Cross-cultural Hermeneutics: Studies On James Legge’s English Translations Of The Shijing

Cross-cultural studies on James Legge’s English Translations of the Shijing are madefrom thought, culture and literary perspectives, it forms an unique “translationhermeneutics”. James Legge’s English Translations of the Shijing become one of the mostclassic masterpieces of traditional Chinese culture. It is an advanced cross-culturalcommunication between the West and the East, and have a great significance incross-cultural history of classics hermeneutics.The introduction defines the concept of the research object. The purpose andmethodologies of the research are presented, including methods of close reading,interdisciplinary studies of translation, hermeneutics and comparative literature, logicalargument, comparison and statistics, etc. Research status at home and abroad on thisproject are introduced as well.The main body consists of six chapters:Chapter One: James Legge’s English Translations of the the Shijing and Western andChinese classics hermeneutic tradition. The Shijing and Bible hermeneutics are bothintroduced; the history of the Bible hermeneutics indicates a routine from classics to theBible text. The history of translating the Shiiing by western missionaries are outlined.Approaches to James Legge’s translation are thick translation or parenthetical translationand semantic translation. James Legge’s mental journey on English Translations of theShijing is presented, his translating motive on the Shijing is to do his missionary work andnegotiate Confucianism with Christianity.Chapter Two to Five: Studies on James Legge’s English Translations of the Shijing,including1871Free Version,1876Rhyme Version and1879Abridged Version, which arethe essential parts of the thesis.Chapter Two: Thought hermeneutics on James Legge’s English Translations of theShijing. The Principles of complaint and satire are discussed from the perspectives of lovepoems and lyric; the ideas on the Shijing are interpreted as pursuing good and honest virtue,correction on gain and loss and eulogizing one’s virtues and achievements,etc. It indicated Jame Legge’s didactic hermeneutics. His respect on the independent school on the Shijinghermeneutics such as Cui Shu and the textual research on Confucius deleting the Shijingreflected the theory of “hermeneutic circle” and objective hermeneutics.Chapter Three: Cultural hermeneutics on James Legge’s English Translations of theShijing. James Legge as a cultural “other” discusses the patriarchal clan system of Chinesefeudal society, religion or faith and Chinese marriage system in the Shijing. James Leggesearched for God and inspiration, illustrated Chinese ancestor worship and criticizedChinese polygamy.Chapter Four: Literary hermeneutics on James Legge’s English Translations of theShijing. The techniques of expression of “Fu”“Bi”“Xing” are intepreted as “narrative”“allusive” and “metaphorical” by James Legge, and “narrative” accouts for majority.James Legge intends to express “the poems itself” in the1876Rhyme Version, theprinciples of proportion and antithetical parallelism of Chinese metrical poetry are appliedby strophe and rhyme, etc in the1876Rhyme Version. Many strategies such as the use ofScottish dialect in the translation add literariness.Chapter Five: Image hermeneutics on James Legge’s English Translations of theShijing. The image system of James Legge’s English Translations of the Shijing consists ofnature image, animals image and plants image, etc. The symbolic meanings such as love,homesick and missing someone are summarized, which can reflect the religious andscientific cultural mentality of James Legge.Chapter Six: James Legge and the impact of his English Translations of the Shijing.Diachronic analysis is made on the early British Sinology; British Sinology at JamesLegge’s time is analysized as well. James Legge’s English Translations of the Shijingcreated an upsurge of retranslation on it, cross-cultural communication of Chinese Classicsand Chinese literary theory are promoted.Conclusion: to sum up the thesis. James Legge’s knowledge structure as anintercultural scholars is a prerequisite for translating Chinese Classics; he respects thesource language culture, can ignore the influence of “Western Culture Center Theory”, sothat he can make cross-cultural communication via Chinese classics translation; JamesLegge’s English Translations of the Shijing provides a unique translation stereotype ofcross-cultural classics translation, which is something of a milestone in the history of the Shijing spreading to the West. It sets a good example of the English translation of ChinesePoetry.