resulted from the poetic tradition and the features of the original work. Moreover, his experience in the following several years made him change his evaluation of Book of Poetry. Before returning to Britain Legge took a journey to the northern China, the Temple of Heaven in Beijing, Mount Tai, the holy mountain of China in the eyes of westerns, and Confucius Tomb in Qufu. This journey was the important mark of his changing attitude toward Confucius, which was closely connected with his attitude to Chinese classics. All the factors mentioned above led to Legge's retranslation of Book of Poetry in 1876. Legge's recognition of his role as a sinologist was more apparent, and his evaluation of Chinese culture was milder. Besides readers'criticism and his experience, the comparative religion of Max Muller played an essential part in the changing of Legge's thoughts. In his metrical translation of Book of Poetry in 1876, James Legge turned to the pursuit of beauty of the ancient Chinese poetry to meet the English readers' expectation. The translator reduced the notes and didn't present the Chinese text in his English version in order to attract more English readers. The metrical version was different from 1871 translation not only in style, but also in language and form. Legge added a large number of extra contents into the original text in his translation as the embodiment of translator's more emphasis on independent decipher. In this version, the translator reduced his religious and political appeal but enhanced his care for humanity.In 1876 version, James Legge paid more attention to his independent interpretation, which was embodied in the notes, especially in the use of metaphors and the additional contents in the translation of the text. In notes, Legge tried to make readers question about the interpretation by other commentators, and then he listed his own idea by which the translator had become the commentator. The large amount of additional contents in the translation of the text made the poems lose their true colour, but became what the translator imagined. Legge insisted that Shangdi should be God, and he tried to grasp every chance to translate Shangdi and Di into God, however, in 1876 Book of Poetry, with some knowledge of comparative religion advocated by Muller, James Legge was getting more and more open-minded to other religions. For the poems in which Shangdi was desecrated, Legge's tone became milder than before, and he sometimes translated it into other terms, e.g. the king than God by its real meaning in original work. In his metrical Book of Poetry, the translator replaced the grave atmosphere of religion and politics in previous version with more humanistic concern by vivid and light language.In Oct.1876, James Legge came to Oxford University and began his career as professional sinologist and professor. Greatly influenced by the comparative religion of Muller, Legge had completely accepted the thought of comparative religion in his Book of Poetry in 1879.1879 Book of Poetry in the third volume of The Eastern Sacred Books is quite different in the text, notes, preface and prolegomena from the last two versions. It is a real work of decipherer. James Legge's social status as a prestigious scholar and comparatist affected his translation and evaluation. It seems that Legge was consciously emphasizing his identity as a scholar and decipherer rather than a mere translator. Influenced by the comparatism of Max Muller, James Legge's viewpoint of Chinese religions had greatly changed.In Book of Poetry of 1879, James Legge tried his best to emphasize and even to dig the religious meaning of the original work to accord with the requirement of the sacred books. His radical readjustment of the sequence of the poems aimd at displaying his independent interpretation, but not offending the authority of Confucius. Legge had viewed the Confucian classics including Shijing as the real sacred books. He began to believe that the Chinese sacred books represented the development of Confucianism, and he even believed that the religious ceremony and filial piety own the significance in morality, religion and society.In these three English translations of Book of Poetry, James Legge experienced the development of his thoughts - gradually softened his criticism toward Confucius and Chinese classics, modified his viewpoint of Chinese religions, hided his apparent nationalism, and made his academic thoughts more and more independent.1871 Book of Poetry like other Chinese classics of the series is the typical translation of colonialism, which harshly criticized Confucius, the Confucian classics, the culture, and social systems of China in order to deconstruct Confucianism and replace with Christianity. With readers' critics, the change of translator's role and the effects of Max Muller's comparatism, James Legge was gradually turning to a milder attitude toward Confucius, Confucian classics, social system, culture and religions of China. He tried to display and reevaluate the real pictures in ancient classics and in realistic China, which was actually the orientalism with a comparatist's sympathy and open mind. However, such comparatism was adopted to avoid the conflicts arising from two cultures, and it aimed at the final acceptance of Christianity and western culture by the east. James Legge's colonialism had turned into academic orientalism.Translation is essential means by which the communication and understanding are effectively undergone between different nations, cultures and civilizations. It is the translator who plays the role of cultural medium. It is important for the translator to smooth over the relationship between two cultures in his translation that can not only show the value of the original work and source culture, but also make the source culture compatible with the target culture. The cultures of different nations are special, and they can't be classified into superior or inferior. In the globalizing world, the typical features in different cultures haven't been ignored but are placed more attention, so it is necessary to introduce the traditional culture of China to the west. Translation is not only the change of language, but also the shift of cultural information, in which there should be sympathy and understanding instead of any hints hostile to the source culture.